For a small city, Boston’s musical life is proportionally large. While much of the cultural focus does go to the world-class Museum of Fine Arts and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, there is still plenty of audience to go around. In fact, because major cultural offerings are in relative short supply, smaller groups and start-ups can attract strong followings. From professional opera companies and choruses to Early music ensembles and new music groups, singers of all disciplines will find a range of places to distinguish themselves.
Boston Lyric Opera (blo.org) has continued to thrive, despite the unexpected bankruptcy of Opera Boston last year. In addition to several mainstage productions (this season sees Madama Butterfly, Così fan tutte, and The Flying Dutchman), BLO’s Opera Annex offers more adventurous repertoire in intimate spaces. That initiative includes commissioned new works, such as the U.S. premiere of Scottish composer James MacMillan’s Clemency this season. A select group of post-graduate and post-Young Artist professionals perform in these productions, as well as in mainstage comprimario roles. BLO also holds regular chorus and supernumerary auditions.
Numerous high-quality, unpaid opportunities abound for singers seeking performance experience. Now in its 75th year, making it the longest continually performing opera company in New England, Lowell House Opera (lowellhouseopera.com) presents fully staged and lit orchestra productions of masterworks in a Harvard dining hall. But an enormous army of volunteers make this anything but a scrappy operation, and auditions are open to students and professionals from outside the Harvard community. Repertoire is always ambitious: this year’s production was Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and past operas have included Otello and Der Rosenkavalier.
Created to bridge the gap between student and professional experiences, Boston Opera Collaborative (bostonoperacollaborative.org) has drawn much attention for its team spirit and high-quality productions, including the New England premiere of Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking and thoughtful repertoire works such as Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen and Falstaff. BOC members perform in frequent recitals and mainstage productions, pay annual dues, and contribute the many hours of administrative and production support needed to run the company. The company is currently not accepting new members (and has long been overflowing with female singers), but still casts nonmember men.
Just outside of town in Weston, MetroWest Opera (metrowestopera.org) presents an annual production of standard repertoire (such as Carmen, Don Giovanni, and Cendrillon) as well as a competition for Young Artists and high school students. Based in Needham, another Boston suburb, Longwood Opera (longwoodopera.org) has been presenting Young Artists in operettas, recitals, and English-language versions of operas for nearly 30 years. This season includes Ruddigore, The Elixir of Love, and The Magic Flute.
During the otherwise opera-free summer, Boston Midsummer Opera (bostonmidsummeropera.org) presents an annual production that features rising young stars from the national scene as well as some local singers. OperaHub (operahub.org) is another youthful company performing eclectic repertoire. Committed to offering music free of charge, their playful take on classics have included an art song recital dubbed “Goethe Your Hand Off My Heine” and an interpretation (which I appeared in) of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea with electronic instruments.
On the fun side of things, Opera on Tap recently established an outpost in Beantown (operaontap.org/boston), making it the 13th city in the boozy network that brings arias to bars. They make their home every second and fourth Saturday at Jacob Wirth’s, Boston’s theater district beer garden known for its popular sing-a-longs to rock-n-roll oldies! (jacobwirth.com)
The Boston Early Music Festival is perhaps the highest profile institution that contributes to Boston’s reputation as one of America’s leading Early Music cities (bemf.org). The biennial festival draws fans and performers from around the world for an intensive week of concerts, exhibitions, and masterclasses, culminating in an operatic centerpiece in full Baroque splendor. Newcomers to Early Music can get a crash course simply by spending some time at the festival, held this year from June 9-16, and rising professionals can present their own performances as a BEMF fringe event.
Apart from the festival, BEMF produces an annual chamber opera and concert series in Boston and New York, featuring world-renowned practitioners in the field. The operas have featured Boston-based singers, and the festival has proved instrumental to cultivating some of their careers. BEMF holds periodic vocal auditions and recently launched a Young Artist Program for singers age 18-27. In one of the few such programs devoted to early opera, selected singers form the ensemble for the mainstage opera.
The Handel and Haydn Society (handelandhaydn.org), or H&H as it’s known locally, gave the United States premiere of Handel’s Messiah in 1818 and is celebrating its bicentennial season in 2014-15. The ensemble performs exclusively on period instruments and expects a good deal of stylistic knowledge from its musicians. Repertoire includes Baroque touchstones such as the Bach B Minor Mass and, of course, an annual Messiah. H&H holds annual auditions (although their roster runs deep), and ensemble members have been known to rise through the ranks to become soloists. Competing for the Messiah audience is Boston Baroque (bostonbaroque.org), which also presents several vocal works each year, including concert versions of operas. They also hold regular auditions for singers.
These institutions tend to draw from an overlapping pool of local performers, many of whom also appear in other smaller ensembles in town. The well regarded Blue Heron ensemble (blueheronchoir.org) specializes in a cappella music from the 15th and 16th centuries. Exsultemus (exsultemus.org) began as a small Renaissance choir and has since ventured into Baroque cantatas and other chamber music. Cambridge Concentus (cambridgeconcentus.org) is a close-knit chamber orchestra that presents masterpieces and lesser known Baroque works, such as the Monteverdi Vespers and an excerpt from a rarely heard Biber opera.
The venerable Boston Camerata (bostoncamerata.com), which has been a force on the Early Music scene for much of the early music revival, presents well researched chamber programs of medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque music, much of it vocal. I performed a semi-staged version of the medieval story of Tristan and Isolde, and recent shows include programs of early American music. The Camerata frequently tours nationally and abroad and also offers a well loved concert series in Boston. All of these ensembles occasionally seek out singers via auditions but generally work from a roster of colleagues.
With so much early music, it is ironic that Boston does not have a standing Baroque opera company. Launched in 2011, Helios Early Opera (heliosopera.com) fills that gap by producing lesser known early works in modern stagings. So far they have presented three operas by Charpentier, Telemann, and Cavalli, attracting performers from far and wide.
Boston’s brainy audiences have an appetite for new music as well as old, and several energetic companies attract a loyal following. Boston Modern Orchestra Project (bmop.org) is Boston’s leading orchestra devoted to contemporary music. Vocal works are regularly part of the concert programming, though the singers hired tend to be established performers on the scene. Still, it pays to get to know their concert series to learn about important composers and new works, from the Boston area and beyond.
By performing exclusively newly commissioned chamber operas, Guerilla Opera (guerillaopera.com) is dedicated to both cultivating a new generation of opera composers and redefining the opera experience for the audience. The five-year-old company is comprised of a tight-knit ensemble—too cool for a conductor—but they regularly invite guest artists to round out the cast. Repertoire highlights include No Exit (based on the Sartre play) by Andy Vores, Heart of a Dog by Rudolf Rojahn, and Say It Ain’t So Joe by Curtis K. Hughes, which was based on the 2008 Palin-Biden debates (and I also performed in that production).
Juventas New Music Ensemble (juventasmusic.com) is devoted to performing repertoire by composers under the age of 35, including a fully staged operatic premiere every season. Recent premieres include the first Kung Fu opera and a program of opera scenes that incorporated a Halloween costume contest. Like Guerilla Opera, they are based at Boston Conservatory and have cultivated their own community of contemporary music experts and aficionados.
While not a professional ensemble, the high-caliber Tanglewood Festival Chorus (access via bso.org) provides a remarkable opportunity to perform great music with world-renowned artists. TFC is the symphonic choir for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which is one of only two orchestras in the country to use volunteers in this role. In addition to performing at the Tanglewood Festival each summer, TFC frequently appears on the BSO and Boston Pops subscription concerts, including the occasional international tour, recordings, and a cappella concerts. While the roster numbers some 300 singers—some of whom have been there for decades—TFC still holds periodic auditions and welcomes new members. If you can make the time commitment, it’s one of the best gigs in town.
Several recital series welcome ideas for programs under an hour in length and regularly present singers. The lovely Taylor House Bed and Breakfast in Jamaica Plain features local talent, including classical and jazz acts (taylorhouse.com/musicandart/index.htm). The Church of Saint John the Evangelist presents a weekly series on Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. (stjev.org/WednesdayConcerts.html) and King’s Chapel, which predates the American Revolution, holds midday concerts on Tuesdays (kings-chapel.org/tuesday-recitals.html).
Musical theatre singers won’t find as many professional opportunities in Boston as in New York, where casting for national Broadway tours takes place, but New England Theater 411 (netheater411.com) gathers information about various auditions in the area. Boston Singers’ Resource (bostonsingersresource.org) is a subscription service for auditions of all sorts, with numerous other programs to assist singers at different levels of their careers. BSR hosts auditions for representatives from opera, chorus, church, chamber, and orchestra groups to screen local talent, offers health care and discounts to its members, and recently established the Boston Singers’ Relief Fund to see performers through job loss, illness, and other life events.
Between the established companies and the newer ones, an eager audience and a self-replenishing supply of student energy, you could do worse than to bring your singing to the City on the Hill. As is always the case, competition exists for a limited number of opportunities—but persistent singers can find their niche and some warm colleagues along the way. Or, like many before them, they can launch their own project and add even more diversity to Boston’s burgeoning scene.
