As opera companies experience the changing landscape of the music world, Tomer Zvulun, artistic and general director of Atlanta Opera, says his company is embracing its challenges and finds itself in a state of financial stability. Here he discusses bringing innovation to older works, forging new collaborations with opera companies across the country, and what a singer must do to be rehired at Atlanta Opera.
What does being both artistic and general director at Atlanta Opera entail?
It includes planning future seasons including the casting and the productions—in terms of production, design, voices, and everything that you will hear and see onstage from an artistic standpoint. At the same time, it also entails establishing a clear artistic direction for the company that is strategic and thoughtful toward the future.
The general director role includes handling all the business elements of the organization: focusing on fundraising and operations, managing and interfacing with the staff and board of directors, and so on and so forth.
Those two aspects of the position also include being the public face for the company.
How has your vision for Atlanta Opera come to fruition in the past year since you became artistic and general director?
It’s been actually almost a year and a quarter now. We are looking at increasing the amount of performances that we’re doing. We moved from 12 performances this year into 18 performances. I believe that we need to increase not only the amount of performances and the repertoire associated with being an opera company but also to increase our reach into the community and have visibility and presence in multiple locations.
What plans do you have for the future of the company?
Our headquarters has been and will remain the Cobb Energy Centre, which is a beautiful state-of-the-art theater. But in addition to the Cobb, we’re also performing this year at the Alliance Theatre for the first time in many years as well as on Kennesaw State University’s campus, at the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts at Emory University, and at Theatrical Outfit in downtown Atlanta.
So, in one year, our visibility and presence all over the city has increased.
Our focus is on community engagement and engaging with other arts organizations for collaboration. Three universities—Georgia State, Emory, and Kennesaw State—were involved in our September concert, “Choral Silver Celebration,” which was an evening of chorus greatest hits celebrating our Chorus Master Maestro Walter Huff’s 25th anniversary with the company.
We have a continuous relationship with the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum, which will present the second year of concerts focusing on Jewish composers. We have a lot going on this upcoming season on many fronts.
From a national aspect, we’re also collaborating with various other opera companies. This coming season, we’re doing two new productions on the mainstage. The first, Rigoletto, was coproduced with Boston Lyric Opera and Opera Omaha. The other production, Madama Butterfly, was coproduced with Castleton Festival, Lorin Maazel’s summer festival. And as we plan the future, we continue to plan new coproductions with other leading opera companies in the country while focusing on collaborating and reaching out to the community, to different demographics in different areas of the city.
What are some of the greatest successes Atlanta Opera is currently experiencing?
I think there’s a great vitality and energy that starts from within—in terms of the staff, the board—and it trickles down to the patrons, the public. I think that there has been a big change in the perception from within and in the perception from outside of what this company is and how we’re going to look at the future. And I think that’s the greatest achievement.
It’s obvious in terms of the exposure that we’re getting and in terms of the response to the season. Ticket sales and subscriptions are going very well for this 2014–15 season, and we are as stable as we have been in a long time, financially.
What are the biggest challenges facing the company?
I think that we are dealing with the same challenges that every other arts organization faces, and especially opera companies. If you look on a national scale, from the Metropolitan Opera to San Diego, all of them are struggling with aging donor base, dwindling numbers of new audience members, and so on. This is certainly a challenge—and it’s also a challenge in Atlanta, where the symphony is facing a lockout right now [as of this writing] and other arts organizations are struggling.
This is inherent with being a nonprofit arts organization right now, and so we are ready for those challenges. And our way to deal with them is creating a vital, energetic, and dynamic opera company that reaches out to new audiences while maintaining our wonderful relationship with our donor base and patron base that has been supporting us for the past 35 years.
In addition to yourself, who is involved in casting Atlanta Opera’s productions?
We have a music director who has been with us for quite a few years. He’s a wonderful international conductor: Maestro Arthur Fagen. Between Arthur and me, most decisions are made. We also have on staff our director of artistic planning and community engagement, Cory Lippiello, who is involved in casting as well.
When do you hear auditions for singers? How far in advance of a season?
Seasons are now planned two years in advance for us. We are trying to plan even further into the future. Our main auditions happen in New York in November and December, but we have a fairly good idea about singers that we would like to have.
It’s not always based on these auditions, because all three of us spend a lot of our free time traveling to see other productions. For example, this summer I was in Santa Fe, Wolf Trap, Glimmerglass, Bard, Castleton, and Prague. It’s a part of an effort to hear as many singers and see as many productions as possible so that the audition process is just one component in our knowledge of what’s out there.
What are some of the things you are looking for when casting a production? How can a singer make an impression on you?
Casting is a complicated art form that has to do not just with the sheer talent (I think the talent is the most important, obviously—the vocal quality, the technique, the sound), but there are so many other elements that are taken into consideration. How does that singer sound within an ensemble? How will the soprano sound when she sings with the tenor, her lover; with the baritone, her father; and the mezzo-soprano, her competitor? How will she sound in the hall, in a 2,600-seat house? And if we cast for Cobb Energy, which is wonderful acoustically but is a large house, it’s going to be different than how we cast for a smaller venue.
Other elements that I think about are acting ability and presence on stage. The overall package is something that’s very important in a world that is not only focused on pleasing sounds but also is focused on the visual aspects. We take those elements into account, as well as whether the singer has sung before at Atlanta Opera and whether they have sung the role before. There are many reasons to hire or not to hire a singer.
What makes you rehire a singer? How could a singer risk not getting rehired?
I think that we’re trying to provide the best environment for our singers. We are very excited to have the cast we are going to have in the upcoming season, and, as a company, our relationships with and our gratitude to the artists who come here are a very important element in what this company offers. We expect the same from the artists.
Obviously, the success of the performance is paramount to the decision to rehire a specific artist, but there are other questions: How do they get along with their colleagues? How difficult are they? Are they team players? Do they work well with others? There are many artists out there and we’re always picking the people who fit the best within this company.
How can a singer who doesn’t have an agent or who doesn’t live in Atlanta get heard by Atlanta Opera or another regional company in the United States?
I think networking is a very important element of the industry. There are a lot of singers out there, a lot of talented people, and I wish that all of them could have work. But the reality is the dwindling market does not offer as many productions as before. So networking is very important, social media is very important, being in touch is important.
I would recommend singers to find a personal contact at a company. If they don’t have a manager or agent to recommend them, then it’s more difficult to be hired, to be heard. If they are seeking that first chance, then the best bet is get personal contacts, because cold calling or shooting e-mails to people in a random way is not going to get them anywhere, unfortunately.
How many people would you estimate are involved in one Atlanta Opera production from start to finish?
I would say 200 to 300. I am very grateful to all the people that are working tirelessly to put on a production together. In a way, that’s the greatest miracle and joy for me—to watch it come together. If you look at a production and you think about the designers, the director, the conductor, the 50 to 60 choristers, the 50 to 70 musicians in the pit, the army backstage of different crew members (costumes, sets, lighting, wigs, and makeup), our 20 to 25 Atlanta Opera staff, and then front of house, the ushers . . . . It “takes a village,” and it’s always a remarkable achievement to see it come together.
How do you choose repertoire for coming seasons?
I have a very strong affinity and love for American opera and contemporary opera. I also love to take familiar pieces and reinvent them and create a different spin on them to make them as visually and theatrically innovative as possible. Between those two passions, reinventing the familiar and introducing audiences to new works, that’s kind of where we are heading.
With all that in mind, what’s in store for the 2014–15 season?
Our upcoming season features two completely new productions of Rigoletto and Madama Butterfly, which are going to be different than other productions you may have seen before. Our Marriage of Figaro is directed by Tara Faircloth, who I think of very highly of as a director. We have a young cast that I hope will reinvent the familiar Marriage of Figaro and infuse fresh and innovative interpretation into it.
Of particular interest to me is the fact that we’re doing the Southeastern premiere of Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers. Jake Heggie, in my opinion, is one of the most important living composers. His work I don’t think has been seen in Atlanta. He’s better known for Moby-Dick and Dead Man Walking, but he also wrote the wonderful, intimate opera Three Decembers. I’m a big fan of both the opera and the composer, and I could not be more excited to introduce it to audiences at Midtown’s Alliance Theatre.
What are some of the special projects Atlanta Opera plans to bring to the area this season?
The 24-Hour Opera Project is a very exciting project in its fourth year that we are bringing to downtown Atlanta. It’s going to have its showcase at Theatrical Outfit, which is a wonderful theater company in Atlanta. We’re also continuing our collaboration with the Breman Museum with a series of concerts that are celebrating the works of Jewish composers such as Leonard Bernstein and Kurt Weill.
We are continuing our education initiative with our student tours. We have Marriage of Figaro going on tour in Atlanta schools, but we’re also going to bring students to Cobb Energy Centre to see an abridged version of Madama Butterfly.
There was collaboration with three universities on the “Choral Silver Celebration,” and finally we will move to the Alliance Theatre for our final offering of the season. In a way, we have a presence this year everywhere and we’re trying to engage the community all around town. There will be separate projects that will rely on the collaboration with other arts organizations in Atlanta, and those will be announced later.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with the Classical Singer audience about Atlanta Opera?
I think that we are in a very interesting moment in time, not just for Atlanta Opera but for human beings everywhere. I think the world—and it’s almost a cliché to say, but it’s true—is rapidly changing, and I believe that opera has a great chance to do well.
At its core, opera is based on the human voice and the incredible music that was written by some wonderful composers. But we also have to remember that we live in a highly visual world, and that’s why opera has such a great chance, from all the art forms, to do well. It’s not only a spectacular musical art form, but also a highly visual and theatrical art form.
