ML Hart - The Tenor Book 8 / Colleagues: Sopranos & Baritones and Directors, Composers, and Everyone Else

a new book by ML Hart

8. COLLEAGUES

"One of the great appeals to me of the operatic profession is that it is the greatest leveler I know. It levels you between the sexes, it levels you age-wise, it levels you social-wise... I mean, I am perfectly likely now, at the age of 70, to find myself sharing a dressing room with somebody of 27 who started life as a Bolivian tin miner, but when the high C comes, it doesn’t matter if your dad was a duke or a dustman - either you can sing that damned high C or you can’t!"

- Nigel Douglas
tenor

Sitzprobe - a music rehearsal with the singers and the orchestra.

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COLLEAGUES

AUTHOR'S JOURNAL

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A tenor's colleagues and collaborators are - most obviously - other singers. They're the ones in the day-to-day rehearsal process, they're the ones on stage with him, and they're the ones he works with again and again, one city to the next, one country to the next. The opera business may be global, but it's a very small world.

There are stage directors, conductors... composers sometimes... teachers and coaches... makeup artists and dressers... choreographers and fight directors.

Here's an always-evolving patchwork quilt of their comments and a behind-the-scenes look at what they do and how they see it.

"You never get any rehearsal time - Vienna was the worst; the Met, unless you're in a new production, standard situation.

"Traviata sometimes had different Alfredos every night, every week. I knew who Gastone was, so I would assume the person next to him was my Alfredo. When he introduced me onstage as Violetta, in order to gauge the acting level, I'd give the new guy my hottest, most-available look. If there wasn't much response, I knew I'd have to do most of the work myself. If he DID respond, I'd have trouble after the show... but it was going to be a great three hours on stage!"

- Phyllis Curtin, soprano

THE OTHER INTERVIEWS

Dozens of other interviews have taken place around the world - interviews wtih singers, teachers, conductors, directors, and other tenors. Their comments bring a new perspective to what the featured tenors have to say. Here, a partial listing:

CONDUCTORS - COMPOSERS - TEACHERS & OTHERS
Carlisle Floyd / Richard Bonynge / John Beeson / Karen Keltner / Martin Katz / Edoardo Müller / Joe Harris / Myron Fink / Peyton Hibbitt / Victor Callegari / Kristin Roach / Donald Runnicles / Martin Wright / Virginia Zeani

DIRECTORS - IMPRESARIOS - WRITERS
Linda Brovsky / Charles Osborne / Lotfi Mansouri / Michael Hampe / Rhoda Levine / Ian Campbell / Schuyler Chapin / Barry Tucker & Henry Tucker / Thor Eckert Jr. / George Jellinek / Leon Major / Nigel Douglas / Rodney Milnes

SINGERS IN ALL VOICES
Phyllis Curtin / Rodney Gilfry / David Downing / Margaret Lattimore / Thomas Allen / Adria Firestone / Sherrill Milnes / Harolyn Blackwell / Patrice Munsel / Louis Otey / Vivica Genaux / Suzanna Guzmán / Giorgio Tozzi / Diana Soviero / Stephen Powell / François Loup / Deborah Riedel

Tenor Nigel Douglas is also an author (Legendary Voices, The Joy of Opera) which is not at all a stretch for him - he's a great storyteller. Thoroughly British, he spent much of his career in Europe, and here tells about working with a young conductor named Carlos Kleiber:

"He used to be great fun. We had a lot of fun. Because he was harshly brought up in the Argentine, and he didn’t actually speak very good German at that time, he spoke American English which was his native tongue. He had a very puckish sense of humour, and we used to amuse ourselves having sort of put-up rows together, because... you know, in the German-speaking theatres, there’s always this tremendous pecking-order thing. The director has to establish whether he or the conductor is the boss, and then the leading tenor has to establish whether he is, you know… and then there’s this sort of flaming row at some point, early in the rehearsal period, where the pecking order is established.

"And we used to do... Carlos, at one point, would slam the lid of the piano down and said something like 'It is completely impossible to ask a man like me to work with a tenor like this who doesn’t know a dotted 32nd from an undotted 16th!'

"And I would shout 'How dare you let this man loose on me? I’ve been singing this, that and the other, and here’s this man who’s never conducted anything in his life, dares to speak to me, when I’m the first tenor in the production!' Then all the others are fluttering around: 'Meinen Herren, Meinen Herren….!' [Nigel rattles off something, anguished, in German] ... and this kind of thing, you know? And we would burst out laughing! and then people would get furious, absolutely livid… [laughing] The sort of things you do when you’re kids, you know."

COLLEAGUES

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Vivica Genaux (mezzo-soprano) with Martin Dubé (accompanist) - distracted

Vivica Genaux (mezzo-soprano) with Martin Dubé (accompanist) - concentrating

"If you arrive somewhere and there's a person you've worked with before and gotten along with - then he's your new best friend.

"If there's a person you've worked with before and is just okay, or you've even just heard of them - that person is your new best friend.

"If you're in Europe and there's any other American in the cast, they become your new best friend...."

- Beau Palmer, tenor
on singing all over the world

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AUTHOR'S JOURNAL Practice, Practice, Practice

"This whole creation is essentially subjective, and the dream is the theater where the dreamer is at once: scene, actor, prompter, stage manager, author, audience, and critic."

- Carl Gustav Jung

In the theatre world - what we amusingly call the "legitimate theatre" - rehearsals are a voyage of discovery. Stage actors come to rehearsals in blank-slate mode, ready and willing to leave their egos at the door, stretch boundaries and find limits in order to create the best possible collaboration. Well...
In rehearsals for opera, the singers arrive from all over the world, come together for a week or two - or less - and negotiate a space around themselves in order to do their job. In its way, that's as much of a myth as the theatre story. But as with all myths, there are elements of truth underneath.
With opera, even a newly written piece, the singer-actors have already learned their lines along with the music. Rehearsals are of two types: staging or musical. With the best collaborations, there's a little of both in any rehearsal segment, and the distinction is more who's calling the shots at that moment, the director or the conductor. Those two have to find their own middle ground of collaboration, just as the tenor has to establish parameters with the conductor and with his fellow singers in order to bring a cohesive "product" to the stage, to the audience.

As in life, so in the rehearsal hall - some relationships go more smoothly than others. And in a kind of shorthand or cut-to-the-chase, code sort of way, opera singer-actors revel in the chance to stretch boundaries and find the dramatic truth of the characters they're playing.

In one sense, they have more tools to work with - they have the music. In another sense, it's a more rigid format. A stage actor can use his voice to make choices in the rhythm of his speech - slow it down, speed it up, come to a stop. An opera singer has to "keep up," in a manner of speaking - those choices the actor has, those have already been made for the singer by the composer. How much variation a singer can make on the musical line... well, that's a story that traces the entire history of opera.

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THE INTERVIEWS - in conversation with SINGERS A to Z

I've talked with dozens of singers, from Sir Thomas Allen to Virginia Zeani. They all have great tenor/colleague stories, ranging from inspiring to scary. And they often contributed to the overall look at tenors by focusing on their own specific approaches to the work. In many cases, I'd be going crazy trying to select just one part of the conversation to include because the depth of the rest of what they had to say was amazing, incredibly valuable. Here's part of one of those conversations with Sir Thomas Allen:

"I think that tenors usually regard themselves as something special... and of course, they are."

- Donald Runnicles
conductor

Sir Thomas Allen - singer (baritone)

mlh: Are there roles, could you pick the top two or three roles that are the most rewarding – for whatever reason. Whether because they’re challenging or because it’s a personal connection with you – for any reason – but rewarding, I think, is the word.

TA: Beckmesser. Beckmesser, Don Giovanni, Pelleas. And if you wanted a fourth, I would say Eugene Onegin.

mlh:    Ah ha. ... What have you added to Don Giovanni over the years, then?

TA:    Gray hairs... Don Giovanni. Well. The enigmatic quality about Don Giovanni is that, the secret of him anyhow – oh, how do I know where the secret lies? If you look at Giovanni as a whole, it seems alright on the surface, you know. But you start out singing, and you realize you’re in the foothills of Nepal and you’ve got all of Everest to climb.

mlh:    [laughing]

TA:    And you’re still climbing right at the end of the evening.

mlh:    Right.

TA:    There’s just no letup at all, it just climbs like that. He gives you 20 minutes break just after the start of the second act. Part of the appeal, for me, certainly part of it lies in the recitative. A large part of it lies in the recitative. The arias tell you nothing about Don Giovanni. Finch’han del vino is a mad frenetic dash; Deh vieni alla fenestra, he’s doing the part of Leporello when he sings it anyhow, then immediately afterwards, he’s Leporello again, so the arias tell you nothing worth telling. The rest of the character lies in the recitative, and actually in some of the ensembles.

mlh:    Well, and in the other characters’ reactions to him…

TA:    Their reaction to him! That gives the clues. Having said all that, that’s not Don Giovanni. Don Giovanni is – more than anything... I think I’m very fortunate in having had success with this role, with this character – that it’s something that lies within you. That’s not to say that one is a Don Giovanni or a Don Juan, but that there’s some kind of innate understanding about the person, which you needn’t question, ever. You just pull it out and draw on it, and it’s there. There are those that sing it absolutely beautifully, play it well, but there’s a missing element. There’s something else there. And for me, fortunately or otherwise, twenty-three years ago when I first sang it, I knew instinctively how to behave, how to deal with his… where I’d be, what I’d be doing. And I’ve not known that... I don’t think I’ve known that with anything else.

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EXPLORE MORE

Interested in more? Just below, there's basic information about enjoying opera in general... there are photographic essays in connection with individual operas with links to stories of the operas... there are more pages in this Tenor Book section... and in Words & Music you'll find detailed profiles about many of ML Hart's favorite singers throughout history. And still more. Wander through, and enjoy.

NAVIGATION

OperaBasics - An Introduction
The Art of Making Opera - Inside the Book

Explore More: Top 10 Ways to Fall in Love With Opera

Principal Singers & Singing
Invitation to the Rehearsal Hall

INDIVIDUAL OPERAS IN PHOTOGRAPHS... AND MORE

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ML HART HOME

WORDS & MUSIC SHOP
recommended recordings by tenors & Artist Profiles of many favorites

BARITONES & BASSES
Thomas Allen, Tito Gobbi, Ruggero Raimondi, Norman Treigle

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THE ART OF MAKING OPERA

Your invitation backstage to learn how opera - and art - is made.
THE ART OF MAKING OPERA garnered international praise and won awards. Get a glimpse of what's inside. Or get your own copy - click on the book cover at left for a special offer on orders placed through this website.

The OperaWest critic says:
"Hart's observations about what goes on backstage, frontstage and all around the theatre are - I can only say - truly revelatory. This is one of the best books I've ever read on the creation of opera."

exclusive excerpts from ML Hart's interviews with:
Nigel Douglas - September 28, 1999
Donald Runnicles - October 30, 1998
Beau Palmer - March 19, 1999
Phyllis Curtin - March 24, 1999
Sir Thomas Allen - September 16, 1999

THE TENOR BOOK8 SIDE BY SIDE: *Colleagues & Collaboration*


The reality of rehearsal time - it's all about the talking. In the San Diego Opera rehearsal hall for André Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire, a windowless basement room that sometimes by the end of the day felt more like a tomb, stage director Brad Dalton works with the singer-actors. Here, all the discussions are about acting - interactions to convey the dramatic tension of the story. The Poker Game: Tony Griffey (standing) as Mitch. The Fragile Heroine: Sheryl Woods as Blanche DuBois. American Icons: David Okerlund as Stanley Kowalski; Elizabeth Futral as Stella.