| Opera San Jose

Interview with Zachary Altman

December 4, 2012 By carolle Leave a Comment

Zachary appeared as Dr. Falke in OSJ’ recent production of Die Fledermaus; Melody King sang the role of Roselinde. Photo by P. Kirk

“Born into music” is how Zachary Altman, a first-year OSJ resident baritone, describes his childhood. The Philadelphia native knew all the words to Evita when he was nine. He performed in his high school’s musicals and at sixteen he was selected for Julliard’s weekend program for high school students. He sang an aria from Don Carlos for the audition, his first experience with opera. “Everything I’ve learned since– theory, diction, singing lessons, doing scenes from operas, all built on what I got in that program,” Altman says. “Julliard also taught me about rejection. When I was a graduating senior I applied to eleven conservatories and only Julliard turned me down.” He eventually went to the Manhattan School of Music where he earned his Bachelor of Music in 2007, and his Master of Music in 2009.

After graduation, Altman auditioned as much as he could and he sang with several companies. He first learned about OSJ from Alex Boyer, a fellow student at the Manhattan School, who was headed to San Jose for an audition. When Altman heard OSJ was auditioning baritones he applied, and was soon invited to join the resident ensemble. He holds the W. Gibson Walters Memorial Fellowship and the Don and Jan Schmidek Fellowship at Opera San José.

Although he had previously sung in Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, Altman says it’s really hard to adjust to California attitudes. “Everyone is so happy.” The roles he sings this season with OSJ make him happy, too. He recently appeared as Zurga in The Pearl Fishers and Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus, and will soon perform the roles of Count de Luna in Il trovatore, and the title role in Gianni Schicchi.

When he prepares for a role, Altman gets coaching and sets himself deadlines. “Learning the music is comfortable for me, but singing, the technical part, is hard. Every day I spend time and energy learning how to sing,” he said. A perfectionist, “I do not meet my own standards for being a good singer. One must always strive to do better, be perfect. For me, it’s a process.”

L-R: James Callon as Nadir and Zachary Altman as Zurga in OSJ’s 2012 production of The Pearl Fishers. Photo by P. Kirk.

“This is true for all kinds of music. I take pop music seriously, too.” In addition to performing, he taught musical theater and pop singing in Manhattan to professional singers. He continues to love pop singing as much as opera. “Jennifer Hudson is probably the most vocally gifted pop singer I’ve ever heard. Beyonce and Adam Lambert are extraordinary,” he said.Altman’s favorite opera singers are Audra MacDonald and the late Leonard Warren, also a baritone, like him. His favorite role so far is Don Giovanni. “Acting and performance are a big part of that role, which makes it fun,” he said. His dream roles are Macbeth and Sweeney Todd in those operas. “Sondheim does not think Sweeney Todd is an opera, but I do,” he said.

“My favorite operas are Salome and Tosca. I like loud singing, fat people in big costumes, smoke. I love both old school and American opera.” He believes there is a middle ground between opera and musical theater. Two examples are The Light in the Piazza and The Wild Party.”

Altman spent a month in Germany perfecting his spoken (and sung) German for opera. “Roles in German are easier for me than Italian roles. All the people I seriously work with are in New York, and some of my lessons are on Skype. Marlena Malas, my teacher for eight years in New York, helped my professional growth enormously, and I benefited a great deal from Marilyn Horne’s program in Santa Barbara. That was an eight-week intensive and selective workshop that I did for three years,” he said.

“Opera San José is so supportive of our careers! I was able to do a show with the Gotham Chamber Opera in Manhattan, for which I’m very grateful. Opera is a great way to live!” Altman added.

He enjoys the outreach and community involvement which is part of the residents’ commitment to OSJ. He and Rebecca Krouner taught a master class at a local junior high school. “The kids were doing Beauty and the Beast and we did some coaching,” he said.

Ultimately, Altman hopes to run a company. “This profession puts us in touch with people we would never meet otherwise, and some I’ve met might become involved. The most difficult obstacle I would need to overcome is momentum, making every year more successful than the last. That is what makes a success.”

Filed Under: OSJ Blog Tagged With: Zachary Altman

Interview with Cecilia Violetta López

August 20, 2012 By carolle 1 Comment

Cecilia Violetta López with Fellowship sponsors Profs. John Heineke and Catherine Montfort

“My parents worked as laborers in the fields near Rupert, Idaho. We kids worked alongside them. Mom would sing as she worked, so I guess you could say I was brought up to sing.” – Cecilia Violetta LópezBorn and raised in Idaho to Mexican parents, Opera San José’s new resident soprano Cecilia Violetta López discovered her passion for music as a young child when she was first introduced to mariachi music by her mother. Her parents still live in the south central Idaho town where her mother now runs her own restaurant. Cecilia started teaching herself to play the piano as a young child and formal piano instruction began at the age of ten. She became accomplished enough as a pianist to play in her church, and while in high school, she sang with local mariachi bands.

After graduating from high school, she moved to Las Vegas and began her work in the medical field. She got a job as an orthopaedic assistant. “I took out stitches, rolled casts, scheduled surgeries, that sort of thing.” But music eventually called her. On scholarship, she attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, majoring in music education and vocal performance, but when she was student teaching she realized “teaching was not for me, singing was.” Studying mainly under the tutelage of Dr. Tod Fitzpatrick, Cecilia matriculated from UNLV with a Bachelors of Music in Vocal Performance.

While at UNLV López performed in her first opera singing Nella in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. “I am excited to now get to sing Lauretta in that same opera,” she said. During her years at UNLV, Cecilia performed roles including Pamina (The Magic Flute), Poppea (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Gasparina (La Canterina), Kate Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly) and Micaëla (Carmen).

López chose to pursue a degree in vocal performance and she admits studying for her chosen field was intense. It included serious language preparation, mostly in Italian, French and German. Ms. López’ additional training included traveling to Austria where she was a student in the American Institute of Musical Studies. There she concentrated on vocal training, learning the German language and participated in master classes with Patricia Craig and Gabriele Lechner. Ms. López furthered her training while attending the Hawai’i Performing Arts Festival working alongside mezzo-soprano, Juliana Gondek. She continues lessons once a week with a teacher in San Francisco.

It was during her studies in the Hawai’i Performing Arts Festival in Kamuela, Hawai’i where López met former OSJ resident baritone Krassen Karagiozov. Krassen later informed her that the company was auditioning for new artists and she should audition. López is now thrilled to be one of OSJ’s five new residents. She lives here in San José, while her husband and daughter remain in Las Vegas. “We Skype often, so that helps, and they visit me as often as they can. My husband and daughter are both very supportive.” she said.

Her daughter Sara already has stage experience. She was in the Children’s Chorus in UNLV’s production of Carmen when she was six. “I took her to my rehearsals and finally asked her if she wanted to be in the chorus as soon as I saw that she expressed an interest in being with the other kids in the chorus, so I said okay. She showed remarkable stage presence. Soon she will start taking piano and violin lessons.”

When asked how she prepares for a role, López’s technique involves watching DVDs of the opera she is going to sing and listening to recordings. She studies the plot and reads the background of the libretto, then reads her role in the language she will be singing and translates the words so it makes sense as a dialogue. She works with an accompanist an hour a day in addition to rehearsals, which are generally from 2:30 to 10:00 PM, with a dinner break.

Asked about her favorite singers, López sighed. “It’s a toss-up for sopranos. Leontyne Price or Renee Fleming. I can’t chose. I favor Vittorio Grigolo, an Italian tenor, when it comes to male singers.”

No question about what makes a good singer as far as Cecilia Violetta López is concerned. “Genuine passion and love for the music. A singer who goes through the sacrifice and dedication to learn a role should eventually be able to genuinely communicate the emotions the composer is trying to portray. Music is very powerful and has the ability to move people with beautiful melodies and harmonies. Making music and a character personal can take it one step further and really create an illusion for the listener–pretty soon, language barriers dissappear. If one didn’t have a personal connection with the character, it would just be pretty music, and, as we say in the field, it would be considered a ‘park and bark’ moment.”

“Music should uplift the listener, even “gloomy” music. As a listener I want to be transported to the world the composer or performer take themselves to when they are musically inspired. …when I sing, it’s like all of my emotions come out. What I’m expressing, what I’m feeling, I want everyone, including those in the very back row, to feel.”

López, a Heineke/Montfort Fellow, loves the way the other resident artists are genuinely nice, kind, and welcoming. Preparing a different role for every opera is a challenge she looks forward to. “I am honored to be here.”

Ms. López’s professional accomplishments include the title role in Suor Angelica with Opera San Luis Obispo, a role she will be reprising this season for Opera San José and Zerlina in Don Giovanni with Opera Las Vegas.

Don’t miss Cecilia Violetta López in her debut with Opera San José as Leïla in Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers, opening September 8 at the California Theatre in downtown San José.

Filed Under: OSJ Blog

An Interview With Michael Dailey

March 28, 2012 By carolle Leave a Comment

Michael Dailey and Betany Coffland take a break from their royal duties in the 2009 production of La Cenerentola, surrounded by new friends from the Girl Scouts.

“A teacher once told me that a person doesn’t pick music, music picks the person. And in my case, that’s been true.”

Despite possessing a voice that Opera News has described as “blessed with freshness,” Michael Dailey’s career as an opera singer occasionally surprises even himself. “I am not from a musical family, and extroverted behavior was not encouraged. Children were to be polite and quiet. Opera is quite the opposite — it is all about expressing yourself.” In fact, when Dailey experienced his first symphony performance on an elementary school field trip, he asked his teacher whether the musicians were playing the instruments or playing tapes!

As a teenager, Dailey had to fulfill a fine arts requirement at Tallwood High School in Virginia, and on a whim he chose theater. “In my sophomore year they were doing the musical Pippin. I auditioned with a jazzy/soul interpretation of ‘Happy Birthday,’ and was cast as the lead.” Based on that performance, he was invited to sing with the Madrigals, “a small, prestigious group that sang classical pieces, not Broadway show tunes.” Dailey also competed for a place in the District Choir, and sang in the All-State Chorus his senior year. While still in high school, a friend invited him to see his first opera, a Virginia Opera performance of Rigoletto. He remembers getting dressed up in his Madrigals tuxedo for the occasion, and that by the end of the opera, he had been moved to tears by the drama and music.

When Dailey was a senior, his high school choral director Claudia Griffin encouraged him to sing for David Clayton, the choral director at Virginia Wesleyan College. A successful audition later, Dailey’s life had been given a new direction: “I was the first male in my family to go to college, and it was while I was an undergrad that I first studied with a voice teacher.”

It is often said that only one in 10,000 singers have a successful career in opera. Knowing early on that the odds were stacked against him, Dailey continued singing while pursuing a B.A. in Psychology at Virginia Wesleyan, and an M.S.Ed. in Counseling from Old Dominion University. All the while, he found himself thinking more about performances than his studies. “That is where music found me. I knew it had to be my life!” He finished his degrees and worked as a counselor for two years, while singing with the Virginia Chorale, in church choirs, and in the Virginia Opera chorus.

He was accepted to the resident artist-in-training program at Tri-Cities Opera (Binghamton, NY) with Opera Guild and Adele Bernstein Scholarships in 2006, and began singing opera full-time. In 2007 he toured Western Europe with New York Harlem Productions’ Porgy and Bess. “It’s an excellent company that only tours this one opera. It was my first time in Europe, too.”

Dailey joined the resident artist ensemble at Opera San José in 2008, on a partial fellowship from the W. Gibson Walters Memorial Fund. “The best thing about Opera San José is that it offers singers the opportunity to grow professionally, by doing so many leading roles. Many people don’t realize that it is the second largest opera company in the Bay Area, and that its productions are cast around the residents. Other professionals, usually former residents, are hired when other voices are needed.” In the past four years, Dailey has sung numerous roles for the company, including Alfredo (La traviata), Beppe (Pagliacci), Levin (Anna Karenina), Des Grieux (Manon), Prunier (La rondine), Don Ramiro (La Cenerentola), Don José (Carmen), Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Lensky (Eugene Onegin), Nemorino (The Elixir of Love), and Count Almaviva (The Barber of Seville) which is his current favorite.

Dailey prepares for a role by translating the score, listening to recordings in order to get the concept of the entire piece, and speaking the text in rhythm. For inspiration, Dailey’s favorite tenor is Nicolai Gedda, probably the most widely-recorded tenor in history. “He is a true lyric tenor, like me.” He also greatly admires Natalie Dessay and Joan Sutherland, because their voices are so unique. “They were never pushed to sound like anyone but themselves. Every note Sutherland sings is beautiful. ” Outside of opera, Dailey’s favorite musician is Prince. “’Around the World in a Day” was the first cassette tape I ever received — I would listen to it literally two or three times a day, and sing along.”

This season, Dailey concludes his fourth-year of residency with Opera San José. “Opera singing is a difficult occupation: a singer must have a beautiful voice, of course, but they must also be a good actor, able to draw in the audience, and able to accurately pronounce many languages. All of the resident artists at Opera San José hope to be better singers and performers when they leave, than when they arrived.”

The intersection of Dailey’s vocal talent and academic interests provide him with an array of interesting prospects for the future. “Music can hit me with its feeling and power,” Dailey says. “It has its own language. At one time I considered becoming a music therapist. Did you know some composers wrote pieces for their personal therapy, for instance, after suffering the loss of a loved one?”

In the meantime, Opera San José fans are not the only ones who see Dailey’s opera career taking off. In 2010, Dailey was invited back to Virginia Wesleyan to sing at the college’s 41st commencement ceremony, where he inspired graduates with performances of “Nessun dorma” (Turandot) and “Make Them Hear You” (Ragtime). Last summer, Dailey sang as an apprentice artist with Santa Fe Opera; he will be returning this summer as an understudy for the lead tenor in Maometto II, and sing an additional comprimario (supporting) role.

If you enjoyed Dailey’s recent performance as Alfredo in La traviata, be sure to catch him singing the title role in our upcoming production of Faust, April 21 — May 6, 2012.

Filed Under: OSJ Blog Tagged With: Michael Dailey

An Interview with Jouvanca Jean-Baptiste

January 16, 2012 By carolle Leave a Comment

: Jouvanca Jean-Baptiste with her Fellowship Sponsor, Catherine Bullock; June 2011

Jouvanca Jean-Baptiste knows that successful opera singers approach their craft with gusto. Self-confidence is a must, particularly if the character one is singing is doomed to die a violent death. “Being stabbed to death on stage was a new way of dying for me,” Jean-Baptiste said, referring to her demise as Nedda in Pagliacci, “because usually in an opera, I die by suicide, or from disease.”

Jean-Baptiste brings enormous energy and spunk to her roles. Born in New York City to parents who had emigrated from Haiti, the family moved to Florida when she was still a child. At a very young age, she began ballet and piano lessons. “Music has always been part of my world, part of my culture,” she says. “Piano gave me a musical foundation, but soon I switched to violin, and played it all through high school, as well as dabbling in tenor saxophone and bass clarinet. I was a total music geek and I loved it. I still am very much that music geek!” she says, laughing.

Growing up, she sang in school and church choirs, but it was not until she was 20 that she decided to take voice lessons to improve her singing. From that point on, she was determined to study music full-time and make a career as an opera singer. Not only did she learn arias and art songs, she also studied language diction. She continues private vocal study with Oscar Diaz, Jr. in Florida. “Oscar is the best teacher I have had thus far. Without him I would not be anywhere near the level that I am at now vocally, and I continue to flourish under his tutelage.”

Jean-Baptiste’s voice is that of a lirico spinto, possessing both a lyric and dramatic quality in her voice. “My voice is ideal for Puccini, Verdi, Mozart, and Strauss, in particular,” she says. In spring of 2009, she was hired to cover the title role in West Bay Opera’s Madama Butterfly. “I met Carlos Aguilar, at the time a resident artist with Opera San José, and he helped me set up an audition.” That audition resulted in an offer for her own residency, an opportunity for which she is undeniably grateful. “A performer is never created in the studio, we’re created in the theater. Opera San José provides a creative environment in which to develop.”

Jean-Baptiste’s favorite role at this point in her career is Anna Karenina, which she sang for Opera San José in 2010. “Many elements in that role were very personal and reflected my own life,” she said. Her favorite singers are Maria Callas, Leontyne Price, and Anna Moffo. “Moffo’s rendition of Violetta is inspiring,” she noted.

To prepare her own interpretation of Violetta, she read La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas fils, on which La traviata is based. “It helped me really understand the character, and I like her. Verdi intended La traviata to be told from Alfredo’s point of view, as it was in the book. The opera is a flashback, as we hear with the Prelude. This is repeated in the final act when Violetta is only moments from death. So the entire opera is really Alfredo reminiscing about his time with Violetta. We’re not sure of what happened from Violetta’s side, only what Alfredo tells us. Once we acknowledge this, we understand the opera better.”

To support herself while getting started in her career, along with temporary jobs, Jean-Baptiste sang with the Florida Grand Opera and Palm Beach Opera choruses. “I learned how to sing with conductors, work with directors, and about costumes, makeup, and stagecraft. All young singers should sing with an opera chorus for at least a couple years; it’s an invaluable learning and performing experience.” In her opinion, elements of a great performer include “excellent training, learning the music as written, professionalism in all things, humility, respect, and a positive disposition. And one must grow in every role, even if one has sung it before. These are what create strong professional singers.”

She admits that opera is a difficult profession. “This career is expensive before it is lucrative, if it ever gets to that point. And it can be emotionally trying at times, as well as lonely, because it takes you away from loved ones quite often. It can make it hard to form a lasting romantic relationship as well. So with the relationships you do have, you work even harder than most to keep those connections secure; they are so important to a traveling artist.”

Though one might see opera as being the only music in her life, Jean-Baptiste is quick to point out her love of other genres. The themes in rock and country music have many similarities to opera.”

Jean-Baptiste will be returning to the East Coast after her time with Opera San José, lining up auditions and singing contracts as her career progresses. One day she may decide to study vocal pedagogy, emulating her beloved teacher.

La traviata is sponsored by the Applied Materials Foundation.

Filed Under: La traviata, OSJ Blog Tagged With: La traviata, Violetta

Interview with Baritone Evan Brummel

January 3, 2012 By carolle 1 Comment

Sometimes a person chooses a career in the arts because parents and teachers encourage them to develop their talent; sometimes it is because of an unusual event. Both of these were the experience of Opera San José’s new resident baritone, Evan Brummel.

Born and raised in La Quinta, California, three-year-old Evan wanted to “solo” when the family sang Christmas carols. “We were a sports-oriented family. No one was musical,” he said, “but my mother, who teaches dance at the high school, encouraged me, and when I was nine she enrolled me in a local children’s choir.” As part of its program, the choir made a recording of 50s and 60s songs, which included Evan’s solo of “Rockin’ Robin.”

At Palm Desert High School he joined a choir, which performed show tunes around the community. He enjoyed that outreach, and likes OSJ’s outreach, too. Brummel also did musical theater at the local junior college while still in high school. “There was no classical music at all in the Palm Springs area,” he notes. When he was a sophomore, he heard The Three Tenors on PBS and was amazed at their sound and expressiveness. “I knew I had singing talent,” he says, “but hearing them made me want to perfect my voice and sing professionally.”

At sixteen Brummel enrolled in a classical music program in Irvine, where he met his first voice teacher, Patrick Goeser, an instructor from Chapman University. After high school, he applied to and was accepted at The Julliard School in New York. While there, he attended performances at the Metropolitan Opera and sat in at a Master Class taught by Luciano Pavarotti, one of his favorite singers. After a year at Julliard he returned to Chapman University to finish his degree, then headed back to New York where he auditioned as often as he could. Sarasota (Florida) Opera hired him and, “While I was there, Joseph Marcheso, an assistant conductor with Opera San José, visited and encouraged me to audition for Opera San José.” He was accepted for the 2011–2012 season, and also placed second in the 2011 Irene Dalis Vocal Competition.

“The famous prologue [Si puo, Signore e Signori- “A word, ladies and gentlemen”] was vigorously sung by Evan Brummel, a sirloin-voiced baritone, as Tonio, the hunchback clown.”
–Richard Scheinin, San Jose Mercury News

A first-year resident and a Jeanne McCann Fellow, Brummel made his debut with Opera San José in November, in the role of Tonio in Pagliacci; he will be singing Germont in La traviata, and Valentin in Faust later in the season. Each is a new role for him, and to prepare, he must translate the libretto into English, then focus on integrating the character’s words and emotions into the musical score. He believes that a good singer starts with good vocal quality, but also must communicate the text and accurately depict the character. “When I see an opera, I ‘study’ the singers and the production because I want to learn and improve,” he said. “Much of my singing is instinctive. I like to focus on how a character is communicating, and develop him.” To date, his favorite roles have been Tonio in Pagliacci, which he loves for the beauty of the music, and the title role in Rigoletto. “I like the vocal difficulty of the latter and the character has lots of emotion.”

Brummel’s favorite opera singers are the now-deceased American baritone Robert Merrill, and the late Italian baritone Piero Cappuccilli, a singer known for his breath control and smooth legato. “Music is a way for singers and musicians to express their emotions, and for the audience to do the same,” he says. “Each person’s life is different and the singer brings those experiences to the characters he or she will be portraying.”

This past summer, Brummel participated in Santa Fe Opera’s Apprentice Program, along with fellow OSJ resident tenor Michael Dailey. He was pleased that his voice teacher from Chapman University came to Santa Fe Opera while he was performing. Earlier, he took first place in the Career Division of the Gwendolyn Roberts Young Artist Auditions of the Los Angeles Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. He also received an Encouragement Award at the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Auditions.

Evan Brummel is happy to be back in California where he has many family connections, and he is delighted to be affiliated with Opera San José. He loves that Opera San José residents are given the opportunity to sing many lead roles and perform in the beautiful California Theatre, without having to constantly move from company to company. “It is an opportunity to gain experience and learn my capabilities. I expect to be an opera singer forever.”

La traviata is sponsored by the Applied Materials Foundation

Filed Under: La traviata, OSJ Blog

An Interview with Alexander Boyer

November 1, 2011 By carolle 1 Comment

Alexander Boyer as King Idomeneo in the 2011 company premiere; photo by Bob Shomler.

“From earliest childhood I remember my parents’ house filled with opera and other classical music,” says tenor Alexander Boyer. “When driving, my dad would have the radio on a classical music station.”

Boyer grew up on Long Island, New York. In elementary school he played the cello, an instrument he chose because it was large. He never really listened to popular music until he went to high school. His public school had an excellent music program, occasionally offering field trips to the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center, where Alexander saw his first opera, Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov. His school also offered a voice class and “I signed up to sing in the choir. The choir director was the music director of the student shows and I participated in the productions,” Boyer said. “They were my first on-stage experiences.”

The summer after his senior year of high school, Boyer attended Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute in western Massachusetts. That fall he enrolled at Boston University, majoring in music. “I wanted a university rather than a conservatory, so that I would have flexibility and choices in my education.” Boyer discovered that the music program at BU was so intense that it was very much like a conservatory. “I got a great technical foundation and some stage experience, such as when I carried a spear as a supernumerary in Boston Lyric Opera’s production of Don Carlos.” He also sang in the chorus of Idomeneo at BU, making him the only member of Opera San José’s cast to have been in that opera prior to the 2011 company premiere.

Boyer next enrolled in the Manhattan School of Music for graduate study, staying a year after he earned his Master of Music degree in order to get a Professional Studies Certificate. While there, he had a coaching session with Luciano Pavarotti, one of his favorite tenors.

Boyer responded to Opera San José’s call for auditions at the Manhattan School of Music; he is now a fourth-year resident with the company, sponsored in part by a fellowship grant from Howard W. Golub. He has participated in the Merola and Santa Fe Opera programs, and is a winner of the Mario Lanza scholarship award.

Alexander Boyer sings as a lyric tenor. His first principal roles were in Lee Hoiby’s A Month in the Country and Lennox Berkeley’s A Dinner Engagement. In Opera San José’s 2009 production of Carmen, he sang the role of Don José–one of his favorites, along with Luigi in Puccini’s Il tabarro. This season, Boyer will sing principal roles in all four Opera San José productions, including Canio in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci (opening November 12th). “I may be a younger Canio than is usually the case, and Canio is already a complicated and difficult character to play.” It is a new role for Boyer, intense and emotional, and he is prepared to bring a physicality and violence to the role if the director wants that kind of interpretation.

When studying a new role, Boyer usually does not listen to other recordings. Rather, he reads a translation of the opera and does a bit of historical research, before plunging into the music. He appreciates the stability and constant stage time that he gets at Opera San José, saying, “It allows me to refine a role and polish my performance and technique. I keep striving to be a better performer.” Boyer does not think a good singer must necessarily have the most fabulous voice; he feels that it is more important for the singer to understand the composer’s intentions and the drama of the piece, as well as its historical context. “A good singer has awareness. One must be aware of oneself, of the performers around you, of the audience, aware of how he or she projects this art form.” He further notes that many singers do not sing well in their native language.

“For opera to survive,” Boyer says, “it is important that it not be locked into tradition. There must be new and creative productions. Of course, these new interpretations must be ‘aware’ and the singers and directors must always keep in mind that opera is entertainment.” As the end of his time with the company approaches, he plans to audition all over the country. Let’s hope that his travels bring him back to Northern California—he likes the Bay Area, despite his observation that “There are no good delis here.”

Editor’s note: Any former New Yorkers out there who can offer Alex some tips on a good deli in the Bay Area? I’ll admit that I like the pastrami reuben at Max’s Opera Café in Palo Alto, but I suspect that true deli aficionados will not approve… ;)

Filed Under: Pagliacci

Betany Coffland Interview: Following a Dream Beyond the Rainbow

October 17, 2011 By carolle Leave a Comment

“I’m always impressed by how much work goes into putting an opera together and how much physical and emotional energy the singers invest in their voice lessons, coachings, outreach programs and rehearsals in order to make the magic that we finally see happen on stage. They don’t do it for the money, and that is why the program at Opera San José and its network of supporters are so beneficial to budding professionals.”
- Joseph Coffland

: Mezzo-soprano Betany Coffland and her husband Joe make time in their busy schedules to go for hikes and spend time outdoors.

Talented singers like mezzo-soprano Betany Coffland frequently come from families that value music in all its forms. “Everyone in my family sings,” Coffland says, “though not professionally. Mom was an amateur opera singer and often sang famous soprano arias around the house.” Betany and her siblings sometimes entertained the family, performing as a quartet.

Born in a small Kansas town, Betany’s family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, when she was four. At fifteen, she auditioned for Brigadoon and got the role of Fiona. “My parents began to participate in shows with me, since I was too young to drive myself to rehearsals.” As a teenager, Coffland also participated in the first year of the Missouri Fine Arts Academy. Each high school could nominate one person, and she was selected from her school. For 100 students, it was three weeks concentrating on song, dance, mask-making and other subjects. “It was the defining moment that convinced me I wanted a career as a singer,” Coffland said. Two summers ago she went back to the Academy, now internationally respected, and lectured on what the students there can expect as they move into their chosen careers.

Coffland’s undergraduate studies were at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, an institution she says is very protective of their singers. She auditioned and was accepted for their Graduate School Opera Workshop Program, where she sang short pieces and learned how to develop her characters. She then completed a Masters Degree at Julliard. “It is a very demanding school,” she says, “I developed a backbone.” In addition to singing and acting classes, her conservatory training involved intensive language study. Singers must take German, Italian and French, and they also take diction classes. After graduation, Betany moved to Italy to perfect her Italian, and she later lived in Prague so she could learn Czech. “At Julliard, we also had to take English diction classes. English is the hardest language to sing in.”

Coffland, who keeps track of opportunities to sing and had seen the Opera San José website, was living with her husband in Boise, Idaho, when she met Jason and Michele Detwiler, former OSJ residents. The company was looking for a mezzo-soprano, and luckily for everyone, the Detwilers convinced her to audition. Now a fourth-year resident with Opera San José, she is a George and Susan Crow Fellow and a John M. Heineke and Catherine R. Montfort Fellow.

Coffland will sing the role of the Woman in OSJ’s upcoming production of La voix humaine. Typically, she likes non-standard musical works the best. Her favorite opera is Little Women by Mark Adamo, and she would love to sing the role of Jo in it. She also likes Pelleas et Melisande by Debussy and The Rake’s Progress by Stravinsky. Her favorite singer is the now deceased recitalist Jan DeGaetani, perhaps because she too likes to do recitals. “I also like to sing chamber music and art songs, and plan to do some of both after OSJ,” she said. “One of my favorite roles was Dorabella, in Così fan tutte. It was all about being in an ensemble, and I like comic roles.” All the roles she has sung for OSJ have been new ones for her.

Coffland believes that authentic, real characters are what make an opera great. When she sees a performance, she searches for honesty and wants to see a person’s soul on stage. She watches to see how the story and the music come together. “A good singer has excellent technique, but that person must also be able to communicate with the audience.” And a good artist is the product of research. He or she must learn about the characters and how they relate and must ask, “Who has done this role before? How can I make it different?” In preparation for her role as Rosina in The Barber of Seville, for example, she read a translation of the play by Pierre Beaumarchais, upon which the opera was based.

She and her husband are considering settling permanently in the Bay Area after her residency, though she will continue auditioning for roles in New York and elsewhere. Her husband supports her career – “He promised to do so in our wedding vows.”

OSJ patron Carolle J. Carter was a professor emerita from Menlo College, and is a retired lecturer in history, San José State University.

Filed Under: la voix humaine

Artist Interview: Jasmina Halimic

August 21, 2011 By carolle 2 Comments

Jasmina Halimic and Fellowship sponsor Jan Schmidek at the Santana Row summer concert, July 2011.

Jasmina Halimic is a young woman who is realizing the American dream, in part with help from Opera San José. An American citizen born in Bosnia Herzegovina, she was exposed to music from early childhood. “My mother says I sang before I talked,” she says, and before the Bosnian war of the early 1990s, she went to the government music school, a full immersion program which included piano and voice training. One day she overheard a mezzo-soprano a few years older than herself singing Schubert. Jasmina, in awe, decided she would work hard so that someday she would be able to sing just as spectacularly.

When she was fourteen, her family was forced to seek refuge in Croatia in order to escape the political tensions and ethnic cleansing occurring in Bosnia. After a year, family in America helped them immigrate to Pittsburgh, PA. Jasmina enrolled in high school, and her cousin alerted the principal that she could sing. As luck would have it, the choir class was preparing its spring show; she auditioned for a solo role, and from then on she was the class soloist. With her teacher’s encouragement, Jasmina continued to study piano and theory, and also began taking operatic singing lessons.

Following high school, she enrolled at Duquesne University to study music performance. Jasmina traveled to Rome to learn Italian, and also studied language and diction in France and Germany. After graduation, she worked as an administrative assistant and taught Italian at the local community college. To continue developing her voice, she explains, “my singing needed improving, and I began the long and difficult search for the best suited voice teacher.” In New York City, she found a mentor with whom she continues to study, former Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano Patricia McCaffrey. In addition to her vocal training, she pursued a master’s degree at Indiana University, and in 2003 Tito Capobianco cast her as Valencienne in the IU Opera Theater production of The Merry Widow. “His production is legendary, and that comic role was a breakthrough for me, confidence-wise.”

Halimic applied to Opera San José in 2010, and she was cast in the role of Magda for the company’s premiere of La rondine. Her performance gained her an artist residency, and last season she sang the roles of Mimì in La bohème, and the title role in Anna Karenina, a modern American opera, which she says “made me a better musician and challenged all my talents.” This season, she will sing Elettra in Idomeneo, Nedda in Pagliacci, Violetta in La traviata, and Marguerite in Faust.

Halimic appreciates the uniqueness of Opera San José’s resident ensemble, and that “it allows people like me with big voices and limited opportunities to get experience. The group is collegial and has good chemistry and heart. It’s like we are all on the same team.” She loves the supportive San José audience because it encourages the singers to give their best on stage.

Opera San José’s extensive outreach program is another excellent opportunity for the singers to share their talents. “Opera is a serious art, not just pretty sounds, but it’s also entertainment. I love entertaining my audience and sharing the gift of music,” Halimic says. “A beautiful voice isn’t enough. Excellent technique is necessary if one is to become a fine singer; this means perfect command and control over the vocal instrument, in order to be true to the music and the composer’s intent.” Two singers who inspire Halimic with their technique are Luciano Pavarotti, and soprano Virginia Zeani, who has been a major influence in her life.

Halimic loves every role, and strives to bring honesty to each one. To prepare, she reads the story and works out how she can make the role her own. For Anna Karenina, she watched several movie adaptations in addition to reading the Tolstoy novel. In looking towards this season’s opening production of Idomeneo, she visualizes her role of Elettra as a kind of ‘queen of the night.’ Opera San José’s collaboration with the Packard Humanities Institute is “an attempt to do a truly period version of the opera–no other group has done it this way. Frescoes are being studied for the sets and costumes.” This production of Idomeneo will feature experts from all fields: artists from Ballet San Jose will perform the dance scenes, and well-known Mozart specialist, George Cleve, will conduct.
An award winning opera singer who is equally at home in recitals and on the concert stage, Jasmina Halimic epitomizes the kind of talented, dedicated artists that Opera San José seeks, cultivates, and encourages.

OSJ Patron Carolle J. Carter is a professor emerita from Menlo College, and a retired lecturer in history, San José State University.

Filed Under: OSJ Blog