When people talk about the Boston Early Music Festival, they could actually be talking about either of two things: the title of a producing organization (BEMF) or the title of a festival. The organization produces exceptional concerts in a regular season every year, from October to May in Boston and New York. The Festival usually refers to the biennial June production of “the world’s leading festival of early music” (London Times). This week-long early music festival in Boston features an exhibition by instrument makers, concerts, masterclasses, and a breathtakingly beautiful operatic centerpiece.
In 1989, shortly after becoming executive director of the organization, Kathleen Fay began working to expand the activities of the organization beyond the biennial week. The result was the initiation of an annual concert series, now in its twentieth critically acclaimed season, whose past participants include Les Arts Florissants, Anonymous 4, and Emma Kirkby, just to name a few.
In 1997, Stephen Stubbs and Paul O’Dette began their collaboration as co-artistic directors of BEMF, and have been primarily responsible for the summer festival. Sharing this leadership position has made it possible for the two very busy performers, directors, and teachers to maintain their international careers while dividing up the daunting workload inherent in the production of opera—especially one that hasn’t been performed for 350 years. Unlike a modern opera which has many reference models, BEMF starts from scratch by developing its own performing edition, and both Stubbs and O’Dette remain hands-on throughout the entire process.
How can you get involved?
So, what are some of the opportunities for singers to get involved with BEMF? There are many, from audience members, to volunteers, to internships, to performers. In fact, Fay started her relationship with the organization as a volunteer. She advises that a good first step to learning about the organization—and the field of early music in general—is to immerse oneself in a BEMF summer festival. “Not only is it a wonderful time,” Fay says, “but it is a real chance to be saturated in the field.”
Spend your days attending workshops and masterclasses, and choose from dozens of fringe events. Then spend each evening enjoying up to three official concerts. With an eye toward affordability, the festival organization works to secure local dormitory housing so that all this can be undertaken for a reasonable price.
It also provides singers an opportunity to talk with people in the field of early music, giving them “a chance to get to know how others jumped in,” Fay says. BEMF enjoys the participation of some 250 artists from around the world who are open to talking about their paths, exchanging ideas, and offering advice.
For singers who are interested in performing with BEMF, there are many different ways of being considered. The organization accepts press packets from singers and groups, attends booking conferences, and holds auditions in Boston. Additionally, they constantly keep their eyes and ears open to talent throughout the world.
The Fringe Concerts
Fay feels that the “fringe” series of concerts is the best way for performers to get into the festival. “It provides up-and-coming groups or individuals who are enthusiastic about early music to have a center stage in Boston during the biennial week, in front of a very enthusiastic audience and, in many cases, press and presenters.” She says they are extremely open-minded when it comes to reviewing fringe applications. “We want to open our arms and our doors and our stage to interested singers as well, and I think that’s a fantastic strategy to what can become a wonderful chance to be heard.”
The Operas
BEMF holds auditions every two years in Boston in January, from which they cast singers for the annual semi-staged chamber opera (which aims to feature local emerging artists). This season, five local singers will perform Handel’s Acis and Galatea. Auditioners are also considered for chorus and small soloist roles in the biennial summer opera, among a stellar international cast. The artistic staff is very interested in hearing singers, and they listen to as many as possible.
“You simply never know what wonders and gems and treasures you’re going to find,” explains Fay, “so for us, while three or four or five days of very full auditions once every two years in January or February can be completely daunting and exhausting, out of this grows a great pool of new talent that we’re very excited about.”
The number of applicants for these auditions has ballooned over the years, making it necessary to implement some type of screening process. It helps if
singers have some training or prior experience in early music performance.
“While we can do a lot of coaching during the rehearsal period, and work out a lot of interpretive and stylistic details,” O’Dette explains, “there’s not really enough time to do the staging and musical rehearsals and have a crash course in baroque performance practice, all at the same time.”
Advice to Singers
When asked if they had any tips to share with singers eager to audition successfully for early opera, Stubbs advises that singers should leave the J.S. Bach repertoire at home. “Bach’s music is more instrumental than most kinds of music that we deal with, so we don’t get an experience of how the singer deals with text.” O’Dette concurs, adding that “even the best singers come to grief and somehow run off the rails in these very long, tortured, modulating Bach cantata arias.” He suggests that singers look to other German composers of the period, such as Telemann and Graupner.
As to other audition repertoire, Handel arias work well, in O’Dette’s opinion. He feels that singers often choose repertoire “which either doesn’t show their voice in the best possible light or doesn’t present enough variety.” He does admit that he is impressed when singers take the trouble to track down an aria from the piece that they are auditioning for (though he wouldn’t want everyone to do it).
Sing both recitative and aria. “That’s one of the most important things to me,” Stubbs says. “In earlier music like Monteverdi and Cavalli, the meat and potatoes is in the recit, and you have to know how to be expressive with recitative. So I need to hear that from singers.”
And it’s not just about la voce. “We want people that are going to be believable characters on stage as well as fine singers,” insists Stubbs. To this end, he advises that singers get out and see performances—not only of early music but across genres, as well as music theatre and non-musical theatre.
“Get a sense of what the potential of the theater is,” he says, “because, to me it’s about being a viable theater animal for our time. One of the big things we’re looking for is that the talent with words matches the talent with vocalism—and in that sense, you can say it’s more closely allied with musical theatre than it is with mainstream opera.”
And if you’re nervous about your lack of expertise in baroque ornamentation, Stubbs confesses that he rates ornamentation very low on the list of priorities. “We’re not looking for ornamentation geniuses. We’re looking for people who have the kind of range and flexibility to cope with the expressiveness of the music—and, of course, ornamentation can be an expressive addition. But very often it’s just an ornamental overlay, and that’s of very little interest by comparison to how singers actually express the words.”
The Early Music Sound
On the subject of whether there is an early music “sound” that singers should aspire to, Stubbs offers a definitive answer. “It’s not that there is a particular sound. It’s absolutely not the case that we’re looking for a narrow bunch of certain kinds of voices.” It is a misconception that is dispelled by historical data. Stubbs offers, as a headline for early music, “in its own time, composers and performers were looking for a variety of vocal styles. They were looking for many different kinds of singers.” The foremost skill desired of opera singers was an ability to color the words in a very expressive and nuanced way, with flexibility, agility, and refinement.
Another misconception is that small voices are better suited for early music than large voices. Whatever the size of the voice, success with this style depends
upon the singer’s ability to sing expressively in the lower dynamic range.
“It’s very exciting to be working with singers who are not necessarily early music specialists,” says O’Dette. “They’re just very good singers with very good techniques, who can happily go from one thing to the next.” He holds up, as an example, Gillian Keith, who played Poppea for BEMF this past summer, while simultaneously working on Lulu and Janáĉek.
In considering how one would sing differently, it is necessary to set aside our twenty-first-century perception of opera—powerful voices, filling large spaces, accompanied by full orchestras—which is exactly the opposite of the seventeenth-century definition of opera.
For the 2009 Festival production of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, for example, BEMF’s directors worked to re-create the intimate chamber music quality of the opera’s premiere in 1642. This was achieved by performing it in a small 400-seat theater, accompanied by a replication of Monteverdi’s “orchestra” (a string quintet and continuo group), with the awareness that, in those days, singers were advised to never raise the voice beyond the volume of ordinary conversation, except in highly emotional situations like in an argument, for example.
Come Visit
Since its inception as a biennial local music festival in 1980, the Boston Early Music Festival has grown into a world-renowned annual presenter of a rich tapestry of pre-Romantic-era concerts, operas, and masterclasses in Boston and beyond. The organization can boast a growing number of Grammy award-nominated recordings, performing editions of early operas, a touring orchestra, and a youth education program. As Fay puts it, “just a very full menu of activities.”
So check out the organization’s website (www.bemf.org) for information about how to get involved, and mark your calendars for June 2011 and June 2013 for BEMF’s productions of Steffani’s Niobe, regina di Tebe and Graupner’s Antiochus und Stratonica, respectively.
And until then, go experience some live music in your own neck of the woods.
