Cherubino’s your role, but when you practice, your hand keeps reaching for that score from The Last Five Years. Figaro may be your bread and butter, but what about that audition for South Pacific? Classically trained singers may choose to work in musical theatre for many reasons, from the joy of communicating in your native language to the challenge of performing a multifaceted role. This year, the Classical Singer Convention welcomes New York University professors Dianna Heldman and Michael Ricciardone, whose class, “Crossing Over to Musical Theatre,” will help theatrically inclined singers bridge the gap between opera and musical theatre.
You both have impressive and extensive backgrounds in classical work. What led to your interest in American musical theatre?
Dianna Heldman: Many of us who enter the field of opera after growing up in the United States cut our teeth by learning standard musical theatre pieces. I’ve always had an incredible amount of respect for that.
Michael Ricciardone: I saw my first musical long before I saw my first opera. It was The Music Man with Robert Preston and Barbara Cook. I saw that and said, “Wow, I wanna do that!” As I got older, I discovered I could do other things too, which included opera.
DH: When I started to teach, I realized that I loved things that were in my language, and I loved the fact that when I’m working with young singers, they are much more oriented to communicate in their own language. I found that when I could talk to them about what the words meant, I was better able as a vocal technician to make them comfortable bringing to life what the composer intended.
How would you describe the current job market for musical theatre?
MR: Well, I actually think it’s a bit dim
. . . so people need to be prepared.
DH: Musical theatre requires a complete package. When you walk into an audition they’re going to look at you, they’re going to listen to you, and they’re going to want something that speaks the whole character to them. They’re not so interested in the quality of your singing in so far as it sounds “trained.” They’re looking for a more natural sound that can communicate through text, more so than quality or timbre of sound.
MR: You’re going to be asked to do a lot of different things and you’re going to be asked to make a lot of different sounds. Because money is tight and jobs are scarce, you have to come in with an arsenal of different languages you can speak, and that means a language of Rodgers and Hart, a language of Gershwin, a language of Jonathan Larson—and they are not the same language.
Often opera singers think they have to go in and sing a beautiful tone, when what they need to do is go in and convey the truth of the situation and reveal who they are. That said, if you don’t sing well, they will know it. I’m just saying that it’s not enough to lead with your singing. The singing should be something that draws us in, not pushes us away.
DH: In musical theatre the sound of the singing voice needs to be relative to the sound of the speaking voice because you have to be able to move from speech to song with little to no change in timbre. If you are unable to do this, the singing voice sounds foreign to the listener. Contemporary musical theatre, in particular, shies away from anything that asks the voice to make a “classical” sound. They want to hear a natural sounding instrument. Something that sounds untrained. So then you ask, “Well, why train?” You train because you need to learn how to use your instrument in a healthy manner that can sustain the rigors of the field. You have to understand and accept what your instrument can and cannot do.
MR: When you come from a real classical background, that’s your ace in the hole. That’s the thing that gives you longevity.
So singers need to have a flexible technique and the ability to adapt to different styles. What else do we need?
DH: You need to have a look. You’re dealing with types, not Fachs now. That’s the first impression you’re going to give the person that’s auditioning you. Can you dance? Can you move? How versatile are you with your voice? If a music director says, “Hey, can you put a little more belt in that?” Or, “Can you give me a younger sound?” How flexible are you in that capacity? You have to know your own instrument.
There are singers who will belt 16 bars in an audition knowing full well they can’t sustain that throughout the role. That’s going to cost them dearly when they get cast. Ask yourself, “Do I have the stamina to do this role for eight shows a week?”
In opera what we do with the voice is extraordinary—but we train for years to sustain the required vocalism. The world of musical theatre is much younger and many singers get into trouble by trying to imitate a recording. In doing so, they eliminate the process by which they learn to produce their own vocal quality. Everyone can learn to make a contemporary or “belty” sound, or the sound of a golden era ingénue, but they will all be different, and some of them will simply not be what the industry is looking for.
MR: I think more than anything, opera singers have to be able to really act, and they have to be able to move, so I’d say get yourself a good acting teacher and certainly, make sure you can move. If you’ve spent your life learning how to do something else, which is make beautiful sounds, you have to put that in your hip pocket and say, “OK, they’re looking for something else now.” I think they’re looking for truth, for someone who knows themselves and their instrument, and by their instrument, I don’t just mean their voice, I mean their whole body as an instrument.
DH: I also strongly believe you need to respect what the composer intended. Singing contemporary music theatre repertoire with rounded vowels might be interesting for some but it’s not what the composer intended, just as crooning Mozart or Verdi is equally as disturbing.
Can you tell us a little bit about what a singer will encounter in a musical theatre audition?
DH: The audition process is different. First of all they “type you” in or out depending on whether or not they like your look. [If you’re “typed in,”] then you get to sing 16 bars of something—you’re not going to sing a whole piece. For a cattle call, some of my students might line up as early as 7 a.m. and they may not get to sing until 4 in the afternoon. It can be a long process, and you’ll get more rejections than anything else.
MR: You need to know what you’re auditioning for. Be prepared with something that’s reminiscent of the character. The job of the first audition is to be interesting enough to get a callback.
DH: That’s something else that’s different. You may get called back four or five times.
MR: They want people to be able to do everything—sometimes a bit unrealistically. A lot of putting a production together has nothing to do with the way you sing. Are you the right height? Do you resemble the other members of your stage family?
You do the best you can do and the rest is a crapshoot.
What can a singer do to be prepared for that?
MR: Well, the most important thing is to know thy instrument. Don’t go in for a belty role if you can’t belt. Any beginner needs to learn how to sing from the head position down. I think that the head position will always keep them in good stead. Coloraturas tend to have an easier time of it because they have a lighter instrument. Full lyric sopranos can get into trouble because they may overdo it and get too heavy for too long.
DH: Those who are trained in an Italianate manner, where the voice is placed very far forward, will probably have an easier time. If you want to learn how to make a contemporary sound, a belt sound, you may have to alter your technique a little bit and that could mean giving up what you consider to be a “classical sound.” There may be some compromise involved because you’re using the voice in a different manner. I train my female singers from the head voice down and from the chest voice up, in other words, with a mixed registration for the majority of contemporary music because that’s where it is written on the page, in the speaking range. Standard musical theatre is more head voice dominant for women, as those composers wrote for the singing voice.
MR: You have to constantly pay attention and stay attuned to your instrument or you will pay a price. The business is going to ask for the voice to do a lot of different things, so the brain has to own the instrument. If you think that something is going to knock you out of whack, be smart. Not every instrument can do everything.
How do singers find out about musical theatre opportunities?
DH: They find out about them through the grapevine, and showcases, the publications, the network. I keep a copy of Classical Singer in my office and kids will come by to look at the auditions.
What exactly do you have planned for the Convention?
DH: We want to talk about the industry and some of the misconceptions about it, the differences between musical theatre and classical voice. A lot of classical singers think that they can go in with their classical training and sing just about anything. I don’t believe that’s true. I think that they need to learn how to use a more flexible technique.
Of all the instruments that make music, the vocal instrument is capable of making the greatest variety of sounds. Our natural vocal attributes plus good training, imagination, and instinct are what bring to life what the composer intended.
I’m not out there to change anyone’s voice. I’m there to pull them into a realization of their voice that would be more acceptable in a musical theatre audition. And more opera companies are doing musical theatre now.
MR: We’ll try to be eyes and ears for the singers and help them verbalize what it is they think they’re doing, because sometimes people think that they’re doing X when they’re actually doing Y.
DH: One of the hardest things for classical singers to deal with is that the people listening to them might not care what they sound like. [Your listeners] don’t want to hear something that’s foreign to the ear. First of all, they want to hear something that sounds like what they’re looking at—and they want to hear something that is welcoming and inviting and exciting, rather than something that is big and loud. They tend not to be impressed by big and loud, unless it’s a belter. They’re more interested in communication.
Not all voices are capable of singing all things but if one concentrates on what we already do instinctively—communicate through speech—one may find a clearer path to this repertoire. More and more, classical singers are being challenged to communicate, and that’s something I’m glad about. If the music speaks to you, it suits your voice, and you want to sing it, why not?
