Patrick's Opera Blog

Poppea Pre-Production!

2012-02-08T11:26:00.000-08:00

This week Opera McGill began staging rehearsals for our March production of Monteverdi's "L'incoronazione di Poppea", which represents the 20th opera produced during my five years here at McGill as well as the fifth collaboration with Schulich's Early Music Program and its director, Hank Knox.

As I've been reflecting on my years here at McGill, I've realized how much I've come to look forward to the baroque opera productions. The first was a magical re-creation of Handel's "Alcina" which was set in mythic China with added Tai Chi half-man/half-tree characters that gave the show an extra emotional punch (I remounted the production this past summer at Janiec Opera Company and loved revisiting it!) We followed the next year with Lully's "Thésée", creating a high French baroque opera set in the Sun King's garden at Versailles - a production that I am am the most proud of simply because we figured a way to present a very long Lully opera that kept the audience's imagination and interest throughout the almost four hours of music. The other two Handel operas we've presented here have been "Agrippina" (a sort of prequel to the story of Poppea), complete with a Poppea inspired by Lady Gaga and a cast doing the Conga to Handel's rhthyms, and the mostly unknown "Imeneo", a production that changed the way I directed operatic text.

Although the wonderful student casts, orchestra, and harpsichordists have changed and graduated, one thing has remained the same: Hank Knox. For those of you who may not know Hank, he is an unassuming man with brilliant harpsichord skills and a knowledge of all things Early Music. He directs the Early Music program at Schulich, one of the best in the world, teaches privately, conducts the Baroque Orchestra, and once a year conducts the operatic collaboration between his area and Opera McGill (along with keeping up his own demanding concert schedule.)

For this production, I was inspired (yet again) by the HBO series "Rome". The designers and I are presenting a full-blown Roman show, complete with togas, Roman soldiers in regalia, and Emperors reclining while eating grapes. Traditionalists should love this production, particularly if they'd like to hear the Venice version in its UNCUT form. That's right, we are not taking any cuts! We did the same for last month's "Don Giovanni". It's one of the things that sets Opera McGill apart from almost every other academic institution and most professional opera companies in North America.

You see, Opera McGill almost always presents the operas in an uncut state; that way, the audience can hear the original intent of the composer and librettist AND our students get to fully study, learn, and perform their roles. Most opera companies have to cut their operas, sometimes severely, in order to get the curtain down in under three hours. In most union houses, going over three hours causes very large overtime expenses for both the orchestra and the stage hands.

So for the Monteverdi, we are all joking that the opera will be a good five hours long. That's simply not the case! I am taking the three acts and combining them into two acts, taking one intermission to help cut down the total time. I'm not sure how long the show will be (I've never seen an uncut Poppea), and much of that depends on choices made by Hank Knox and the students singing the roles.

I promise that there will be MUCH to look at while Monteverdi's masterpiece unfolds. Watch for a very AlcinaTree-like usage of the gods and goddesses, as well as a layered approach to telling the major characters' stories. I'd recommend reading a quick plot summary as well. You'll need to know who's who (Littore, Lucano, or Liberto; Damigella vs Drusilla; Arnalta or Nutrice; not to mention the half dozen gods and the actual major characters, most of whom are historic).

Don't miss it: Pollack Hall, March 15, 16, 17, and 18 (matinee), 2012

More Don Giovanni!

2012-01-28T12:11:00.000-08:00

I write this blog in the midst of Opera McGill's performances of Don Giovanni -- which opened January 26, 2012 in Pollack Hall and closes tomorrow, January 29.
Some stats:

2 casts, each performing the opera twice to nearly sold-out houses, made up of 34 McGill students. They were supported by a student team of 2 assistant directors and 2 assistant stage managers, the McGill Symphony Orchestra (38 musicians for this opera), plus a myriad of sound recording students and backstage crew. It takes over 80 people (almost all of them students) arriving in the theatre hours before performances begin to create this Giovanni production.

In the end, there were multiple set designs and many costume designs; the first done in May of 2011, the next revised sometime in October, 2011, the penultimate finished sometime in late November, the final design completed only in mid-January, 2012 during staging rehearsals of the last scene of the opera.

Every piece of text and every note written of the Prague version (Mozart's original version) was performed. That means NO CUTS. Even with a 20 minute intermission the opera came in under 3 hours (which begs the question: why cut Giovanni?)

A little under 100 hours was spent in various staging rehearsals. With the private coaching hours, the musical rehearsals, the staging rehearsals, the tech rehearsals and dress rehearsals, plus the performances, I estimate that the production took over 250 hours to prepare. That does not include any individual amounts of time any of the students spent learning their parts in a practice room, the time the designers spent creating costumes or sets or lights, or time I spent creating the blocking for the production. It would be interesting to add it all up sometime. I bet we'd be well over 1000 hours!

I filed 180 email messages in the month of January alone regarding this Giovanni production. (I hate email...)

After opening night, this blog had over 100 reads in less than 24 hours. Currently, someone in the UAE is reading my previous blog on Giovanni. Amazing.

On opening night we had over 100 high school students attend from Overton. They were a great addition to our regular audiences. They seemed very entertained by the show, which includes a kind of sword which most are describing as a lightsaber, a lot of kissing and making out by Zerlina and Masetto, and a couple of audacious touches (like the female vampire carrying in Donna Anna's maid over her shoulder and dropping her on Giovanni's table for him to feast on!)

Oh, did I mention that it takes 8 pomegranates, 8 blood oranges, bottles of club soda, orange, and cranberry juice, dozens of batteries, and 12 blood pellets in order to perform this production over this weekend?

And there are 7 vampire attacks each show and a number of attempted attacks as well?

But only 1 vampire sings...

So, what did I learn from working on this Don Giovanni?

1) The Prague version is superior to either the Vienna or the traditional hybrid version normally done
2) Gordon Gerrard is a wonderful colleague and a terrific conductor
3) My Opera McGill students constantly surprise me with their ability to imagine a new world of opera
4) Audiences want to be entertained
5) Cutting out recits cuts out parts of character's hearts. It was nice to have these amazing characters played intact
6) E flat is one of Mozart's most interesting keys
7) It's fun to design a show with such talented colleagues like Ginette, Vincent and Serge
8) Mozart challenges young singers and orchestral players to be at their best -- and it's apparent when they achieve a high standard just as it's apparent when the mark is missed; however they hit it much more than missed it!
9) Mozart's genius is a comforting blanket to wrap yourself in while working during long hours
10) I don't want to do another Giovanni for a long while.

On to Monteverdi's "L'incoronazione di Poppea" which opens March 15, 2012 in Pollack Hall. It's a LONG opera, but one of the greatest ever composed!

Don Giovanni at Opera McGill

2012-01-07T11:06:00.000-08:00

January finds the Opera McGill students spending most of their time in staging rehearsals, preparing for the "mainstage" production which typically opens the last weekend of January.

The fall prep for the students involves learning their music, understanding the meaning of their texts, thinking about character choices, and putting their individual parts together with the other roles during musical rehearsals. My fall prep varies depending on the opera production. For instance last year, La Boheme was being produced and I'd directed it before so there was less to think about where the details of the staging were concerned. This year, Don Giovanni is the opera - an opera I've known and worked on since the mid '80s. Normally that would mean very little "prep", but this production is SO different from any other I've ever done that the prep time has been enormous!

First off, the designers and I had come to an initial idea about the production way back in May of 2011 (that's typically when we design the January production). However, those plans were put on hold due to the McGill strike -- since it was impossible to produce the planned production without stage management. When it looked like the strike would continue through January and perhaps even longer, we re-designed the production top to bottom and came up with the idea of doing a staged concert version; i.e. the orchestra onstage with the cast acting their roles in costume but without theatrical lighting. For a "set" we thought of the idea of creating artistic "installations" that would frame the orchestra and provide an interesting look for the show.

THEN, the strike was suddenly over -- however not until December rolled around -- and by then it was way too late to design a full set and get it built (these things don't happen in a week!) So, the designers and I once again got together and re-designed the re-design trying to keep to the initial idea/inspiration from the original design. I found it interesting that many people I spoke with in mid-December thought that we'd simply just have a full production. It showed me just how few understand that in order to get a production fully realized and designed and then built, takes an enormous amount of time, planning, and frankly, thought.

So in my role as producer, that was a lot of work to focus on when generally I'm out and about on my Brevard audition trips down in the states with David Gately (and of course, during the holiday break one isn't normally putting in 60+ hours of work unless you are in retail.) However, in my role as the stage director for Don Giovanni this meant I really couldn't "block" the opera until I had an actual ground plan and set design. That happened a few days before Christmas.

Blocking an opera happens in many ways. Sometimes the director lets the cast create their blocking with very little intervention or guidance. Ask most people in the business and they'll tell you that this sort of process - an "organic" process - is interesting for the first few days but quickly becomes infuriating because no one is minding the store and many become frustrated with the "lack of plan". With students, this sort of process is not helpful. Many, if not most, are creating these characters for the first time. All are inexperienced, and very few have had acting training that might allow them to be self-motivated -- or better put, self-directed. With a new production (and all of the productions presented by Opera McGill are brand new productions!), it is vital for the director to know a show inside and out, have very clear ideas about where the singers are going to be in space, and be able to tell the casts (and most of our operas have TWO casts) quickly and efficiently how to move about in space.

Additionally, I'm there training young singers how to balance the many challenges that come with singing an operatic role: collaborating with the other cast members, remembering blocking, creating physical characterizations that work in the context of the production and period, learning how to focus on a conductor, helping to synthesize all the various production elements (handling props, walking in heels with a long dress on, stage combative elements like slapping someone onstage, moving set pieces while in character, keeping the Italian text's meaning clear both from a vocal standpoint and a visual standpoint, acting the meaning of the text, acting the meaning of the subtext, etc. -- the list goes on and on.) Because of this, I tend to block in GREAT detail how everyone is going to move onstage, most of the time down to specific measure numbers, words, or rests in the vocal score. This really helps give the singers something concrete to hold onto. I call it the structure of the show.

Structure is something that Opera needs in order to work. First off, the score is structured, as is the libretto. Obviously there are structures onstage, structures of light and dark, and physical structures on the singers' bodies called costumes. It is really necessary for the singers' physical and kinesthetic choices onstage to also have structure. From within this structure, artistic choices can be made and from those choices, actual art can come into being for an audience to witness.

I blocked Don Giovanni during the period between Christmas and New Year's Eve, something that was challenging because of ill health as well. But with that said, I'm very pleased with the results thus far. Creating a show in your head is something akin to composing a symphony, or choreographing a ballet in your head. You have to write stuff down in order to create it, but then it really doesn't live until you get live human beings in a room to rehearse what was once in your head. For me, the process of writing down the "stuff" that's in my head is "blocking".

Of course, it isn't always what I want and when I get to the process of staging in the rehearsal room I often times find myself changing the blocking that's written down in my score. That's when the real process of staging happens - when better ideas happen either on the spur of the moment, or because someone else in the room (from the pianist to the conductor to the stage manager to any of the singers) has a different idea. I've always thought the best directors were the ones that could totally dump their initial plan when a better one showed up, or at least try out someone else's ideas to see if they worked better.

Right now (moving into the 2nd week of January), the cast and I are still in the process of building the structure of staging, creating characters through physical, vocal, and musical choices (these are made in collaboration with the singer, the director, and the conductor), and getting to know the "show" -- what works and what the challenges are. The set is also being built as we speak (it's due to be delivered next week), and the costumes are getting finished (these were started back in early December and are INCREDIBLE!)

The process for the next week is to finish staging the opera in Wirth Opera Studio (we're half-way through), start running the opera in larger sections so that the students can get experience singing their roles from beginning to end, hold initial orchestra rehearsals with the MGSO, and get the program to printing as well as the poster.

Lots to do, gotta go!

2011 in Review, ossia Operas, Subtext, Mohawks & Mustaches

2011-12-17T13:01:00.000-08:00

Here it is, a bleak mid-December afternoon in Montreal, Quebec. I'm at home trying to recuperate after a very trying Monday from a - the word would be: horrific - experience at a Cote de Niege doctor's office. Let's just say there was a lot of blood, little hygiene, and no gloves used.

(The above sentence will be used as evidence if my wife has to sue someone due to my death from a blood infection...)

Wow - that's NOT a way to start off this blog about the Year in Review: 2011. Apologies all 'round...

Here's another go ---
Ah, 2011. What a year! Opera McGill productions reaching critical heights, Brevard's Janiec Opera Company productions expanding from 6 performances to 15 and from 3 productions to 5, students winning opera competitions and auditions all around, a McGill University strike, and Alfred Brendel on campus!

The operatic highlights at McGill really WERE highlights. The January production of Puccini's "La Boheme" was a critical, audience, and box office success! Four sold-out performances, two terrific casts, a gorgeous production by Ginette, Vincent, and Serge, wonderful conducting by Mo. Wachner, and 105 students on Pollack Hall's stage. The student casts sounded so good in their roles, a few listeners actually thought the students' voices were being amplified. I was extremely pleased with the chorus' commitment, the MGSO's playing (seated behind the singers), and Julian's dealing with our first attempt at conducting & cueing singers via television monitors. The cast learned quite a lot about versimatic style while creating wonderful, YOUNG, characters onstage. I won't forget the first rehearsal of the end of act four when everyone lost it in the room. This one was special -- thanks!

Next came a production of Handel's "Imeneo", a little-known work but packed with possibilities and PERFECT for young singers! I took a few chances, directorial-speaking, and focused on telling the subtextual stories and the emotional connections between the characters. I killed off all of the characters at the end of Act One. Why? Because they were dead on the inside and their stories needed to end. Act Two began as a domestic re-telling of the story which ended ambiguously. Act Three was a different take on the story with the characters altered, yet again, but this time the story ended as it was written. Alternate realities? Sort of. It was more like trying to elucidate the Truth of the Problem at Hand (as in the movie "Hero".) I loved it. For me, it was my most freeing experience as a director. The cast relished creating a production that looked period on the outside, but was very non-traditional when taken in other ways. My two heroes singing the title role got warrior faux-ish mohawks, the basses had to fight with a staff while blindfolded, and the ladies all got to handle swords, arrows, daggers and spears. My contribution, besides direction, was using my head as a mohawk trial. I must admit to really liking the look. More on that later.

I directed a "Fille du Regiment" in Wichita. The cast was wonderful and I happen to love the chorus there. My experience wasn't as joyous this time around, which was too bad. Let's just say that pretentious people in a rehearsal space tend to hinder everyone else's creative juices; they're also boring. It must be said, however, that the conductor on this show - Martin Mazik - is the real deal. He knows his opera and is a terrific conductor. It's really too bad that no other companies in the states hire him (he lives in Bratislava).

The month of May saw a return to the Kennedy Center for another semi-staging spectacular with Julian Wachner, the amazing Washington Chorus (now THAT'S a great organization!), and the indefatigable operatic legend Evelyn Lear. The rep was Mahler, so why was I needed? The answer: von Weber's "Die Drei Pintos". You know, the great singspiel that Mahler wrote based on a thousand some measures of von Weber. It's really Mahler's singspiel and helped launch his compositional career (who knew?!) I was asked to cut and re-write a TON of dialogue, write a narration for Ms. Lear to summarize a convoluted plot deep into act 3, and stage the half-dozen soloists. We had an afternoon, btw, to rehearse it, stage it, and make sense of it. It was such a pleasure to work with Evelyn again. I had played masterclasses for she and Tom going way back into the early 90s and became better acquainted with them both during my time at Florida Grand Opera (they wintered north of Miami). She was hilarious and delivered all of my punch lines exactly as I had intended (I did write them with her contralto speaking voice in mind!)

Brevard started up again, summer number four for the team of Gately, Hansen, Anthony, Koch and Richardson. We had old and new members of the team for this summer: Michael Shannon (so very talented), Boram (I'm just using her one name, she's the Cher of collaborative pianists), and the extraordinary maestro, Andrew Bisantz. The singers were the best we've ever had (I know we say that every year, but every year they just keep getting better and better), we were inside at the Porter Center without mics, and I got to conduct Verdi's "La Traviata" and Handel's "Alcina" for the first time. The "Alcina" was also my first experience re-mounting a show. The Opera McGill production, from 2008, was created and re-staged (and a big thank you to Aria Umezawa!!) in a black-box venue with a small orchestra and continuo (again, Michael Shannon demonstrating how nothing daunts him...) A former tree, Mr. Tinervia, sang one of the Melisso's and my new trees were gloriously tattooed, buff and given much different staging. I re-thought the show quite a bit and loved the process of recreating the intent of the initial production while keeping it alive and pertinent to the singers in the 2011 cast. It was intense, and those who saw the production were - I think - rather surprised by the production; its power to take Handel's music and transport it to mythic China all-the-while telling Alcina's story of becoming human. A big shout out to Tai Chi Master George! The "La Traviata" was a joyous experience and I would bet that if professional opera companies heard our Act Two, Scene Two, they would be flabbergasted to find out that these were students! The other shows were all lovely, Elizabeth once again proved that we couldn't do a summer without her and her voice whisperer talents, and the boys grew a bit beyond Brevard.

There were so many current and former McGill and Brevard students out and about during the summer, singing at different programs around the world. Philippe Sly sang Bartolo at the Merola program, Will Liverman was singing at Santa Fe, Yoni Rose was over at Glimmerglass, it seemed as if half of Central City's program was comprised of Brevard/McGill alumni, and there were many others all enjoying the wide range of programs up here in Canada - from Banff to Avalon!

And then there were a few big winners: Philippe Sly (Mars, Collatinus, Escamillo, Nick Shadow, and Marcello here at Opera McGill) won the Met Nationals and joined two other Opera McGill alumni at the Canadian Opera Company's Ensemble program (Jacqueline Woodley, the COC poster soprano for 2011, and Rihab Chaieb, mezzo). Emma Parkinson and Aidan Ferguson sang roles with the Atelier Lyrique at L'Opera de Montreal while Tracy Cantin (Mimi, Governess, and Donna Anna with Opera McGill) and Will Liverman (Sprecher, John Brooke, and Gianni Schicchi at Brevard) both won spots at the coveted Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. They begin their contracts in April of 2012. This November, Gordon Bintner (Colline, Argenio, and Don Giovanni at Opera McGill) won the 1st Prize in Voice as well as the Grand Prize in the O.S.M.'s prestigious competition. Many, many other students and former students are making professional debuts this year and next. I'm proud of each and everyone of them and have been so glad to be of help in their respective career aspirations!

More news: former students Rachel Krehm, Aria Umezawa, and Catharin Carew started an opera company in Toronto: Opera Five. I'll get all their info and website links and put it on my blog. I have great hopes for their company and know that they'll be successful. Their "Opera Cheats" videos may just go viral...

Most of August was spent in Iowa. I was writing. We'll see if it bears fruit... It was great to celebrate my mother and father-in-law's 60 wedding anniversary as well as my father-in-law's 80th birthday. He is in marvelous shape, (and still repairs the house by himself and does all the lawn work). I continue to be amazed at their love for each other and how committed they are to each other. To my knowledge, they've never said a bad word against anyone (that is a very midwestern thing, however) and they are the sweetest couple I will ever meet or know. I love them very much and hope that Elizabeth and I can have a garden as beautiful as theirs someday.

Then the fall happened. It seemed like it lasted a whole year that went by in a few weeks. Each day was filled with challenges, most met, and filled with all of us wondering when the Strike would be over. The strike started on the first day of classes and ended on the last day of classes. I'll say no more.

The fall black box of Britten's "The Turn of the Screw" was actually more in the spirit of those original Opera McGill black box performances (performed in the basement of FACE or over at Redpath) than what our audience's have come to expect lately. No costumes or lights, no sets (there was a couch, a table, and two chairs) nor props. There was, however, excellent direction by Tom Diamond and outstanding conducting by Andrew Bisantz. Both casts gave lovely performances of this tricky opera and I think learned that the trappings of opera aren't always needed to create a dramatic impact. Many who saw the performances remarked that they preferred the austere production, as it emphasized the musical score and the students' vocal characterizations onstage.

There were masterclasses with Tom and Andrew, as well as classes with David Lefkowich in stage combat and guest coachings in musical theatre by Beth Burrier. This fall the Opera McGill students have also had the pleasure of coaching their roles with Gordon Gerrard, who will be conducting the upcoming "Don Giovanni" production in January of 2012. I've been extremely pleased with the level of musical preparation this year, much of that is due to Gordon's hard work.

December 3rd was "Opera McGill on Broadway" and we rocked Redpath, actually tapped ourselves silly. Hundreds came to see the show, the students gave great performances of musical theatre literature that was, for the most part, relatively unknown to them and to many in the audience. Jonathan Patterson, a crazy-talented choreographer and director, added his touches to the evening. "Puttin' on the Ritz" caused jaws to drop (we really have to find a way to encore that one...) and I even sang (in public!) a song to my wife in honor of our 20th Wedding Anniversary, which officially happens Dec. 28th.

The high point of 2011, if I'm strictly talking about my personal high point, was meeting Alfred Brendel, hearing him deliver a lecture on humor in classical music, but most importantly hearing him play excerpts at the piano (he has retired from playing in public). His playing was phenomenal and inspiring! Later in the day, McGill University assembled a panel to talk about Interpretation. The panel was a daunting group - experts in religion, architecture, Shakespeare, cinema - that included Mr. Brendel. I was also asked to be on the panel. It was just so exciting to sit on a stage with someone who I've listened to for over 30 years. Especially his Beethoven recordings (my Masters recital was highly influenced by his Op. 109 recording...) I spoke about literal, sub-textual and emotional textual interpretations of operatic libretti and how this influences everything from design to direction to performance choices. It was a very stimulating afternoon and I've never heard so many big words from one group of people in a long time! Mr. Brendel seemed very happy and impressed with how it turned out.

Personally, the difficult fall was made much more festive by my joining in with other Canadian guys to grow a moustache to raise money for Prostate Cancer. November became "Movember" and I grew a Mo, blogged about it, posted too many photos on FB and here on this blog. In the end, I raised $500, helping to raise over 32 million dollars here in Canada for Prostate Cancer. I must admit that my 'stache looked okay. I blogged about the worry of the final product back in early Movember and am pleased to report that both the process and the product were to my satisfaction. A few students told me they were sad I shaved it off. (They seemed in earnest, at least I want to think that!) Honestly, I was a bit sad as well, and have been wondering ever since shaving it off on Dec. 1st whether I should spend the winter altering my look yet again.

Which leads me to wonder: Given that 2011 saw me presenting MOntreal with both a MOhawk and MOustache, should I be thinking of choosing one look as the "best of 2011" and committing to that look for a longer period of time? What about a MOhawk/MOstache combo look for the winter of 2012? I'll be spending the months of January, February, and March working hard on "Don Giovanni", "...Poppea", and a Verdi scenes program and won't have anytime to think about how I'm looking. Perhaps I should return to the low maintenance 2009 shaved head look, but add in a fu manchu 'stache for 2012. Hmmm....

I know the above questions consternate some of my friends, students and colleagues. I embrace the freedom my shifts in "look" bring me, yet I've gotten so many "wtf" looks and/or shaking of heads from others over the years. People want to put others in neat little boxes so that we can count on them staying consistent. It makes us comfortable. People have tried to box me in during my career as well -- into being a coach, or an administrator, or a conductor, or a director, or a professor. I'm all those things and more, thank you.

Us humans are way too stuck on our identities coming from our resumes and current successes, but especially our mirrors. The majority of the western world seems to spend a great deal of energy creating an acceptable "look" (I'm talking both career profile and the physical) as well as placing values and judgements on ourselves, and others, based on these superficialities.

My reticence in continuing to play with my identity is twofold: a) my age - yes, I'm 47 and b) my profession - which is in the business of judging singers based on appearance (aural and visual). Am I too old to play around with my look? I certainly don't feel that is the case. Is it totally hypocritical to judge singers in their auditions while I stand on my soap box saying "don't judge me and my look"? Should I be trying to create an image that reads more professorial than artistic? And frankly, that's me putting a stereo-type onto the academic world (I don't own any sweaters with leather elbow patches, but would gladly wear one if I could find one!) What sort of judgements get placed onto all of us by our look? Why can't a singer design an opera set or a costume designer teach voice?

[Side note: The end of this blog sounds a bit like the fictional Carrie Bradshaw's voice over that seemed to happen 16 minutes into each episode.]

A final thought:
Is who we are perceived to be, stronger than the reality of who we actually are?

Perhaps I'll spend 2012 trying to explore that question.

End of Movember

2011-11-30T15:41:00.000-08:00

Today is the end of November, and for most guys participating in the Movember movement (raising money and awareness for Prostate Cancer) it is also the night the Mustaches disappear.

Movember Canada rasied over 32 million dollars (the U.S. raised less than half of that, fyi) and my site rasied $380. Not too bad, but I really wanted to raise $500.

That's why I'm keeping the mustache. That's right. I'm not shaving it off (even though I have a public performance this Saturday!) So, come on and donate! You'll find the link to my site on the top right of this blog. You can also find it here: http://mobro.co/PatrickJHansen

It's been fun. I've gotten lots of private head nods (Mo nods) from other guys on the metro who are sporting the mustache. I've received quizzical looks from colleagues and students. My boys tell me they "don't see it" and look past it. I have over the years made so many changes to my look, that frankly I've gotten used to it - although I do not like the pressure of shaving around it!

One wonders why this has become so popular so quickly. Is it part of the time that we are in? Is the social media responsible for this? Why is growing a mustache more popular in Canada than in the U.S.? I'd never really heard of Movember until last year when a friend of mine on Facebook posted his pics and wrote about raising funds, awareness, etc. I thought "what a great way to raise money!"

And so November became Movember this year and the month flew by. This week has been prep for the Broadway program THIS SATURDAY, December 3rd, 2011 in Redpath Hall. Tap Dancing. Demon Barbers. Singing Birds. Four Letter Words sung in public. Belting. Pulitzer Prize scores. Opera singers showing that they can sing Musical Theatre repertoire and dance as well!

Don Giovanni finishes its month of coachings. We start staging January 2nd, 2012. So much happening, and that's just our little Opera McGill world here at the Schulich School of Music.

Don't miss it. I've got to go practice...

Opera McGill's Movember Update

2011-11-22T10:27:00.000-08:00

Wow, Movember has been a busy and FAST month! I can't believe it's November, excuse me, Movember 22 already.

So much happening. I've posted an update of my face's stache, or as is popular nowadays my "mo" (I prefer stache, sounds rougher somehow) and posted a link to the site where you can donate money to Prostate Cancer, which is why I've been growing the thing all month.

I blogged about it earlier, pursuing a Process without worrying about the final Product. I maintain this is a good outlook on life and on trying to become an artist of any sort!

A Movember update on goings on at Opera McGill:
The Turn of the Screw closed late in October. It was a HUGE success and I was so very pleased with the work the student casts did with both the stage director, Tom Diamond, and the conductor, Andrew Bisantz. I look forward to figuring a way for them both to return to Opera McGill for future productions.

The Broadway program "Opera McGill on Broadway" has been coaching this month, as has been Don Giovanni. It's been fun to work on Spamalot "The Song that Goes Like This" with singers who are also singing Don Giovanni and Donna Anna. Such talented students with such RANGE of talent here at McGill!!

The Broadway program is December 3rd at 8pm in Redpath Hall it is free and open to the public. Basically it is a class presentation of a few (okay, a lot) musical theatre numbers we've been working on this month. I think that many of my students' colleagues and professors will be astounded at their ability to sing in the musical theatre repertoire. I'm having to practice, frankly. This is one of the hardest programs I have ever played -- don't knock the rep until you've tried to play the rep!

Also this month, two students and I performed at the annual Viennese Ball here in Montreal. Geoffrey Penar and Hiather Darnel-Kadonaga sang some Fledermaus and some Wiener Lied for a very appreciative audience. I played the accompaniments trying to channel my old mentor Liberace. Lots of fun!

The semester ends with a flourish of concerts - Song Interp don't forget! - and a couple of big sing-thru's of Don Giovanni. These are really important sing-thru's because it will be how the conductor, Gordon Gerrard, and I will decide who sings in which cast. I'm looking forward to finally hearing the singers after casting them way back in September.

I spend December doing some auditions for Janiec Opera Company with David Gately in NYC, and then return to Montreal for the holidays to hunker down and finish the staging of Giovanni. Rehearsals begin January 2nd!!

Braving End Results

2011-11-07T17:17:00.000-08:00

I promise, I'll get to the Opera part in just a moment...

It's November. In my world, it's Movember.
I'm doing something really brave, for me:
Knowing exactly just how awful the End Product is going to be, I've decided to join the "Movember" movement to raise money for Prostate Cancer and grow a mustache.
I've grown a beard before and ended up looking rather frazzled and odd. I've gone for a goatee-ish thing every now and then, but always shave it off because it looks way too scraggly. There's also the gray whiskers that stare back at me in the mirror...
But now I've really committed to this for the month of November. I've joined the tens of thousands of other guys currently sporting hairy lips, and even have a site that you can donate money to: http://mobro.co/PatrickJHansen
I urge you to give, as it's for a very good cause. My father died after a five year battle with cancer a number of years a go, and this is a small way for me to honor him (and boy could he grow a GREAT mustache!) while raising money for a very worthy cause.
It's also put me in the ranks of Justin Trudeau and a whole bunch of Canadian hockey players who have all decided to do the same thing. Lots of friendly nods from guys on the metro or on the street who recognize the first furtive steps of the thing growing under my nose...
Because you see, the End Product is supposed to be a pretty fantastic MOUSTACHE (to use the alternate spelling) by the end of November after 30 days of growth.
Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that in about another 5 days I'm going to be getting sad, head-nodding looks from people; the "what was he thinking?!"
It's worrisome -- what will I look like?

Which brings me to compare this month of growing a Mo to OPERA,(as promised.)

If one starts down the path of learning a new role, (or a new aria,) thinking mostly about the End Result -- and by that I mean anything from "This is going to fail" to "This will get me my first professional contract" to "Mozart wrote this with my voice in mind" to "There is NO way this fioratura is going to work in my voice before the decade is out" -- that path of learning will quickly either disappear into dust or lead you so far astray you'll never leave the forest (or find it, depending on which metaphor works for you...)

I am braving the physical end result of my as-yet-unknown mustache because I'm trying to embrace the PROCESS. For me that's declaring my intent, signing myself up on the Movember.com site, getting my site up, Tweeting about it, posting on Facebook about it, writing this blog, shaving every morning while trying to figure out how to trim a growing mustache without making it look lopsided, etc.

Singers need to boldly brave their new music, their next audition, their next gig, their next coaching, their next operatic encounter the same way. Concentrate on the process of what's at hand and not the final product down the road. Sometimes it takes a long while for a new aria to "fit", it can take dozens and dozens of auditions before one finally gets hired, it can take numerous teachers before the right one comes along. During these processes, things can be awkward; as ungainly as a shaggy half grown in mustache. However, if you're going through your process for the right reason (stretching your limits, creating art, enjoying making music with others, expanding your repertoire, realizing your dream, or raising money for Prostate Cancer), then the End Product, your Result, will ultimately fulfill you in ways unlooked for, regardless of how successful they might be deemed by others.

Please donate at: http://mobro.co/PatrickJHansen

Process & Product

2011-09-23T14:08:00.000-07:00

I read a quote attributed to Gandhi:
"Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory."

hmmmm...
Full Effort = Full Victory
Satisfaction = Effort

Why then is it hard to "put an effort" into learning new music? Why is the process of learning music so filled with E F F O R T? Aren't we supposed to feel satisfaction at making an effort? What is effort? What is satisfaction?

I agree that I get the most satisfaction out of the PROCESS (i.e. EFFORT) of working on an opera. The PRODUCT (i.e. ATTAINMENT) interests me, on a personal or artistic level, very little. This is true of operas I produce with students or professionals. I do find that there is more of a pressure to "produce" during the process with professionals, as they are focused on the product and want to make sure you're not leading them down a path that might end in either bad reviews, mixed audience receptions, or losing out on being re-engaged because they were part of a bad show. But mostly, the pros LOVE rehearsing because they get to be in a room filled with like-minded people who get to "play" while creating art.

For my students (particularly those who've never been in an Opera McGill show before), there seems to be an expectation that the process will be hard, or effort-filled; both the process of learning the role as well as the rehearsal process. I'm not sure I understand why that expectation seems to occur initially. I think it has a lot to do with worrying about doing it correctly, learning the notes correctly, being taken seriously by their colleagues, etc. I also think there is a sense that opera is SERIOUS BUSINESS and so that means we should all be SERIOUS.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. As I say often, I take "Opera" VERY seriously (why else would I dedicate so much of my life and time to it?!), I just don't take myself seriously! Neither do most of the great artists I've ever had the pleasure of working with. In fact, it's usually a bad sign when an artist tries to make the others in the room understand that they are a "serious artist!" (add in big eyebrow movement and a haughty voice and you've got a few divas I know!)

With my students, I find that by day three or four, their worries and expectations are forgotten, as the sheer fun of working on an opera takes over. I'll let out a secret: 90% of the time we're having a good ol' time. I've laughed so hard my side hurts, I've been moved to tears at a student's performance during a staging, I've rolled around on the ground pretending to be a zombie, I've said ridiculous things - some bold, some stupid, some really insightful - that I have no memory of saying, yet witnesses attest...

I've played.

That's what we do in rehearsal, we play. We pretend. We create. We make music, collaborate, work, sweat, laugh, eat, cry, dance, move in slow motion, hurt ourselves on props... the list is endless, but the truth is that we are ALIVE during this process in a way that most humans on this planet never get a chance to be.That's a precious sort of effort and it does indeed give a great deal of satisfaction.

The Product does too -- knowing the show is "good" or "solid" or "amazing" and that you've made it so is terrifically fulfilling. However, the applause is fleeting and dies fast. But the moments that stay with you are rather timeless and I find I can slip into them so easily: Katy and Peter dancing in Camelot bring me joy, Christopher's miracle in the same show still gives me goose bumps, Kate and Greg kissing in Cafe Momus is still the hottest kiss I've staged, Philippe in his heels brings a smile and his singing of over Lily's body brings a tear, my (now) six trees are ever-present in my imagination, as is Lara's circling of the globe in my head, the moments I've had with students in Wirth Opera Studio live on in me and are brought alive each time I step back into that room.

Perhaps that's my satisfaction.
Those efforts give me a daily dose of Victory that fills my tank up and allows me to return for more!

Thoughts on Auditioning

2011-08-29T19:19:00.000-07:00

This is a re-posting about my thoughts on AUDITIONS.
As Opera McGill auditions are this Wednesday and Thursday, I thought I'd post it again.

AUDITIONS
What do I look and listen for at an audition? I'll first tell you what I DON'T look/listen for:
1) Being correct: couldn't care less if you miss a note or drop pieces of text.
2) Coordination with your pianist: I'm much more interested in the music YOU are making!
3) Singing in tune (I know that's a surprising statement, but frankly most singers sing out of tune in some way, shape or form -- why does everyone get so freaking obsessive about this?!)
4) Ornaments: what ever I hear I'm going to want to change anyway, so why worry about it?
5) What you're wearing (many of my students will tell you this is not so, but I only comment on it to them later because I know SO many in the business pay attention to this really unimportant factor).

What I DO look/listen for:
1) A human being making music with their voice
2) Singing sentences that have meaning both textually, dramatically, and vocally
3) Did I mention the making music thing?
4) Character choices - both physical and vocal
5) Good shoes (I know, I shouldn't but I notice) This means no super high heels and no sandals.
6) A singer's physicality
7) Size of Voice
8) Repertoire -- is the singer singing rep that is appropriate for their technique/age/fach etc.
9) Range -- as in high and low and at what extremes the singer is comfortable
10) Range -- stylistically speaking how comfortable/adept with Baroque/Classical/19th/20th/Musical Theatre rep and how many arias are being presented.

That's it, not much! I do tend to judge the aural before the first page gets turned and then take in the visual as the audition progresses.

With all of that said, one of the things singers forget is that the panel wants you to be incredible so that we can cast you! It's not a jury or an examination. There are no grades and there are few hard and stead-fast rules, frankly. Move around, don't move around; gesture, don't gesture; wear a suit, don't wear a suit. All of that doesn't matter with me. I want to hear someone trying to make CHOICES and loving their moment commiserating with the great composers.

If any of the McGill students are reading this -- remember:
Take a good breath before you walk in the room.
Enjoy making music and sharing your talent.
Sing, don't listen to yourself.
Think about your text and the meaning of the text.

I'm looking forward to hearing everyone!

Perseverance

2011-07-31T17:48:00.000-07:00

"People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them."
~G.B. Shaw, Mrs. Warren's Profession, 1893

Einstein also said something along the lines of "I'm not smarter, I just stay with problems longer."

I like those two quotes, particularly during times where I'm being tested - like the past few months. It's been a glorious summer on one front: Brevard's Janiec Opera Company. We've done great shows, the students have learned a ton -- through successes and also from minor failures (which teach more than the successes...), I've enjoyed my colleagues and certainly enjoyed conducting Traviata and Alcina (I'm typing this on the morning after our three performance run.) I enjoyed directing Alcina quite an awful lot. It was nice to revisit a production from four years ago with a new cast, remember the terrific performances from McGill (Lara and Taylor were ever in my mind's eye this summer!), and collaborate on it with my amazing assistant director Aria Umezawa (who really added her own touches to the show via some lovely Tai Chi inspired movement for Oberto, Bradamante, Oronte, and the Trees!)

However, I'm exhausted. Physically mostly, but also mentally. I've been trying to work on my tenure dossier this summer and plan for the coming Opera McGill season but it's not really worked out. Any free time I might have had was spent with my family (today's day off is a trip to Triple Falls!) I can tell our boys are missing time with their parents. It's a balance of time and energy that, for this summer at least, hasn't happened.

I look back on the last four years and I see this: 16 Opera McGill productions, 7 guest productions as director, and 15 Janiec Opera productions I've either coached, conducted, or directed (not to mention all the extra scenes programs and recitals and community outreach performances and audition tours, etc.) That's 38 operas/musicals in 4 years. I think that's too many.

Yet the schedule continues -- This fall at McGill is Britten's The Turn of the Screw and a musical theatre scenes program "Opera McGill on Broadway", plus the requisite extra performances in Montreal and on campus. 2012 brings a Don Giovanni and a L'incoronazione di Poppea at McGill, and two possible other gigs (contracts not yet signed!) down in the U.S.; and of course, a return to Brevard (productions not yet determined...)

So why continue? Why do so much opera? Even slowing down next year means doing 6 productions between October and May. Is that too many?

Opera is a huge endeavor. It's not a simple way to make art, by any stretch of the imagination. Particularly when you're the one in charge it means supervising every single person's input and involvement (from the length of quarter notes in the strings, to the color of a prop, to the hem of a costume, to being a psycho-therapist to the singers, to scheduling pianists for staging rehearsals, to making sure your tux is cleaned in time for the premiere...) I sometimes wonder if most people think that creating opera is akin to what Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney did in those "I've got a barn, let's put on a show" movie musicals from a by-gone era. You know, those scenes at the end of day after they've "rehearsed" where the singers and dancers are sitting around drinking coffee, yet become inspired to sing and dance some more - just to entertain themselves again by putting on a big routine complete with tap dancing on tables...

Okay, I'll stop now.

I continue because it's what I do. Period. I love working in and with OPERA; it's my medium - either visually as a director or aurally as a conductor. I persevere because solving operatic puzzles, (creating operas, coaching singers, and mentoring the next generation) brings me personal and artistic fulfillment.

However, if anyone out there wants to find me four tickets to the Universal Studios' Harry Potter theme park I'll be happy to take some time off for a vacation with the family...

Who's reading me in France?

2011-07-22T17:47:00.000-07:00

My blog - courtesy of blogger.com - gives me statistics on how many times my blog is read and from what part of the world. I didn't know about this function till recently and it's been V-E-R-Y interesting to see these results!

First off, my blog has been read over 13,000 times now. That's cool. The most viewed blog is the one titled "Imeneo and Subtext". It was a nice blog, but not the best one (but I guess authors seldom know what's best about their writing, yes?) I would think that my blogs on auditioning, or fear, would be the most read.

But it also seems that I'm being read by people all over the world. When I started this blog, I thought the audience would be strictly North American (silly me!) and young singers looking for information about an operatic career. According to the stats, I've been read almost 5,000 times by viewers in the United States (my #1 audience), over 3,700 times in France, over 3,000 times in Canada, then (in order) Russia, Germany, Netherlands, Slovenia, United Kingdom, Ukraine, Iran, South Korea, Italy, Israel, Sudan, Nigeria, Brazil, Portugal, Thailand, and Australia.

Really cool... BUT:

Who's reading me in France? Who's reading me on the other side of the globe? Why? What's the interest? Please comment below and tell me why you have read this blog. I'd really appreciate it!

Now for a brief Brevard update:
Hansel und Gretel has opened. It's a terrific show! The last show, Elixir of Love, is getting staged -- it opens in less than two weeks. Alcina (a production that I'm directing AND conducting, mostly because I'm insane I think) is having its "final room run" tomorrow at 9:30am. It's the rehearsal where the designers come and watch the show and also where the cast has its final rehearsal before moving into the theatre. I can't WAIT to get into the theatre because the weather here has been HOT and HUMID. To rehearse HANDEL in HOT, HUMID weather is tough!! The theatre has air-conditioning and I simply can't wait to have a clear head. My pianist has been the massively-talented Michael Shannon (who's moving back to Montreal in 2012!). He and I are both playing in the show, with a small orchestral group as well. The cast is really, really amazing and I think that Brevard won't know what hit them when it opens this Thursday.

It's time to turn in -- goodnight world!

Half-Way

2011-07-11T20:04:00.000-07:00

Brevard 2011 is quickly coming to an end. Okay -- so we have 4 shows and a concert still to perform between now (July 11) and the last day (August 6), but we're already half-way through the 8 week program.

Time is FLYING!

La Traviata was a massive success -- audiences raved, patrons were thrilled, the faculty and students who came to see it loved it (a bunch of them leaving in tears), the cast, chorus, orchestra, and crew who performed it did an exemplary job, and David and I were proud. We (David and I) also did a great job -- He directed, I conducted. From time to time, it's important to give yourself some credit and a pat on the back. Outside of needing more rehearsal time (and where is there a place that's not true?), it was one of the best opera productions I've been a part of anywhere -- YES, anywhere!

A number of our colleagues who work in professional opera companies couldn't believe the quality was so high - as in the quality of singing, of music-making, of the chorus, of the costumes, of the set design, etc. We even had two Violettas, who had to split all of the rehearsal time between them. The standard is now set VERY high!

3 Penny Opera is in tech right now (Anthony/Burrier), H&G is almost staged (Gately/Lam), Elixir started coaching today (with Andrew Bisantz, who's on campus now and all of us are SO pleased!), and Alcina had 4 hours of staging in the 95 degree heat. I melted today trying to stage Alcina.

Alcina at Brevard: it's a remounting of the Opera McGill production that I did four years ago during my first year up in Montreal. The set design, by Vincent Lefevre, is being re-produced here in Brevard, and the costumes are being shipped down from Quebec. I'm having to go through my old score and re-create the staging -- in a differently shaped theatre space. Aria Umezawa, who has been my assistant director at McGill for the past three years, has watched the archival dvd of the McGill production to get the blocking (and wow has she done a great job!), but the show will be different.

I'm a different director now -- particularly with Handel (Alcina was my first Handel opera that I directed). Plus our space here is shaped differently and I'm going to have to accommodate that. Finally, I want to make sure that my ideas still hold and work with a different casts' bodies and voices. That's really important to me, as otherwise the show will only echo something instead of being it's own universe.

If I (and the cast) can handle the heat this week, we'll be in good shape. Tomorrow we start Tai Chi lessons with a local master here in Brevard. Should be fun!

Brevard Week 4

2011-07-02T07:03:00.000-07:00

Well, week 3 has flown by! Still one more day left to go in the week, but wow is time flying here!

Traviata is staged and we've already had one room run thru -- today is the final room run. For those of you not familiar with the term, it's the rehearsal where we start at the beginning and go to the end of the opera in front of the designers so that they can see the show. It can also be, for students and young singers, the first time they see a complete opera -- or sing the role completely from beginning to end. For this production, we have two stellar Violetta's and they each need a run thru before we move to the theatre. The rehearsal process has been lovely on this show, the entire cast is terrific and the chorus sounds like one you'd hear at Glimmerglass. They sing with vitality and are creating individualized characters, plus there is a refreshing youthful energy to them onstage.

The rest of Brevard Music Center is now in full gear. Lots of rehearsals happening all around us and the symphonic concerts are underway at the WPA. Keith Lockhart, our artistic director, just conducted a great concert last night with the student orchestra (a rousing performance that ended with Strauss' Till Eulenspiegel) and tonight he conducts a great program: Appalachian Spring, the Vaughn Williams Oboe Concerto, and the ever-exciting Rite of Spring! I'm guessing Keith has to fly out tomorrow after the concert to get to his July 4th extravaganza that's televised across the nation -- I think he might be the only American conductor to be regularly featured on a national telecast. The Three Penny Opera is heavy into staging (they open in two weeks, followed by Hansel and Gretel the week after). Busy Busy Busy!

On a personal note, I haven't conducted this much since last year's Pirates rehearsals -- and those were a lot easier because of the dialogue. Verdi's universe is wondrous, particularly act two of Traviata (not to mention the last 5 minutes of the opera!) I find that the flexibility needed for the bel canto demands of the score challenge both the cast and myself. Tomorrow is our first orchestra rehearsal in the new space over at the Porter Center. All of us are INTENSELY interested in how the acoustics will turn out. I can't wait to see how the reduced orchestration sounds (there's not a reduced full score, so It'll be good to finally hear it for the first time tomorrow.)

Two orchestra readings, a piano tech, a piano dress, a Sitzprobe, and then a final dress are all that's left before La Traviata opens Thursday night, July 7th, 2011 at the Porter Center. If you're in the Asheville/Brevard area, get your tickets. This production promises to be one that you won't forget!

Brevard Week 2 & 3

2011-06-27T20:53:00.000-07:00

We're actually into our third week here at Brevard Music Center. Time is flying. Act One and Act Two are staged for La Traviata - we've run both acts twice already. Three Penny Opera is getting staged and their music director, Beth Burrier is on campus holding musical rehearsals. Run-outs to country clubs (tonight's was at "Lake Toxaway") begin with about a dozen students, David Richardson and Dean Anthony all putting on a great preview of our season. Elizabeth has seen everyone at least once and is starting to really make her impact felt here as well.

All in all, we're feeling good and a bit "ahead of schedule". I hope it holds.

Tomorrow we dig into Act "3" - which of course, is Act 2, scene 2. I've never known it as anything else but Act 3, though. You know, Flora's party... The plan is to have it all staged by Thursday and then run the show Friday and Saturday. Orchestra readings start Sunday.

Opera classes have been focused (at least for me) on getting to know the students' abilities - all very talented, but also all at very different levels and stages. I'm getting the feeling right now they're competing with each other for some grand compliment or praise from David, Dean or I. Not sure, but it's just something I'm sensing.

Of course, it would all be better if everyone just focused on themselves and their own work and abilities instead of comparing themselves to their colleagues. I mean, really, why compare? It's frankly a false "control" group to compare yourself too. The makeup of the Janiec Opera Company has more to do with the opera repertoire for the summer and the roles offered, than anything else. If we had decided to do Don Giovanni instead of Traviata, there would be different singers here - and then that would make the comparisons for the others completely different. That's the thing - you'll always have others to compare yourself with and it's almost always a false comparison because it's ALL based on your locality.

I say don't compare. Focus on yourself, enjoy and learn from the others, and flow with the process of coachings and rehearsals.

Performances start up next week and don't stop until we're outa here. It'll be a fun ride, I'm sure!

Brevard Week One!

2011-06-17T14:11:00.000-07:00

It's Friday, and I'm done for the day. The week has been filled with new faces, returning faces, and lots of music making. My days have been filled with our daily Opera Classes (David Gately, Dean Anthony and I are the Brevard versions of Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson, and Simon Cowell -- it's a bit of a debate who's who!), coaching Traviata (two tremendous young ladies are going to sing the title role here in July), coaching Alcina arias, and rehearsing the chorus for Traviata.

The chorus rehearsals have been very intense, but I hope fun and a learning experience. I've been concentrating on getting a nice rounded "cupo" sound, getting some play in the text, getting punctuation into the vocal phrases, making the men sound like MEN and having the ladies put out a bit more sound than they might think they should. Once I talked about singing with their own individual voices - as opposed to "blending" - things really changed! Chorus masters who "blend" an opera chorus, particularly an Opera chorus by Verdi, sometimes end up making the sound BLAND and uninteresting (yet BLENDED!)

I'm very proud of my Traviata chorus experience, having played for THE great American chorus master, Donald Palumbo, back in 1992 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. There is still a part of me in Act One, rehearsal #1. He was so picky -- no, make that he was the most intense musician I'd ever worked with up to that point, and still is 20 years later. He's at the Met and you can tell already the difference he's made there. The chorus is beginning to sing with dynamics and seems to be creating phrases that shift colors and textures, at least in my humble opinion.

His secret? He would rehearse a phrase over and over and over and over and over and over again. Seriously, I'm still shocked that he moved past "Dell'invito trascorsa è già l'ora" after rehearsing those 2 seconds of music for about 30 minutes one night. ("No, No, that isn't it!" and "It's simply NOT possible" were muttered under his breath many nights.) What I learned from him was, MAKE IT RIGHT and then move on. Don't just rehearse something and allow it to not be what you want.

Maestro Palumbo had the best ears as well - he could pick out an errant open "e" vowel from a crowd and he also had unbelievable rhythm -- detailing dotted 16th notes and keeping them away from becoming triplets was a specialty. I have thought of him SO much during the last week. I was so lucky to play 15 shows with him in the room - everything from Cosi to Wozzeck.

I was very lucky to have worked with some amazing people - Palumbo, Christopher Keene, Hal, Stewart, Robert, Buck, Bill - and am thrilled to be back working with two other amazing people: David Gately and Dean Anthony. David is just terrific - he cares AND he's talented! Dean is a master of helping a young singer out physically to create a character or shape an aria. We have a great time together here.

My wife, "Liz" (I simply just don't call her that, but that's how she's known here and in Montreal) is also at Brevard. She's the Voice Whisperer here.

Blogging out from gorgeous Brevard,
Patrick

Time & Space & Music

2011-05-24T19:49:00.000-07:00

This blog's gonna ramble a bit...

Time's been on my mind today. Not enough time to get everything done before we leave for Brevard. Not enough time to completely prepare for recreating the Tai Chi Trees in Alcina. Oh - and there's still bits of Act 2 of Traviata I don't quite know (I guess I'm confessing the same thing as Maestro Slatkin, except he was in the midst of Met performances...)

Not enough time to take some time off; so many of us feel this way nowadays.

So I thought I'd take the time to blog about TIME.

Time expands, slows down, and speeds up when music is present - either being made or being listened to. We've all experienced this phenomenon, some more than others. I've known for quite some time (pardon that one), that my sense of time was a bit, um, different. At first I was made to feel that my sense of time was extraordinary (my mom wouldn't set the oven timer for cookies, I could just call them done at 9 or 10 or 11 minutes - whatever the recipe called for.) I had a crazy sense of time, almost Vulcan.

Later while I was in college, I was made to feel that my sense of time was deficient. You see, I couldn't keep a steady beat. At all. Really!

I had terrible experiences with others - particularly other students - who made it a point to point this out. I started to feel a bit incompetent, and then I started to think something was wrong. I realized that other musicians noticed if music was moving forward - they called this "rushing". They also noticed if the beat wasn't steady - I called it "being expressive." Sometimes they made faces when this happened, as if it was either hurting them, or something was smelling kinda bad. I usually perked up because something was happening of interest...

The metronome - an instrument that has nothing to do with music making - clicks inhumanly at regular intervals to make audible the illusion that there is a beat somewhere in time. For years I tried to practice with it, tried to understand how it simply wasn't representing the time that I felt inherent in the phrases of music I was playing. I swore the metronome was dragging or rushing through piece after piece. It didn't matter if it was Bach or Ravel or Mozart or Copland. Time clicked differently in me and in my music.

Now of course, with my 47 yrs of life giving me a bit more insight, it's clear as day that frankly my sense of time is vastly superior to those others out there making music who try to follow the illusion of time, ictus, and especially tempo. Okay, superior sounds a bit - well - superior. Sorry.

Maybe "more evolved" would be a better way of saying it? Except that I think what's gone on in music lately is a devolution of time -- into a non-human, robotic sense of time clicking in even beats that neither speed up or slow down. Perhaps it's the GarageBand software, or the clicktracks on Broadway, or the computerization of music making via Sibelius or Finale. Once a composer puts something on the computer, and it's 4 minutes and 31 seconds long, it ALWAYS is 4 minutes and 31 seconds long (until a human plays it live and messes it up!)

However, Music is Art; and time flows in Art differently than in life. Isn't that part of what draws us to Art? The ebb and flow of time is unique to each great piece of art I've ever worked on - from Chopin's 2nd ballade to Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle.

Art certainly needs its Apollonian construct and structure to exist. It’s the vessel that art lives in – like Time sitting in Space. Art exists at the intersection where things vibrate – the vibration of creativity, the vibration of the string or the voice, the vibration of the emotional energy of an actor, the vibration of light & color on the stage, etc. Vibrations are key to understanding Time and Space and I think this connection to music and music making is vital and needs to be explored.

Time opens up whenever Music happens. Another way to open time (or better yet, allow it to flow freely), one needs to allow for divergent thinking to create possibilities (i.e. works of art) to explore all those great questions posed by composers, scores, libretti, collaborations, singers, pianists, conductors, etc.

Exploration takes time, but leads to Discovery and New Lands and New Horizons. Yet, it is such a vast missing component in today's world of google-the-answer-now and tell-me-how-it's-supposed-to-go.

Take the time to simply explore, next time you've got the chance to make some music or learn some music or listen to music or look at a sculpture.

And throw that metronome away!

Fear of Failing

2011-05-17T09:05:00.000-07:00

Fear of Failing
Fear of Being Wrong
Fear of Not Being Good Enough
Fear of Getting Hurt

William Shakespeare put it well: "Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt."

Another interesting way of looking at Failure: "We learn wisdom from failure much more than success. We often discover what we will do, by finding out what we will not do." -- Samuel Smiles

And a whole bunch more:
"Never let the fear of striking out get in your way." -- George Herman "Babe" Ruth

"Failure teaches success." -- Japanese Saying

"He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat." -- Napoleon Bonaparte

"One who fears failure limits his activities. Failure is only the opportunity to more intelligently begin again." -- Henry Ford

And my favorite:
"What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?" -- Vincent van Gogh

I know that I would not be HERE if I had listened to my inner doubting Thomas. I certainly would not be HERE if I had listened to a number of false gods along the way. By false gods, I mean people who should have been real mentors or real teachers and instead were people who tried to project their own worries and doubts and fears onto me (and others). However, at the time they seemed "godly". I always had those inner bells that would go off whenever someone tried to make me feel small or fearful. Others should listen to these bells more often.

By HERE I mean where I am NOW:
1) an associate professor at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University in Montreal Quebec running one of the best opera training programs in the world.
2) the associate director of Janiec Opera Company of Brevard Music Center in North Carolina
3) a stage director who has produced or directed over 24 operas in the last four years
4) a conductor who has waved his hands in operas as diverse as Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea, Dallapiccola's Il Prigioniero, Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle, and Britten's Albert Herring.
5) a respected coach of both opera and musical theatre repertoire who loves both equally!
6) someone who's worked in the business for over half his life and is blessed by friends all over the world.
7) a man married to the most amazingly beautiful woman (who I think is a "Voice Whisperer"), who's also the mother of my amazing sons.
8) a student of religion and philosophy who has the opportunity to try to connect the dots.
9) a pianist who still has a couple of concertos in his fingers, and can still play certain songs from Godspell from memory (yes, it's an accomplishment to hold onto rep from 1982!)
10) someone who recognizes that young people nowadays seem to be FILLED WITH FEAR.

Why am I sensing this fear now more than ever?
Is this just another manifestation of the post 9/11 syndrome that seems to have beset much of the younger generation?
Is it a manifestation of the new generation of mentors and teachers who have decided to teach fear of failure over encouraging their singers to achieve success by allowing failure to happen as a natural part of the process of learning?

How should I try to help?
Do I push an "attempt" onto an obviously fearful student knowing that it'll be a great thing for them to either accomplish or fail?
Do I acquiesce and hope that they'll gain some confidence a little later on - even though I know that opportunities are fleeting and happen so rarely because there are simply too many singers running around who'll take those opportunities away from the fearful?

I'm not sure of the answers - or even if those are the right questions to ponder.

However, I am sure of the fact that those quotes above are TRUE.

I'll end this odd blog of questions and quotes with the following:
Question: Why is it that some see opera as Dangerous?"
Quote: "Opera is Long. Life is Short." -- L.A. Opera tee-shirt

Givers and Takers

2011-05-06T08:23:00.000-07:00

This past Friday to Sunday was a huge weekend.
Just the facts first, then the good stuff:
Friday 3:45am - I awoke and got the the Wichita airport to fly to DC
Friday later that morning - The Royal Wedding was watched by billions
Friday later that afternoon - Staging Die Drei Pintos in a private home with a concert hall
Friday 7pm - Wichita Grand Opera's production of my "La Fille du Regiment" opens
Saturday - The Washington Chorus' Dress Rehearsal of "Mostly Mahler" at the Kennedy Center
Saturday night - Correspondent's Dinner where Trump got roasted by Pres. Obama and Seth Meyers!
Sunday morning - PJH walks all around DC and ends at Smithsonian gift shop buying gifts
Sunday afternoon - "Regiment" matinee in Wichita & "Mostly Mahler" in DC
Sunday evening - party and after dinner w/ Wachner, Meara Conway, and VERY interesting patrons
Sunday 11ish - Obama gets Osama
Sunday after midnight (okay, that's Monday) - I head six blocks from my hotel to catch the tens of thousands gathering at the White House to celebrate (yes, I use that word on purpose and agree with the sentiment for any occasion marking a mass murderer's death.)

BIG Weekend, anyway you look at it!
However, why title this blog "Givers and Takers"?

Mostly because I spent the last weekend in DC with an organization that I would describe as being run by Givers, after leaving an organization in Kansas run by Takers. I wanted to write about the difference between the two.

I've worked in this "business" for over 25 years now. There are many ways to look at people. One is that there are two kinds of people and then compare and contrast. One such configuration might be "Correct" and "Effective". That's another blog...
Today's blog is on two other kinds of people: GIVERS and TAKERS.

A listing of the outstanding GIVERS in my live:
Berniel Hanson, my piano teacher who gave me Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, Chopin & Ravel
Robert Larsen, my musical father who gave me my musical education
R. H. Fanders, the man who gave me Humanism
Joanne Baker, a sweetheart of a piano teacher, who gave me confidence and my memory
Marlena Malas, a great voice teacher and woman, who gave me open doors
Hal France, a conductor, who walked me through an open door
Christopher Keene, who gave me a great compliment during the longest rehearsal of my life
Donald Palumbo, who gave me opera, a work ethic, and Verdi
Michael Ching, who gave me my professional conducting debut
Norma and Alistar Paton, who gave my wife and I a home and amazing food in Tulsa
Allan Naplan, who helped give me Ithaca and subsequently my first son
Stewart Robertson, who gave me Glimmerglass
Karen Tiller, who gave me a Bluebeard's Castle and subsequently my second son
Nicholas Russell, who gave me (and continues to give others) loyalty
My Ithaca students, who gave me the joy of teaching and reinvigorated my joy of musical theatre
Andrew Bisantz, who gave me friendship during dark times
David Gately, who gave my family the joyous mountains of North Carolina
Meg, Lara, Aidan, and Philippe who awarded me Excellence in Teaching - my proudest achievement
My McGill students, who continue to give me challenges and allow my artistic freedom to blossom
My McGill colleagues who enthusiastically embrace my craziness: Julian, Hank, and Abe, et al
And of course, my family, who give me constant love

A short and abstract listing of TAKERS I've met:
The bitchy NYC coaches at DMMO in the mid 1980s, who tried to take my pride in my mentor
A fat, yet small-minded assistant conductor of a Boris, who told me I played without rhythm
A crazed pianist at The Juilliard School who tried to make me feel small and unimportant
A certain famous stage director who tried to take my confidence, but took others' instead
A general director who took from everyone and blamed everyone for his 1 million dollar deficit
Small minded folks who hold what they know close to themselves and forget to share it
Bureaucrats who take people's precious time in order to fill out forms in order to get forms

That frenzied couple in tornado alley, who I've seen fill young singers' heads with promises of things to come in order to use their time and talents; who point out everyone's short comings and blame everyone around them for any and all problems, instead of working to solve said problems.

But especially, there was that very special Urantian Taker who seemed to be such a Giver until, almost too late, I realized he was the opposite of Good (as Sondheim put it "Nice is different than Good!)

As a good friend once said: "Some people never realize that the reason they seem so ugly on the outside is because they are so ugly on the inside."

I've developed a "Taker Radar" over the years, and feel that I'm usually correct 9 times out of 10. It's something about a person's inability to smile beyond the first smile they put on; coupled with the second sentence out of their mouth usually being something along the lines of "You know, so and so doesn't know what they're doing, but I do".

Nice is SO different than Good. I know that now. It's a valuable thing to know, fyi.

End of Opera McGill 2010-2011 Wrap-Up

2011-04-15T15:19:00.000-07:00

So -- I feel bad.

I'm not in Montreal right now and many of my students are leaving town early, way before graduation (which is at the end of May... no comment...) and when we'd usually be doing a year-end party I'm not there and neither are many of my students once I get back to Montreal.
So I thought I'd do a public wrap-up on my blog.

It goes without saying that this year was simply EXCELLENT. A student said it was a "hat trick" (which is a hockey reference I don't understand) or as they actually put it "Patrick's HatTrick". I guess it has something to do with all THREE productions being huge successes, artistically, pedagogically, and critically.

We produced Hänsel und Gretel in November, 2010. It was an extremely cute production and in case you hadn't heard, the sets were projections of Montreal elementary students' artwork of the house, the forest, the angels, the gingerbread house, etc.

In January came our production of Puccini's La Bohème, a massive undertaking with a double cast, 40 member chorus, 12 member children's chorus, and the full orchestration ONSTAGE behind the singers. All was coordinated by Julian Wachner, the conductor, via video screens. It was also recorded by Grammy award winning sound engineers and captured on High Definition video by 6 cameras in the audience and behind the scenes. There's even a documentary that's being put together on "The Making Of La Boheme". All of the footage is currently being edited and the sound is being mixed (they dropped 30 some mics into the space and in the set). We're expecting all to be completed by the start of the school year in August. I can't even begin to express how proud I was of the whole show. As one of our patrons put it "This is the best thing I've seen in Montreal in a LONG while and I'm talking ANYWHERE in Montreal"!

This March we collaborated yet again with Hank Knox and his Early Music program at McGill (his orchestra plays on period instruments - gut strings even - and period tuning) to produce Handel's little-known Imeneo. To say that it was beautiful is an understatement, and to say that it was elegant and emotionally riveting is also an understatement. Frankly, it was an artistic release that I've been waiting to have happen both from me as a director but also from a student cast - all of whom really went down the rabbit hole with their director and created a really special production that could have been a success at a Glimmerglass or C.O.T. or frankly anywhere. Special Bonus: I got to wear a mohawk for about three weeks and scare the locals, befuddle some of my colleagues, and be the "cool" professor on campus. It might come back... Just Sayin'!

SO -- Some Thank Yous:
A huge massive thank you to my assistants in the Opera McGill office: Veronique Coutu, Garry McLinn, and Lucas van Lierop. There is just no way for anyone to know the myriad of tasks that they are responsible for - from programs to supertitles, from communication with students and faculty to dealing with ticket requests from audience members - they are indefatigable! I certainly couldn't have done it without them. Veronique graduates with her Masters degree this year and I'm going to miss her at McGill. She was an amazing Nancy in the first production I directed at McGill, she gave a beautiful performance of Knoxville Summer on a recital a few years back that I played, was wonderful as Anne Trulove last year, sang brilliantly with Frederica von Stade down at Brevard in June, and brought audience members to tears during her death scene in Boheme. She received her bachelors and masters degrees from McGill and if I had more students who sang with her musicality, vulnerability, and passion, I'd be a lucky professor! Thanks Vero for everything!!

Also a special thank you to the team who worked on and are continuing to work on the Boheme DVD: Shelley Stein-Sacks, Michelle Hugill, George Messenberg, Richard King, Martha DeFrancisco, and their team of cracker-jack students in sound recording! Thanks to Liz Wirth for her tireless support of Opera McGill, Schulich School of Music, and McGill University. Thanks to Ewa and Harold Scheer who run the Austrian Ball for continuing their support as well. A big thank you to my comrades in arms: Julian Wachner and Hank Knox. They are the BEST colleagues a guy could have, both are terrific conductors and both are great GUYS to hang around!

There's no way to thank my team of designers - Serge Filiatrault on lights, Vincent Lefevre on sets, and Ginette Grenier on costumes. I am a very, VERY lucky director and each of them has taught me sooooooooooo much about being a better person. They are REALLY talented and Ginette is simply a genius!

Finally, Thank You to ARIA UMEZAWA! She's been my assistant director for half a dozen plus shows at McGill, plus she spent last summer at Brevard doing the same AND creating the daily schedule. She'll someday be famous I'm sure and I'll be applauding her productions. Aria is smart, has an aesthetic all of her own that I admire, and is deeply committed to making ART. I'm really going to miss her!!

Speaking of missing, I'm going to miss Jana and Philippe A LOT! Together, they've been in almost every show I've done at McGill - that's 15 shows, fyi. I've been really lucky to have such talented students over these past four years and Jana and Philippe really represent the best of my McGill students. Good luck to both of you!

And now... for a few End of Year Opera McGill awards (or the "OM"s as we call them):
Nominations!
For Best use of a Prop:
Jordan de Souza throwing the broom in H&G from the pit
Gordon Bintner eating the chicken with his mouth open in Boheme
Myriam Leblanc breaking the sword in Imeneo
Garry McLinn and Kevin Myers dealing with the bow and arrow in Imeneo

For Best use of Hair:
Lawrence Shirkie as Schubert in H&G
Rebecca Woodmass and Estelì Gomez getting dragged by their hair in Imeneo
Patrick Hansen's mohawk before and after Imeneo performances
The Imeneo faux hawks
Philippe Sly's fake facial hair in La Boheme

Best Onstage Moment:
The Water Cistern breaking and spilling a bathtub of water all over Pollack's floor in Imeneo
The opening of Act Two in Boheme
The end of Act One in Imeneo
The Mosh Pit during the kids matinee in Hansel und Gretel

Feel free to leave your own nominations in the comments!
I'm off to finish staging act one of Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment for Wichita Grand Opera.

Rockin' Imeneo

2011-03-31T14:03:00.000-07:00

Opera McGill's production of Imeneo closed Sunday March 27th. It was a terrific production, one that I'm extremely proud to have directed. The student casts were remarkable, Hank Knox and his orchestra gave inspired performances from the pit, Ginette's costumes were oh-so lovely, Vincent's sets (taken from Alcina and Lucretia productions) were just exactly perfect, and Serge's lighting connected it all together, even Gingras loved the show:

http://www.cyberpresse.ca/arts/musique/musique-classique/201103/26/01-4383458-imeneo-de-handel-une-reussite.php

We had terrific ticket sales for Friday and Saturday nights - lots of patrons, new audience members, and students. Our matinee on Sunday didn't sell as well as I'd hoped. I was also disappointed in the student turnout - which seems to always be less than what one might expect for many Schulich concerts and events. I don't get that.

At all.

I would think that if someone was spending money on an education in music that they would not be content to just see one performance, they would want to see them all. I certainly did when I was in school. I went to every recital (that was required at Simpson) and every concert given by the ensembles and faculty. I was a piano major who gave two one hour recitals (both would've been considered masters level literature here), played over two dozen other senior voice recitals for fellow voice students, sang in the madrigal and choir (and did the requisite tours), plus played in, sang in, worked set crew, and occassionally danced in 10 productions during my undergrad years. When I was done, I was REALLY educated in music. I had played all the major song cycles by Schumann, Britten and Barber in recitals, had competed in piano concerto competitions, placed third in NATS as a baritone, worked 4 summers at Des Moines Metro Opera, and ended my years at Simpson making my professional operatic singing debut as the Emperor Altoum in DMMO's 1988 production of Turandot.

I also partied as a frat boy (Kappa Theta Psi - oldest local fraternity west of the Mississippi), met and dated my future wife, spent endless days hanging with friends, read the complete works of Shakespeare for a class I took for fun, reveled in a history of the culinary arts mini-course, played hundreds of voice lessons for three great voice teachers (for FREE), and graduated with honors.

Occasionally I get the "you're so talented" or "you're just brilliant" remark, or worse yet the "you're an overachiever". Actually not, I was educated in music during my undergrad years to be a total musician, not a specialist. Yes, my languages sucked (and still do) and some of those recitals were not the best, but I performed music that I loved, listened to music that I did not know, and grew a thousand fold as a singer, pianist, conductor, coach, and person.

I got my 10,000 hours in during my bachelors degree. That's why I'm a success today. Get out there and EXPERIENCE and LEARN and WORK HARD 'cause before you know it, the time is gone.

Oh, and I also learned to pour great drinks while tending bar at faculty receptions! It's an important skill that comes in handy to this day!

I'll get off my soap box now... It's time to stage some Donizetti for Wichita Grand Opera!

Imeneo and Subtext

2011-02-20T07:31:00.000-08:00

Continuing in my year of working on 12 operas in 12 months (yikes!), next up is Handel's IMENEO.

Not iDOmeneo -- that's by Mozart. The sad joke I've repeated too many times now is that we actually are doing Idomeneo, just with all the parts in the key of C being cut out... get it? key of C? Yeah -- funny the first time, barely.

Imeneo first came to my attention the year before Glimmerglass was set to produce it. Of course I said, "you mean Idomeneo, right?" and got the look from Nicholas Russell that I now give others... It was a lovely cast - John Tessier, Amanda Pabyan, Michael Maniaci - but I have to admit to not liking the production all that much. With the exception of the brilliant choice to have a bunch of an act set at a dinner table, Alden's other choices were a bit stark.

The score is simply beautiful and the story is, well, simply simple: Clomiri loves Imeneo, Imeneo wants to marry Rosmene, Rosmene is engaged to Tirinto. Got it? Rosmene, after faking a nervous breakdown, decides to bow to the will of Argenio (Clomiri's father) and do the honorable thing by marrying Imeneo - the hero who saved Rosmene and a bunch of other ladies from pirates. Yes, PIRATES! To Be Ungrateful or Unfaithful? That is her question. It ends with Rosmene, Tirinto, and Clomiri all quite Unhappy.

The production design had a caveat attached to it: use as little money as possible. After the expense of La Boheme (the most expensive Opera McGill production to date), we had to explore ways to create Imeneo with less than we might normally spend. What to do now that our audiences have come to expect a certain level of production values?

We decided to go with the adage "what's old is new again". McGill University is trying to begin to think Green, and I've been storing up bits and pieces of sets from other productions over the past four years - so why not use them? Boston Lyric Opera did this last season by using a Conklin set designed for one opera at Glimmerglass and re-thinking it for another opera at BLO. We're going to do something slightly different. The plan is to use the rice paper drops from Alcina to define the space, the sculpted head of Lucretia hung as a "moon", and costumes/props from both Thésée and The Rape of Lucretia to create the period.

My stage direction for this production will be focusing on character subtext and how those ideas motivate the da capo ornaments. Easier said than done... An abstract I wrote for a conference on design was titled "Subtextual Leitmotifs in Operatic Design". Although the paper got sidelined because I was in the midst of doing ten operas during 2010, the ideas in the paper are ever-present in my mind when working with opera singers. (I first explored these a few years back during Opera McGill's Alcina production).

How does a director and the cast discover the subtext? What IS subtext? Lots of people think it's about sex, like when Mozart orchestrates horns to play during Fiordiligi's "Per pieta" aria in the 2nd act of Cosi fan tutte. It's more than that, a lot more.

It's a process of really digging into the actual TEXT, an archeological dig into the character's Environment, their Relationships with the others onstage, their Objectives and Obstacles in each scene, aria, and the overall picture, their Tactics (usually given by the composer - i.e. tempo, key, dynamics, vocal registers), and what's at Stake for each character at any given moment. Those are all very rational ideas to explore. Subtext connects those ideas in two ways: directed internally, they mix in with the emotions and magnify them in so many ways; directed externally, they can hit others onstage and those in the audience with a vivid picture of a character's inner thoughts and emotions. All of us Think one thing, Say another, and Do something else when dealing with our loved ones, our friends, our co-workers, and the strangers on the subway. How do we know what Othello is thinking? He either has to tell us in his text, or we see into his thoughts because of the difference in what he says and what he does onstage. How he says it is also important...

Just a few thoughts about what we'll be concentrating on during March. Of course, we'll also be concentrating on the music, the ornaments, and the voices! Each year Opera McGill presents a baroque opera in collaboration with the Early Music Program at McGill - in period tuning and with period instrumentation. EACH year -- the only academic program in North America to do so, at least to my knowledge. Don't miss it: March 25, 26, & 27 (matinee), 2011 in Pollack Hall in downtown Montreal.

Boheme Reflections

2011-01-29T13:46:00.000-08:00

Opera McGill's production of La Boheme is now history. History is the right word for the four performances - as in all four of our performances were sold out!

It was a beautiful production - from the sets and costumes and lights to the wonderful performances by the both casts, the chorus and the orchestra. Julian Wachner gave beautifully crafted and moving musical direction and in all humility, I did a good job with this one from a staging perspective.

I loved the 2nd act - it was certainly a challenge to do it without a curtain to raise and have the entire chorus onstage ready to go for the first choral "AH!" It was also a joy to stage the 1st and 3rd acts back in November and December and then see them evolve a month later - what a GREAT idea!

I loved my bookends that ran throughout the show - Rodolfo starting the 1st and 4th acts with his feet on the table facing upstage; the parade down the center aisle at the top of the 2nd act which ended with a parade up the center aisle as the act ended; the first image of the show being a lit candle and then the last image being Colline blowing out the candle; Mimi's death taking place spatially on the spot where she and Rodolfo had first sat and expressed their private thoughts during their 1st act arias; plus there was the whole Vincent/Ginette set/costume color palette of Mimi in Pink and Musetta in Green being reflected on the walls of the garrett. The lighting cues were all timed beautifully and boy did the strings sound amazing!

I am very proud of this production and will hold it in my heart and memory for a long while! It's hard to let go. For some of the cast members, this was their last Opera McGill production. Some of these students started out with me during my first year here at McGill: singing in Albert Herring, some singing in the chorus of Cosi fan tutte or playing trees in Alcina and now there they were on the stage singing principal roles!

Boheme was the 14th opera I've produced, directed, or played in my 3 and 1/2 years here. That's a lot. I'm doing 12 operas in 2011 alone. I'm thinking that's too much and wonder how long I can keep going like this. It's worrisome to me, and to my family. Finding balance is now my focus - which leads me to Imeneo.

My production of Imeneo will try to answer a question that I think is at the heart of the piece:
What happens when people are thrown out of balance?
A hero becomes the villain, a rational woman becomes crazed, a poet loses his muse, a man loses his vision, and the unloved get desperate...

Imeneo opens March 25, 2011

La Boheme rehearsals

2011-01-16T17:52:00.002-08:00

I'm just going to put a link in this blog to some terrific photos taken by Adam Scotti during our last room rehearsal of La Boheme in the Wirth Opera Studio for McGill Opera:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/adamscotti/sets/72157625838333722/

It's going to be a really, really good production. We've got two exceptional casts -- everyone should come twice!! The performances are January 26, 28, 29, and 30 (matinee) in Pollack Hall on Sherbrooke West in Montreal.

If you haven't found our Facebook page, it's here:

http://www.facebook.com/operamcgill

Check out some of our casts' auditions back in the fall of 2010 - interviews and snippets of their singing. We're following the process of creating opera here at Opera McGill during this entire year.

No philosophical musings on this blog -- just to say how lucky I am to be working with such talented students and SO lucky to have an amazing support team: Aria, Jocelyn, Matt, and Philippe!!

End of Year BEST/WORST of 2010 List

2010-12-26T10:52:00.000-08:00

So this year's not been the best for my blog. I've feel I've not done a very good job of publishing updates - my apologies. We'll see if 2011 brings a change. My only excuse is that I've been rather busy - at Opera McGill, at Brevard, on outside directing gigs, and being a father and husband. Plus there were all of those letters of recommendation to write...

The following lists stem from my experiences with Opera during the past year, no other criteria was used. I've tried to be funny and honest. Hard to do, eh?!

PJH's BEST Opera Experiences of 2010:
10) "Hänsel und Gretel", Opera McGill: A very simple premise (children's own artwork) caused audience members to weep with joy. Garry and his dopplegänger caused critics to practically pee their pants!
9) The Dance of the Blessed Spirits from "Orpheus", Opera Memphis: Orchestra and Dancers were beautiful, as were the lights cues! Michael Ching and his vision (unique to opera) will be sorely missed down in the land of incredible BBQ.
8) "The Rake's Progress", Opera McGill: Amazing work from Mo Wachner, the chorus and terrific student performances, including Nick Shadow's demise -- Sly at his most sly and riveting.
7) Tinervia's Tarquinias' aria during Opera McGill's "Death by Aria": one of the most musical moments I've been a part of in a long while. Being musical used to be important, now it's a rare event.
6) Otto's Nemorino in "Elixir of Love", Wichita Grand Opera: His American debut in the middle of Kansas was sung impeccably well. He was also a joy to direct -- in my broken German and Italian and his English. I loved working with all of the cast members, young artists, and choristers.
5) Boheme rehearsals during the fall, Opera McGill: Such a joy to work with such amazing casts! The January 2011 performances are not to be missed.
4) Jill Gardner's Tosca, Boston Lyric Opera: Conducted by Bisantz, directed by Lefkowich, cast by Russell -- they kept the faith.
3) "The Pirates of Penzance", Janiec Opera Company at Brevard: Simply hysterical! Go cast, go orchestra, go Gately.
2) Ingrid's amazing, amazing memorized performance of our staged "Pierrot Lunaire" for MusiMars: She's fearless. The Ensemble was also FIERCE!
1) "TnT", Opera McGill: from my crazy idea to do the choreography in retrograde (skillfully done by Jana, Nico, and Garry) to the production design, to both casts' wonderful portrayals, to Mo JdS's abilities at the piano; it was such a joy to walk into rehearsal each day!

PJH's WORST Opera Experiences of 2010
10) Losing 1 of only 4 soldiers in Wichita's "Elixir" after I'd staged the four into the show: It wasn't a soldier's chorus, it was a trio...
9) Sitting through a horrid "Prendi" during Brevard auditions this December: We knew at "PREEEEEEEE-" (sung fortissimo) that she'd be a "no".
8) Renee's "Dark Hope". Aptly named.
7) Some of the tempi I've had to listen to this year: Why ignore the human beings actually doing the singing onstage?! I've found it sometimes helps to actually listen and respond. Just sayin'...
6) Mabel's Dolly Parton wig in "Pirates of Penzance": I simply couldn't see Mary's face to find her lips to see her words because all I could see was hair - EVERYWHERE!
5) My terrible upbeat at the encore of "Modern Major General"; luckily the orchestra remembered what we had rehearsed!
4) Me losing my place in the midst of Armine's Komponist in "Death by Aria"; I had to resort to playing it by ear; memo for 2011 - must get new glasses!
3) Aperghis' "Sextuor" -- the score, not the performance (go McGill ladies!) in MusiMars; total pile of terribleness...
2) Speaking of the remarkable MusiMars 2010: the Stockhausen "Inori" -- the score and the mimes. Mimes and modern music -- such a bad idea. I didn't get it, and don't want to get it, frankly. Emperor's New Clothes if you ask me!
1) Missing "A Quiet Place" at NYCO this fall: I didn't get myself to a performance and really regret missing it. Perhaps City Opera will reprise it next season?!

That's the best/worst I can do. Happy New Year Everyone!

Girls in Black Dresses, Cowboy Boots, and Monica’s Waltz

2010-12-09T19:04:00.000-08:00

First off, it's been a TERRIFIC audition tour so far! There are some really, really talented singers out there. It's been so exciting to sit in on these auditions! The summer of 2011 is going to be just incredible!

Secondly, please excuse the overuse of exclamation marks...

I thought I might post a list of audition "thoughts" from the road as David Gately and I travel around the U.S. hearing young singers on our annual December tour for Janiec Opera Company. These are simply my own, and are being expressed mostly to try to bring a bit of humor to this process.

1) A rare commodity: pianists who know the repertoire.

2) There are too many sopranos pursuing opera. They are like salmon swimming upstream to spawn or like stars in the evening sky (take your pick on the metaphor…)

3) The more Dr. So-And-So’s listed on a singer’s resume under voice teacher, director or conductor the less impressed I seemed to be with the audition.

4) I know who wrote “Come scoglio”, you don’t have to tell me it’s by Mozart.

5) There are so few men auditioning anymore that each seems like he could be the next Nathan Gunn.

6) New look to try: Cowboy boots with a suit and tie. Each one of the guys with this look got put onto the Yes list.

7) Monica’s Waltz is a terrible aria - to sing and to listen to.

8) So far almost 75% of our ladies wore black dresses, more than half of those in black dresses also chose a pearl necklace of some sort.

9) Mediocrity is the new illusion: Don’t do anything special or out of the ordinary. Generic is the way to go. That way, nothing is communicated that engages anyone on any aesthetic level. It’s safe and incredibly boring and won’t get you noticed at all.

10) It is actually easy to standout from the others: Sing anything fantastically well and know what you’re singing about. Extra points for JOY!

Opera Lives!

2010-11-18T07:57:00.000-08:00

After the last few operas I've seen, and I'm speaking as a ticket-buying audience member not as a producer, I'd become increasingly worried that opera was falling into a void. A void of mediocre singing/yelling, terrible language skills and acting without textual connotations (let alone, subtextual!), horrid lighting cues that verged on community theatre, incompetent conducting and pedestrian direction.

A sad state! I'd been seeing this sort of "throw-it-together" opera for awhile now... Everywhere: close at home, far from home, at opera companies with big budgets and at companies with small budgets. It was getting kinda depressing.

And then I took a flight from Plattsburgh, NY, to Boston, MA to see the Boston Lyric Opera production of Puccini's "Tosca'. The reason for my trip was to see old friends who were all involved in the production. The leading lady Jill Gardner, the director David Lefkowich, and the conductor Andrew Bisantz, were all assembled by the artistic administrator of BLO Nicholas Russell for this production. All of us had met at Glimmerglass during our summers there, and now here they were in Boston.

Honestly, I was more interested in seeing everyone than sitting through another opera - particularly when I heard the tenor had become sick and they were bringing in a sub. I also did not know the rest of the cast, and so was getting set for that "same-old" opera I had been seeing at other places around North America.

Well --- OPERA LIVES AGAIN! In spades! The BLO production just blew me away. Starting with Jill's amazing, gutsy, and wonderfully sung portrayal of the title role. I have not seen a singer give such a complete performance -- vocal, musical, and dramatic -- in years. Jill WAS Tosca. I believed every moment and she created such special ones: praying to the Madonna, flirting with her Mario, singing "Vissi d'arte" on Scarpia's temporary cot, stabbing him to death with the scissors (go David Lefkowich!), and her amazingly shocking "leap". You just had to be there to believe it. It was all done with a beautiful connection to the text, attention to Puccini's score, and gorgeous tone. BRAVA!

Supporting her in all of this was the conductor, Andrew Bisantz. I've heard him conduct lots of opera - from Little Women to Manon Lescaut, and was not surprised at how adept he was with this score. I think Puccini might be his forte, as it all seemed to flow effortlessly; sculpting a beautiful performance from orchestra and singers alike, he allowed his leading singers ample freedom to express this tricky score. It's too bad that the Met seems to be hiring young, inexperienced Maestri with big names and big money behind them -- instead of hiring actual conductors who know the scores because they've spent their 10,000 hours actually LEARNING how the buggers go. Note to Gelb...

Not to be missed were all of David Lefkowich's touches. This was not an original production -- rented all the way from Scottish National Opera and arriving via boat. I've only seen David work in original productions, and he flourishes in those. However, the confines presented to him really came to fruition in the 2nd act. It was simply riveting. From Scarpia getting in some good ol' fashioned gut punches on the tenor, to the vivid almost-rape of Tosca, to Scarpia's murder by scissors, I was impressed. No one moves men around onstage in Fedoras better than David Lefkowich!

The rest of the cast was also QUITE good: from Bradley Garvin's channeling of a young Milnes mixed with Hollywood good looks, to the substitute tenor of the day Richard Crawley (who threw himself into the role as if he'd been in rehearsals for weeks), to the supporting roles (T. Stephen Smith's perfect Sacristan to Anton Belov's Angelotti); that sort of deep casting comes from an artistic administrator who knows his business!

So yes, I judged an Aria Contest for Teens - with Miss Boston and her tiara - and there were numerous bottles of champagne and red wine at a dinner filled with old friends from Florida Grand Opera (a surprise). I also had an afternoon with the glorious Ruth Golden, in town to hear the opening night, and was able to see Brevard alumni Nicole Rodin sing in an outreach BLO performance plus have a Starbucks with Margot Rood. Margot's now flourishing in Boston, which is such a great place for singers with small voices...

Just kidding Margot! I'm hoping Boston will figure out what I figured out three years ago -- Margot is one of the most talented singing actors out there. BLO should hire her next...

Next up: Catherine Malfitano's McGill masterclass on November 20; Boheme starts staging at McGill on November 23; Gately and I head off for the Brevard auditions Dec. 4 - 15 (Chicago, Ft.Worth, NYC, Boston). I promise to blog from those auditions!

Hansel and Gretel in the Schools

2010-10-14T13:45:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been awhile since my last post. We've been busy... The "we" in that is not meant to be a royal we, it's meant to mean a team of six singers, a coordinator, and myself who've been going into various elementary schools - both French and English - in the Montreal area with a presentation about Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel.

It's because I had an idea about this fall's Opera McGill production of said opera. The idea: project illustrations, by kids, for the sets of the opera. Allow the kids to imagine the story of H & G, and with little guidance, let them create forests, angels, gingerbread children, maison de bonbons, etc. with crayons and markers. Then, the illustrations picked would become part of the actual set design, be projected onto the back screen during the show, and the illustrators (and their families) would be invited to a special presentation in November - complete with a cupcake reception hosted by THE WITCH!

We took a team of Hansels and Gretels, had them sing the first act "let's not work, let's dance instead" duet and also the 2nd act prayer. We also asked the kids lots of questions: What's an opera? What do we need to make an opera? What language were they singing in? What was going on while they sang? etc., etc.

Interesting to see how much the students knew about opera, their ideas and preconceived stereotypes (it's LOUD), their reactions to the live performances, and of course to see their illustrations! Some were really, truly amazing!

I'm looking forward to staging the show - starting this Monday - and getting into the mind of a child again. It's a much better place to be!

Other goings on in the Opera McGill world: performances at the Homecoming "Spotlight on Schulich" where we presented quatre extraits from La Boheme. People were stunned by the level of the casts... Two weeks ago we also performed the first annual "Death By Aria" patterned after the DMMO evening of the same name. Each of the singers cast in Opera McGill productions stood up and sang an aria. I played. Brilliantly, I might add, for the sheer number of arias on the program: 30! I felt more connected to Robert Larsen that afternoon than ever before. It's a fun thing to do, and it allowed the students to experience performing an aria in front of a -- standing room only -- audience without being judged by an audition panel or a faculty grading an exam or critics listening with their 20th century ears. This sort of experience is rare and schools should provide more of these types of performance experiences! Plans are underway for another one in the 2nd semester. Plus the party afterwards at our house, hosted by my wife and kids, was a ton of fun.

I've tried to finish watching the second season of ROME, but am only 2/3rds of the way through. I really, really want to do a Poppea and really, really go for it ala ROME. It's the perfect opera for digging into Roman sex scenes, religious rites, bloody murders, stoic suicides, intrigue everywhere, and reclining meals (want to do that some day -- the meal part, not some of the others).

Yes, I wrote "some" on purpose.

Must run, have to write a thousand letters of recommendation that no one will read and are a total waste of time. When in the world will this NONSENSE END?!?!?!

Keep singing loud, fast and high!

Cough Cough Sneeze Sneeze Whine and Moan

2010-09-13T17:54:00.000-07:00

And I thought fall allergy season was bad!

As terrible as my hay fever is (and only a few seasons ago I was boasting that I had "cured" my hay fever by diligently eating yogurt every morning the three months leading up to September...) this cold I've caught from my hacking wife and coughing children is MUCH worse. I don't know if it's because I'm trying to maintain a working, coaching, teaching schedule, or if it's because my mother in law and father in law are visiting from Iowa and that puts me on a blow-up bed in the dining room, or if it's because there's a bit more stress than usual around the world, but I feel TERRIBLE!

Yes, that's a whine. A big man WHINE. Nobody really whines like a married man who's sick. I do it really well -- big sighs, whining the "where's the Advil?" or the "where's the decaf tea?" or the "can you make me some toast while you're at it?" are all part of my repertoire. So is the ability to ignore the dog at 2am when he wakes suddenly and has to pee. Somehow, I can sleep through that, but not through the dripping faucet in the kitchen. Hmmmm...

Singers can whine a lot, too. When I worked at Glimmerglass I called it the B&M - Bitch and Moan. It usually came from singers whose self-esteem was not as big as their egos, or who had a screwed up passagio, or someone who was not getting any "bites" from the managers who came through auditioning singers, or frankly just a bitchy singer who felt the need to strike out at other humans simply because they felt like it. It didn't happen all that often, but I saw it there, and have seen it elsewhere throughout my 25+ years working in the biz. It's becoming rarer in the opera world, but I do find it still - particularly among the very young just starting out.

This need to make others feel bad is an interesting thing. Why does it happen among artists who get to work on such AMAZING music and text? Shouldn't the act of making music be an antidote to negativity? Where is the joy in singing - literally?

A more important question for someone pursuing a career as a singer might be: Why would other collaborators work with difficult singers who B&M? The answer is that they don't - not any more! This sort of behavior spells immediate failure in a career. There simply is no room for it and it leads to not getting cast, not having a career, and wasting a lot of money on lessons and coachings.

Today on FB, Marc a singer here in Montreal, posted a quote from Gandhi that I had forgotten:
"Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behaviors. Keep your behaviors positive because your behaviors become your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny."

It's so true.

And your thoughts become sounds when you sing... Some of us can hear those thoughts in your voice...

Too bad none of you can hear my whiny tone as I ask my wife for "some more honey, Honey?!"

Auditions REDUX

2010-08-29T16:09:00.001-07:00

This is a re-posting from last year about my thoughts on AUDITIONS.
As Opera McGill auditions are this Monday and Tuesday, I thought I'd post it again.

AUDITIONS
What do I look and listen for at an audition? I'll first tell you what I DON'T look/listen for:
1) Being correct: couldn't care less if you miss a note or drop pieces of text.
2) Coordination with your pianist: I'm much more interested in the music YOU are making!
3) Singing in tune (I know that's a surprising statement, but frankly most singers sing out of tune in some way, shape or form -- why does everyone get so freaking obsessive about this?!)
4) Ornaments: what ever I hear I'm going to want to change anyway, so why worry about it?
5) What you're wearing (many of my students will tell you this is not so, but I only comment on it to them later because I know SO many in the business pay attention to this really unimportant factor).

What I DO look/listen for:
1) A human being making music with their voice
2) Singing sentences that have meaning both textually, dramatically, and vocally
3) Did I mention the making music thing?
4) Character choices - both physical and vocal
5) Good shoes (I know, I shouldn't but I notice) This means no super high heels and no sandals.
6) A singer's physicality
7) Size of Voice
8) Repertoire -- is the singer singing rep that is appropriate for their technique/age/fach etc.
9) Range -- as in high and low and at what extremes the singer is comfortable
10) Range -- stylistically speaking how comfortable/adept with Baroque/Classical/19th/20th/Musical Theatre rep and how many arias are being presented.

That's it, not much! I do tend to judge the aural before the first page gets turned and then take in the visual as the audition progresses.

With all of that said, one of the things singers forget is that the panel wants you to be incredible so that we can cast you! It's not a jury or an examination. There are no grades and there are few hard and stead-fast rules, frankly. Move around, don't move around; gesture, don't gesture; wear a suit, don't wear a suit. All of that doesn't matter with me. I want to hear someone trying to make CHOICES and loving their moment commiserating with the great composers.

If any of the McGill students are reading this -- remember to take a good breath before you walk in the room. I'm looking forward to hearing everyone!

The multiple intelligences of Opera

2010-08-17T13:05:00.000-07:00

The first in a series...

"Multiple Intelligences" explained: Howard Gardner, a Harvard professor of education and psychology, created a theory of multiple intelligences. He identified these as Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical, Body-Kinesthetic, Spatial, Musical, Interpersonal, and Intrapersonal. I believe that Prof. Gardner’s theory represents the seven aspects of training that students undertake to sing opera successfully.

I thought I'd discuss these "intelligences" on this blog, as I've been thinking a lot about what my students at McGill need to learn and work towards, operatically speaking, over the coming school year. Professor Gardner's theory has influenced my mode of thinking about opera, and particularly the training and processes that go into creating a young opera singer and an opera production. This idea of taking the various aspects of music, singing, acting, and moving in opera and focusing on them individually based on Professor Gardner's ideas, is a theory of mine that I've not read about elsewhere, but I've shared in a variety of ways (most recently last semester at McGill in a presentation that's available to see online at: http://podcasts.mcgill.ca/music/ (I must admit it's a long lecture captured on some crude video, but the core of what I'm talking about is there, and boy does Philippe sound terrific!)

I thought I'd discuss each one in a separate blog, here goes: #1 Intelligence -- MUSICAL!

Why of course, you need some musical intelligence to sing opera (although many are surprisingly deficient in this intelligence!). We're talking about the capacity to think in music, to be able to hear and recognize patterns and manipulate physically (as in with the voice, or with your fingers on a keyboard, etc.) or mentally (as in remembering a musical phrase, hearing music in your head, or composing music from your imagination). Sometimes this intelligence is called "talent". Mine was called, by my sainted mother, "your God given talent"! (Usually expressed after a phrase like "you're not practicing, don't you know you are wasting YOUR GOD GIVEN TALENT!") Talent is tricky -- there are those with lots of "talent" (and what does that mean exactly?!) who do not work, yet still progress, as well as lots with less "talent" who work harder than most and progress farther, etc. Musical intelligence is something more, for me, akin to cooking without a recipe -- you need to have skills and imagination to get it to turn out right.

Training this intelligence seems to be THE focus of music schools and music teachers all around the world. Musicians need to learn to speak and decipher a new language made up of black dots and lines and symbols on white paper. This is done through learning to "read" music, later in theory classes and in solfege classes (which I don't get for us English folk -- why train musicians to translate the names of the scale into "fa" and "re"? We know it's "F" and "D"... but that's another blog!), and then in other classes that start to define what "style" might be or "form".

The other training, and much more important, that singers have to do is BUILD THEIR INSTRUMENT. Outside of those terrific double-reeders (who learn to make their reeds), what musician do you know has had to physically BUILD their instrument? Do pianists? Violinists? No, only singers work on creating their instrument as well as playing their instrument. And on top of that, it's an instrument they can't really touch or see -- they can feel it and hear it only. That's a tough assignment! Many times, the musical intelligence of the singer goes hand in hand with their vocal intelligence -- what their voice can or can not do -- but sometimes it's just the opposite. This is also tricky and can pose great challenges: the "smart" singer who gets in their own way, or has a "talent" deemed less than others because their instrument sounds like a Kawai upright instead of a Steinway grand; yet the singer with the Steinway in their throat can barely read music, let alone hold onto the tune if it turns to harmony, etc. These are all issues that many of us recognize, and have seen derail young singers.

Once a singer is moving forward in their vocal and musical intelligences, it's time to crack a score and learn an opera aria or role. Now much more is at play -- how to go about learning a vast array of information that goes beyond musical (as in the text, character, etc.). Lots of singers have their problems with learning scores -- some actually find it surprising that they have to LEARN music all the time, for the rest of their natural lives. If this is a bother, or a chore, or something that you can't do, find something else to do with your life! Studying, learning, rehearsing is what the life of a musician is about -- it's not about the day of the show, y'all ! No applause greets your practice room exit or greets you in an audition or rehearsal. Applause is not the reward, neither is it the performance, at least in my book. (Yet, another idea for a blog!)

Once a singer gets to an opera score, there's TEXT and that's the 2nd multiple intelligence: Linguistic. See where this is headed?!

That one's next...

Moving On

2010-07-30T12:29:00.000-07:00

Pirates of Penzance was a terrific experience. Conducting again, after a year's passing, teaching young students what it's like to sing with diction, sing with a conductor in a pit, and sing with intention, was all loads of fun!

Glad it's over, though.

The orchestra ended up playing the piece extremely well. It was comprised solely of students, except for the concert master (an amazing Timothy Christie) and a trombonist who subbed in for an ill student. My viola section showed up for one rehearsal with eye patches and bandanas, so I referred all of my viola notes to the Pirate section. I had a good feeling from them, and aside from the usual blips that one hears from ALL orchestras, their performance was splendid. The cast was great too. I had to talk to them about not listening to the orchestra and then singing behind because of said listening (it's an evil little loop that so few conductors understand); frankly I wonder what anyone is teaching young singers nowadays in their schools when it comes to singing with orchestras in pits...

I digress.

A lovely time was had by all, including the sold-out audience of almost 1900 people.

Time to move on. Time to focus on the November 2010 Black Box Festival at McGill (I'm now thinking about doing a VERY German opera...), La Boheme, Imeneo, the outreach programs to start up in Montreal, plus the new-yet-not-done-when-will-it-be-done website (ACK!), the in-laws coming in September, and putting the Montreal West house together (as in UNpacking all those bloody boxes.)

Plus I have to finish "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius". So far, it is just that.

Style

2010-07-19T12:58:00.000-07:00

What is style?

Tell me. Write in, weigh in.

I've heard a number of young singers over the years worry if they are singing in the appropriate "style"; i.e. singing Britten in the style of Britten, singing Mozart in the style of Mozart, etc. Typically this worry causes them to sing in no style, or worse, something akin to "correctness" that functions as words&music sung where/when/how the composer wanted them. This results in that lovely mediocre performance where nothing is wrong, but sadly -- nothing is right. Lots of people I meet like that sort of thing.

"Style" is defined by Merrian-Webster as "a distinctive manner of expression." It can also be defined as "the state of being poplular." I think the two are linked when it comes to music.

Style, in music, changes over the years. As well, how musicians view a certain time periods' "style" also changes with the years. Remember Raymond Leppard? His 1962 production of Monteverdi's "L'incoronazione di Poppea" set the whole baroque opera craze in motion. Yet, many of my close and most-respected friends in the Early Music wing of this business can't abide the mention of his name. This is mostly due to the fact that his score has fallen massively out of fashion.

Now some of this is due to the fact that so much has now been learned, written, and understood about early music that we no longer need someone like Mo. Leppard to "translate" a baroque score for us -- with all those confusing numbers and little-to-no actual musical notation being put down for us non-Early heathens who can't figure out figured bass.

I grew up on Leppard's "Poppea" and certainly enjoyed IMMENSELY his rendition of Cavalli's "La Calisto" that was presented in 1989 at the Santa Fe Opera with Tatiana Troyanos and James Bowman (and a young Joanne Kolymejic singing Juno as well as a young Elizabeth Koch singing a Furie in the chorus, complete with electronic lights catching her costume on fire one night!) Now, was it stylistically correct? For 1989, barely. For 2010, not really. I would label it "romantic baroque" now. Particularly Troyanos' full-throated (and gorgeous) voice blossoming next to Bowman's thrilling counter-tenor. It's a performance that made me LOVE baroque opera and music, inspired me to investigate it further. It was EFFECTIVE. However, now it would not be considered CORRECT.

So what is the correct style of singing Mozart? What is the correct style of singing Donizetti? Really, these are important questions.

If the answers are about appoggiaturas, or about trills starting from above, or about cadential ornaments, then I'd venture to say one is searching for pieces of the style -- like buttons on fashionable pants that come and go with the winds of the runways of Paris. These are arbitrary rules and/or collections of rules that one uses to dissect art or music. I find them useful, but not the point.

It's much more interesting to try to get into the head of the composer. To get into the time period in which they were writing. To know and understand who the singers were, (and perhaps what their voices were like), that were in the ears of the composers as they were writing. It's also much more interesting to think about what sort of individual style YOU might have that could connect into another composer's sensibilities.

And, if that fails...worry less about style. Think more about being an effective communicator of music, text, character, vocal line, and emotional subtext. That would be my advice.

Conducting in Two

2010-07-15T10:02:00.000-07:00

So it's Thursday, July 15th and David Gately is almost finished staging Pirates of Penzance. He started less than a week ago, and in between starting stagings and now, we've performed Die Fledermaus with the same set of singers! Brevard certainly doesn't waste anyone's time, and the singers are beginning to realize just how packed a day can be.

As the conductor, staging rehearsals are a time of patience, a time to focus on the full score, a time to wave your hands at people not paying any attention to you because they're trying to remember where the director wants them to go, or what the choreography is, or simply focusing on their lines or a prop. For whatever reason, the past few rehearsals have been on numbers in the show either written in 2/4 or 6/8 or a quick 4/4; i.e. all numbers where the conductor is going to conduct "In 2" (down, up, down, up, repeat...) It's a rather simple pattern, something that one normally doesn't focus on. In fact, I've taught it to my 8 year old son, and he's been doing a rather good job waving his hands during the rehearsals!

However, conducting in two -- day after day -- has been difficult for me. Not only is each "2" slightly faster or slower than the other, but the repeated injury occurring to my right shoulder has now resulted in the need for a massage. Remember, please, that I don't conduct all that often anymore -- I spend my time at McGill directing shows, not conducting them. It's like a marathon runner not running all year and then jumping into a race (this race being conducting from 10am to 10pm).

I'm really not complaining, but it has been an adjustment on my getting-older body, shoulder and arm. It's something I'm not all that proud of having to worry about, let alone complain about.

It'll all be over rather soon, however. We start running the show (and there are numbers in 3 and in 4!!) later today. This Sunday there is an aria concert which I'm playing on, then Monday morning I have my first orchestra reading.

We open (as in an open dress rehearsal that they sell tickets to) a week from Tonight!

down, up, down, up, down, up...

Update from Hot Brevard

2010-07-06T15:14:00.000-07:00

So it's gotten hot here up in the mountains of North Carolina! Not as hot as Montreal currently - which is simply weird - but still darn tootin' hot!
Being stuck with a cold hasn't helped either. It started in the first week and simply won't let go of me. I tried sleep, tried lots of liquids, tried over-the-counter meds, tried beer, tried starving it, etc. Nothing has worked. If anyone has any great ideas for getting rid of a summer cold - please send them my way!
In it's first three weeks, Janiec Opera Company has produced the musical "TinTypes", taken part in the von Stade concert, and performed a rather large scenes program off in Hendersonville. The scenes program went quite well, considering that the students were cast on just the second day of the program and had little time to prepare the scenes. But as many of us know, if you have two weeks, it'll take two weeks; if you have two months, it'll take two months. That's a good lesson for all.
But it does beg the question: When is something ready (as in ready to perform)?
When it's perfect? No, nothing's ever perfect.
When it's almost perfect? Well, if you're measuring against something that doesn't exist, then how can you know you're "almost" to it?
When someone in authority (a coach, conductor, or director) says it's ready? No, how should they know when something outside of themselves is ready?
It's a difficult question to answer. Perhaps we shouldn't be looking for "ready", perhaps we should be looking for something that's ready to be shared that has as much information in it as possible. Information like text and character, vocal colors and line, physical gestures and content, musical thoughts and subtextual emotions. Stuff like that is great to share. One doesn't have to be "ready" to share these things. One has to be WILLING to share these things.
It's a choice, really.
Wanting to share all that important information, by entertaining an audience (I tire of my colleagues who don't get that we're ENTERTAINERS!), is what motivates me to be "ready".
The quote from Maryanne Williamson comes to mind as well: "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?' Actually, who are you not to be?"
Pirates starts staging this Friday. Can't wait...

Brevard thoughts

2010-06-22T11:04:00.000-07:00

So Brevard Summer #3 has begun! We're already into week 2, which is fantastic. The musical revue "TINTYPES" opens this Saturday, right after Flicka's concert (on which she's singing with two of our students, Veronique Coutu and Nathaniel Olson) this Friday. We've cast the scenes program and a few are already ready for staging. The scenes go up next Friday (there's 19 of them - everything from Monteverdi to Britten!) and I think they'll be a huge success. Also this Friday, Fledermaus stagings begin.

That's a lot of activity. I have to say, that once again, my theory of preparedness has proven true. Those singers who've come in REALLY prepared are waltzing through these first weeks with very little stress, and are learning things about themselves, their voices, the music, etc. Those that didn't are already looking a bit tired because they're learning that there's no time to learn their scenes music when they're still trying to memorize their chorus music.

Elizabeth is working hard every day -- 8 to 9 students a day, which is tricky but she loves it! The boys are having LOADS of fun with Lily -- today they're all back at a waterfall (there are over a 100 named falls in the area) in the Pisgah National Forest. It's a great watering hole that they can swim in.

The water is clear and fresh, as is the air. The people are smiling and all happy to be here. Lots to learn and work on for everyone. I'm actually enjoying working on Pirates and am looking forward to the rehearsals - which won't start for two more weeks.

Gotta run to a massage at Elements Spa -- one of THE great reasons to be here at Brevard!

The talented member of the family...

2010-06-10T12:06:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to write this blog for awhile. It's about my wife, Elizabeth Koch. Many know her as "Beth" (friends and family from Burlington, IA) while most students call her "Liz". She's a voice teacher - but really I think she's a Voice Whisperer. More on that later.

She's the "talented" member of the family, as in our family, because she actually is -- plus that's how I refer to her when I describe her to my colleagues, friends, strangers, and students. I mean it, with deepest sincerity! I've also arrived at this description from a rather objective place (those who know me, understand that my judgement about talent has nothing to do with whether I like, dislike, love, or hate a person!), that being from our first meeting in 1983 until now - 27 years later.

Most of my early career was spent being her pianist. I got most of my gigs by virtue of playing for her and getting some notice, which would lead to more gigs. When I was at Juilliard, I was the boyfriend of the soprano singing "Vanessa" while Richard Bradshaw conducted. When I was playing at Lyric Opera of Chicago, and we'd go to opening night parties for operas she was singing in, I was her husband ("and what do YOU do?" the patrons would ask me...) Back in our undergraduate degree, she sang Antonia, Gretel, Drusilla, and Mimi, plus won 4 NATS in a row, got a full-ride to MSM, etc. She was the big deal there (along with a number of other great singers!) and I was happy to play for her. I learned a great deal of rep - to this day I still hear her voice in certain arias like "Dove sono" and "Donde lieta". The level at which she made music, operatically speaking, was way beyond my abilities. A rather large number of people would cry when she sang, because the colors and sounds of her voice, plus her ability to turn a phrase into a living experience, was so intense. In a word, beautiful.

I'll stop gushing now. The interesting turn of events, which led me into conducting at places like Memphis and Tulsa, then later running the Glimmerglass young artist program, also led to a turning in how people (both insiders and outsiders) viewed the two of us. No longer were patrons asking me what I did, they were turning to Elizabeth and coyly asking her "what do YOU do dear?"! She became the wife of the Director of this, or the wife of the Director of that. She did it with grace and always a smile - even after we'd had kids and the real answer was "I'm a really tired Mommy who's up late tonight after watching an opera and now eating a meal at midnight with rich people who don't really want to know what I do?"!

During this time, she stopped singing. One of her last performances was also one of my last professional conducting experiences: she sang the Mother in Dallapiccola's "Il prigioniero" in a double-bill with Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle. She got great reviews in little papers like the NYTimes and such. That was also the summer we got pregnant with our youngest son. One kid works, but two kids is really hard to make work and still sing (unless you're famous and have loads of nanny's!) However, she started teaching - and THAT is what she's extremely talented at.

I'm a good coach - better than many if I may be so bold - but her ear is amazing! Whether it's developing an understanding of how to teach a technique that works for Belting (as in musical theatre) as well as Opera (yet a different kind of belting!), she's evolved into a voice teacher who enables singers to craft a technique that works within them and works for them. After seeing some amazing changes happen - after a few lessons - with so many singers now, it's clear to me that she's the one that should be out there teaching full time.

I think this because I hear such wonderful singing coming from so many of her current and former students. Sara Milonovich comes to mind. Buy her CD of folk/bluegrass music and you'll be rather impressed. Download Aaron Tveit singing "There's a World" from Next to Normal and you'll hear someone who has total technical control over his voix mix. Go hear Veronique Coutu sing with Frederica von Stade on June 25th in Brevard and you'll hear someone who sounds so much like Elizabeth when she was 29 years old it's frightening! These are just a small number of former students who blossomed with her.

About the Voice Whisperer thing. If you've seen the Dog Whisperer in action, then just transfer that to a voice teacher and imagine Elizabeth with a student. With a sense of calmness and ease - and initially just a few exercises and suggestions - she moves a singer's voice into a more flexible, freer place which allows them to breathe and sing with less tension and more expressiveness. I've played the lessons, heard them from the other room, and seen the results - some of which are so shocking and transformative I can't believe it's the same voice! She does it all with humility, a sense of humor, and an earnestness that the work is important, but not brain surgery.

I write this, as a bit of a public display of affection, but also as a warning. If and when the time arrives and she decides to teach full-time, I'll be the first to pack up our bags and follow her. I played for Marlena for two years and LOVED it. I can do the same for Liz!

Red Hair, Planning, Imeneo, and The Bohemian Rhapsody

2010-06-02T13:59:00.000-07:00

Red Hair:
So, I'm seeing lots of dye jobs running around Montreal. I have to say, they kinda remind me of the circus clowns I saw as a child in Omaha! Perhaps the penchant for loving clowns, which runs a bit amok here, is the subconscious reason for these ladies (of ALL ages mind you) to move to so unnatural a color? Forgive me, colour? Just a random thought for the beginning of June...

Planning:
I've got the detailed La Boheme staging schedule done (I can tell you what we're doing at 4:30 the first Wednesday of January!), the Black Box festival schedule done (even though I'm not sure exactly what we're doing...), the Imeneo schedule done (that one's tricky and will be a huge challenge.), and the classes for opera all scheduled.

Imeneo:
The only time I've seen it and worked on it was at Glimmerglass. It had a GREAT cast: Michael Maniaci, John Tessier, Amanda Pabyan, Meghan Monaghan, and Craig Philips. They sang it brilliantly, but the production was, how shall I say, less than Glimmer's best. Alden chose to do his distorted world view - as in physical distortion = emotional pain - and it failed, for me, almost as much as the horrid double-bill where the natives attacked the clown... I'm hoping to return to the story and see what it brings. The characters are interesting, but really -- the music is just sublime; some of the best Handel wrote. As far as what I'll do with it as a director, I'm not in the groove yet - no big ideas, just local ones. I've got a few months before anything has to be decided.

The Bohemian Rhapsody:
However, there ARE big ideas running around this head where La Boheme is concerned! Opera McGill produces it this January - full production, big chorus, full orchestration - and we're setting down to design it next week. By "we're" I mean Vincent Lefevre (sets), Ginette Grenier (costumes), and me. Ginette's thinking 1830s. I'll see what she shows and go from there. The other exciting news is the documentary we're going to make surrounding this production - from next week's design meeting to the fall auditions, to the coachings, fittings, stagings, and stage rehearsals. It'll all be put up on Opera McGill's new website - which is being designed over the summer. Look for even more surprises to happen around Montreal before AND after the production!

Learn your music!

2010-05-20T20:54:00.000-07:00

Late May is crunch time for singers heading off to summer programs all around the world - Chautauqua, AIMS, Central City, Banff, Brevard, Aspen, Santa Fe, DMMO, Ash Lawn, Merola, etc.

"Crunch time?" Yes - because it's all about showing up with music learned. If the music is learned (especially the CHORUS music!), there'll be a great first impression made. That first impression can make or break a singer's reputation and it is a rather lasting impression because of the intensity and short duration of many of these summer programs.

In fact, I believe strongly that one of THE factors to success in the business (particularly if one is moving through the ranks of the various young artist programs) is whether or not a singer shows up with their chorus assignments learned and memorized. This basic, simple notion - to be prepared as requested - shows so much about a singer: their level of professionalism, their work ethic, their musicianship skills, their seriousness about pursuing an opera career, and their time management. I'm not talking about scenes, small roles, or cover assignments - it's the ones who show up with the CHORUS music learned that have, in my experience, gone on to secure management and start their careers.

Lots of great voices, tons of talented aspiring singers, loads of great actors, dozens of six-pack baritones, two actual basses, and a few potential Verdi sopranos are out there right now preparing for their exciting summer programs. Many will be thinking "is it really cold up in New Mexico at night? Do I pack all of my belts? Do I need my suit? What about audition dresses in the summer? Will they like me? Will I meet a soulmate? Will I like the other singers? Will the director be organic or organized? etc." However, the real question should be "have I learned my music - all of it?" or at least "have I learned my chorus part?"

Seriously, this is a HUGE HINT ABOUT SUCCESS. Please don't ignore it. Get off the internet right now and Hie Thee To A PRACTICE ROOM!!

Speaking of, I need to learn how Pirates of Penzance ends... Conducting G&S is not like conducting Bluebeard's Castle -- it's harder!

Short bits

2010-04-29T06:31:00.000-07:00

Lots of meetings this week and next, lots of planning to do: budgets, schedules, research, design thoughts. It's a fun time, frankly.
There'll be a big announcement next month, on this blog, so stay tuned. I will tell you that Opera McGill will be EVERYWHERE next year - on campus, off campus, on the web. A huge and exciting project is coming together and I'm excited!
Otherwise, next season at McGill looks to be our Wirth Black Box Festival in early November -- evenings of one acts that I will choose after listening to the fall auditions. January of 2011 will bring the wonderful La Boheme, followed by our Baroque opera, Handel's Imeneo (last heard at Glimmerglass in 2002 maybe?). I think that'll be a Canadian premiere -- have to check on that one!
My personal gig list is filling up as well: two Kennedy Center semi-staged concerts (Verdi, then Mahler -- yes, staging Mahler!), a trip to Rome to present a paper titled "Spatial Leitmotifs" for an International Conference on Design (as in industrial, technical, architectural, etc. design), and another gig that has no contract yet so I won't write that one down (it's a superstition.)
This summer I'll be blogging, once again, from Brevard and hope to keep everyone up to date on what's going on DAILY. So look for quick updates and some photos from rehearsals and trips into the mountains. Brevard students - spread the word!
The snow has melted, the sun is out and I'm heading into a McGill graduate student sub-committee.

Three Top Ten Lists

2010-04-21T08:43:00.001-07:00

My family and I have lived in Montreal, Quebec since mid-August of 2007. There are many things we love about living here, and living in Canada. Of course, like anyplace, there are a number of things we don't like, there are many things we'd like to ignore, and a few things we can't get our heads around!
It's a crude list, but it was on my mind so here it goes:

Top Ten Things I Love about Montreal:
10) Montreal Botanical Gardens (stunningly beautiful)
9) The Metro: cheap and convenient
8) Art Java and the fast food chains for Indian, Thai and Korean cuisine (YUM!)
7) The Seasons: My boys ice skating outdoors in the Winter on Mount Royal, The best Fall anywhere, and Spring's quick burst
6) McGill University: its campus and students
5) My artistic collaborators Vincent and Ginette
4)The sense that Culture matters to one and all
3) My fellow Expats
2) Marché Atwater: it's bread, butchers, produce, and its proximity to the Canal where we can kayak
1) The Fromage at the Fromagerie at the Marché Atwater (no words can express the joy at the smell !!)

Top Ten Things I do not like about Montreal:
10) The low level of kinesthetic and spatial awareness in the pedestrians of Montreal
9) The monopoly on wine distribution here (and the lack of good Californian wine!)
8) The grocery stores -- too many lines and not enough choice
7)The Breyer's Ice Cream and The Heinz Ketchup -- the recipes are different, the ice cream is tasteless, the ketchup too sweet
6) The No Turn On Red policy on the island of Montreal (imagine how much gas is wasted idling around!)
5) We can't find a pediatrician and the boys haven't been to a real doctor's office in almost three years
4) The fact that everyone wants to correct my pronunciation of "pasta", "been", "against", "Mazda", "project", and "get"
3) Nobody takes responsibility for shoveling the snow off of their sidewalks! (businesses or private citizens)
2) The smokers here -- I can't walk around outside without smelling cigarette smoke (and it smells different than the US cigs.)
1) The drivers in Montreal: simply the worst I've encountered anywhere (and that includes Miami!!!!)

I also believe that one of the oddest things about walking around downtown, is the lack of smiling and acknowledging that I am a human being in the presence of another human being. It's almost like everyone's scared to smile or speak. Maybe the speaking thing has to do with the fear of what language to use -- offense can be made by saying "Hello" instead of "Bonjour". But a smile is UNIVERSAL and rather easy...

Now, since this is an Opera Blog I'll include a Top Ten List about Singing...

Top Ten Things I've noticed about Young Singers in North America during the past few years:
10) Too much attention on being Correct instead of Effective
9) Little curiosity and/or knowledge about symphonic and piano literature from the 19th century
8) Singing Vertically instead of Horizontally
7) Not enough knowledge about specific technical issues regarding Breath Support
6) Way too judgmental about GREAT singers like Sutherland, Fleming, Ramey, Corelli, Domingo, von Stade (Stop this now!)
5) Way too judgmental about their own singing (give yourselves a break!)
4) "Taking" a coaching instead of bringing something to the studio...
3) Not enough time is being spent in a practice room; instead it's spent on YouTube surfing the drunk Carmen video
2) Taking themselves too seriously, instead of taking the Art seriously
1) The Habits of Recent Singers Who've Moved To The Next Level of Success: They work harder, have a non-generic sound, are really good actors, learn their music quickly and efficiently, and THEY WORK WELL WITH OTHERS!

About Working Well With Others: This means treating everyone around you with respect. The ASMs, the assistant conductors, the rehearsal pianists, the choristers, everyone! It's the most notable trend I'm seeing recently. Negativity is destroying young singers' chances of ever beginning a career, let alone having one. Who wants to recommend or rehire someone who either has a dark cloud over their head or someone who talks badly about their colleagues, their conductors, their teachers, their coaches, etc.?

Done now -- have to start purging things in our Victoria place so that we can move to our Montreal West place!

Wanting Success

2010-04-08T12:41:00.000-07:00

Recently I've been so pleased to see so very many students' names and former students' names appear in press releases, on internet sites, in job searches, and in casting decisions. I have to say how extremely happy it makes me!

Why? Do I live my life vicariously through their successes? Not at all. Frankly, I only really care that my students are happy and living a life that has some connection with music or theatre. I certainly don't think less of a former student if they end up raising a family, or teaching, or enjoying the local arts community -- isn't that what we all want: a life?!

However, I do want success for my students. I work REALLY hard at it, not only writing letters of recommendation, but actively seeking employment for as many of them as I can.

Many of you may not know, but I'm rather proud that there are former students of mine now in positions of being able to hire me: Mr Chugg, for one. "Hello, is this Virginia Opera? I'd like to speak to Mr. Chugg. Yes, please, tell him it's Patrick. Um, Patrick HANSEN. [wait] Yes, Andy, uh, Mr. Chugg? Yes, this is Patrick Hansen. Um, Patrick HANSEN, you know, your old professor from Ithaca..."

Okay, so that conversation has never happened, but I must admit to thinking that at some point it might with one of my very many students out there in the world: Megan at Opera America, Beth now at Penn State, Brian who replaced me at Ithaca (probably even making more... irksome!), Brian and Jon - both earning the big bucks on Broadway, Alan (OK, so he's not a former student, but he's a former young artist!) who will be running the operatic world any day now. The list is rather long.

The list is extremely long when it comes time to mention the recent successes of many Ithaca and McGill former students as well. Today, Lara C was announced as Musetta in the Montreal Opera production of "La Bohème" next winter and Aidan F was announced to sing the role of the Secretary (a role that I consider one of my best!) in Menotti's "The Consul" in 2011. Caitlin M sang the secretary in the Ithaca College production and last summer she appeared as Despina in the Merola Opera production of "Cosi fan tutte" (she had sung her first Dorabella at Ithaca, which I think might have been her first role ever!). Who was the Fiordiligi in that Merola production? Lara - who was an amazing Fiordiligi here at McGill during my first year teaching. Who was the Adler pianist that summer? Allan P, who was the rehearsal pianist for that Ithaca College "Consul". I think Merola should call me...

Then there are the students who've gone onto big fame and fortune. I'll mention them by their full name because they're out there in the world as celebrities with hundreds of thousands of hits on youtube: Aaron Tveit and Zach James. Both appeared today in separate listings on playbill.com. Aaron, after his recent run on Broadway in "Next to Normal" and guest spots on "Ugly Betty" and "Gossip Girl", is set to open a show on Broadway next spring "Catch Me If You Can" (after the Leonardo movie of the same name - Aaron plays the Leonardo character.) Zach is opening "Addams Family Musical" tonight on Broadway - he plays Lurch. You can't miss him in any of the publicity because next to Nathan Lane, he looks 8 feet tall! I also had the pleasure of seeing Zach on Letterman a few nights ago - on the eve of McGill's "Dido and Aeneas". The last time I worked on Dido - at Ithaca - Zach was singing a role in it. He was also in "The Consul" at Ithaca, as well as a number of musicals.

Both Aaron and Zach were students in the B.F.A. program at Ithaca College. Both have REALLY exceptional voices - Aaron, a tenor and Zach, a bass. I'll never forget the day that my wife Elizabeth came into my studio after an initial lesson with Aaron. It went something like "I've just heard the next big star". Both Aaron and Zach had some difficulties to surmount with the theatre faculty. Because both of them sang so well, they were dismissed by a few of the acting teachers as "just singers". Because both of them were EXCEPTIONAL, and not the norm, many teachers had a difficult time assessing their talent. It seems odd, but many times I've found that some of my colleagues (academic and professional) are more comfortable with voices and talent that are what I would call mediocre: nothing wrong with them, but nothing special about them. Zach and Aaron were both special. I've kept in a bit of contact with both of them, and I must say each are extremely humble about their successes. Although, being introduced to the guy who plays Simba in "Lion King" as "one of my old professors from Ithaca" backstage at "Next to Normal", was a piece of humble pie for me!

Do I think I had something to do with their recent successes? No. Do I think I had something to do with their success? Yes. Do I wish that all of my students were as open-minded and hard-working as Aaron, Zach, Andy, Lara, Beth, the Brians, etc.? Absolutely.

Keep an open mind when you're learning, studying, teaching.

Work hard.

Success is something many want, but few get. Those that do, earn it!

Update from sunny Montreal

2010-03-10T07:22:00.000-08:00

A bigger update:

Memphis’ ORPHEUS: great cast, great company (staff, chorus, production teams), great food, great weather – aside from a few snowflakes. Loved doing it and think that the three versions in one (counter-tenor, tenor, and mezzo) would be a great thing for other companies or programs to do (particularly young artists programs looking for a flexible opera, casting-wise.)

Wichita’s ELIXIR OF LOVE: turned out great – which was a bit of a surprise. Considering I didn’t know I was doing it until a few days before Christmas and I had only a few days to plan things. The small chorus was really eager to do a great job; even my soldier’s trio (don’t ask) turned out looking okay. The cast was charming and I made a number of new friends: a shout out to Emily and Jorge along with the young artists! I saw a flaming Indian – really: a big 30 foot statue on the Arkansas River surrounded every night by huge flaming pots. Don’t know what that’s about… The nice thing about the experience is that I remembered what it was like to work on a great 19^th century opera. Loved it, and loved working there, even with all of the eccentricities. It was so nice to work with Otakar Klein – the Nemorino – who really knew the role having sung it all over Europe in Vienna, Bratislava, etc.

McGill’s THE RAKE’S PROGRESS: directed by David Lefkowich and conducted by Julian Wachner was something quite special. It was a terrific production. The cast and chorus did wonders with the score and the design by Vincent, Ginette, and Serge worked well with David’s conception. It’s nice when things work out great without you!

MusiMars: This is a week-long contemporary music festival that takes place at McGill the first week of March. Night after night, huge programs of music by everyone from Stockhausen and Schoenberg to world premiere pieces are performed by students, faculty, and guests. I restaged some AGRIPPINA, staged a conductor’s death in the middle of conducting Kagel’s “Finale”, lit 117 light cues for a bassoon concerto premiere, coordinated a crazy Aperghis piece, and then experienced my first “Pierrot Lunaire”.

The “Pierrot” was the most stimulating experience I’ve had yet as a director. The singer was Ingrid Schmithüsen, who sang it MEMORIZED (!!!) and threw herself into the work. The players were faculty and students from McGill who gave a pretty much note-perfect rendition. Many who’ve heard a number of Pierrots thought that this was close to definitive. I was amazed by the performers and by the piece. Freed to finally stage something based entirely on the subtext and the images created by the text in one’s emotions and imaginations, I became a new director. It was thrilling and I’m still glowing about it!

Right now (literally as I write this) I’m the rehearsal pianist for Opera McGill’s production of Brook’s adaptation of Bizet’s Carmen titled “La Tragedie de Carmen”. Basically all of the tunes, no chorus, and Carmen never shuts up once she starts singing! It’s a great one hour of music and really intense. I’m playing the rehearsals and the performances. François Racine is directing and doing a really cool concept: it’s all done from Jose’s prison cell. Carmen’s dead already and Micaela is a bit out of her mind. Escamillo’s aria is totally a drunken sing along with Pastia. The other half of the double-bill is Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, that I’m stage directing and a student here, Jordan de Souza, is the pianist on. Rehearsals have been a hoot – I haven’t worked on it since I was in high school back in the 80s! My first professional job as a music director, at Omaha’s Center Stage, was on this piece. I remember I thought it odd that this musical didn’t have any dialogue – later I learned it was considered an opera! I’m taking a very 50s approach (a bit “Mad Men”), but trying to create a number of fantasy sequences. It’ll be a really entertaining evening!

My next big project is Brevard! I’ve never conducted Pirates before, so that’ll be fun. The casts for Brevard are looking FIERCE, and I think it’s going to be our best summer ever! Elizabeth returns to do her incredible work with the students (she's a Voice Whisperer if ever there was one!) and our boys are certainly looking forward to their third summer in the forests of North Carolina. Lots of new, exciting, stuff happening there the summer after next, so look for more news down-the-road.

That’s the update! Next up is planning Opera McGill 10-11: Puccini / Mozart / Handel

Opera in Memphis

2010-01-21T15:22:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't blogged lately. It's been a wild, wonderful new year and I've spent most of it down in Memphis Tennessee directing their production of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice -- or as they are billing it "Orpheus". It is being sung in a new translation by Michael Ching (the conductor, orchestrator and General/Artistic Director of Opera Memphis) and Hugh Moffatt (google him and be amazed!) Opera Memphis' website is: http://www.operamemphis.org/

One of the twists to this production is that we are presenting it with a counter tenor (Nicholas Tamagna), mezzo soprano (Kathryn Cowdrick) and tenor (Marc Schreiner) in a new adaptation that works for all three. It's mostly the Vienna premiere version, with Parisian arias thrown in and keys changed to accommodate the difference between the treble voices and the tenor voice.

I'll post pics soon. Tonight is the final dress and tomorrow I'm off to Wichita Grand Opera to direct their L'elisir d'amore! Although I'm missing my family up in Montreal (and my friends, students and colleagues), I'm enjoying the warm Spring weather here. We'll see how Kansas treats me.

Opera McGill is in the final rehearsal stages for its production of The Rake's Progress. Julian Wachner conducts, and David Lefkowich directs. I've only heard fantastic things from the team and the students, so I'm looking forward to seeing the performances at the end of January.

Winter is a busy time for opera all over -- go out and see one!

2009 in Review

2009-12-27T11:29:00.000-08:00

A year end review blog -- please forgive the bullets, but I'm just not in the mood to write sentences! Our new Wii is calling me and I must get back to break my personal score in Archery...

When I look back at 2009, I think of the following moments:

The Rape of Lucretia at McGill in January of 2009, with a remarkable cast. Designed by Vincent and Ginette with lighting by Serge, I was quite moved by the last 10 minutes of the last performance. For this atheist, the question of "Is this it all?" has been in my mind for most of my life. As voiced by Aidan and answered by David, I must say that Britten wrote a compelling statement. The production caused me a great deal of personal anguish, as I was about to embark on a terrible few months - or as I refer to it: "my semester of misdiagnosis"! The day Lucretia opened, I was told that I might have an inner ear disease that would cause me to eventually go deaf, become bed-ridden, and make me unable to work any job. It was a tough way to end a wonderful production and rehearsal process.
Dialogues of the Carmelites, again at McGill AND on the same weekend that we presented La Rondine and a scenes program! Try that I.U. ! The nuns were also the set, as there was no money for anything beyond costumes (again, wonderfully done by Ginette). If I were to do the "big-budget" version of this production, I wouldn't change my idea of using the nuns as the walls, doorways, hallways, and cemetery. Since the convent represented their lives, it was a perfect metaphor for their trials. Confession time: I have to admit that I don't remember staging this opera (done almost a month in advance of the actual production.) I was in and out of doctors' offices and trying various medications to try to get the ringing in my ears to stop, as well as the nausea and dizziness. If my wonderful wife, Elizabeth, hadn't been around to help out, I would have cancelled it. In the end, this was a great performance of a great opera and I certainly had fun playing that score again!
Musical Theatre Workshop - another one of my "experiments" at Opera McGill. Students signed up to work on MT repertoire once a week. Lots of students made some amazing breakthroughs and also revealed their hidden talents. Highlights: JCJ singing "Giants in the Sky", Margot singing ANYTHING, Lily going for the big belt in "The miller's son", and Barbara getting Horton to notice her!
Schulich School of Music teaching award. It was a great way to end a trying semester -- thanks to Meg, Lara, Aidan, and Philippe for nominating me and writing such incredible letters of recommendation. It was the most moving moment in my teaching career and boy I wish my parents would have been alive to know their teaching legacy lives on.
The end to the ringing: Although I was losing my sanity during January, February and March because of the ringing in my ears, by the time May came, the ringing had ceased and I was able to drive again, use the Metro, and not worry that I'd end up a 45 yr. old invalid. It seems the various doctors in Montreal did NOT know what was wrong with me! Thanks to Dr. G for getting me to an ENT who got me on a simple nasal spray regimen.
Camelot at Ash Lawn Summer Festival. What a GREAT show! With a GREAT cast and production crew! I was really worried about directing a musical, particularly working the book scenes that were quite long, involved, and Shakespearian in conception. But the casting was fantastic and Peter, Katy, and Christopher were a dream love triangle (backed up by the wonderful Corey and Christian). I had tons of fun working with Maestro Toan, and thank the gods that Mr. Laroche was an apprentice that summer, as he ended up in practically every scene!
Brevard: So I showed up late and almost missed the UNCUT (not my idea!) Hoffmann. Lots of roles for lots of singers, but really not my favorite opera. Offenbach is massively overrated, in my humble opinion! But the set and costumes were rather impressive, as was the conducting by Maestro Larkin. We followed it with Hello Dolly, that was cast almost entirely with McGill students: Do I need to write about Ms. Piazza stopping the show practically every time she sang a number? Or about Nico and Margot stealing every scene they were in? Or what about DMD and his matinee idol looks and dancing? It was a TERRIFIC show with literally hundreds of costumes. Amazing that it all happened in two weeks! (Go David Gately.) Followed quickly by a scenes program that was directed by David, Dean, and me while the three of us were trying to rehearse a Puccini double-bill. Truth to tell: I agreed to conduct the double-bill the night before the first rehearsal was slated to begin. The conductor had cancelled last minute. It was fun to wave my arms again, with a wonderful cast and orchestra. Going into it, I was mostly worried about the Suor Angelica, but ended up loving conducting it much more than Gianni Schicchi. An extremely moving opera, and once again the religious ideas behind it really seemed to speak directly to me in surprising ways. My Catholic past perhaps?
Vacation in Iowa: The best thing about my life is that I can take my family to Burlington, Iowa and get away from everything. My wife has a bazillion cousins in town and I am blessed with two wonderful parents-in-law. They are still in love with each other after 58 years together, embrace my need to cook 24/7 while I'm in their house, and are the most accepting, patient people I know. If you want to know how to be happy and content without HBO, Twitter, new cars, etc., look them up!
Agrippina: a production that totally exceeded my expectations. Once again the design team put so much together and made the concept of "Dirty, Sexy, Opera" really work. The onstage dog, Colin, was the best actor I've ever worked with (had to write that!) Asking cast members to shoot up with heroin, snort cocaine, take their clothes off, drink lots of cocktails, while singing REALLY long Italian recitatives and arias by Handel, was such fun. SUCH fun! Once again, collaborating with Mo. Knox was a dream. The Nerone was sung by a coloratura mezzo named Emma Parkinson. Any artistic admins or agents reading this blog should look her up and get her signed. Her "Come nube" was the best thing I've heard sung live in 2009, aside from Aaron Tveit's performance as Gabe on Broadway in "Next to Normal". He is FIERCE, so is she.
Kennedy Center: Thanks to Julian Wachner, I was invited to direct his "Essential Puccini" concert at the Kennedy Center in mid-November. What an AMAZING experience, with a terrific chorus singing Act Two of Boheme and the large sections of Turandot. Jill Gardner's Musetta was the best I've seen (that includes one recent version with PR), but her rendition of "O mio babbino caro" was the best I've heard - ever. Seriously, someone hire her to sing the Trittico now. Carl Tanner and Othalie Graham were fantastic as Calaf and Turandot -- both sending thrilling high C's into the sold-out audience. There was a children's chorus of 80, yes EIGHTY CHILDREN, that I had to stage. All of it conducted with great aplomb by Mo. Wachner. He should conduct more Puccini...
Brevard 2010 auditions -- I'll have to blog about this sometime, but here are the stats: Over 90 sopranos, most presenting themselves in a black dress (sleeveless and above the knee), sang for us looking to be cast in about 9 roles. Wow. We had 25% more applicants this year, which is good. The singing, for the most part, would best be described as pushed and jumpy. More later!
Looking forward to 2010: Orfeo for Opera Memphis, a whole BUNCH of craziness the first week of March for the contemporary music festival MUSIMARS in Montreal (directing a Pierrot Lunaire, an Aperghis one-act, a new piece for bassoon, four celli, and three double-basses, and Kagel's "Finale" where the conductor has a heart-attack and dies on the podium!), then musical direction at McGill for Brook's adaptation of Carmen and staging Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti. The summer at Brevard looks fun: Fledermaus, Le Nozze di Figaro, two scenes programs, a run-out musical called Tintypes, and a Pirates of Penzance, which I'm conducting. That's a lot of opera. I'll look forward to being in Burlington in August, grilling food on my in-law's barbeque!

Best to everyone out there in this weird world of blogging. Hope everyone has a Happy New Year. Tomorrow, I get to celebrate the 18th Anniversary of being the luckiest man on Earth for having married my wife. She's actually the TALENTED member of our family!

Hungry to learn

2009-11-29T16:00:00.000-08:00

So Thanksgiving has come and gone, and I've eaten my fill. The dinner was great. The weekend over too fast, but the tree is up and we've got a fire in the fireplace and I'm onto glass #2 of a VERY nice 2004 syrah from Ojai.

During my undergrad years at Simpson College, Thanksgiving also meant a return to the campus on Friday to start preparations for the Madrigal Dinner. A huge, I mean HUGE event that happened every other year in the "Great Hall" on campus. Your regular type Madrigal dinner fare, but not your regular Madrigal dinner type of entertainment. First off, the madrigal carried hours -- HOURS of memorized literature. It wasn't just a few ditties by those English guys either, it was serious literature running the gamut from medieval chant to chants des oiseaux. Memorized -- did I mention that? We'd head back to campus, usually during the annual Thanksgiving blizzard, to put up the decorations (which took all day), and then have hours and hours and hours of rehearsals to get ready for the performances. It was the hardest thing I've ever put myself through, that first dinner...

Our madrigal was made up of the same group of singers who were cast in the operas, the same group who were the leaders in their musical fraternities and sororities (as well as the social frats and sororities), they were also the same group of students placing in the NATS and Met competitions, they were the same group who were performing hour recitals in both their junior and senior years, they were the same group who also sang in the choir and went on tour every year in the midst of taking graduate level history and theory courses (to this day I thank Larsen for his Med/Ren course!) I was in the Simpson Madrigal, but I was a piano performance major; and I wasn't the first pianist in the group, nor the first pianist to sing roles in the operas.

Okay, I'll stop now. What I'm saying here is that I learned how to make music, how to memorize music, and how to work hard and BE HUNGRY to work harder while singing in those Simpson madrigal performances. It is something I find lacking today, the hunger to learn. There is a work ethic I find lacking as well -- learning music seems to be something to get past instead of something to embrace and love. I'll know when I'm close to death -- it'll be around the same time I start hating learning music. There's so much music out there and I can't imagine not wanting to learn it ALL. Yes, ALL of it. Not just what you've been assigned or contracted for!

I can pick up a new opera and learn it rather quickly. Not because I'm some genius, but because I was made to do so in Madrigal and Choir at Simpson. I'm brilliant because I was made that way by an aggressive music department in the middle of Iowa. Thanks Dr. Larsen!

Let's all sing a round of "Matona mia cara" and get to the fun part where the bull...

Happy Thanksgiving 2009!

Semi-staged at Kennedy Center

2009-11-05T21:21:00.000-08:00

I'm in Washington DC directing a "semi-staged" concert called "The Essential Puccini" for Julian Wachner's Washington Chorus at the Kennedy Center on Sunday, November 8th. Okay, the plug is done!

Julian (with just a wee bit of help from me) has assembled a REALLY terrific cast. It is a monster of a program as well:

Boheme, Act Two with Jill Gardner as Musetta. Jill is simply a Rock Star -- such an amazing voice and a true stage animal (as Tito Capobianco used to say). Jill then sings the best live version of "O mio babbino caro" that I've heard, followed by John Marcus Bindel's awesome Coat Aria; then there's the Intermezzo from Manon Lescaut followed by Puccini's 20-something attempt at a Gloria (with the wildest use of sequence in a fugue I've heard).

Intermission

Then comes Turandot Act One -- up to the entrance of P, P, & P; then a cut to the beginning of Act Two, scene Two and all the way through to the end of that act. Carl Tanner rips one out of the park as Calaf and Othalie Graham is SIMPLY THE MOST REMARKABLE TURANDOT I've heard in a long, long, while. The loudest, easiest high Cs out there folks. Get her now, really!

The encore is Carl singing "Nessun dorma" with a cut at the end that takes you to the choral finale of the show that is genuinely inspired (Kudos to Julian Wachner for that one!). It should be the cut everybody takes in an opera highlights concert, if they've got a chorus to sing it.

And boy does Julian have a chorus. They do a great job with all of the varied scores, and styles.

My job is to give the entrances and exits shape; manage the 80 kids in the children's chorus (and yes some are onstage with Parpignol, and we're doing a big ol' procession down the aisles of the Kennedy Center for their Act Two Turandot entrance -- complete with lit paper lanterns from the Montreal Botanical Garden.) Instead of Cafe Momus, we're at a Momus Martini bar -- so the waiter will serve only Martinis - which look classier in tuxes and gowns. There's a live dog for Musetta, some play with Mo. Wachner's hair on the podium during "Quando m'en vo", a bit of a parade at the end. Turandot is easy: Get them in, let them sing, get them out.

Along the way I've got an 8am lighting session before the dress rehearsal, will try to take in a White House tour, and have to get to the National Geographic building's Terra Cotta Chinese Warrior exhibit to get some cool souvenirs.

If you're around DC I'd say buy a ticket to this, but I'm told they are going to be SOLD OUT!

Empty Stage & a Ghost Light

2009-10-16T18:32:00.000-07:00

The last two professional opera productions I've seen were VERY interesting. The first left me so exasperated over the terrible conducting and second rate Italian coming from seasoned professionals, that I was a bit undone to be honest.

Then a few days later, I saw Washington Opera's AMAZING production of "Falstaff". The show started with a mostly empty stage and a ghost light. I can't express how wonderful it was to see opera work the way it's supposed to! I was thoroughly entertained vocally, musically, and dramatically. Alan Opie was the Falstaff and he was simply perfect in the role. I've seen a number of Falstaffs, including Paul Plishka's debut in the role (with Freni, Horne and Susie Graham back at the Met in the early 90s), and Mr Opie was just what the doctor ordered. The Ford was simply the best I've heard live - a young baritone named Timothy Mix. Check him out. The Quickly and Meg Page were Nancy Maultsby and Betsy Bishop and both were fantastic - funny and full-voiced seasoned professionals wielding their craft easily and with aplomb. Down to Bardolph and Pistola (a great new bass, Grigory Soloviov), the cast sang a very difficult score in a completely engaging and light-hearted manner.

The concept was funny, and had a fresh take - at least to my mind - on the idea of actors who dress up to be characters who then later dress up to put on a practical joke in a forest. The set was cool and funny - including a tavern that transformed itself into the great oak. There were hysterical touches - from Bardolph eating old pizza from the floor to the male dancing fairies who practically stole the show. It all ended with Verdi's tour de force of a fugue and it was given a visual tour de force to match. Usually it's "park and bark" time, as the fugue that ends the show is tough to keep together. The director took no prisoners and marched the chorus and cast through an endless array of moves - including a pseudo-conga line. It really gave the musical components of the fugue a visual illustration unlike I'd seen before. And of course, this Falstaff worked because there was a wonderful conductor down in the pit with a wonderful orchestra. I stood up and yelled bravo.

Maybe I had to experience an off-the-mark opera to fully appreciate the exciting night had at Falstaff.

The Slippery Career Path

2009-09-26T17:37:00.000-07:00

I've given two talks this week, first to my students and then later in the week to the young artists in the Atelier at L'opéra de Montreal. I spoke about young artist programs, summer programs, opera company structures, career advice, etc. It was interesting to take the questions about specific programs, interesting to uncover for them the mysteries of Musical America, NFCS, Opera.ca, various blogs, and particularly interesting to dive into the trials of being a young Canadian singer with no paid summer apprentice programs to apply for - here in Canada that is. But that's a whole other blog!

So what about career advice? I've been thinking about this a lot for the last few years. Does climbing the young artist program ladder actually work for most singers? If it does, how is it possible that each summer the U.S. programs employ hundreds of aspiring singers, and yet the majority of those singers simply do not end up with careers? Why are there successful singers out there without any major apprentice programs on their resumes?

I do not believe there is an actual career path that leads to success in this business. I think just the opposite. In fact, I think there may be an illusion many aspiring young singers believe: that if they move from degree A to degree B to summer program C to summer program D to resident young artist program E to professional gig F they'll find "success". It looks to be a most logical and sane path to undertake, it's true. It is certainly a plan that I've heard described by many at various seminars on the subject. Success is simply more complicated - the books to read are Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers" and Hugh MacLeod's "Ignore Everybody and 39 Other Keys to Creativity." (The "Martha Stewart Rules" is quite illuminating as well...!)

My wife once asked a rather important person in the opera business which summer apprentice contract she should take, Santa Fe or Central City. She was told that "young artist programs just delay young singers from actually becoming professional singers." We didn't get it at the time, (she went to Santa Fe), but it's a point worth contemplating.

Getting Started

2009-09-16T21:04:00.000-07:00

AGRIPPINA is a long song. Opera McGill is producing it this November for many reasons - foremost because it's a fantastic opera, we have incredible singers to sing the roles, I have a good take on it (at least I think I do!), and there are two anniversaries: 300 years since its premiere in Venice and 250 years since Handel's death. That's reason enough for me.

Getting going on it is tough. Hank Knox, our chef, and I sat down a few nights ago and worked hard to make some cuts to the score. We ended up taking out only a few arias, reducing a number of them by not taking the returns, and did figure out how to make some cuts in the recits (thanks to Hank's gifted skills with figured bass!) Tonight I spent about three hours pouring over the score with calendar in hand trying to figure out how to get it staged and to make sure there are enough reviews along the way so that the cast doesn't forget what we did way back in early October. For a variety of reasons I'm starting this the last week of September, even though we open November 20. There's a five day hiatus during Canadian Thanksgiving, plus I'm gone almost a full week in November. It's not something I've ever done before - start blocking a show, then leave it to go and stage another show (actually it's a semi-staged concert "Essential Puccini" that's being performed Nov. 8th at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.) only to return to finish the first. We'll see how the very long, yet rather casual rehearsal period either hinders or helps the students work on this fantastic piece.

So now the hard part is over - casting, organizing the staging and technical schedules, and making the cuts. The fun really begins during the next few weeks as I figure the details of how to move a baroque opera about the power struggles of Emperor Claudius' Roman court into 2009. It seems that these characters are all so power hungry and Poppea is an outsider to that power, yet she's the object of Nero's, Claudius', and Ottone's lust. Poppea has to be a celebrity of some sort and Claudio has to be some sort of super lawyer who's wondering who should take over the firm. The set and costume design team had a good suggestion: the TV series "Dirty, Sexy Money". I like the idea a lot and look forward to the cocktail parties, the paparazzi, the business suits, and having fun with that crazy kid named Nero!

Auditions - Nothing to be scared of...

2009-09-01T08:10:00.000-07:00

Auditions week is here at McGill University's Schulich School of Music. This year I'm looking to cast roles and chorus for Handel's Agrippina, Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, Bizet/Brook La Tragedie de Carmen, Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti, Purcell/Britten Dido and Aeneas, and a scenes program.

That's a lot of casting to be done by this Friday!

Most of the graduate students are auditioning on Wednesday, followed by the undergrads on Thursday. I'm posting callbacks for the Friday all-day event Thursday night. This year I'm holding callbacks for the specific shows -- anyone up for a role in the Handel or Purcell will get called back on Friday morning, anyone for the Rake's Friday afternoon, and the late afternoon will be for the double-bill.

Auditions here at McGill are open to the voice faculty and they tend to pop in every now and then in the prelims. Most show up for the callbacks -- it's a good time to hear everyone without the pressure of the grading -- of course there's the pressure of wanting to get cast, more on that later.

Casting at McGill is not done by committee, it's actually done by just little ol' me (of course with huge consultations with our principal and guest conductors and directors). I have to see the overall year plan for each student cast and am looking to try to balance it as best as I can.

New this year for the Masters students in opera: C.O.R.E. or "Comprehensive Operatic Repertoire Experience". I'm going to try to make sure that each of the students in this program get not only experience singing roles, but also experience in covering, singing small roles, a bit of backstage experience, along with professional career development.

The first thing a student learns when they get a young artist contract is that they will NOT be singing the leads -- they'll be singing in the chorus, covering roles, and maybe even singing a smaller role onstage. The most valuable thing I tell any young singer heading into a summer program is "learn your chorus music and be offbook for all assignments". My theory at Glimmerglass was that the young artists who showed up with their chorus music memorized were the ones who ended up snatching management and/or moving forward with their careers. The lazy ones were just that. The book to read is "Outliers"...

Wrapping up this week's blog -- what do I look and listen for at an audition? I'll first tell you what I DON'T look/listen for:

1) Being correct: couldn't care less if you miss a note or drop pieces of text.

2) Coordination with your pianist: I'm much more interested in the music YOU are making!

3) Singing in tune (I know that's a surprising statement, but frankly most singers sing out of tune in some way, shape or form -- why does everyone get so freaking obsessive about this?!)

4) Ornaments: what ever I hear I'm going to want to change anyway, so why worry about it?

5) What you're wearing (many of my students will tell you this is not so, but I only comment on it to them later because I know SO many in the business pay attention to this really unimportant factor).

What I DO look/listen for:

1) A human being making music with their voice

2) Singing sentences that have meaning both textually, dramatically, and vocally

3) Did I mention the making music thing?

4) Character choices - both physical and vocal

5) Good shoes (I know, I shouldn't but I notice) This means no super high heels and no sandals.

6) A singer's physicality

7) Size of Voice

8) Repertoire -- is the singer singing rep that is appropriate for their technique/age/fach etc.

9) Range -- as in high and low and at what extremes the singer is comfortable

10) Range -- stylistically speaking how comfortable/adept with Baroque/Classical/19th/20th/Musical Theatre rep and how many arias are being presented.

That's it, not much! I do tend to judge the aural before the first page gets turned and then take in the visual as the audition progresses.

With all of that said, one of the things singers forget is that the panel wants you to be incredible so that we can cast you! It's not a jury or an examination. There are no grades and there are few hard and stead-fast rules, frankly. Move around, don't move around; gesture, don't gesture; wear a suit, don't wear a suit. All of that doesn't matter with me. I want to hear someone trying to make CHOICES and loving their moment commiserating with the great composers.

If any of the McGill students are reading this -- remember to take a good breath before you walk in the room. I'm looking forward to hearing everyone!

The Chalk Board

2009-08-24T21:00:00.000-07:00

Well it's the end of the summer. For my boys, it's the tragic end of their great, wonderful, summer adventure in Brevard and at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Iowa. They've both grown over an inch, our youngest has had to get new shoes, and our oldest seems oddly mature yet still a little boy.

My summer has certainly been a wonderful adventure as well: it seems so long ago that I landed in Charlottesville to direct Camelot. Those rehearsals were terrific, my cast was a treat and certainly a gift, and our final product was entertaining, moving, and historic -- Ash Lawn Opera finally performed in a real theatre!

The weeks in Brevard were packed, my wife loving every minute of teaching there, terrific performances in an a seemingly un-cut Hoffmann (not my idea!), standing O's for Hello Dolly (starring many McGill students), two scenes programs, and then my surprise conducting gig for the Angelica/Schicchi with my son singing a small role. How did we do all of that in seven weeks?!

This vacation in Iowa has been refreshing and enlightening -- I realize I want more! Recharging the batteries is good for my bags (as in under my eyes), and it seems also good for my artistic soul. I feel as if I've had more interesting ideas pop into my head while relaxing on my in-law's back porch the last few days than I've had in the last few years.

But now it's back to my chalk board at McGill. Hopefully my students will understand the need to erase their chalkboards so that something new can be written! I'm looking forward to exploring Agrippina, The Rake's Progress, Trouble in Tahiti, Carmen, and Dido and Aeneas with my McGill students as well as taking on the Orpheus project for Opera Memphis (I'm staging the Gluck with a mezzo, counter-tenor, and tenor triple-cast in the title role!) as well as making my Kennedy Center debut as a stage director in November.

But before all that hits, my family and I have two more days filled with family visits, more sweet corn, a bit more grilling, and packing the car for the two day trip home to Montreal.

Vacations, Books and Boeuf

2009-08-16T22:09:00.000-07:00

So here I am in Burlington, Iowa figuring out how to take a vacation. It's a bit hard for me to relax and do nothing. My mind is always on the next project or two down the road and that means emailing and designing and researching and thinking. Elizabeth asked me to refrain from FB surfing and stop checking my regular sites (those being cnn.com, musicalamerica, playbill and weather.com) for at least a week.

I made it four days, which I think is a TOTAL triumph!

Our boys are loving grandma and grandpa's house -- it sits a few blocks away from the Mississippi River (up on a bluff) and is a great house, complete with screened in back porch and a sun room great for playing cribbage.

I've already made a lemon ice box pie (using no recipe, thank you), grilled peaches (can't grill without peaches!), and a batch of rice krispie treats that made it almost to the end of the day. Cooking is great therapy and it certainly stops me from wanting to download free episodes of "Dirty, Sexy, Money" for my inspiration to start blocking "Agrippina".

While standing outside grilling some chicken I thought through some ideas for "Agrippina" and really do think that Emperor Claudius should be in a wheelchair on oxygen, however having him look like Donald Sutherland is also a cool idea. We'll see. I'll definitely have cocktails ever-present in this Handel opera!

Tonight Elizabeth and I went to see "Julie & Julia" (I think that's the title). It was hilarious, inspirational actually, and made me want to get Elizabeth onto writing her book on teaching young singers, as well as made me want to start in again on my book "The Tao of Opera". I've only done one chapter and that was back in May.

Julia Childs, as portrayed by the simply amazing Meryl Streep, must have been a great person to eat with! And who knew she had such a great sex life?!

Elizabeth and I are going to go in search of her Mastering the Art of French Cooking tomorrow -- we'll see if it's here in Burlington. I think either coq au vin or boeuf bourguignon will be on the menu for tomorrow night's dinner!

Bon appetite!

Conducting vs Directing

2009-07-26T19:26:00.000-07:00

This past Friday I agreed to conduct the final production here at Brevard: Puccini's Suor Angelica & Gianni Schicchi. I'm replacing a conductor who had to cancel at the last minute. The students in the casts gave me a rather sweet ovation when David Gately announced it (no audible groans, thank the gods!) We open in less than a week and while I'm excited, it has posed a bit of an identity crisis the last few days.

Brevard is a busy place, and we've just closed a great production of Hello Dolly on Saturday. At the same time, we've been trying to get up a 2nd scenes program that is going to be performed THIS Wednesday at the Porter Center in Brevard, NC. A paying public is coming and we're doing scenes from the following operas: Partenope, Don Giovanni, Cenerentola, Falstaff, Boheme, Little Women, Strawberry Fields, Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte, Dialogues of the Carmelites, Peter Grimes, The King and I, Turandot, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Walküre, and the Merry Widow. IT IS A HUGE PROGRAM. I'm directing (as in stage directing) the first half (Partenope thru Strawberry Fields) and playing some of the scenes in the second half. So for the past few days I've been directing scenes, coaching scenes, and conducting musical rehearsals for the Puccini double-bill.

Some obvious thoughts on all of this: It keeps me busy. I've lost some weight already (conducting is a great work out!) I've not had time to block any of the remaining scenes because my mind is already on the upcoming orchestra rehearsals for the Puccini so it's forced me to think on my feet. I've rediscovered how great it is to conduct Puccini. I'm ticked off at the singers who aren't as excited as I am to be working on these masterpieces and I'm thrilled with the singers who are MORE excited than I am to be working on these masterpieces!

Technology and Rehearsals

2009-07-21T15:56:00.000-07:00

Danger, danger Will Robinson...

Technology, in the form of laptops, blackberries, and iphones have taken over the minds of rehearsing singers everywhere. Gone are the days when singers and coaches would sit in a theatre and FOCUS on what was going on onstage. Nowadays, everyone is sitting in the theatre commenting on FB, or texting a friend who's at a restaurant in Albany, or checking email from another singer who's "bored" in another rehearsal in Tel Aviv.

It is ruining not only the training process, but absolutely ruining a young singer's chance of watching and learning from colleagues strengths and weaknesses.

Now it's not everyone who is doing this, but it's seems as if it's ALMOST everyone. Certainly a few are still watching and learning, and I've noticed they are also the ones who seem to know their music the best!

Crazy times call for crazy solutions.

I'll be implementing a "non laptop/cellphone in rehearsal" policy starting in the fall of 2009 at McGill. I think it'll be the only way to take back the rehearsal process and get everyone to focus on the task at hand: CREATING.

Creation is a tricky thing, very touch and go - particularly when a production moves into a theatre. Lots of things change and everyone, no matter how big or small the role, needs to be focused on ONLY the show.

If any young ones are reading this, take the following seriously: I learned more WATCHING and LISTENING to others (right, wrong, and otherwise) than actually doing it myself. I'll never forget observing rehearsals at DMMO while Nova Thomas and Lauren Flanigan sang through act three of Boheme, or watching Dimitri H's first Germont at L.O.C. and him dealing with Ms. Anderson's demands, or listening to the sitz of Partenope with David Daniels, Lisa Saffer, David Walker, and others with the incredible Harry Bickett in the pit at Glimmerglass, or seeing the final floor run of The Mother of Us All at Glimmerglass and finally GETTING THE PIECE, as directed by Chris Alden.

Rehearsals are times to focus and learn and think and BE. Save the fabulous new status update for afterwards. It'll keep!

Being Prepared: a pseudo-lecture

2009-07-16T19:55:00.000-07:00

It's difficult nowadays to prepare for a first coaching.

I guess I'm being facetious by writing that.

Let's explore the modern day singer's approach:

You get your xeroxed score/aria/scene given to you instead of setting out to Patelson's to find the piano vocal among the stacks. You dutifully highlight your text and write - by hand - the Nico Castel IPA underneath (not to mention his word for word), instead of looking up the words in your Italian/French/Czech dictionary - struggling to understand the 18th century language changed by time.

Now you are ready to prepare: you turn on your computer and google "Boheme Act Three" (or some such work) to get the Wikipedia article with the background on the particular masterpiece you're getting ready to tackle. Then the real preparation begins: it's called YOUTUBE.

After viewing the dozen or so videos of this famous music, YOU ARE READY. You've sung along, made fun of the artists' vibrato, posted some comment good or bad, and thought lots about how you'd sing it.

Oops, maybe not. There's more to it than that. It's ALOT more interesting and fun than that. I'd recommend pouring over the text to find its meaning first. Then I'd hie thee to a piano and slowly get to know your vocal part -- no singing needed. Try speaking the text in rhythm first. Then plunk out the notes - humming along. Once the intervals and/or tune seems clear, add in your voice - on your favorite vowel. Once that becomes easy, take a big breath and slowly add the text to the vocal line. REPEAT REPEAT REPEAT.

After much time spent communing with a great composer, you're probably getting ready for your first coaching. You've just spent time inside the mind of an artist, how incredible is that?!

Alright, I admit it -- I use Wikipedia every now and then. Also Youtube -- it's such a vast treasure trove of art that just wasn't accessible to my generation on up. However, none of these new tools can substitute for solitary practice - particularly Nico's ingenious IPA bibles. It's not enough to know what Nico tells you is correct, or to take an alternate high note because So and So did. You have to understand what the piece is about from the inside. That takes time and thought.

Unfortunately, I think too many young singers are spending their time reading blogs, posting on FB, following The Met on Twitter, and checking their email incessantly. I also think that just when it might seem like the time to spend alone in a practice room, it is easier to go see the latest Harry Potter movie or head off to the bars to laugh with newly made friends. The learning process gets short shrift and that's really too bad.

Enjoy the learning process -- it's not work, it's a rare pleasure that we artists have!

Days Off

2009-07-12T06:11:00.001-07:00

Days off in the summer are always the most busy days, particularly when you're at a summer program that goes all day and all night for six days straight. The Day Off is the day to get the laundry done, pay bills, clean up the cabin, run to the grocery store, get the car washed and cleaned out and - most importantly - practice for the coming week ahead as there is NO time to practice otherwise!

For my wife and I, the Day Off means FAMILY DAY as well. We've tried to make the Brevard day off a big day with our boys - going hiking, or a movie, or seeing some tourist site like the Biltmore.

Today we're all up early and deciding what to do - I need to practice, we have no clean clothes or milk in the cabin, and our boys want to do "something fun".

We'll see how the Day Off ends -- tonight Keith Lockhart, Mary Phillips, and Michael Hendrick perform Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde -- something that would be nice to see on a Day Off, but somehow I bet I'm in a car driving back from Bat Cave, North Carolina with two exhausted boys in the back seat and a wife who just wants to get back in time for a good night's sleep before teaching 12 lessons on Monday!

Hope your days this summer are as fun-filled as ours!

I promise to post more regularly!

PJH

Camelot Final Dress

2009-07-01T22:38:00.000-07:00

Just home from tonight's Final Dress Rehearsal for Camelot at Ash Lawn Opera (in the Paramount Theatre in downtown Charlottesville.)

It's an interesting moment for a director - when to choose to enjoy the show and when to continue noting the show (i.e. light cues, props notes, etc.).

I've spent the last few years not enjoying my final dresses as much as I'd like to. As a conductor, you try to move into that final dress in performance mode -- getting into the moment, enjoying the sweep of the evening, preparing for the rush of opening night. As a director, it seems like the last chance at making an impact on the show -- or for lack of a better word, controlling the show.

Control is hard - particularly in the last rehearsal in a theatre.

After tonight's dress rehearsal, which went VERY well thank you mum, it seemed as if I had lost a chance at enjoying the performances being given by my very gifted cast. Made me sorry to be leaving the city after the opening...

So Friday night we open and I will try to sit back and enjoy the show! Favorite parts of the show so far, in no particular order: Katy's portrayal of Jenny when she meets Lance for the first time, Chris' first scene with Peter (Lance and Arthur meeting for the first time), Peter's monologue that ends the first act -- riveting, Corey's Mordred (come see the show for his 7 Deadly Virtues number), and our South African Pellinore as played by Christian. I must say that it's been QUITE a pleasure to work on this show with everyone.

Oh - and thank the lords above that Erin is calling the show; AMAZING psm!!

Tomorrow is a day off and I'm heading to Monticello to commune with Jefferson.

Dialogue of the Camelots

2009-06-24T19:55:00.000-07:00

So tonight we finished staging Camelot, a book scene between Mordred and Arthur. Done! Well, sort of... we've got two full run thrus between now and Friday night (the 1st night of tech) and it is readily apparent that we need to run lines, run lines, run lines, run lines.

Don't get me wrong -- the cast is TERRIFIC, but these Camelot book scenes have a lot going on in them. Giving clarity to Arthur's dream of civil law and civility, focusing the delicate balance of love between Arthur, Gwen, and Lance while moving plot along is the big challenge.

One of the delights of tonight's rehearsal was seeing Corey Trahan rehearse as Mordred. He's wickedly funny, as is our Pellinore, Christian Bester.

I'm really looking forward to running the show tomorrow and seeing how it all fits, blends and moves forward.

On another note, Brevard rehearsals for Hoffmann (one of my least favorite shows!) have started with Dorothy Danner directing and Mo. Larkin conducting. I hear the cast sounds exciting, and I look forward to seeing them in THEIR tech week in a less than ten days. We did end up casting the scenes programs this past Monday night - after hearing 43 arias that day - and I hope the singers are excited: 20 duets in the first program and I think it's 17 or 18 scenes in the second program, including scenes by Torke, Britten, Kern, of course Mozart, and WAGNER; more on that later!

Fun fun fun

Camelot onto 2nd week...

2009-06-18T20:48:00.000-07:00

This past week has simply flown by!

Working with a very talented cast I've managed to get over 50% of the musical numbers staged. During the next two days, the goal is to finish the rest of act one. The Arthur arrived into town today and is exceptional - as are all of the principals. That makes life much easier...

Tonight I worked dialogue with some of the cast and had a really interesting time talking about the piece. In order to shorten the musical (it's rather long), I had made some pretty significant cuts. However upon hearing the lines spoken by the players tonight, I decided to open up a number of those cuts. It'll really help the show, and certainly makes me feel good as I love so much of the dialogue - being a fan of the Arthur legends since I was a young boy.

It's getting late, so I'll cut to the chase: I think that musicals AND operas should be treated much more as living entities that need to be reborn each time they are presented. We're currently in a present, operatically speaking, where directors and production designers re-think the operas, but where the music directors strive for note perfect renditions based on critical editions. It presents problems when one is trying to create a whole piece in a genre that is based on sung text.

Just a thought on this late night out in the country in Virginia...

Leaving on a Jet Plane

2009-06-09T17:30:00.000-07:00

Thursday I get on a plane and fly to Charlottesville, VA to start rehearsals for Camelot, which I'm directing at the Paramount Theatre for Ash Lawn Festival. It's their VERY first production inside a theatre (and not outside in the backyard of James Monroe's estate), so the pressure to have a fantastic production is intense - sets, costumes, props, sound, everything...

The first day on the job I'm expected to show up at a Guild cocktail party - directly from the airport. Then the first week of rehearsals will focus on staging any and all scenes withOUT Arthur (who is coming in a week later). Staging a show out of order has its challenges - most of all continuity of exits/entrances - but also it presents a focus challenge for both the director and the cast. We'll see how it goes.

Looking ahead, it'll be an interesting few weeks. Rehearsals running from 9:30am to 4pm at a local high school, and then moving to a different rehearsal venue for evening rehearsals 6:30 to 9:30pm. I'm hoping to get in a ton of work preparing for design meetings for another show I'm directing in January of 2010 during the two and a half hour break, but usually that means I'll go out for dinner and chat away and not get anything done.

Charlottesville, for those who don't know the town, is a TERRIFIC city. The mecca for DMB, it was voted "Best City in USA To Live" about 5 years ago. It has an amazing downtown pedestrian zone (the Paramount Theatre is right on the mall there), with tons of great restaurants and coffee shops. I like the city alot. It's about a 1 and 1/2 hour drive to DC and sits below Monticello. If you get a chance to visit, you should.

I'm hoping the cast is prepared on their dialogue - I've cut pages and pages, but it's still WAY too long I think. I'm hoping to tweak scenes in the evening rehearsals once I hear how everyone does. That's most of my worry - that and figuring how to make the "Jousts" number interesting.

Must pack for my three weeks in Charlottesville AND then my five weeks at Brevard. More on Brevard later!

Patrick

Premier Blog

2009-06-03T19:27:00.001-07:00

So this is my first real blog! Ending my second year as director of opera studies for Opera McGill up in Montreal and heading into a really busy season: directing Camelot at Ash Lawn, along with David Gately running Janiec Opera Company at Brevard, then back to McGill to direct Agrippina, off to the Kennedy Center to direct an Evening of Puccini (semi-staged scenes with huge chorus and orchestra!), 2010 begins at Opera Memphis directing every version of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice (!!), then some crazy 20th and 21st century operas for MusiMars, and ending in March by playing La tragedie de Carmen and directing Trouble in Tahiti.

That's 12 operas in the next 10 months!

It's going to be busy, and I hope to blog about the trials and tribulations of creating opera both in academia and in the professional world.