Wanting Success

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.