I recently had the pleasure of performing with Mobile Opera in their production of Ghosts of Gatsby. Scott Wright, Mobile Opera’s General & Artistic Director, took some time to share with me some of the amazing things this company is doing for our industry, as well as tips for singers with the precariousness of work.
Tell us about Mobile Opera’s long history of making opera in America.
We believe Mobile Opera to be the 12th oldest continuously producing opera company in the nation and the oldest performing arts organization in the State of Alabama but the key point in that statement is not longevity but that the people of this community have valued this company for all those years. The performing arts are essential to our culture and opera is the ultimate in the performing arts because it combines them all. We have singing, of course, but we also have an orchestra, acting, dancing, even visual arts with sets and costumes (which are constructed for each show by the Mobile Opera Costume Guild).
The community support over all those decades demonstrates the value added to our culture. Mobile Opera is one of the few opera companies in the country that operates in the black and without debt. MO has helped to launch many outstanding careers by education programs, encouraging artistic experience, giving young artists confidence-building roles, and providing a networking link that opens doors. We are very proud of what we do.
Brandon Hendrickson as Rigoletto in Mobile Opera’s productions of Rigoletto
How is Mobile Opera at the forefront of the industry with American opera?
In many ways, Mobile Opera is leading the industry although the industry might not be aware of it. This company has never been afraid to try something new to advance the art form. Projections are all the rage now but MO produced Tales of Hoffman with a rear-screen projected set in 1981. Diversity in casting was already the norm when I first sang with the company in 1980. New operas, first stagings of old operas, and little-known works have been introduced to the repertoire all along the way. Eight years ago, MO lost its venue and had to adapt with a creative application of theatrical elements to a 10,000 square foot ballroom in a retired masonic temple. With rigging points to hang a light truss, a semi-thrust elevated stage, and also cabaret seating, it has become a different and popular experience for our audience. All of art moves from traditional to innovative.
We have tried to promote that growth with due deference to the classical repertoire while stretching into new and especially American works. This season, English-language operas by American composers, Gallantry, Trouble in Tahiti, and The Ghosts of Gatsby were paired with an old-world favorite, Hansel & Gretel. I believe that balance of traditional and innovative in the world of opera is tipping again toward the new and compact. I think it will focus on Americana and the United States will lead the way for the next few decades with American themes and American sounds. Mobile Opera has found itself, sometimes by luck or necessity, in the van of that development. We intend to stay there.
What are some of the challenges you see in our current state, and how do we as singers and producing companies address these issues?
The challenge that pops up first is funding but that really is a subsidiary problem. A lot of talk has been on the post-COVID challenge of getting an audience back into the theater but I think there is more to it than fear of contagion or even getting out of the habit. A fallow year that saw everyone watching their television, tablet, and phone in loungewear has certainly predisposed many to take the path of least resistance and be entertained wherever they are by electronic rectangles. Now there is also competition by immersive entertainment such as virtual reality. Opera is transportive. With sets and costumes, we move people, through their own imagination, to a different place and time. VR and immersive technologies are sensorial entertainment but I don’t believe it can ever plumb the depths of the human experience as opera can.
Our histories, indeed our lives, are built on telling stories and there is no better or dramatic way to tell a story than through music—through opera. Opera entertains, yes, but it can also capture the core emotional changes that drive us all and make us one humanity. We must find ways to convey that to a new audience. When we allow opera to be seen as another entertainment source, we shortchange our audience. Humans communicate in non-verbal ways that we don’t understand. Sitting in a dark theater with a crowd of people may not sound inviting to someone who has not been part of the “shared experience.” If we did a better job of conveying the power of that shared experience and story-telling capacity of opera then new audiences will be excited about it. How we do that is the key to opera’s future success. The “who, what, when, and where” of current modes of marketing are no longer adequate. We need marketing methods that help people understand “why” they should see opera. When they come, they tend to return. Opera is not dying (or as one wag stated it, opera has been dying its entire existence) and will endure but the challenge we face is in convincing a new generation to put down their screens and find the excitement in the shared experience. The funding will follow.
Haley Cox as Gasparina and Rachel Gibson as Apollonia in Mobile Opera’s production of La canterina
What do you believe that singers need to be successful in the current market for opera? And what do we need to do to build community with our operatic endeavors?
There is so much that is challenging about a life in the arts. Young singers spend thousands of dollars and countless hours learning to be effective artists, only to find countless frustrations in the industry. There are four things I would ask of singers. First, create as much separation as possible between the art and the business. Every artist needs to make a living but the business of singing and singing are two different things and the former interferes with the latter. I can give you three dozen reasons not to be a singer but only one reason to sing, yet, that one outweighs the many.
Standing on a stage and sending vibrations into the air to last mere seconds is not very good business but it feeds the spirit in a way that makes it one of the most satisfying of human endeavors. Ultimately, it is for the artist as much as for the audience: “Seed to the sower and bread to the eater” to quote Isaiah. So please don’t destroy the joy of singing by thinking of it as your business. It is, but you must maintain a degree of detachment. Think of work as something you don’t want to do—live out of a suitcase, leave your family, be ruled by two bits of gristle in your throat the size of your fingernail—that’s work and that’s what you are paid for. You “get” to sing. You do the work to feed your habit and the joy of performing sustains you through all of the disappointment and frustration of art as a business.
The second is like unto the first, get a second job and do not be apologetic about it. It is sad that art, so important to our culture, is so poorly valued when it comes to handing out the money. You are not a lesser singer because you wait tables or sell candles or work in insurance, law, or any other industry that gives you the flexibility to perform. Even if you find yourself in demand as an artist, there will be times when three companies want you at the same time. Find a way to sustain yourself so that you have some measure of financial stability when you cross artistic deserts. The less you worry about paying your bills, the more freedom you will have to express your art.
Peter James Lake as Don Jose and Stephanie Doche as Carmen in Mobile Opera’s production of Carmen
Third, please understand that all of us in the arts are after the same thing and should therefore be collaborators. There are some who get carried away with ego or take advantage of eagerness and every young artist must be on guard. However, the arts are filled with people who want to create beauty and we have to find each other and help each other to do just that. Social media stirs with complaints of fat-cat opera company executives chuckling over the bounty they derive from poor singers. There are no fat-cat opera companies and there is no bounty in poor singers. We all struggle, so be a collaborator and join the network of people trying to create a thriving environment for art. I am not talking about giving away your art or allowing yourself to be walked on; just understanding that artists and arts administrators have more in common than they are at odds and can solve the problems of the industry better working together.
Fourth (certainly not last) find joy in your art and be fearlessly creative in the ways you find to use it. Singers spend so much time perfecting technique to make beautiful sound. That is important but of paramount importance is to be a story-teller. Separate yourself from the pack and wow them at auditions by being the best story-teller. Every piece of music tells a story. The greatest artists are those who can convey the essence of that story to make the audience feel it and when you sense and share that connection with your audience, it produces a fierce joy that is addictive. Aim there always whenever and wherever. There is no production too small or audience too insignificant to share the story and feel that connection. And if no one is hiring you at the moment, find a way to put yourself out there anyway and keep singing. You will never regret making music and the world will never be saturated with enough art.
For more information about Mobile Opera, visit: www.mobileopera.org
