Joel Revzen, the new artistic director of Arizona Opera, is a frequent guest conductor with major symphony orchestras, opera companies, and chamber groups. A member of the Metropolitan Opera conducting staff, he is also the artistic director of the Berkshire Opera in western Massachusetts, where he has received high praise for his innovative programming.
Revzen spoke with Classical Singer’s Maria Nockin by telephone from his office in Phoenix.
Were you born into a musical family?
Absolutely! Our home in Chicago was quite musical. My mother was a violinist, an amateur, but she had been concertmaster of her high school orchestra. Although she did not pursue music professionally and she became a businesswoman, in her spare time she would get together with other accomplished amateur musicians to play string quartets.
We were always surrounded by music at home. My parents often went to the Chicago Lyric Opera, and the symphony, too. I can remember, as a youngster, getting to see Fritz Reiner conduct the Chicago Symphony.
What languages do you speak?
I speak German. I studied it both in high school and at Juilliard, from which I have both my conducting degrees. I’ve quite often conducted opera in Germany, particularly at the National Theater in Mannheim, where I did my first Parsifal. Because I don’t speak Czech, I’ve also used my German in Prague where I conducted the symphony, the philharmonic and the chamber orchestra.
I speak some French and Italian, but I need to become more fluent. Of course, I’ve taken diction in all the Romance languages. I’ve learned some Russian because I’ve made six trips there to conduct at the Kirov. Since my father came to the United States when he was 2 years old, he did not speak Russian, but it is my family’s heritage.
What aspects of performing opera do you find most important?
Everything can be found by searching the score. It’s where I find all my interpretive ideas. Hopefully, here at Arizona Opera, we will engage stage directors who also know how to look into what the composer intended when he set the story to music. I prefer that they get their concepts organically from the music itself, rather than impose some external idea on it.
How do you go about choosing a director?
As with anything else, I choose people who share my musical values and who know how to glean the essence of characterization from a score.
How do you choose guest conductors?
I am interested in people who are actually willing to risk bringing music to life off of the page, who have strong musical convictions but also believe in collaboration with their artists. As well, they must be people who understand the role of an accompanist, when appropriate.
What qualities impress you most in a singer?
I look for those singers who are willing to reach inside themselves to come up with an interpretive conclusion. I don’t go to an audition with a specific voice sound or voice type in mind—but again, it comes down to interpretive conviction.
How important is a singer’s appearance?
It is not of primary importance. Obviously, singers have to be believable on the stage, but believability is a very general term. I certainly don’t go in saying someone has to be 126 pounds and blonde. I go into the audition wanting to be moved. I also engage artists that I’ve worked with before who can convincingly portray characterization.
Also, I try to engage singers that know how to look into a score and to derive their interpretive conclusions from it. I particularly like singers who understand phrase, direction of line and harmonic tension. Basically, I want singers who understand all of this and who also have good musicianship.
What are your plans for Arizona Opera’s future? How will you insure its future?
My plan is to continue to enhance the quality of what we put on stage, and to create a balanced repertoire, not only of late 19th century works like those of Puccini and Verdi, but also including music of all periods. I will try to do the less-often-played works of well-known composers, for example, La Rondine instead of La Bohème. Instead of Massenet’s Werther, we could do his Cherubin and link it to Mozart’s “Figaro,” if it were done in the same season. There should be a point to a season, a framework for it. It should not be just any five operas.
If we cannot afford to do Aida well, we will do something else of that same genre that we can do well. The quality of each performance is of paramount importance to me.
Are you planning to perform for more school children?
We now play to some 20,000 [school children] each year, but we want to continually expand that number. They will continue to be invited to our dress rehearsals, in addition to our expanded school tour program.
We want to reach as many people in every age group as we can. We’ve initiated a “Talk Back” program this year, which allows people to ask questions after each show. It’s getting a wonderful response. The last time we did it, we had approximately 300 people in attendance. It gives the audience a chance to meet some of the artists personally and ask questions about what they have just seen. We want to educate people and turn them on to this art form, this synthesis of all other art forms.
The one missing piece at Arizona Opera is a resident young artists’ training program. Right now, we need to be involved in training the artists of the future. We will probably begin with six or seven singers, and never have more than 10 or 12. Our program will be comprehensive, and each singer will get truly individual attention. I started such a program four years ago in the Berkshires, and it has become the ideal transition between graduate school and a serious career. Many young artists leave school not knowing how to start their careers. The Resident Young Artists’ Training Program should be a finishing program that fills in the gaps of their education. It needs to include classes in movement, diction, interpretation, combat, etc.
Auditions for the Arizona program will be national, but we will give local artists the first chances at the program. After that, we will listen to singers on both coasts.
What will you be doing at Berkshire Opera this summer?
Rigoletto, along with a triple bill of Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, Barber’s A Hand of Bridge, and [Seymour] Barab’s A Game of Chance. Next season, Arizona Opera will give a double bill of Il Tabarro and Pagliacci, La Cenerentola, a concert of operatic favorites and Cosi fan tutte, and The Consul.
Are you branching out into any popular music areas?
Yes, we have already done that with Sweeney Todd—and, together with the Arizona Theater Company, we are exploring some joint ventures. I’ve already met with them, and we are plotting!
How do singers go about auditioning for either the Berkshire or the Arizona Opera company?
For either company, singers need to send us their résumés. For the Resident Young Artist Program, they do not have to be managed, but they need recommendations from their voice teachers. For major roles with either company, we are hearing only managed singers to begin with, because otherwise the floodgates open and we are deluged with requests for auditions. For minor roles, anyone with a recommendation from a local teacher will be considered.
For Berkshire Opera send your materials to the attention of Executive Director William Powers. For Arizona Opera send them to Tom Wright, Director of Artistic Administration. I will review them at both companies.
What are your least favorite audition arias?
(He laughs, because he is not going to get caught on this one!) The arias that are not sung well! Artists can sing whatever piece they choose so long as they sing it compellingly. It’s not what they sing, it’s how they sing it.
Are you open to the idea of having one day when you hear pre-screened, unmanaged singers in short segments?
We will collect résumés, rate them by experience and invite people to audition. We will be as open as possible, given our circumstances, and will hear people throughout the year, not just once during each season.
Will you be starting a Spanish-speaking opera guild like the ones now in existence at other opera companies along the US-Mexican border?
Yes, we have someone working on that now. Sonia Falcone is starting a group called “Latinos for Opera.” We want to reach the Spanish-speaking population and, eventually, I hope to do a Zarzuela opera. We want to build an ever-increasing, diverse opera community made up of people who have a passion for this art form.
What are the chances of Arizona Opera moving up from a B to an A company?
I want the development to come from inside. The money will follow. I want Arizona Opera to be a company to which people look for the finest quality in operatic performances. Maybe we cannot outshine the Metropolitan or San Francisco Operas, but we can compete with San Diego Opera, Santa Fe Opera and the Opera Theater of St. Louis, all creative companies that do first-rate work. I want people to mention Arizona Opera in the same breath. The money will follow, if the reputation precedes it.
I also believe that we are the Arizona Opera, not the Phoenix and Tucson Opera, and I want us eventually to perform in Flagstaff, in Mesa (at the new center being built there), in Sedona, etc. There are a great many places to which we could reach out in some way appropriate to our financial situation. I want to explore all those ideas. There’s a lot to be done.
