Baritone Gerald Finley shares his courageous approach to performing and teaching.
Canadian bass-baritone Gerald Finley is one of the most acclaimed singers of our time, internationally celebrated for his operatic interpretations and for his mastery of a vast song repertoire. He has also created leading roles in contemporary operas, most notably J. Robert Oppenheimer in John Adams’ Grammy Award-winning Doctor Atomic. A highly sought-after pedagogue, Mr. Finley gives masterclasses throughout the world and also imparted his expertise to singers at the CS Music Convention this past May.
How did you navigate the time of staying home when all theaters were closed?
The time of isolation gave me a chance to look at what I was doing and where my career was going. I treated it like a gift because I was able to be with my family, and it reaffirmed the fact that I love to do what I do.
I was also very blessed to have had a few streaming opportunities. I’d also established a certain amount of teaching connections with great institutions like Juilliard and, here in the UK, the National Opera Studio and the Royal College of Music, of which I am an alumnus. That was really wonderful because I felt that I could give a perspective to these young singers who were just confronting a worldwide imprisonment, isolated and, in some situations, unable to practice very well. I gave online sessions where they were in the basement of their apartment buildings surrounded by washing machines, dryers, bicycles, and storage areas. I admired their devotion to keep at it.
You have also taught an online masterclass at the CS Music Online Convention in May 2021. How did you find that virtual experience?
Doing a masterclass is all about trying to encourage the participants, and I always feel that I’m not really a teacher, I’m just an older colleague who’s done a bit more of the journey than they have. The thing that I always marvel at is their enthusiasm; they want to know how they can be the best that they can be, and sometimes they need information they may not want to hear.
Being a singer is all about being vulnerable. I mean, what energy and what emotions young singers have had throughout their adolescence normally has brought them to a point where they say, “Yes, being able to use my voice in a way which lets these emotions out is actually healing to me, and this is how I want to express myself in the world.” Then what happens is they go into a relationship with teachers or conservatories and maybe they will focus on an element of technique which actually backs them into a corner or builds up tension. The teachers involved don’t always recognize that or they are unsure as to how to move things around.
When I teach a masterclass, in as brief a time as possible I try to find that spark that they’ve got, dwell on it, and see if we can polish it. I wish I could be in the surround sound of the environment, because sometimes I can’t quite hear the depth of vibration or the glint of the sound on Zoom. In a masterclass setting there is an intimacy; you have to be able to trust almost immediately, and that’s much harder to do over a screen because one is surrounded by different environments. However, ideas could be shared; it was the best situation that we had for the CS Music Convention, and I’m so glad that we had that at least.
What would you say to the young singers trying to launch a career in a world that is so different from just two years ago?
I think the essential word is “courage”—the courage to carry on and to believe. Also, soon after the first restrictions, I realized that we need to engage more in our own communities. It’s very easy to isolate oneself from the energy of our local habitat and situation. Little offerings matter: half-hour recitals, like in nursing homes or at small gatherings of some sort, just to be regaining the sense of who we are and of having an audience.
We know that there’s a vast audience online somewhere, and that is another way to do it, just to put yourself out there. The trouble is we can’t see our audience when we go online, and that’s probably the most detrimental element of what we’re doing. People can make themselves vulnerable before they’re ready to take criticism. YouTube is a wonderful research device, but it also can be very exposing for singers. There has to be a degree of caution about putting material out there.
So, have courage, keep practicing, keep the discipline, and focus on the things that you can control, which are basically your own practice and your own development and trust. Always go for the best ears in your environment; go to the person you would absolutely trust the most even if it’s not your own teacher. If a singer you like is coming through town, go and talk to them. We like to hear the young ones; we want this to carry on and we are invigorated by helping the next generation.
You studied in New York with renowned voice teacher Armen Boyajian. What did he do for you vocally and artistically?
First of all, he was willing to help me. He had already such great successes with Paul Plishka and Samuel Ramey and other young singers singing at the Met at the time; we’re talking the early Nineties. I kept very rigorous diaries of our lessons. It’s unbelievable what he provided me.
He helped me start to settle the voice and create a relationship between making sound and supplying the breath through the beginning, the sustaining, and the ending. These are three absolute key things. He called them the Boyajian riddles: What are we thinking beginning the sound, then sustaining the sound and, more importantly, how do we end so that we can begin again. I thank him so much for stabilizing what I felt was a completely chaotic situation when I went to him.
When you were young, you sang in choirs. Do you think that all young singers should go through some choir experience?
I think the choral situation shows that you can be a singer in a community; there is a kind of bond that happens between choir members in a common purpose. You get to sing amazing music by incredible composers. So, choir is absolutely important, and I would encourage anybody, even non-singers to join. There’s something about making music together so easily with just your voice that is incredibly soul satisfying.
The challenge for singers who then want to pursue a solo career comes when they make the transition from chorister to soloist; that takes some dedication. Most choral singers start to adapt in a way which uses musculature, tendons, and structure where they’re forming their voice to blend in with their colleagues. Dampening happens and tension rises in and around the throat area, and that is exactly what we don’t want in a soloist. What we want is an edge to the sound, a projection of individuality, a real personality—so when you transition from chorus to soloist, what you need to do is free up all the attention that puts the dampening effects on and recalibrate.
Your vocal specialties range from Mozart to contemporary operas like Doctor Atomic and L’amour de loin. Any similarities at all in your approach to Mozart roles as opposed to roles like Doctor Atomic or Jaufré Rudel?
Mostly in every opera you have the chance to invest in yourself, in your imagination, and in your experience of developing a character and involving yourself in the story. That’s why I love the acting part of the profession; in fact, it’s why I love song singing. Singing Mozart is one of my most unbelievably wonderful experiences.
I was talking to somebody about “Deh, vieni alla finestra,” Don Giovanni’s serenade. He’s obviously a brutal and repugnant social character and yet Mozart gives him this most incredibly simple, seductive melody which will melt the heart of most of the audience if it’s sung well. Why does he do that and how can he do that well? Because Mozart and Da Ponte were masters of being able to put many different layers in the music and the libretto—and to make time stand still. I recently sang Figaro, and he has to listen to Susanna’s “Deh vieni, non tardar” when she’s pretending—there’s this kind of duplicity within yet another simple but most gorgeous aria, so the emotional layers are just wonderful.
About Doctor Atomic: well, there’s a man full of dilemma. Robert Oppenheimer, the genius nuclear physicist, is trying to control the idea of what happens if this explosion ignites the atmosphere or kills hundreds of thousands of people if developed. He’s thinking: “I love the science, I hate the morality, where am I in this?” The music of John Adams is pulsating and passionate, and the choice of poet John Donne for Robert Oppenheimer’s aria “Batter My Heart” makes for one of the great baritone arias ever. I’m thrilled to see it being done at auditions all over the place now.
As for L’amour de loin, [composer] Kaija Saariaho was a revelation to me because she understood the idea of being a troubadour and allowing the simplicity of melody to reveal emotion. She didn’t shy away from being very tonal in that regard. The sound effects she has under the voices is quite mesmeric, and the purity of the story is really gorgeous.
I’ve heard you sing Schubert, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, and your storytelling magic comes across without compromising anything vocally. How do you create this narrative intimacy while still doing all the “right things” in terms of style and technique?
When I decided to become a soloist, I thought that I could gain the technical expertise by being demanding of myself through the emotional journey, so that if there were issues within the song which made me rise to a high note in an emotional way, I would find the technical way. Then it just becomes a huge bag of tricks.
[Retired Dutch soprano] Elly Ameling, whom I love very much, said the two sides of the coin are technical and imaginative, and we can encourage our technique with imagination but we can also support our imagination with technique. If we imagine something, we’ll have to find a way to develop it, like soft singing or vowel modification or more breath flow. So that’s a very helpful way to see how one can work through emotional points in a song and provide a technical response to what the emotion should be.
Tell us about your upcoming recital tour early in 2022.
It’s a program that includes a world premiere by British composer Mark-Anthony Turnage. I’m singing some of my favorite Schubert, Wolf’s “Mörike-Lieder,” and then, because it’s fun, Shakespeare settings by various composers including Cole Porter and one of the very earliest settings ever, “O Mistress Mine” by Thomas Morley.
I’m glad to return to touring and to some of my favorite places: Stanford and Portland, Spivey Hall near Atlanta, and Philadelphia. I’m also very proud of my recording of “Die schöne Müllerin” coming out around the tour time on the Hyperion label, with Julius Drake, who is accompanying me on the tour. “Die schöne Müllerin” was my lockdown project. I had never sung it; my great hero had done the perfect version, so why would I do it? But I realized that if I didn’t have my take on it, then I would feel like I hadn’t served Schubert.
For detailed information about Gerald Finley, visit his website at www.geraldfinley.com.
