It’s not a secret that opera is perhaps an acquired taste. It is also, unfortunately, the butt of jokes about fat ladies and Viking horns. Many people who claim to hate opera have never even been to one and, actually, hate the stereotype of opera or the idea of it.
In an effort to reach out to new audiences and perhaps reinvigorate the establishment, some companies are adding a sense of the unpredictable to operatic performances, taking a page from popular television shows like Whose Line Is It Anyway and films like Best in Show by including elements of improvisation in their performances. More than a mere ornamentation of an A section, audience members might hear reinterpretations of existing material in improvised storylines, new lyrics improvised to the operatic standards, improvised music on an existing libretto, and even entire pieces—words and music at once.
Wolf Trap
One place you can find opera being invented on the spot is at Wolf Trap’s Children’s Theatre-in-the-Woods. Over the past seven years, this has been the venue for Wolf Trap to not only educate and perform for family audiences, but to involve them in designing the opera performance itself. The idea for “Instant Opera” was launched under the guidance of Wolf Trap Director Kim Witman with significant input from Jim Doyle, who brought his ComedySportz experience into the world of opera. Lee Anne Myslewski, director of the Opera Studio, describes it as a sort of “opera mad lib.”
It works like this. After an introduction to some of the typical elements of opera and archetypes of operatic voices, the audience is set to the task of building a new opera, by filling in the blanks that are offered to them. For example, the facilitator might say, “Once upon a time there was a ______________.” In addition, the audience chooses an overture, a sad or happy ending to the opera, and which arias the singers will use (chosen from two each singer has prepared from the standard repertoire). During the performance, all recitatives are improvised.
In 2011, the Filene Young Artists performed a special “Blue Show” version at Education Hall, for adults only. The script outline was not too different from the one used for the family shows, but what made this one “blue” was the audience input. In an adult-only crowd, suggestions from the audience were more racy, which resulted in an opera that featured adult situations, mature language, and different types of characters—think Madonna rather than Harry Potter. The result was an uproariously fun time for all and a great introduction to opera for many.
Opera Columbus
Another company that is embracing improv in performance is Opera Columbus in Ohio, with their “Improv Opera!” General Manager Peggy Kriha Dye has noticed that a great way to pique their audience members’ interest in the opera they are about to see is to let them design it. The audience, usually high school students, is largely responsible for directing the plot of the opera. The Narrator reads from an outline script and pauses to offer the audience multiple choices to choose from. For example, “Once upon a time there was a gnome, a princess, etc.” The audience also chooses which voice type will sing each role and what the characters’ objectives are: such as “to take over the world.” The audience even gets to choose which props and set pieces will be incorporated from a slew of items displayed on the stage.
Instantly the audience is engaged and invested in what is about to transpire. They have helped create this operatic entity and are at least curious to see how it will play out in front of them. The Narrator now reads from the newly completed script and singers spontaneously morph into their recently chosen characters. The singers have previously prepared one chorus and three arias each, which they now have the opportunity to perform in a new context. Also, instead of singing the lyric that usually accompanies the music, they ad lib brand new words to fit with the story that has just been prescribed for them. Imagine, for example, a power-hungry gnome singing about world domination to the tune of “Quando me’n vo’.”
A Singer’s Perspective
For many singers, the thought of having to improvise is met with a certain degree of terror. It’s not that the singers can’t improvise, it’s just that few have had the opportunity to try, except when forced to, in situations of great stress. Usually when singers are making up words while singing in front of an audience, it is because they have forgotten the real ones. Improv Opera and other programs like it give singers a chance to hone this skill in a playful environment, which is actually great practice for making it through those stressful times which may arise in the future. Dye admits that some singers take to it more easily than others but, for the most part, finds that once singers dive in and give it a try, they have a lot of fun. Some get so good at it that their improvised lyrics even have a rhyme scheme.
“The result was always ridiculous, hilarious, and fun,” says Jennifer McMullen, a former Opera Columbus Young Artist. “I played everything from a pizza-loving Satan, to a crazed taxidermist, to Harry Potter! Other memorable roles my fellow singers played included Jar Jar Binks and a pet manatee who lived in a bathtub.”
In discussing how it felt to improvise new words to such classic arias as “Ach ich fühl’s” and “O mio babbino caro,” McMullen explains that the experience was freeing. “We could not possibly use our ‘fake singer gestures’ or sing without authenticity and intent, as is often the case with an amateur or young professional like myself. We had to improvise like everyone does in real life, making choices and forming sentences on the spot.”
OperaWorks
This sense of incredible freedom among improvising singers and the shucking of the aforementioned “singer gestures” are both observations that have been made by Ann Baltz, founder and artistic director of the Los Angeles-based company, OperaWorks. Since 1987, her students have been learning how to “get their heads out of the way and let the music flow through—instinctively,” which often results in riveting performances, which may even surprise the singers themselves.
Baltz has much empathy for people who are frightened to death by the idea of having to improvise—she has been there herself. As a grad student in piano at Arizona State University, Baltz was snatched from the hallway to replace a missing accompanist in a workshop with Barbara Brand, an Alexander Technique instructor and the wife of Wesley Balk. Filling in at the last minute was not too out of the ordinary for the accomplished pianist—except that this time when she sat down at the piano, there was no music in front of her. The singer said, “Play an intro.” With a little coaxing, Baltz improvised an accompaniment to an improvised aria, heart pounding, as her brain kept trying to direct her fingers.
Traumatic as this could potentially have been, this introduction by fire led to more improv opportunities, which Baltz embraced. Now she teaches improv at workshops across the country, and it comprises a major component of the OperaWorks training.
Good for Audiences, Good for Singers
In addition to teaching, Baltz also provides piano improvisation for singers in performance. Sometimes the improvised performance is an art song or aria on a recital based on suggestions from the audience, sometimes it is an entire evening. One project she undertook in Minneapolis (and subsequently in New York) included Baltz at the piano, four auditioned singers, and a one-act libretto. With only a guide as to which sections of the libretto should be recit and which should be arias, each performance was completely improvised. After every performance, audience members would express that they were “blown away”—to quote Baltz—but they often refused to believe that it had really been improvised.
One of her former students called to thank her and relay an account of how her improv training had come in handy during a traditional performance. She was singing a Baroque aria in a concert with an orchestra, and when they reached a spot where there was supposed to be a cut, the orchestra kept playing. They were now playing music that she didn’t know. Thanks to her improv training, she managed to just keep singing, improvising a vocal line, making up Italian, and inventing coloratura until she recognized that the orchestra was back to the music she had rehearsed—and then she continued with the actual piece as she had rehearsed it.
What Next?
As more singers have the opportunity to experiment with improvisation, what does the future of improv in opera hold? With over a thousand alumni of her program, Baltz knows that teachers are using improv in their schools and studios. Little opera companies are popping up all over the place as opera singers embrace the entrepreneurial spirit to provide work for themselves. Opera is even showing up in theater fringe festivals, challenging old stereotypes of the art form with novel approaches to old standards and the development of new works.
Improvisation forces singers to observe what’s going on around them and figure out how to keep the story moving forward. This offers a sense of immediacy that is more difficult to capture when singers are trying to look like they are really doing something while singing well rehearsed music. By taking the focus off the product (the right sounds and gestures), singers can allow the body and voice to become tools in the process of communication. A performance then becomes a dialogue between the performers and the audience rather than a presentation by the performers alone—something that audiences seem to enjoy.
