“I just want to…thank you and all your friends for one of the best nights of opera stuff I have ever enjoyed—and this includes all the shows I have seen from my 2nd row seat at LA Opera, Opera Bastille, Covent Garden, and Staats Oper in Berlin. I told…about four times that it was probably the most fun night I have ever had at the opera. I don’t think I have seen such consistent and clever character development this side of Broadway legit theater. There were so many clever character portrayals that I could not rank them. Many were simply to die for they were so well done.” So wrote an opera lover who attended the culminating performance of OperaWorks Summer Intensive 2002.
Someone else wrote, “Wow. Were we impressed! I have not seen any singing event that entertaining in a very long time. The joy of spirit and bounding creativity was astounding. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a group of people that unself-conscious. You could see that they had really had the perception of who they were as performers peeled away, to really be able to explore their characters. During the second intermission…turned to me and said, ‘Oh, I don’t want it ever be over.’ He was so sincere, and I totally know what he meant. I would much rather see that combination of elements than a bunch of polished, but uninspired, professionals anytime.”
These comments are the outcome of an adventure my colleagues and I had begun only four weeks earlier. The first comment above continued, “I don’t know what the ‘students’ came in like, but probably they were tending toward the classic opera ‘statues on stage.’ You have for sure accomplished your mission of getting them to get past technique and into character.” How did OperaWorks, in four short weeks, bring about such extraordinary transformation in twenty-eight strangers, mostly students dreaming of a successful career on the operatic stage?
Alumni of OperaWorks’ more than fifteen-year history point to a safe, supportive environment in which singers learn to trust the faculty, their fellow singers, and themselves. According to Laura Farmer, “Unlike many other summer festivals, Ann Baltz and the other faculty members create a safe environment in which singers are encouraged to experiment.” Lisa Golda looks back on her Summer as “one of the happiest times in my life, not only because it was immense fun, but also because I was ecstatic to be in an environment that was so consciously structured to be nurturing and challenging.” This supportive environment led Piper Pack to realize that she had spent her years before OperaWorks learning to close off to people—to protect herself from the harshness of failure. She “spent that summer learning how much I needed to open myself up and make myself vulnerable to audiences and auditions.”
Returning to the professional opera world after such an experience can be a bit disquieting. One person described being “shocked when singers are competitive or unfriendly, because I expect them to be like they are in OperaWorks.” She believes “you can easily tell singers who’ve been in the program by their supportive, encouraging and unthreatened demeanor.” Another singer observed of his re-entry, “I definitely had a hard time adjusting to the ignorance and attitudes and selfishness of other singers when I returned to the Conservatory. People are not open to being open and honest as singers (as well as being themselves).” He believes, “[t]he supportive and challenging nature of OperaWorks is not reproducible in any manner outside of it, at least when you are surrounded by many singers who have never had a similar experience.” Melissa Perry came out of her summer experience finding that she now “approach[es] other singers with a sense of ‘Let’s play’ or ‘How can we have fun?’”
Such an environment encourages singers to take risks that in a more critical environment they dare not take. I personally discovered that finding the courage to take risks in such a supportive atmosphere propelled me into a new dimension of performance where I felt myself not just performing the role, but becoming the character. Evan Kent, a cantor at Temple Isaiah in Los Angeles, attended the Summer Intensive ten years ago and found the program “gave him permission to take risks later on. [His] performance benefited a thousand-fold.” Lisa Golda learned to take those risks through OperaWorks improvisation classes. She found auditions “didn’t seem as intimidating after I succeeded in getting up and improvising an ARIA! The improvisation classes were the hardest for me; they were not fun at all, at first.” She observed, “The logical brain thinks in ‘right’ and ‘wrong,’ you simply cannot complete the exercise until you let go and trust your creative brain to jump in and help.” She recommends OperaWorks to anyone struggling with “perfectionism” and stage fright, pointing to herself as proof that willingness to take risks learned during her summer can bring one far in conquering these saboteurs of self-confidence.
Improvisation classes are one facet of the holistic approach to singing at the Summer Intensive. For Megan Starr-Levitt, the “wonderful variety of disciplines offered with the program gives us the opportunity to get a taste of all the different ways your performing can be enhanced without having to spend countless hours and money on one discipline. Once I knew which ones worked for me the best, I was able to balance my focus and energy toward each one.” Kelly Horsted, a phenomenal vocal coach and accompanist, found this holistic approach a major factor in his decision to teach at the OperaWorks Summer Intensive. He writes, “I love the more holistic approach, seeing how people’s performances can improve so greatly through exploring less traditional methods. So many aspects of being a performer are addressed in many ways, from yoga to Alexander Technique to Ann’s uncanny ability to inspire a gorgeous improvised performance out of a cautious singer.” Laura Farmer loves “the fact that OperaWorks addresses a host of often ignored, holistic approaches to performing, including improvisational work, visualization, centering, conducting and coping with the psychological stress of auditions and performing. It taps into the joy and playfulness of performing and fuels freedom and creativity on stage.”
Dan Bridston, another vocal coach on the OperaWorks faculty, found that OperaWorks’ approach developed the whole person, not just the singer, thereby effecting changes in the performers that will last long after their Summer Intensive experience. He found that every singer performed at the top of his or her technique, both vocally and artistically. Some sang better, some were better interpreters and some were better dramatically. Megan McCarver, a newcomer to the OperaWorks faculty who taught yoga, witnessed “significant expansion of presence, off and on stage.” She observed “inner core strengthening of the singers” and “greater confidence and self worth.” Significantly, as one previously unexposed to the exotic world of opera she considered herself “gifted to be surrounded by relaxed faces (soft jaws and shoulders) and big voices penetrating to the listener’s heart.”
Dr. Elvia Puccinelli, also a delightful person to work with, gave me permission to soar and to expand. My sessions with her became times of unparalleled vocal and interpretive growth. Elvia joined the Summer Intensive because, in her words, “I especially admired [Anne Baltz’] creativity and her open spirit. These qualities infuse the program, and I love the supportive and enthusiastic atmosphere, which allows singers to discover a better sense of themselves and their art. The combination of classes really allows for participants to explore the same ideas from several different angles. I think the thing I love the most, though, is the emphasis on allowing yourself to make music, rather than to reproduce how it sounds on the CD. It is exciting as a faculty member to give a young artist permission to be an artist; once the artist accepts that permission, the growth and depth of expression that follows are remarkable.”
My adventure was rounded out by David Aks’ unique and interesting classes in conducting and visualization, helping me to flow with the music, not mechanically reproduce it, and Pamela Blanc’s Alexander Technique classes which opened up my voice by freeing tension in my body. And, the experience would have been incomplete without the unbounded creativity of Eli Villanueva’s Stage Techniques.
Ellen Cowan sums up OperaWorks nicely as “[t]he time to discover ourselves as artists and learn the tools for ongoing discovery and development in a specialized program, where there is time and attention devoted to each singer to encourage risks and exploration, to provide an atmosphere of safety, and to introduce “mind/body” tools that enable artists to open up to their real potential.” I couldn’t have said it better.
The down side? Coming back to the real world. Ah, but I’m no longer an opera “statue on stage.”
