I consider Michigan Opera Theater to be one of my opera homes. Dr. David DiChiera has given me so many wonderful opportunities~ first as a Resident Artist, then, when I had flown my YAP nest and moved on to a full blown professional career, as Ping in Turandot and, most recently, my first Papageno in their production of Magic Flute. It’s only fitting that my first guest, while engaged here in Detroit, would be another artist who got his start at Michigan Opera Theatre. 30 years ago, the incomparable, Maestro Stephen Lord came to MOT for his very first job in Opera. Maestro Lord is not only known for his depth of knowledge in the operatic repetoire, but his accessiblity and passion for helping young singers find their voice. In Episode 14, Maestro Lord exhibits his magnanimity in spades and dispenses advice, perspective, and encouragement like a baton wielding Johnny Appleseed.
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Join us as we discuss such diverse aspects as…
The Contraction: Operatic Darwinism
Sound Enhancement: A Dirty Word?
Those Purists can GET OVER IT
What do I wear to the Opera? Who cares, we just show up.
“Just cover the vital parts, Mom!”
The problem with opera is that people don’t think it belongs to them
Opera Sweats
How Glimmerglass got its Groove back
“You gotta have a dream”
Everyone should live their dream a little bit.
“I almost punched him right in the face…”
A living in music is really living music
A Cross-section of an opera rehearsal period
The shell game of finance in operatic personal finance
“You know what I really hate? Going to the grocery store, and buying those plastic salt and pepper shakers…”
The Unrealistic expectations created by graduate school
Mortgaging the career~ its kind of a racket
When you get into the business… WAIT… how would you know?
Your teacher is powerful in the business? Do Gelb/Mason/Gockley take his calls?
As a singer, you are the top of the pyramid, you are the boss~ they [coaches/acc/teachers] work for you.
To thine own self be true
Oh, your muscles will get used to it…
The dream would be able to work on an opera for 6 months as a production
Acting and Expression in the voice are not distinct
Find the theatre in the music…
“The essence of bel canto is not ornamentation, dear”
The tragedy of the lost art of improvisation in bel canto
Verdi’s meticulous notation beginning in Traviata
“Just sing for me once the cadenza Donizetti wrote…” uhhhhhhhh…
“That’s the kind of voice that sings this…” REALLY?
“Singing an operatic role is like wearing someone else’s clothes, you need alterations”
Benoit’s exit~ Neil Schicoff’s Pale maker
No one’s perfect, Pav used to crack in front of millions of people
Fee structure tango
i divi?
The middle people are always the ones that suffer in the fee battle
Recordings, the opera singer’s fountain of youth
Just dots of ink on a piece of paper
How Stephen Lord got his start in opera at Michigan Opera Theatre with Alan Glassman, Christopher Alden, Rocky Blake, David DiChiera et al
Mo. Lord and Neil Schicoff… roomies
Opera Singers literally writing a blank check.
Coaching, Vickers, Lord ~~~ JEEEEESUS, what am I going to tell this guy
Learning Otello from John Vickers
O Gloria Otello fu! ~how Mo. Lord lost hearing in his right ear….
Ermano Mauro sang the PISS out of Otello
“Should I do it?”
John Vickers: Babysitter?
Going without food so your kids can eat, as an opera singer. Props to Ermano Mauro
Privation is not such a bad thing early in life
Night School Italian
