Soprano Anna Christy is a Cunégonde/Morgana/Olympia/Adele type—and for the past nine years, she’s been a mother, too.
I checked in with Christy about 15 minutes before our scheduled phone interview to see if she’d like to get started a bit early. She immediately texted back to say she couldn’t because she was taking care of her son. When I got her on the phone, she laughed. “How funny that I’m going to be talking to you about family and I had to hold off on the interview to put my toddler down for a nap,” she says.
But that’s the way of a mother who prioritizes her children.
When we caught up on the phone, only about 30 minutes later, I was greeted by a warm voice on the other end, a woman who spoke with ease about everything from why she doesn’t read reviews to how her son reacts when he hears her sing.
Her Sixth Lucia
With the help of her physician husband, Christy is raising a 9-year-old daughter and a 3-year-old son. Simultaneously, her career is thriving.
She did her sixth Lucia recently in her house debut at Florida Grand Opera, having first performed Lucia 13 years ago with Opera Omaha in Nebraska. She also performed the disturbed heroine at London’s English National Opera (2008 and 2010), with Canadian Opera Company in Toronto (the ENO production in 2013), and this past spring at Opera Colorado.
When asked about which years she had performed Lucia, Christy quickly rattled off the information, saying, “I can remember because I remember how old my children were.” Since becoming a mother, she can relate each show to what is happening with her children’s development. “My daughter was born the same year as my first Lucia at English National Opera [in 2008]. She learned how to walk during the second one in 2010.”
Florida Grand’s Lucia di Lammermoor opened November 11, 2017, at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts’ Ziff Ballet Opera House in Miami, Florida. The production, originally conceived by John Doyle for Houston Grand Opera, was directed by Elise Sandell.
According to David Fleshler of South Florida Classical Review, “Christy tossed off the runs and other coloratura demands with a winning lightness and effortlessness, phrasing the cascades of notes in a manner that served the drama.” But Christy likely does not know she received such high praise. Like many other artists, she avoids reading reviews.
With a laugh, she explains how excerpts from reviews make their way into her biography on her website. “My dad gathers my reviews. He picks the best ones, and then my husband puts them on my website. Not only do I not want to see the reviews, but I’m too busy raising my children. I don’t even see them.”
Yes, she’s too busy to read them—but she explains further why they’re not worth her time. “As singers get older, which I’ve noticed in myself and my [singer] friends, we gain confidence in some things—but you also learn you’re not perfect, you’re not invincible, and you’re beating yourself up enough, so why even bother to see if somebody else is?”
Though she has experienced the vocal changes any singer would expect to go through over a 13-year period, one thing that has remained constant is her understanding of Lucia as a character. This is because the director of her first Lucia di Lammermoor at Opera Omaha, the late Kay Walker Castaldo, valued character development and even worked acting exercises with the cast. “I was lucky that first time around to have a director that was very specific about acting and discovering the character,” she says. “It wasn’t just, ‘Go there and stand and do this or do that.’ It was a very good introduction to fleshing out the character.”
Lucia is a little off-kilter from her usual characters. “I tend to be kind of the spunky, spirited ingenue type,” she says. “And that always fit me very well. But any time I have an opportunity to play somebody with a dark history, I really jump in.”
By the time she sang her second and third Lucia, she was in her 30s, and her voice was beginning to fill out. “I started to gain more middle voice and had to figure out how to negotiate that,” she explains.
The past few productions of Lucia have been the most artistically fulfilling for her. “Around 35, I all of a sudden understood Bel Canto style,” she says. “I sang with Stephen Lord, and he is kind of a god when it comes to Bel Canto. I gained so much from his mastery of the style and was able to understand the freedom that I had to express the character the way I wanted to in my voice. So, I think the past two to three times I’ve sung it have been the most free because I feel I have the ability to portray the character through the music.”
The Making of an Artist
Christy met Matthew Epstein about 15 years ago. “He was my manager [from 2006 to 2010],” she says, “but supported and encouraged me before he ever signed me and still mentors me now that he has retired from management. Mainly, though, he is my friend. He has seen me through all of my professional and personal ups and downs and he has a very special place in my life.”
Epstein says he first heard about Christy from director Christopher Alden. “She had done a production of his [at New York City Opera],” Epstein recalls. Shortly thereafter, Epstein’s and Christy’s paths crossed again. “I heard her audition, and she was lovely.”
At this point in her career, she rarely makes role debuts, though she does have a new role in the works for a future engagement. “I’ve just always known who I was,” she says. “I’ve pretty much stayed the same rep-wise [for years now].”
Epstein agrees that Christy has mostly explored the roles that fit her. “We hoped at one point that it might develop into heavier repertoire,” he says, but that has not been the case so far. “I would like to see her sing Pamina and [Amina in] La sonnambula—but other than that, she’s done the bulk of the repertoire for her voice.”
Two people helped shape her identity as an artist: twin opera directors Christopher and David Alden. “I’ve worked with both of them consistently over the body of my entire career,” she says. “Anytime something comes up with them, I say yes.”
Christy performed in a production directed by Christopher Alden in her very first opera at age 11. “I was a street urchin in a La bohème he directed for Los Angeles Music Center Opera, as it was known in 1987,” she recounts. “I clearly remember him, but hadn’t put two and two together by the time I met him at NYCO, and it was quite a moment when we both realized it one day in rehearsal.”
The Aldens are known for their post-modern and often unconventional stagings, which is particularly appealing to Christy. “I’ve been kind of bored with standard staging,” she says, “and people may not always agree with everything [the Aldens] do with their realizations of opera, but for me it’s always interesting. It challenges me as an artist, and I just have a certain sympatico with them. They also both were pretty instrumental in propelling my career forward. I’m grateful to them for that and helping me grow as an artist.”
With a Japanese mother and American father, Christy grew up speaking both English and Japanese and singing Japanese songs with her mother. “My mother has a beautiful voice. No offense to my dad, of course,” she laughs. “For the record, all the acting chops come from my dad’s side, so it was really a perfect marriage.”
While she rarely performs Japanese works, she does have one set of three Japanese songs by Takuboku Ishikawa that she’s performed in recital on several occasions. She worked on them with coach/pianist Ken Noda, who serves on the artistic administration at the Metropolitan Opera. “He was so kind to share them with me,” she says.
And though the text translations are printed in the program, the audience may not be particularly familiar with the Japanese language and may not quite understand exactly what she is singing, “but it touches them,” she says. “I always come out of the recitals and people say that’s hands down their favorite.”
Planning Family around Career
Epstein was Christy’s manager during the time she began planning to have children. “We were aware she wanted to have a proper private life,” he says.
And he had extensive experience with advising female opera singers, such as Frederica von Stade and Renée Fleming, who wanted to be mothers. He understood what factors would need to be considered during the planning stages. And he was up for the task, of course. “One had to encourage [Christy] to be the woman she wanted to be,” he says.
Christy and Epstein found some vacancies in her schedule that would allow her time to have her first child. “I was very careful, having experience with [other singers], to advise her to come back after children rather slowly. Physically, it is difficult on the muscles.” He says that no matter whether a woman births a child through cesarean or naturally, “when you have children, the muscles are either cut or stretched, and it takes time to recover. If you go too quickly, it can either be not successful or even damaging.”
The aim was to not have to cancel any engagements, but sometimes that happens, Epstein says, and “everyone is happy for the singer when they have a child.” However, “it’s not a good idea to cancel things that are crucial for momentum,” he says.
Christy had her first child, a daughter, in 2008. She brought her daughter on gigs until she was five. “She went everywhere and she’s been all over the world,” Christy says. “She lived a good portion of her first five years away from home. She didn’t know that all the other kids weren’t living the same way. She benefited from going to cool places, [though] I’m not sure she remembers.”
During the first couple of years, Christy relied heavily on family. “I was incredibly lucky to have my parents-in-law and my own parents taking turns” helping, she says. “My mother-in-law carried the heaviest burden for sure. She was the biggest blessing.”
When her daughter was 2, she and her husband hired an au pair. They wanted to choose a Japanese au pair so that their daughter would hear the language consistently. Also, Christy says, Japanese children are often raised in a similar way, so they would know what to expect in that regard.
“From 2 to 4, my daughter had one babysitter,” who was really like Christy’s “little sister.” The au pair loved to travel, so Christy thought it was a mutually beneficial situation. “For me, it was a godsend,” she says.
Eventually, it became evident that it made more sense to keep her daughter at home while she was away for singing engagements. “I had been pulling her out of preschool, but when she started kindergarten, that became more difficult,” she says. “And then in her kindergarten year we had my son, and he’s traveled with me a good bit too, but not nearly as much. He’s a bit more of a homebody.”
And what did the companies employing her think about her children traveling with her? Did this affect contract negotiations? Epstein says there was no change because the companies “have nothing to do with that. The singers are responsible for airfares, flights, larger apartments” to accommodate children, partners, and childcare personnel.
With Christy, companies do not need to concern themselves with whether she has children waiting for her back at home. Christy does what she is contracted to do, and with grace and professionalism. “[Christy] was very good about not saying she had to arrive late,” Epstein says. “She would either say I can do it or I can’t do it—and that would be two or three years in advance.”
Not only that, she’s well liked and is always prepared. Everyone from stage directors to conductors to stage managers know they can rely on her, he says. “She’s a good colleague, is well respected, and is a no-nonsense performer.”
Christy says there has been no change in how companies treat her since having children. “In their eyes, I don’t think it really matters whether I have a toddler at home or not,” she says. “For me personally, of course, it’s always a bonus when a particular company is actively supportive, when they say they are family oriented and want to help with arrangements and be particularly flexible with arrival or release times. But I just have always taken care of it on my own.”
Planning Career around Family
Christy has lived in California, Illinois, New York, Boston, and Connecticut and spent summers in Japan as a child.
She and her husband were living in Connecticut when her daughter was born, and they thought, “‘What were we doing so far away from our families trying to raise our child?’ We wanted to be closer to family,” she says.
Christy’s family still lives in Los Angeles where she grew up, and her husband’s family is in Colorado. “The choice was either Colorado or California,” she says, “and when I’m on the road it makes more sense to have his family close by,” so they went with Colorado.
Christy’s son traveled with her a bit when he was a newborn and toddler, but now, at 3, he’s happier when he’s home. “[My son and daughter] are of an age now where they play a lot together and are a real support for each other,” she says. “I’ll leave [my son] at home more often than not because he’s got [my daughter] and my husband. He thrives at home with his toys and routine.”
As new role offers come in, Christy checks the dates against her daughter’s school schedule and her contracted performing schedule, and decides whether she wants to take the gig. If she’s already going to be away once in a semester’s time, for instance, she likely won’t commit to being away again. She will still consider it, of course, “but I’m also just really wanting to be with my children,” she says. “My daughter and I got a lot of one-on-one time, and my son and I didn’t get as much of that.”
The Lucia di Lammermoor at FGO in November fell partially during a fall break in her daughter’s schooling, so her husband and children could travel to Miami and stay for about 10 days.
In fact, Christy says her daughter is old enough to see her performances now. She has even seen her as Lucia twice. “I did wait until she was eight [to let her see it] and I explained it to her, and she got that it wasn’t real,” she says.
Her son, on the other hand, is a typical toddler. “He’s heard me sing and practice at home,” she says, “but usually he’s telling me to be quiet.”
No longer in need of an au pair, Christy is enjoying the time at home in between performing engagements. “This year it’s just us,” she says, “and we’re really enjoying that. For the future, if we find that my schedule is fuller, we would consider getting another au pair. For now, we have some very cherished babysitters here in Denver.”
