Opera and musical theatre composer Jeanine Tesori recently spoke at Opera America about writing for singers.
It’s thrilling to attend a live presentation to hear a composer talk about their music and why it is the way it is. Hearing directly from them—in real life and in real time—is a luxury opportunity that’s a literal impossibility for so many singers learning and performing literature written a handful of decades ago or more. And what a relief it is, even with the best of scholarly intentions, not to have to attempt explaining why a composer decided to set a vowel an [æ] here or there, and on that note.
Last fall, I found myself quite literally at Crossover Corner once again. This time it was at the corner of 7 th Avenue and West 30th Street in Midtown Manhattan, on the 7th floor of the National Opera Center in Marc A. Scorca Hall. Many CS readers will be familiar with the hall’s royal blue walls, teakwood paneling, and the energy of a room in which countless arias are self-taped and YAP auditions are held each year. And on September 18th, just days before receiving a standing ovation after the Metropolitan Opera premiere of her opera Grounded, composer Jeanine Tesori filled the hall with her trademark candor and warmth, sharing humor and wisdom in an evening conversation with host Marc Scorca, president/CEO of Opera America.
Advertisement
I was totally delighted to be there as several of my first-year voice students at Pace took their first trip to the National Opera Center, while experiencing such a close encounter with the most prolific and honored female theatrical composer in history. On any given day in NYC, there is a multitude of artistic happenings, and I was thrilled my students opted to hear (and later meet) the composer of so much of their own musical theatre performance literature, as she spoke on the challenges and requirements of writing for the opera stage, as well as expressed her immense gratitude for the opportunity.
Tesori’s gift for crafting complex yet musically relatable stories about complicated family relationships is well evidenced in many of her works for Broadway—including but not limited to Caroline, Or Change, Fun Home and, most recently, Kimberly Akimbo. And that evening she traced the important musical throughline from the origin story of her grandfather’s compositional aspirations to her own cathartic joy in bringing her 93-year-old mother to the Metropolitan Opera to attend her opera Grounded. Tesori now holds the distinction of being the first female composer to open the Met season in the company’s history of 139 seasons.
With Tesori cracking frequent jokes to the audience of singers, teachers, and opera lovers, the evening was rich with the composer’s good humor and insight into the psyche of all involved, ranging from listener to stagehand. At one point, she commented that among her favorites are the production notes she gets from dressers, whose nearly sole experience with her scores comes from listening to it backstage and from the wings.
Jeanine Tesori with Peter Thoresen and students at Opera America
Tesori also addressed the topics of singing, singers, and writing for them—and this core component of her writing process was met with eager reception at the National Opera Center: “The effort of singing for opera singers—they’re NFL players, they’re unbelievable. I mean, you could drive a truck over their diaphragms. It’s unbelievable what they do. I’m so in awe of them…I would love to do Blue [opera in two acts, Tesori/Tazewell Thompson, 2019] in New York with classical theater voices because there are so many people who, like I, studied classically, but also have this other way of singing with a different style, operetta and vaudeville, the tendrils that make musical theatre. And I would love to see that with different voices that are classically trained but also singing musical theatre. I mean, Ben Bliss [in Grounded] would be a fantastic Bobby in Company—let’s just say it, you know? Many, many of the people singing can do both.”
Scorca noted Jeanine Tesori’s deftness and expertise in writing for singers, inviting her to speak about her process in writing for a singer and their vocal apparatus: “I always go to their vocal lessons. Whenever I write for someone, I go to their vocal lessons. I want to understand what they’re up against. I went with Emily [Emily D’Angelo in Grounded]— I met Emily and decided to write this for her as soon as she walked into the room. That was years ago. And then I went to her vocal lesson and saw her relationship to music, which was private and sacred, and what I really learned about—for her—you can hear when the overtones are in a voice and when they’re not—you can sort of see when the voice opens up. I am very interested in keeping voices healthy because I come from an eight-a-week tradition, when choreographers—back in the day—used to kill dancers left and right…. Eight a week is really grueling.”
Jeanine Tesori and Marc Scorca
Tesori’s advice centers on the impact that barbed words can have on young artists: “I had done an ASCAP event with the very first show that I wrote that was super derivative in a way that I’ve never, ever let anyone listen to it…and there was a panel of—I don’t know if they were famous, but celebrated, people in the industry. And I finished and I was like, ‘I’m a star.’ And one of them said, “Um, Miss, Stephen Sondheim has ruined the musical theatre for us, and for you.”
“And I remember my face getting so hot because I thought I was a star. And it was very derivative—now I see it. And I took a beat—and this is when I really started to understand how to hold my own—and I said, “You know, I was so looking forward to coming here, and I have two things to say to you as a panel: I should leave here as a composer wanting to write, not wanting to give up—which is how I feel after that comment. And the other thing is you have to be less lazy in the things that you say to young people.”
Advertisement
And I just packed my stuff. I remember thinking, ‘Hell no. You’re not gonna talk to me like that.’ And it was very public. And so ever since, when I’m on a panel, I feel like you have to be so careful because we can shut each other down very quickly with what we say.”
In wrapping up the conversation, Scorca asked Tesori to share what’s at the heart of the advice she gives to the aspiring composer. Much like the story and subject matter she chooses to set to music, her advice centers on human connection and curiosity—two elements of the artist with ready application to singers of all stripes: “Well, first of all, I think having your friends and family be around you is really important. There was a time when I didn’t do that. I have to isolate to write…so I would say that to really make sure that you invest in the connections in your life.
“I think the other thing that I teach—and I teach in order to learn—is you must, must remain curious. I don’t feel accomplished. I don’t feel that way. And I don’t think it’s the imposter thing. It’s just, I don’t feel like there was ever a there there. There’s so much to learn. And I feel humbled by the oceanic nature of music. I just don’t feel like I have gotten there. And people think that’s an act, but it’s just really not.”
To see the entire interview, visit Opera America online: www.operaamerica.org/industry-resources/2024/202409/jeanine-tesori-in-conversation
