Lianne Coble-Dispensa 1/24/17 Lianne Coble-Dispensa 1/24/17

Libiamo!: Opera’s Love Affair with Booze

If, amidst the tsunami of the weekend's various political activities, you missed the live HD broadcast of Bartlett Sher's inspired production of Gounod's Romeo et Juliette, fear not! There will be an encore broadcast in movie theaters around the country on Wednesday, January 25th at 6:30pm. And, of course, you'll have 7 more opportunities to witness the “white hot sensuality and impassioned lyricism” (New York Times) of Vittorio Grigolo and Diana Damrau live at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City (the show closes on March 18th).

"This opera has quite a structured palate, with a long finish, but do you find the nose lacks complexity?" A second-half season preview from our chorister couple Scott & Lianne in their own, inimitable style.

Patrick Carfizzi as Frank, Michael Fabiano as Alfred and Susanna Phillips as Rosalinde in Strauss' Die Fledermaus. Photo by Ken Howard/ Metropolitan Opera.

By Lianne Coble-Dispensa & Scott Dispensa

One might say this could be a cause for celebration! At least, Scott & I seem to think so. And when we celebrate, the first thing that comes to mind is wine. And, of course, why shouldn’t it? Opera and alcohol have maintained a friendly relationship throughout the centuries. Think of the operas with delightfully raucous party scenes: La Traviata, Die Fledermaus, Otello, The Merry Widow, Cavalleria Rusticana, and even Roméo et Juliette!

So, to pair with this sumptuous piece, we recommend a wine from the region closest to Verona, where Romeo & Juliette is set: namely, an intensely-flavored, dark-hued Amarone della Valpolicella. If you’re interested in a little nosh to go with your tipple, some asiago cheese (or pecorino romano) drizzled with a little bit of honey will do the trick!

Emily Pulley as Valencienne and Paul Groves as Camille in Lehar's "The Merry Widow." Photo: Ken Howard/ Metropolitan Opera

If you couldn’t tell already, Scott & I love wine (particularly Scott). When we’re not at the Metropolitan Opera rehearsing, staging, or performing one of the 24 operas that feature the chorus, we’re often home drinking wine, talking about wine, going to wine tastings, planning wine-centric summer vacations to Napa or France, or maintaining our (very humble) wine cellar. Scott also has a soft spot for in-the-weeds, educational wine tomes. The books on his bedside table include (and I’m not kidding) “The Complete Bordeaux”, “The Oxford Companion to Wine”, and “A Wine & Food Guide to the Loire”.

I swear, we do have other hobbies.

At any rate, at this point in the year, we have 11 more chorus shows to open, 2 shows that are making their return to the schedule after a small hiatus (Don Giovanni & Aida), and one show (Werther) that doesn’t include chorus, but deserves mention anyway since it’s absolutely gorgeous and worth the trip. So, we’ve taken the liberty to offer you a wine (or alcohol) pairing for each of the 14 shows that are left this season. Enjoy a pre-theater glass, or hit the pub after the show. Either way, enjoy yourselves responsibly. Cheers!

Carmen

Opens: January 19th

What to Drink:

While the story itself is fairly dark, the joyous effervescence of the music would pair well with pair with a nice glass of Cava, Spain’s famous sparkling wine.

Rigoletto

Opens: January 20th

What to Drink:

Verdi originally intended the character of Rigoletto to be the court jester of Mantua, in Italy. If we were going for a traditional pairing, we’d offer a nice Nebbiolo from one of Barbaresco’s traditional producers in the Lombardy region of Italy.

However, since the Met’s production has set the story in decadent, overtly masculine 1960s Las Vegas, we were thinking you might enjoy this performance with a nice Canadian Club & soda. Or, heck, a martini.

Rusalka

Opens: February 2nd

What to Drink:

It’s not too often that one gets to see an opera written by a Czech composer, in the Czech language, AND based on a Czech fairytale! So, we recommend jumping headlong into a glass of pilsner, which originated in the town of Pilsen (a city that was originally located in the Austrian Republic, but is now part of the Czech Republic)!

Better yet, try a traditional Czech drink called the Beton: a mixture of the Czech Republic’s famous liquor, Becherovka (a potent bitter said to help digestion), and tonic water.

I Puritani

Opens: February 10th

What to Drink:

The Puritans of Plymouth weren’t big fans of “the sauce”, so we’ll encourage you to abstain from the sampling of spirits to get yourself in the right mindset for this opera.

Lianne suggests a non-alcoholic Cape Cod cocktail! While vodka is often an ingredient, you can leave that out and simply mix cranberry juice and lime juice with club soda. Ah, a beverage even a Puritan could appreciate.

Werther

Opens: February 16th, 2017

What to Drink:

This achingly beautiful story of unattainable love is set in the town of Wetzlar, Germany, which isn’t too far from the border of France. So, Scott was thinking that a Pinot Gris from Zind-Humbrecht would do nicely. The sweetness or dryness of Zind-Humbrecht wines varies greatly between vintages, which is why they created a Sweetness Index ranging between 1-5. So, if you’re looking for a wine to pair with the first act, go with a 5. If you’re looking for something drier and more austere to pair with the final few acts, then go with a 1.

La Traviata

Opens: February 24th

What to Drink:

Could the ideal pairing be champagne? Si, certo! Violetta, the star of the show, loves a proper party, so libiamo!

Idomeneo

Opens: March 6th

What to Drink:

Scott & Lianne are, admittedly, not well-versed in the wines of Greece (or, more specifically, Crete, where Idomeneo’s story is set.). We are even less knowledgeable about what the royalty were drinking in 1200 B.C. Just putting that out there. Nevertheless, we can get creative and offer you a taste of Retsina, a Greek white (or rosé) resinated wine. Resinated, by the way, means that the wine was fermented with small pieces of pine resin, creating a truly unique palate. Retsina has been part of Greece’s drinking history for at least 2000 years, so that’s as close as we’re going to get to the days of Idomeneo. If you don’t feel like being that adventurous, enjoy a chilled glass of ouzo with a hefty mezedakia platter.

Fidelio

Opens: March 16th

What to Drink:

Scott & Lianne diverted WILDLY on their ideas for alcohol pairings with Fidelio, Beethoven’s operatic masterpiece (and, incidentally, the only opera he wrote). Scott, with his extensive knowledge of wine, thought Beethoven’s Austrian background meant a pairing with a nice, full-bodied, mineral-y glass of Riesling. Lianne, considering that the setting of the opera is in a prison, felt that the more appropriate beverage would be a mug of Prison Wine, preferably fermented in a garbage bag under one’s cot, and chugged quickly before the guards catch you. Though she also maintains that, since the prison is located in Spain, a nice Rioja could work. So, you know… you have choices. Who are we to judge?

Eugene Onegin

Bill Irwin as Frosch in J. Strauss' "Die Fledermaus." Photo: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera.

Opens: March 30th

What to Drink:

Lianne & Scott were torn on what was more appropriate for this opulent Russian classic. Do we pour out a couple shots of Russian Standard vodka, or go with a nice glass of champagne? Lest we forget, the Russian aristocracy of the 18th and 19th centuries were heavily influenced by French culture. So we’d say go with your gut: if you’re feeling rustic, then enjoy your vodka. If you’re feeling fancy, pour yourself a glass of bubbly. Either way, За здоровье!

Aida

Returns: March 23rd

What to Drink:

Ah, Aida. Let’s cheerfully ignore the fact that this opera is set in Egypt, and focus on the juicy parts: Aida is a grand, opulent show, written by an Italian composer, sung in Italian, full of Italian bravado, big voices, and a cast of thousands! (Well, maybe just hundreds.) Keeping these things in mind, Scott & I think a beefy, knock-you-off-your-feet Barolo would be the way to go to celebrate the glories of Egitto!

Der Rosenkavalier

Opens: April 13th

What to Drink:

Just because our production of Der Rosenkavalier features some luxury casting (Renee Fleming, Elīna Garanča, and Erin Morley in the 3rd act trio?! Come ON. Bliss.) doesn’t mean you must splurge on a luxury wine! We’ll be looking at Viennese offerings, since our director, Robert Carsen, has set the scene in Vienna in the early 1900s. There are several delicious Viennese wines that won’t break the bank. Why not try a light, perfume-y Grüner Veltliner? Or, take a chance on a glass of Blaufränkisch, an Austrian red varietal which can be rich and full-bodied, with notes of spice.

Simon Keenlyside in the title role of Thomas' "Hamlet." Photo: Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera.

Don Giovanni

Returns: April 26th

What to Drink:

The Spanish legend of Don Juan (or, in Italian, Don Giovanni), the fictional womanizing hedonist, deserves to be paired with a full-bodied, muscular Priorat (made from Garnacha, Cariñena, and a blend of other red varietals), or an opulent, oaky Ribera del Duero (usually 100% Tempranillo grapes). I imagine the Don, who sings a famous aria (“Finch’han da vino”) about the, um, benefits of wine, would approve of either of these choices.

The Flying Dutchman

Opens: April 25th

What to Drink:

When you’re sailing the seas in search of true love, it’s good to have liquor around that can weather the long journey. Why not a cold shot of Jenever, the juniper-flavored national liquor of the Netherlands, and also, the first gin! After you’ve arrived on land, pour a glass of German “Hock”, which is what the English termed wine from Germany until almost the 20th century!

Cyrano de Bergerac

Opens: May 2nd

What to Drink:

We’ve arrived at one of Scott’s favorite topics: the wines of France! Our last opera of the season begins at the Hotel de Bourgogne, which is the perfect opportunity to sample the exquisite (and, erm, often pricey) wines of the Burgundy region. Scott would like to offer two options: the Millionaire’s Delight, and the Bourgogne for the Bourgeois. (Or, in other words, the wine that the rest of us can afford.) If you’ve just won the lottery and money is no object, go for a bottle of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti-Romanée-Conti, a Pinot Noir from a monopole vineyard, which means it is one of the rare vineyards in Burgundy owned by one domaine only. This is one of the finest, and most expensive, bottles you can buy. So, good luck. For the rest of us, find a nice village-level Meursault, which, as a Chardonnay, is one of our personal favorites.

Scott and Lianne enjoying their favorite... hobby...

Lianne Coble-Dispensa & Scott Dispensa are a pair of lucky newlyweds (if three years counts as new!) that get to work together every day at the Metropolitan Opera. Lianne is currently in the middle of her second year as a full-time chorus member, and Scott is on his seventh year! They swear that they don’t just drink wine all the time. In fact, in their spare time, they enjoy running (Lianne is a 3-time marathoner, and Scott is an ultramarathoner, which is insanely impressive), cycling, general gym-rat activities, cooking constantly, eating (which they might like just as much as drinking), singing at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and spending far too much time with their two cats, Maximillien de Robespierre and Charles Hubert Hastings Parry. They live in New Jersey, and they actually like it.

Lianne Coble-Dispensa 1/18/17 Lianne Coble-Dispensa 1/18/17

It’s a beautiful day for a Dress Rehearsal; Let’s sing two!

There are two season premieres at the Metropolitan Opera this week: Carmen on Thursday (1/19) and Rigoletto on Friday (1/20). Back-to-back openings? Pretty unusual! But what it took to prepare for them was even more unusual. On Monday (1/16) the Met had no public performance in the evening. However, that doesn't mean all was quiet; in the morning was the final dress rehearsal for Carmen and, in the evening, Rigoletto. Two final dress rehearsals in one day! As far as I could discover that had never happened before! For the occasion I decided to keep a running diary of the day. So, without further ado:

A running diary of the first ever double-final-dress-rehearsal day in Met Opera history (or at least that anyone can remember!)

Scenes from Carmen & Rigoletto. Photos: Ken Howard/Met Opera

by Edward Hanlon

Part the First: Carmen Final Dress Rehearsal

10:00 a.m. EST - The calm before the storm. Time for a cup of tea², breakfast, and a chance to read through final notes from the director.

10:02 - That was enough relaxing! Let’s get this costume on! First up: a bored and somewhat lascivious³ soldier in Seville.

10:17 - Dressed and ready to go. Wait, what do you mean the rehearsal isn’t started yet? All right! Thirteen more minutes to finish my tea!

10:27 - Called to stage… I’ll check back in after the scene!

11:01 - Back in the dressing room. To recap: the soldiers were very unhelpful to Michaela, the factory girls sang a very beautiful chorus, Carmen did her sexy Habanara thing then met Don José. Somehow I don’t think this relationship is going to end well.

11:02 - No more soldier for me (until Act 4). Costume change to gypsy with a great hat.

11:05 - The female chorus called to stage for the fight at the end of Act 1. I’m still in mid-gypsy costume change. Get it ladies!

Two of the ladies of the chorus, Rebecca Carvin and Marvis Martin, getting into character (The cigarettes are fake don't worry!)

11:12 - Gypsy costume change finished. Ready to go down to stage and watch some amazing flamenco dancing from our ballet corps.

11:15 - Quick recap of what’s happened on stage while we were off: Big fight; Carmen wins but is arrested by Zuniga. However, she sings the Segedilla so well that Don Jose helps her escape. End of Act 1.

11:22 - Called to stage. This morning I’m going for “mysterious gypsy”⁴; let’s see how it goes! I’ll be back in a bit!

11:50 - Back in the dressing room⁵. Time for another costume change: going from regular gypsy to smuggler-gypsy.

11:58 - Not a ton of plot during that last scene by the way. But we did get to hear and sing a great “Votre toast” with our resident toreador Escamillo. On stage things are really heating up now between Carmen and José. Looks like he’s going to join in on all the smuggler fun in Act 3 after all!

12:00 - Gypsy smugglers called to stage. Zuniga is going to try to arrest all of us which… umm… is not going to go well for him…

12:15 - Done with Act 2! Intermission! Time for a quick lunch to tank up for Act 3 smuggling in the hills outside Seville.

12:17 - Let’s see what’s in the cafeteria: Penne Bolognese, garbanzo beans and roasted Zucchini… hmm… not the most Carmen-Spanish-infused meal I’ve ever seen. Works well for Rigoletto this evening though!

12:29 - Heading to stage soon. This is going to be a long one (we are onstage or waiting in the wings offstage for the rest of the opera) so I’ll see you at the end of the show. Not a ton of recap necessary for the second half. Things go downhill in the Carmen/José relationship⁶, Escamillo plays third wheel, Michaela plays fourth wheel, and eventually José has just had enough and loses it.

12:35 - In the meantime the chorus does a lot of smuggling, I fall asleep on stage⁷, wake up, and then do some more smuggling. In act 4 (after a quick change from gypsy into soldiers and townspeople costumes)⁸ we are very excited about the bullfight⁹.

12:44 - On our way to stage for Act 3. No one’s going to catch this smuggler!

2:04 - And we’re back. Great show! Can’t wait for opening night on Thursday!

2:13 - Out of costume and heading home. We have 4 hours between now and our next call. Big afternoon planned running errands and memorizing music for I Puritani (which opens on February 10th)¹⁰. Talk to you in a few hours!

Sophie Koch in the title role of Bizet’s Carmen. Photo by Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera.

Marcelo Álvarez as Don José and Sophie Koch in the title role of Bizet’s Carmen. Photo by Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera.

Sophie Koch in the title role and Kyle Ketelsen as Escamillo in Bizet’s Carmen. Photo by Karen Almond/ Metropolitan Opera.

Part the Second: Rigoletto Final Dress Rehearsal

6:28 - Hi everyone! The chorus has returned to the opera house. Tonight is the second half of our Final Dress Rehearsal double bill: Rigoletto! It’s Michael Mayer’s 60’s Las Vegas production so that means fantastic suits, greased hair, mixed drinks and beautiful showgirls.

6:31 - Time to get into costume. There are no real costume changes in Rigoletto so I better do this one well.

6:39 - Tuxedo on, Purple alligator skin shoes laced, hair slicked, only one thing remains… tying my own bowtie…

6:42 - Still working on that bowtie

6:45 - ^@#^%@$^#@ bowtie...

6:48 - I DID IT!!!!

6:49 - I'm not going to lie... things got a little hairy over the past 10 minutes. But be not afraid; I have triumphed over the forces of... umm... the tyranny of... uhhh... the bow tie. And yes, I could have asked my dresser to tie it and she would have been able to do it in 30 seconds but somehow I feel... more.. I don't know... like James Bond¹¹ this way I guess.

6:52 - Heading down to stage soon. A lot happens in the first act but the cliff notes is that Rigoletto is the court jester but makes fun of the wrong guy who curses him. Getting cursed early on in a Verdi opera is always a bad thing.

6:55 - Places! Let’s get this thing started!

7:22 - Scene 1 finished; back in the dressing room. All sorts of beautiful music happening onstage right now. Some fantastic duets and then the famously sublime aria “Caro nome” by Gilda. When we go back down the stage we will decide that her aia is so beautiful that we want to sing a chorus of our own (“Zitti, zitti”), and then abduct her. Rigoletto, Gilda’s father, is understandably unhappy about this development!

7:48 - Back down to stage for the abduction scene. No costume changes this time, just adding a mask¹². Be back soon though (this is not a terribly long scene) and then intermission.¹³

8:04 - Act 1 finished. Things are already beginning to go south for Rigoletto... I wonder if they get better in Act 2¹⁴.

8:05 - Time for dinner. Let's see what's hot at the cafeteria.

8:07 - huh... penne bolognese, garbanzo beans and roasted zucchini... how... umm... exciting...

8:14 - Things that get better with age: fine wine, revenge and... penne bolognese?

A few of the beautiful patterns onstage during Rigoletto.

8:18 - So, the second half of Rigoletto is pretty wild. I don’t really want to attempt a synopsis¹⁵ but suffice it to say things get very dark on the way to a tragic ending¹⁶. In the meantime the chorus sleep on stage¹⁷, act very hung-over, taunt Rigoletto, murder Monterone, and then, in a very abrupt change of pace, vocally personify a storm from offstage. As I said, things get pretty wild.

8:29 - Called to stage for the Act 2! Here goes!

9:08 - Back in the dressing room for the final intermission. I have to say, I always feel a little sleazy after that last scene. We are pretty unrepentantly cruel to poor Rigoletto who, while maybe not the nicest guy in the world, doesn’t merit the fate he gets in this opera. Still, nothing a nice ginger lemon herbal tea during the set change won’t fix¹⁸.

9:10 - Speaking of a set change, I really would be remiss if I didn’t mention the amazing work the stage crew is doing today. Both Carmen and Rigoletto are huge operas with correspondingly massive sets. Plus, dress rehearsals are always tricky for scenery purposes because of the lack of rehearsal. And yet they’ve been on top of things and as efficient as ever. Bravi!

9:21 - Time to do one last clothing change. This, however, is a welcome one: The chorus sing our role of “personification of the storm” from offstage, meaning we can be in street clothes. So off with the tux and on with my own clothes; we’re in the home stretch!

9:36 - My tea is finished. Places have been called for the Duke. He sings the not-unfamous aria "La donna è mobile" and then we’re next.

9:48 - To the stage!

10:03 - And we are done. Long but very fulfilling day. It looks like we have two very strong shows to open at the end of the week. So, after an unprecedented day at the Metropolitan Opera, I wish you all a very lovely evening!

A scene from Act I of Michael Mayer's production of Verdi's "Rigoletto."
Photo: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

Željko Lucic as the title character of Verdi's "Rigoletto."
Photo: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

Olga Peretyatko as Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto. Photo by Richard Termine/ Metropolitan Opera.

Edward Hanlon, graduate of McGill University and University of Michigan, is a happy Long Island boy making good with the Metropolitan Opera. Favorite roles include Figaro, Sparafucile, Dick Deadeye, Sarastro and Nick Bottom with companies such as the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Lincoln Center Theatre, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Des Moines Metro Opera and the Glimmerglass Festival. He dreams of singing another Figaro with his beautiful wife, soprano Tanya Roberts. His first novel is is due to be released ~~this summer~~ ... ~~at the end of the 2017-18 season~~ ... umm... someday? Check out his website and follow him on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

… à la Bill Simmons NBA Draft Diary style. ↩

I don't care what everyone else says. Coffee tastes gross (and no amount of milk and sugar will change that). ↩

… I think my motivation for the entire time I’m on stage is “check out the pretty girls” ↩

It’s possible that “mysterious gypsy” might end up looking suspiciously like “tired gypsy” though. ↩

… and for those wondering, I was very mysterious and not at all tired during that last scene. ↩

huh… and I had such a good feeling about those two. ↩

I swear I am just acting ↩

Shout out to our helpful, hardworking and patient dressers! ↩

… and remarkably oblivious to the very loud domestic tragedy occurring between José and Carmen! ↩

I’m probably going to sneak a nap in there too! ↩

... or a waiter ↩

... the better to abduct Gilda with ↩

.. or, as I like to call it, DINNER TIME! ↩

Spoiler alert: they do not. ↩

I don’t think intermission is long enough for that. ↩

What did I tell you about getting cursed in a Verdi opera? NOT A GOOD THING! ↩

Yes. Again. ↩

For me that is. All the ginger lemon tea in the world won’t help Rigoletto and Gilda now. ↩

Lianne Coble-Dispensa 1/15/17 Lianne Coble-Dispensa 1/15/17

Par for the Chorus

Does an audition for an opera chorus differ from a regular opera audition, and if so, how? Donald Palumbo, chorus master of the Metropolitan Opera Chorus, tells what he looks for and what a singer can expect when auditioning for him.

The following article first appeared in the March, 2009 issue of Classical Singer and is reprinted with special permission.

By Rachel A. Antman

Maestro Palumbo, rehearsing about 150 singers for Die Meistersingers von Nurnburg. Damon Winter/ New York Times — Maestro Palumbo, rehearsing about 150 singers for *Die Meistersingers von Nurnburg.* Damon Winter/ New York Times

Does an audition for an opera chorus differ from a regular opera audition, and if so, how? In this first of a series of articles on the top opera choruses in the United States, Donald Palumbo, chorus master of the Metropolitan Opera Chorus, tells what he looks for and what a singer can expect when auditioning for him.

Would you like a cushy, stress-free singing job? Don't try out for The Met Chorus. A typical day for the members of this renowned ensemble might begin at 10:30 a.m. for a costume fitting and end well after midnight at the conclusion of a Wagner opera—and the time in between is packed with rehearsals and operas to be memorized in languages ranging from Italian, to Russian, to Sanskrit. It’s not a job for the faint-hearted, and certainly not for the faint of voice. Accordingly, Donald Palumbo, the Met’s chorus master, selects his choristers very carefully. He recently took time out of his busy schedule to tell Classical Singer about his criteria and the audition process.

You just wrapped up auditions for the 2009-10 season, which for the first time were invitation-only rather than open-call. Why did you decide to make this change?

The old process was such an imposition on people that I think we were scaring off good singers. They didn’t want to wait in line all day and not be guaranteed a chance to audition. Now there is no lining up, no waiting, and singers know exactly when they should warm up. There’s no reason to stretch out the process for professional singers. They want to be fresh when singing an operatic aria.

Now that you’re prescreening applicants, what do you look for in their materials?

Experience is most important. This job is not appropriate for someone right out of college who wants to break into the business. People don’t realize how many hours and days in the week the choristers actually sing. The work can take a huge toll on the voice for someone without experience in a major opera house and in a large theater.

Do you care whether an applicant has a degree from a conservatory?

Not really. I pay the most attention to professional performance experience, both solo and choral, as well as references from teachers and conductors whose work I know and respect.

What about language abilities?

It’s hard to evaluate language skills from a résumé, but it is clearly evident in an audition. I also find that mastering an aria in one foreign language in an audition usually indicates ability to handle diction in another foreign language.

Does it matter whether an applicant is local or from out of town?

No. I think the draw of the Met makes us a national company. The amount of work and the level of the work that we offer people expand our scope beyond the local.

What sort of difference does AGMA affiliation make?

The Met wants to give AGMA members an opportunity to be heard. This is a throwback to the old way of doing things, when there was a separate day of auditions for AGMA members. Also, an AGMA member is more likely to have the requisite experience. It’s another component in judging an applicant’s suitability for the job.

How do you evaluate a singer’s headshot?

I barely look at it. The headshot has very little bearing on how I’m going to evaluate the voice. It’s simply part of the file. I certainly would never ask for someone to audition or to not audition based on a headshot.

Do you review notes from previous auditions during the prescreening process? What impact do these have?

I do check to see if a person has an audition history and I keep detailed records from year to year. I might have made a note to myself that says “hear this person again,” for example, and that helps me to know how to proceed.

Did you notice a big difference in the quality of applicants between this year and last year (before you instituted the prescreening process)?

The level of the best applicants was comparable to past years, but we had fewer people who were completely unqualified and overly ambitious.

Let’s talk about the actual audition. What qualities do you evaluate?

There are many. First and foremost, there has to be a basic amount of sound produced for work in a large opera house. If the voice is so small that it won’t add to the sound, that’s a strike that’s going to be hard to overcome, even if it’s a pretty voice. I also evaluate the purity of the tone and whether the vibrato is controlled. I want to determine whether the voice maintains its shape and focus throughout the range, and, in particular, whether it gets pushed past the beautiful point in forte singing. Intonation is also critical. Problem signs are a constant sagging in pitch or a tone with no spin. If a person has a beautiful voice that sits below pitch, that would create problems in the chorus.

Several articles about you have mentioned a certain dark quality you aim for in the choral sound. Is that something you listen for in the auditions?

I certainly pay careful attention to tone quality, but I don’t expect individual voices to possess the depth of tone and richness that can be created by the chorus. I analyze whether the way the voice is produced will fit into my sound concept for the chorus. If, for instance, a soprano sound is very bright and chirpy with little warmth and roundness in the sound, I know that the voice won’t fit in.

Do you ask singers to sight-read during the audition?

I don’t. I believe that if a person can study an aria and execute it with skill in an audition, then they’re strong enough musically to learn and memorize choral music. If someone lacks basic musical skills, it’s evident in the performance of an aria.

What do an applicant’s repertoire choices tell you?

We ask singers to have two arias prepared, one of which should be in a foreign language. English is fine for the second one. Some people come in and sing arias that don’t demonstrate how they could add to the chorus. For example, there’s not much point in singing Queen of the Night or Zerbinetta—there aren’t a lot of chorus parts that call for that range. For mezzos, “Smanie implacabili” is an iffy choice. It requires such an aggressive, biting tone. I prefer to hear a piece that requires a full lyric sound—not too fast—that shows the line in the voice, even if it’s a simpler piece. Another consideration is the amount of recitative in a piece. Is there a lot of piano playing linking sections of the music where you’re only singing short, conversational phrases? That might not show you off inthe best light. It’s better to choose a piece with sustained melodic lines.

Do you prefer that singers perform popular or obscure arias during the auditions?

I don’t have a preference as long as the arias show the voice to its full advantage. One thing singers should keep in mind, though, is that if you’re using the house pianist, you should be considerate. You don’t want to leave the audition feeling compromised because the aria was obscure and difficult for the pianist.

Speaking of pianists, do you prefer that singers bring their own to the auditions or not?

Either is fine, but if you do bring your own pianist and the two of you are not in sync, then that’s a major strike against you. If the pianist is someone you’ve worked with consistently, and that person provides a sense of support, then by all means bring your own pianist.

How should singers dress for the auditions?

Again, it’s not a major issue for me, but business casual may be the best way to go. There’s also no need for women to wear formalwear—many women come to the audition overdressed. The bottom line is that the singer should feel and look comfortable.

How important is dramatic ability?

It’s certainly important, but it’s hard to determine this in an audition. That said, we do observe how a person walks into a room, interacts with the pianist, stands in front of us, and whether he or she has a dramatic sense of the aria. I typically don’t like the staging gestures that people sometimes do in an audition. You don’t have to do the “Papers” aria and fling papers all over the piano. The focus should be your voice and how it would add to the choral sound.

Is height or body type important?

It’s a component of the whole package, but it’s not the be-all-and-end-all. Look at some of the body shapes of some of world’s most famous singers through the ages. If you do this, it’s hard to make an argument that body type makes a difference. As far as I’m concerned, if a person carries him or herself well and is comfortable on stage, then it doesn’t matter whether that person is tall or short or fat or thin.

How do you evaluate personality, and what influence does it have on the audition outcome?

The contact you make during the audition is so short that it’s hard to evaluate someone’s value as a colleague or how someone will pan out in the job. You can pick up extreme personality quirks, however, that could color the overall evaluation. For example, you might register that someone seems disrespectful or flippant or extremely ill at ease while singing, problems that seminars on audition techniques should address.

What are the reasons you ask for a second aria?

It could mean that I heard something I like but I wasn’t sure that the chosen piece showed it off. Perhaps the person was unduly nervous and I wanted to put him at ease. I might want to hear a piece in a different language. For instance, if a native Russian singer auditions with a Russian aria, I might want to hear a second aria in Italian or French. In the best of cases, the voice was so good that I wanted to hear more.

Are your criteria different for the extra and regular chorus positions?

In regard to the regular chorus positions, we want to have a strong sense that the person will make it in the Met environment. The extra chorus can be used as a testing ground. In some instances, we hear a voice and all the signs are right—we just know that the person will fit right into the regular chorus. In all cases, however, we are extremely thorough. The demands of this job are such that we have to be absolutely certain that the person is right.

Do you hold callbacks?

Not for the extra chorus. In some instances, if someone we are really interested in hearing couldn’t attend the auditions, we will set another date. We do usually hold callbacks for the regular chorus positions so that we can hear all the voices being considered on the same day.

I understand from Steven Losito, the chorus administrator, that four people attend the auditions with you: Kurt Phinney, chorus manager and chorister; Stephen Paynter, assistant chorus manager and chorister; and AGMA delegates from the women’s chorus and the men’s chorus. To what extent do you consult with the others?

We talk, and I’ve often asked them to indicate if any people jump out at them. The choristers already know some of the people auditioning. If they tell me that so-and-so was a great colleague, that’s a major plus.

Do you ever disagree with the others?

Yes, but so far, we’ve been in complete agreement on the regular chorus positions.

Can you offer some general tips to singers who wish to audition for the Met chorus?

Sure. Provide a concise, clear résumé, and use as references the most experienced and well-known people that you possibly can. If you want to list special skills, take a step back and think about how you would perceive them if you were the one making the audition decisions. In an opera company, in contrast to the theater, those special skills don’t mean very much. Generally speaking, résumés should come across as serious and professional. As for the actual audition, choose your pieces with careful attention, coach them, and make sure that they are musically fine-tuned. Be sure that the aria shows the strongest qualities of your voice and that it allows you to produce a sound that a chorus master would want to work with. Get into the mind of the listener. Make sure the listener’s reaction is not “What was she thinking?”

What are some common mistakes singers make in auditions?

Sometimes people look at the Met’s upcoming repertoire and feel they should sing the big aria from one of these operas, overreaching and choosing a piece beyond their abilities. Do not sing a piece in which the climactic top notes are insecure. Choose a piece that you can sing despite being slightly nervous or under the weather.

One last question: Some singers believe that once they’re in the chorus they’ll never have a solo career. Do you agree with this view?

Not at all. I could give you a long list of big-name singers who have sung in one of my choruses. There’s no reason why that list shouldn’t continue to grow.

Rachel Antman works at LVM Group, a boutique public relations firm, and moonlights as a singer and stringer. Her articles (both written and ghostwritten) have appeared in the New York Times, the National Law Journal, Real Estate Weekly, and several trade publications.

Lianne Coble-Dispensa 12/29/16 Lianne Coble-Dispensa 12/29/16

Your Chorus Holiday Dream Cake!

Chorister/Baker Extraordinaire Chris Schaldenbrand makes the Christmas cake that even Mrs. Claus would be proud of.

by Edward Hanlon

The Met Chorus Artists are a talented bunch but rarely are those talents so... tasty! Christopher Schaldenbrand has been baking as long as he has been singing and, luckily for the rest of us in the chorus, he hasn't stopped since taking on the rigors of a full-time position. This Christmas he surpassed himself for sheer beautiful tastiness and was good enough to chronicle the process. So here goes!

Step 1: Baking

Step 2: Stacking and Carving

Step 3: Assembly

Step 4: Finishing Touches

The Party!

Christopher Schaldenbrand joined the MET Chorus after a distinguished international career singing with some of the world’s leading opera houses. He is a former Lindemann Young Artist and winner of the Met National Council Auditions, making his debut as Silvano in Un Ballo in Maschera and singing a total of 267 performances. Mr. Schaldenbrand also appeared on the Met stage in the roles of Schaunard (La bohème), Guglielmo (Cosí fan tutte), and Albert (Werther).

Mr. Schaldenbrand is also is the owner of New York Cake Works, where you can find many more incredible cake creations.

Lianne Coble-Dispensa 12/27/16 Lianne Coble-Dispensa 12/27/16

Spotlight on Chorister Marc Persing

Marc Persing grew up in the little town of Lewisburg, PA, right on the Susquehanna River. His childhood was spent as a boy soprano with the Lewisburg Men and Boys Choir. He loved playing Atari and Pac-Man in his spare time, and watching reruns of The Brady Bunch. Although he started as a pre-med major in college, his first voice teacher encouraged him to pursue his vocal studies - which he did, initiating a transfer to The Hartt School of Music to major in opera.

Marc Persing, tenor in the Metropolitan Opera Chorus

by Marie Te Hapuku

He continued with graduate studies at Westminster Choir College. Marc has been with the Met Opera Chorus since 2002, and made his debut in Les Troyens. A lifelong Beatles fan, Marc sings 2nd tenor.

What is your favorite word?

Hysterical

Which opera stars do you believe are the most influential?

Fritz Wunderlich, Alfredo Kraus, Pavarotti

Are you a bathroom singer?

Not always, but if I do sing it's usually my Beatles!

If I gave you an elephant where would you hide it?

Maybe I could teach it to cook & just put a big chef's hat on it. :)

Two things you refuse to eat?

Cold pizza & Jello

What do you do when you're not working?

Like to travel & plan family trips. Especially love to visit the National Parks and being surrounded by nature.

Do you believe in love at first sight?

I guess I do. I met my wife in Middle School & thought she was the prettiest thing I'd ever seen. We've been married for 25 years!

Which famous person would you most like to see play you in a film?

Probably Jim Carey. I think he would get a kick out of what we do here at the Met day in & day out.

If I came to your home and looked inside the refrigerator, what would I find?

Hmm...A pretty good smorgasbord of leftovers (my wife's a good cook!), lots of dairy (I LOVE cheese & yogurts GO CHOBANI!), Friendly's ice cream (Mint Chip Rocks!)

Tell me your favorite joke.

Knock, Knock! Who's there? Banana! Banana who? Banana Banana! Knock, Knock! Who's there? Banana! Banana who? Banana Banana! Knock Knock! Who's there? Orange! Orange who? "Orange" you glad I didn't say banana!

If you were an opera character, who would it be?

Probably Rodolfo. I'm just a sucker for a good love story and Bohème is one of the most touching and endearing stories in all of opera.

Where is your most favorite place in the world?

Antigua! My wife & I just celebrated our 25th Anniversary at an awesome all-inclusive resort there this past summer. The water was warm & the sun reflected its gorgeous turquoise hues. Wish I was there right now!

If you could trade places with any other person for a week, famous or not famous, living or dead, real or fictional. with whom would it be?

Paul McCartney. He's just the coolest songwriting dude ever! To actually hear tunes in my head like he does and then fully realize them with the right chords, lyrics, and instruments? Amazing!

Five all-time greatest singers you’ve ever heard?

Paul McCartney, Placido Domingo, Mirella Freni, Sherrill Milnes, David Bowie.

Lianne Coble-Dispensa 12/20/16 Lianne Coble-Dispensa 12/20/16

The Met Opera Chorus Recommends: Gifts for the Holidays!

An exhaustive gift guide for the opera lover in your life from the Metropolitan Opera Chorus!

It’s that time of year! The annual season of love, joy and family. Oh… and gifts… gifts are kind of a thing this time of year too! With that in mind, the Met Opera Chorus have put their collective heads together to find the perfect gift for your biggest opera loving friend or family member. So, without further ado, to the list!

An exhaustive gift guide for the opera lover in your life from the Metropolitan Opera Chorus!

By Edward Hanlon

For everyone:

Chorus is the new black! Try out these new snazzy Met Chorus Artists shirts and hats. Support your favorite chorus in the world and look sharp while doing it!

For the last-minute Christmas carder:

The world’s opera orchestra not only plays a mean Nabucco, but they also have a fantastic cartoonist who illustrates the trials and tribulations that come with the job; Emmanuelle Ayrton has released a series of Christmas cards, so head over to their website and check them out along with all the other Met Orchestra gear they’ve got for sale!

For the “let’s stay inside and drink hot toddies” opera lover:

Who doesn’t need another mug!?!?! I certainly always do! Celebrate the Met Opera House’s 50th anniversary with your favorite hot beverage¹.

The Recording that you need to own. Dare I say it? The greatest opera recording ever:

What is the greatest opera recording ever? Not an easy question to answer! But I’m going to give it a shot anyway. So here it is: a live recording of Turandot from 1966 with Birgit Nilsson, Franco Corelli, Mirella Freni and Bonaldo Giaiotti conducted by Zubin Mehta. There are no arguments against it being the greatest thing ever. End. Of. Story.²

For that special (though slightly cold) Brünnhilde in your life:

It's happened to the best of us. We're walking along, singing some fantastic Wagnerian high notes and then our ears get cold! Thank goodness they have the answer to that particularly troublesome issue at the Met Opera Shop!

For the slightly spooky, slightly cooky opera lover:

Edward Gorey is the best. I will accept no argument on that front. The pantheon of great artists goes something like this: Monet, El Greco, Matisse, and Edward Gorey³. And, to top it off, he loved opera. With that in mind this print is looking kind of like a no-lose situation !

For your tenor friend:

Let’s be clear about this: tenors are, at best, a necessary evil⁴. But, even I have to admit there have been some good ones. Check out this fantastic book on the great tenors who sing and have sung at the Met available at the Met Opera Shop.

For the person who likes Mozart… I mean really... really likes Mozart…

The newest, longest, most authoritativest collection of Mozart ever! It’s 225 discs long and apparently was the most-sold CD in the world last year (take that Drake!)

For the opera lover who has everything:

This is the big one. I’ve had a crush on the Sputnik chandeliers since stepping on the Met stage 3 years ago but did you know that you could actually own a piece of the Tiffany original? In the Met Opera Shop it says “price available upon request”⁵ but still… it’s just kind of nice to know it’s there...

For the us all. For our future:

The holidays can be a lot of fun and there is so much joy to be found in the act of giving gifts to those you love. However, it's not just a time to think about the people you know, but everyone, and to spread some of that joy a little wider. There are so many organizations doing great work that could use our help this time of year. Arts to Grow and Feed Your Mind Music are two local New York groups so please, go to their websites, learn about them and do what you can to help⁶ !

Your editor’s current favorite recipe is for a port hot toddy found on the New York Times website but goes something like this:
INGREDIENTS: 3 ounces ruby port, 1 teaspoon brown sugar, 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice, 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed orange juice, 1 cinnamon stick, Water just off the boil and 1 1-inch-wide ribbon of orange peels studded with 3-5 cloves.

PREPARATION: In a mug or heatproof glass, stir the port, sugar and juices together with the cinnamon stick, leaving the cinnamon in the vessel. Add hot water to fill, and garnish with the clove-studded orange peel. ↩

...except Solti’s Ring cycle is pretty good, de los Angerles’ & Bjorling’s Boheme has some nice moments, Milnes, Sutherland & Pavarotti’s Rigoletto ain’t too shabby, Sill’s Giulio Cesare does pretty nicely and Baltsa & Carreras make some nice sounds in Carmen… hmm… maybe there still is a little debate to be had on this question! ↩

Consider this my open letter of complaint to both the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art for Gorey's lack of inclusion!. ↩

In the interest of full disclosure I should probably admit that I’m a bass. ↩

...which never sounds terribly promising! ↩

Shout out to Lucy Dhegrae, the founder of the fantastic Resonant Bodies Festival, for her help in researching these charities! ↩

Lianne Coble-Dispensa 12/10/16 Lianne Coble-Dispensa 12/10/16

From Physics Lab to Opera House to Bookstore Near You

A profile of the Metropolitan Opera’s own C. A. Higgins, production assistant and author of the Lightless trilogy.

C. A. Higgins in front of the Metropolitan Opera House

By Edward Hanlon

The first three rules of singing in chorus are (a) Keep your eyes on the conductor, (b) Keep your eyes on the conductor and (c) Review rules 1 and 2! ¹ No matter what happens on stage ² , a chorister must maintain a symbiotic understanding of the conductor’s intentions. But sometimes even the mighty Metropolitan Opera Chorus can be distracted; so who is disrupting the laser-like focus of the chorus this month?

Meet C. A. Higgins, costume production assistant³ at the Metropolitan Opera. She spends her days making sure that all costumes (and there are many, many costumes at the Met), get to the all the people that need to wear them when they need them. But that’s just her day job; she is also the author of Lightless, released in May of 2015 by Penguin Random House and named one of the best books of the year by Buzzfeed and Kirkus Reviews. Supernova, book two of the trilogy, was released this summer and the third and final entry, Radiate, is scheduled for May 23rd, 2017.

Lightless & Supernova, books one and two of the Lightless Trilogy by C.A. Higgins — *Lightless* & *Supernova,* books one and two of the *Lightless* Trilogy by C.A. Higgins

C. A. Higgins grew up a storyteller. Her earliest efforts were illustrated flip-books of happy unicorns jumping over waterfalls⁴. Those evolved into fantasy fiction she is happily reports are “mercifully not published”. But while she always wanted to be a writer, a love of science led her to a distinctly non-writerly degree in physics at Cornell University. Science and physics have become her muses. One of the core concepts of Lightless was born in a theoretical physics class: “we were talking about the inevitable thermodynamic end of the universe” and she has infused her writing style with a scientific approach. She deals with her characters “in an isolated system the same way she treats particles”. This might sound a bit dry, but the story-teller in Higgins never succumbs to the researcher. There is a tension and claustrophobia to the book that lends it much more the feeling of thriller than science textbook.

The story is set in a future when a ruthless earth-based shadow-government dominates the solar system. This government, called the System, has launched an experimental military spacecraft (Ananke). Althea, a computer scientist on board, developed a deeply personal understanding and relationship with her ship’s computer throughout its development, launch and voyage. But when a pair of fugitives gain access to Ananke, they throw the mission, the crew, and the computer into ever-escalating chaos. Althea is cut adrift from friends she knew, the world-order she accepted, and even the rules of reality she understood ⁵.

So where does a person find time to write three books while working a full-time job making sure everyone on stage looks beautiful? Higgins is at the Met all day during the week so “I write on weekends” she said. “I can sit and get it done and not be up until midnight” like when she tries to write after a full day at the opera house. She is also aided by the Met’s seasonal schedule; during the offseason the costume shop is closed for five weeks (after storing all the costumes from the previous season and before starting the monumental task of preparing for the next season). This is the time when Higgins can really dig in and devote some real time to writing. When opera season ends, writing season begins!

But this is, after all, an opera website so I would be remiss if I didn’t insert something gratuitously operatic⁶ into the conversation. Therefore, I will ask the question on no one’s lips; the question that literally not one person has wondered after reading the book: if Lightless was an opera, who would be the composer? The author has a clear answer: Puccini. She’s biased though, “I always have to choose Puccini because he’s my favorite!”. Chorister Rebecca Carvin respectfully disagrees. She wants Nico Muhly (composer of Two Boys, performed at the Met in 2013, and currently working on Marnie, to be premiered in the 2019-20 season) to write the opera. Higgins’ colleague in the costume shop, Vicki Jo DeRocker can’t quite decide but comes in somewhere between the two: either Richard Wagner for his grandeur and drama or Philip Glass for his “futuristic, mesmerizing effect”. I’m not going to give an opinion (journalistic integrity and all that) but that doesn't mean I don't have one⁷. What I think we can all agree on is that it would make a fantastic opera! So, if you like opera, give the Lightless Trilogy a try… and if you like the Lightless Trilogy, then why don’t you stop by the Metropolitan Opera and give it a try? It’s a match made in heaven⁸.

C. A. Higgins is the author of the novels Lightless and Supernova and numerous short stories. She was a runner-up in the 2013 Dell Magazines Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing and has a B.A. in physics from Cornell University. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. Her third novel, Radiate, is scheduled for release by Penguin Random House on the 23rd of May, 2017. For more information on the Lightless Trilogy check out her website or follower her on Facebook or Twitter.

Maestro Palumbo, chorus master of the Metropolitan Opera Chorus, would definitely agree with this statement. ↩

… and pretty some crazy things have happened on stage at the Metropolitan Opera! ↩

… she prefers the title “Costume Production Empress”. ↩

Higgins is in good company on the literary unicorn front:
"This is a child!" Haigha replied eagerly, coming in front of Alice to introduce her, and spreading out both his hands toward her in an Anglo-Saxon attitude. "We only found it to-day. It's as large as life, and twice as natural!"
"I always thought they were fabulous monsters!" said the Unicorn. "Is it alive?"
"It can talk," said Haigha, solemnly,
The Unicorn looked dreamily at Alice, and said "Talk, child."
Alice could not help her lips curling up into a smile as she began: "Do you know, I always thought Unicorns were fabulous monsters, too! I never saw one alive before!"
"Well, now that we have seen each other," said the Unicorn, "if you'll believe in me, I'll believe in you. Is that a bargain?"
- Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass ↩

I assure you that Higgins is much better at writing novels than I am at writing synopses. So, if you don’t find yourself thrilled by the paragraph you just read, blame me, not the author! ↩

Gratuitously Operatic: my next opera aria CD title! ↩

cough (Mozart) cough. ↩

... or at least the outer reaches of the solar system! ↩

Lianne Coble-Dispensa 11/3/16 Lianne Coble-Dispensa 11/3/16

So You Want to Be in the Chorus? Part 2

The continued oral history of the auditions, decisions and opening nights of the the Metropolitan Opera Chorus’ three newest members.

The continued oral history of the auditions, decisions and opening nights of the the Metropolitan Opera Chorus’ three newest members. For Part 1, click here.

Patrick Miller, Sara Heaton and Brian Anderson at the Opening of La boheme at the Metropolitan Opera

by Edward Hanlon

When we left our heroes (new Met choristers Patrick Miller, Sara Heaton and Brian Anderson) all three had been accepted to the full time chorus. However, now we have to backtrack to see how Patrick and Brian spent their summers while Sara was still waiting to learn her fate:

Patrick Miller: Over the summer I had already agreed to sing Don Jose [in Carmen] with Boheme Opera of New Jersey; that was particularly sweet because it felt like my swan song as a soloist. I really relished it. There wasn't the kind of pressure you have in some other gigs where you worry: What’s the review going to be like? What’s my agent going say? And it was a new role for me, so rather than thinking "where will this gig take me?" (as we often do working gig-to-gig), I could just sit back and savor the experience.

Brian Anderson: We made a point to really enjoy the summer and be with our kids.

Patrick: We went to Minneapolis and then traveled around the country; in a normal summer we might only have gone for a week because I would have to come back here for work or auditions. Knowing the schedule I would have starting August 1, we were like: "Let's take a month! We'll visit all our friends and family", so that's what we did!

Brian: Just spend as much quality time as possible with family — especially with my two older boys because they live a distance away and this year it’s going to be hard to travel.

Patrick: Oh yeah, and the first thing we bought was a new sofa!¹

It wasn't all fun and games (and sofa purchases) for our new choristers though.

Brian: I did look at some scores. I looked at La bohème… I definitely looked at Manon Lascaut. I tried to focus on things that were earlier in the season. But, other than that, I really just gave my mind a rest knowing that once I got into this mode of working I would be studying a lot — which I have been!

Patrick Miller as Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni with Seattle Opera. Photo by Elise Bakketun.

Patrick: And I brought three operas home which I memorized… Rigoletto, Bohème and Manon Lescaut - the three shows that the rest of the chorus already knew.

Preseason

Preseason began August 1st. Sara had been notified three days earlier and joined Brian, Patrick and the entire rest of the chorus for seven weeks of music and preliminary staging rehearsals.

Brian: It was not a huge transition for me. I could really just dive into the work. Because I knew what was ahead of me; with Christina being here, I felt like the kids and I have been hanging outside the chorus office forever!

Sara Heaton: I will admit that the work of music-learning in preseason was very daunting and overwhelming.

Craig Montgomery (Chorus Librarian): You get all your music for the whole season on your first day. The men will have between 18 and 22 operas that they’re in and the women a few less, especially because there are four male chorus only operas this season. So they would have gotten, say between 14 and 18 scores.

Sara: For shows like William Tell and L’amour de Loin that we were spending a lot of time on in List Hall rehearsals [where the chorus has music rehearsal], I could pick it up at a similar pace to everyone else. The days I felt the most overwhelmed was when we would spend an hour and a half on something I was OK with, but then we would read through something the chorus had sung a million times like Aida or Manon Lascaut. Everyone else knew it perfectly, but I had never sung it before!

Craig: On what you might call the "opera potpourri" days, you have on your schedule as many as 6 to 8 different operas. It might just be specific sections but you cover a lot of territory!

Sara Heaton as Miranda in Death and the Powers with Chicago Opera Theater. Photo by Jonathan Williams

Sara: It got easier when we started staging. When I looked at the opening dates for each show on the calendar, I started to feel that, even if I couldn’t get everything right in the music rehearsal, at least I have until that date to really get it… but ideally before that! In that first month we were just touching on so much stuff. That was tough. I love to be really prepared. It’s hard to feel behind. That is literally my nightmare: to walk onstage and they say "OK we’re starting on this page" — and it’s a page I’ve never seen before!

Opening Night (and beyond)

Preseason came to a close on September 26th and it was time for opening night. Unusually, the season opened with two largely off-stage partial-chorus operas (Tristan und Isolde and Don Giovanni). It was not until La bohème, on the third night of the season, that the whole chorus appeared onstage together.

Brian: Walking in the doors that first night and not signing my name up here but signing my name down here. You know, that was big… that was a big moment. I had been thinking about that for a long time: “Boy, I’d really like to sign my name down there.”

Readers probably don't have the slightest idea what Brian is talking about! So here’s a little “inside baseball” on the inner workings of the Metropolitan Opera: when you walk into the stage doors at the Met, there is a sign-in sheet for the regular chorus on a podium to your right. The extra chorus sign-in sheet is taped to the wall above it.

Sara: I think the moment it felt really different was the first Bohème when the curtain opens and the audience claps… because I’ve been in that audience before, clapping like “OH MY GOD, THAT SET’S AMAZING!” Also I just really love Bohème, and Musetta was one of the first opera roles I performed. That moment was when I felt like, “This is really happening!” People come here and they see this beautiful, mind-blowing set and there’s just this warm feeling in the house. That what it’s all about.

Brian: It was exciting! La bohème was the first opera I ever saw at the Met and now I'm sitting on the set! It was really a thrill.

Patrick: People kept coming up to me and saying things like: “Welcome to the first night of the rest of your life!” and "You’re going to spend a lot of time in this Parisian quarter you know!" With my top hat, costume, and beard (when I had it)², people kept telling me I looked like a Charles Dickens character. During my fittings, the costumers said “We made a new one for you because you’re going to wear it literally hundreds of times” and I thought: “That's cool… I like the sound of that.”

Sara: On Bohème opening night the women of the chorus put up these amazing decorations all over my dressing area and everyone gave me presents. My desk was overflowing with gift bags and cards! It was incredible!

With the excitement of opening night over, our three fearless choristers can reflect on what it took to get here and what lies ahead.

Brian Anderson as Frederic in Pirates of Penzance at Arizona Opera. Photo by Tim Fuller

Sara: My life has changed completely. Almost like a flip… a 180. So much has changed: the rhythm of my days, my outlook on things. One of the biggest things is that I know where I’m going to be this year. Before, it was hard to plan a couple months out. Things could change so quickly.

Patrick: Every year, as an extra chorister, when I sang my last performance on the stage, I would really savor it because I always knew this could be the last time I sing on this stage. I was enjoying it and taking it all in and really savoring the moments.

Brian: I really feel almost like I graduated in here, because I really felt like I was developing my choral singing ability the whole time.

Patrick: Because I was in the extra chorus for five years, I had a decent idea of what life was going to be like and what I was getting into. My wife and I had a long talk about how it’s going to be. I’m going to be gone in the morning, my daughter will be asleep every night by the time I get home. We're prepared for that and when the grind starts - when it gets really crazy... well I hope I will be as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and excited as I am now!

Sara: And now there's a knowledge “I will be here… I’ll be working here next week”. I know where I'll be in January, I know what I’ll be doing next April… that’s a really different way of thinking about my life. The change is almost too much to put into words.

Your humble reporter is happy to report that we have opened three shows since these interviews: L'italiana in Algeri, Guillaume Tell and Jenufa, and Sara, Patrick and Brian are singing and performing in them admirably. They are off to a great start and we look forward to many more years of seeing them on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera!

That was your tireless reporter’s first purchase after getting into the Met Chorus too! ↩

It really was a great beard! Patrick was asked to shave it for Don Giovanni — talk about sacrifices for the job! ↩

Lianne Coble-Dispensa 10/31/16 Lianne Coble-Dispensa 10/31/16

So You Want to Be in the Chorus? Part 1

An oral history of the auditions, decisions and opening nights of the the Metropolitan Opera Chorus’ three newest members.

New Choristers at the Metropolitan Opera: Brian Anderson, Sara Heaton & Patrick Miller

by Edward Hanlon

This year, three new singers have joined the ranks of the Metropolitan Opera Chorus as full time singers: Sara Heaton, Patrick Miller and Brian Anderson. It has been a career and life changing transition for all of them. To get a sense for what it means, I sat down with them to listen to their experiences and the path that lead them here. Here are their stories:

Before the Audition

All three singers have had solo careers throughout the country and worked in the extra chorus at the Metropolitan Opera.

Sara Heaton: Since I graduated in 2007, I’ve been doing young artist programs and building up my career as a soloist. In the beginning I did mostly opera and quite a bit of new music. For the past few years, I’ve been focusing more on concert work with symphonies and chamber music ensembles and doing recitals.

Brian Anderson: I traveled a lot from the time I finished my Adler [Fellowship at San Francisco Opera]. Then I ended up making my [New York] City Opera debut and latched on with them. I was covering and singing second cast kind of stuff but it was great because I could be home. But then when they went belly up that source of income dried up for me.

Patrick Miller: After I finished the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, I worked professionally for 10 years, singing leading roles mostly with small to medium-large houses along with my wife, who is also a singer. Five years ago I started working in the extra chorus; it was a great "side job" and provided stable, dependable pillars of income and family time throughout the season. It also conveniently coincided with the birth of our daughter.

Sara: I’ve been doing extra chorus for three years now.

Brian: For the past 5 years, I would say I’ve been more or less transitioning to staying in New York more and traveling less. Especially since my daughter was born in 2011. So I went and auditioned and got into the extra chorus and I just kept doing that.

Brian is married to Christina Thomson Anderson (also in the Met Opera Chorus) and has four children, ages 20, 17, 8 and 5.

Sara Heaton as Celia in Lucio Silla with Odyssey Opera. Photo by Kathy Wittman.

Sara: It wasn’t until a few years ago that I even knew you could be a full time singer in the Met chorus. I did the audition to be in the extra chorus and when I did my first extra chorus show here, it was just eye-opening to learn about the full time position. I can't believe I didn't hear about it earlier on in my career and education. I realized that this is another way to have a singing career.

Patrick: As a soloist, unless you are in a situation where you’re working with a particular house, (like the Met), that’s hiring you frequently enough, you’re traveling a lot, you’re staying in hotels, you’re out of town for weeks and sometimes months on end. I wanted to be closer to my family, so doing extra chorus work meant spending time with them. I was going to be home for extended stretches.

Patrick is also married to a singer and has a five year old daughter. All three singers hoped for an full time position with the chorus.

Sara: It has been in the back of my mind since the beginning. I was a little bit torn, because there are a lot of things I really loved about the freedom to create my own performing schedule. Just in the past couple years I’ve formed some special relationships with musicians I collaborate with regularly and, given the schedule at the Met, it will be a little more difficult to do gigs with them during the year.

Patrick: It was much more fun than I expected… not that I was expecting that it wouldn’t be fun! The experience of working with 80, or sometimes over 100, singers - that many great voices in one room was a rush. I’ve sung in choirs all my life, and you’re usually hired to pull other people along. To be in a group where we were all leading the charge musically and vocally… it was a real pleasure because you immediately felt that you would achieve something great artistically. Many of my colleagues were accomplished soloists before joining the Met Chorus, and joining such a fraternity of artists is exciting. I never felt that anywhere else but here.

Sara: I tried not to think about it too much because it wasn’t a given. I assumed I would do the extra chorus for many years and then, maybe, I would get a full time thing. But I certainly wasn’t counting on it and I didn’t set my hopes on it too much.

The Audition

Patrick: I remember postponing my audition a couple of times: first I was out of town, then I was sick. I finally did my audition some time in October.

Sara: I sang “Je veux vivre” [Juliette’s first act aria from Romeo et Juliette] in my August audition.

Both Brian and Patrick heard in December that they would be called back for a full time position on the 14th of December.

Brian: I had heard about two weeks ahead of time that I was going to be doing it which was great because it gave me a lot of time to prepare.

Patrick: We both got dressed in the extra chorus locker room and warmed up in there at the same time. I was in the bathroom and he was in the dressing room - finding a space to vocalize in this city requires creativity, and sometimes you have to share!

Brian: Singing for a chorus audition is different from a solo audition. Maestro Palumbo is looking for the voice to do certain things that should blend into the rest of the section. Being in the extra chorus I learned so much about what it means to be in the chorus (also, of course, being married to one!) I learned the demands of the job and the level of musicianship he expects and what it really means to sing in an ensemble as opposed to singing solo. It really is, to me, a big difference.

Donald Palumbo (chorus-master of the Metropolitan Opera Chorus):¹ First and foremost, there has to be a basic amount of sound produced for work in a large opera house. If the voice is so small that it won’t add to the sound, that’s a strike that’s going to be pretty hard to overcome, even if it’s a pretty voice. I also evaluate the purity of the tone and whether the vibrato is controlled. I want to determine whether the voice maintains its shape and focus throughout the the range, and, in particular, whether it gets pushed past the beautiful point in forte singing. Intonation is also critical. Problem signs are a constant sagging in pitch or a tone with no spin. If a person has a beautiful voice that sits below pitch, that would create problems in the chorus.

Brian Anderson as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte at the Miami Dade Auditorium. Photo by John Pineda.

Brian: I sang “De’ miei bollenti spiriti” [Alfredo’s Act 2 aria from La Traviata]. You send the chorus office a list of arias. They pick two and then you choose from that. But Maestro Palumbo just wanted to hear the one aria.

Patrick: For the callback I sang The Flower Song [Don José’s Act 3 aria from Carmen]. There is some strategy involved in selecting what you sing in an audition, but essentially you should offer the arias that best show off your technique, vocal color, and artistry under pressure. For me that was Don José.

The Decision

Patrick & Brian learned they were accepted over the Christmas holiday.

Patrick: My wife, daughter and I were in Minneapolis over Christmas break to spend a few days with my parents. It was New Year’s Eve, and we had just finished some shopping. My wife says, “Is there anything else you want?” and I say “I just want a job. A job I can be proud of - that I can support my family -that I can feel like I’m making a contribution.” That was about 3:30 pm.

Brian: I think I heard about a week after the audition. But I just kind of knew. When I did the audition I felt really good about it. Sometimes in auditions, somehow you just know that you’re doing something right. And this was one of those times. I was ready, I really prepared, and I said, if it doesn’t happen now whatever… but I couldn’t have done any better.

Patrick: I pull into the grocery store parking lot and look down at my phone… I remember it was snowing… and I see a missed call from the Metropolitan Opera and I was like “that’s weird… why am I getting a call on New Year's Eve?" So I check the voicemail: “Patrick, this is Donald Palumbo calling. Please give me a call at your earliest convenience”. My heart started racing… I was like “Oh this is it, this is it!" I called back and he wasn’t there. When I got back to the car I said “umm… Donald Palumbo just left me a voicemail…” and my wife was like “THAT’S IT, THAT’S IT! YOU GOT IT!” I said “OK, let’s calm down here” (we Minnesotans try to avoid assuming "best case scenarios"!); I’m trying to wrack my brain to think of some other reason he might be calling me. I got home and told my parents and they were really excited. My parents had been hoping and praying for this, as we all had, for quite a while.

Maestro Palumbo did call back an hour and a half later and offered Patrick the job

Patrick: And the best part about it: I told you I had that moment in the car where I said this is all I want. I checked the timestamp on the voicemail and it was right at that time. It was between 3:30 and 3:45., within a couple minutes of when I said that, that Palumbo called me. And if my ringer had been on it would have been an even better story! Why couldn't I have had my ringer on???

But what about poor Sara!?!? She had auditioned in late August, but March rolled around and she still hadn’t heard from the Met.

Sara: I didn’t hear anything until some time in the early spring when they asked me to sing in Fidelio and Nabucco.

Sara had been hired to sing extra chorus. That was all she expected to sing with the Met in the 2016-17 season.

Sara: I had those chunks of time already blocked out in my schedule for the Met productions, and I had other solo engagements throughout the year in addition to some freelance work as a grant writer. Then on July 29th (it was a Friday) I got a call from Kurt Phinney saying: “I wanted to see if you were interested and available to start the season with us on Monday as a full time soprano in the chorus." I pretty much started freaking out!

Kurt Phinney (Chorus Manager): The hire was last minute because a chorister decided that they wanted to retire but hadn’t come to that conclusion until very late. Maestro Palumbo always has a keen sense of the talent pool at his disposal and ultimately it’s his call. Sara was the number-one candidate for him. And I think everyone that was listening at the audition concurred whole-heartedly because not only is she a great singer but also a great colleague. It was a convenient thing that we had someone so good already working here. So actually, it was one of the most easily resolved casting crises we’ve ever dealt with. With Sara, the choice was very easy.

Sara: After the conversation with Kurt, I had the weekend to mull it over, talk to my husband, etc.. On Sunday I called Kurt to tell him I accepted, and I was here for rehearsals on Monday!

The decision to join the Met Chorus was not one they took lightly

Brian: It’s somewhat of a challenge for our family; both of us doing this job and having two small kids but at least now they are both in school during the day. It’s just the evenings that are tough — I won’t get to put them to bed a lot.

Sara: I was excited, but it was also a little bittersweet. I had to cancel several engagements I had coming up this year. An added complication is that my husband and I recently bought a house in Beacon, which is beautiful, but it’s not like living in the city and being around the corner!

Patrick Miller and his wife, soprano Veronica Mitina, as Cavaradossi and Tosca, respectively, in Tosca with Syracuse Opera. Photo by Doug Wonders.

Brian: I don’t think I would have even tried for the job if we didn’t think we could make it. And once I was given the job, we went to find quality child care and look at the schedule for what the year would look like for us. Where’s going to be the easy time, where’s the challenging time?

Sara: My husband was really proud of me and just really excited. He’s a musician too, so he appreciates both the enormity of being offered a job like this, as well as what it means to not be pursuing a solo career anymore. We did discuss not seeing each other as much anymore given that it’s a long commute but we’re open and flexible to seeing how it goes.

Patrick: You feel validated as an artist. I really feel that an investment has been made in me. That there’s one spot and I’ve been chosen to take it.

Sara: I remember feeling this wave of relief. I had been working as a soloist for so long but to have that recognition from this company was this emotional wave like… wow! It was really gratifying and humbling at the same time to feel like somebody at that company thinks I’m good enough to be there. Even though I had done extra chorus before it was different. There’s a lot of weight to that.

Patrick: It’s an honor, but also a responsibility. You feel immediately that you want to "step up to the plate” and deliver every time you open your mouth.

End of Part 1. Click Here for Part 2

From an March, 2009 issue of Classical Singer Magazine. Interviewed by Rachel A. Antman. ↩

Lianne Coble-Dispensa 10/31/16 Lianne Coble-Dispensa 10/31/16

A Chorister's Bohemian Rhapsody

Bass Ned Hanlon takes a deep dive into the many casting possibilities of everyone's favorite Parisian garret/street/snow scene opera... La Bohème!

A deep dive into the many casting choices of La bohème

by Edward Hanlon

La bohème Act 1

(The scene: a shabby radio-studio garret, overlooking the rooftops of Washington D.C.)

Rodolfo: Robert Siegel (Who but the host of All Things Considered could play this part?!)
Mimi: Lakshmi Singh (Hands down best name in NPR, "ma il suo nome è Lucia”.)
Marcello: Steve Inskeep
Musetta: Terry Gross (That flirt!)
Colline: the Car Talk guys (Controversial pick, I know, particularly since one of them has sadly passed away, but their combination of wisdom and humor is perfect for the philosopher-bass.)
Schunard: Ira Glass (Understudy: Ira Flatow)
Alcindoro: Peter Sagal
Benoit: Bill Kurtis (the host & voice of Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me should have the comedic chops for these two roles)
Parpingol: an NPR pledge drive
Chorus: the many and variously accented correspondents of the BBC News Service

It’s possible that I’ve been listening to a bit too much NPR lately¹. Combine that with Bohème rehearsal and I’m having some… odd day dreams. There’s just something about Bohème that gets into your head, And yet, I’m in my third year in the Metropolitan Opera Chorus. I have 30 performances of Bohème under my belt and that number will be far higher by the end of my career². Shouldn’t that familiarity breed boredom (if not contempt)? After all, if it isn’t routine yet, it will be.

So how can I possibly still have Bohème on the brain?

Well, to start with, it’s the luscious music, brilliant orchestration and devastating tragedy ³. And the Met adds a whole new dimension to the drama. The Franco Zefferelli production is iconic⁴ (not to mention beautiful and heartbreaking)⁵ and has become a vital part of New York City’s cultural landscape. For me though, it’s all about the singers throughout the years. The production premiered on December 14th, 1981 with a dream cast Teresa Stratas as Mimì, José Carreras as Rodolfo, Renato Scotto as Musetta, Richard Stilwell, Allan Monk as Schunard, James Morris as Colline and Italo Tajo as Alcindoro/Benoit. (I’m going to admit that it’s a bit better than my NPR cast.) Over time nothing has changed: names like Domingo, Freni, Frittoli, Netrebko and Alagna have graced that Parisian garret⁶. It’s no different this year: Ailyn Pérez, Kristine Opolais, Dmyto Popov, Piotr Beczała, and Michael Fabiano will carry on that grad legacy.⁷

I’m going to admit something: I’ve just listed some amazing singers but not one of them is in my favorite cast. That’s because it’s not my favorite cast because they are the greatest singers ever (although they are some pretty incredible singers!) It’s my favorite cast because of the deep and personal connection this opera creates. On February 22nd, 2003, a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed freshman in college, who had never seen an opera, spent a night at The Met; he saw Bohème. The cast starred Elena Kelessidi, Ramón Vargas, Ainhoa Arteta, Vassily Gerello, Earle Patriarco ⁸ and Richard Bernstein. That was the evening he decided to devote himself to becoming an opera singer. Now, as I look back fourteen years later, I could not be happier with the choice I made. I saw (what will always be for me) the greatest cast perform the greatest production of the greatest opera in the world.

So, you ask me, why do I have Bohème on the brain? Why am I still excited for every performance?⁹ Because it’s my opportunity to give someone in the audience what my greatest cast gave me: a love of opera.

I need my news in the morning! ↩

… at this pace, just under 900! ↩

umm.. yeah… Boheme makes me use lots of adjectives… ↩

Trivia Time: there are three typos on the Act 2 Paris street shop signs. Can you tell me where they are? ↩

My wife, Tanya, cannot see the third act snowfall without crying (which is perfect because it means that she doesn’t see me crying too!) ↩

For the sake of brevity there is no way I can list even a fraction in the body of the article. That’s what footnotes are for: John Alexander, Renato Capecchi, Angela Gheorghiu, Hei-Kyung Hong, Frank Lapardo, Catherine Malfitano, Mark Oswald, Louis Quilico,Teresa Żylis-Gara to name just a few more! You could get happily lost in the Met Archives forever. ↩

Not to mention choristers Daniel Smith, Yohan Yi, Joseph Turi and Raymond Aparentado playing Parpigol, the sergeant, the officer and a dude selling prunes from Tours, respectively. ↩

… who I now sit across from in the chorus dressing room! ↩

… or wake up from day-dreams wondering whether Steve Inskeep or Kai Ryssdal would make a better Marcello or how Robert Siegel and Lakshmi Singh’s vocal colors would compliment each other in Rodolfo and Mimi’s act one duet? ↩

Lianne Coble-Dispensa 10/1/16 Lianne Coble-Dispensa 10/1/16

The Chorus remembers AGMA union leader, Alan Gordon

On the evening of January 6, 2016, The Metropolitan Opera dedicated its performance of La Boheme to the memory of Alan Gordon, who passed away on January 1st. Alan was the executive secretary of the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA), the union which represents solo singers, choristers, stage managers, stage directors, dancers, choreographers and staff performers.

On the evening of January 6, 2016, The Metropolitan Opera dedicated its performance of La Boheme to the memory of Alan Gordon, who passed away on January 1st. Alan was the executive secretary of the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA), the union which represents solo singers, choristers, stage managers, stage directors, dancers, choreographers and staff performers.

Below are some remembrances from Met Opera company members. Also be sure to read Alan's obituary in the New York Times, written by Michael Cooper.

We in the Chorus are mourning his loss and are thinking of Alan's family. Rest in peace, Alan.

From chorister Belinda Oswald:

Alan Gordon: a man who forever changed my view of AGMA.

I am involved with AGMA as a Board of Governor’s member. I have also served as Women’s Chorus Delegate, and am currently serving as Soloist Delegate at the MET.

My first encounter with Alan was in my initial Board of Governor’s meeting at the AGMA National office some 15 years ago. I had formed an opinion of Alan that is much like most artists: brash, quirky, and aggressive. Yet, as many opportunities presented themselves, I watched and learned greatness right before my eyes.

Over the course of many meetings, negotiations, and one-on-one chats, I gained invaluable knowledge through Alan’s brilliant mind. Even his adversaries admired his quick tongue and his intellect, and many went on to become good friends. There was no better champion for AGMA’s cause than Alan Gordon, and his no nonsense approach truly benefited our negotiations. Trust me: we asked him to "be nice" for part of a negotiation, but found that was not successful, so then we begged him to be Alan again...and that's when we started getting results.

Alan had a softer side too, with many stories, taking of pictures, and much laughter. He cared deeply for others and even sent me his written account of his near death experience when my husband had a health scare. I feel fortunate to have seen this warmer side of Alan, which he reserved for closer colleagues and friends.
Having represented both the chorus and soloists directly, I can attest to the tireless work Alan did on all these artists’ behalf. Thank you, Alan, for all you have done for AGMA and for us! You will be sorely missed.

From staff performer Mike Gomborone:

My name is Mike Gomborone and I am a Staff Performer at the Metropolitan Opera. I am one of several background actors seen in most operas playing anything from a soldier or waiter to a commedia player or court attendant working right along with the principal singers. Eight years ago my eight full-time colleagues and I were put under AGMA contracts for which Alan and his team negotiated very hard.

Alan recognized that with the time we were spending at the theater working in most of the opera repertoire, our desire to become contracted employees was completely warranted. I will be forever grateful to Alan for working on my part to give me equitable health and retirement benefits, along with a fulfilling career and lifestyle.

From chorister, David Frye:

Alan Gordon fought hard for performers and stage artists. Nationally he was known as fast and decisive and no nonsense, and AGMA became far stronger with his leadership. He protected the members at the Met from management’s harshest impulses. He will be greatly missed.

Mary Hughes 3/22/16 Mary Hughes 3/22/16

Chorus Costumes from Fitting to Finale

As we rehearse on stage for the premiere of Sir David McVicar’s Metropolitan Opera production of Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux on Mar 24th, 2016, let’s take a moment to acknowledge the importance of costumes and costume designers in opera.

Spotlight on Roberto Devereux’s costumes designed by Moritz Junge

by Daniel Clark Smith

As we rehearse on stage for the premiere of Sir David McVicar’s Metropolitan Opera production of Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux on Mar 24th, 2016, let’s take a moment to acknowledge the importance of costumes and costume designers in opera. Moritz Junge, the designer of the beautiful costumes you see here made his Met Opera debut in McVicar’s recent production of Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci. He has shared with us some photos of the trim and baubles used to decorate these Jacobean-era costumes for Roberto Devereux, as well as photos from our costume fittings for the opera, most of which occurred last fall.

Costumes play an important role in the life of a chorister at the Met. From our initial fittings to the final performances of an opera, costumes inform us as to who our characters are, and how we might act and move on stage. Some costumes are designed to individualize us, and some help to identify us as members of a particular community. In Cavalleria Rusticana, for example, we wear variations on a theme of black and white, the color scheme uniting us as the religious community in small-town Sicily. In Pagliacci, we play (perhaps) descendants of those same Sicilians, but more colorful and unique characters: from the local mayor, a policeman, a matron, a man-about-town, to the parish priest.

Opera costumes also give the chorus ideas about how our characters might move onstage. From the moment we put on a period costume, for example, the development of the physicality of an operatic character begins. Sir David McVicar, in one of our early rehearsals for Roberto Devereux, directed the chorus men to make our entrance, striding on with a “confident, masculine swagger”, and demonstrated a hand-on-hip courtier walk which to our 21st-Century eyes was anything but masculine! However, when we take into account the aristocratic court at the turn of the 17th-Century, and remember our costume fittings, that swagger becomes appropriate and begins to take on a life of its own.

There is nothing like wearing a costume that has been made to your exact measurements, and each one in its own way gives you ideas how to “play” onstage. Whether it’s a prisoner’s raincoat and handcuffs in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, an Old-West cowboy look in La Fanciulla del West, Cyrano de Bergerac’s swashbuckling hip boots, or Madama Butterfly’s multi-colored kimonos, we put on the costume, and our body mechanics immediately change. Pair that with a masterpiece from the operatic repertoire played by the world-class Met Orchestra, and with the superb stagecraft (lights, sets and stage direction) of the Met, then a specific scene starts to come to life.

There are challenges to wearing costumes in opera, though, such as the men’s multiple costume changes in Il Trovatore (back and forth from Manrico’s Gypsy followers to Di Luna’s soldiers and back again!). But our dressers work hard with us to make sure our quick changes go smoothly. We can sometimes feel the effects of a costume hours later, however, such as a heavy cape draped to one side. Thankfully, we have help from members of the wardrobe staff, who work to make sure we are as comfortable on stage as possible. It is, of course, the nature of opera that sometimes we stand on stage for an entire Act or two a night. But working in opera is what we’ve all dreamed of doing, and we are thankful to work with the greatest artists and artisans in the field. Nevertheless, when we join the chorus, we learn very quickly why one of the first bits of advice from colleagues is: “make sure your shoes fit well!”

Most costumes are rigged with 21st-Century conveniences such as velcro, zippers or button snaps, in order to make a quick change easier. Some, however, are designed with historical accuracy in mind, such as the costumes for Anna Bolena which have multiple laces, most of which are never seen by the audience. These are much more like historical clothing, rather than costumes.

Whether costumes serve as character study, guides to movement, or simply as a way to identify the chorus onstage, we are thankful that the Metropolitan Opera has such talented wardrobe and costume personnel. From designers like Moritz Junge and the costume staff who build the costumes, to the dressers and wardrobe staff who oversee them, we are in their debt. They make us look good onstage and we are eternally grateful!

Mary Hughes 2/9/16 Mary Hughes 2/9/16

Met Chorus Artists remember the life of Elinor Harper

By Annette Spann Lewis

Elinor Harper, Soprano, was a pioneer in the racial integration of the Metropolitan Opera Company. She was the first African American female to be granted a full-time chorus contract with the Metropolitan Opera Company in 1961. Elinor led a vibrant and distinguished career and retired in 1999. Well known, respected and revered by her colleagues for her strong leadership, knowledge of union contracts and worker’s rights, Elinor served and officiated on the AGMA Board of Directors for many years. She was the Secretary, Second Vice President, and also served on the Merger, and Administration and Policy committees. Elinor was a significant force in leading the Met Performing Artists’ lock-outs of 1969 and 1980, which secured many of the current union benefits, and workers’ rights, to protect Artists and families. Due to these ‘hard fought’ battles, the Met Chorus contract became a ‘template’ for Opera chorus contracts worldwide. Elinor was passionate about service to others, and served with zeal as the Ladies Chorus Delegate for many years. Indeed, Elinor Harper was the right person, at the right time, for the challenges of the time.

Mary Hughes 1/27/16 Mary Hughes 1/27/16

Spotlight on Saturday's Turandot in HD

Photo Marty Sohl

Turandot masked Ping, Amir Levy, masked Pang, Elliot Reiland, masked Pong, Andrew Robinson with Chorus Sapienti Brandon Mayberry, Edward Hanlon, Seth Malkin

By Mary Hughes and Marie Te Hapuku

This Saturday, January 30, the Metropolitan Opera will present the HD performance of Turandot with Nina Stemme in the title role, in cinemas worldwide. For the Met Chorus Artists, this show is one of the most difficult operas that they prepare, and one of the most breathtaking. The chorus sit huddled in tightly cramped stage spaces while numerous dancers and supernumeraries tumble and carry huge court banners on the stage. They often sing with their bodies facing one direction, and their heads and voices contorted in another direction - while churning out voluminous vocal sound and beautiful tonal consistency. Franco Zeffirelli’s 1987 production continues to astound audiences with its grandeur and immense scale, as it is a very demanding night from beginning to end, musically and physically.

Another interesting aspect, from a chorus perspective, is that there are several small solos that the members of the chorus perform, for what is usually, a long run (16 performances in the 2015-16 season). This includes two ancelle Handmaidens (women) in Act I, three sapienti Wise Men in Act II, and four araldi Heralds (men) in Act III. The following is an outline of what is required to perform the ancelle roles.

The ancelle singers open the opera with the full chorus, as popoli (the crowd). After performing the first 14 pages, they two discreetly exit the stage and descend one level to make a costume quick change in the storage space connected to the orchestra pit. Accompanied by three dressers, they disrobe in the dark to change into sparkling, hand-sequined robes, twinkling headpieces, and silver slippers. They enter the stage (one floor below the action currently taking place) on a lift that will ascend to high above the stage when the chorus first refers to Princess Turandot. Assisted by two stage crew members, the ancelle climb a ladder in their intricate costumes, and are loaded into separate towers. This is where Turandot and her entourage load up, and wait for their musical cue. Turandot will appear and be referred to by the chorus, but won’t sing until Act II. The cue is heard - the conclusion of the Moon Chorus [‘Perchè tarda la luna?’ - and the ancelle are given the signal that the lift is moving. They stand, and observe the chorus, the popoli, from the highest, farthest point in the theater, standing aloft separate towers, each flanking Turandot. They watch the backs of the principals and gear up for their solos, which finish in the blink of an eye.

Once the ancelle finished singing, they each take a seat on tiny stools, and wait for the end of Act I, after which the lift will go down to stage level (equivalent of one floor), when they will climb down their ladders to change back into their popoli costumes for Act II. One of our ancelle shared, “To watch Act I unfold from this, a most extraordinary perspective, is one of the most memorable and enjoyable experiences that I have ever had as a singer. It is surreal and mind blowing; to watch and listen to this score in a venue filled with thousands, while I’m seated quietly in a serene fiberglass tower, belies the flurry of activity that is taking place. It sounds corny, but the music fills me up like this every single time – there is no finer sound than the Met Orchestra playing under the principals in Non piangere Liù.”

As noted previously, the other chorus solos for Acts II and III are the sapienti Wise Men and araldi Heralds. The sapienti spend most of their intermission after Act I transforming into the powerful keepers of Turandot’s three riddles; changing scrolls to reveal the answers to Calaf and the polpoli. The four araldi open Act III and have the difficult task of singing terrifically soft, exposed music while moving in sync across the stage towards their exit. They return later in the act with Liù and Timur, to proclaim the tortures that await.

The solo opportunities available to the Met Chorus Artists vary according to repertoire. Auditions are held each year for solos available in the upcoming season, for which many choristers sing. So in addition to the vast amount of music learned by each Met Chorus Artist each year, several are chosen to prepare solos. They receive musical coachings from music staff, and are responsible to shift effortlessly between the challenges of singing with an excellent choral blend, as well as projecting as any other soloist in the the Metropolitan Opera.

Mary Hughes 12/18/15 Mary Hughes 12/18/15

La Donna del Lago from a Chorister's perspective

The first time that I heard La Donna del Lago was in college. It was a recording of Marilyn Horne and I wondered if I would ever get to hear it live because it was staged so infrequently. That, and who could sing the demanding role of Elena?

Fast forward to 2015 and I’m in utter disbelief that I’m only mere feet away from Joyce DiDonato and Lawrence Brownlee, the main characters in Rossini’s operatic adaptation of Sir Walter Scott’s 1810 narrative poem. They both make it look so easy and my predominant thought is how people should be beating the door down to hear this indescribably beautiful singing – and it’s LIVE! Real, live people singing in the most extraordinary, beautiful bel canto style. The whole cast is truly wondrous.

This is second in a series aimed at highlighting The Metropolitan Opera's Saturday afternoon Broadcasts

By Mary K. Hughes

For the Chorus there are many non-musical details and logistics to manage outside of the music that make this a challenging opera. The Chorus Men have a particularly difficult agenda to fulfill because they are required to be on stage for most of the opera. In addition to having more music, some men have up to 6 costume changes: peasant, hunter, kilt, Bard, back to hunter, and members of the King’s court in the Act II finale. Several of these costume changes are quite fast, and the men who sing the mystical Bards are required to apply blue body makeup to themselves and to supers during the Act I finale. The blue body paint is transported in bowls carried by members of the Ladies Chorus and brought to the warriors at the end of the Act I with a warlike ensemble within which the Bards have their most challenging musical moments in the show; highly exposed with complicated texts with minor variations. The scene ends in a show of patriotism and determination.

The set is intended to emulate the Scottish highlands and it built on a raked stage with rubbery nubs to simulate heather and grass growing. Coming off of the lit set into a dark exit is one of the pitfalls that the Chorus has to negotiate regularly, and La Donna del Lago is no exception. Live fire and tricky multi-level drop-offs precede the exits that make the stage terrain unusually complicated, but as in all productions safety is a priority and there are three safety delegates within the Chorus who work to ensure and address safety concerns.

That said, there is no other group in the world so accustomed to thinking on their feet, which means adapting to unusual stage terrain, multiple costume changes, and rehearsing and performing many operas within a given week. All of this happens seamlessly while maintaining the highest of musical standards. The height of vocal achievement is on full and dazzling display in La Donna del Lago both from the Metropolitan Opera’s principal soloists and chorus artists, and underscored, as always, by the luminous playing of our distinguished Met Orchestra. It all makes for a satisfying and exciting night at the opera!

Mary Hughes 12/5/15 Mary Hughes 12/5/15

Spotlight on Saturday afternoon radio broadcasts

La Bohème, December 5, 2015

Chorister Daniel Clark Smith joins an elite group of performers with his performance of Parpignol in La Bohème which marks his 100th solo performance at the Metropolitan Opera. The Performers Report, found on the Met’s website in the Archives, lists all company members who have performed 100 solo roles or more. Conductors, Dancers, and Singers are listed, with big names (Maestro James Levine at 2491) and small (dancer Linda Gelinas at 436, who just retired from the ballet last season) on the same formidable list. Daniel joins over 40 current and retired choristers in this distinction. You have seen the Chorus nightly as the townspeople and villagers in any given opera, but there are many opera roles that are actually performed by singers from the Chorus.

La Bohème, December 5, 2015

By Daniel Clark Smith

For example, did you know that La Bohème features not only the tragic love story of Mimì and Rodolfo, but there are four Chorus soloists playing small subplots in the opera? In the second Act's hustle and bustle, Parpignol sells toys to the Parisian children (one of them has his own solo, Parpignol-style), and the (uncredited) vendor sells “Prugne di Tours!”. In the third Act, soloists from the Chorus portray the Sergeant and Customs Officer manning Paris' city gate. Incidentally, these two soloists are also on the Performers Report — Jason Hendrix (Sergeant) at 101, and Joseph Turi (Officer) at 109.

Daniel’s house debut was as a Villager in Pagliacci, but he’s also been a Cenobite Monk in Thaïs, a Lackey in Der Rosenkavalier, and a soldier in Wozzeck. Out of 100 solos, Parpignol is his most performed role at 63 performances as of Saturday. He enjoys these brief opportunities to shine, but also to contribute to the ensemble of actors and singers on stage at the Metropolitan Opera each night.

Performing with Daniel each night in La Bohème is a donkey who pulls his toy cart. These photos are from the 2005-06 season, when our resident donkey wouldn't go anywhere without her newborn! Parpignol needs to be ready for anything, and so both donkeys accompanied him onstage (along with an animal handler). While W. C. Fields is often credited with the saying, “Never perform with children or animals,” Parpignol must be accommodating!