There’s no business like show business.
Everyone knows it’s called show business, but many singers don’t know what the word “business” actually means. Mezzo-soprano Dorothy Byrne is not one of those singers.
Dorothy Byrne, “Dot” to her friends, has always known that making her way as an opera singer requires more than artistry. It also requires a good deal of business savvy. Luckily for Byrne, she possesses both ingredients in plenty, and has built a solid career as a character mezzo.
Byrne started her career with little formal training and late in life—but what she did have was an MBA [master’s in business administration] from the University of Chicago and a successful business career in marketing.
“I know what the market wants, and I know my product,” says Byrne. “I don’t compete for parts that I don’t fit. If the market wants a Mimi who’s short and thin, and you’re tall and heavy, you’re not going to get the gig.” (Byrne, by the way, is thin and very attractive.)
Now Byrne is helping other singers to navigate their way through the highly competitive opera world by conducting marketing seminars for young singers. San Francisco Opera’s Merola and Adler Programs, The Lyric Opera of Chicago Center for American Artists, the Glimmerglass Young American Artist Program, and the Northwestern University Graduate School of Music are among those that have benefited from her tutelage.
“I realized that singers don’t learn much about the business side of singing from their universities, conservatories or voice teachers. It’s something they really need to understand. I developed a workshop to share what I know with them. After the lecture, I have 45-minute private sessions with singers and we develop individual marketing plans. We talk about everything from personal lives to how to get an agent.”
Much of this work Byrne does for free.
Byrne has the credentials to back her talks. Recent performances include Mrs. McLean with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Larina in Eugene Onegin with Boston Lyric Opera, Nicklausse in Les contes d’Hoffman with Hawaii Opera Theatre and Gertrude in Hamlet with Opera Theatre of St. Louis. Glimmerglass Opera has seen her as Queen Clementine in Bluebeard and Leda in The Mines of Sulphur. Upcoming debuts include Florida Grand Opera (Anna Karenina) and Houston Grand Opera (as Marcellina in The Marriage of Figaro).
Trial by Fire
“What I love is performance,” said Byrne. “I had a business career that put me in situations where I had to translate information to an audience. I thrived doing that. I also loved to sing, which I did on an amateur basis. Even though I’d reached a certain level of success as a business professional, I wasn’t enjoying going to work like I thought I would, so I decided to wed my love of singing with my ability to perform. People thought I was crazy.”
Byrne studied with a teacher at Northwestern and learned she was meant to be an opera singer, not a cabaret chanteuse, as she had thought. After only one month of lessons, she auditioned with Lyric Opera of Chicago, singing the one aria she had mastered. She got into the chorus, and found herself among highly accomplished singers who sang in several languages. She dedicated herself to catching up. Then she did what she knew best: networking, creating a marketing strategy and marketing herself.
Ignorance is Bliss
“When I started out I didn’t have a clue,” said Byrne. “I asked Anne Sofie von Otter if she would coach me in the role of Cherubino from The Marriage of Figaro, and she said yes. What she gave me was priceless. I did the same with many Lyric Opera of Chicago principal artists. I didn’t know that choristers rarely did that. To me, it was normal. In the business world, you ask people to mentor you. Many singers really want to help young singers. They just need to be asked.”
Making It Happen
As a member of the chorus, Byrne created other opportunities for herself. She teamed up with three of the best female singers in the chorus and marketed them as “The Ladies of Lyric.” They performed in the Chicago area, singing arias they would never have had a chance to do in the chorus.
After four years in the chorus, Byrne wanted to move up. She had a strong interest in musical theatre and won a role in the First National Tour of The Phantom of the Opera. But she had children at home and found it difficult to be apart from them. So she came back to Chicago and devised a new plan.
“I basically developed a marketing plan for myself,” said Byrne. “I needed time with family and opportunities to perform in the Chicago area.”
She settled on both short- and long-term goals. Her short-term goals included concert work that would require only weekends away from her kids, and regional opera and musical theatre. At the same time, she worked steadily on her repertoire and networked with directors and conductors she met through Lyric. Her long-term goal was to return to Lyric Opera of Chicago—but this time as a principal performer.
Then came her big break. Harold Prince, director of The Phantom of the Opera, was going to be directing Candide at Lyric Opera. Byrne auditioned—and won a small role, along with a principal cover. That opened doors to other small roles, then bigger covers, and finally, to larger roles.
Having established herself as an employable singer, Byrne knew she needed an agent. Her kids were grown and she was ready to travel. But it wasn’t as easy as all that.
“There were many times when I felt I was behind the eight ball,” Byrne muses. “I didn’t come out of a conservatory. I didn’t have a star voice teacher. I wasn’t plugged into opera-world politics. And I was in my forties. So I worked on strengthening other areas that I had identified as being very important to the market: dependability, appearance, collegiality, musicality, and acting ability.”
A Few Things I Know for Sure
“You have to look at every relationship as a business opportunity,” says Byrne. “You also have to know your product and how it fits within the market. You have to research the market, too. I read every opera periodical I can get my hands on. I even read the ads in Opera News! I read Classical Singer cover to cover. I review opera company websites as well as general opera websites such as Operabase. It is important to know one’s business from all aspects. … You rarely meet a successful businessperson who doesn’t read The Wall Street Journal or Fortune magazine!
I always tell young singers that the business side of singing requires a scientific approach and a very linear strategy. It’s not mysterious at all. Once you realize that, you can separate yourself from the business part of it. That leaves you free to produce art.”
