Giving Thanks For Yoga

by Maria D’Amato

The term “self-care” seems to be a bit overused these days and as a mother of a toddler, a few solo moments in the bathroom seem to be the closest I can ever get to it on a daily basis! The one exception has been a weekly yoga class over Zoom with friends and colleagues from the Metropolitan Opera. During the many months of the pandemic, Met Ballet Alum Christine McMillan has been leading our classes remotely from Utah. A group of current choristers and retirees has been meeting every Saturday for a little bit of restorative normalcy, and for me, it has been a life-saver.

Years ago pre-pandemic, we would meet once a week for class either after rehearsal or before a show and it was something I always looked forward to. When the opportunity came up for us to recreate this sacred time online, we jumped on it. The chance to see the smiling faces of friends and meet virtually to recharge and focus in the middle of a world-wide crisis was something we couldn’t pass up.

With so much uncertainty during the seventeen months of unemployment this essential life-line helped to keep us sane, grounded and healthier. Mentally and physically we were able to let everything go for an hour and a half most weeks. An added blessing was that Met chorus retiree and former AGMA president Linda Mays generously offered to sponsor our weekly practice during the time that we were out of work. It was a gift we could never repay and we were all so very thankful. 

At a time when the world still seems to be upside down, I continue to give thanks for a chance to rest, relax and restore in good company, albeit virtually, never forgetting the importance of inhaling, exhaling and letting go of what doesn’t serve you. I will never forget the feeling of solidarity, support, community and care that resulted from these classes. May you all find something similar in your lives. Namaste, friends and happy holidays! 

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The Dancers of the Met, Bringing the Arts to a Pandemic World

by Lianne Coble-Dispensa

For the Dancers of the Metropolitan Opera, community is paramount. Dancing is an inherently intimate artform: dancers rarely dance alone, and friendships, colleagues, and artistic bonds of trust are formed on the stage, through in-person rehearsals, performances, and studio classes, the latter of which were often held at the Met four times a week during the season. 

All that was taken away when the Met canceled the remainder of the 2019-2020 season due to the COVID pandemic. With lockdown restrictions keeping these normally active artists at home, dancers like Maria Phegan and Liz Yilmaz soon started to feel the lack of opportunities to hone their skills and work with their colleagues. Almost immediately, Liz began scheduling Zoom classes, three times a week, to keep the Met dancer community sane and connected. This went on for six months, until the Zoom classes morphed into Zoom meetings to brainstorm how to continue performing during a time when congregating in public places, even in small groups, was taboo. From these meetings, Dancers of the Met was born. 

At least seven live performances were choreographed, staged, and produced by the Met dancers, as well as a number of performances made for live streaming and video (like this one). Their first live performance was via Arts on Site, in March of 2021. Produced by Mara Driscoll and Liz Yilmaz, the group presented five new works (the culmination of a week-long residency for the choreographers to create and rehearse), accompanied by a string quartet of Met Orchestra musicians, a Met pianist, and Seth Malkin and Anne Nonnemacher, both members of the Met Opera Chorus. Still in the thick of the pandemic restrictions, each of the four performances had an audience of only sixteen, all masked and socially distanced. 

Almost every month following, the dancers would present a performance in a different area of town. Two were at the High Line Nine. One was in Hoboken. One performance was outside, on 75th Street, as part of the city’s Open Culture/Open Air Opera initiative. Over 50 individuals either performed or volunteered their time to produce this event (including members of the Met’s stage management team), and other than getting haggled a bit by a few locals (mainly noise complaints), the performance was a resounding success. Maria saw that the audience members, both those who were ticketed observers and those passing by on 75th street, were moved by the presence of live art during the pandemic. “They needed music for healing, they needed dance, they needed movement.” 

Anne Nonnemacher, Met Chorus Soprano.

Met Chorus soprano Anne Nonnemacher danced all through childhood, and still takes lessons to this day, so the experience of collaborating with the Dancers of the Met was a joyful and fulfilling experience. Michelle Vargo’s choreography to Handel’s beautiful aria Lascia Ch’io Pianga (sung by Anne, of course) was performed at multiple venues, and Anne was pleased to work not just with the dancers but also the Met Orchestra musicians who played in the string quartet. “[The chorus] doesn’t often get the chance to work with the orchestra musicians during the season, so the opportunity to work with them and get to know them was really lovely.” She was also offered a moment of personal creativity, fashioning a solo, a-cappella fragment from the Flower Maidens scene in Wagner’s Parsifal, which preceded another work choreographed by Vargo (with costumes designed by another Met dancer, Sam Meredith). Jacoby Pruitt’s choreography to Marietta’s Tanzlied (from Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt) included Anne, not just as a singer, but as a focal point in the action, which made good use of her movement background.

Seth Malkin, Met Chorus Bass.

For Met chorus bass Seth Malkin, performing with the Dancers of the Met and the orchestra musicians of the Met was an opportunity to “get together and collaborate, at a time when doing so felt like my only tether to my artist-self.” Seth, along with Met chorus soprano Anne Nonnemacher, performed art songs at the very first Arts on Site concert in March of 2021, and Seth recently offered up a set of art songs, with beautiful interpretive dance by Antuan Byers, at the High Line Nine. But it was May 16, 2021 that sticks out in his mind the most. The Dancers had scheduled their Open Air Opera event on 75th street that morning, the same day as the Met’s special performance at the Knockdown Center in Queens. He was scheduled to be one of the first artists to perform that day, and was able to sing an aria from Beethoven’s Fidelio, as well as connect with the assembled onlookers by answering questions about what it’s like to sing at the Met. Afterwards, he rushed to Queens to rehearse and perform in the Met’s special event. “Two gigs in one day went a long way to making me feel like I was exiting the very long, very dark tunnel I had been traveling, since the Met sent us home the year before.”

Megan Krauszer, rehearsing a piece with Lincoln Center instrumentalists in October 2021.

Audience sizes varied, as one might imagine due to the strict COVID protocols that were in place during the height of the pandemic. Curator/director Maria Phegan gathered 11 artists together for their first livestream event presented by Arts ON AIR, with three pieces by choreographer Michelle Vargo, along with Met Orchestra Musicians and additional collaborators, in an intimate rooftop setting as a love letter to NYC. This performance had room for 10 paid, ticketed observers. However, their May 2021 outdoor concert, which was part of Open Culture/Open Air Opera, was not only a ticketed event, but also drew in crowds of onlookers and passers-by who happened to walk down 75th Street during their performance. Maria did note that the true reach of their performances couldn’t be exactly quantified, as their use of live streaming via Instagram meant that they were able to reach an expanded audience of non-locals. 

Not only were the Dancers of the Met creating original choreography and performing these works for grateful audiences: they were also producers, grant writers (Maria Phegan is something of an expert at this, at this point in the game), web developers (Liz Yilmaz manages the Dancers website), and videographers (Cesar Abreu handled the video work for performances in May and August). Organizations donated tents and flooring. But thanks to a combination of generous donations, fundraising, proceeds from tickets and merchandise sales, and grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, the Dancers of the Met that participated in these concerts received stipends for their work, during a time where jobs in the performing arts industry were sparse, at best. And the content they created in 2020 led to a fiscal sponsorship by Fractured Atlas, which allows the Dancers of the Met to function as a 501(c)(3) and accept donations for future performances and community engagement. 

The talented performers of Arts On Air.

All in all, these performances were immensely beneficial to both the dancers and their audiences. “The Met, the Met community got closer during this process,” said Liz Yilmaz of the experience. Maria agreed that all this, initially, “was for the dance community, but it ended up that people need this, the world needs this. They needed it as much as we needed it.” 

In the coming months, the Met dancers have a lot of work ahead of them. At the Met, they’ll be rehearsing and performing The Magic Flute, Turandot, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, Porgy and Bess, and Cinderella. But there are so many more behind-the-scenes projects they have to look forward to. With Maria, Liz, Natalian, and Michelle Vargo at the helm, the Dancers of the Met will be brainstorming fundraising ideas, holiday events, and focusing on 2022 festivals and summer programs, all the while laying the groundwork for a sustainable, supportive, abundantly artistic future. 

Dancers of the Met, photographed outside Lincoln Center during the height of the pandemic. (Photo Credit: Jon Taylor)

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Check out the Dancers of the Met if you’d like to learn more about these incredible artists. Dancers of the Met is a fiscally sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a registered 501(c)(3) charity. All monetary donations are tax deductible. 

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When Words Fail, Music Speaks

The career of a Metropolitan Opera chorister is chock-full of memorable events. “Top Ten” performances, defined by gorgeous music, world-class soloists, or exciting productions are common, but none of them could prepare us for the experience of performing the Verdi Requiem on the 20th anniversary of 9/11. The weight and gravity of the evening alone was enough to create an emotional musical experience to remember. But there was even more significance this year, as this special performance of the Verdi Requiem was the first performance on the Met stage since March 11th, 2020 (the Met would shut its doors the next day due to the COVID-19 pandemic). Naturally, many of the choristers had much to say about the experience.

The Metropolitan Opera Chorus, Orchestra, and soloists, led by Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Photo: Met Opera/Richard Termine.

Soprano Danielle Walker was overcome by the gravity of the experience. “Singing the Verdi Requiem with the Met Opera on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 was truly an honor. From the moment we stepped into a standing ovation to the final note sung, I shed so many tears.” Like so many of her colleagues, she wrestled with “financial, mental, physical, and emotional struggles” and lost friends and loved ones to COVID, and performing the Requiem was cathartic, and brought to her a sense of renewal after a year and a half of artistic stagnation. “I began to feel like a person again, part of a bigger picture.” 

Daniel Clark Smith (right) and his husband, pianist Michael Caldwell, on a delightful hike.

Veteran chorister and Chorus Committee member Daniel Clark Smith also realized, like Danielle, that he had experienced a version of an identity crisis during the Met’s closure. “I realized that my identity is so closely aligned with my line of work that I felt a real loss of self.” Daniel had performed the piece multiple times with the Met Chorus and Orchestra, but this particular iteration “brought a new emotional dimension to the piece for me, after losing so much to the Met’s closure for the last year and a half. Singing the Verdi Requiem was absolutely exhilarating, both musically and emotionally. Commemorating the anniversary of 9/11 led me to recall the last 20 years, reflecting on the city's and the nation's losses, as well as the personal losses I've suffered in that time.” Many choristers, Daniel included, were truly inspired by the leadership and artistic direction of the Met’s Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who conducted both the Mahler and the Verdi, and brought everyone together for “a truly moving experience.” As the chorus’s Safety Delegate, Daniel was particularly happy with the Met’s COVID safety precautions, which brought him comfort as he sang indoors without a mask for the first time during the pandemic. It freed him to fully invest himself in his musical performance. The whole experience, he thinks, will serve as a highlight of his Met career.

Mezzo-soprano Rosalie Sullivan was so moved by the experience that it was difficult to put her feelings into words, even months after the performances. “How can there be words adequate for such a moment?” she asks, recognizing the weighty confluence of events: “the 20-year anniversary of 9/11, 18 months to the day since our last performance together onstage at The Met, and our first unmasked indoor performance after a year and a half of COVID. On a good day, the Verdi Requiem has the power to shake me to my bones, but to perform it under these circumstances was overwhelming. So many layers of loss and grief and remembrance.”

“At the same time,” she said, “it was a profound gift to be a part of that performance and to finally offer ourselves up again in and through music. I don't expect I will ever have another such experience in my lifetime. The only word I can find for it is ‘sacred.’”

Gloria Watson (center) with her husband, Met carpenter Dana Watson and her son, Taylor.

Mezzo-soprano Gloria Watson was one of eight Met choristers who retired during the pandemic. It was heartbreaking for her to leave so abruptly, without being able to say a proper goodbye to her friends and colleagues after 27 years in the Met Chorus, but she made the difficult decision to end her career at the Met in August of 2020. Incredibly, she got a call from Chorus Administrator Dan Hoy in August of 2021 with an offer to sing one more time, as an extra-chorister, in the Met’s September performances of Mahler’s 2nd Symphony and Verdi’s Requiem. She was overjoyed to be able to return to “the house” to sing in these two incredible works of musical art, particularly since she had never performed the Mahler. But it was the Verdi Requiem that offered her the greatest emotional experience. Being in the city during the 9/11 attacks meant struggling with anxiety in the aftermath, and a pronounced fear of public transportation. “To be able to perform the Requiem on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 was cathartic. It was the most emotion I’ve ever felt [during a performance].” 

Gloria started her career in 1994 “with Pavarotti and Teresa Stratas” and ended it with the Verdi Requiem, on a historic day for both the Met and for New York City. For Gloria, for every performer on the stage, and for the sold-out audience on its feet before a note was sung, it was a colossal gift. 

“When you think about what we do for a living, how we feed our souls…to be able to say goodbye this way is one of the most extraordinary things I’ve ever done.” 

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Meet the Met Chorus Class of 21-22!

The canceled 2020-2021 season saw a wave of retirements from the Met Chorus. We will miss our colleagues fiercely (and we'll hear more about them in the next Met Artists Newsletter), but right now we'd love to introduce you to the four fabulous new members of the Met Chorus that have joined us for this action-packed 2021-2022 season!

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Helena Brown, soprano

Helena's versatility is immediately apparent when you find out that she is a soprano singing in the alto section of the chorus! Her impressive solo credits include Mrs. Dickson in Ricky Ian Gordan and Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel, Sieglinde in Die Walküre with the Miami Wagner Institute, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with DivAria Productions, Female Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia with New Camerata Opera, as well as Serena and Strawberry Woman in Porgy and Bess on the New York Harlem Theater European tour. She first appeared at the Metropolitan Opera as an ensemble soloist in Porgy and Bess.
Helena served as a union delegate for the 2019-2020 Grammy Award-winning production of Porgy and Bess, as well as this year's historic Fire Shut Up in my Bones by Terence Blanchard. During the pandemic closure of the Met, she worked tirelessly on the AGMA Negotiating Committee, helping to secure the agreement that charted the pathway back to work at the Met. The Chorus is thrilled to welcome her to the full-time chorus!

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Chase Cornett, baritone

Chase Cornett is a graduate of the Mannes School of Music (Artist Diploma in Opera) where he earned critical acclaim for his portrayal of the role of Friedrich Bhaer in Mark Adamo’s Little Women. Also at Mannes, he sang the title role in Le Nozze di Figaro under the baton of Joseph Colaneri. Mr. Cornett earned a Master of Music in classical voice from NYU’s Steinhardt School of Music as a recipient of NYU's Reinhold Scholarship. Prior to joining the Met Chorus, Chase sang with Arizona Opera, Utah Opera, the Utah Festival Opera, and the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra.

Chase has loved working at the Met as a part-time chorister since 2014 with Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (if you were paying attention, this was also Lee’s first show at the Met!). Chase’s new full-time position is the rare example of a ‘sabbatical cover,’ when a singer fills in for another chorister who is on leave for a season. Even if he only spends this year as a full-timer (and fingers crossed this is the beginning of a long career in the chorus!), we are thrilled to welcome him to the team.

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Steven D. Myles, tenor

Steven joined the part-time Met chorus during the 2017-2018 season in our last run of Verdi’s Requiem performances. He then joined us every season since then, singing in Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, Porgy and Bess (as an ensemble soloist) and Der Fliegende Holländer. We had a feeling he’d have a long career with us, and we are so excited to welcome him to the team.

Steven has received praise for his “suave and heartfelt phrasing” and “ringing high notes [and] powerful enunciation” by The Boston Musical Intelligencer and Boston Classical Review. He has performed with The Metropolitan Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Virginia Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, Utah Festival Opera, Odyssey Opera, Teatro Regio di Torino and Teatro Petruzzelli. Steven received his Graduate Performance Diploma in Opera from The Boston Conservatory, and his MM and BM in Vocal Performance from The University of Central Oklahoma.

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Lee Steiner, Tenor

Lee is a graduate of Susquehanna University (B.M.) and the University of Illinois (M.M), studying voice with David Steinau and Jerold Siena. In his itinerant days he apprenticed with the Des Moines Metro Opera, Opera Santa Barbara, and Opera North (NH) before settling into New York and performing as a chorister with ensembles around the city, including the New York Philharmonic, New York City Ballet, and, of course, the Metropolitan Opera. His debut as a part-time chorister was in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in 2014. In his free time, Lee maintains The Opera Database, a collection of free aria PDFs and operatic resources for the community. He lives with his wife Sandy (executive coach and founder of Dream Factory Coaching), their adorable twin daughters Autumn and Avery, and rescue pups Charlie and Ruby. If that’s not enough, Lee’s impressive knowledge of computer systems has already helped immensely in bringing some common chorus scheduling practices into the 21st century! We’re overjoyed that he’s joined us full-time! You can read more about his professional activities at leealansteiner.com.

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AGMA Safety Delegates: The Met's Unsung Heroes

by Daniel Clark Smith

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There is so much in the news lately about safety in the performing arts—from the tragic accidents happening on a movie set, to an ill-fated Broadway production with injured performers, to safety protocols with regard to COVID-19. Many have wondered how the opera industry has dealt with safety on the job.

A production still from Francois Girard’s production of Der Fliegende Holländer.

Thanks to recent improvements to the AGMA (American Guild of Musical Artists) contract at the Met, union delegates have more of a voice than ever before. We can do more to help a large company like the Met tackle issues to improve the stage experience of all our performers. With experience and a deep knowledge of the repertoire, safety delegates can help the company identify problems before they emerge. This improves the rehearsal process and in turn, the run of performances. But delegates also have a responsibility to help performers—we remind seasoned veterans, and notify new members, of the specific safety issues at play, especially if a particular production hasn’t been part of the repertoire in a while. We serve as the bridge between performers and the Met’s Technical Department, helping to make the opera stage a safer place.

The Safety Committee at the Met is comprised of delegates from each department (from performers to stage hands, and everyone in between). The Technical Department of the Met is in charge of all aspects of our productions. Each month, we meet to discuss the productions that have opened and those that are slated to begin rehearsal before the next meeting. Any and all safety-related subjects are raised in these meetings, from costume considerations, to basic safety on set, to performers “flying” and, sometimes, even pyrotechnic effects.

The Safety Delegate’s job begins with a meeting in the previous season with the Technical Department. We are given a “snapshot view” of new productions for the next season (and no, we can’t reveal any of the details), including sketches or models of the set, lighting plans, choreography, and costumes. We discuss all aspects of the production and the safety considerations of each. Sometimes we’ll be on hand to see a mock-up of the set to get an idea of what we’ll encounter on stage. For example, we saw a small sample of Francois Girard’s Der Fliegende Holländer set, which was constructed to look like smooth stones on the seaside. We discussed the planned footwear, the staging, and the choreography, so that when we encountered the set months later, we could share our insights with the chorus and dancers.

Fast forward to the first rehearsal on stage: we see the set and are able to synthesize all our prior discussions to help choristers understand the issues at hand. As rehearsals progress, choristers are sometimes given direction by a small army of directors: our chorus master, a choreographer, a director or assistant director, a fight director, a stage manager, or a member of the music staff. With all those voices at play, we sometimes aren't aware of a piece of moving scenery or a bottleneck on a set of stairs. That’s when a delegate can speak up and give a warning.

There are many examples of issues that can arise as a production goes into rehearsal on stage. At the Met, for the first time we stage a scene in any production, we use "work lights" rather than performance lighting. The lighting in a performance can sometimes obscure a drop-off or the placement of a staircase. Often the next time we see the set we’ll be in costume with show lighting, so it's important for each of us to look around carefully, to be sure of our footing when show lighting is used. Some productions use "side lighting" which means the lights are placed offstage in the wings, and if a performer needs to exit through that wing, they are momentarily blinded on the exit. If we are on a raised platform, for example, delegates may ask for white tape on the edges to indicate where it's safe to step.

Parsifal’s infamous Pool of Blood, inhabited by Jonas Kaufmann and the Dancers of the Met.

There are also times when costumes present problems that are unforeseen prior to wearing them on stage. Women wearing large, unwieldy hoop skirts often have to contend with moving about the stage without being able to see their feet. Men wearing a sword belt for the first time are suddenly aware that the direction they were given might not work with a sword extending three feet behind them.

These issues, among the more complicated aspects of safety delegates' jobs, come up when working on new productions that have yet to take place on the Met stage. The Met’s Technical Department works diligently to make all aspects of the production safe, but when creating a new production, the learning curve can be steep. In the Francois Girard production of Parsifal, chorus ladies and dancers appear barefoot in a pool of water for the larger part of the second act, with red dye added to make it look like a pool of blood. During rehearsals, delegates communicated concerns to stage management and to the Technical Department, and in return, the Met provided slippers to the women travelling to and from the stage, and they laid down brown paper in the wings to make entering and exiting the scene less hazardous.

Even familiar productions can present safety issues. The Act I Turandot set is largely comprised of bamboo slats attached to iron frames and wood platforms meant to resemble bamboo. There are oddly-shaped set pieces and many “escape” staircases (both large and small) to access them. The set can be hazardous, and it’s very difficult to walk on. For Acts II and III, we are mostly downstage on wooden platforms, but there are some with areas with six-foot drop-offs. It's our job to remind performers of the hazards, so they can protect themselves adequately, even if that means simply to wear sneakers to rehearsal until they are used to the set.

Behind-the-scenes, during a Turandot technical rehearsal.

In the weeks and months leading up to the Met’s reopening, as well as during the 2021-2022 season, the Safety Committee has been more important than ever, though now some of our responsibilities are health-related. The Committee had a voice in establishing our current COVID safety protocols. We are proud that our idea of twice-weekly testing that the Met instituted has provided another level of safety with regard to the Coronavirus. The New York Times reported, “Overall, since imposing the testing requirement earlier this year, the Met has reported 19 positive tests, out of 12,824.” In addition to regular testing, we wear masks to rehearsals until we are on stage in costume. Performers with young children or immunocompromised family members appreciate the added safety provided to their families. While it’s sometimes challenging to find a place to store a mask in a costume as you enter the set, wearing masks to rehearsal has become second-nature, and the protocol has no doubt protected the company.

The efforts of our Safety Delegates have led to a safer workplace, and rehearsing and performing twenty-three to twenty-six productions in a given season requires an “all hands on deck” approach. Safety delegates are happy to help our colleagues and the Met, keeping company members safe while maintaining the Met’s usual artistic excellence.

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Back to the Drawing Board with Met Dresser Chelsey Hill

by Rebecca Carvin

I first met Chelsey Hill in the dressing room of the ladies' chorus at the Metropolitan Opera.  She was dressing the first two aisles in the room, and the first thing I noticed was her amazing eyewear and her shoes. I wanted both. Chelsey was a quiet, confident, cool-as-a-cucumber presence in what can be a highly pressurized environment. Corset too tight? No worries, Chelsey knew just how to adjust it. Tights gone to shreds? Noticed and replaced. It was almost as if she herself knew what it meant to be a singing actress in a costume. It was no surprise when it was finally revealed that Chelsey had moved to NYC in 2014 to pursue a career in musical theater. She knew what we needed because she had “been there, done that”.

As time went on, other talents were revealed. Chelsey has a twinkle in her eye, and an aura of fun about her. I knew she drew amusing illustrations, but when she presented me with an illustration of my costume in Akhnaten (an enormous beetle with wings perched on my head, declared a “nice beetle” by one of our chorister’s children) I knew that this was a serious talent.  

Serious talent, indeed! Chelsey has been doing illustrations for Dallas Opera, Baltimore Musicals, W42ndST Magazine, along with many other organizations. You may have noticed our own Met Chorus Artists logo, and many of our social media posts have a certain sparkle about them. That’s because they have been drawn by none other than the “Illustrating Diva,” Chelsey Hill.

I had a few questions for Chelsey.

What is your artistic background?

I grew up immersed in the arts. I come from a long line of professional instrumentalists and visual artists. I was exposed to orchestral music, opera, old school jazz, big band, and Broadway standards from a young age, and truly developed a deep love for that kind of wonderful old music. I took piano, flute, and voice lessons. My instrument was always voice. At my preschool graduation, my predicted career was “opera singer” because I’d sing during lunch and nap time. My go-to tune was a toddler’s version of “O Mio Babbino Caro” (from Gianni Schicchi). I was the first singer in my family, and all three of my siblings followed suit. We’ve all performed in musicals together. I’ve played the mother to most of my younger siblings (great casting). We’re like a scrappier Midwest version of the Von Trapps. 

In terms of the visual arts, I was drawn to (pun intended) illustrators/cartoonists like Hilary Knight, Bill Watterson, and Bill Amend. My dad loved to draw, so we shared that love together. I’d watch him work and that would inspire me to draw.

What voice part do you sing and what shows have you done?

I’m a light lyric soprano. The last shows I did were in college and for The Broadway Dreams Foundation. I was an old school classic ingenue, though I much preferred the brassy, old lady character roles. My favorite role I played was Mona Kent in Dames at Sea. I also played Christine Daae in the Maury Yeston production of Phantom. That role landed me a Broadway audition for the doomed 2014 relaunch of Titanic. 

When did you move to NYC?

I moved in 2014, the summer after I graduated from college. It was a crazy whirlwind. I had gotten into the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s graduate musical theater program and was set to go there, but some cool last-minute opportunities led me to NYC.  

When did you start drawing and when did it start to become a business?

 I’ve always loved to draw, especially when I was a kid. I would get in trouble in school for doodling in my workbooks and for giving myself BIC pen tattoos rather than paying attention. I walked away from drawing for a bit when I was really into singing and theater, but I rediscovered it when I moved to NYC. It was a way for me to cope with stress. I started posting my illustrations on social media for fun, and it naturally transitioned into getting work once my style was more refined. It’s been growing steadily ever since. 

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When did you start working at the Met and what shows did you dress?

I started in September of 2019, and I worked with the Women’s chorus, Men’s chorus, solo women, super women, and children’s chorus departments during the 2019/20 season. I dressed Manon, Turandot, Orfeo, La bohème, Madama Butterfly, Queen of Spades, Akhnaten, Wozzeck, Porgy and Bess, Der Rosenkavalier, the NYE Gala, The Magic Flute, La Traviata, Così fan tutte, and Der Fliegende Holländer. I was set to dress most of the remaining shows of the season before the shutdown killed the fun. 

How did you become a dresser?

My work study in college was in my department's costume shop, and I had the best boss/costume design professor. That was one of the highlights of my college experience. When I was looking for a work change a few years into living in NYC, it just clicked that I should try dressing. I knew a ton of people who had dressed at the Met, so I reached out and got the gig. For me, it really was the best decision: working with stunning costumes, being around amazing performers, working alongside multi-talented dressers, and getting to hear exquisite singing every day. The Met is a NYC highlight for me. 

You used to go by the name “Coffeehooker” before you changed it to “Illustrating Diva”.  What is the coffee connection?

I’ve been a hardcore coffee drinker since I was young. My mother would take my sister and I to Borders Bookstore (RIP) and we’d get their coffee milkshakes. I don’t think she realized that it had espresso in it rather than coffee flavored ice-cream. Since then, I’ve been a full-blown coffee connoisseur. Coffeehooker was created from my initials and is the name of the glamorous and heightened illustrated version of myself. I even trademarked it. 

What’s next?  Where do you envision your illustrating career going, and are you still pursuing a performance career?

I’d love to keep drawing for music and theater organizations. These are my passion projects that I absolutely adore. I’d love to get more large-scale publication work. I just got my first book cover, and it’s been a blast working on that. I will definitely continue to create more music series. I’m currently working on a Women Composers Alphabet. I want to do more things in that vein. My goal is to give classical music a colorful, glamorous visual representation. 

I am currently not pursuing singing or theater, though it still remains the greatest love of my life. I get that theatrical fix with the art I create. I feel like I’ve really merged my musical side with my visual arts side. 

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Follow Chelsey on Instagram: @illustratingdiva

Facebook: Chelsey Hill- Illustrator

Website: www.chelseyhill.com

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Opinion: The Arts, The Economy, and Our Future

Met Opera Ballet member Cara Seymour gives a clear-eyed and candid strategy to ensure that arts and culture don’t just survive, but thrive after the pandemic.

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by Cara Seymour

Cara Seymour, a talented dancer at the Met. Photo: Chris Comfort.

There is a lot to unpack in Jason Farago’s article ‘The Arts Are In Crisis. Here’s How Biden Can Help’ published in The New York Times on January 13th, 2021.

Art is a necessary part of a functioning society. We only have to look to history to see that major societal changes are often ushered in by the artists and creators of the era (most notably: The Renaissance). Art makes us question our place in the world, and by doing so we inherently build empathy and understanding for those who are different than us. These are core components of a functioning society and as we have seen in recent times, empathy and understanding are at an all-time low. However, not all art is created equal.

Most widely-accessible artistic endeavors today that are seen as ‘successes’ are profit-driven. However, profit-driven art often leaves much to be desired. You can’t always trust the taste and desires of the masses. I know that sounds very snobby-urban-elitist of me, but a quick search of the biggest box office blockbusters will reveal a long list of insipid action-adventure movies. Meanwhile, the financial backbone of Broadway is nothing more than a live-action version of the Disney channel. Not to say that there is anything wrong with pure entertainment, but I doubt that these shows are inciting any sort of deep introspection. On the other end of the spectrum, we have esoteric and onanistic art that completely ignores the demands and desires of potential audiences, while expending far more resources than the work could reasonably justify. Neither of these extremes are conducive to producing the artistic landscape that we, as a society, need. There is a middle ground to be found here. While I’m in support of additional government funding for arts organizations, this funding should not absolve recipients of their obligation to operate in a self-sustaining, revenue-motivated structure.

Artists, dancers, playwrights, choreographers, and musicians shouldn’t have to constantly beg for whatever minimal grant money is available. Funds should be made more widely available to creators in order to allow for more up-and-coming, experimental, and grittier work to be made. However, just as job applicants are expected to have work experience in order to secure an entry level job, only those creators who have previously showcased work are seen as viable funding recipients. You can’t get funds to make work if you don’t have work to show, which you can’t have created without the funds. See the problem? This vicious cycle results in grant money being awarded to the same cultural titans year after year, stunting artistic innovation.

We also have an accessibility problem that has put us in a revolving door of doom for the arts. In order to successfully petition the government and receive funding for new projects that utilize tax payer dollars, we first have to convince plenty of Americans (at least 76 million…) that the arts are necessary and important. It’s difficult to convince Americans that live in 'cultural deserts’ to recognize the value of arts if the town they live in doesn’t even have a mural in place, let alone a museum or an arts center. My career is the result of arts funds being utilized to build an Arts Center in an overlooked rural town. (Shoutout to The Ashtabula Arts Center!) A federal plan akin to Roosevelt’s WPA could allow the arts to exist more fully outside of their cultural urban bubbles, and by doing so could narrow the gap of understanding.

Cara in costume for her sizzling solo work in Michael Mayer’s production of La Traviata.

Perhaps this gap in understanding could also be solved with a more robust arts education program, and not one that is only targeted to kids. Finger painting and creative movement classes in school are great outlets for kids and can often serve as motivation to get kids to show up to school in the first place. However, we also need an education enterprise geared towards adults. Our industry seems unapproachable and elitist at times because, frankly, it is. There are few programs designed to teach adults how to view a piece of art, what to look for in a dance performance, or how to listen to music. The minute that most of us don’t understand something, we tune out, just as we can comfortably enjoy a meal next to a couple arguing in a foreign language and remain blissfully unaware. Audience education programs are needed if we are to convince Americans of the importance of the arts. This type of education needs to go beyond the ‘talk backs’ after shows, a measly program note, or a small piece of poetic copy under an art work explaining the artists ‘intention.’ The beauty of the arts is that much is left to interpretation, but this can also be our downfall if nothing is explained to the more novice arts patrons. We must provide a gateway to understanding and appreciating the arts.

There are plenty of pressing funding items that President Biden will be dealing with as he starts his term, and I’m sure people would rail against additional funding for the arts. However, if we want to continue to be a progressive society, we should stop seeing arts funding as an expense and start treating it as both an important economic engine and an investment in our civilization’s future. We don’t need to look far into the past to see what the world without art would look like: an artless society was on full display at the Capitol on January 6th. I think we can all agree that this isn’t the type of world we want to live in.

Cara (left) acknowledging co-star Garen Scribner during La Traviata bows.

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Photo: Chris Comfort

Cara Seymour is a NYC-based freelance dancer and performer. Seymour received her B.F.A. in Dance from The Juilliard School. Her performing career has included work with Company XIV, The Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Bennyroyce Dance, Brian Brooks Moving Company, MOMIX, White Wave Dance, and Spiegelworld, among others. Throughout her time with The Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Seymour has performed a variety of soloist and titled roles.

From Opera Singer to Life Coach

by Rosalie Sullivan

Rosalie Sullivan, Met chorus mezzo-soprano and Certified Life Coach.

I had a sense from the beginning that this was going to be a long road. Even last spring, it seemed unlikely that The Met would be able to reopen August 1st for the 20-21 season and I had a feeling that I might be out of work into the fall, if not for the entire year. Once the shock wore off, I began doing some serious soul-searching – what would I do if I could not make music? How would I support myself? Staring into the unknown, wondering if, when, and how the arts industry would ever recover, I knew I had to turn inward to discover what to do next.

In 2008, in a similar moment of crisis and transition, I stumbled upon Parker Palmer’s Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation. There on page three, I found words that I still think of today: “Vocation does not mean a goal that I pursue. It means a calling that I hear. Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am.” 

I am someone for whom a sense of vocation is essential. This is why I became a musician: to pursue something that inspires, challenges, and stretches me – something that draws me onward to become the best possible version of myself. Without that sense of meaningful investment – of purposeful motion toward a higher goal – life loses its color, my energy dries up, and there is less and less of me to share with my world. It is not really surprising, then, that from the depths of my soul-searching came the decision to become a certified life coach (CLC). In this way, I hoped I could create meaningful work for myself outside of music and with a schedule I could control, both during my extended furlough and whenever The Met could safely reopen.

I began by availing myself of the incredible free resources on offer at The Actor’s Fund. I cannot recommend them highly enough. Countless times, I have discovered the support and information I needed in one of their free programs. 

In the synchronous way things move when we set our wills into action and take even the smallest steps forward, doors opened, and connections were made almost effortlessly from the moment my decision to pursue certification was made. One of my sister’s high school friends is herself a successful coach and generously offered me an hour of her time to talk about her path. By the end of our call, she had talked me through her certification process, sent me a link for the next upcoming 5-day intensive training class, and invited me to join her monthly coaching community call immediately after we hung up. I registered for the five-day CLC intensive training with Life Purpose Institute (LPI) the next morning. 

Rosalie (second from top right) and a gaggle of Cendrillon spirits posing backstage during a dress rehearsal.

When LPI calls this an intensive, they mean it. For five straight days in July, I was on Zoom all day, learning coaching tools and techniques, discussing ethics and code of conduct within the coaching industry, and most importantly, coaching and being coached. It was transformative and inspiring in ways I could never have imagined. It was also exhausting. In order to receive certification, we were also required to complete 12 hours of buddy coaching with a classmate, display competencies by coaching a different classmate in front of the group within a limited timeframe, pass a written final, and document sessions with at least three practice clients for a minimum of 12 hours. I wound up doing about 25 hours and was officially certified on December 7.

Rosalie (far right) and her fellow Cantoria choristers from David McVicar’s production of Tosca.

In many ways, I’ve been coaching myself and others informally all my life. Anyone familiar with the cycle of preparation for an audition or performance knows something about self-coaching and the dedicated daily commitment required to succeed in either effort. That’s who we are as performers: we have to be in order to succeed and to survive. After nearly two decades of working toward my goal to be a professional opera singer and ultimately landing one of the most competitive jobs in my field, I know a lot about the highs and lows of pursuing one's dreams; about pivoting, resilience, and dedication; about finding and losing motivation - and how to get it back again. I also know what it's like to be a high achiever and a recovering perfectionist. What better preparation could there be for a coach aspiring to serve others in finding greater fulfillment for themselves?

From the time I was young, I’ve had this driving inner force that says more is possible and I’m fascinated with trying to figure it out: How do we get there? How do we get stuck? How do we get unstuck? What is required to draw nearer to those dreams that we hold so dear? This is what calls me to coaching now: a desire to use my passion for vocation and my years of experience as an artist to help others uncover their own answers to these questions and lead lives of greater calm, clarity, possibility, and fulfillment, even in times such as these.

We begin 2021 facing great uncertainty, both in our industry and our nation. Standing on the edge of my own personal frontier, waiting to see what will happen in our industry and preparing to launch my coaching business in earnest, I take comfort in knowing I can take action daily and find genuine joy in watching clients transform before my eyes. 

There is tremendous power in one person creating and holding space for another - supporting her and encouraging her in her own exploration and development. It is the power of any collaboration or creative act, a power that we all know so well. It is this power that we must continue to harness and to share in the days and weeks to come.

May we all be well supported in our transitions, our trials, and our transformations.

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If you’re interested in knowing more about Rosalie’s Life Coaching practice, please visit her website at https://www.rosaliesullivan.com.

Note: Rosalie’s article was also featured in the Winter 2021 AGMAzine, the official newsletter of the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA). You may read the whole newsletter here.

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The Met Chorus Committee Tackles CBAs and College

by Lianne Coble-Dispensa, with Mary Hughes

In a contract negotiation year, the members of the Metropolitan Opera Chorus Committee are usually up to their necks in proposal brainstorming, AGMA shop meetings, and hours of getting up-close-and-personal with our CBAs (collective bargaining agreement) and MOAs (memorandum of agreement). However, this is no ordinary negotiation year, as the artists of the Met have been furloughed since March 12th, 2020 due to the global pandemic. So in the midst of long-term unemployment, some committee members have been searching for jobs, while others have gone back to school for free, thanks to the Union Plus program!

For those that might be unaware of this benefit, AGMA members have access to the incredible Union Plus Free College program. This program partners with Eastern Gateway Community College in Steubenville, OH to offer ten 2-year associate degree programs and two certificate programs, free of charge, to union members looking to expand their skill set or broaden their educational background. Additionally, Union Plus offers 4-year degree programs, also entirely online, available through Central State University in Wilberforce, OH. If you’re curious about this opportunity, check out www.unionplus.org. Then, read on to hear about the members of the Metropolitan Opera Chorus Committee who will be juggling term papers and homework assignments while they work with other Met AGMA artists to negotiate a fair, equitable contract and a safe working environment for all. 

Note: This article was originally featured in the Winter 2021 AGMAzine, the official newsletter of the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA). You may read the whole newsletter here.

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Lianne Coble-Dispensa, soprano. Photo: Joshua South

Lianne Coble-Dispensa, soprano

A full-time member of the Met Chorus for 6 years

Chorus Committee member; Writer/Editor-in-Chief for the Met Artists newsletter and MetChorusArtists.com.

I still technically have one of the best jobs in the classical vocal industry. It’s the one full-time opera position with what used to be the greatest job security: I’m a member of the Metropolitan Opera Chorus. However, when the Met closed its doors due to the pandemic, I had a “come to Jesus” moment concerning what the next few years could look like. The future of the performing arts industry is murky at best, with a slow roll-out of the vaccine coupled with a new, more virulent strain of the virus potentially delaying our hoped-for decline in new cases. I looked at my short-term options and thought that the best choice during an extended period of unemployment was to make myself more employable elsewhere, should a career change become necessary.

A few Met Chorus colleagues had already started associate degrees through the Union Plus program, which I knew existed, but had never seriously considered using. (After all, I already had a job!) I’d always been interested in law and at different points in my career, toyed with the idea of going to law school. Considering law school requires 3 years of full-time commitment (or 4 years part-time) and a whole lot of money, I took the next-best path and enrolled in an associate degree program through Union Plus to become a paralegal. I’m in the middle of my second semester and have thoroughly enjoyed this introduction to the world of legal writing and practice. 

The Union Plus program is an incredible opportunity to learn new things, expand one’s skill set, and forge a new career path, all for free, and all entirely online. It’s a great choice for unemployed members of the performing arts industry stuck at home with far too much time on their hands, but it’s also an incredible resource for anyone in the greater AFL-CIO union family who is looking to continue their education and take charge of their future. 

(Update: Since publication of this article, Lianne has changed her major to an AAB in Business Management with a Data Science focus.

Mary Kristine Hughes, mezzo-soprano.

Mary Hughes, mezzo-soprano

A full-time member of the Met Chorus for 15 years

Chorus Committee member; Women’s chorus delegate

Life during this pandemic has been about as unpredictable and uncertain as it could be for my husband and I and our 3 young children. Our world changed on a dime and all of the sudden I was furloughed and the whole family contracted COVID-19.

Somewhere along the way I started to apply for jobs, thinking that my delegate work with the Met Chorus Negotiating Committee could open some doors in customer service or administrative work. I joined the millions of newly-unemployed people who were applying to the same jobs in industries that I have not been a part of since accepting a full-time position at the Met 15 years ago. It was demoralizing, but I didn’t want to give up. I was homeschooling 3 kids, so why not have something that I could do while they were doing their version of school?

I’d always been interested in working as a paralegal, but life and music took me elsewhere. I’d known about the free college benefits through AGMA and Union Plus but had not given the program much thought until I started talking about it more with colleagues. When I looked again in May 2020, I realized that for free, I could become a certified paralegal. This is an industry that is projected to grow in the years ahead and encompasses my interests of working in Immigration Law. I’m so glad that I took the plunge! I have always wondered what else I could do to supplement my income, and I have chosen a field which is challenging and interesting. 

There’s nothing as exciting as singing at the Met, but the opportunity to broaden my skills was too good to pass up, and the fact that it’s a free benefit for all of us is golden.

Karen Dixon, soprano.

Karen Dixon, soprano

A full-time member of the Met Chorus for 20 years

Chorus Committee member; dancer delegate

 The pandemic has shown me the tremendous vulnerability of the performing arts industry. I learned about the free college benefit through AGMA and Union Plus and decided now would be a good time to take advantage of it.

I chose to study Professional Office Management for several reasons. I have done office work for my husband's retail store for many years but have not had any "training" to do it. This degree will enhance the real-life experience I already have to benefit our store and offer more skills if I am faced with looking for other work opportunities.

The opportunities are endless in the field of Office Management, as every form of work needs office personnel to support and maintain operations. I am deeply grateful that my union offers this incredible opportunity for its members to grow and enhance skills to benefit them and their families, whether or not there are difficult times like these.

(Editor’s Note: The retail store to which Karen referred is The Shoe Tree, located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan near the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. If you need shoes for your kiddos or for yourself, The Shoe Tree has a fantastic selection and a friendly Met face at the register!)

Ned Hanlon, bass.

Ned Hanlon, bass

A full-time member of the Met Chorus for 7 years

Chorus Committee chair; Met AGMA Committee chair

Last March the performing arts world exploded, and we are still just barely beginning to pick up the pieces. Artists around the country were confronted with the reality that their industry was shut down and would be for the foreseeable future. It was in this context that I started looking around for things to do while there was no way for me to work. Improving and making myself more well-rounded through education seemed a natural fit.  

Happily, I had heard about the Union Plus Free College Benefit and I jumped at the chance. Given my work with our AGMA negotiating committee at the Met, I thought that the Management Degree with a Labor Focus was a natural fit that could put me in a place to be more of an asset to my colleagues when we did finally return to work.

Now I’m 29 credits in and very glad I pursued the degree. I’m taking Intro to Management so I’ll know how the bad guys think (Just kidding! Well, kind of.) and Contract Administration, which will serve me as a singer and as a union representative.  The degree has helped give me purpose and direction during this rudderless and uncertain time. I am greatly appreciative of the Free College Benefit for helping me to take lemons and turn them into, if not lemonade, then at least better-tasting organic lemons!

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Note: The authors would like to take this opportunity to publicly congratulate Ned for winning an award sponsored by the Union Plus Holiday Giveback Campaign. 100 exemplary union leaders, nominated by friends and union colleagues, were chosen out of a pool of over 1,000 worthy applicants. If you see Ned during a pandemic Zoom meeting, be sure to congratulate him on a job well done!

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Creating Community in Isolation

by Daniel Clark Smith

It takes a certain personality type to choose a lifelong career as a chorister. We crave the creation of music and art on a grand scale, art that can’t be achieved by oneself. Choristers depend upon one another, and the pandemic has taken both our livelihood and our sense of community.

So it seemed natural for us to reach out to our communities in song and companionship. Whether presenting outdoor recitals or virtual discussions with students or senior citizens, our members have sought to give back to the community. What we didn’t expect was that in doing so, it fed our hunger for belonging in the world.

Concerts for Good

This summer, Chorus soprano Maria D’Amato and her husband Dimitrie Lazich, a member of the Extra Chorus, invited their neighbors to an outdoor recital of opera and musical theater favorites. They shared their gorgeous voices with a grateful audience while raising money for the Met Chorus Artists fundraising campaign. A double effort in giving—both to their immediate community and to their artistic one.

Chorus baritone Yohan Yi has developed a relationship with EnoB, a nonprofit organization devoted to providing free concerts for hospitalized, disabled, and socio-economically-challenged populations. Recently he sang Aaron Copland’s ‘At the River’ with SunEun Baek at the piano, as part of one of EnoB's digital outreach concerts.

Outreach for Older Populations

A screen shot of Sal Rosselli’s delightful conversation with the Lohmans.

A number of Met choristers have been involved with an outreach program through the RoseWood Village, a retirement and assisted-living facility in Charlottesville, VA. Residents of RoseWood have been treated to one-on-one virtual calls with choristers, offering conversation and music, and providing both residents and choristers alike some fellowship and cheer. Maria D’Amato happily participated in this initiative, along with fellow choristers Seth Malkin, Suzanne Falletti, Elizabeth Brooks, Marc Persing, Salvatore (“Sal”) Rosselli, and Angela DeVerger.

Sal Rosselli had what he describes as a wonderful conversation with the Lohmans, an impressive couple who had just celebrated their 70th anniversary (Maury is 100 years old, and Laura is 93). They reminisced about the neighborhood around Columbia University (where the Lohmans met, and where Sal had lived in his early days in NYC). Speaking with the Lohmans gave Sal “an opportunity to know I had something to give, which I was very grateful for”. As young professionals in New York, the Lohmans regularly attended Saturday matinees at the Met, so there was much discussion of singers of the era, such as Roberta Peters and Robert Merrill. Sal also spoke with the Brewers, who described falling in love in the church choir — Mr. Brewer was the organist, and his wife-to-be Pauline was in the choir. Sal described his discussions as a privilege “to have this brief window into these wonderful couples’ lives!”

Seth Malkin, a bass in the chorus, said his visit with a resident at RoseWood was “rather demonstrative to me of the isolation and discomfort that can accompany aging in this country.” He decided to simply sing country tunes, accompanying himself on the guitar. The woman “was initially very reserved,” he said, “and didn’t care to talk. She melted toward me a bit, as I sang, and I think she was pleased.”

Student Teaching

Seth Malkin has devoted much of his time to speaking to students, as remote learning has opened many avenues for us to engage with schools around the country. “I’ve met with voice students at The Cleveland Institute of Music, and at Boston University to talk about choral careers in music, as well as my Broadway experience. That was enormous fun. The students are terrifically motivated, and interesting, and who doesn’t like to talk about themselves for an hour?”

Chorus colleagues Meredith Woodend and Marc Persing collaborated on a joint presentation for the Westminster Choir College’s Symphonic Choir, speaking about their individual paths to the Met and what a day in the life of a chorister looked like. Meredith also spoke with the Orlando Gay Chorus, who had questions about the career of a chorister and were curious to hear about what happens “behind the scenes”. The Met Opera Chorus job is unique in this country, so musicians of all levels were curious to know how it all works.

Ultimately, these discussions were affirming for Meredith. “To know that [people] support us and can’t wait for us to return to the stage was incredibly uplifting.”

Chorus couple Scott Dispensa and Lianne Coble-Dispensa did two remote outreach sessions with schools: Newton High School in Newton, KS and the Bacon Academy in Colchester, CT. Newton’s session was with a group of choir members, many of whom are interested in pursuing music in college, and was entirely online as the school had recently gone to remote instruction due to a local spike in COVID cases. The Bacon Academy group was comprised of a chamber choir (both in person and remote, since the school follows the hybrid format). The students knew that being in the Met Chorus was a grueling job that involved hours of singing per day, so the question of how to manage vocal fatigue came up with both groups. One thoughtful student from the Bacon Academy asked them how their lives and careers had been changed by the pandemic, which Lianne said “showed way more awareness of how the quarantines are affecting the arts than I would have expected.”

“Both groups of kids had fantastic questions and were really engaged, and I'm hoping we offered a peek into one of the many ways a person can make a living in the performing arts.”

Nathan Carlisle, teaching a voice lesson online via Culture for One.

Hometown Heroes

Chorus tenor Nathan Carlisle has deep ties to Houston, MS. His grandparents were pillars of the community there. But the town has long been without a theater, so when news came of a new theater breaking ground on the square, he knew he had to help. In September, he held a fundraiser in the form of an outdoor program called “From the Military to the Met,” landing on the local news in the process. His fundraising efforts continued with a sold-out concert on Dec 5th, a Christmas show with all proceeds going to the community theater. “It’s been incredible to be down in Chickasaw County, Mississippi helping raise money for a worthy cause.”

Nathan is no stranger to service, demonstrating his passion for volunteerism with Culture for One, an organization devoted to bringing the arts to children in the foster care system. Nathan has taught voice lessons to kids in the NYC community for years, and he has continued his work with them even after the Met closed and he moved back to Mississippi. His commitment to music education also led him to give a presentation to over 200 students at the local middle and high schools in Houston. “It was such a pleasure to share the world of opera with so many who had never even heard of it.”

Suzanne Falletti (top left) with one of her Selfhelp classes.

Help Others, Help Your Self

Several members of the Orchestra and Chorus have volunteered for hour-long virtual sessions with a group called Selfhelp Community Services. Founded in 1936, Selfhelp has been the largest comprehensive program serving Holocaust survivors in the country. They provide services in home care, real estate and housing, as well as the community-based services for which our volunteers have worked. Suzanne Falletti, a soprano in the Chorus, has conducted two sessions with groups through Selfhelp. She talked about her pathway to the Met, memorable productions and costumes, and shared photos and even video clips of her singing.

“There was a wide range of ages and participation during these two sessions, but mostly I was so touched that after the first one they requested a second class,” Suzanne said. Conversations ranged from Suzanne’s career at the Met, to operatic training, to vocal training, to favorite composers and opera singers of the past. “The residents had a great appreciation for the arts, and for opera in particular,” Suzanne said. “Many of them had been [Met Opera] subscription holders in their younger days and clearly loved classical music.”

All in all, Suzanne felt fulfilled by her outreach with both RoseWood and SelfHelp. “All of the in-person self-help centers are closed, so this is their only outlet. I was honored to have been asked, and honestly, it helped with my feeling of isolation as well.”

Advising students about musical careers and reminiscing about performances can be fun and educational, but the true purpose of art is to entertain and comfort. Music transports the listener to another time and place, even for just a moment. While our usual method of singing opera is closed to us, as individuals we’ve craved these musical moments. They are as powerful to us as artists as we hope they are for our audiences.

Seth Malkin was deeply moved by his outreach with RoseWood, but his most powerful experience was singing for “a magnificent Canadian lady” as she passed away at her home on Prince Edward Island. She had approached him about the possibility of singing at her deathbed (albeit remotely) by email, before her cancer was too advanced for her to properly communicate. Seth said the transportive experience “gave me a perspective with which I walk through the challenges of this pandemic, daily.”

While few of us have experienced something as meaningful as Seth’s intimate moment with mortality, all of these volunteer experiences provide performers an outlet for our musical expression. And while the pandemic prevents us from doing our jobs, our primary means of artistic worth in the world, we are thankful to be able to contribute to our community in these ways. Paradoxically, time away from the opera can connect us to the greater purpose of art.

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A Holiday Recipe Corner Extravaganza!

Normally this space is reserved for a singular member of our Met family with a favorite recipe to share. But we can all agree that this year, we’re going to need a lot more than one batch of cookies to get through the pandemic holidays. So strap in, because you’re about to experience an avalanche of recipes from a few members of the Met Artists Newsletter team, plus one very special guest. Whether you’re in the mood for cookies, cupcakes, or even a spiced chutney, we have the sweets that can satisfy the most savage holiday appetite. Enjoy!

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Meet Abby Mitchell

Soprano Abigail Mitchell has been a member of the full-time chorus for three years, and was only roped into joining the newsletter team in the past year or two. When she’s not baking cookies, Abby is hiking with her husband Oliver and her 2-year old son Arthur, and spending the lion’s share of her pandemic quality time making serious headway writing her first novel.

Abby has this to say about her holiday offering:

“My philosophy when it comes to cookies, and dessert in general, is ‘Go Chocolate or Go Home’. Also, I am in love with peanut butter. Therefore, my favorite Christmas cookie recipe is peanut butter kisses! What makes these “Christmas cookies” and not “any time of year cookies”? Unclear! But in my family we always make these at Christmas and never make them at any other time, so I’ve always associated them with Christmas.”

 Peanut Butter Kisses 

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup packed brown sugar

½ cup creamy peanut butter

½ cup butter, softened

1 egg 

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

¾ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 bag Hershey’s kisses

Heat oven to 375°F. In large bowl, beat granulated sugar, brown sugar, peanut butter, butter and egg until well blended. Stir in flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until dough forms. If you have time, or covet a chewier cookie, chill the dough in the refrigerator for 30 min-1 hour. Probably you could chill it overnight if you’re one of those “plan ahead” types.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls. A lot of recipes say to roll the balls in granulated sugar, but we never do that. If you want to, though, I’m not going to stop you. On ungreased cookie sheets, place cookies about 2 inches apart. While baking, unwrap your kisses. Eat half of them.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Immediately press 1 kiss in center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheets to cooling rack.

Variation for Non-Chocolate Lovers: First, question your life choices that brought you into close contact with someone who doesn’t like chocolate. Next, rejoice that this means more chocolate for you! Last, press each cookie with a fork to get a pleasant crisscross design. You can do this before or after baking.

Variation for Hershey’s Hugs, caramel kisses, or other kiss variety: NO. This recipe is for the classic milk chocolate kisses only! Tradition! (Though dark chocolate kisses would probably be ok.)

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Meet Sara Heaton

Newsletter team member and Met Chorus soprano Sara Heaton went all out and shared not one, but two beloved traditional Heaton family recipes, which is fairly impressive since she just recently gave birth to her precious daughter Penelope. Since the pandemic began and the Met closed, Sara and her husband Justin have decamped to her parents’ farm in New Hampshire, so the silver lining of this horrible year is that she’ll certainly have many opportunities to make these delectable treats with her family.

“My dad’s mother’s name was Dora, but her nickname was Dodie. She also went by Justine, but that’s another story. Anyway, she made these almond crescents every Christmas. No matter where we gathered as a family, she would bring at least two of those old fashioned round metal tins full of these buttery, sugary treats.”

Dodie's Almond Crescent Cookies

1 cup soft shortening (Editor’s note: some family members replace half the shortening with butter, while others eschew the shortening altogether and use all butter. Dealer’s choice.)

1/3 cup sugar

2/3 cup ground blanched almonds

1-2/3 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup confectioner’s sugar

Mix together thoroughly the shortening, sugar, and almonds. 

Sift together the flour and salt and combine with other ingredients to make dough.

Chill dough. Roll with hands pencil thick. Cut in 2 1/2" lengths. Form into crescents on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake until set - not brown. Cool on pan. While slightly warm, carefully dip in 1 cup confectioner's sugar.
 
Bake at 325º for 14 to 16 minutes.
Makes 5 dozen cookies.

Pro Tip: Do not grind the almonds too finely. You should be able to detect small chunks.

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Image: Shutterstock.com

“The lace cookies are a beloved thanksgiving tradition for us. Growing up our thanksgiving was a huge gathering of family friends. Usually about 25 of us would get together at our house, always a nice mixture of adults, kids of different ages, people from all over the world. We often adopted people from out of town or out of country and introduced them to our version of thanksgiving. The toasts would take about 30 minutes because we required there to be a toast in every language represented. I digress. The meal was a combined effort, and much of the cooking started the day before with the lace cookies. The kids would come to our house on Wednesday afternoon and help my dad make mountains of these cookies. Over the years we perfected the technique of which spatula to use, and exactly how much time to let them cool before attempting to take them off the pan. This part can be tricky and end in either a mushed up cookie, or a pan that requires some serious elbow grease to clean. Worth it.”

Lace Cookies

1 cup finely chopped walnuts (about 4 ounces shelled nuts)

1 cup sifted all-purpose flour

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1/2 cup butter (1/4 pound)

2/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

Preheat oven to 375º. Thoroughly grease two cookie sheets. The easiest way to chop the nuts is to put them in a blender (or food processor), an ounce or so at a time. Blended for a few moments at high speed (with metal blade), the nuts will be the right consistency. Combine the nuts with the flour and set aside. Put the corn syrup, butter and brown sugar in the top of a double boiler and bring the mixture to a boil over direct heat, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and beat in flour and nuts. Put pan over hot water to keep the batter from cooling and getting too stiff. The batter will be too hot to push off a spoon with your finger, so use two teaspoons – one for measuring and one for pushing – and drop batter by rounded teaspoonfuls onto the baking sheets. Space cookies at least three inches apart – they will spread out quite a bit.  Bake for 6 or 7 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to cool for about 3 minutes* on the baking sheets. Remove the now-crisp cookies from the sheets carefully with a wide metal spatula and put them on wire racks to cool. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Tips

Do not overcook – remove when just browning at the edges.

Remove the cookies from the cookie sheet as soon as they hold shape (1 to 2 minutes).  Do not try to remove cookies before they set, otherwise they may break and go limp.

Have at least 3 cookie sheets going at once, staggered.

Keep the cookie sheets well greased.

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Meet Ray Menard

You’ve all met our union president and Met Opera Production Stage Manager in a prior recipe corner, where he shared his deliciously comforting oatmeal pancakes. Honestly, though, we were all hoping he was going to share this gem, his famous cranberry chutney. Ray makes this every year for the Bake Sale the chorus hosts that benefits the AGMA Relief Fund. These little jars of goodness sell out in a flash, leaving Met employees despondently begging for the recipe so they can recreate it at home. Since there was no Bake Sale this year (and no Met season), Ray wanted to make sure you could still enjoy this holiday-spiced condiment in your quarantined homes. My freezer is stocked with cranberries and I’m certainly ready to give this a try, so you should, too!

Ray Menard’s Famous Cranberry Chutney

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

1 (12-ounce) package fresh or frozen cranberries

½ cup apple cider vinegar (or to taste)

½ cup golden raisins

½ cup peeled, diced apple (I use Granny Smith)

¼ teaspoon allspice

¼ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Combine water and sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring to boil over medium heat.

Add remaining ingredients and return to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until apples are tender. (If you like thicker chutney, simmer the mixture for an addition 15 minutes or more.)

Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the sauce. Cool to room temperature and refrigerate overnight to allow flavors to meld. Serve at room temperature.

May be made a few days in advance and kept refrigerated. Yields about 2 ½ cups.

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Meet Brandon Mayberry

Alright, loyal readers. Are you ready to pop on an apron and flex your “Great British Bake Off” muscles? If so, this recipe is for you, because it is not a simple cake-from-a-box endeavor. But we’re not surprised that Brandon, along with his former business partner and recipe mastermind Pam Rose, came up with this incredible creation, as the two of them once co-owned Chicago’s Swirls Cupcakes, a mecca for all things delicious and cupcake-y.

If you think that this recipe is full of tricky twists and turns, then you’ll be amused to hear Pam’s notes on its current incarnation. Like Paul Hollywood, she is honest about this recipe being a baking challenge: “Believe it or not, this is the scaled-down, slightly-abridged recipe/instructions for the lovely Gingerbread cupcakes. I did however, still have to be very specific or the recipe could easily fail. And I know how upset I get when recipes do not work----especially around the holidays when there's no time for failure!”

If you take a crack at this, please tag us on Facebook or Instagram! We’d love to see how these beauties turn out, because they can’t be anything other than divine, winter-spiced holiday masterpieces!

Holiday Gingerbread Cupcakes from Swirlz Cupcakes ®

Yield: 12 – 16 cupcakes (depending on size of your muffin tins)

Swirlz “success notes”: 

Please practice Mise en Place (everything in it’s place). Measure out your ingredients ahead of time and have them ready before you start mixing to reduce the chances of accidentally leaving something out.

All ingredients should be at room temperature. Use a kitchen scale and/or measure carefully, as random substitutions may cause the recipe to fail.

For the Gingerbread Cupcakes:

Ingredients

1 1/3 cup (160g) all-purpose flour

½ cup (96g) white granulated sugar

¾ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon allspice

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ cup (½ stick/57g) unsalted European style butter, softened

¼ cup canola oil

½ cup unsulfured molasses

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

½ cup (120g) sour cream, room temperature

Cupcake Directions:

Preheat oven to 350° F. Line a cupcake pan with baking cups.

With an electric mixer, beat together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt on low speed for about 20 seconds. Add softened butter and oil and mix for about 1-2 minutes to coat the flour, until mixture resembles wet sand.

In a small bowl, whisk together molasses, eggs, vanilla, and sour cream until smooth. Slowly add the wet mixture on low speed. Scrape down bottom and sides of bowl. Increase to medium speed and beat for about 1 minute until the batter is smooth. (note: batter is slightly watery)

Distribute the batter between the baking cups, filling about 2/3 full. Bake for 16-22 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Bake time will depend n the size of your muffin tin so check for doneness. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Italian Meringue Buttercream

Yield: 8 cups   

Equipment: Stand Mixer with whisk attachment and candy thermometer

Ingredients

16 ounces granulated sugar

8 ounces water

¼ teaspoon salt

8 large egg whites

24 ounces unsalted European style butter, softened

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

(optional: 4 ounces of softened cream cheese)

Meringue Buttercream Directions:

On a stovetop, mix together the water and sugar, cover with a lid and bring to a boil on medium-high heat.

Keep the lid on the pot for 3-4 minutes and be sure that all the sugar granules are dissolved, otherwise your sugar can get gritty and crystalize.

Remove the lid, insert the candy thermometer carefully and continue cooking on medium-high heat until the syrup reaches 240°F.

When the sugar solution is at about 235°F, begin whipping the egg whites in the stand mixer on high speed. Add the salt to the egg whites.

When the egg whites reach soft peaks, begin pouring the sugar solution in a steady stream on to the whipping egg whites while mixing on low speed.

Continue whipping the egg/sugar mixture until it reaches stiff peaks. The meringue will now need to be cooled. You may scoop it out of the bowl and place in the refrigerator for 15 minutes or wrap a linen towel around the bowl with an ice pack to cool the meringue down without moving it to a different bowl.

Once the meringue is cooled, whip in soft butter (butter must be soft, not melted!) and vanilla until the buttercream is light and fluffy and no longer tastes like butter. 

Optional Cream Cheese: Once your butter has been incorporated and is light and fluffy, you may add the cream cheese, whip until fluffy again. (Do not over-mix.)

Pipe or spread on top of cooled cupcakes. See note below with regard to an additional/optional “layer.” 

Cake “schmear” / Optional

At Swirlz, prior to piping the Italian buttercream frosting on to the cupcakes (which is sometimes made with the cream cheese addition) we would melt a small amount of Cacao BARRY Chocolat Blanc (white chocolate) in a glass measuring cup in the microwave, until soft. Using the back of a teaspoon, we would “schmear” the tops of the cooled cupcakes with the white chocolate, let it cool completely and then continue to pipe or spread the Italian buttercream onto the cupcakes. Top with holiday sprinkles or tiny gingerbread men.

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Met Artists Newsletter Editorial: Why Another Fundraiser?

by Lianne Coble-Dispensa

When the Metropolitan Opera closed its doors on March 12, 2020, the plan was to come back in two weeks after the smoke had cleared, so to speak. The announcement of the closure came abruptly, but not entirely unexpectedly, in the middle of a musical rehearsal of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra. Most choristers left things behind at their dressing room desks, certain they’d be back after a brief hiatus.

It’s safe to say that no one could have imagined the scope and destructive power the COVID-19 pandemic would have on the performing arts industry.

Give the gift of hope to your favorite Met AGMA artists this season. (Illustration by Chelsey Hill.)

Met Chorus Artists, Inc., the non-profit organization run by members of the chorus, had been in existence for four years, and was initially created to help facilitate the chorus’s desire to be more involved in the community through opera education and outreach. However, after the Met canceled the remainder of it’s 2019-2020 season, it quickly became apparent that our organization needed to step up and fill another important role: that of a fundraiser and grant-provider to hundreds of out-of-work and financially struggling Met AGMA artists. Our successful first fundraiser, which you can read all about here, raised over $500,000 from hundreds of individual donors, as well as generous assistance from Met Opera board member Graham Berwind and Met supporter Bob Doorenbos (our “angel donors”) and a $250,000 donation from the Rolex Foundation. This money went directly to the artists who applied for our Emergency Grant, and as a result, over 300 artists received funds that helped them pay their rent (or mortgage), bills, and put food on the table for their families.

We hoped that one fundraiser was all that would be necessary to assist our fellow artists and colleagues through a dark time in their lives.

But instead of improving, things got much worse.

Due to skyrocketing levels of COVID cases and the lack of a vaccine, the Metropolitan Opera canceled the entirety of its 2020-2021 season, assuring that Met artists would be out of work for a year and a half (providing our preseason rehearsals start on time in August of 2021). Government assistance has been slim-to-nonexistent, and Unemployment Insurance will run out for many of us in April of 2021, with some of our colleagues possibly losing their PUA payments (Pandemic Unemployment Assistance) by the end of the year. Over 30% of the chorus have given up their apartments and homes and moved away from New York City because they can’t afford to live in an area with such a high cost-of-living without a job, to say nothing of our other Met AGMA family members who have left the NYC metro area and have scattered to all corners of the country to live with friends and family members and wait out the closure, watching their bank accounts dwindle.

We, the board of Met Chorus Artists, Inc., knew we had no choice but to raise money for our colleagues a second time. We decided to call our second campaign the Face The Music Fundraising Campaign, and there are many reasons we chose to name it this way.

Audiences have to Face the Music that they won’t be able to enjoy their favorite Metropolitan Opera performances until September of 2021 (at least, that’s the hope).

Metropolitan Opera Artists have to Face the Music that the company they love is not going to give them the support and respect they need and deserve.

Artists have to Face the Music that many government programs that are helping them stay afloat (student loan deferments, eviction moratoriums, rent assistance, mortgage forbearance programs, etc.) are set to expire at the end of the year.

Artists have to Face the Music that a vaccine roll-out will take time, and that it will be a long time before we can comfortably perform indoors again.

And we all have to Face the Music that we will not get through this pandemic without helping each other.

There was no small amount of concern that a second fundraising campaign would get lost in the shuffle of so many worthy organizations that need financial support, particularly at the end of the year. Even our friends, the Met Orchestra Musicians, have started a fundraiser to help full-time orchestra members, associate musicians, and music staff members make ends meet during the closure, and the Metropolitan Opera itself has an ongoing campaign.

But it is our hope that our beloved audience members and Met Opera supporters can see the difference they can make to the individual Met AGMA artists that have lost their homes, who have lost their livelihoods, and who continue to struggle as COVID cases rise and restrictions on indoor congregations continue to restrict our ability to perform, to do what we were trained to do, and what we love to do.

We, the artists of the Metropolitan Opera, aren’t just labor: We Are The Met. We are what brings the magic of opera to life, and until we can safely do so, we need your help.

This is why we launched our Face the Music Fundraising Campaign, and we hope you’ll join us.

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Ned Hanlon: Why Solidarity Is Important

Met Chorus Committee Chair Ned Hanlon was interviewed this summer by Timothy Bostwick of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) for their 'Voices of Covid-19' series. Their series "seeks to capture the lived experiences of the vocal performing arts during the COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020." Ned's interview gives us a clear and detailed picture of what it's like to be an out-of-work Met chorister during the pandemic, and what the future holds for performing artists.

Many thanks to Timothy Bostwick and NATS for taking on this massive project, and for allowing us to reissue Ned’s article. Please visit the NATS website for Ned’s article (which also includes the audio files from his interview) and browse the stories of other opera industry professionals who have been adversely affected by the pandemic.

Note: This interview was conducted on August 3, 2020.

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Timothy Bostwick: I think I can answer this for you, but what is the best thing that has happened to you in the last week?

Ned Hanlon: This is the end of the story a bit, but we finished a big fundraiser that the chorus has been spearheading for all the AGMA (American Guild of Musical Artists)artists that lost contracts at the Met. We just finished that up on Friday. It was a massive success, we broke $500,000 on the final day. We also had an anonymous donor that gave us a $25,000 matching grant for the final 10 days. And we broke that in the final three hours of the campaign.
      So we closed up this huge effort that we’ve been working on and now we’re in the process of going through the applications; making sure the people who applied are eligible. I think we’re going to end up getting a substantial amount of money to 300-plus artists, who are the Met artists who need it the most right now. So that has been what we’ve been focusing on the most of this past week.

TB: This is a huge project. As you noted, it is over half a million dollars. For me what matters even more, aside from the gifts from Rolex or the Metropolitan Opera Board, were the number of artists that were giving. Seeing names like Erin Morley and Patrick Carfizzi supporting [other] artists was what we all need at this point.

NH: Absolutely true. I would add to that because Erin and Patrick are great, but my dresser also donated to it and these are the best donations. We saw $10 donations with a note attached; with just, “We love you” and “We miss the arts.” And people saying, “I don’t have a lot of money, but I just want to show my support for everyone who is out of work right now.” The idea being that all of us in the arts have helped other people and brought joy to their lives. It is the 400-plus people who donated. They want to return that favor and show us that when we can’t perform, they still love us and still want to respond to us.

TB: Simply amazing. Would you mind sharing a little bit about your background and where you are at in your career now?  

NH: Sure. I was always a musical theater kid growing up and didn’t know much about opera at all. Then I decided—like a lot of people do—that I was going to use music as an extracurricular to get me into a better school. So I applied to a bunch of universities that had liberal arts programs, because I didn’t really know what I was going to do. I ended up going to McGill University, where I did my undergrad up in Montreal. They didn’t have a musical theater program so I got thrown into classical music and opera.  
      I couldn’t read music at all and I was in my first opera in the fall. I was like, “This is kind of cool.” I’m from New York originally and I went back during our February reading week and decided I should probably see an opera at some point if I’m going to continue to study them. So on back to back nights, I saw the Zeffirelli Traviata and Bohème at the Met. I was like, “Wow, I like this. This is neat.” Years later (I’m going to skip ahead and then I’ll go back), one of the amazing things is I’m now in the Met Opera Chorus, so I looked up and found that production of La Bohème. And I realized I was now singing in the chorus with a number of the people who were in it. Actually, the person who played Schaunard in that production later became a full-time chorister. He sits next to me in the dressing room. It was a full-circle experience for me.
      So I studied at McGill for a while and during that time I was doing young artist programs in the summers. I did things like Seagle Music Colony and a Toronto program called Summer Opera Lyric Theater. Then I went on to do my Master’s at University of Michigan and stayed there for another two years doing a specialist diploma. I was still doing the young artist program thing. I did Ashlawn Opera, Ohio Light Opera, Glimmerglass, and Chautauqua. Then I graduated into doing the full-year young artist programs and more summer programs. I was doing that for a couple of years and was just at the point where I was starting to make my transition into being a principal artist, putting seasons together that were a combination of roles at smaller regional companies. I was based out of Chicago at the time, so most of my stuff was happening around there. I also did some extra chorus work at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and sang a little bit with the Chicago Symphony Chorus.
      Then on a whim, I was in New York for a workshop at the Lincoln Center Theater [LCT3] and they were doing the Met Chorus auditions. I thought maybe I could pick up a show or two there in the chorus. So I auditioned and then four months later I got a call saying, “We’re considering you for the full-time chorus. Would you be interested in that?” At that point, I never thought of myself as a professional chorister. I love doing chorus and everything like that, but it was always to make connections and fill things in with new small roles at places like Lyric Opera of Chicago. So I sat on it for a little while, but told them to keep considering me and I would love to hear about it.
      Two weeks later, they finally got back to me and by that point I was like, “I want this so badly.” I had started to worry that maybe they had gotten the wrong idea from me. Then they got back to me and said, “A spot has opened up. We’d like you to join.” I said yes and that was the start. It would have been six and half years ago now, [because] I started that August. My first performance at the Met was Le Nozze di Figaro, which was great because Figaro was my role. I love doing it as a principal. My sixth season ended two months early and now we’re looking at whenever season seven is going to start...
      The other thing I should mention is during my time in the chorus, I have gotten more involved with the internal workings of the organization. Four years ago, I founded this nonprofit, Met Chorus Artists, Incorporated. We put together a board and ended up doing this fundraiser. Then three years ago, I became the chair of the Met Chorus and the chair of the AGMA Negotiating Committee at the Met. I chaired the negotiations in 2018 and now we’re looking ahead at next August when we’ll have negotiations in the summer of 2021.

TB: Let’s back up a bit because one of the things that you alluded to was the fact that your season ended early. Obviously that is due to the pandemic. So can you take me through where you were and how you first realized that your life was going to be so dramatically affected by this?

NH: We were actually in the middle of rehearsal. It was on March 12, we were doing a musical rehearsal for Simon Boccanegra. We did an hour of singing and took a 10 minute break. Our chorus master, Maestro Palumbo, called us back and we all sat down to sing... Then he told us that we were all going home and that the Met had cancelled the next two and a half weeks through the end of March due to COVID.  
      This was something that we were getting a little suspicious would happen for a couple days before—that was the week when everything closed—but it was shocking. It was shocking to just leave rehearsal like that. We had an impromptu full chorus meeting where we just talked about how we’re going to get on this. And we talked about what this means for another half hour in the middle of the rehearsal room... And then we all went home.
      Then—I don’t remember, maybe March 18th or so—we heard from the Met that they were going to be cancelling the rest of the season. Again, not quite a surprise, because things were beginning to close. But I remember thinking over the course of that week, “The Met’s not going to close. The Met never closes.” The Met closed for a week for 9/11 [the Metropolitan Opera actually reopened the next day] and maybe for two snow storms in the past 20 years. It was hard to wrap your head around. And then you started to think maybe it would and what that means.

TB: So what does that mean for you? Take me through that as the Metropolitan Opera closes.

NH: Right at first, it is just, we all go home and wait. Then for a couple of weeks, we’re really just waiting because we don’t know if we’re going back April 1st or not. Then we got the news [that the Metropolitan Opera cancelled the remainder of its season]. The full-time people at the Met, which would be chorus, managers, a number of directors and some full-time supers, they got a little bit of money and we were promised health insurance throughout the closure. But once April 1st came there was no more money coming in.    
      So getting on unemployment and then the reality of, what are we doing this summer? What are we going to do now? A lot of people stuck it out, [but] we have had a ton of choristers who have left the city. A lot of people went home to their parents. My wife and I waited in New York for awhile. But when it became clear that we wouldn’t be going back, we started looking for options to get out of the city. Because New York City, in a small apartment, when you don’t have an income... [Shrugs]
      My wife is a cruise ship entertainer mostly and certainly cruise ships aren’t doing great right now either. So when you no longer have an income and you’re relying on unemployment, and that starts getting called into question in Congress, we started to ask what can we do? We packed up our bags, ended our lease, and now I’m based out of Puerto Rico. We’re going to be here until we see what is going to happen in December. Are we going to be able to go back in December?

TB: That is a big question... One side of this question is the independent contractor side, but as a Met Chorus regular you have a W-2, if I am correct? So can you talk me through what that means for unemployment in the arts?

NH: Having the W-2 has made unemployment easier, though congress passed the PUA so that 1099 employees will [also] be able to get unemployment. But that was a treacherous process. Though I think most of them have been able to get through the system. My wife had to do it and it took her forever. But she was able to get something from that.
      For us [Met Chorus], we were able to apply for unemployment pretty easily. But those first couple weeks were when the entire world was applying for unemployment and all the websites were down. They since streamlined the process. That’s been a help. So we were able to make that transition over to unemployment and to some extent with the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, the extra $600. It has helped cover the things that you need to cover throughout this time. So that has been hard.
      A lot of the people at the Met who you maybe think of as independent contractors actually do get W-2s. A lot of soloists are W-2 employees at the Met. But I know that it has been a lot harder for them. All my income comes from New York. That really makes the unemployment issue easier. However, for a person who does a little bit in New York, a little bit in Chicago, and a fair amount in Europe—as many American artists do—it’s been a lot harder to pick those pieces up.
      There are two things I would add to that, which are really hard right now. One is, as I said earlier, the full-time employees were promised their health insurance. That was great, and that was part of the agreement we reached back in March. [However,] We were unable to get that for everyone. It is difficult because itinerant soloists, dancers, and our extra choristers are also paid per performance and don’t get their health insurance through the Met. So there is no good or easy way for them to do that. So now they’re without income because all their contracts are backloaded and they don’t get their performance fee until they perform. So if there are no performances and they don’t have an obvious source for unemployment health insurance, then everyone has been put in a bad place.
      The more performance-y groups at the Met are the most at-risk groups at this time, which is why it was super important that we did this big fundraiser and that it was going to go to all the AGMA artists —the choristers, soloists, stage managers, stage directors, actors, and dancers—to give them something to try to fill in some of those gaps.

TB: Thank you for talking me through that. In following up, we’re also staring down the huge issue where that $600 a week [FPUC] may dry up. What would that mean for you?

NH: My wife and I don’t have children. We’ve always enjoyed the flexibility that comes from that. We don’t own an apartment or a house, so we would be able to get by. Especially considering I have health insurance, I’d be able to get by on basic unemployment. We could cut back. We’ve already cut back a lot. But we could really cut back and do it.
      I don’t know how people with families would be able to get by. I really don’t. Apparently my landlord is an angel because he let me out of my lease. But people with mortgages or who are stuck with another 10 months more of New York apartment rent pay, for many of those people, that $600 was going straight to mortgage payments and apartment rent. Especially since there are a lot of reasons to believe that the arts are going to be one of the last to return, I think there is a real fear that we’re going to lose a lot of artists.
      We are going to have artists who just can’t do it and are going to seek other jobs and other careers. They’re going to give up the thing that they’ve studied for their entire lives. My educational story is pretty standard. I did eight years of university to become a performing artist. That’s what a lot of people did. I think my greatest fear is that we could lose a lot of artists. It is sad. I’m concerned about the arts organizations. But I’m more concerned about the artists because they are as much at risk—if not more at risk—than anyone right now.

TB: What would you say is the hardest lesson that you’ve learned so far in this situation?

NH: On a basic level it is: you can’t take anything for granted. In this business or any business really, you’ve never made it. I’ll approach that statement from two places. We’ve had people who joined the chorus just this last year. You think you get into the Met Opera Chorus and “I’m there. I got it. I’m going to work here for awhile and I’m going to have health insurance. Eventually, I’m going to retire and I’ll have a pension.” You can’t count on that.
      On the other side of it, it’s been sad and in many ways very tragic to see some of the biggest name soloists in our industry publicly talking about how this is a difficult time for them financially. I think it is a lesson that anyone who goes into this business has to go into with their eyes open. You don’t go into this business for financial security. You go into this because you love it and you’re going to stick it out.
      I think I said ‘you never make it’, but you do. You just have to make it again everyday. That’s what the lesson really is; you can’t take anything for granted. For the whole performing arts or maybe in life, I’m not sure. I’ve said this to my wife several times, I think I’m going to stop predicting things. I was sure that the Met couldn’t close for nine months. Then it closed for nine months and maybe more. So I think that’s the biggest takeaway.

TB: So looking at the artistic side, how has this impacted your creative process? Are you singing?

NH: I had a lot of trouble singing. It was very difficult. I did a little bit of stuff. But especially in the first couple months after things closed, there was a lot of... I don’t want to call it pressure, because it was a lot of ingenuity. Like, we have to keep the arts going on social media and we have to put all that out. I did a little, but I have had no interest in singing for about three months and did almost none.
      A week ago would have been our first day back in rehearsal at the Met and today would have been the first day of a preseason proper when the house really started to open up again. So I am happy to report—I don’t know if this was subconscious or whatever—the past week, I’ve felt that old desire to sing again. I’m usually a person who is constantly singing and this took me out of singing completely. So I dove into the union stuff, fundraising, and into political action. I should also say, I’ve gone back and am getting another degree.

TB: Oh, what degree?

NH: Well through the union, they are giving free undergraduate education. So I’m 16 credits into a business management degree with a labor focus right now. I just finished my summer semester and so I’ve been working really hard on all that stuff. But the singing had not been an interest and now it is maybe becoming one again.
      I had a friend who shared an aria with me that she was writing before this (I think she sent it to me on March 10th). Then the world exploded and I never looked at it. Now I’ve got a renewed desire to do that. I’m hoping to do a little recording of it at some point in the near future. I have another friend who is putting together a virtual operetta and I’m going to be doing something in that. So finally, I feel like singing again.

TB: So it sounds like when this happened you had to step away from it. Then through time you’ve allowed yourself to heal and come back to it more gradually.

NH: I think that’s probably right. So much of what we do in this business is preparation for something or getting in front of people and performing. I love being on stage. I mean, I love opera, but if I could dance and I couldn’t sing, I’d probably be a dancer. If I could act, I’d be an actor. I just want to be onstage in front of people. And having no prospect of that, it just took me completely out of doing anything. Now, I’ve turned back to it organically and said, “This is still something that is valuable for me and I want to do something with it.”

TB: You alluded to this a little bit before, but minus a pandemic, tell me a little bit about where you would be and what you would be doing.

NH: Normally, I would have finished my season in May and then I would have been off for two and a half months. We would have started rehearsals last Monday, which would have been the period we would have started our preseason before we open. It would have been first music and then staging rehearsals. Then we work on stage for the new productions of the 2020-2021 season.  
      We were going to open with Aida, which is obviously always a big chorus show, so that was something we were really looking forward to. It is neat when you do a new production of a show you’ve done a lot, because you get to dive into it in a way that sometimes you don’t always have the time to do during a regular pre-season for a revival. So I think musically, we were going to be able to really get even better with it.
      During those two and a half months, I always do some performing. The past three years it has been working on cruise ships. I’ve worked as both a cruise ship entertainer and last year, I was assistant cruise director on a ship that was circling around the Baltic and Norway in Scotland and Ireland. It was beautiful. I don’t know exactly what I would have been doing. I probably would have been doing some performing throughout the summer. I probably would have gotten back on a cruise ship and worked there for at least part of the summer.

TB: So let’s talk a little bit about the future. How do you think that this situation is going to change the musical landscape as we move forward?

NH: As a person who said earlier in the interview that I think I’ve stopped making predictions, I’m a little trepidatious about saying. [Laughter] I guess in the long term if you were an outsider looking in or you were an alien coming down to earth and you landed in 2018 and again in 2022, and you looked at opera in both those times, I personally don’t think it will be different to an outsider.  
      I don’t want to say we will go back to business as usual though. I see a company like the Met going back to a large season—they usually do 220 operas—but maybe they’ll do less than that. We’re already seeing the value of creativity, performing, and trying new things; and honestly, working with artists to find new ways of doing things. Those seem to be the things that are working right now. They are going to continue to be the things that work in the short term and maybe even the middle term. That’s what we need to be doing. We need to be trying new things.
      The Met, what they have done that I think really got out ahead of this was making those HD broadcasts that they have been filming for years. It’s increased their viewership by making those available now. I know it has increased subscriptions to Met on Demand. But it has also exposed a lot of people to opera who wouldn’t have otherwise been exposed. So I think that was really good.
      Now you’re seeing other companies: like Madrid that just finished up a month of La Traviata in a whole different format and setting that seems to have been a relative success. So I think in a business where creativity has not always been valued and where we are just doing things as we’ve always done them, the companies that are going to thrive and come out of this stronger are the ones that are going to try new things now. We will think about how opera gets made and how we can think about this art form that we love and try new things with it.

TB: So let’s talk about young artists and also emerging artists during this time. What would your advice be to those two groups?

NH: Oof! I don’t know if you could pick a worse time to become a singer. I left school in 2010, so we were a little past the Great Recession. In general the advice I like to give young artists is to watch every part of the process as it gets created, because there are so many different ways to work and have a living in this art form that we love. Pay attention to what the directors do. Pay attention to what everyone is doing at all times when you’re in rehearsal. That’s one of the things I do like to say to young artists. But that is not great advice now because there are no rehearsals going on... 
      I’m starting a certification in SEO [Search Engine Optimization] today through Coursera. This is a time when you can work on things for when they come back. And again, I’m a believer that they will. You have to be an entrepreneur essentially. So work on those things... I was also just saying that I haven’t been able to sing in three months and I doubt I’m alone. I know I’m not alone. My heart just goes out for the people who are trying to get a start. But at least they won’t have any illusions about the security they might have. They’ve hit the worst patch for opera in living memory.

TB: So I think that one of the things that you were saying is; be kind to yourself, right? Take it one day at a time.

NH: Right and do what you can to improve. Try to learn. Maybe work on a language. But if you can’t, don’t. Just take care of yourself. Mental health is a big part of what is going to get us through this. I’m very fortunate that I’m married to a person I love and I’ve been isolated with her. But not everyone is so lucky. So the only advice I can think of right now is just to take care of yourself.

TB: So in closing up here, I have two more questions. First off, is there anything else that you would like to add to our conversation?

NH: I guess one thing—and this may be me on my union soapbox a bit—we already talked about how we raised half a million dollars. If the chorus had just tried to raise that money for itself—or the 80 person chorus—first of all we wouldn’t be able to do it as a nonprofit. But we wouldn’t have gotten the donations that we got. We wouldn’t have gotten the donation from the board. It’s the fact that there was a desire to help all the people in our business—the stage managers, soloists, and those different groups—and because of that, everyone is going to be helped more.
      The word solidarity has been thrown around a lot. For me, this is my new favorite example ever of why solidarity is important. Because we were able to raise half a million dollars. Because we embraced solidarity. Because we wanted to help as many people as possible and thereby strengthen themselves.

TB: Last question, what is your video binge recommendation for the pandemic?

NH: We had two main TV shows during the pandemic and then [I’ll give] one non-TV recommendation. One was “The Good Place”. Then the other was—we watched it partly because we were moving down to Puerto Rico and we were working on our Spanish—”Money Heist.” Really good.
      Then the only other thing, I finally read Ulysses, which I have been meaning to read for a long time. I have a good friend; we had a book club going and we’ve moved it to Zoom. It’s a two person book club, but we read Ulysses together.

TB: Reading books is always appreciated! Thank you so much for chatting with me today.

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Where Are They Now, Volume 3: The Joy of an Operatic Childhood

by Rebecca Carvin

I first met Danielle Bavli when she was assigned to me as my partner in the first act of Carmen in 2004.  Danielle was funny, intelligent, a natural on the stage, a lovely singer and she was eight years old.  We worked together many times over the years and we bonded over our shared love of performing and having fun.  We had a running joke during Carmen where I was supposed to scold her for misbehaving.  I would face Danielle upstage and point my fan at her, scolding by saying things like “I’m so proud of you,” “you’re adorable,” “I just love you,” “I think you’re just the best,” and then I would point my fan offstage and send her to her room.  Of course, she would dissolve into giggles and it was all I could do to keep a stern face. We had a blast. While in the children’s chorus, she also appeared in Hansel and Gretel, Cavalieria Rusticana/Pagliacci, Queen of Spades, Die Frau Ohne Schatten, La bohème, Carmen, Parsifal, Turandot, La gioconda, Otello, Suor Angelica, La damnation de Faust and An American Tragedy. In all of them, she stood out as a dedicated performer, an indicator of things to come. 

Danielle in her early years (holding the net, front and center) in a Met production of La Gioconda.

Danielle on the keys in Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedy. (Photo: Metropolitan Opera)

Danielle joined the children’s chorus in 2003, but she started her solo operatic career in An American Tragedy by Tobias Picker in 2005.  Commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera, it premiered in New York City on December 2, 2005.  The opera opened with Danielle sitting at a portable pump organ, playing a hymn - a role she obtained by auditioning for Tobias Picker himself!  Completely calm (on the outside, at least), it was clear to all who watched that this nine-year-old was exactly where she belonged. As time went on, it became obvious that Danielle was going to be a singer. I remember her mother, Daphna, telling me that all she could talk about was singing opera, and that despite all attempts to dissuade her, she was determined that this was a path for her.  I’ll go on record stating that I was always sure that she was right.

Danielle recalls that as soon as she joined the children’s chorus, she became completely hooked on opera. “I remember staying up late in bed with the libretto of Die Zauberflöte learning the three spirits’ text for fun and wishing I was a boy so I could audition. I also made my mom get me a muff - which I still have - so I could be like Mimi in La bohème and would pretend to die of tuberculosis, as a typical 9-year-old does.”

“Whenever I finished performing, I would always insist on staying to watch the rest of the opera and by the time I was 13, I had probably seen about 80 different productions at the Met.” Danielle credits her years in the children’s chorus as some of the most formative and precious of her life, and to this day views the Metropolitan Opera as a second home. “I fell completely in love with the art form and being on stage during those years. There was nothing as beautiful or as thrilling to me as the operatic voice and being immersed in the opulent imaginary worlds of each production. That feeling has not changed one bit over the years and every day, I strive towards fulfilling that childhood dream of being ‘a real opera singer.’”

Danielle playing the role of Norina in “Don Pasquale.”

Danielle as the Queen of the Night in Opera NEO's inventive virtual production of The Magic Flute

Once she graduated from the children’s chorus after eight seasons, Danielle continued her vocal studies across the street at the “Fame!” school, LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and Performing Arts. She then went on to pursue a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University and a Master of Music in Opera Performance at the Boston Conservatory. She was recently a Semi-Finalist in the Student Division of the Camille Coloratura Awards, won First Place in the vocal division of The Music Worcester Young Artist Competition, and is the recipient of an Emerging Talent award from the Lotte Lenya Competition. Over the last several years, Danielle has been an artist with the College Light Opera Company, the Janiec Opera Company at the Brevard Music Center, and Opera NEO. She is currently appearing as the Queen of the Night in an amazingly inventive virtual production of The Magic Flute with Opera NEO and is set to appear as Norina in Pacific Northwest Opera’s virtual production of Don Pasquale. Danielle insists that she wouldn’t be where she is today if it wasn’t for the unique training and exposure she received at the Met:  “My years at the Met truly paved my life’s path and have influenced every facet of who I am as a person and as an artist.”

When our stage kids go on to achieve success, it’s hard not to be as proud as if they were our own kids. I don’t have children of my own, and it has been sheer joy to watch Danielle grow as a performer and reach for her potential.  When she makes her debut at the Met as an adult, I’ll be the stage parent in the audience shouting “I’m so proud of you!”

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Celebrating The Met's Canceled Service Awards

by Lianne Coble-Dispensa

The closure of the Metropolitan Opera on March 12th, 2020 not only meant the cancellation of the last two months of the Met’s season. It also meant that dozens of seasoned Met Opera employees didn’t get their moment in the sun during the annual Metropolitan Opera Service Awards.

You may have never heard of the Service Awards because the yearly event is a private one for the Met Opera community. Those who are honored have reached career milestones of at least 20 years of service to the institution.  

The list of honorees this year was filled with artists whose collective achievements have helped the Met reach increasing levels of greatness during their tenure. Two beloved Met Chorus members, Kurt Phinney and Gloria Watson, had reached their 25th anniversary with the company, and were also on the list to be recognized for their accomplishments. Since they didn’t get to attend the ceremony this year, the Met Artists Newsletter decided to give them the recognition they deserve! (Though it’s still up to the Met to give them their watch as a gift for their 25 years of service…)

Kurt Phinney.

All About Kurt Phinney

If there’s one thing you can say about Kurt Phinney, it’s that he definitely didn’t sit around on his duff eating bonbons for the last 25 years in the Met Chorus. The job itself was extremely demanding from day one. “While the first 10 years posed the greatest challenge in terms of memorizing music,” Kurt said, “the job does not get much easier as one becomes more experienced.” Besides memorization of music and staging, as well as the usually grueling schedule of rehearsals and performances, preserving one’s high level of vocal quality is also an important focus, and maintaining a proper technique is paramount to longevity. “Navigating the Met’s relentless and highly demanding performance schedule with a maturing voice is arguably the biggest professional challenge choristers face.”

Kurt and Chorus Master Donald Palumbo. Photo: Steve Chernin.

From L-R: Meredith Woodend, Rose Nencheck, Kurt Phinney, Stephen Paynter (together both in and out of the Chorus Office), Joe Turi, and Liz Wentworth.

If that wasn’t enough, for the past 20 years, Kurt has held a 2nd job at the Met, that of Chorus Manager. As Chorus Manager, Kurt helps with scheduling music and staging rehearsals, oversees the regular and extra chorus payroll, and assists with the chorus budget preparation. He also participates in the chorus auditions, during which he hears hundreds of singers over the course of numerous audition dates during the season. And somehow, through all this, he also helped his wife Pamela raise three beautiful children.

Stephen, Kurt, and Craig Montgomery as the solo slaves in Julie Taymor’s production of The Magic Flute.

Kurt credits his ability to juggle two taxing jobs to his partner-in-crime Stephen Paynter (another Met chorister with a second job, that of the Assistant Chorus Manager). “I could not have survived the pressure of these two jobs were it not for his kind, thoughtful, diligent, humorous and unfailingly ethical companionship in the office.”

Outside of the Met, Kurt does not seem to slow down. Once his kids went away to college, he was able to focus on the hobbies he loves: cycling, weightlifting, and writing. Writing, incidentally, isn’t just a passing interest in journaling. For the better part of a decade, Kurt has been writing a book “about the transition of classical music from the highly structured tonal language of the 19th century… to the largely unstructured post-tonal vocabulary of the 20th century.” His purpose for writing the book is “to chart a course back to the communally embraced language of tonality, jump-start the evolution of the standard repertoire, thereby restoring classical music as a fiscally viable and sustainable entertainment.”

This is all to say that after 25 years of service at the Met, there appears to be no stopping the unstoppable Kurt Phinney.

Gloria Watson in all her glory, decked out in her Otello Act III gown in the Ladies Dressing Room.

All About Gloria Watson

When current chorister-hopefuls audition for the Metropolitan Opera Chorus these days, they experience a rigorously organized process of the required application packet, a screening recording, followed by either a polite decline or an offer of a live audition (with a specific date and time). On the day of the audition, they are led through multiple checkpoints throughout the serpentine halls of the Met until they are called in to sing an aria or two (often less) for Maestro Donald Palumbo and a small panel of seasoned chorus members.

Mezzo-soprano Gloria Watson, however, auditioned in the glory days of the Met Opera Chorus “cattle call” process. An alum of the respected Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music (BM) and Indiana University (MM), Gloria “waited all day with 400 other singers” with varying levels of experience “in an excruciatingly long line,” she recalls, “and finally sang my audition in the late afternoon,” for then-Chorus Master Raymond Hughes. The rest, as they say, was history.

Gloria in front of the Rigoletto marquis in 1999.

Gloria was thankful to have experienced the Metropolitan Opera at the height of the era of luxury casting. Her first show with the Met Chorus was I Pagliacci with none other than Pavarotti as Canio, Teresa Stratas as Nedda, and Juan Pons as Tonio. From then on, her career highlights included watching Renée Fleming sing “Ain’t It A Pretty Night,” from Susanna, Kiri Te Kanawa sing Amelia in Simon Boccanegra, and witnessing the nascent careers of Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Bryn Terfel, Anna Netrebko bloom into well-deserved stardom. She has the fondest of memories playing the role of the Page in the Otto Schenk production of Rigoletto in 1999. She performed the role eighteen times that year, including on Christmas eve, with her husband Dana (a trumpeter who toured with Frank Sinatra and Buddy Rich, as well as a carpenter/journeyman at the Metropolitan Opera) and her son Taylor in the audience. “I did it for them,” Gloria said. “Taylor didn’t think I was a real opera singer” until that moment!

Dana Watson, Gloria, and her son Taylor. All three have a history of employment with the Metropolitan Opera!

Rose Nencheck, Pat Steiner, and Gloria Watson in Andrea Chénier.

Gloria is able to look back on her 25-year career at the Met with fondness and immense gratitude. “I was lucky enough to raise my children in good schools, with great health insurance and job security as a musician in America.” “It wasn’t always rosy,” she said, “but in the last month I was there, I remembered walking backstage thinking how great the Met is. I truly love the place, even though I’m a cranky old lady now!” She also treasures the memories made with her best friend, fellow Met chorister Rose Nencheck, who attended the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music with Gloria. “Rose and I have been singing together in the alto section since we were 18 years old. It’s been quite a ride as best friends for 42 years!”

In the weeks before publication of this article, Gloria made the difficult but practical decision to retire. There were many reasons Gloria decided to choose this path. For one, the extended closure of the Met coupled with the uncertainty of reopening in the shadow of a second, serious wave of COVID cases was frightening to her, as well as Dana, considering both of them derive their income from their Met jobs. Facing the immense loss of income that is affecting all Met artists (and performing artists around the world), Gloria left “the greatest job in the world” so that she could collect her pension and help support her family. When the Met reopens, Dana will return to work, and we hope that Gloria stops by with him so we can shower her with the love and appreciation she deserves after 25 years of a job well done at the Met!

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We also want to acknowledge two other members of the Met AGMA family who would have been celebrated at this year’s Service Awards:

Bass-baritone Bradley Garvin made his solo debut as the Second Prisoner in “Fidelio” in 1993, and went on to become a Plan Artist, assigned to both cover and perform countless roles over his 20 seasons at the Metropolitan Opera. In recent years, he went on for an ailing Gerald Finley to play the challenging role of Athanaël in Massenet’s “Thaïs”, to great acclaim. Brad is a welcoming, friendly face to all who come across him in the halls of the Met, and we’re fortunate to have had him on the team for all these years!

Stage Manager Gary Dietrich recently reached an incredible career milestone: 30 years at the Metropolitan Opera! He is known, and beloved by all, for his expertise, his cool, collected, respectful demeanor, and his incredible grace under fire (which is a necessary trait when working in the high-stress environment of the Met). We thank him, from the bottom of our hearts, for his unwavering commitment to his job, for the aura of Zen he exudes, and for putting in the work to ensure that all our Met productions can run smoothly and safely. To know Gary is to love him, and we’re so lucky he has called the Metropolitan Opera his home for all these years.

If you happen to see either of these gentlemen on the street (while social distancing, of course) or on the internet (via social media), please congratulate them for their incredible hard work and their many years of service!

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Recipe Corner: Rachele Schmiege’s Gluten-Free Peach Cobbler

We’re now four months into the pandemic, and while #pandemicbaking is no longer trending as heavily as it used to be, hundreds of thousands of Americans are either still out of work or working from home, and have an abundance of time to bake. If you’re starting to feel overwhelmed by The Great Typhoon of Gluten (editor’s note: this is not a thing. I just made it up), I highly recommend you give this gluten-free delight a go, made refreshingly summery by fresh peaches! I guarantee it’ll be worth turning on your oven during a heat wave.

Rachele and her husband Stefan, at a Met Opera opening night party.

Name: Rachele Schmiege

Hometown: Originally Vicksburg, MI, but I spent 15 years in Boston, MA, and that feels like home as well.

Years at the Met: 1 year full-time, 2 years in the extra chorus.

What is your favorite opera? La Traviata, but I love most Verdi Operas.

What is your most memorable experience at the Met so far? My most memorable experience would be when I got the full-time job at the Met. I was in a production of The Handmaids Tale in Boston at the time and Maestro Palumbo and his team were so accommodating with my very busy tech week schedule. I was the last to audition and was offered the job on the spot. I will remember that moment for the rest of my life: Maestro accompanied me on the piano, the audition team was wonderful, and my dream was achieved!

Rachele (far right) with members of the Met Chorus and Maestro Edward Gardner.

What do you miss the most about the Met? I miss so much, but most of all I miss making music and being onstage with my beautiful, kind, and talented colleagues.

Rachele (left) and extra chorister Claire Kuttler (right) sporting their fancy Queen of Spades gowns.

What music are you listening to these days? Sirius XM Broadway and Metropolitan Opera Radio.

What is most outrageous thing you’ve ever cooked (or eaten)? When I was in Romania, I ate a plate of mystery meat at an outdoor animal park/amphitheater/restaurant. I'm not sure what I ate. I just hope it was not a sibling of one of the animals watching me.

What are the three things in your kitchen you can’t live without: My husband worked at a high-end kitchen store for a number of years, and I can't live without my knives. We have a pretty nice collection of culinary steel. I have brought knives on every traveling gig (wrapped up in my checked bag, of course!) because cooking with a subpar knife is frustrating. So I would say: my Miyabi Birchwood knife, coffee pot, and dutch oven.

What are your three go-to ingredients right now? Since quarantine, I have been gardening up a storm. So far there has been a harvest of eggplant, squash, green beans, basil, and cucumbers. They are my go-to because nothing is better than fresh, still-warm-from-the-sun veggies and herbs.

If you had to choose, what would your “last meal” be? Sushi. Lots and lots of sushi.

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Rachele has this to say about her new favorite dessert:

Here’s a recipe I have made twice this week, and it's insanely good, using ripe peaches. Best of all, it's gluten free, but does not taste like it!  This was inspired by a socially-distanced gathering I attended. There was a delicious-looking cobbler that I could not eat. (And I love seasonal fruit in dessert form, so this was hard to pass up.)  I decided to look into this for the future, and low and behold, I found this recipe. It is a King Arthur recipe, but I modified it based on my preferences.  

Gluten-Free Peach Cobbler, inspired by King Arthur Flour (The original recipe can be found here.)

(Photo: Shutterstock.)

Ingredients: 

4 tbsp. cold butter

1 cup Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Mix from King Arthur (make sure you are using the mix, not the flour)

3/4 cup milk, at room temperature

1 large egg at room temperature

2 1/2 cups of fresh peaches (peeled, pitted, and sliced)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and/or 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (optional) [Rachele’s Note: I prefer King Arthur cinnamon because it is life-changing.]

Instructions: 

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2) Place butter in an 8" square or 9" round pan, then put in the oven to melt butter. 

3) To make the batter, mix the baking mix and sugar in a separate bowl.

4) Blend in milk and egg.

5) Once the butter is melted, remove the pan from oven and pour batter over the melted butter.

6) Mix prepared peaches, sugar, cinnamon and/or nutmeg in the same bowl you used for the batter (why do extra dishes, am I right?!)

7) Spoon the peach mixture over the top of the batter. 

8) Bake until the top is lightly browned and the fruit is bubbling, about 40-45 minutes.

9) Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Rachele's notes: You can serve this cobbler on its own, or with fresh whipped cream or vanilla bean ice cream.  Additionally, if you prefer other fruit or if another fruit is in season, you can swap out the 2 1/2 cups of fruit for something else.  I'm thinking apricots with nutmeg and cinnamon, strawberries with lemon or orange zest, plums with star anise, blueberries with cinnamon... the world is your oyster.  

(Rachele is not a spokesperson for King Arthur products, but if they want to give her free things, she will not complain.)  

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Choristers Without A Chorus: How The Pandemic Has Changed Our Lives

What happens when artists can’t make art together? Met Chorister Brandon Mayberry interviewed many of his colleagues to get a sense of how the chorus was faring during the extended closure of the Metropolitan Opera due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and wonders what the future may hold for all of us.

by Brandon Mayberry

Thursday, March 12th, 2020 began as a typical day in the life of a Metropolitan Opera chorister.  It was late morning as we assembled in List Hall to rehearse music for a handful of upcoming operas, still recovering from the previous night’s performance, which was a scratch tape (a recorded performance that precedes the Live In HD broadcast that following Saturday) of the demanding new François Girard production of Der Fliegende Hollander. After returning from a scheduled 10 minute break, Chorus Master Donald Palumbo announced that the remainder of the rehearsal had been canceled, that we were to exit the building as soon as possible, and that the Metropolitan Opera would be closed for the next two weeks. There was only enough time to say a few quick goodbyes to our colleagues, while contemplating which belongings we could shlep home on a moment's notice.

Four months later, still furloughed from our jobs due to COVID-19, we have a lot to unpack. Two weeks of closure turned into a cancellation of the rest of the 2019-20 season, as death counts in and around New York City soared. Then, in June, the Met announced that the Fall portion of the 2020-21 season would be canceled as well. Uncertainty looms heavily while the spread of the virus remains unchecked in large portions of the United States. Many of us furloughed at the Met are dependent on the State and Federal Pandemic Unemployment Benefits (PUA), the latter which is set to expire at the end of July. PUA, provided by the federal government, is critical to many in the chorus who are already running low on savings and struggling to see a future where they can support themselves and their families. Many have found subletters for their apartments or have given up leases altogether, moving away from the costly areas surrounding New York City and Northern New Jersey.

Beyond the unemployment statistics and impassioned social media campaigns are real people who are unable to do their job. How will our job change? Will there be a job at all? How do I make ends meet until there is a vaccine? Will the government come to our aid? We all grapple with these questions while desperately trying to find financial and physical security amidst the shifting sands of the current landscape. 

One of Rachele Schmiege’s incredible pour paintings.

Several members of the chorus have graciously allowed a look behind the curtain of their lives in order to illustrate how this pandemic has affected them over the first four months of our furlough.

Soprano Rachele Schmiege, having joined the regular chorus this past season, candidly admitted that "for a long time after March 12th, I did not want to sing, watch opera, or even hear music. I felt like everything I worked so hard for (a coveted position with the Metropolitan Opera) turned on its head overnight. It took awhile to be okay with my new normal." Rachele stuck it out in New York City for a month before she and her husband left their apartment to move in with her parents in the Midwest. "We are continuing to evaluate our life and situation on a weekly basis." While furloughed, Rachele has remained busy as she continues to learn and create, something many of us have needed in order to maintain balance and purpose. "I'm doing a daily vocal course, a Non-Violent Communication course, helping family members build websites, I joined a bookclub, and I’m working with the Met Opera Chorus Social Media Committee." Rachele's creative pastimes include knitting, gardening and, recently, pour painting. "Pour painting has become an unexpected joy. My mom had some canvases and some left over acrylic paint. I watched a zillion YouTube videos to learn techniques and look at color combinations. I am proud of my progress and I have a few I would hang up and proudly display."

Rachele Schmiege has taken up pour painting as a creative outlet during the furlough.

One chorister who wishes to remain anonymous comes from a family of war veterans. “When crisis hits, we run towards danger, not away from it.  When COVID hit, I wanted to find a way to help support my family and also contribute to my community during this crisis. I found that working on the front lines as a COVID screener for the IBM corporation since April 1st."

Tenor Dustin Lucas and his wife Lexi are the proud parents to toddler Alivia and baby Isabelle, born this spring. "Life has been turned upside down" as his family was forced to sell their recently renovated home and relocate due to the virus. "The stress of everything leaves me wondering if I will ever get through this without therapy." He implores artists to prepare for the continuation of pandemics such as this one and to develop multiple marketable skill sets.

Suzanne Falletti and her precious pups.

When it comes to trimming monthly costs, veteran chorister Suzanne Falletti says, "There's just so much one can do." Falletti, who doesn't have the option of moving in with family, contends that even if that were an option, the savings from moving would likely be lost when considering the costs of storage and moving fees. "And there's all the emotional considerations to think of as well. When everything else seems out of your control, the one thing many of us might feel comfort from is our home. Giving that up would be a huge loss of stability."

Fellow soprano Anne Nonnemacher, celebrating 20 years in the chorus, sees it similarly. Years ago, she made the costly decision to live in Manhattan with her husband and son in exchange for valued family time, due to the challenging work week that is typically demanded of a Met chorister. "Despite the dire situation and the fact that a lot of people have lost their jobs, from no fault of their own, there has been no rent relief." She admitted that having moved several times since her son was born, she simply couldn't stomach the thought of doing it again.

Anne Nonnemacher, at home with her son Elliot and husband Louis.

Anne’s husband, who is a recording engineer primarily focused on classical music, has had all of his upcoming events canceled or indefinitely postponed, which leaves both of them essentially unemployed. "It was, and is, a shock. As a performing artist, I am certainly familiar with not getting the gig or not getting paid much, but I have never done ‘no work’ for any significant amount of time. It doesn't feel good. I like to feel like I'm contributing something to the world." For so many of us at first, making music made us sad and was a reminder of the loss we had to come to terms with. But in time, Anne's fervor for music returned, with the help of her husband Louis. "Eventually my husband and I started playing guitar and vocal music together; Renaissance music and Mozart aria arrangements we used to perform." This led them to presenting a virtual performance for her son's school. 

Tenor Salvatore Rosselli, twenty-two seasons at the Met, has found particular solace and connection to his beloved colleagues via the Met Opera streaming content and the weekly Zoom meetings. Sal regrets having lost six people to this nasty virus within his circle of friends and family, adding, "I have had to be careful with my expression of sympathy, so I would not become too depressed." While Sal's financial situation is stable, he "cannot emphasize enough the hardships many of my younger colleagues will be facing and that living on a maximum weekly unemployment of $504 a week will not be easy, especially if the current supplemental $600 isn't extended beyond July 31st."

In the past four months, Mezzo Rose Sullivan left her apartment, moved into her childhood home, and took care of her mother for two weeks, who had contracted COVID-19. “I was furloughed for weeks, which became months, which became the rest of the calendar year." She also embarked on and finished the Artist's Way with a friend. Since moving back into her apartment in New York City, she has enrolled in an intensive life coach certification program.

Brian Anderson, Christina Thomson Anderson, and their two children, Oliver and Annika.

Mezzo-soprano Christina Thomson Anderson and her husband, tenor Brian Anderson are both in the chorus, and have 2 children at home. “Like so many in the performing arts, we have found ourselves faced with the deepest financial uncertainty of our lives. Brian and I encouraged one another to stay centered. There was so much coming at us: adjusting to the full-time homeschooling of our children, while wondering how we would weather this financial storm, even as reports of the pandemic grew ever more ominous." Christina referenced the quote,  "an unhappy bird cannot sing,” shared by a former voice teacher, as she alluded to the sorrow and uncertainty that led to an unintended moratorium on making or listening to music for the first few months after being sent home.

That was until late May when one day her 8-year-old daughter first pulled out her violin and then later shifted to playing some piano pieces she had been working on earlier in the year. Christina, watching it all said, "My heart began to open. From that moment on, we began to play more music, singing together at home and in the car, belting out show tunes and country songs, and even opera, together. Experiencing music again, through my children, has kept it alive for me." Brian has been taking IT classes as they continue to contemplate a way forward. "Many have left the city, but for now, our family is staying. Our children are settled in schools, we are settled in our community, and New York City is very much our home."

Through the clouds of struggle there are stories emerging of how being cooped up together has galvanized and deepened the bond between family and loved ones. For example, Christina points out, "We have experienced blessings that have been uniquely gifted to us through these circumstances. Because of the furlough, my husband and I have been the ones to put our kids to bed every night for the past five months. We are very aware that this cloistered family time may never come again, at least in this way, so we cannot help to observe the deeper connection that has grown between us and our kids." 

While Anne also echoes Christina and Brian's sentiment regarding having more time with her child, she adds, "I did have the chance to see, in more detail, what kind of things go on in school and observe more of the dynamics between my son, his teacher, and other classmates." She also implores those who can to help artists in need. The Met she says, "is a place that was built by people that wanted to create a place to present the highest quality experience and were not afraid to support it, despite the costs."

Suzanne's coping strategies involve finding comfort and companionship that her dogs bring. She's also busy creating a teaching website, took an intensive voice science workshop and is a member of an ongoing teacher mentoring program of David Jones. She's inspired by rising Met star Lisette Oropesa's online masterclass series and gives credit to her and others for "finding creative ways to keep the arts alive."

Soprano Lynn Taylor, who has had a varied career encompassing jazz, opera, musical theater, modeling, and acting acknowledges, "One positive thing this pandemic has done for me is afford the distance to meditate on the meaning of how I've spent my life and career, which has brought more pleasure than paranoia." 

There is one silver lining to report: since publication of this article, close to $300,000 has been donated to the Met Chorus Artists fundraising campaign, with more on its way! This will provide individual grants to many Met AGMA artists suffering financial hardship who have lost contracts at the Met as a result of the closure.

I thank my courageous colleagues for sharing their stories, which I'm sure all of us can connect to and sympathize with on some level. I'm wishing all of my many colleagues peace, good health and a speedy return to performing together. Thank you to all of the many supporters of the Metropolitan Opera and our artform. We are relying on you now more than ever, as we will most likely be the one of the last industries to return to work. Together we shall overcome. 

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BONUS Recipe Corner: Hermit Cookies for Pandemic Hermits

Sure, you’ve seen Dan Smith in this space before. He taught you how to make delectable blueberry scones. But desperate times call for a double dose of recipe corner goodness. Because when the going gets tough, the tough fill the void with baking. Dan, as we all know, is an excellent baker, but one of his greatest creations (other than his Millionaire Shortbread, which I might force him to share in a future recipe corner) are his Hermit Cookies. Tender, chewy, and practically overflowing with gingerbread spices, they may strike you as more appropriate for the colder months. But considering we’re all playing the role of the hermit, quarantining and social distancing during the pandemic, I figured these cookies are more appropriate than ever.

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Dan and his husband Michael on a recent pandemic hike.

Name: Daniel Clark Smith

Where do you live? I live in what could be described as “Met Opera West” -- Teaneck, NJ. We have a fair number of choristers and at least one fabulous principal artist — Christine Goerke!

Where did you go to school? I have a bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Fredonia State University of New York, and a Master’s degree in Choral Conducting from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. In other words, "all in" with choral music!

What's the funniest thing to happen to you on the Met stage? In Act II of the Nathaniel Merrill production of Der Rosenkavalier, I played a Lackey in the grand Faninal household. I entered with a tray of sweet wine (Tokaji) and cookies to serve to Faninal and Ochs. Throughout the scene, the Ochs' grungy, slovenly men (played by chorus basses and baritones) descended upon me. As performances went on, and the cookies were devoured, I was tortured in increasingly funny ways. I could not fight them off, since, wearing slippery gloves, I held a tray full of glasses and needed both hands for a good grip. The final performance featured a cookie balanced on my head and a deft catch of carrot greens thrown onto the tray as I exited. There may have been one person in the audience with binoculars who actually saw this buffoonery, but I couldn’t stop laughing on my exit!

Dan and Belinda Oswald taking a jog (or rather, running for their lives) in a production of Guilliaume Tell. (Photo: Beth Bergman)

If you hadn’t become a musician, what do you think you would be? I think I would have pursued a career as a graphic designer. I have an artistic eye, and a talent for calligraphy and drawing. If only I had more training, I could have a second career!

What's an average pandemic day look like for you? The first hour of my day includes some sort of exercise: biking, walking, or hiking. Then I usually settle in to help manage the social media presence for the Chorus, "Marie Kondo" a room of the house, plan meals to cook for me and my husband. We usually end the day by watching a favorite TV show or movie.

What music are you listening to these days?
My husband, a pianist, chooses lots of piano music to listen to while I cook (classical and jazz). Or, while I’m cooking, he plays for me on our beautiful Charles R. Walter baby grand (nicknamed “Walter”).

Have you tried any new recipes during the pandemic? Our new favorite meal is Salsa Verde Enchiladas, and I have enjoyed making a Balsamic Vinaigrette.

What are your comfort foods? After visiting my Aunt in mid-state Illinois, I’m craving the local potato chips from Farmington: “Kitchen Cooked.” They remind me of my youth, and how my Mother could make a meal out of half a bag!

What are your favorite summer foods? Burgers on the grill with all the stuff: sometimes avocado, sometimes bacon and a fried egg, sometimes just cheese, ketchup and spicy brown mustard!

What do you miss most about the Met? Sharing that stage with great artists in every field (from costumers to scenic artists and of course my chorus colleagues), and singing my heart out.

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Dan says, “I tried making these Hermit Cookies as one of my first baking projects when sheltering at home began. I had never heard of them, but they sounded delicious. My husband and I love ginger, and we were being literal hermits — it seemed like a perfect fit. It takes some time, but they are one of our favorites now: rich, chewy, with a little kick of ginger. Perfect the technique now, because you will want these in the dead of winter with a cup of tea.

Hermit Cookies

(from ‘The Perfect Cookie,’ from America’s Test Kitchen)
Makes about 20 cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup raisins (I used golden raisins; that’s what I had)
2 tablespoons crystallized ginger, finely chopped (see note)
8 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
2 cups (10 ounces) all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup (5¼ ounces) packed dark brown sugar
½ cup molasses (see note)
2 large eggs

Glaze:
¾ cup (3 ounces) confectioners' sugar
1 ½ tablespoons orange juice

Directions:
Process raisins and ginger in food processor until mixture sticks together and only small pieces remain, about 10 seconds. Transfer mixture to large bowl.

Melt butter in small saucepan over medium-low heat, swirling saucepan occasionally, until nutty brown in color, about 10 minutes. (This takes longer than you think; but make sure it doesn’t burn!) Stir in cinnamon and allspice and cook until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Stir butter mixture into raisin mixture until well combined. Let cool completely. (Note: I can never get the butter and raisin mixture to combine completely; it doesn’t matter. They still turn out well!)

Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt together in bowl. Stir brown sugar, molasses, and eggs into cooled butter-raisin mixture until incorporated. Using rubber spatula, fold in flour mixture (dough will be very sticky). Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate until dough is firm, at least 1½ hours or up to 24 hours.

Adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Divide your dough into quarters.

Roll each quarter into a 10-inch log.

Orange juice and confectioner’s sugar for the glaze.

Here is what the glazed, baked cookie logs look like. (Editor’s note: I’d eat one of these myself.)

Cut the finished logs into cookie bars.

The delectable finished product.

Transfer the dough to the counter and divide into quarters. Roll 1 piece of dough into a 10-inch log on a lightly floured counter. Transfer the log to a prepared sheet and use a ruler to neatly square off sides (each sheet will contain 2 logs). Repeat with the remaining dough so that each quarter is ruled into a 10-inch log. (I make sure there are about 4 inches between logs, otherwise they will run together into a big pancake.) Bake until only slight indentation remains on edges when touched (center will appear slightly soft), 15 to 20 minutes, switching and rotating sheets halfway through baking. Let cookies cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then slide cookies, still on parchment, onto wire rack. Let cookies cool completely.

Whisk confectioners' sugar and orange juice in small bowl until smooth. (I would start with a tablespoon of orange juice; the glaze is a little too thin using these measurements.) Drizzle glaze onto cooled cookies and let sit until glaze dries, about 15 minutes. Cut cookies into 2-inch bars before serving. Hermits can be stored at room temperature for up to 5 days.

Notes (from America’s Test Kitchen):
A New England specialty, hermits are a chewy raisin-molasses-spice cookie with a sweet glaze. We had fond memories of these cookies, but most recipes we tried baked up more hard and dry than soft, were peppered with tough raisins, and tasted overly spiced. Hermits typically involve creaming softened butter, but we knew that melted butter generally makes cookies moister and chewier. Taking this a step further, we browned the butter to add nutty flavor. Pureeing the raisins and ginger into a rough paste and steeping them in the browned butter softened them, distributed their flavor in every bite, and provided the cookies with more chew. Opinions are divided as to how hermits should be shaped. One camp calls for dropping balls of dough to form round cookies; the other calls for the dough to be shaped into logs, baked, and then cut into individual cookies. A side-by-side test revealed that the hermits baked in logs and then cut were much chewier and moister, as the larger mass of dough better held its moisture during baking.

Crystallized (or candied) ginger is available in the spice aisle of most supermarkets. For this recipe, we prefer using mild (or light) molasses instead of the robust or blackstrap varieties.

Nutrition:
Calories 216
Fat 6 g
Saturated 3 g
Trans 0 g
Monounsaturated 2 g
Polyunsaturated 0 g
Cholesterol 34 mg
Sodium 117 mg
Carbs 40 g
Fiber 1 g
Sugars 27 g
Protein 2 g

The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation.

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M Is For Mama... And Also Merlot

by Kate Mangiameli and Brandon Mayberry

Kate and Laura looking real cute. (According to the Editor.)

M is for Mama…and also Merlot, a book co-authored by broadway star Laura Benanti and our very own renaissance-mom, the talented soprano Kate Mangiameli, is disguised as a cleverly illustrated children’s book, but in reality is a hilarious, no-holds-barred romp through the alphabet providing fresh observations and stylish illustrations, which are perfect to support and tickle today’s mama. You may be wondering, “How did this all come about?” After all, Kate is a full-time member of the Metropolitan Opera Chorus, a group often referred to as “the hardest working people in show business.” On top of that, she’s raising a 3-year-old with her devoted husband, Adrian. Here is the charming and serendipitous story of how it all came to fruition, in the words of Mama Mangiameli:

“Laura Benanti and I met in the summer of 2017 when our babies were tiny infants, at our local Starbucks in Harlem.  It was an early weekday morning and we locked bloodshot eyes, both of us new, overwhelmed moms feeling isolated and hungry for connection. We quickly discovered that we had a lot in common, particularly the fact that we both worked in the performing arts. In fact, she was starting rehearsals for a Broadway show that my husband had just bought us tickets to see! We exchanged numbers that morning and ended up spending a lot of time together during that first year of our daughters’ lives.  Our families became close friends, and our friendship has only become stronger now that we both have rambunctious three-year-old girls.

The genesis of our book ‘M is for Mama…and also Merlot’ came from a text chain between the two of us from the beginning of our friendship.  Up late at night with our babies, we were sending each other irreverent, alphabet-themed texts from the perspective of our girls, which we found hilarious since we were up to our ears in children’s books.  This inspired us to get serious and write a book together.

Kate Mangiameli. (Photo: Jennifer Lee.)

Laura Benanti. (Photo: Jenny Anderson.)

It was a bit of a challenge to figure out a time to start writing, considering we were both active performing artists with jam-packed performance schedules. So we waited until May of 2018, just after the Met Opera’s season ended, to write the book. Thankfully, it didn’t take us long to find our collaborative voice and we had just as much fun writing together as we did sending each other those ridiculous, sleep-deprived late-night texts. The book ended up becoming a little love letter “from moms, for moms.” 

A few months later, we showed our draft to Rob Meija, who would later become our agent, and he loved it. We decided to start pitching it to publishers in the fall of 2018,  and a book deal with Peter Pauper Press followed shortly thereafter.  Our editor ended up finding the perfect person for our style, the British illustrator Helene Weston, who brought our loopy, late-night texts to life.

“M is for Mama…And Also Merlot” is available in your favorite bookstores and online!

‘M is for Mama…’ was meant to come out in April of 2020, well in advance of Mother’s Day. However, the pandemic meant there was a lot of uncertainty regarding the arrival of our first shipments of the book, as they were being printed in China, the initial epicenter of the pandemic. Thankfully, they arrived on time, though our experience with the book launch wasn’t the exciting whirlwind we were imagining. We were looking forward to our book being prominently displayed on the Mother’s Day-themed table of every Barnes & Noble in the country. Plus, Laura and I were scheduled to do a book signing at one of their locations on the Upper West Side, and were even planning some promotional TV spots when COVID-19 hit the New York Metro area. We're hopeful, however, that we can plan a re-launch sometime in the future.

Still, despite the unexpected twists and turns, it was extremely rewarding to see the whole project come to completion, and seeing our book on my shelf every day feels like quite an accomplishment.  We hope to write more together in the future!

Both of us are active on social media, and are planning some fun book-related content this summer, so check us out, whether you’re a mom yourself, you’re thinking of becoming a mom, or you simply recognize the comedy and complexity of the lives of modern moms all over the world!”

The illustrations by Helene Weston, showcasing the beautiful spectrum of mothers, are notable and refreshing, as is the diversity of expression through the writing. When asked about the importance of representing a wide variety of moms in the book, Kate noted that diversity was one of the first things she and Laura discussed when putting together a list of our “musts” when finding an illustrator. “Helene’s work represents many mothers of many kinds,” Kate said, “so it made for an easy and wonderful partnership! We wanted to be sure we included people of all colors so we didn’t make anyone feel excluded. It was always a non-negotiable for us, and as you mentioned, well before the current social justice movement that’s happening. Personally, my daughter is half-Jamaican so it’s imperative that brown skin is represented in anything I do in this realm, now and moving forward.”

I have to agree with Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who offered his testimonial to the back of the book, saying “my new go-to gift for new mothers is this book and a bottle of wine.” Bottoms up, Kate, Laura, and Helene, and congratulations on what we hope is the first of many collaborations!

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Please go check out Laura, Kate and Helene on Instagram and Twitter! Kate can be found at @ktmangia (Twitter: @KateEatsApples), Laura can be found at @laurabenanti (Twitter: @laurabenanti), and the two of them collaborate on the account @misformamaandalsomerlot on Instagram. You can find their amazing illustrator, Helene Weston, on Instagram at @helenetheillustrator.

“M is for Mama…and also Merlot” is currently on sale at Amazon, Target, Walmart, Barnes and Noble, and Indiebound. 

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Focus On The Fans

In our first-ever Instagram/website collaboration, we are presenting #MetFanFridays, where the focus is on our beloved audience members who keep the operatic art form alive with their patronage, enthusiasm, and generous support.

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by Andy Ihnatko, Metropolitan Opera Fan

Met Opera fan Andy Ihnatko and soprano Diana Damrau, the opera singer who inspired his amazing journey through the world of opera. (Photo: Andy Ihnatko)

I wouldn't have discovered opera if it wasn't for YouTube. Diana Damrau's barn-burning second act aria as the Queen of the Night in the 2003 Royal Opera House production of "The Magic Flute" became one of YouTube's earliest viral videos. Everything about it was exciting and electric and downright athletic. My reaction was "All right, Ms. Damrau... you have my undivided attention. Do go on."

Friends ask me why I'm so into opera. The popular perception is still that it's inaccessible and rather dull. I can dismiss that misperception by asking them to name an aria. It's all over the place! They can always name one. And then I explain exactly what's going on in that scene, behind the pretty music, and bang, I've got 'em.

"Okay. The music that the Diva sings in 'The Fifth Element' is the mad scene from 'Lucia di Lammermoor'. Lucia -- who was already seeing ghosts before the opera even started -- has been betrayed and emotionally manipulated by the people she loves for two full acts. She finally snaps and murders her husband on their wedding bed. She rejoins the wedding reception with her dress drenched in blood and holding a dripping knife, while the horrified guests..."

Andy Ihnatko outside of the Met. (Photo: Andy Ihnatko)

As to why I love opera? No other form of music or storytelling can move me the way opera can. The music and the people who perform it have a special power to bridge emotional distances. The music? Gorgeous, sometimes heart-stoppingly so.

But the technical aspects of opera push my other buttons. I tell people that opera is like Formula 1 racing. An F1 car doesn't have power steering, anti-lock brakes, or even a natural inclination to stick to the road or move in a straight line. It was designed for the hands of the very best drivers. Anybody can push themselves to the very limits of their own driving ability. Only an elite few can push an F1 car to the car's limits.

In opera, the car is the music. A performer in opera who sings it cautiously isn't doing their job. The best always push their talents so that the audience can feel every emotion that this piece of music is capable of expressing.

Andy’s cherished Met Opera tickets. (Photo: Andy Ihnatko)

There have been hundreds of beautiful recordings of "O mio babbino caro" and "Nessun dorma." I'm grateful to any singer who ever created a beautiful performance. But only an opera singer, who has put in at least ten years of intensive study before they're even handed the keys, and who will spend the rest of their lives continuing to learn and explore a character and a piece of music, can whip those arias around the track the way their composers intended and the audience hopes. That's the difference between my thinking "Wow, that was really pretty, wasn't it?" and being almost too overcome by my emotions to react at all.

It's been a terrific adventure. And it's still aided and abetted by technology. YouTube noticed that I watch a lot of opera videos and suggested one of Joyce DiDonato's (incredible, inspirational) masterclasses. So I explored her many recordings on Spotify and became a huge fan. Joyce guided me into the world of baroque music and mezzos. I've seen two of her performances at the Met, and enjoyed her co-performers so much I was Googling their names during the intermissions. This led me to Stephanie Blythe, Kate Lyndsey and Alice Coote. Every performer I discover leads me to new composers, new kinds of music, and new people, like following hyperlinks on a webpage until I hear birds outside my window and realize that I've been up the whole night.

I proudly self-identify as "Opera Riff-Raff." It was a joke I made with my friends, when I bought my first ticket to the Met and wondered aloud if they'd even let me in without one of those collapsible top hats made famous by the Bugs Bunny cartoons. But of course, there's no riff-raff in opera. They check your ticket, but don't check for your credentials. I can't speak for what opera was like before I started infesting these joints ten years ago, but every time I take my seat, it's no different than when I cut school to see "The Return Of The Jedi" on its opening day in theaters. I'm going to see something fresh and unexpected, and I'm about to be deeply entertained by people who know how. I should switch my brain's receptors to their highest setting for Joy before the lights go down.

Andy in his happy place: a box at the Metropolitan Opera. (Photo: Andy Ihnatko)

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Andy, forever the overachiever, also has a number of podcasts available. You can check out this one for weekly Apple news, and this one for weekly Google news. He even has a podcast through Boston Public Radio!

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