Standing on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera, a piano nearby, Michael Fabiano is gazing out into the vast auditorium. He is not nervous or coping with any kind of paralytic stage fright; on the contrary, he could not be more excited, eagerly anticipating the first time he will sing on that stage. Fabiano and other competitors in the Met’s 2007 National Council Auditions are preparing to hear what their voices sound like reverberating through the Met’s empty auditorium as they await the arrival of the judges a few hours later for the semifinals.
This eagerness to perform has characterized 28-year-old Fabiano’s life since childhood and, coupled with his passion for music and his strict standards for music making, demonstrates why he is making an impression on opera companies and critics alike. In a review of one of the Met’s 2010 summer recitals, Anthony Tommasini, chief music critic for The New York Times, called Fabiano an “intensely expressive tenor.”
Music in His Genes
Fabiano began to express himself as a child by dancing to recordings of Beethoven symphonies in his parents’ living room. “My father is a Beethoven addict, and both of my parents are passionate about classical music, having grown up with it,” Fabiano says. Music reaches back several generations in his family, and a number of his relatives were musicians—such as his paternal grandmother, Marie Fabiano, who worked as a répétiteur at Tanglewood and was also a concert pianist. Thus, Fabiano’s love of music represents a passing of the torch. He was five years old when his parents took him to his first opera to see his aunt, Judith Burbank, sing Pamina in Die Zauberflöte with Opera Music Theater International in 1989.
Singing Influenced by a Trio of Interests
Consider this question: how could cars, umpiring, and debating influence a singing career? Fabiano’s early years hold the answer.
When as young as two years old, Fabiano developed an association between cars and their symbols, leading to a general fascination with the auto industry. “That association with symbols and names of cars parallels singing because I’m very visual when I learn music. I don’t have a photographic memory but, when I open a score, I can memorize a lot of music very quickly,” he explains. “It’s as if I can ‘see’ shapes of phrases.”
Though he never excelled as an athlete, Fabiano loves baseball. When he was 13, living in Minnesota, Fabiano applied to become a baseball umpire. For his first job, replacing a sick colleague, he umpired a junior varsity game with players who were older than he was. “I loved the command of the game, and one of the coaches told me I did a terrific job. He couldn’t believe I was in middle school,” Fabiano recalls. He was soon promoted to varsity baseball and umpired for 10 more years. “Just like singing, it is all about communication, presentation, and confidence,” Fabiano says. “I had to sell my calls, even when I made a wrong decision. Umpiring was exhilarating.”
In high school, he participated with classmates in one-on-one “Lincoln-Douglas Debates.” Not knowing which side he would be assigned in a debate, he had to prepare arguments for both sides—preparation that paid off. He was a champion debater, competing in major tournaments and simultaneously developing public speaking skills. “I was constantly making presentations in front of audiences, which taught me the art of communicating ideas to many people,” Fabiano says. “I have always relished the opportunity to present in front of people. I like to make people think critically, and one of my major goals as an opera singer is to communicate something unique to at least one person in the audience.”
The Voice Reveals Itself in College
At the time of his enrollment at the University of Michigan, Fabiano intended to pursue business and law. Purely for fun, he took voice lessons with renowned tenor George Shirley and soon realized that music was his calling. “Two things happened,” Fabiano remembers. “One, I could see Professor Shirley’s passion about me as a musician, and I could also see his excitement about what I brought to the table. That excitement was a big affirmation. Then, about three months into my studies, I reserved one of the recital halls to make a recording as a Christmas present for my family—it was all music that was new to me as a new singer. When I got home for Christmas, my mother put on the disc and she broke down crying. I asked her why she was crying and she answered, ‘I didn’t realize your voice was this good.’ So, my family’s and teacher’s faith in me gave me the strength to pursue a music degree.”
He changed his major to music after his first semester, yet Fabiano knew that the “keen business sense” he had learned from his father would not be useless in a music career. “My father is a very successful businessman today after many, many hard years and long hours of work,” Fabiano says. “He lives religiously by the principle that one must prioritize needs over wants. He always insisted that I make priorities and execute them with precision. I learned that idea early, thankfully, and I apply it to my career. I always ask myself, ‘Do I need to do this? Do I need to have this?’ If I don’t, I table it and evaluate, ‘What must I have or do’ with respect to making career decisions so that I am happy and satisfy responsibilities to myself and to the public?”
Fabiano studied with Shirley for three more years until his 2005 graduation with a degree in vocal performance. At Shirley’s suggestion, Fabiano studied in Italy every summer until graduation—the first summer, he studied with Shirley in Florence—yielding a better understanding of the Italian language through immersion. “For all young aspiring artists, Italy should be the first stop abroad so they immerse themselves in Italian as soon as possible,” he says.
Competitions Lead to the Academy of Vocal Arts (AVA)
When Fabiano is asked about competitions, he prefers to differentiate between his “first competition” and “first real competition.” The “first one,” a local contest, took place at Michigan State University during his second year of college, when he sang songs by Richard Strauss and Paolo Tosti and won first place. His “first real one” was the Palm Beach Competition in West Palm Beach: the first attempt, at 18, did not earn an award, but the second attempt, a year later, netted him sixth place.
The next contest, the YPO (Young Patronesses of the Opera) Voice Competition cosponsored by Florida Grand Opera, he won at age 20—and Fabiano’s appearance would prove to have an impact on his career. “That win was very exciting and came with money,” he recalls. “While I was there, I met some AVA students, which was good timing because I was trying to decide between AVA and Rice University for my graduate studies, and I already was aware of AVA’s wonderful traits. Speaking with them, they convinced me that AVA was the right fit.”
Among his other competitions, Fabiano advanced to the final round of the Mario Lanza Competition (but had to cancel because he got mononucleosis), won first place in the Licia Albanese Competition, and earned many other top prizes. He considers his most important competitions, however, to be the Met’s 2007 National Council Auditions and the 2007 National Vocal Competition for Young Opera Singers, founded by the Loren L. Zachary Society for the Performing Arts, in which he placed first.
Young Artist Programs vs. AVA
While many singers enroll in Young Artist Programs, Fabiano chose not to and explains his reasoning. “I did an apprenticeship in Santa Fe for a year after graduating from college, so that’s similar to a Young Artist Program,” he says. “But I considered my Young Artist Program to be AVA—the best that the U.S. has to offer young singers because AVA offers comprehensive training. Potentially, you sing leading roles all year in major operas, with a very fine orchestra and a lot of rehearsal time. Some Young Artist Programs don’t offer these opportunities, and I am very grateful to have attended AVA.”
AVA’s staff of devoted musicians includes Music Director Christofer Macatsoris and Fabiano’s voice teacher, Bill Schuman. “Mr. Schuman has been a huge part of my life. I’ve been his pupil for seven years now. He has a huge heart and is assuredly one of the most distinguished voice teachers in the world today. He teaches a very direct technique that involves clear vowels and a deep, anchored support,” Fabiano says. And he cannot say enough about Maestro Macatsoris. “I owe a lot to him. No one else really taught me specific styles of singing, and he always pushed me to improve. All teachers and coaches expect the best from me, but he demanded it.”
Fortunately, thanks to AVA’s willingness to grant releases to current students—with Maestro Macatsoris’ approval—Fabiano had the opportunity to sing in productions outside AVA and gain real-world experience. Interestingly, he appeared in La traviata both at the Klagenfurt Stadttheater in Austria and at AVA, and the two experiences proved to him why AVA has earned its reputation. “On my own, as a new professional performer, I glossed over the score because I didn’t know any better,” he says, “but Maestro Macatsoris challenged me
on minute details the second time around, like why a note was written a certain way.”
It was also through AVA, in 2006, that Fabiano began his association with Darren Keith Woods, general director of Fort Worth Opera. Woods was in Philadelphia to conduct auditions at the Curtis Institute of Music and then at AVA. “I was invited to sit in on a rehearsal of Eugene Onegin [at AVA] while my audition room was being prepared,” Woods recalls. “Almost immediately, a young tenor— Mr. Fabiano—began to sing Lensky’s famous aria, ‘Kuda, kuda.’ I had never seen or heard of this young
tenor before. All of a sudden, tears sprung to my eyes, my breath was short, and I was literally stunned by the beauty of the voice before me. I literally could not breathe or see during the entire aria, and that had never happened to me before. Never had the sound of a person’s voice completely stopped me like that.” Despite Woods telling Fabiano afterward that an audition was not necessary, Fabiano insisted—and the same thing happened to Woods during an aria from Le villi. Fabiano would later make his Fort Worth Opera debut as Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore.
What is Fabiano’s advice to new or potential AVA students? Do what he would do if he were to attend all over again: throw yourself into the experience, make music frequently, and constantly study and challenge yourself. “A good instrument is not sufficient—you have to be your own critic,” he declares. “There can be no excuses.”
To Audition or Not to Audition
Asked for his past and present audition strategies, Fabiano responds with a somewhat surprising answer. “I consider auditioning and competitions to be in the same category,” he says. “I did a lot of vocal competitions. Doing voice competitions with juries was a good vehicle to build relationships and broaden my name and appeal as a young singer. Until a few years ago, I had not done many auditions for opera companies because running from one audition to the next would have worn me out, and there was a greater chance of failure.”
In 2009, Fabiano switched to his current manager, Bill Guerri, whose philosophy about auditions gave Fabiano’s career a boost. Guerri takes the position that targeted auditions for specific roles help build partnerships between young singers and opera companies. If the presenter is interested in a singer early in the process and hires him or her, the singer has already forged a musical bond with the presenter prior to the engagement. “I auditioned for some engagements that I felt confident about, or when a theater or conductor showed interest in me for a role,” Fabiano says. “There were successes and failures, and the failures taught me not to have my feelings hurt. Sometimes, the reason why presenters do or don’t want a particular singer is totally out of one’s control.”
Currently, Fabiano’s auditions consist mostly of singing for conductors (he prefers the word “sessions” rather than “auditions”). His strategy for a “session” is to get up early, be hydrated, and be as musically prepared as possible. “When I was younger, I was forced to sing at 10:00 in the morning. Now, I avoid that as much as I can. Singing in the morning is hell. Not everyone is the same, so to each his own on this—but I’m not hydrated that early and I need food to be settled in my stomach. If I have to sing in the morning, I need to be up early and get my body moving,” he says.
During and after Filming The Audition
The Audition, an award-winning film by Susan Froemke, documents the behind-the-scenes drama of the semifinals and finals of the Met’s 2007 National Council Auditions. Just as insightful as watching the singers perform and cope with the competition’s pressures are the on-camera interviews.
Early in the film, Fabiano tells the audience that he needs music in his life. What did he mean? “Music has been an intrinsic part of my life since I was a child, so I had to have it in my life,” he says. “Can you imagine a life in which, for one day, all music ceased to exist? All of it—jingles on your phone, jingles before and after a television news program, music behind television commercials, music on your iPod? People would go insane because they don’t realize how fundamental music is in their lives. We depend on it and communicate through it, and I can’t live without it.”
While Fabiano, along with the other singers, certainly became more well known as a result of being featured in the film, the wheels really began to turn with the hiring of his former manager, Matthew Laifer, one of Schuman’s contacts who had been following Fabiano’s emergence. Even though some people were against Fabiano’s hiring of a manager that early in his career and urged him to join a Young Artist Program, Fabiano disagreed, saying he wanted professional experience. To this day, he does not regret his decision. “Matthew secured a number of engagements pretty quickly and worked very diligently on my behalf,” he says.
Debuts at La Scala, the Met, and San Francisco Opera . . . to Name a Few
Fabiano made his La Scala debut as Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi in 2008, conducted by Riccardo Chailly. His Met debut, as Raffaele in Stiffelio, took place in January 2010, with Plácido Domingo (a former essayer of the title role) conducting. Domingo’s presence on the podium actually had a calming influence on Fabiano. “It was incredibly reassuring to work with a gentleman who has had a 40-plus-year career as an opera singer. He was breathing with me and thinking as a singer while conducting,” Fabiano says.
San Francisco Opera welcomed him to their stage as Gennaro in Lucrezia Borgia opposite Renée Fleming in the fall of 2011. Another singer had cancelled, and General Director David Gockley discovered Fabiano in a YouTube clip from the same opera, taken from a production at the English National Opera earlier in the year. “Based on the video, I told my people to hire him,” Gockley says. “Michael has it all—a great Italianate lyric tenor sound, a good technique, he cuts a great figure, and he’s a great colleague. He had a smashing debut, and we have engaged him for two more roles.”
This past January, Fabiano sang the Duke in Rigoletto for his debut at Florida Grand Opera—an opportunity that had been in the making ever since his 2005 appearance in the YPO Voice Competition when he was voted the audience favorite. “He has an extraordinary stage presence that audiences seem to love. While he has done the role of the Duke previously . . . I was impressed with how much effort and energy he brought to every rehearsal,” says Florida Grand Opera General Director and CEO Robert Heuer. “Michael was the right choice for this production . . . we are definitely looking to bring him back to Miami in the near future.”
Having recently made his debut at the Teatro Real as Christian in Cyrano de Bergerac, other firsts await Fabiano, including his American recital debut at Jewell College in Kansas City, his Seattle Opera debut as Rodolfo in La bohème, and his debut with the San Francisco Symphony. Other engagements he is anticipating are a concert at the Cleveland Orchestra’s Blossom Music Festival, Cassio in the Met’s Otello in the fall of 2012 (including a Live in HD simulcast), the Verdi Requiem in Oslo, and Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor with the Paris Opera.
Selection of and Preparation for Roles
Fabiano spends about as much time studying and re-studying his current repertory as he does studying potential repertory—“potential,” not “future,” because he wants to determine his comfort with a role before making decisions. “Once an offer for a new role is presented to me, and I feel confident in my ability to perform it on a big stage, I check in with my voice teacher, my manager, and one other professional confidant to weigh the benefits and harms of taking the job,” he explains. “But, at the end of the day, I go with my gut even if my personal council may not be in uniform agreement with me.”
Woods uses the words “meticulous” and “methodical” to describe Fabiano’s approach. “I wish everyone came as prepared as he does,” Woods observes. “He is careful not to take on too many heavy roles. To have a long career, you have to know what you do well now and have a good sense of what your voice will be like in five years. Michael’s calendar is very well booked, but you can see where he will take on maybe one new role or one stretch role, and the others are in the same vein as those he has been singing.”
How does Fabiano keep his voice fresh while balancing performances and study time? Since “studying” does not have to equal “vocalizing,” his study sessions might simply consist of beating time, intellectual exploration of a piece, or asking questions of his teacher. “Otherwise, I calculate the time I have available for vocalizing,” he says. “When I was a student, George Shirley recommended 20-minute sessions three times a day in full voice, so that I would not fatigue. Today, since I’ve had more technical experience, I vocalize more frequently while pacing myself.”
Currently, Fabiano sings in Italian, French, German, Russian, and English—from his perspective, Italian is the most important language for any young singer to learn. “For certain singers, their voices lend themselves more to German or French but, on the whole, I advise any young singer to travel to Italy as soon as he or she can, even if money is a concern. Break the bank early, because it will pay dividends later. Get that language into your tongue,” he advises.
Views about Arts Education
No conversation with Fabiano would be complete without mention of a topic near and dear to his heart: the value of arts education in a child’s life. Being an opera singer has made him acutely aware of the degree to which arts education is lacking in the United States. “It is striking to me how few young people are participating in opera or sitting in the audience,” he says. “Society needs to invigorate young people about music and art, and everyone needs to consider what it means to live in a ‘civilized society.’”
What really concerns him—as it does many people in the arts world—is that young people are the future of classical music and opera, but those same young people are not being exposed to these art forms. “I depend on other young people to be participants in what I do, to ensure the destiny of classical music. We need young people participating to avoid a diminishing of the audience. I was fortunate to have parents who loved music, but so many kids don’t have that background. Any exposure to the arts is good for the business of opera singers,” he says. Not one to talk but not take action, Fabiano is giving the issue visibility during interviews, mentioning his desire to get more involved in reversing the problem.
One thing is indisputable: exposure to the arts and music played a substantial role in his childhood development. On top of that, he is grateful beyond words for the coaching he has received and continues to receive from six of the most important people in his musical life: George Shirley, soprano Julia Faulkner, and AVA’s Bill Schuman, Laurent Philippe, Danielle Orlando, and Christofer Macatsoris. People in the industry often make the comment that singers need to make the most of the tools they are given in order to be successful—Fabiano certainly has done that and is committed to making smart decisions to make sure that his time on stage is gratifying to him and his audiences.
“I love the stage,” he says. “Being on the stage is an honor, and I live for the moments when I can communicate great, beautiful music.”
