Opera Colorado opened its new hall, The Ellie Caulkins Opera House, on Sept. 10, 2005. It is a beautifully decorated, comfortably appointed auditorium where both artists and opera lovers can enjoy good acoustics, a fine stage, and seat-back titles in either Spanish or English.
Ellie Caulkins, the woman whose name the opera house bears, has long been known as Colorado’s “First Lady of Opera” because of her dedication both to the art and to finding new vocal talent. She has been a leader on the Opera Colorado board of directors since the company’s inception 23 years ago, and has served several terms as its president. Her work there has earned her the title of “lifetime honorary chair.”
Mrs. Caulkins never studied voice, but says she has sung in glee clubs and choirs for most of her life. She occasionally joins an opera’s chorus, just as she did on the night the new opera house opened.
Mrs. Caulkins says her love for this kind of music started when she returned to college after the birth of her fourth child. She signed up for a course on “Opera as Drama” and became totally enchanted with the art as a whole. Having always been fond of musical comedy, she made the leap to the more classical form, which had not appealed to her when she was younger. Opera became her passion, and has remained her cause célèbre ever since.
Eventually, friends told her of the Metropolitan Opera National Council and its audition program. She became a member and eventually served as president of the organization. Currently, she is an advisory director of the Metropolitan Opera Association.
In 1981, stage director Nathaniel Merrill and his wife, Louise Sherman (a well known vocal coach), founded Opera Colorado. At first, Mrs. Caulkins thought there might be some conflict between the new company and the Met, but she soon realized that both companies were working to further the art in the country as a whole.
Opera Colorado began to train young artists in 1995, when the company opened the Joseph and Loretta Law Artist Center, which operated for six seasons until 2000. Training consisted mainly of vocal coaching, acting and language classes.
Two of the artists who graduated from the program are Maria Kanyova, who was a member during the 1996-97 season, and Charles Taylor, who participated in 2000 and 2001. Both are now singing leading roles in major opera houses, but they also return to Opera Colorado on a regular basis.
When Katherine Myers started her tenure as director of education and outreach for the company in 2001, she founded the current program which offers a real singing job rather than more training. Ms. Myers, who heads the program, says singers in the Opera Colorado Ensemble get an experience that is not available in many similar programs. They sing entire roles with orchestra—and at the end of the season they walk away having portrayed characters with Opera Colorado. This year they had the opportunity to sing a world premiere. The graduates’ résumés look considerably better to prospective employers when they show the singers have interpreted entire roles instead of scenes from various works.
The current program is five months long and takes place during the main-stage opera season. Some artists even come back for a second season. Several of them get to sing leading roles, and even those who only assume smaller roles perform them in their entirety.
OCE’s outreach program is a real engagement, so the singers attain valuable experience and work hard. Because they are professionals, the company expects them to know how to learn music and arrive at rehearsals knowing their parts. It is important that prospective applicants know that they must be able to work independently.
Ensemble members are not told what to do from minute to minute the way they often are at school. There is no specific age limit, but participants should be at the beginning of their careers.
During April, OCE was rehearsing Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail, which they performed in German at the student matinee. On May 4, they sang it on the main stage of the opera house, with the Colorado Symphony. From May 13 to May 21, the group performed a double bill: Mozart’s Bastien and Bastienne and Robert Xavier Rodriguez’s La Curandera, which received its world premiere at these performances.
Commissioned by Opera Colorado to be presented on a full-length program with the Mozart work, La Curandera is a bilingual family opera with music by the Texas-born Rodriguez and words by librettist Mary Medrick. Set in a village outside Mexico City, the story alludes to Mexican folklore and, although the words are mainly in English, weaves Spanish phrases into its fabric. The music uses some authentic Mexican folk tunes and features as the title character either a mezzo with good low notes or a contralto. The score calls for six singers and nine instruments in its endeavor to pay homage to Mozart with a Mexican flavor.
Artists in the Opera Colorado Outreach Ensemble go out to schools and community centers to bring opera to new audiences. They reach thousands of people, thanks to various support groups such as Rotary clubs, libraries and study groups. Since 2002, the company’s education programs have grown by 278 percent. During the 2004 season, the outreach group reached some 25,000 people.
In addition to doing outreach performances and singing main roles in student matinee performances, Ensemble singers cover larger roles in the main-stage performances, and perform smaller roles in the operas being given during the regular season. Needless to say, they are very busy program participants.
In 2005, for example, the company performed The Marriage of Figaro. The baritone who sang Antonio in the main-stage performances sang the Count in the student matinees. Likewise, the main-stage Barbarina was Susanna for the students. It should be noted that this company never asks Ensemble singers to be in the chorus, but it does allow them to observe main-stage rehearsals when they are not working.
Ms. Myers feels it is very important for the students to learn how a professional production is assembled, something they may never have experienced in school. She notes that they are sometimes shocked at the short duration of the rehearsal process. They may have worked on a part for months at school, never realizing that professional singers are expected to learn their blocking in a much shorter time.
Opera Colorado does not supply housing or transportation. The program expects each singer to have a car and drive to work at designated sites within the Denver area. Located in an area where everyone needs a heavy winter coat, the “Mile High City” is more than 5,000 feet in elevation, so many singers have to allow extra time to become adequately adjusted to the thinner air.
The company accepts applications for the outreach program’s six positions each year. Singers send in their materials, including a recording and a cover letter in which the applicants have the opportunity to say a few things about themselves and why they would like to work in opera outreach. Finalists are auditioned live in New York City and Denver.
The Opera Colorado Ensemble is for singers who have finished their training and are ready for their first real engagements. It’s a good place for a singer who is ready to perform before the public. This group sings a great many performances, so everyone must be able to learn both music and blocking quickly.
The Opera Colorado Ensemble offers an excellent five-month engagement for singers who have grown their wings and are ready to fly.
