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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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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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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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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What is the AGMA Relief Fund?

by Lianne Coble-Dispensa

In these fraught times, performing artists around the world are under immense economic stress. Singers, dancers, and artistic staff are finding themselves out of work after governmental public safety recommendations are forcing theaters around the world to shut their doors indefinitely. Without income, (and for some freelancers, without health insurance) artists need a place to turn if they are feeling anxious about being able to provide for themselves and their families.

This is where the AGMA Relief Fund comes in. Managed by our artists’ union, the American Guild of Musical Artists, and administered by the Actor’s Fund, the AGMA Relief Fund provides countless services, outreach, workshops, and financial assistance for AGMA members in good standing. “Since its founding in 1945 by prominent artists of the day”, says AGMA president Ray Menard, “the Relief Fund has been helping our members preserve their dignity with compassion and confidentiality.”

If you are a performing artist in need, the AGMA Relief Fund is here to help: whether it’s for a personal or work-related issue, or whether you need help finding elder care, child care, or legal services. There are counseling and workshops available if you need assistance with finding affordable housing or health insurance. And, if you are under economic duress due to lost income from canceled performances, there are grants available to help you cover everything from rent to utilities, from mental health care to medical expenses, as well as other costs of daily living.

Freelance opera singer Abigail Wright suffered a catastrophic injury during an opera performance in 2015. Workman’s Compensation Insurance thankfully paid for the majority of her medical bills, including surgery, but because of her status as a freelancer, she was ineligible for unemployment insurance, and couldn’t work for ten weeks after her surgery.

Thankfully, a friend who had been assisted by the AGMA Relief Fund in the past recommended she get in touch with them. “After I filled out some paperwork and proved my performing-related income,” Abby said, “I had a way to pay my bills during this incredibly stressful time.”

“Although I can’t say I made it through that time without any scars, I managed to pay my rent and keep my head above water at a time when it otherwise would have been truly impossible. They came to my aid with kindness, generosity, and a true empathy that made healing possible for me in every way. I couldn’t be more grateful to the AGMA Relief Fund, and to everyone who has donated to them throughout the years.”

Last year, according to Mr. Menard, the AGMA Relief Fund helped over 300 members “solve problems and make positive changes in their lives.” That number will certainly spike during the coming months, as theater closures drag on, opera and dance seasons come to an unscheduled end, and Broadway stages remain dark. Recently, the CDC recommended cancellations of all events with 50 people or more over the next eight weeks to fight the spread of COVID-19. While this recommendation is prudent and necessary, it puts artists and others in the gig economy in a grim financial predicament. Thankfully, the AGMA Relief Fund is here to relieve some of that stress, and we’re all extremely grateful for that.

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The AGMA Relief Fund is a not-for-profit 501© (3) that counts on the generosity of others to assist members in crisis. If you have the privilege of working during the COVID-19 quarantines, and can spare a few dollars, your tax-deductible donation would go a long way to helping your beloved performing artists who provide the world with beautiful music and entertainment get through this extremely difficult time.

Thank you so much for your consideration and for your continued support, not only of the artists of the Metropolitan Opera, but of performing artists all over the nation. We’re all in this together!

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Members of AGMA at the 2019 Labor Day Parade.

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Motherhood At The Met

by Abigail Mitchell

Abigail and Arthur at home.

About thirty seconds after I got a full-time position in the Met Chorus, I got pregnant. Ok, it wasn’t quite that quick. But it did happen fast, and my son Arthur was born the summer after my first season.

Both the job and the baby were a long time coming. Every chorister has a fun story about getting “the call,” and the short version of mine is this: I knew I had something to offer as a singer, and one morning, during a yoga class, I sent up an earnest plea for an opportunity to contribute. Thirty minutes later, as I walked in the door of my day job, Maestro Palumbo called.

As for the baby, my husband and I had been trying to get pregnant for two years. Nice work if you can get it, of course, but I grew increasingly devastated when month after month went by without success. Having two dreams come true almost at once was an embarrassment of riches.

I was further blessed with an easy pregnancy, and with my late June due date, the Met season wrapped up when I was seven-and-a-half months in. I especially appreciated this given the physical nature of the job. Life in the chorus involves a lot of running around, climbing stairs, kneeling, getting up and down off the floor, and, oh yeah, singing. None of this is made easier by being pregnant. The other benefit of a summer baby is that I didn’t have to start my maternity leave until after the summer break was over, giving me a couple extra precious weeks to be at home with my baby.

I started back at work in late September, right at the start of the 19/20 season. But while the performance season was just getting under way, the chorus had been rehearsing since July. This meant that when I came back, I was behind. This was especially challenging because as a second-year chorister I was, by default, behind already.

Depending on who you ask, the first three years in the Regular Chorus are the hardest. Or five years. Or seven. The Met does at least twenty operas per season, and the chorus is in almost all of them. Because they have not figured out how to add extra hours to the day, shows that are done often like La Bohème or Turandot don’t receive as much rehearsal as something rare, like Akhnatan or The Queen of Spades. This means that in your early years in the chorus, you are going to be spending a lot of time practicing, muttering to yourself while looking at flashcards, and reading the lips of your seasoned colleagues, all in an effort to stuff dozens of operas, in myriad languages, into your brain.

Turandot was my first show back, and I employed all of the above strategies to get up to speed. My son became a Turandot expert as I practiced during the last few weeks of my leave. Not only did I need to learn the music, I also needed to get my voice back into shape. Singing opera is an athletic endeavor that requires precision and endurance. Even just a couple days off can set you back, just like a week away from your exercise routine can make you feel like you’re starting over. I didn’t sing at all for several weeks after Arthur was born—that is, unless you count crooning “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” over and over and over.

Once my body had recovered from labor and I was starting to patch together a decent amount of sleep, I got back to work. At first I could only manage ten minutes or so at a time, both in terms of stamina and in terms of time in which Arthur would tolerate me not paying attention to him. Sometimes I would hold him while I vocalized, but I worried about singing so close to his ears. Opera singing is loud, after all! Over time I was able to lengthen my sessions until, by the time I started back at work, I felt almost back to normal.

Arthur stops by the Chorus women’s lounge to snuggle with Abby during the dress rehearsal of Der Fliegende Holländer!

Now Arthur is seven months old, and we have a nice routine. He usually sleeps in until 7:00 or so, which on all but the latest nights gives me a decent amount of sleep, too. Depending on how early our rehearsal call is, I have about ninety minutes with him in the morning, which goes by fast when I’m also trying to get ready to go. My goal is to be able to take ten minutes to drink a cup of tea and watch him play around on the floor, and most mornings I am able to manage this. It can be hard to walk out the door, but once I’m in the midst of rehearsing I’m glad to be doing the thing I trained for so many years to do.

Unless we have a very short break, I come home in the afternoon between rehearsal and performance (which choristers call the “gap”). Depending on the timing, this means more play-time and/or flying through some chores while Arthur naps. He goes to bed around 8:00pm, which is kind of late for babies. But since his mama often doesn’t get home from work until 11:00pm, I want to make sure he doesn’t wake up too early! This is—fingers crossed—working out well so far. On nights that the chorus doesn’t appear until late in the game, such as Der Rosenkavalier or Wozzeck, I can put Arthur to bed before I go, which is a nice treat.

As every working parent knows, balancing professional life and family life is tough. But I take heart in the fact that many of my colleagues have raised or are raising kids while in the Met chorus, to say nothing of the millions of parents doing it with jobs of all kinds. In the end, I love my job and I love being a mom. I’m sure that a happy, fulfilled mom is a good first step to a happy, fulfilled child.

Abby, her husband Oliver, and Arthur, celebrating Christmas in style.

Someone recently said to me, after we caught up about my job in the chorus and my at-last baby, “You’re living the dream, aren’t you?” Yeah, I kinda am. It’s every bit as wonderful as I imagined, and I’m deeply grateful.

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Meet The Dancers: Michelle Vargo

In our previous Met Artists Newsletter, we debuted our “Meet the Dancers” column, so you could get to know some of our exceptionally talented colleagues whose contributions elevate the operatic art form in truly memorable ways. In this edition, we meet the amazing Michelle Vargo, who has been gracing the stage of the Metropolitan Opera for 22 years!

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Michelle and her, erm, lovely colleagues in their witchy Macbeth costumes, celebrating Michelle bringing another baby witch into the fold!

How long have you been dancing at the Metropolitan Opera?

This year is my 22nd season with the company. My 20th season, I celebrated dancing all season with a growing baby in my belly. It's really amazing. I never imagined that I'd have such a long career here. 

What was your training?

I grew up in Butler, PA where I studied at a small dance studio (Lee's School of Dance). My teacher was very strict. We took Ceccetti ballet exams every year, but also studied jazz, tap and acrobatics. I'm very thankful that I studied multiple disciplines before moving to New York City and attending the Juilliard School. At Juilliard, I honed those skills and started to get more of an idea of where I'd fit in in the dance world. 

What does a typical day at the Met look like for you?

It really depends on the season and which operas are happening. For example, this season, September and October were intensely busy, rehearsing and performing three shows at the same time. So, a typical day this September was often rehearsing from 12:00pm-5:00pm. In October, I had fewer rehearsals, but a very busy performance schedule. 

What are your favorite operas/opera roles and why?

Michelle, as the solo bird dancer in The Magic Flute.

I'd say my top three operas have been Parsifal, Damnation of Faust, andSamson et Dalila (the Elijah Moshinsky production, which premiered in 1998). Parsifal was such a once-in-a-lifetime creative, unique experience being immersed and moving through a stage filled with bloody water. Damnation was intensely physical. It was a very daredevil production as we threw our bodies over the balconies and jumped through trap doors. It was a very rewarding and thrilling experience every time I performed it. I must admit, I was nervous for every show unlike any other show I've performed at the Met. Samson was my first new production. It was the beginning of bringing more contemporary choreography to the Met, it was part of my first Japan tour, and it was also the beginning of my Met career, so it holds a sentimental place for me. Another very memorable performance was going on as the solo bird in The Magic Flute the week I found out I was pregnant with my second child. There are many more I love. I could go on and on.

How many hours a day do you dance?

Michelle (2nd row, far left) and the dancers of Macbeth serving up some glamour realness for the camera.

That varies depending on how much rehearsal/shows I have that day. I could have a day where I rehearse two or three shows until 5pm and have a show at night, or have an off day from working but still take class or do my own workout. I almost never take a day off from working out, dancing or doing yoga. 


How has your experience at the Met changed (or stayed the same) over the years?

I started quite young as an extra dancer, and was very quickly added to more shows every year. It took a while to be hired into the company full-time, and that both did and didn't change my experience at the Met. I'd already been cast in many shows, but it meant a full-time commitment and availability to the Met, as well as the added benefits and weekly salary. 

What about the job changed when the Met disbanded the Corps de Ballet?

While I do miss the salary and benefits, there is more freedom in being a freelancer. My commitment to the work is the same.  

Michelle and her daughter Ella from a performance of Rigoletto.

MIchelle and her son Jasper, 6 years later, in the same production! (Editor’s Note: This amazing woman is ageless!)

How do you balance your work life with your family life?

It's not easy, but it has become easier. I have a 7-year-old daughter and a 17-month-old son. They are my world. I jumped back into classes and rehearsals very quickly after the births of both children, which was the most difficult time. But now, I think having the balance of being both mama and dancer makes me better at both roles. I don't take anything for granted anymore and really enjoy and savor being in the present moment more than ever. 

Where else do you dance besides the Met Opera?

MIchelle from her singer/songwriter days.

Michelle and Sam Meredith (also a dancer at the Met) performing in Sarah Weber Gallo’s MA thesis performance.

I've danced with many outside companies over the years. Currently I'm in the studio with Christopher Caines making new material for an upcoming show. I've also worked on my own choreography and was a touring singer/songwriter for many years before the kids were born. 

What do you do for self-care/recovery after a long day (or week) of dancing? 

Before having children, it was easier to fit regular body work into my schedule. My daily self-care now includes meditation and gentle yoga with breath work to realign my body, rolling out with tennis balls and rollers and taking an epsom salts bath. When I can or am in desperate need, I see a kinesiologist, acupuncturist or a reflexologist, depending on my needs at the moment. 

Editor’s Note: The majority of this article was already written when the COVID-19 pandemic swept the country and forced the temporary closure of all performing arts organizations in New York City, including the Metropolitan Opera. I asked Michelle how she was feeling after the season was canceled.

Losing all of my work through the end of the season feels pretty overwhelming, but I’m trying to stay positive and teach some virtual yoga classes. It’s also heartbreaking that my daughter Ella was about to have her debut at The Met in Werther with me. I lost all my work in one day, and then had to give her the bad news. It was a pretty rough day. She now makes both of us put on a show in the living room every evening that was supposed to be a Werther performance. ️

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If you have the ability to donate to help out-of-work performing artists affected by the COVID-19 closures, or if you yourself are an out-of-work artist looking for financial assistance, please check out this link and this link. Both have fairly comprehensive lists of organizations providing need-based grants to eligible individuals during this economically challenging time. Thank you for your consideration!

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Alumni Corner: The Importance Of Staying Connected

by Brandon Mayberry and Carolyn Sielski

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While many of us have social media to stay connected to the outside world, we shouldn’t forget that not everyone has that outlet during this rapidly changing landscape, where real life social distancing is the name of the game.  Senior citizens in assisted care facilities/nursing homes, or isolated at home without families to care for them, are most vulnerable to the effects of this extreme social isolation. While we attempt to protect this vulnerable age group from contracting this deadly virus, we shouldn’t lose sight of the emotional toll this isolation can take in the meantime. 

Carolyn Sielski by the Lincoln Center fountain.

In the spirit of connection in all its many-splendored forms, allow me to introduce Met Chorus Alumna and current Met Opera Chorus Retiree Coordinator Carolyn Sielski.  Carolyn has been brilliantly facilitating that connection for the last 11 years among the 60 retired choristers. 

Here’s a look into Carolyn’s history as chorister at the Met, and the role she now plays as the Met Chorus Retiree Coordinator, in her own words.

     When I was hired in June 1986 by David Stivender, I had already been married 18 years and was busy raising 2 teenage daughters. I had taught public school music, was a member of the New York City Opera, had a church job, toured in 2 national opera company tours, and was playing violin in a semi-professional orchestra. 

   Life changed after that successful audition one afternoon, where David described every opera for which I would be responsible and have memorized for the first chorus rehearsal in August! I was presented with a huge stack of music from John Grande, the Met librarian. Then I was taken to the costume department for measurements. I could barely find my way around the corridors of the building!  The entire summer I spent collecting recordings, making tapes, and studying operas. Something that has always stayed with me was the musty smell of the old scores, browned with age and stained with coffee cup rings and pencil markings from choristers before me. I knew that I was in possession of sacred and historical treasures.

     Highlights of my 21 year career at the Met are numerous, but I’ll enjoy mentioning a few.  

Carolyn as the page in Rigoletto.

     My first solo as the Page in Rigoletto was a thrill for me, anticipating the beat while singing in the upstage tower. I remember my beautiful costume with the previous pages’ name label sewn on the inside of the costume. Although I had my own dressing room in the principal artists area, nobody would dress me because I was just a chorister! My husband happily dressed me that night. 

     Another highlight was being selected to sing one of the nuns in Dialogues of the Carmelites!  Being part of that history inspired my husband and I travel to the Cimetiere de Picpus in Paris and retrace the history and remains of the nuns.

    It was a highlight to work with the great artists of the Golden era: Domingo, Pavarotti, Milnes, Peters, and Sutherland, to name a few. Also, it was a joy to perform in Zeffirelli’s glamorous productions of La Bohème, Carmen, Turandot , Tosca, Cav/Pag, Otello, Don Giovanni, La Traviata, and Falstaff.  (Editor’s Note: Only Zefferelli’s Turandot and La Bohème remain in the current repertoire at the Met.)  They all contained beautiful and realistic sets, with costumes Zeffirelli designed himself.  He once took the time to give each chorister a personalized, autographed sketch of an act of one of his operas.  (I have mine framed on the wall in my living room.)

Carolyn looking positively glamorous as a bridesmaid from Otto Schenk’s production of Götterdämmerung.

     When I retired in 2007 after 21 years, there was a transition for me.  It’s that ego thing that’s created when you realize that you had the best chorus job anywhere, but it’s not who you are anymore.  But I do love being retired now, traveling to Europe with my husband and trying to stay connected with old friends, other Met retirees and my family. I don’t miss the daily commute by car from New Jersey into New York City. But I’m busy on my own terms.

   As retiree coordinator, I want to keep the retiree traditions alive, which were originated by [former Met choristers] Elinor Harper and Elyssa Lindner. There has always been a party given every few years for the newest batch of retirees, sponsored by the regular chorus. The party is usually a first-class send-off at the Met with speeches, food, plaques, special souvenir photo albums, and an “In Memorium” recognizing retired choristers who have passed on. It’s a reunion event that all the retirees look forward to.    

      The Retiree Coordinator’s responsibilities have increased since I have taken over.  I create an updated retiree directory each year with emails, addresses and phone numbers, and a newsletter which highlights retiree news. The retirees give a voluntary donation which covers expenses for the directory and postage. When a retiree dies, we use some of the funds to send flowers to the funeral or donate to a charity or organization in their memory. This way, we always remember our Met family.

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Alumni Corner: Where Are They Now?

by Brandon Mayberry

The holidays have a tendency to bring to surface a mix of emotions. One commonly reflects on the passage of time, as well as one’s hopes for the future. In this spirit, we are paying homage to a foursome of Metropolitan Opera Chorus retirees: soprano Elaine Young, mezzo-soprano Theresa Yu-Ping Teng, tenor Greg Lorenz, and bass David Asch. We will look back at how they first came to Met, what impacted them most as artists during their tenure, and will update you on how they have adjusted to life after the Met.

Here's a quick overview to illustrate the breadth of unique experience they accumulated over their careers. Between the four of them, they have experienced:

1. A combined 129 Met seasons.

2. 4 different chorus masters.

3. Numerous Carnegie Hall performances under the baton of Maestro Levine.

4. Eight International tours including five tours of Japan (the last being in 2011), two tours to Frankfurt, Germany and one to Seville, Spain.*

5. 3 weeks of annual summer parks concerts in the New York City and New Jersey metro areas.

6. Various opera recordings by Sony Classical and Deutsche Grammophon during the 80s and 90s, also conducted by Maestro Levine.

(*Theresa also had the unique experience of being part of the Met’s domestic national tours which lasted between 2-6 weeks during the summer. The Met discontinued the domestic tour in 1986.)

Prelude: Humble Beginnings

Making it into the full-time chorus at the Met is often referred to as "winning the lottery" and the auditions to get into the chorus have become more competitive by the year as the visibility and talent level of the group continues to increase. Since Maestro Donald Palumbo joined the Met as Chorusmaster in the 2007-2008 season, the audition process has become more efficient due to auditionees being screened in advance. This system has replaced the need for the "cattle call" style auditions of the past, where anyone and everyone that wanted to audition could show up and sing. I remember hearing stories of auditionees waiting hours for their turn to sing while standing in a long line that snaked through a sometimes cold parking garage in the middle of winter. Now resumes/bios, reference letters, and a recording are used to make the whole process more efficient and humane for those invited to audition.

Greg Lorenz, tenor. (Photographer: Paul Foster-Williams)

"In the spring of 1991”, Greg Lorenz recalls, “I was in a line for a day and a half next to my future colleague Garth Dawson for the AGMA chorus auditions. I sang ‘Dies Bildnis’ from Die Zauberflöte and Maestro [Raymond] Hughes let me sing the whole aria." Greg's first opera at the Met as part of the extra chorus was Der Fliegende Holländer in 1992. He described his first music rehearsal as being "literally hair raising" as the first sung lines of 'Yo-Ho-He' took his breath away. During an early stage rehearsal, former chorister Artie Mellow, noticing Greg's obvious excitement upon hearing the Met Orchestra play the overture while both were lashed to a giant ship onstage, leaned over and said "You're gonna love it here, kid". Greg acknowledged that Artie's warm welcome colored his entire career in the Met Chorus.

Elaine Young, soprano.

In the case of Elaine Young, she found out about the auditions through an open call posted in Backstage and sang ‘Chi il bel sogno’ from La Rondine. Elaine had only performed in five other full operas prior to getting hired to sing in the Met Chorus. Her first rehearsal with the chorus was for Turandot, and she remembers being “as nervous as a person could be, not knowing what was expected of me.” She wanted to be as prepared as possible, so she bought a score and a recording which she would study every evening after returning home from her temp job, with the goal of having it memorized before the first rehearsal. Ironically, she remembers having dated two former Princes of Persia, a minor role in Turandot, prior to becoming a chorister, further enriching her memories of the Puccini masterpiece!

Thersa Yu-Ping Teng, mezzo-soprano.

Theresa Yu-Ping Teng was trained as a lieder singer during high school and at college, and received her Masters degree from the Manhattan School of Music in 1970. She performed in the world premiere of Gian Carlo Menotti's opera Tamu Tamu in Chicago and again the following year, as it made its European premiere in Spoleto, Italy. It was after that she decided to audition for the chorus and fulfill her dream to sing at the Met. Theresa sang the sultry Dalila's famous aria "Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix" for her audition, which marked the beginning of a 31-year career at the Met, starting with Tannhauser in 1978. "I was so shocked to see so many people in the audience, I almost forgot to sing," she reminisces.

David Asch was encouraged to audition for the Met Chorus thanks to his voice teacher Bonnie Hamilton, who had two former students, Meredith Derr and Julie McSorley, join the chorus only a few years earlier. He sang for former chorusmaster David Stivender, who asked after his audition whether he was interested in auditioning for solo work, to which he replied, “absolutely not interested”. His first opera, as part of the extra chorus, was Khovanschina, an extremely challenging and lengthy Russian tour-de-force.

Act I: The Chorus Experience

I asked the distinguished quartet what they remembered most fondly during their careers at the Met.

Elaine Young, Soprano: 2 years extra chorus, 22 years regular chorus (1991-2016)

Elaine recalls "standing in the wings watching and listening to Domingo and Pavarotti sing the duet from The Pearl Fishers before the Three Tenors was even thought of.” She also cherishes her memories of the Met’s Carnegie Hall concerts, as well as the Levine Gala and tours to Germany and Japan. “My first solo was as the First Ancelli in Turandot with (former chorister) Linda Mays. My favorite solo was as the Page in Rigoletto. I loved pants roles and getting a curtain call with the soloists was icing on the cake." She revels in the creative process that ensued spontaneously during the first run of the current production of Le nozze di Figaro, where she created a calendar from pictures of costumed choristers in “crazy” offstage scenarios. (Note: I still have the calendar Elaine made, which was a stroke of genius and shows how much fun we all have together.)

Theresa Yu-Ping Teng: Mezzo-Soprano, 31 years regular chorus (1978-2009)

Theresa fondly remembers her five tours to Japan, as well as tours to Frankfurt on two separate occasions and the Seville tour. She recalls crying during every performance of Dialogues des Carmelites. She admired Franco Zeffirelli, who masterfully created many great operatic productions at Met, for his ability to design not only the sets and costumes, but also act as director. She recalls that “he paid special attention to all the details, including checking everyone's costumes before the performance.”

Greg Lorenz: Tenor, 3 years extra chorus, 22 years regular chorus (1988-2016)

Greg said he met and worked with so many artistically gifted people that were simply great and beautiful people. "For sheer, innate, almost feral, musicality, no one can diminish those nights with Maestro Levine on the podium" Placido Domingo was Greg's most inspiring singer, who he said "was always true to his voice and displayed a musical curiosity from Mozart to Mariachi."

David Asch, bass-baritone.

David Asch: Bass, 3 years extra chorus, 23 years regular chorus (1987-2013)

David fondly recalls the Carnegie Hall concerts with Maestro Levine conducting, as well as the many chorus solo roles he performed during his tenure. (Favorites include the Fisherman in Britten’s Peter Grimes and an Elder in Schoenberg’s formidable Moses und Aron.) I asked David who made the biggest impression on him while at the Met. As a former Met chorus music librarian, David appropriately gave me a comprehensive list of influential and impressive solo artists, conductors and stage directors that read as a "Who's Who" list of opera. During the Volpe era, David felt the two most influential figures were James Levine and Franco Zefferelli.

Act II: Where Are They Now?

Elaine as Baroness Bomburst in “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”.

Elaine and her husband Peter currently live in a stone home on nine acres of a historic farm outside of Kingston, NY. She is loving the country life and having every bit of nature outside her door, from the critters such as hawks, coyotes and the occasional bear, to Peter's well-tended garden and small peach orchard! For the last three years Elaine has been working part-time at the circulation desk at the library in Stone Ridge. Elaine has also kept her feet wet in the performance arena, having performed leading roles in five musicals. She is currently rehearsing her 8th play, Neil Simon's Rumors, which opens on January 10th for two weekends at the Center for Performing Arts in Rhinebeck, NY. (Click here for information and tickets.)

Elaine found it helpful taking a sabbatical prior to retirement, which gave her time to discover what retirement could be like. During that time away she discovered her new theater community as well as her little "mad money" job at the library. "After all those years of schedules, it has been nice to make my own schedule as full, or not, as I choose. Having things to do, people to see, and reasons to get out of bed make for, hopefully, a long life. I think it's the only time in my life when I've actually planned ahead." On a less serious note, I have had the great enjoyment of witnessing Elaine's vocal impersonation of the "Chipmunks Christmas Song" during our chorus holiday parties, which she admits "never fails to make a lasting impression."

Theresa Teng is currently living in Fort Lee, New Jersey in a high-rise building that includes many Met subscribers who often flatter her after discovering she sang at the Met! She's enjoying traveling and attending the Met’s final dress rehearsals. She's also a big fan of the Met Live in HD broadcasts as well as watching the live broadcasts of the Bolshoi Ballet. She doesn't miss commuting to work twice daily from New Jersey.

Greg Lorenz is living in Dutchess County now where he can finally spend more time with his family, singing recitals, and volunteering for an organization called 'Sing for Hope', which often involves singing for people in long term care facilities and veterans hospitals. He's particularly drawn to composers of the late romantic through the twentieth century, and spends a fair bit of time “listening to the likes of Coltrane, Bird, Miles, and Ellington. As far as Met listening, I refer to Sirius as my 'scrapbook.' It's really fun to be driving around and hear some performance or another and say I was there!" Greg's advice to those thinking of retiring is "Remember that life is life. In other words, there are always trials and triumphs no matter where you are or what you do. Seek joy, share love and hope for the best."

David Asch in Simon Boccanegra.

David Asch currently resides in Delray Beach, Florida. He sings in the chorus with the Palm Beach Opera, and has a regular church job as well as a seasonal temple job. He also maintains a partial presence in the NYC metro area, where he still performs on occasion with the Bard Festival Chorale and the Russian Chamber Chorus (in that vein, he is hoping to start a chamber chorus, Russian or otherwise, in South Florida). He most recently took an extensive trip visiting many of the National Parks out West.

Here’s what David has to say about retirement: "The first couple of years post-retirement were challenging. I didn't sing a note for the first year but eventually returned to what I thought I could do best. I was fortunate to be hired in Florida, though at first I wasn't sure I would fit in anywhere. I considered returning to graduate school in an alternative field, but realized it wasn't practical, particularly considering the age factor." Some advice from his experience is to "enjoy letting go of the Met's rigorous, highly structured schedule for a while, but have some sort of game plan."

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Mr. Mayberry, a living kidney donor, received his Bachelor's Degree from DePaul University, and continued his studies at Indiana University.

Mr. Mayberry has appeared in solo roles with the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago (Ryan Opera Center), San Francisco Opera (Merola), Santa Fe Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Chicago Opera Theater and Des Moines Metro Opera. He is also a co-owner of Swirlz Cupcakes, a Chicago bakery dedicated to "making people happy" since 2006.

Meet The Dancers: Sarah Weber Gallo

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The Met Artists newsletter is in the business of giving you all a behind-the-scenes look at the individuals represented by AGMA (the American Guild of Musical Artists, our union) that make up the incredible team of artists behind all your favorite Met operas. We’ve given you loads of content from the chorus (spoiler alert: the newsletter team is made up entirely of choristers. Hey, we’re here all the time, you can trust us to have the inside scoop!), you’ve met a few of our talented full-time staff performers, one of our senior stage managers has shared his oatmeal pancake recipe with you, and we’ve even gotten to know a few former Met children’s choristers.

Sarah Weber Gallo in action.

But in this issue, we are debuting our “Meet the Dancers” column, so you can get to know some of our exceptionally talented colleagues whose contributions elevate the operatic art form in truly memorable ways. Sarah Weber Gallo, who has been dancing at the Metropolitan Opera for 21 years, graciously agreed to answer a few questions about her life performing on and off the Met stage.

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What was your training?

I grew up in Indianapolis, where I trained at Jordan College Academy of Dance on the campus of Butler University.  It was conservatory-level training in Ballet (French and Russian schools), Limon technique, Graham technique, Jazz, Theatre Dance, Character, and Tap.  I continued my training at Goucher College, where I was a Psychology major with a constant presence in the Dance Department.  I hold an M.F.A. in Dance from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee (UWM). 

What does a typical day at the Met look like for you?

A typical day begins with company class, usually at 10am (but, being a creature of habit, I arrive by 9:30 to warm up and secure my favorite spot at the barre...and drink coffee).  This is followed by a short break and then a studio rehearsal of 2-5 hours, depending upon the production(s) being rehearsed.  On costume stage days, the rehearsal call is earlier and conflicts with class, so I arrive earlier to warm up in the dancers' lounge.  Then it's time for costumes, wigs, and makeup, and a call to stage.  If I am in an evening performance, I usually go back to Hoboken to teach a class or two during the break between rehearsals and the show.  After this, I return for the evening's show call, get in to another round of costumes, wigs, and makeup, do the performance, take it all off, and head home on the subway/bus (or sometimes I’ll walk).     

What are your favorite operas/opera roles and why?

Sarah and her fellow dancers in Macbeth.

One of my favorite operas was ‘An American Tragedy’ with choreography by Doug Varone.  I reveled in dancing Doug's luscious choreography while being attired in a gorgeous ball gown, and being part of the staged storytelling of one of my most revered novels.  Other notables include the solo role (with Trebien Pollard and Andrew Robinson) in Graham Vick's production of ‘Samson et Dalilah’, the thrillingly difficult ‘Damnation of Faust’ (Robert Lepage's production with choreography by Joanne Madore), and the austere but stunning ‘Parsifal’ with choreography by Carolyn Choa.

Do you have other performance responsibilities at the Met other than dance?

I have been AGMA dancer delegate for 17 years, as well as having served on the negotiation committee for every round of collective bargaining since 2003. I’m also on the Met’s Efficiency Task Force and Anti-Harassment/Discrimination Committee, as well as the AGMA Board of Governors. Some people at the Met call me "Dance Boss"...because I am bossy.

Sarah (to the right of Dalila), in the old production of Samson et Dalilia.)

Original choreography by Sarah Weber Gallo.

How many hours a day do you dance?

I take either ballet or yoga 6 days a week, rehearse as needed 2-5 hours/day (depending upon repertoire), teach 2-3 classes, and perform as needed 2-6 shows/week.  I make my entire living through dancing, whether via rehearsing/performing at the Met, choreographing and producing with my own company, SWG/dancetheatre, or teaching/directing at MST Dance Academy.  I am basically always dancing in some capacity.

How has your experience at the Met changed (or stayed the same) over the years, particularly since the disbanding of the Corps de Ballet?**

The disbanding of the tenured Corps de Ballet greatly altered my experience at the Met.  Like all dancers at the Met, I am now a per-performance artist. Therefore the Met functions as one of many income sources, rather than as my full-time employer. Additionally, I no longer have health insurance from the Met.  Our family is now on a lesser plan provided by my husband's employer. 

While I enjoy a high amount of respect from my colleagues and managers, my continued employment is non-secure. Since the dancers are no longer full-time, our lead union delegate is chorister Karen Dixon, who has generously and tirelessly offered her services as a tenured company member on our behalf.  Our bargaining power within the shop had disintegrated for several years after the dissolution of the Corps de Ballet, but we were able to gather a strong committee during the 2017 negotiations. This has helped educate other members of the shop to our plight and improve our status in the group.  

What has remained consistent is the unsurpassed quality of artistry. 

Where else do you dance besides the Met Opera?

Sarah and her former Rockette colleagues!

Currently I am limiting my extracurricular dancing to building MST Dance Academy, where I am the primary teacher and full-time administrator/director/cleaner-of-floors.  Since 2013, I have been creating and performing evening-length works of Dance Theatre with my company, SWG/dancetheatre.  It's safe to say that my choreography is very influenced by my experiences in operatic storytelling at the Met.  In years past, I have danced with various independent choreographers and in collaboration with my MFA cohort from UWM.  I was also a Radio City Rockette for two years, which overlapped my early days at the Met. 

Sarah at MST Dance Academy in Hoboken, NJ.

How do you balance your work life with your family life?

My husband is a playwright and professor of theatre, so he tends to have a more flexible schedule than I do. 

We both work non-traditional hours, so we are somehow always able to manage juggling our careers and caring for our daughter. She's 10-years-old and can walk to school with friends, which makes our morning routine much easier than in years past. She also takes several dance classes at my Academy and helps me open and close the studio on Saturday mornings, so we are able to spend a lot of time together.

What do you do for self-care/recovery after a long day (or week) of dancing?

I don't engage in very much self-care.  Unless I am in active physical therapy for a specific injury, I'll just take the occasional advil as needed.  Wait, does wine count?

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(**The Metropolitan Opera Corps de Ballet, which traces its origins back to the first days of the Met in 1883, was disbanded in 2013. The dancers you see in current Met productions are hired on a per-performance basis.)

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A Chorister's Perspective: Porgy & Bess At The Met.

Porgy & Bess on the Met stage. (Photo: Ken Howard.)

by Jamet Pittman, soprano, and member of the Porgy & Bess chorus.

A Porgy & Bess room rehearsal with chorusmasters Donald Palumbo (at the podium) and Daniel Moody. (Photo: Jonathan Tichler)

On August 4th, 60 African-American singers from all over the country walked through the Metropolitan Opera stage door and convened in a C-level rehearsal room. We were all giddy with excitement to begin working on the Met's production of Porgy and Bess-- the first it had done in years. Some of us knew each other from the "opera scene"; others came from a musical theater background; still others came from professional choral groups. How ever we got here, we knew that we were embarking on a wonderful journey together.

In our first rehearsal, the sound of the chorus was astounding-- both in its beauty and its sheer power. I think it's safe to say that we all had visceral reactions to the sound we created: rich, full and—dare I say it— chocolaty! The tenors and basses were dazzled by the ethereal sounds of the altos and sopranos, while the women were blown away by the deep, strong male choruses. Baritone Quentin Oliver Lee said, "This sound showcases the Met's world-class standard. You don't get this sound just anywhere— you just get swept away with it!"

Here, we know that we are in great hands. Maestro David Moody, with wit and humor, took us through the more tedious (but all-important) aspects of the music, such as reinforcing note lengths, cutoffs and diction issues. Bass Kevin Gardner is new to Porgy and Bess. He says that going over the parts together "helps me to further understand the show. I'm having a great time." It didn't take long to realize that Maestro Palumbo, though a rather petite man, carries a big stick, musically speaking. He came in and gave us the finer points of context and mood so that we had not only power, but shape and intention. Maestro Palumbo was able to harness the exuberance of our group while revealing the certain sound he has in mind for this production. With his singular personality and infallible ear, he has a gift for bringing us into this space, to this performance, regardless of how many Porgys we've sung in the past. Gardner said, " It's nice to see Maestro Palumbo's excitement with our music-making. I understand why he is so intense about each note. I'm singing, but also listening." Quentin Lee was also impressed with Palumbo's exacting ear. "He hears parts so clearly. I've mostly done principal work, not ensemble, so it's interesting to learn how my notes factor with others."

Mezzo-soprano Linda Childs is a veteran opera soloist, production assistant and professional chorister. Having worn so many hats, she is always looking forward. "I wonder how the choral rehearsals will translate to the stage. Timing has to be precise. In the score, every entrance, every cut-off makes sense. I think we'll be facile enough to do what Maestro Palumbo wants." If we have trouble, or just need a reminder, he has the ability to correct us with obvious love for both the music and the musician.

As a soprano who has sung many times at the Koch theater, and also at Geffen Hall, but never at the Met-- I am thrilled to finally be here. It has been a dream of mine through undergraduate studies, post-graduate studies, and as a freelance singer in New York. Though some dreams may be deferred, some do actually come true when you least expect it--and in the most glorious fashion. I am thankful for the friendly, creative environment that has been prepared for us, and for the chorus of Porgy and Bess, the newest members of the Metropolitan Opera family.

Members of the full-time Met chorus mingle (and enjoy a fine fizzy beverage) with members of the Porgy chorus. (Photo: Jonathan Tichler.)

I was speaking with Gail Blach-Gill, a soprano-turned director/conductor of many Porgy and Bess performances around the world. We discussed how Porgy has been handled over time, and she feels that its time may finally have come. Not only do we have the wonderful score, but conductors who have taken the time to understand and truly study the music and its nuances. Pair that with singers that are bringing new levels of musicianship and artistry to it, and you banish the heavy-handed, over-sung, "it's-fine-because-they're-Black" mentality that has infected many versions. Truthfully, there are still some African-Americans that may be embarrassed by Gershwin and Heyward's portrayal of Gullah life on Catfish Row, but they cannot say that earnest, intelligent and respectful attention has not been paid by the people involved in this production. And when all these elements come together on the Met stage, it promises to carry the audience away on waves of joy and pain as deep and as high as any created by, perhaps, a hurricane.

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Porgy & Bess opens the 2019-2020 season on Monday, September 23rd. The dress rehearsal was an unparalleled success, and tickets are going fast. Very, very fast, in fact. Get yours before it’s too late!

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Porgy Through The Eyes Of April Haines

Before soprano April Haines joined the Metropolitan Opera Chorus in 1995, she saw the world touring with Porgy and Bess, which returns to the Met stage for the first time in almost 30 years. Besides her intimate knowledge of the show through numerous roles she played over the course of her career, she also experienced the piece on a different level through another important connection: her former teacher, the famous baritone Todd Duncan, who played Porgy in the original 1935 production of Porgy and Bess.

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as told by April Haines, with contributions from Lianne Coble-Dispensa

Mezzo-soprano April Haynes of the Met Chorus.

Interestingly, the first opera I ever saw was also the first one in which I was ever cast: Porgy and Bess. It was a joint production with Tulsa Opera and my hometown company, Baltimore Opera.

I had studied voice & had been a soloist in my college choir at Morgan State University. But after attending a Shirley Verrett recital, I was convinced that the training I was getting was not on par with the talent I saw on that stage, and I requested another teacher. Though that teacher only taught masters students, I ended up studying with him: the great American tenor George Shirley. I shared my story with him, and to this day, he reminds me that as a Met chorister, I obviously found my heart's desire.

After a decade of a successful data processing career, I began to study with Elizabeth Kolker, a recommended teacher at Baltimore's prestigious Peabody Institute. She herself was a student of the baritone Todd Duncan, who was made famous as the first Porgy in the premiere performance of Porgy and Bess in 1935. I asked her if there was any possibility that I could audit one of her lessons with Mr. Duncan. She said yes, and that “yes” changed the trajectory of my life.

April and Manning, from their Porgy & Bess days!

At that point, with a couple years of touring, I had over 400 performances of Porgy under my belt, but no concentrated vocal study. My goal was to get a "red dress" (Bess's iconic costume) of my own in five years. (I had already performed the soprano solo lines in the prayer, as well as the Strawberry woman.) And may I say (whenever possible, of course) that my only son, C. Manning Haines, debuting as a 5-year-old with Baltimore Opera, played Serena's son Scipio in a number of productions. It was four years before I got that red dress, debuting in Munich as the Bess cover, but the trajectory was set. By that time, I'd seen the 13 iterations of Houston Opera's Porgy and Bess run, and traveled to numerous cities and countries on tour with the opera: Tokyo, Kyoto, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Lisbon, Ljubljana (Slovenia), Den Hagg, Amsterdam, Paris (all over France, really), all the major Italian cities, and countless others. Back off the road, I'd been cast to sing a modern version of Le Nozze di Figaro as the Countess in 1995, but then the Met called and invited me to become part of their family. As an older family member used to say, your life can change on a dime.

I remember Mr. Duncan laughing the morning he heard me for the first time and saying, “you have the nerve to be out there making money and never studied! Come on back here next Wednesday morning at 9 o'clock. We'll get you what you need. We'll get to work!"

Todd Duncan, baritone and the original 1935 Porgy!

My life was forever changed. He became my teacher, friend, father, grandfather and confidant. I traveled from Baltimore to Washington D.C. every Wednesday and spent the entire morning, until Mr. Duncan stopped teaching at noon, listening to all the students who came after me. His studio was graced with 30" x 24" images of the 1935 Porgy. I literally sat at his feet many, many days as he shared stories of those turbulant, racial-charged times in America, when people had little tolerance for a lieder singer of an Irish, piano teaching mother and (in his words) a "negro" father when he was "expected" to become Pullman Porter at best.

"Po-or-gy, Po-or-gy...dat you der, ain't it?"

I sang this to greet my beloved teacher before every lesson as he was descending the stairs from his elegantly appointed home to join me in his basement studio.

These are the the first words Bess utters after rousing out of unconsciousness after her encounter with her old lover, Crown, on Kittiwah Island. It was our little "thing".

Mr. D's health declined in 1997, but he lived to see me join the Metropolitan Opera Chorus and was indeed extremely proud that the Met was willing to have me join their family.

He was certainly a special guest the night of the Porgy and Bess premiere here at the Met in 1985. Confidentially though, he felt it would never be performed here again. I never got a chance to ask him why, but I'm sure he'd be delighted that this glorious piece has returned to the Met stage.

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