Saying Goodbye To Aida: A Chorister’s Perspective
It's always bittersweet when a beloved production closes after many successful years. Mezzo-soprano Annette Spann-Lewis, a member of the Met Chorus for over 25 years, was present for all 247 performances of Frisell’s Aida, and was asked by the Met to give a chorister’s perspective on the evening of the production’s closing night.
Aida’s triumpmphal scene, in all its glory. (Photo Credit: Marty Sohl/Met Opera)
contributions by Lianne Coble-Dispensa and Annette Spann Lewis
It’s always bittersweet when a beloved production sees its final performance on the Met stage. Recently, the company bid farewell to Sonja Frisell’s iconic Aida that has been a beloved staple of many Met seasons since it first graced the stage in 1988.
Mezzo-soprano Annette Spann-Lewis, a long-time member of the Met Chorus, has been present for all 247 performances of Frisell’s Aida, and was asked by the Met to give a chorister’s perspective on the evening of the production’s closing night. Here are Annette’s takeaways, in her own words:
I’m Annette Spann Lewis, a well-seasoned artist with the Met Opera Chorus for over 25 years! So, I have witnessed many great performances of Aida.
I am truly privileged and blessed to perform with the world’s greatest and best, and, I must say, that the chorus always has the best seat in the house!
Some of my Aida highlights?
Annette Spann Lewis and one of the many giant Aida set pieces.
A gaggle of chorus Court Ladies (including Annette, top right) are all smiles in their fancy costumes!
The riveting farewell performance of Leontyne Price in the John Dexter production, which erupted into a 25 minute standing ovation.
The great Placido Domingo as Radames, now conducting tonight’s farewell Aida. Truly an amazing feat!
The legendary performances of Luciano Pavorotti, Fiorenza Cossotto, Leona Mitchell, Aprile Millo, Dolora Zajick; more recently, Anna Netrebko, Anita Rachvelishvili and tonight’s stellar diva, Sondra Radvanovsky, to name a few!
Ladies and gentlemen, the Triumphal Scene in this production alone is the ‘zenith’ of Verdi’s grand opera.
Yes, Sonja Frisell’s Production of Aida has had an amazing run for many years, but the opera Aida can be equated with “The Phoenix” - and it will rise again!
Above, you can view Annette’s video, which was posted on the Met Opera’s Instagram story on March 7th, which was the closing night of Aida!
Though we will miss Sonja’s Aida, the entire company is looking forward to seeing what director Michael Mayer’s creative team will dream up for Verdi’s towering triumph. Our new Aida is set to open the ‘20-’21 season, and we hope to see all of you there!
Dan Smith Will Teach You To Bake Scones
No, this is not a Recipe Corner from Dan Smith, the ubiquitous guitar teacher whose visage graces the community bulletin boards of countless Manhattan establishments. We're talking about one of our own, chorister Daniel Clark Smith, who will walk you through mastering his favorite blueberry scone recipe!
No, this is not a Recipe Corner from Dan Smith, the ubiquitous guitar teacher whose visage graces the community bulletin boards of countless Manhattan establishments. We're talking about one of our own, chorister Daniel Clark Smith, who will walk you through mastering his favorite blueberry scone recipe! But first, a bit about Dan…
Name: Daniel Clark Smith.
Hometown: Wheaton, IL.
Years at the Met: Almost 18, full-time.
My favorite opera is: Lohengrin.
One of my most memorable experiences at the Met so far is: Early on as an extra chorister, I was cast in the new production of La Forza del Destino. I will never forget the feeling of wearing a costume that was made especially for me. It fit me like a glove.
Other than opera, my favorite type of music is:
I have eclectic tastes: Sara Bareilles, Stephen Sondheim, Steve Reich, Oscar Peterson
When I’m not at the Met, you can find me:
One of three places: at home in Teaneck, NJ with my husband & cat Cookie; in Kauai, snorkeling at Tunnels Beach; or dreaming of being in Kauai!
The most outrageous thing I've ever cooked (or eaten) was: The tasting menu with wine pairings at Charlie Trotter’s in Lincoln Park, IL was outrageous. Sadly, it’s closed.
The three things in my kitchen I can’t live without are: Green & Black’s Organic Maya Gold dark chocolate; a good chardonnay or sauvignon blanc; An app called Paprika, which I use to find, input and organize all my recipes.
Currently, my three go-to ingredients are: Bitterman’s Fleur de Sel Sea Salt; almond milk; basil pesto.
If I had to choose, my “last meal” would be: Del Frisco’s 8 oz Filet Mignon, medium rare; Caesar salad; charred broccoli or Brussels sprouts; vodka martini with olives
by Daniel Clark Smith
I finally gave in and binge-watched "The Great British Baking Show" on Netflix last summer. Completely hooked, I watched every episode I could. After "The Great British Baking Show: Masterclass" [S1:E4], I scoured the internet looking for Paul Hollywood's Chocolate Cherry Loaf recipe. I thought, "this doesn't look too difficult", and when Mary Berry, with her mouth full, exclaimed "I could just sit here in the sun with a glass of wine...I don't need anything else. It's delicious!" I was inspired, and took up the challenge.
Of course the white-haired master had made it look so easy. I've tried it about 5 times now (after watching the techniques ad nauseam from the episode), and although each one has tasted delicious, the texture and rise on the loaf has been inconsistent. I've learned that baking seems to be all about trial and error — thankfully, I'm happy to experiment whenever I have free time.
Since then, I have searched for recipes that are more of a "sure thing". There's only so much free time a chorister has! The recipe I'll share with you today has been so consistently great, I can recommend it highly. If you follow the directions, these scones will be flaky, buttery and packed with blueberry flavor; perfect with a cup of coffee. There are a hit at a brunch, or you can even bring them to work and give them to your hungry colleagues.
I found it on the Food52 blog, but it's a "Cook's Illustrated" recipe, which you can check out here.
One thing I've learned in my internet travels is a cooking technique called "mise en place", which directly translates as "setting in position". You'll feel like a TV chef if you do it correctly. It means gathering all your utensils and ingredients in the correct measurements, and setting them up for easy access. It's not just for the OCD folks in the world. It actually serves a purpose with this recipe: you won't be covering your kitchen in flour looking for that plate or measuring cup. It also allows you to complete each step quickly so that the butter doesn't get too warm. This is key: you want the butter in the dough to be cold when it hits the oven. When cold butter heats up, it creates steam and expands, creating the flaky texture you want in a scone.
So, follow the directions below, enjoy the process and realize that you'll likely only have seven scones to give away -- the eighth one will be your reward when you're done! The chef has to test the product, after all...
Cook's Illustrated Blueberry Scones
Preparation: 30 minutes—Cooking time: 25 minutes—Servings: 8 hefty scones
Ingredients:
16 tablespoons unsalted butter, each stick frozen (you'll be using 10 tablespoons total)
7 1/2 ounces blueberries (1 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup whole milk
1/3 cup sour cream
10 ounces unbleached, all-purpose flour (2 cups; plus more for work surface)
3 1/2 ounces granulated sugar (1/2 cup) + 1 T. for finishing
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Tools (for "mise en place"):
Baking scale
Rolling pin
Citrus zester
Grater
Spoon
Rubber spatula
Bench scraper
Baking sheet (lined with parchment paper)
Small microwaveable dish (for butter)
Whisk
Small bowl for milk & sour cream
Medium bowl for butter
Large bowl for flour mixture
Small plate (floured)
Measuring cups & spoons
Sharp knife
Pastry brush
Directions:
1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425°. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Remove half of wrapper from each stick of frozen butter. Grate unwrapped ends (half of each stick) on large holes of box grater (you should great total of 8 tablespoons) or with a handheld grater and a medium bowl. [ed: I score each stick butter with a knife so I know when to stop grating.] Place grated butter in freezer until needed. Melt 2 tablespoons of remaining ungrated butter and set aside. Save remaining 6 tablespoons butter for another use. Place blueberries in freezer until needed.
2. Whisk milk and sour cream together in small bowl; refrigerate until needed. Whisk flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest in large bowl. Add frozen grated butter to flour mixture and toss with your fingers until butter is thoroughly coated.
3. Flour the counter and a small plate. Add milk mixture to flour mixture and fold with rubber spatula until just combined. Using spatula, transfer dough to liberally floured counter. Dust surface of dough with flour and with floured hands knead dough 6 to 8 times, until it just holds together in ragged ball, adding flour as needed to prevent sticking.
4. Roll dough into approximate 12-inch square. Fold dough into thirds like business letter, using bench scraper to release dough if it sticks to counter. Lift short ends of dough and fold into thirds again to form approximate 4-inch square. Transfer dough to plate lightly dusted with flour and chill in freezer five minutes.
5. Transfer dough to floured counter and roll into approximate 12-inch square again. Sprinkle blueberries evenly over surface of dough, then press down so they are slightly embedded in dough. Using bench scraper, loosen dough from counter. Roll dough into cylinder, pressing to form tight log. Arrange log seam side down and press into 12 by 4-inch rectangle. Using sharp, floured knife, cut rectangle crosswise into four equal rectangles. Cut each rectangle diagonally to form two triangles and transfer to prepared baking sheet.
6. Brush topped with melted butter and sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar. Bake until tops and bottoms are golden brown, 18 to 25 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through baking. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.
Notes:
To make ahead: after placing scones on baking sheet in step 5, either refrigerate them overnight or freeze for up to one month (you may also use a ziplock freezer bag). When ready to bake, for refrigerated scones, heat oven to 425 degrees and follow directions in step 6. For frozen scones, do not thaw, heat oven to 375 degrees and follow directions and step 6, extending cooking time to 25 to 30 minutes.
I use a handheld Microplane grater, but grating frozen butter is a bit of a workout. I tried using the grater attachment in a food processor once, and the texture of the scones were tough.
Outreach Corner: The Met Chorus Artists Head Upstate!
Most opera fans vividly remember their first encounter with opera. It’s not something one easily forgets. So you can imagine how excited the Met Chorus Artists were to introduce a sold-out audience of kids and adults to the inspiring, electrifying world of opera!
by Sara Heaton
Most opera fans vividly remember their first encounter with opera. Heck, even most non-opera fans remember their first encounter with opera! It’s not something one easily forgets. In addition to the grandness of it all, there’s that visceral experience of hearing the human voice create a sound so powerful, so emotional, and so beyond anything you could have imagined that sticks with you. It’s usually a make-or-break moment, the turning point when you either dive headfirst into opera obsession, or do a 180 and opt for alternate musical genres.
Judging by what I do now, that moment was clearly of the former variety. I was five when I attended my first opera, my parents having the genius intuition that their young daughter would a) be able to quietly sit through a whole opera, and b) that Carmen would make a good first impression. Right they were. The story goes that I walked out of the opera and claimed, “I want to be Carmen when I grow up!” Mission accomplished.
From Left to Right: Carol Wong, Ross Benoliel, Greg Warren, Nathan Carlisle, Sara Heaton, and Lianne Coble.
It was thrilling to be on the other side of that equation a few months ago in a concert designed to introduce opera to young kids. The Met Chorus Artists were invited by the Howland Chamber Music Circle in Beacon, NY to present a concert on their Classics for Kids series. Four times a year, the chamber series brings world-renowned classical musicians to perform family-centered concerts for Hudson Valley residents in the beautiful and historic Howland Cultural Center, an 1872 Richard Morris Hunt building originally used as a circulating library, now a center for cultural enrichment in the City of Beacon, a thriving town in the Hudson Valley. The wood-domed ceiling lends itself perfectly to chamber music and, as we found, operatic voices.
On a Sunday afternoon in February, five members of The Met Chorus Artists, accompanied by pianist Carol Wong, played to a packed house with audience members ranging in age from less than one to over sixty. The theme of the concert was the operatic voice and what it can do. We entered singing the Act IV opening chorus of Carmen, an easily recognizable tune with an exciting finale. Chorister Nathan Carlisle served double duty as both performer and Master of Ceremonies, seamlessly moving the program along while connecting with the audience in a genuine and personable way.
We gave them examples of the extremes of the operatic voice. We showed how sometimes we sing really high (soprano Lianne Coble-Dispensa belted out a super-loud high note)! Sometimes we sing super fast (baritone Ross Benoliel wowed them with “Figaro la, Figaro qua …”)! We gave examples of arias, explaining the different voice types, and of what it sounds like when we sing all together, giving a rendition of the finale from Le Nozze di Figaro.
Ross Benoliel, presenting a “sad” emoji, with good-natured encouragement from Lianne Coble-Dispensa and Nathan Carlisle.
The goal of the performance was to help the audience understand how opera conveys emotion through the music, allowing us to understand what the character is experiencing even if we don’t understand their words. To help with this task, we brought along something every opera singer loves -- props! Ours were emoji faces (oh-so-very au courant) that depicted three emotions: sad, happy, and in love. The kids loved guessing which emoji the singer was experiencing. Then Nathan picked a few kids to pick an emoji out of hat, and whichever emotion they picked, we sang a corresponding aria. To finish off the performance, we blew their socks off with the final chorus from Candide, “Make Our Garden Grow.”
By far the most gratifying part of the day was seeing the reactions across the kids faces in the audience -- awe, fascination, bright smiles, and, in some cases, hands over the ears. Several piped up to ask questions, or share their experiences with opera or singing in general. We had the pleasure to speak with many of them after the performance, posing for photos with budding opera fans, or talking to their parents about their appreciation of what we had brought to Beacon that day. Akiko Sasaki, board member of the Howland Chamber Music Circle, had this to say about the performance: “The Met Chorus Artists presented a spectacular concert at Classics for Kids! This concert was an introduction to opera for many kids and families. It was so thrilling to see everyone enchanted and enraptured by their performance. Everyone left the concert wanting to hear more opera!”
For those in attendance that day, it certainly wasn’t everyone’s first operatic experience (there were even some adults that came without children just to hear some opera)!. But for those kids and adults who got their first taste of opera, who knows? It could have planted a seed that will grow into a lifelong love of the art form. In the meantime, we’re all thankful for our fulfilling experience in Beacon, and look forward to future outreach opportunities!
The gang’s all here: from L to R, Greg Warren, Carol Wong (accompanist), Nathan Carlisle, Ross Benoliel, Lianne Coble-Dispensa, and Sara Heaton.
Sara Heaton began her Met career in 2014 in the Extra Chorus, and joined as a full time member in 2016. When not singing, Sara enjoys cooking, gardening, exploring the outdoors, and tasting her husband’s cocktail creations. They’re proud to make their home in Beacon, NY in the beautiful Hudson Valley.
The Metropolitan Opera Club--Opera's Biggest Fans
What exactly is The Metropolitan Opera Club? Chorister Daniel Clark Smith introduces us to this generous group of opera aficionados who have a long history at the Met.
The plaque that greets you as you enter the Metropolitan Opera Club space. (Photo: Daniel Clark Smith)
I didn’t know the Metropolitan Opera Club existed until just a few years ago, but they’ve had a lasting presence in the history of the Metropolitan Opera for over 125 years now. The Metropolitan Opera Club consider themselves opera’s biggest fans, and have cultivated relationships with principal singers, members of the Orchestra, and to our delight, members of the Chorus. Club members see multiple performances at the Met, but members also travel to opera houses around the world (I’ve heard people talk about visiting Santa Fe Opera, The Bayreuth Festival, and Vienna State Opera) throughout the year for even more performances. The Chorus loves our MOC friends, but few know who they are.
In 1893 at the “Old Met”, a private gentlemen's club was founded called The Vaudeville Club. It boasted a private room on the Grand Tier level near a box of about 50 seats that they reserved for performances. Apparently, they spent their intermissions visiting female operagoers and enjoying private performances by vaudeville acts like Vesta Victoria. According to Martin Mayer’s “The Met: One Hundred Years of Grand Opera”:
It was also possible to get a drink, or several, in the club’s room across the corridor. “Memberships were high,” wrote the Club’s historian affectionately in 1949, “and so, at times, were members.”
Shortly after its formation, the club changed its name to the Metropolitan Opera Club. More importantly, they changed their focus from intermission shenanigans to the art form of opera. They opened their membership to women in the 1980’s, and their mission currently concentrates on cultivating vocal and instrumental music and social engagement among its members.
The Club now resides in a private restaurant on the Dress Circle level of the Met, complete with a chef and headwaiter, and is accessed by a private elevator in the Met’s lobby. The elegant space was designed by Angelo Donghia in 1966. The room features a silver-leaf ceiling and a chandelier, and on the bar sits a bronze bust of tenor Giovanni Martinelli. When I first visited members John Brewer and Susan Clearwater in the Club, I was struck by the chic decor and “old-school” elegance. It’s exactly the type of room you'd expect for an institution with its kind of history. But the members are friendly and engaging, with unrivaled knowledge of opera.
Members of the Met Chorus, with Maestro Donald Palumbo, present La Traviata to the MOC. (Photo: JoVon Photography)
I routinely feel underdressed when I’m visiting the Club. One tradition they haven’t changed over the years is wearing formal attire for performances and Club dinners. Known as the “Penguins” by the average opera patron, members wear white tie and tails and gowns for opening nights and turn to black tie for midweek performances. If you see the Penguins on the Dress Circle level, say hello — they’re proud of the moniker!
Performing in masks for Willy Decker’s La Traviata. (Photo: Ken Howard)
The Chorus’ association with the MOC began in 2017 with a presentation of the choruses from La Traviata, with the help of MOC members and friends John Brewer and Susan Clearwater. We organized the presentation around the particulars of executing the score with the right style and character needed for the piece, complete with a demonstration of what it was like to sing wearing the Act II masks from the Willy Decker production. The following year saw a La Bohème presentation, and in February of this year we explored Carmen.
Each of these operas is very familiar to Club members — they see over 130 performances a season, after all. So we endeavor to make the presentation interesting by inviting our Chorus Master Donald Palumbo to speak about what it takes to prepare each score. The intricacies of each piece are demonstrated by Chorus volunteers singing, say, the “conversational” quality of La Bohème. The Bohème chorus should sound like the busy Café Momus, with voices coming from all around you, but it has to carry in the Metropolitan Opera house full of 3,800 seats.
The selection we sang in our Carmen presentation ran the gamut in terms of character: the Soldiers’ lazy opening “Sur la place”, the sultry yet finely-detailed Habañera (Carmen was played by chorister Stephanie Chigas), the women’s frantic “fight” scene and a Toreador song with chorister Ned Hanlon as Escamillo. Each opera presents issues for choristers, such as “how do I sing this long, legato line while staged to lay on the floor?” or “how can I ‘cheat’ my voice out to the house without sacrificing the action of the scene?” The presentations end with a Q&A session, which can cover topics like backstage drama, staging logistics, old vs. new productions, and our personal backgrounds. We also invite Club members each season to a handful of our musical rehearsals held in List Hall. There, they see the “nitty gritty” of putting together an opera chorus from the ground up.
Club members have a similar relationship with the Orchestra, and are able to hear individual players when they join guest lecturer Maestro Joseph Colaneri for his series of talks for the Club. In his lectures, he’ll detail the history of the opera he’s highlighting, concentrating on historical context, musical or dramatic themes, and the composer’s life or body of work. Sometimes Orchestra members will play a string quartet by the composer, or musical examples from the opera. At one I attended, principal flutist Seth Morris played the gorgeous introduction to “Casta Diva” from Norma, demonstrating how much his melody is really just another vocal line set for flute.
Daniel Smith, Mary Hughes, Piotr Beczala, Marco Jordão, Danielle Walker, and Chorus Master Donald Palumbo at Piotr’s dinner. (Photo: JoVon Photography)
The Club has hosted dinners for various principal singers through the years, presenting them with honorary Club memberships, with Elina Garanca, Sonya Yoncheva, and Piotr Beczala being the most recently honored. The dinner features an interview with Opera News’ Editor in Chief F. Paul Driscoll covering the career and life of each artist prior to an opera performance in the house. Dessert is served during the first intermission, with built-in social time with the artist. This Spring, the Club chose Chorus Master Donald Palumbo for an honorary membership, and a group from the chorus sang the finale of La Clemenza di Tito with choristers singing the solo parts as a surprise performance for Maestro Palumbo and the members.
Although the Club has no affiliation with the Metropolitan Opera Association, you can thank the Club for numerous contributions around the house — they fund revival costs each year (the past few years have included the revivals of Don Giovanni, Madama Butterfly and Anna Bolena), similar contributions for special productions, the purchasing of tickets worth a total of $500,000 each season, with perhaps the most visible donation: the Met’s gold curtain. The MOC funded the 1979 installation of the Scalamandre silk gold curtain with an endowment which pays for replacement costs, like the new curtain installed in 2005.
As you see, they have a voracious appetite for opera, and music in general. We look forward to continuing our relationship with the Metropolitan Opera Club, and are happy to count these “biggest fans of opera” as our friends.
Daniel Clark Smith and members of the Metropolitan Opera Chorus at Maestro Donald Palumbo’s Honorary Membership performance. (Photo: Susan Clearwater)
Daniel Clark Smith, born in Barrington, IL, has degrees in Music Ed. and Choral Conducting from The University of Cincinnati–College-Conservatory of Music, and has loved singing in ensembles all his life. In concert, he particularly enjoys performing the Evangelist roles in J.S. Bach’s Passions. At the Met, favorite roles include a Lackey in Der Rosenkavalier, a soldier in Wozzeck and Parpignol in La Bohème, a role he has performed 100 times with the company. Daniel is a member of the Chorus Committee and serves as the Mens’ Chorus Safety Delegate. Daniel has been with his husband, fellow musician Michael S. Caldwell, for 26 years. Follow him on Twitter: @dclarksmith and Instagram: @danielclarksmith.
Put On Your Sunday Best: Met Choristers With Church Jobs
Being a full-time member of the Met Chorus is exactly how it sounds: a FULL TIME job. So it may surprise you that, after singing Monday through Saturday, many members of the Met Chorus wake up early on Sundays to sing again!
by Lianne Coble-Dispensa
Opera singers don’t accept a job with the Metropolitan Opera Chorus because they’ve heard it’s a walk in the park. People aren’t applying for auditions by the thousands because they believe they’ll have copious amounts of time to put their feet up and eat Chinese takeout while watching Netflix. They sign on to the Met Chorus lifestyle knowing full well that the hours are long, the memorization work is fierce, and the toll on the body (both physically and vocally) can be considerable. Once the Met season opens at the end of September, Met choristers work 6 days a week without fail, with the one sweet promise of Sunday to spend with their family, to tend to mountains of accumulating laundry, and maybe, just maybe, to catch up on the sleep they’ve missed all week.
So it may surprise you that, after singing Monday through Saturday, many members of the Met Chorus wake up early on Sundays to sing again! If you haven’t spent time in a major urban area, or if you never experienced the kaleidoscopic miscellany of a freelance singer’s career, you may not even be aware that the idea of a “church job” exists. But in most major cities, when you mix a strong music scene with high-profile places of worship, you will find that churches and synagogues have the budget to hire talented professional musicians to improve the quality of their music ministry. Whether acting as soloists, members of a professional choir, or both, these Met choristers truly enjoy their Sunday morning church jobs because of how artistically and spiritually fulfilling the experience is for them, and relish the opportunity to share their gifts with a new and different community.
The choir of Brick Presbyterian Church performing for a Sunday service. Met chorister Jeremy Little (front row, second from the right) sings regularly with the group. In the back row, second from the right, one might spy Dan Hoy, the Met's Chorus Administrator!
If you happen upon Redeemer Presbyterian Church on a Sunday morning, you may well be treated to a choir filled with Met opera singers, or even a stirring solo from a member of the Met chorus. Soprano Belinda Oswald enjoys joining the church’s professional chorus for holiday services, and sings solos during services many times throughout the liturgical year. “I love to use my gift”, she says, and enjoys singing on Sundays at Redeemer for a number of reasons. Besides her deep commitment to her faith, she also loves singing arrangements written by Redeemer’s music director Tom Jennings, and enjoys the freedom of singing in a setting where there is less scrutiny and one can “produce the sound more freely”. She’s often joined by mezzo-sopranos Patricia Steiner and Catherine Choi Steckmeyer, who have been singing with the choir for years and enjoy soloing from time to time.
Other choristers, such as tenor Jeremy Little, baritone Scott Dispensa, and soprano Lianne Coble-Dispensa (who, if you didn’t catch the byline, wrote this article), are actually on the full-time rosters of their respective churches. Jeremy rounds out the 17 singers of the professional core of the choir at Brick Presbyterian Church (at 91st Street and Park Avenue). For Jeremy, performing sacred music at Brick Church holds a deep personal significance for him. “Sacred choral music is what brought me to music as a vocation in the first place, [and it] speaks to my desire for approaching and encountering something bigger than myself and the mundane. One may argue that non-sacred music offers the same- and I would certainly agree- but for me, sacred choral music resonates in its own special spot.”
The professional choir of St. John the Divine during an Evensong service. Lianne Coble-Dispensa (front row, far right, in glasses, hiding behind the candelabra) and Scott Dispensa (second row, second from the left) are full-time members of the choir, on top of being full-time members of the Met Chorus.
Lianne Coble-Dispensa, now in her 4th full-time year at the Met, was a busy freelance singer before she joined the chorus, and has sung with the 16-member professional choir at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine for 6 years. Her husband Scott, who has sung full-time with the Met Chorus for 9 years, joined the St. John the Divine roster when a baritone spot opened up for two reasons: to see Lianne more often (Sunday is the chorus’s only day off), and to return to some of his favorite sacred choral repertoire. Scott was a sought-after professional choral freelancer before he joined the Met, and like Jeremy, sacred choral music and early renaissance and Renaissance polyphony are near and dear to his heart. He also made many lifelong friendships as a freelancer (as did Lianne), and their time at St. John’s offers them the opportunity to connect with their friends outside of the Met, as well as enjoy the benefits of sight-reading challenging polyphonic sacred choral repertoire and chant. St. John the Divine has two services on Sundays: a Choral Eucharist at 11:00am, and Choral Evensong at 4:00pm, with a rehearsal before each service. So their Sundays are not necessarily relaxed, but they are filled with rewarding musical experiences and fellowship, as well as the obligatory choir brunch between services.
Ned Hanlon (left) and Jeremy Little (right), soloing at Brick Presbyterian Church in John Stainer's Crucifixion Mass.
As if this wasn’t enough, the Met chorus boasts many other talented musicians who commit their time and efforts to performing at church. Twice a month, tenor Stephen Paynter acts as a worship leader for his church, which brings in over 500 congregants. Baritone Yohan Yi and tenor Christian Jeong both conduct their church choirs. And even bass Edward Hanlon, who is the Met Chorus Committee Chair (and rarely has a minute of free time on his hands), often subs in the choirs of various churches around the five boroughs.
So, as the holidays approach, keep your eye out for some joyful Met choristers who are grateful for the opportunity to bring you beautiful vocal music both on and off the opera stage!
Lianne Coble-Dispensa joined the Metropolitan Opera as a member of the extra chorus in 2010, and went full time in 2015. She is the Editor-in-Chief for the Met Artists Newsletter, and is a member of the Met Chorus Artists executive board. When she's not singing opera or furiously copy editing this month's newsletter, she enjoys spending the lion's share of her free time cooking various delights in the kitchen, reading non-fiction, Crossfitting, and running moderately impressive distances. She is married to fellow chorister (and ultramarathoner) Scott Dispensa, and they live in Teaneck, NJ with two ostentatiously named cats (Maximilien de Robespierre and Charles Hubert Hastings Parry).
Love Grows in the Corn Belt
Enjoy a sweet article from the Des Moines Metro Opera blog about our very own Met chorus tenor Greg Warren and his wife, extremely talented freelance stage manager Hester Warren-Steijn, and how they navigate the opera performance world as a team (even if it means not seeing each other for months at a time!).
Tenor Greg Warren has been a member of the Metropolitan Opera Chorus for 5 years, but prior to his tenure here, he was a wildly successful solo artist in Europe and the United States. While he loves his job in the chorus, he still enjoys taking solo work during the Met’s summer hiatus. This allows him to spend quality time with his talented wife Hester Warren-Steijn, a freelance stage manager sought-after by opera companies all over the world. The Des Moines Metro Opera (DMMO) hired Greg for their production of Rusalka this past summer, and Rosa Gude from DMMO’s marketing and PR department wrote a charming piece about the two operatic lovebirds.
by Rosa Gude
Opera brings people together – be it patrons, communities or a couple separated by the Atlantic Ocean.
Gregory Warren and Hester Warren-Steijn met overseas through their careers in opera and now live in two different countries. Opera keeps the married couple connected and brings them here to Indianola two months out of the year to be together, face to face.
Living in two different places is difficult, but Hester says their relationship survives the long distance through FaceTime. “We see each other at least once a day, depending on schedules and time difference, either to say good morning or good night. So one of the perks of working at DMMO is that we get so see each other for real during breakfast,” she said.
Hester & Greg being adorable.
The pair is based out of New York City where Gregory sings in the chorus of the Metropolitan Opera, but they also have an apartment in Amsterdam which they say allows Hester to continue traveling as a stage manager and director as well as stay connected with her family.
Their travel in the opera industry continues still after meeting eight years ago while working with the Dutch National Opera in Berlioz’s Les Troyens. Hester was stage managing and Greg sang Iopas – the court poet. “I was wearing a golden dress – a Samurai outfit – in the performance,” Gregory said. “Hester could not resist.”
Hester (stage managing) and Greg (performing Fernando in Cosi fan tutte) in Tokyo (2011).
The Summer Festival Season at Des Moines Metro Opera allows them to live together and spend some quality time touring around to some of their favorite spots in the state. They also visited the Bridges of Madison County and the Dutch town of Pella. Top contenders for delicious delicacies continue to be Hester’s favorite, The Strudl House, with their Dutch letter pastries, and Gregory’s favorites, MishMash and the Outside Scoop.
“I don’t enjoy the diet I have to go on after a summer in Des Moines,” Gregory said.
Hester and Greg taking a selfie in front of the Bridges of Madison County!
The couple returns this summer for their second season, as they both made their debuts in the 45th Summer Festival.
“This is a wonderful company to work for as well as the quiet disposition of the community. This company offers a stellar work ethic and produces amazing productions with an fantastic atmosphere. We made many friends and feel lucky to be part of the DMMO family”, they said.
This season, Hester is stage managing for the company’s new production of Rusalka, and Greg is singing the role of the Gamekeeper; they even get to spend rehearsals together.
Originally posted on the Des Moines Metro Opera Blog on July 12, 2018. You can find the original post here. Many thanks to DMMO for allowing us to repost this charming article!
Outreach Corner: Laura Fries Fosters KITTENS!
In these fraught days of political upheaval and polarization, it’s nice to know there’s something in this world that most people can agree on, and that is the fact that kittens are undeniably cute. Met chorus soprano Laura Fries gives us the skinny on her favorite pastime (other than singing at the Met), which is fostering needy kittens and cats.
In these fraught days of political upheaval and polarization, it’s nice to know there’s something in this world that most people can agree on, and it is the following two statements: kittens are cute, and helping homeless animals is a good thing. Soprano Laura Fries of the Met Chorus has been fostering homeless cats and kittens at her home in upstate NY for 16 years, and there’s no stopping her! Lianne Coble-Dispensa recently spoke with Laura to get the skinny on all things cat-related (spoiler alert: fostering animals is not a walk in the park, but the rewards are multitudinous).
Laura Fries, with one of her tiny foster babies.
LCD: What inspired you to start fostering kittens?
LF: I have always loved animals. I would be late to kindergarten most days because I would have to make the rounds of all my neighborhood animal friends before getting there! When I moved into Manhattan (into a ‘no pets’ building, no less), I was watching a TV show that mentioned how much it meant that people would step up as foster homes for homeless pets. When I saw what some of the innocent animals endured, I had to act. The building found out after about 8 months of fostering and I decided to move to a house in order to give me more room for the babies and to take them in ‘legally’.
LCD: Do you work through a pet adoption organization or a shelter?
LF: I have been affiliated with multiple rescues and shelters, and have also taken in cats discovered by neighbors. Once people find out you do rescue, you are the go-to person for any animal in need!
LCD: Tell me about the work that goes into fostering cats and kittens.
LF: It depends on the situation. The best situation is a litter of kittens with their mother. The mother does all the work with the kittens and my job is mostly to take care of her and to socialize the babies. Socializing them is the fun part – basically playing with them, cuddling them, just getting them used to be handled. Once the kittens are old enough, I help the mother teach them how to eat solid food and drink out of the water dish. The mother teaches them how to use the litter box.
The worst case scenario is that I get very young kittens (still nursing and sometimes sick) without the mother. Then I have a lot of challenges to keep them going. I bottle feed them every 2 hours around the clock, have to monitor constantly to keep them warm and clean, stimulate them to urinate and defecate – basically do everything their mother should be doing.
One time, I had five litters (yes, mamas AND kittens) at once! It was both crazy AND crazy fun.
LCD: How long do the fosters stay with you?
LF: The kittens generally stay with me until 8–10 weeks of age or longer, depending on their adoption. I make sure they’re okay with eating solid food, drinking water from the dish, and using the litter box. The rescue/shelter is responsible for getting homes for them. Thankfully, the kittens are so darn cute that adopters are pretty easy to find!
LCD: What is a typical day like taking care of little kittens?
Three sweet foster faces.
LF: A typical day starts with a major clean-up! I remove the bedding, food and water dishes, and completely sanitize their area. The dirty bedding, food and water dishes are replaced. The rest of the day I am constantly switching out toys and kitten trees to stimulate their activity, and cleaning up messes, etc. I play with them and watch how they’re developing. Sometimes I’ll have kittens who need to be bottle-fed, and this requires a lot of time and attention to detail (tracking their milk intake and weight, among other things). It helps that I took a small animal care course in high school. Beyond that, I basically learned everything else from other foster families, shelter workers, and my veterinarian.
LCD: This sounds like an enormous amount of work! Do you have pets of your own?
LF: I currently have five cats, mostly older. My oldest is 15. At my highest point, I had twelve.
LCD: Do they get along with their kitten visitors?
LF: I don’t integrate my guys with my fosters so they’re not exposed to diseases. However, I don’t bring any new cat into my house without a thorough vet visit, which includes testing for infectious diseases. But there’s no guarantee that the cat I’m fostering doesn’t have a problem, so I don’t chance it.
LCD: What are the things you love most about being a foster cat mom?
LF: Kittens are so darned adorable, and they’re pretty hilarious, too! They all have their own personalities and wonderful behaviors. I remember every one!
It’s so amazing to watch them develop. They start out not being able to track toys very fast with their eyes and in no time they’re chasing them at top speed! They barely climb at a few weeks old and by 7 weeks they’re at the top of a 6’ tall cat tree!
It’s also very gratifying to take in a very sick kitten and nurse it back to full health. And of course, watching the kittens go to wonderful homes is a big payoff.
LCD: What are the challenges of fostering kittens?
More temporary tenants at Laura’s foster kitty home: a sweet mama and her kittens.
LF: The only real challenges are when they have special needs. I had a kitten that looked like a baby bird that fell out of a nest, she was so tiny and delicate. It was worrisome. She ended up fine, after a lot of attention and effort, and she’s a beautiful cat now.
But there is always the possibility that something will go wrong, so the level of watchfulness is intense for the first few weeks.
I had a pregnant feral mother that I brought home from a shelter so that she could have a peaceful, less stressful place to give birth. I was anxious about her, so I slept in the room with her in a crate and one night I was awakened to the sound of little kittens! The challenge after that was to socialize the babies without annoying the mother. I had put her whole carrier in the crate when I got her, so I would use a kitchen spatula to push her door shut when she went inside, hold it closed while I opened the crate and locked her in. Then I could let the babies roam for awhile without worrying about the mother charging at me! She turned out to be a great mother and the two of us worked together pretty well to get the babies ready for adoption.
LCD: What have I left out that you think the public should know?
LF: We have a pretty big problem with overcrowded shelters. There is a constant stream of homeless pets that need to be fostered. You can approach any rescue and offer to be a foster for them. It gives a rescue group a big boost to be able to take in higher numbers of deserving, wonderful animals that need help.
Also, consider volunteering at a shelter! They need dog walkers, kitten and puppy cuddlers, general workers, you name it.
Cats of all ages need fostering. When tiny kittens are in shelters, they don’t tend to survive because of the level of contamination and illness that their little bodies have to battle, so they are especially in need of fostering. And it is especially heart rending to see elderly cats in shelters. They make wonderful fosters and are incredibly grateful to be out of the shelter situation. When I retire, I intend to become a haven for senior cats, so that they can live out their days in a comfortable home situation.
Looking for more deserving organizations for your charitable donations?
Well, look no further! Laura is currently working with a very deserving local non-profit called Cat Assistance. They would love your help, be it monetary or in the form of a foster family!
Staff Performer Spotlight: Frank Colardo's Illustrious Met Career
Frank Colardo has been a staff performer at the Met since the 1990s, so you've most likely seen him in many of your favorite operas. He's famously known for playing the cowboy in Fanciulla del West who takes a tumble off the balcony during a bar brawl, and is playing the challenging role of Buoso Donati (yes, the dead guy) in Gianni Schicchi. Get an even closer look at one of the Met’s most accomplished staff performers!
Frank as the casino bartender., with George Gagnidze as Rigoletto. (Photo: Richard Termine)
All of us here at the Met Artists Newsletter love profiling our hard-working friends in other departments. A few issues ago, we all got to see how busy a staff performer’s life can be through the eyes of Anne Dyas. Now you get an even closer look at one of the Met’s most accomplished staff performers. Frank Colardo has been with the company since the 90’s, and is famously known for being the cowboy in La Fanciulla del West who takes a tumble off the balcony during a bar brawl, among many other important non-singing roles.
This article is a transcription of a live interview on the Met Opera Sirius Channel (Channel 75, to be exact), which was originally broadcast on December 22nd, 2010. Many thanks to Sara Heaton and Liz Sciblo for their transcription skills, and to Daniel Clark Smith and Anne Dyas for their photo assistance.
Frank flinging himself from the rafters in Fanciulla del West. (Photo: Ken Howard)
Interviewer: Frank Colardo has been a supernumerary at The Metropolitan Opera since the 1990’s. Now, a supernumerary is the operatic equivalent of an extra but Frank certainly does a whole lot more. Audiences will recognize his cameo appearance in recent seasons as The Nose in Shostakovich’s opera of the same title. He was the police commissioner in Berg’s Lulu, he has been the dead (narcoleptic man), Buoso Donati, in Gianni Schicchi, has been the photographer in the sextet from Lucia, he’s been a dresser for Dmitri Hvorostovsky during Eugene Onegin, and as soon as he walked in the door I said you were one of the servants in Don Pasquale, the funny guy who had the wig on that Don Pasquale pulled off! Now, this season here at The Met he is featured doing stunts in La Fanciulla del West and he will be seen as a central focus of the new Willy Decker production of La Traviata that opens Friday. We want to welcome Frank Colardo to Met Opera radio. Hi!
Frank: Hi! Thank you.
I: Tell us what you did in the scene in the act that we were just listening to.
F: Well, I’m on the balcony and I get in a little ruckus with one of the guys, and he throws a punch at me which sends me into the banister. The banister breaks and I lose my balance and of course he wants to push me off. And I leap into the air and hopefully get caught before I hit the ground.
I: Are you a stunt man, actually?
F: No, I’ve never done stunts before.
I: Before this time?
F: Before this time. B.H. Barry, who put together this fight, is a terrific, terrific teacher so he actually got me to do it.
I: Was it hard to make yourself jump off?
F: Well, there’s definitely a fear factor, oh yes. Besides just jumping off it’s also the feeling of flying, the feeling of falling, not many people are used to that and I’m actually falling probably about 10 feet because I have to jump up which is higher than the balcony. So, it’s those two things, plus what you do just before you jump. The music is frantic and you have to stay calm and listen to the music to know when to scream so the guys down there know they have to catch me. It’s all timed and you have to stay relaxed and then you just have to go! It’s a leap of faith.
I: And really count on them to be there to catch you!
F: Oh, definitely. They’re great guys and I know they’ll be there.
I: Do you like doing it now?
F: It’s getting to be a lot more fun. At first it was scary and exhilarating at the same time. I mean, really at the same time.
I: So you are not really just a walk-on, walk-off type of a super. Have you ever done that kind of spear carrying before?
F: Oh, sure. My first opera here was Aida and that’s spear carrying. [laughs]
Mr. Colardo as the recently deceased Buoso Donati in this year’s production of Gianni Schicci. (Photo: Ken Howard)
I: On the highest order! And several times! You go around and around in the Triumphal scene. Tell us about some of the other scenes you‘ve done. Donati, lying dead in the bed?
F: You have to be dead for 40 minutes! You pray you don’t need to cough or sneeze or itch because that would be deadly. Most people think that you can just fall asleep, which you can’t. If you fall asleep you could involuntarily move. So, you have to stay with it. But it’s great because they’re all singing around you and it’s wonderful to hear all the voices going crazy all around you. I mean, it’s fun, but you have to be focused and do what you have to do.
I: But there must be some sort of technique that you have to employ to get yourself so relaxed that you really aren’t going to be moving in any way.
F: I tell people this: As far as doing that part, it’s like when you’re on the beach and you’re starting to doze but you’re still awake so you are in control, it’s that feeling. Then they pick me up and take me into the tub and I’m there for another 10-15 minutes.
I: But we don’t see you in the tub! You get to go get a cup of coffee or something.
F: You see my leg hanging out!
As the photographer in Lucia di Lammermoor. (Photo: Ken Howard)
I: Oh, okay! [laughs] So you were also the photographer in the sextet of Lucia. That was a sort of a controversial staging, the Mary Zimmerman staging. Did anyone come up to you and have anything to say to you about that?
F: Well, no they didn’t.
I: I loved it; I thought it was great!
F: I think they know that I’m just doing what I’m supposed to do. I think it’s interesting that something is actually happening during the sextet. Everybody wants them to stand there and sing but there’s something going on! That makes sense, I think.
I: In Don Pasquale, you were the servant who came walking in and Pasquale is sort of fussing and fuming. You come in with a powdered, white wig and Pasquale is all dressed to meet Sophronia. It’s not until he grabs the wig off of your head and puts it on his own head that we realize that that was not your hair at all!
F: That’s his wig, yes!
I: That gets a real laugh every single time. Do you have fun doing this sort of thing?
F: Yes, yes I do! That’s fun. There’s really no stress for that. That’s really just having fun and being right there. I am hearing the singers! Anna [Netrebko], I hear her all the time. I’m 2 feet away from her. It’s great!
I: So tell me about this: have you just loved working in opera? You’re a stage man. You love being in opera?
F: Oh, yes. I’ve become an opera fan, of course, and I appreciate all that’s around me when I’m in these productions. I know they’re world-class voices and I’ve learned all of the operas. Typical American, before I came here never saw an opera, never wanted to. Aida blew me away! Big sets, lots of animals, lots of people, really nice music. You know, that sold me.
Interesting about Traviata that I found out with stage rehearsals this week is that, normally, at the end of Act 1, when Violetta’s singing her famous aria, she’s the only one on stage. This time, I actually get to be on stage with her but you don’t know I’m there. I’m behind the clock.
Photo: Mary Sohl
I: Okay, now let’s explain what you’re going to be doing with Traviata. This is the Willy Decker production.
F: Yes. The clock moves. There’s a great big clock and it moves, it has a life, and it’s to represent how much time she has left. At parts it starts racing and it freaks her out, but I have to move the clock for the entire first act and the second half of Act Two. So I’m on that stage when she’s singing her solos and all that and, like I said, at the end of Act One, when no one’s on stage except her, I’m feet away from her and just the sound is glorious and I’m loving it.
I: I find it hard to believe that there’s a person controlling that clock in this age of such high technology that there isn’t some sort of mechanism being controlled by somebody off stage. Why are you doing it?
F: Well it’s stage time, the clock is running twice as fast as real time. And then it speeds up during the stretta section, which she then runs over to stop because she wants to stop time from racing ahead because she knows there’s only so much. And then also in the second act, the clock becomes a gambling table, like a roulette wheel. So you have to be aware and know the cues when someone’s going to spin the hand, and I have to know when to stop it at certain points. You have to finesse it. And also they want the winners to be different each time so the chorus can be excited and more into it. There are times when it has to point to Alfredo so that’s a given because you know he wins. So that’s how it works and I think that’s why they want a person to do it.
I: We’re talking with Frank Colardo who is a supernumerary here at the Metropolitan Opera. You were also referred to as “Staff Performer”, so that means you’re on staff; you’re not hired from show to show?
F: No, I’m full time. This is my way of making a living.
I: Of the Willy Decker production of Traviata, this is a production that got its start at the Salzburg Festival and people had loved it. I think it was 2005 when it first showed up. What’s it like working and rehearsing this production with Mr. Decker?
F: Well he doesn’t deal with me at all, actually I’ve learned everything from Meisje Hummel, his assistant who was here before he arrived, and she’s terrific. So I learned what’s required of me and then they pretty much let me go and do what I have to do. Willy’s busy with everybody else.
I: How many shows are you in at one time?
F: I can be here every night, week after week after week. As of right now though, none of us are in [The Magic] Flute. We used to do the old Flute which was a lot of fun being the animals, but now in the new Flute the dancers are doing it, so it’s a night off.
I: What animals were you in Flute?
F: I was the lion-bear kind of thing which he actually pets, and then, [Tamino] did something to me, but I was in a suit and I can’t remember what it was now. He hit me and something else ….
I: [laughing] You can’t tell from underneath that suit!
F: He hit me with the flute I think!
I: How’d you get started doing this? How’d you get started with Aida, I mean, were you an actor before that?
F: Yes, I was a song and dance man. I did concert dance and then I moved to Broadway musicals. I was bartending, which is a fill-in survival job between gigs, and one of the bartenders I worked with was a tumbler in Aida. When he found out that I had stage experience he said “Would you like to come to the opera one night?”, because a friend of his was going to be out. And I thought, “oh, that would be a kick”, and I thought I was really going to be here one night. And now, years and years later, here I am.
I: You’re taking flying leaps and audiences can see from the world over Frank Colardo take one of those leaps in La Fanciulla del West. On January 8th (2010) we’re going to be broadcasting the performance in movie theaters as part of our live in HD series. That won’t be your first time will it, in the HD?
F: No.
I: Fantastic. It’s been great talking to you.
F: You too! Thank you.
Frank’s nose is running in The Nose. (Photo: Ken Howard)
Note from the Editor: Check out the wildly entertaining Met Opera Supers Instagram account at @metoperasupers. You’ll get a lot more Frank action, including a new favorite, the #frankdance, which should not be missed.
The Holiday Recipe Corner, In Which Lianne Reluctantly Shares Her Favorite Christmas Cookie Recipe
In which Lianne Coble-Dispensa, the Met Artists Newsletter Editor-in-Chief, emerges from her tenure spent hiding behind bylines and furtively checking punctuation to reluctantly share her favorite Christmas cookie recipe, an uncommonly delicious (and simple) holiday shortbread.
Hi everybody. This is Lianne Coble-Dispensa, your humble Editor-in-Chief of the Met Artists Newsletter. Normally you’d just be seeing my name in a byline for an article or two, but in a moment tinged with necessity, mild narcissism, and a tinge of laziness, I decided to step in and take over the recipe corner this month. Why? Well, it’s the holiday season, and one of the things I love most about the holidays is the fact that making (and eating) cookies is not just encouraged, it is practically mandatory.
Lianne & her husband Scott drinking incredible beer in Switzerland.
Lianne being fancy in a publicity shot that she never uses anymore because she’s got a full-time job singing at the Met. Photo Cred: Joshua South Photography.
Lianne & Scott showing off their glamorous Romeo & Juliette costumes.
Lianne marveling at the size of her steak.
Name: Lianne Coble-Dispensa.
Hometown: Liverpool, NY.
Years at the Met: Joined the Extra chorus in 2010, and the full-time chorus in 2015.
My favorite opera is: Tosca. But Otello and Rosenkavalier are right up there, musically speaking.
One of my most memorable experiences at the Met so far is: I’m going to give two examples, since I can (and I’m sure there are more I’m forgetting). Most recently, the Party in Hell (a.k.a. Walpurgisnacht) scene in Mefistofele. It was basically the only time I could do karate and aggressively play air guitar—half naked—during an opera and instead of getting fired, I got a paycheck. The second is listening to Sondra Radvanovsky absolutely slay the Three Queens during my first full-time season. I don’t cry easily, but she got me every time.
Other than opera, my favorite type of music is: Alt-pop and trashy techno for gym purposes, Gabriel Kahane, folky Americana, anything Baroque, and polyphonic choral music. My sister-in-law said she’s listening to Mongolian pop now, so who knows, I may try that out, too.
When I’m not at the Met, you can find me: Running, Crossfitting, doing just about anything at the gym, puttering around with the Met Artists Newsletter, and cooking. Basically, just constantly cooking.
The most outrageous thing I've ever cooked (or eaten) was: Scott & I usually leave the tricky stuff for the experts, so besides roasting a goose for Christmas or making homemade pasta, our outrageous experiences are reserved for restaurants. And on that note, we ate some amazingly innovative (and a bit challenging) things at Noma in Copenhagen and Faviken in northern Sweden. Think reindeer, colastrum, and some interesting uses of seafood.
The three things in my kitchen I can’t live without are: My Instant Pot, Breville countertop convection oven, and a cast iron pan.
Currently, my three go-to ingredients are: Kale, Kerrygold butter, and alder smoked sea salt.
If I had to choose, my “last meal” would be: I feel like this answer could change at any given moment, but right now, it’s a combination of the following: the honey butter biscuits from Moss Cafe; a truly excellent burger, perhaps from The Burger Stand in Lawrence, KS: the bread and butter course from Eleven Madison Park; and to round it out, fois gras with a nice glass of Sauternes. Hey, it’s a last meal.
As the title of the article insinuates, I’m reluctant to share this recipe with you all, mainly because I give these cookies as gifts every year, and once everyone sees how easy they are, I may become redundant. That being said, I found this recipe on the web, so it’s not like they’re an original family creation shrouded in secrecy. In fact, I found them here, on the Kitchen Trial and Error blog (which looks like it hasn’t been updated in a while, but still has the glorious cookie recipe posted from 2010, so I can give the blogger credit).
These are infinitely customizable, but if you like cranberries, pistachios, and white chocolate, you can’t go wrong with these. Start hitting the gym now; you’ll want to make room for the extra calories.
Cranberry, Pistachio & White Chocolate Shortbread Cookies
adapted from ina garten
30 minutes, plus chilling, makes 3 1/2 - 4 dozen.
3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup chopped dried cranberries
1 cup roughly chopped pistachios
1 cup white chocolate chips
Picture taken from Kitchen Trial & Error blog. I take no ownership of this image.
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. mix in the vanilla extract.
In a separate bowl, whisk or sift together the flour and salt.
Add the flour & salt to the butter mixture. mix on low speed until it just starts to come together. Add the cranberries, pistachios, and white chocolate a half a cup at a time until it's incorporated. Mix until the dough forms a ball. (Editor’s note: You don’t have to use a hand mixer, or even a stand mixer. It might help, though.)
Roll into a log about 2 inches in diameter (roll it wider or skinnier depending on how big you want your cookies). Wrap the log in some wax paper. (Editor’s note: plastic wrap is fine, too.)
Chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 350F and line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
Slice the log into 1/4 inch slices. Place the slices on the sheet pan. They don't spread much, so they can be pretty close together.
Bake for 10-13 minutes, or until the edges are just starting to brown.
Remove from the pan and cool to room temperature.
Yannick Nezet-Séguin's Exhilarating Opening Night
While we have enjoyed working with Maestro Nézet-Séguin since his debut conducting Carmen in 2009, this year is full of even more excitement and promise, as Maestro has stepped into the role of Music Director with gusto, and the palpable energy felt in the opera house these days is an auspicious beginning to a long, productive musical and artistic collaboration.
Our new music director soaking in the applause. Check out the smiles on those faces. Can you tell how much we like him already? (Photo: Jonathan Tichler)
A special “Vintage Yannick” champagne to celebrate Yannick’s first show as music director of the Met!
It began with him subverting opera norms, asking the Chorus to join him and the principals in a walk down to the footlights. It was during the bows of Parsifal earlier this year, and Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin had recently been named Music Director-Designate. News had just broken that he had successfully shifted his schedule around to join the Metropolitan Opera two years early as Music Director. His gesture to the Chorus during the Parsifal curtain call was a conscious effort to demonstrate inclusion, signaling to the Company that collaboration would be the order of the day.
While we have enjoyed working with Maestro Nézet-Séguin since his debut conducting Carmen in 2009, this year is full of even more excitement and promise. Maestro has stepped into the role of Music Director with gusto, and the palpable energy felt in the opera house these days is an auspicious beginning to a long, productive musical and artistic collaboration.
Maestro leads three opera productions this season: our new, vibrant production of La Traviata directed by Michael Mayer, followed by revivals of two 20th-Century French masterworks: Debussy’s Pelléas et Melisande & Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites. We already feel his guiding hand shaping Verdi’s phrases with elegance and care in La Traviata. He asks us for extra focus on the text, energizing the vocal lines with character, and insists on Verdi’s dynamics and phrasing, working the lines with the Orchestra, Chorus & principals until they sparkle. Like any good leader, he has a warm, effusive charm, and peppers his direction with funny asides. You want to follow his lead — it is always in service of the composer.
On opening night he bucked another operatic convention, asking the Orchestra to join us all on stage for a celebratory bow to a new era. It’s never been done at the Met, and it continues to demonstrate Maestro’s philosophy that this Company can only soar to new heights together, with each department in the building contributing equal parts talent and hard work. We wholeheartedly agree with this, and look forward to the collaboration!
The whole Traviata crew. Cast, chorus, dancers, and for the first time, our esteemed orchestra members.
Daniel Clark Smith, born in Barrington, IL, has degrees in Music Ed. and Choral Conducting from The University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music, and has loved singing in ensembles all his life. In concert, he particularly enjoys performing the Evangelist roles in J.S. Bach’s Passions. At the Met, favorite roles include a Lackey in Der Rosenkavalier, a soldier in Wozzeck and Parpignol in La Bohème, a role he has performed 100 times with the company. Daniel is a member of the Chorus Committee and serves as the Mens’ Chorus Safety Delegate. Daniel has been with his husband, fellow musician Michael S. Caldwell, for 26 years. Follow him on Twitter: @dclarksmith and Instagram: @danielclarksmith.
Where Are They Now, Volume 2: From Children's Chorus to Queen of the Night
In this edition of “Where Are They Now?”, tenor Daniel Clark Smith sits down with Melanie Spector, a former Met children's chorister, who took her experience on the greatest stage in the world and brought it to the Manhattan School of Music!
Melanie Spector (center) enjoying the parade in a production of "Carmen". (Photo: Susan Spector)
When Melanie Spector was 8 years old, she had no idea that one day she'd be singing a pinnacle of operatic repertoire, the high-flying role of the Queen of the Night, in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. Back then, as she played a little Sicilian girl in Cavalleria Rusticana at the Metropolitan Opera, she marveled: "How are they singing in those other languages?" Fast forward to present day: Melanie, now 20 years old, studies voice with baritone Mark Oswald (one of the most sought-after voice teachers in New York) at the Manhattan School of Music. Last summer she participated in Mark's workshop designed to teach young singers how to study and learn operatic roles. She was assigned the roles of the first and second Spirits (on different evenings) and covered the role of the Queen of the Night, never thinking she'd be required to sing it. Sure enough, when the scheduled Queen got sick, Melanie stepped up and sang the role, and her performance serves as inspiration for any number of tasks -- "now everything seems really easy compared to that!"
Her introduction to opera started at age 5, with Melanie's father Garry listening to Wagner's Siegfried. She credits hearing "all the banging" in Siegfried's “Forging Song” as the spark that led her down this operatic path. She asked her Dad what it was all about, and she decided she needed to see a DVD. She and her father watched the Met’s entire Ring Cycle production (directed by Otto Schenk), and as luck would have it, the Met performed it the next year. She saw the whole cycle live, and that was it: "Wagner kind of did it for me."
It's possible that Melanie has opera in her genes. Her mother Susan Laney Spector is an oboist in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and opera is an active endeavor for the entire family. As a young child, Melanie wanted to audition for the Met's Children's Chorus, but was paranoid she didn't know "opera language." At 8 years old, she mustered up the courage to audition, and was given an opportunity to appear as a super in Cavalleria Rusticana. As an introduction to the stage, prospective Children's Chorus members are sometimes asked to perform non-singing acting roles (called ‘supers’, or more commonly ‘stage performers’) to see if the opera world is right for them. They are subjected to the usual haphazard opera schedule: daytime rehearsals, late night performances, stage lighting, costumes, and what can sometimes be the over-stimulation of all the music around them. Most opera singers know that the first instinct of many kids upon hearing opera for the first time is to plug their ears -- great opera makes the ears buzz!
She passed the test of those first performances, and Elena Doria, the Children's Chorus Director at the time, fittingly cast her in Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. The Children's Chorus only appears in Act III of Wagner's 6-hour opera, so Melanie would attend the opera's first two acts with her father (Mom was playing in the pit) and show up for her costume call at 10:45pm. Watching the beginning of the opera with her Dad "made it even more special."
Melanie (in green jumper) in a production of Hansel & Gretel. (Photo: Beth Bergman)
Overall, Melanie sang in eleven different Met productions by the time she "graduated" from the Children’s Chorus in 2013. Anthony Piccolo replaced Elena Doria in 2009, so Melanie had the opportunity to work with both directors.
Melanie says Mr. Piccolo maintained a very clear system for the kids to grow and flourish. Children are first chosen for “Beginner’s Class”, where they learn the basics and their talent is cultivated. Mr. Piccolo teaches the children lyrical singing, with a concentration on musical details, language diction and a legato sound. The Intermediate Class continues to build their skill set, and only when Mr. Piccolo thinks you're ready to sing in an opera do you graduate to the Advanced Class. From there, the children audition in groups of four for a particular opera, and parents are sent a confirmation email the next day letting them know whether their child has been selected.
Melanie gives a lot of credit to her early days at the Met. Her work in the Children's Chorus developed her musical "ear" -- the kids learn everything by ear, and she learns music very quickly to this day because of that early training. She also credits her work with providing her a direction for her professional life: "Singing in the Children’s Chorus and watching operas all my life, I figured out this is what I wanted to do — become an opera singer."
But it wasn't always easy. Melanie says, "For some reason, La Bohème is considered an easy opera to do, even though musically it's so hard. I remember my first rehearsal, and I was in with other kids who already knew it. I went home crying. Listening to a recording, it goes by so fast." But her hard work paid off. Melanie considers La Bohème and Carmen the "bread and butter" of Children's Chorus operas. She says jokingly, "If you hadn’t done at least 30 performances, were you really in the Children’s Chorus?"
Photo: Ashley Chui
The perky, affable soprano uses her knowledge of opera in various ways. You may hear Melanie as a guest on the Toll Brothers Metropolitan Opera Quiz, an assignment she's done a few times now. And keep an eye out on Instagram, where she ran Opera News' feed for their annual Awards Ceremony.
Melanie uses concepts learned in the Children's Chorus in her present-day musical endeavors. She says, "always memorize what you're working on -- just bite the bullet and do it." It makes working on the following steps of phrasing, musicality and character so much easier. And the most important thing she learned at the Met? "Always be impeccably prepared." She was clearly prepared when she was called at the last minute to sing the high Fs in "Der Hölle Rache" last summer for Die Zauberflöte, and we look forward to her continued success on and off the operatic stage.
Daniel Clark Smith, born in Barrington, IL, has degrees in Music Ed. and Choral Conducting from The University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music, and has loved singing in ensembles all his life. In concert, he particularly enjoys performing the Evangelist roles in J.S. Bach’s Passions. At the Met, favorite roles include a Lackey in Der Rosenkavalier, a soldier in Wozzeck and Parpignol in La Bohème, a role he has performed 100 times with the company. Daniel is a member of the Chorus Committee and serves as the Mens’ Chorus Safety Delegate. Daniel has been with his husband, fellow musician Michael S. Caldwell, for 26 years. Follow him on Twitter: @dclarksmith and Instagram: @danielclarksmith.
Libiamo Returns: Operatic Wine Pairings
What beverages would you pair with your favorite Met operas? In the first of four volumes, Resident ersatz sommeliers Scott Dispensa & Lianne Coble-Dispensa share their pairing choices for the opening shows of the Met's 2018-2019 season.
A party scene from ENO's production of Marnie. Photo credit: Richard Hubert Smith.
by Lianne Coble-Dispensa, with contributions by Scott Dispensa
La Traviata returns to the Met stage after two years off (with a "shiny new production" facelift!), and with it, another opportunity for revelry, mirth, and toasts to everyone's good health with a nice glass of champagne. But what about the other shows of the season? What beverages would you pair with them? In the first of four volumes, resident ersatz sommeliers Scott Dispensa & Lianne Coble-Dispensa share their pairing choices for the opening shows of the Met's 2018-2019 season.
Samson et Dalila (Opens the season on 9/24!): This lush, lavish, and lusty production deserves a wine that stands up to its character! If we’re looking to pair with location, Samson is an Israelite, and Dalila is a Philistine, which means her people settled in and around what is now Israel, Gaza, Syria, and Lebanon. Scott picked two different wineries for you to check out: Domaine du Castel, an Israeli winery making Bordeaux-inspired wines, and from Lebanon, Château Musar, which has been continually producing critically-acclaimed wines despite decades of strife in the region. Regardless of which one you choose, you'll have an experience that combines the power of Samson with the luxuriousness of Dalila.
La bohème (Opens 9/25): This opera is DYING for both food and wine pairings. Just listen to the 2nd act market scene! The townspeople cry out for panna montata, la crostada, Prugne di Tours, latte di cocco, and gentleman holler for birra (beer) and ratafia, a sweet liqueur popular in Italy and the Champagne region of France. Scott thinks this would be a great pairing for the enjoyable sweetness of La Boheme. Lianne notes that if you’re not into sweet booze, you could go the beer route and pick up an Italian brew. Lianne & Scott prefer the brand Birra di Meni, but you could keep things light and airy and settle on a tall, fizzy glass of Peroni!
Aida (Opens 9/26): You might think that trying to find an appropriate adult beverage to pair with an ancient Egyptian opera would be difficult, but surprisingly, those Egyptians knew how to party! Alcoholic beverages were part of daily life, particularly beer, which was served to children and adults alike, as it had a lower alcohol content and was better for you than the local water sources. Ancient Egyptian beer was commonly made from Barley, so I’d recommend a barleywine-style ale like Sierra Nevada’s Bigfoot. Schafly and Smuttynose also make a highly-rated barleywine-style ale. Enjoy!
La Fanciulla del West (Opens 10/4): I’m going to give you a few options here. Fanciulla is set in California during the Gold Rush, and you know those prospectors were drinking their body weight in whiskey at the time. Conveniently, we have the Gold Rush cocktail, which is a combination of bourbon, lemon, and honey syrup (a riff on the prohibition-era “Bee’s Knees” cocktail, which uses gin instead of bourbon). But if you want something classier to pair with an opera about a powerful female figure, may I recommend wines (of any kind, they’re all fantastic) from the female-owned Day Wines and Kelley Fox Vineyards.
Marnie (Opens 10/19): Nico Muhly has made my job easy for me in this opera: the “happy hour” after-work scene at a bar opens with the chorus shouting out (or rather, singing out) their drink orders. So, we have some delectably dated choices: how about a Cinzano and lemon? Maybe a lager and lime? Or perhaps you’d like a Babycham (which is the brand name for a pear cider that was popular in the 60s)? All of them are low-alcohol choices, which I recommend, as you’ll need your wits about you during this psychological thriller of a show.
Tosca (Opens 10/25): Tosca’s setting in Rome in the 1800s inspired Scott to search for wines that may have been around during that time. He settled on Frascati, an Italian white wine, which has been cultivated in the countryside surrounding Rome for close to 2000 years. Frascati can come in many styles: dry, sweet, still, or spumante. Whatever mood you might be in, it is recommended to buy the youngest Frascati you can find, as these wines are not meant to age. Seeing as how the youthful couple, Tosca and Cavaradossi, meet untimely ends in the opera, this aspect of Frascati makes the pairing even more fitting!
Carmen (opens 10/30): My first instinct was to wrack my brain in search of a bold, sultry Spanish red wine to pair with Carmen. After all, Carmen herself is indeed bold, sultry, and Spanish. But if you’re interested in location, the opera is set in (and around) Seville, making Jerez the closest wine region. The Jerez region is best known for its sherries, so I’d recommend starting the night out with either a dry Fino sherry, or a light, salty Manzanilla sherry. If you want to kick things up a notch, float a wee bit of that Fino sherry in a glass of dry champagne. It’s a fantastic aperitif.
Lianne Coble-Dispensa joined the Metropolitan Opera as a member of the extra chorus in 2010, and went full time in 2015. She is the Editor-in-Chief for the Met Artists Newsletter, and is a member of the Met Chorus Artists executive board. When she's not singing opera or furiously copy editing this month's newsletter, she enjoys spending the lion's share of her free time cooking various delights in the kitchen, reading non-fiction, Crossfitting, and running (you may see her in this fall's Staten Island Half Marathon). She is married to fellow chorister (and ultramarathoner) Scott Dispensa, and they live in Teaneck, NJ with two ostentatiously named cats (Maximilien de Robespierre and Charles Hubert Hastings Parry).
Recipe Corner: Laura Fries and her Famous Red Velvet Cake!
After weeks of musical rehearsals and staging, the Met Chorus is looking forward to a treat to get us through the rest of pre-season! Soprano Laura Fries, one of our resident bakers, is pleased to share with us an easy (and extremely tasty) recipe for a perennial favorite: Red Velvet Cake!
By this time during preseason, the Metropolitan Opera Chorus has already rehearsed fourteen out of the twenty-three operas we're scheduled to perform this season. FOURTEEN! That's a bit of heavy lifting, and after all that hard work, you can bet we're ready to treat ourselves! Why don't you join us? Soprano Laura Fries, one of our resident bakers, is pleased to share an easy (and extremely tasty) recipe for a perennial favorite: Red Velvet Cake!
Here's what Laura has to say about her delicious dessert offering:
"I got this recipe from someone I worked with years ago at a temp job. Over the last 15 years, I have made at least 2 dozen of them, either for bake sales at the Met, or for personal requests (mostly from stagehands!). It's a one-bowl cake and amazingly simple to make. I'm very happy to share the it!"
Laura in La Boheme!
Laura and one of her many foster kittens!
Laura and her mile-high hair in Les Contes d'Hoffmann!
Name: Laura Fries.
Hometown: Ypsilanti, Michigan.
Years at the Met: 19 in the full time chorus, and 22 if you count my time in the extra chorus.
My favorite opera is: Anything Puccini!
One of my most memorable experiences at the Met so far is: Early in my career in the chorus, we were doing Otello. When Placido Domingo made his first entrance in Act I, it took my breath away and gave me goosebumps!
Other than opera, my favorite type of music is: 70s rock and roll.
When I’m not at the Met, you can find me: at a crafts fair.
The most outrageous thing I've ever cooked (or eaten) was: Croquembouche (a tower of cream puffs surrounded by spun caramelized sugar).
The three things in my kitchen I can’t live without are: My omelet pan, a filtered water dispenser in my fridge, and my waffle iron!
Currently, my three go-to ingredients are: butter, garlic and wine.
If I had to choose, my “last meal” would be: Salmon en croute, roasted asparagus, heritage tomatoes with basil and balsamico dressing, and macerated strawberries over vanilla ice cream!
-Laura Fries' Red Velvet Cake-
1 cup Wesson oil
1 ½ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon cocoa (Laura prefers Hershey)
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon Arm & Hammer baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 oz. red food coloring (You can substitute beet juice, but it will change the taste.)
2 cups cake flour
1 cup buttermilk
Grease two 9” cake pans. Preheat oven to 325º.
Mix oil, sugar and eggs. Beat until creamy. Add flour one cup at a time, then put in cocoa, vinegar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, food coloring and buttermilk. Beat until creamy.
Bake 35 minutes. Cool before frosting. (I freeze the layers and put a thin coat of frosting on before the final frosting step. This is a very tender cake that falls apart and creates lots of crumbs, so this helps!)
*****************************************************************
-Cream Cheese Frosting-
1 8-oz. package cream cheese, softened
1 16-oz package powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring
½ cup chopped nuts (optional)
2 tablespoons milk (or more, if the frosting is too thick)
Mix all ingredients together until creamy, then add nuts (optional).
**Note from Laura: "I usually make 1.5-2 times the frosting recipe."**
Preseason Has Arrived!
The Metropolitan Opera Chorus is back in action after a rejuvinating summer break. We’re ready for 8 weeks of music, memorization, and maybe just a touch of mayhem. (Not surprising since we have 23 shows to learn this season!)
A colorful picture of bass Jason Hendricks' season in a nutshell. (Photo: Jason Hendricks.)
Summer is over for the Metropolitan Opera Chorus, if you can believe it! After 9 weeks of rest, relaxation, and recharging involving beach vacations and many cherished hours spent with family, the chorus started preseason rehearsals on Monday, July 23rd.
What is "preseason" exactly? It can be summed up in three words: practice, practice, practice.
For the past four weeks, we’ve been nestled in our seats in List Hall with a mountain of scores, singing through at least 14 different operas. On many days, after our musical rehearsals, we’ve descended a few flights of stairs to the Met’s rehearsal studios to stage Samson et Dalila with Darko Tresnjak, the show's brilliant director. In the next five weeks, we'll also be staging the other shows that will greet us in the first few weeks (and months) of the season, such as La Fanciulla del West, Aida, La bohème, and Nico Muhly’s scintillating new opera Marnie, which premieres at the Met in October.
Chorusmaster Donald Palumbo rehearsing the chorus in List Hall. (Photo: Lianne Coble-Dispensa)
Of course, in the few weeks preceding opening night, we’ll be heading to stage to run through each opera in costume with lighting, sets, soloists, and the incomparable Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.
We're also thrilled to welcome three new full-time members of the Met Chorus: tenor Brian Anderson, soprano Abigail Mitchell, and baritone Jonathan Scott. All three have cut their teeth in the Met's Extra Chorus (who join us for operas that require larger groups of singers, such as Samson et Dalila, Turandot, Otello, and the Verdi Requiem, to name a few), and now they're primed and ready to take on the herculean effort of memorizing dozens of shows in a relatively short period of time!
For now, all of us are happy to be back in the groove, concentrating on vocal technique, musicality, dynamics, repetition, and memorization of the 23 shows the chorus will participate in this season. We’ve got our work cut out for us, but we love our job, and there’s no place we’d rather be!
Some lovely chorus ladies getting prepared for rehearsal in List Hall! (Photo: Lianne Coble-Dispensa)
Welcome to the Met Opera Chorus Book Club!
Between scenes in an opera, Met choristers can sometimes have a bit of time on their hands. For some of us, this time was spent reading, and discussing, some great literature. Now we'd like to open up our Met Opera Chorus Book Club to all of YOU! Bass chorister (and Met Chorus Committee Chair) Ned Hanlon will get you up to speed on what we're reading at the beginning of the season.
Adina (played by Andriana Chuchman) reading to the chorus in Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore. Photo: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera
The daily life of an opera chorister is dictated by the whims of the opera that they are singing. Sometimes, composers can’t get enough of the chorus; in operas like Turandot or Nabucco we only leave the stage long enough to change costumes and prepare for our next entrance. But other times, it seems like the composer… umm... well… kind of forgot about us! In operas like Così fan tutte or Die Meistersinger there are lengthy breaks between entrances. So what is an opera chorister supposed to do backstage when we find ourselves on one of these breaks? For many of us the answer is easy: read a book!
We've had a Met Opera Chorus Book Club going for a few years now and have read (and discussed backstage) a wide range of literature from Infinite Jest to Between the World and Me to The Brothers Karamazov. But this year we want to do something different; we’re focusing on the operas we're performing this season, and opening our club up to you!
Each month, we’ll pick one book based upon an opera currently on the Met stage. Sometimes it will be source material or background, sometimes another telling of the same story, and maybe even sometimes a book just barely related that we've been looking for an excuse to read! When the opera opens, we’ll post an article about that book aound opening night which we’d love to turn into a discussion with you on our Facebook Page.
So, without further ado, here are the three books we’ll be reading to open the season:
September: Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger
for La bohème by Giacomo Puccini (opening September 25th)
The Met opens its legendary Zefferelli production of La bohème on the second night of the season. Where better to start then to go back to the stories that inspired the opera? If you are an ebook person you can get it free here, but if you prefer your books made of paper, there is a pretty good chance you should be able to find it at your local bookstore (mine is from The Strand which, as of writing, has a few copies).
October: Marnie by Winston Graham
for Marnie by Nico Muhly (opening October 19th)
Hitchcock's 1964 film made substantial changes to the plot of Graham’s novel. Muhly goes back to the source material for the opera's inspiration and is more faithful than the film to the original. This is going to be a little harder to find; the New York Public Library has no copies (!), nor does the Strand (!!!). However, a kindle book and a hard copy are available on Amazon.
November: The Master and Margherita by Mikhail Bulgakov
for Mefistofele by Arrigo Boito (opening November 8th)
With a story as well-known as Faust, we can probably stray a bit further from the source material. Sure, you can (and should) read Goethe’s Faust or Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, but this is a legend that has been told many times, and maybe nowhere with as much madness as in this book. You shouldn't have any trouble finding a copy of The Master and Margherita at your local book store.
3 Months, 3 Operas, 3 Books!
So there it is: Part 1 of the Met Opera Chorus Book Club! We hope you can join us on this project. We'll all gain some new perspective on the operas we know and love, and strong foundations on those that are new to us.
See you at the Met and Happy Reading!
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 spent this past summer singing on a cruise ship from the Mediterranean to the Baltic with his beautiful wife, soprano Tanya Roberts. His first novel is is due to be released
this winter
...
at the end of the 2019-20 season
... umm... someday? Check out his website and follow him on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
A Day In The Life: Anne Dyas, Staff Performer and Superheroine
Check out a day in the life of Anne Dyas, a beloved member of the full-time Staff Performer roster, and you'll find out why the Met Chorus isn't the only group of performers with a claim to the craziest schedule in the opera house!
There is a group of performers in the Metropolitan Opera that are often overlooked and underappreciated, and those people are the staff performers (also known as supernumeraries). Staff performers are the non-speaking characters in an opera, and their presence and participation is fundamental to the success of any production on the Met stage. (Think of the clowns in Pagliacci, the myriad soldiers in the Aida triumphal scene, the warriors and female druids in Norma, and the men hammering anvils in Il Trovatore, to name only a few of the countless roles supernumeraries play.) Anne Dyas, the ONLY female full-time member of the staff performers roster (and a 10-year veteran!) has seen her fair share of stage time. Here, she'll give you a taste of how crazy a day in the life of a staff performer can get!
Photo: Leslie Hassler
I had only been back in NYC from The Midsummer in Oxford Shakespeare Program for a few months when I heard about auditions to be a full-time actor at the Met. This job came along at just the right time for me. I was young enough to make that kind of commitment, but old enough to know what such a commitment entailed. I have since been in over 81 productions and over 1,400 performances at the Met. When I was graduating with my BFA in Acting from Texas State University, I had never given a career in opera a single thought. After attending The Circle in The Square conservatory, and being trained by B.H. Barry in stage combat for two years, a role in Franco Zeffirelli’s Carmen opened up, and I got to “fight” my way into the company.
The girl with the Q-tip earring.
I usually get up around 7:30am, and I need about 15 minutes of pretending to be awake to function. I always get in the shower before my husband (Met Chorus tenor Jeremy Little), while he makes coffee for me (he’s so good to me). We typically need to be at the Met at the same time every morning (leave at 9:15, arrive by 10:00am), so we have a whole routine worked out combining a little relaxation with planning out a part of the day where we get to connect.
A brief moment of calm before the storm.
Morning dress rehearsals begin at 10:00am, while the show from the night before often ends around 11:30pm, so there's usually only a 10-11 hour break between the time I leave the stage to the time I return to the exact same place! I have about 30 minutes to pin-curl my hair, put on my wig, do a full face of makeup, and get into costume (with the help one of our fabulous dressers: corsets don’t lace themselves!). I’ve got it down to a science now, so I usually shovel in some breakfast and check emails simultaneously (a must since our schedules change quite frequently).
Sometimes any chair will do for a quick sit!
On any given day at the Met, there are rehearsals for different shows going on in different rooms throughout the building, and I can be called to all of them at the same time. I often fantasize that the directors fight behind closed doors to see who gets to have me that day! Rehearsals on the Main Stage take priority, but this means that as soon as I’m released from the Main Stage, I get out of costume and am running to the next thing.
Semiramide glam.
A sample day in February saw me rehearsing Semiramide from 10:00am-2:30pm, (running downstairs for a concurrent Elektra rehearsal from 11:00am-1:30pm), and La Bohème from 2:30pm-5:30pm, followed by the evening performance of L’Elisir d’Amore from 7:00pm-10:15pm. A rehearsal in the 5th Floor Studio is 9 stories away from a rehearsal in one of the three C-Level studios. According to my fitness tracker app, on average I walk 3.5 miles a day just in the building!
Anne makes the poster outside of the Met fairly frequently. :-)
Lunch is usually something that I grab from the Met Cafeteria. Broccoli cheddar soup day is my favorite! I also drink a ton of water with lemons. There are water coolers in essentially every room in the building, so it’s easy to stay hydrated.
Boheme bonnet action.
I think it takes a lot of muscle memory to do this job. It also takes a lot of brainpower to switch gears between Rossini, Strauss, Puccini, and Donizetti in one day. I’m frequently counting bars at the beginning of a rehearsal process, and within a few days I intuitively know when to move.
Or, with a show like La Bohème, which I’ve been in for ten years, I can carry on a whole conversation with Colline and move him out of the path of a horse and carriage without blinking, all while drinking “vino da tavola” and wearing 4-inch heels.
Rehearsals last until 5:30pm, and after 7.5 hours of rehearsals I run down to Columbus Circle and take a Pure Barre class. I’ve found that with this job, carving out time for myself is essential. Discovering Pure Barre (especially since it’s close to Lincoln Center) has been a game changer for me. It keeps me in shape and limber for all the different roles and physical characters I play. Plus, my mind gets a dose of modern music for 50 minutes! After class, Jeremy and I grab a quick bite and a smooch before our dress call for the evening performance. I’m so glad we work together, or we’d probably never see each other!
At 7:00pm, I’m back in the 3rd Floor dressing room to begin the process of getting ready all over again: adding more makeup, curling my hair for an up-do, or getting into another wig. Plus, more corsets! Three in L’Elisir, to be exact. At 7:23pm, the call to stage comes, and moments later the show is underway. Two intermissions, an offstage quick-change, a coffee/snack, and three costumes later, the curtains close on another exciting performance!
I change back into my street clothes (as we call them) and meet Jeremy to catch the uptown 1 train, so we can go home, watch an episode of Seinfeld, and hit the hay before getting up and doing it all over again the next day!
Be sure to follow ALL the activities of the Met Opera Supers on Instagram @metoperasupers
Where Are They Now, Volume 1: Growing Up In The Met Family
In our first of many profiles, we meet Bryan Zaros, a former children's chorister who took the lessons he learned from his time at the Met and applied them to a career in music!
The children's chorus at the Met is chock-full of talented kids, and, not surprisingly, many of them grow up and go on to pursue musical professions. In our first of many profiles, we meet Bryan Zaros, who spent six years with the Met as a youngster, and learned many important lessons that would serve him well in his future musical career.
by Sara Heaton
All of us have, most likely, pulled an all-nighter at some point in our lives. For the former Met Children’s Chorus member Bryan Zaros, his first was as a twelve-year-old. “I had to work very hard to make up the work I missed [due to Met rehearsals and performances]. I remember I had some reading assignment, I had to write an essay, it was due the next day. My parents were like, alright we’re going to bed. You need to finish this... I did my first all nighter.” Juggling the rigorous rehearsal and performance schedule along with school responsibilities is a huge commitment for these youngsters.
But was it worth it? Bryan thinks so. “The more I participated in the opera, the more I fell in love with it.”
A modern-day Bryan Zaros, conducting Brahms 4th Symphony.
In fact, his six years in the Children’s Chorus set him on the path to dedicate his life to music. Soon after joining the Met chorus and discovering his love for singing, he joined the Church of the Transfiguration Choir of Men & Boys, and built an impressive career as a boy soprano. Bryan is now an up-and-coming conductor and has been the Associate Choirmaster at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine since 2016. He was just recently appointed Music Director of the Pro Arte Chorale, and is finishing his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Conducting at the Manhattan School of Music.
Bryan (center, in brown vest) in the 1996-97 Zeffirelli production of Carmen.
As a nine-year-old boy, however, he never would have imagined this path for himself. His mother dragged him to the Children’s Chorus audition. She heard Itzak Perlman on a radio interview talk about his daughter’s involvement in the chorus, and latched onto the idea for her own children, Bryan and his younger sister. Though he had been studying piano and percussion, the idea of singing in a chorus was much less appealing than soccer and baseball.
Much to his surprise, the audition itself is what sealed the deal. Elena Doria had him sing “Happy Birthday” in several different keys, did some vocal warm ups with him, and spoke a bit about vocal and breathing technique. He loved it, and was asked to join right away. His sister joined later that year.
Thus began his family’s life at the Met. His parents attended every rehearsal and performance they were involved in. They would often get tickets for the kids’ teachers and bring them on backstage tours so they could appreciate the significance and importance of the commitment (and understand why they were missing so much school!). Bryan got to know the ushers, the security guards, and the musical staff, and still is in touch with many of them who continue to work there. He still knows the building like the back of his hand due to mid-show “shenanigans” of hide-and-seek.
Some favorite memories of his time there were the interactions with the principal singers. He would visit with Pavarotti in his dressing room; Domingo played quarters with the kids in the cafeteria; and once Roberto Alagna gave a bouquet of flowers to his sister.
Bryan (center, on the horse) in the 1996-97 Zeffirelli production of Carmen.
Even more entrenched in his memory are the life lessons of professionalism and discipline that he learned on his very first day of rehearsal as a super in Rusalka. “I wasn’t aware of the discipline and decorum in rehearsal. I was talking up a storm, I had no idea. Elena ran up to me and kicked me out of the opera.” It was a mistake he never made again.
“The Met experience built in me that professional standard, the love of doing something really well, and I think the habit of working really hard and not going to sleep until it’s done. I learned those skills really, really early on. It has to be your best, you really deserve to give it your best.”
He sang and performed in countless operas during his six-year tenure, many of the classics such as Carmen, Tosca, and La Bohème. Also memorable were the less often performed works such as Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. The children were dressed as fairies in tutu costumes and had to dip their fingers in red paint to imply the fairies’ berry-eating habits. “The paint would never come off. I’d have to go to school the next day and explain to everybody why I had red hands.” In Eugene Onegin, the last opera he performed on the Met stage, he and his sister were featured waltzing together around the stage. “I remember taking my look out, [and thinking] this is the last time I’m going to see it from here. I remember that being very special, and it was neat to end [my Met career] with my younger sister.”
Bryan conducting the combined choirs at St. John the Divine's 2018 Easter service.
Though his musical focus has shifted from opera to liturgical choral music, his Met experience as a kid set the foundation for a life in music, and will always stay with him. “I think it was the captivating experience of being at the Met that just proved to me how powerful music was and how inspiring it was, and meaningful, and that it was worth committing my life to.”
Sara Heaton began her Met career in 2014 in the Extra Chorus, and joined as a full time member in 2016. When not singing, Sara enjoys cooking, gardening, exploring the outdoors, and tasting her husband’s cocktail creations. They’re proud to make their home in Beacon, NY in the beautiful Hudson Valley.
Giuseppe Verdi’s Dramatic Realization, or How a Prudent and Pressing Publisher Can Make Dreams Come True
School’s in sesson! Met Chorus tenor Dr. Jeremy Little (who just got his doctorate in musical arts at SUNY Stonybrook) shares with us the story of how Giuseppe Verdi emerged from retirement to transition from a formal compositional style to a more through-composed form, which you'll witness when you join us for Otello and Falstaff next season...
Arguably no operatic composer evolved more in his compositional style than Giuseppe Verdi, his works comprising four distinct periods. Scholar Julian Budden refers to Verdi’s early period (Nabucco, Ernani) as using “Code Rossini,” the conventions and templates for form familiar to us also in the operas of Donizetti and Bellini. This is often referred to as “Italian number opera” and offers labels such as aria, duet, trio, finale, etc. In Verdi’s middle period (Rigoletto, La Traviata, and Il Trovatore) and late period (Simon Boccanegra, Don Carlos), we see him continue to develop these conventions in a larger scale structure, while honing his attention to detail. Verdi’s late period ended in 1871 with Aida, and for more than 15 years he lived in retirement at Sant’Agata, his beloved country estate. (“Retired” is a stretch, as Verdi was still heartily at work composing his Messa di Requiem and revising Simon Boccanegra and Don Carlos.) What came next could not have been predicted by anyone, with Otello and Falstaff, through-composed and full of a fresh, young energy, carving out his final period. Georges Bizet touched on a familiar reaction to these two operas with his well-known comment, “Verdi is no longer Italian. He is following Wagner.” This is a common preliminary thought, but what is not often discussed is Verdi’s lifelong desire to see Italian opera evolve for dramatic reasons. (It is noteworthy that Verdi’s first known exposure to Richard Wagner’s music was the overture to Tannhäuser at a concert in Paris in 1865, and then in 1871 when he attended Lohengrin in Bologna with a score in hand.) Thanks to the preservation of much of his correspondence with librettists, conductors, and colleagues, we are able to glimpse behind the scenes and see some of what the Italian master was thinking long before this.
An 1860 caricature of Verdi by Melchiorre Delfico.
One of the earliest instances was in an 1848 letter to librettist Salvatore Cammarano. Cammarano (Lucia di Lammermoor, Luisa Miller, and much of Il Trovatore), involved in casting a production of Macbeth, received this note from Verdi: “I understand you are rehearsing Macbeth...(Eugenia) Tadolini, I believe, is to sing Lady Macbeth...You know how highly I regard Tadolini, and she herself knows it, but for the sake of us all I feel I must say this to you: Tadolini’s qualities are far too fine for this role... Tadolini has a beautiful and attractive figure, and I want Lady Macbeth to be ugly and evil. Tadolini sings to perfection, and I don’t want Lady Macbeth to sing at all. Tadolini has a wonderful voice, clear, flexible, strong, while Lady Macbeth’s voice should be hard, stifled and dark. Tadolini’s voice is angelic; I want Lady Macbeth’s to be diabolic.”
Here we see Verdi obsessively concerned with the dramatic elements of a character: the physical stature of this singer in regards to her being suited to the role, then with the abstract: absence (or the intimation of absence) of singing. In this same vein, Verdi also allowed vocal parts to be transposed if he desired a singer for dramatic purposes but they were not able to sing an aria in the original key. For a composer so greatly recognized by his construction of melody and retention of Italian tradition, these ideas are provocative and intriguing.
In 1851, the year Rigoletto was complete, Verdi wrote, “If in opera there were neither cavatinas, duets, trios, choruses, finales, et cetera, and the whole work consisted, let’s say, of a single number I should find that all the more right and proper.”
To this unusual sentiment Budden remarks, “These are the words of a Wagner or Berlioz.” Yet Rigoletto was far from having “a single number,” as Act I alone has ten of them.
In 1854, between La Traviata (1853) and Les vêpres siciliennes (1855), Verdi wrote, “When will the poet come who will give Italy a vast and powerful opera, free of every convention, various, uniting all its elements, and above all, new!!” Verdi’s letters to his librettists are ripe with frustrations, many times seeing the composer taking the reigns to the point of nearly becoming Schumann’s poet and composer in one, that role which Wagner successfully undertook. Here we see that Verdi saw, in his desire to be free of the constraints of convention, that the answer would be found in a librettist.
Verdi saw many young Italians following Wagner’s lead and, in an 1884 correspondence about this dreadful trend, he wrote of Giacomo Puccini, “The symphonic element, however, tends to be predominant in him. Nothing wrong with that, but one needs to tread cautiously here. Opera is opera, and the symphony is the symphony and I do not believe it’s a good thing to insert a piece of symphony into an opera, simply for the pleasure of making the orchestra perform.” An 1889 letter to conductor Franco Faccio states, “If the Germans, stemming from Bach, arrive at Wagner, they are doing as good Germans should, and that is fine. But for us, descendents of Palestrina, to imitate Wagner is to commit a musical crime, and we are doing something useless, even harmful.”
Through these correspondences, we see a complex man, one deeply committed to the Italian tradition, but also deeply committed to seeing growth and evolution, especially in order for the drama to flourish. The move from theory to practice with this element came from an unlikely partnership.
Giulio Ricordi, Verdi’s publisher, believed the post-Aida retirement to be a tragedy, a waste of talent (as well as a loss of profit for the publisher), so he set out on a strategic venture to bring Verdi out of retirement with a new opera. As early as 1868, Ricordi had urged Verdi to revise Simon Boccanegra, but the composer refused. Believing this to be an important and worthwhile endeavor, Ricordi again approached Verdi in 1879 with the idea of this revision, at the same time dropping the idea of composing a new opera based on William Shakespeare’s Othello. Fully realizing Verdi’s obsession with the dramatic quality of a work, Ricordi knew that if Verdi were to agree to a new undertaking it would need to be flawless, appealing particularly to Verdi, both in the subject matter as well as the librettist that would be presenting Verdi with verse.
Boito & Verdi (from L to R), hanging out.
In a letter to one of Puccini’s librettists, Giuseppe Adami, Ricordi recounted a particular evening in Paris: “The idea of a new opera arose during a dinner among friends, when I turned the conversation, by chance, on Shakespeare and on Boito. At the mention of Othello I saw Verdi fix his eyes on me, with suspicion, but with interest. He had certainly understood; he had certainly reacted. I believed the time was ripe.”
What followed was unusual for many reasons. Arrigo Boito had, as a young man, created an adversary in Verdi when he criticized the established Italian composers for relying more on formula that form. These many years later, however, Verdi moved past old pains and revised Simon Boccanegra with Boito, a seeming trial run for the possibility of a collaboration on Otello. Boito was not like other librettists: Boito had theater craft convictions, Boito had achieved a modest degree of success as an opera composer, and was an admirer of composers outside the Italian realm, particularly Wagner and Meyerbeer. These traits would come to play an important role.
In the first letter from Verdi to Boito concerning the draft verse for Otello, Verdi addressed the moment immediately following Otello’s public striking of Desdemona. He wanted to break with the Shakespeare here, and have Otello rally the troops-- introducing a foreign element to perpetuate the action-- but Boito offered a differing view. According to Roger Parker, “Boito strongly disagreed: for him Otello was above all a modern, claustrophobic, psychological drama, one that took place essentially within the psyche, in the realm Wagner liked to call that of the ‘inner drama’, a place of dense symbolic meaning in which characters are trapped, deprived of autonomy. To have Otello heroically rally his troops would have shattered the spell. But what is most striking about the difference of opinion is that Verdi – earlier a veritable tyrant in his dealings with librettists – gave way to Boito, trusting the younger man’s perception of what modern drama needed.”
While many hear vestiges of the Italian number opera in Otello, the departure from those conventions in Falstaff is undeniable. Here we see a major change for Verdi (musically and personally), one that allowed him to realize the dramatic evolution he had desired for over three decades. For the first time, he trusted a librettist in the truest sense of collaboration, a collaboration that became a partnership, and, in the end, a friendship that ushered in a grand finale to an already incomparable legacy.
Sources:
Julian Budden, Verdi
Charles Osborne, The Letters of Giuseppe Verdi
Roger Parker, The New Grove Guide to Verdi and His Operas
Other fun readings:
Philip Gossett, “Verdi, Ghislanzoni, and ‘Aida’: The Uses of Convention,” Critical Inquiry 1, no. 2. 1974
Mary Ann Smart, “In Praise of Convention: Formula and Experiment in Bellini’s Self- Borrowings,” Journal of the American Musicological Society, 53, no.1, 2000
Gary Tomlinson, “Learning to Curse at Sixty-Seven.” Cambridge Opera Journal 14,
no. 1/2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002
Photo: Leslie Hassler
Jeremy Little was born on a farm in the middle of nowhere in the South and began piano lessons at age 3. Though distracted by football, farming, fence-mending, and occasional fishing, he eventually found his way to the Big Apple. He is a graduate of Louisiana State University, the Juilliard School, and Stony Brook University with vocal performance degrees, but often wonders if he would have made a good Forester. Before joining the Met Opera Chorus in 2008, Jeremy fondly remembers singing Roméo (Anchorage Opera), Nemorino and Fenton (Des Moines), Miss Lonelyhearts and Lysander (Juilliard Opera Center), Mosca and King Ouf (Wolf Trap; Volpone was Grammy-nominated), Edgardo (Aspen Opera Theater), Male Chorus (Stony Brook Opera), and multiple recitals with Steven Blier and NYFOS. In the rare moments spent outside the opera house, Jeremy enjoys doing pretty much anything with his beautiful wife, (Met Opera Actress) Anne, and his strapping son, Myles.
Outreach Corner: ArtSmart, Run By Met Artists!
When Met Extra Choristers Megan Pachecano & Tom Mulder aren’t performing on the Met stage, they’re molding young minds with an organization called ArtSmart, which was founded by Met Opera favorite Michael Fabiano. Read on to hear about all the wonderful work they’re doing to provide private vocal instruction (and much more) to kids in the metro area!
Anyone who thinks that opera singers are self-interested divas should take a peek at ArtSmart, an educational outreach organization started by Met favorite Michael Fabiano, and maintained with joy and commitment by Met Opera Extra Choristers Megan Pachecano & Tom Mulder. The Met Artists Newsletter sat down with Megan & Tom to find out more about the amazing work they're doing with some very talented young adults who go to school right here in the New York metro area.
Some excited students of ArtSmart's East Side High School pilot program, after a performance.
by Megan Pachecano, Tom Mulder, with contributions by Lianne Coble-Dispensa
How did you get involved with ArtSmart?
Tom: I got an email in the spring of 2016 from Michael Fabiano saying he was interested in speaking about a teaching opportunity for the coming school year. I chatted with him and Co-Founder John Viscardi about their new organization ArtSmart, and their vision for changing the landscape of arts education in underserved communities, and I was immediately hooked. I started teaching at our Pilot Program at East Side High School in Newark that fall, and picked up some of the administrative duties for the organization because I felt so passionately about the cause.
Megan: I've been working with ArtSmart for a little over a year. Tom recommended me for the Marketing & Communications position because he knew that I had past experience at a digital advertising agency. I think it's a testament to the versatility of artists (and a prime example of the education and opportunities we're trying to give our students) that Tom and I have come full circle from singing together in regional opera productions and a young artist program, to working together to help build a new nonprofit arts organization, and now back again to being artistic colleagues at the Met!
What attracted you to the organization, and why did you want to work there?
Megan: ArtSmart is doing something completely different than a lot of other organizations out there, and on a larger scale too. We are giving weekly private lessons (which are usually a cost-prohibitive educational extracurricular) to talented students who deserve access to these teachers just as much as the next kid. As someone who was fortunate to have piano and voice lessons as a child, I know firsthand what a significant impact that had on my life. What about the many talented, deserving kids out there whose families just can't afford it? I take immense pride in working for an organization that is striving to close that privilege gap.
Tom: I had been teaching at a wonderful private school in New Jersey and looked forward to engaging a different kind of student and growing as a teacher and a person. But the thing that I found most attractive about ArtSmart was that they wanted to use data to create a powerful argument for stopping the cuts in arts education. We track absences, tardies, disciplinary actions, and GPAs, and monitor whether those areas improve when students are involved in the ArtSmart program. So far the results have been staggering even within in our small sample.
What inspires you about the organization?
Megan: The people who work for ArtSmart all care so much. The mentors can't stop talking about their amazing students. When I talk to John on the phone, I hear the excitement in his voice about the work we're doing and the dreams he has for the organization. I see Michael posting on Instagram from a dressing room across the world and then five minutes later I get an email in my inbox about something he remembered we need to do for the organization. This is a team who is ready to make a difference, and they inspire me.
Tom Mulder, working his magic at ArtSmart.
What is ArtSmart's mission, and how does it differ from other non-profit arts organizations? What need does it fill in the community that was not being filled?
Megan: We are an organization that empowers students in underserved communities to develop their skills as musicians and artists through high-level technical training and cultural immersion. But the key difference in our organization is the importance we place on mentorship. In meeting with their voice teachers each week, students benefit socially, developmentally, and academically from consistent one-on-one guidance. There is also an incredible amount of research available about the effect of music on child development. The inaugural class of the 2016-17 pilot year showed a significant decrease in disciplinary action and absenteeism compared to their previous school years, and the average GPA of our ArtSmart students jumped 0.9 points over the course of the year. As a group, they also reported a marked increase in desire to pursue a college education. There's just no denying results like these, and it propels us forward.
Tom: We call our teachers mentors because our primary goal for our students is to prepare them for life after high school, no matter what career path they choose. We do not expect all of our students to apply to Juilliard (though some of them will), but we do expect them to learn responsibility, how to communicate, and the skills to learn and research what they are passionate about. Our hope is that whether our kids become doctors or electricians or musicians, that they will be strong learners and communicators.
From left to right: Michael Fabiano, Megan Pachecano, and Tom Mulder. All of them work for ArtSmart, and all of them performed at the Metropolitan Opera 50th Anniversary Gala (where this picture was taken!).
The two of you, and co-founders of ArtSmart Michael Fabiano and John Viscardi, are professional singers. Does working as a performer help you with ArtSmart?
Megan: Absolutely! Actually everyone in the organization is a performer. Michael, John, and percussionist Brian Levor co-founded the organization with the help of our general counsel, Liz Letak, who is a pianist. All of the mentors they then hired are professional singers in their own right who perform all around the world in many capacities. We take so much of what we are experiencing on stage and in our own artistic endeavors and give it back to our students. Creating art with people across the country gives me a "big picture" outlook and helps me realize what's actually important to focus on in my own personal teaching.
What is the future of the organization? What do you hope to accomplish in the next few years?
Megan: For the 2018-19 school year, ArtSmart is on track to more than triple our number of programs and serve ten schools. We'll also launch our group program, "Amplify - Youth Voices for Positive Change," as well as a multi-week master class series with Michael at the Ruth Asawa School for the Arts in San Francisco.
Tom: We hope to expand to over 100 schools within five years and create a strong statistical argument based on what many of us know anecdotally: when students are engaged in an area about which they are passionate, they are not only more excited to come to school, but perform better when they are there.
Is there anything else you'd like us to know about ArtSmart?
Megan: We are a very young, but growing organization. We can only offer these lessons and continue expanding our program to more schools with the help of fellow music lovers and supporters of arts education. Some choose to give a monthly donation through our Patreon page, some give a one-time donation through our website, and some give through our social media channels like facebook. Every little bit helps to give these students quality music education that they would not otherwise have access to. And it is a joy to see just how much they are thriving because of it!
Megan Pachecano and Tom Mulder are Extra Choristers at the Metropolitan Opera. Both are graduates of the Masters program at the Manhattan School of Music, and they work together for the nonprofit organization ArtSmart, which provides free weekly voice lessons to students in Newark, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and soon, New York City. Tom is the VP of Operations as well as one of the Newark voice teachers, and Megan handles Marketing and Communications for the organization.
Get excited: the 2018-2019 Met Opera season is right around the corner!
All of us at the Metropolitan Opera may be dreaming of our future vacations, daytime naps, sandy beaches, and maybe a frosty tropical beverage or two, but you can bet our eyes are already set on the operatic gems we'll be presenting next season! If you're trying to figure out what shows to include in your subscription package, then click here to see what members of the Met Chorus are looking forward to performing!
As we wind down the 2017-18 season and look forward our much-deserved vacations, there’s still a flicker of excitement that will remain with all of us in the Met Opera chorus, and that is the promise of an exciting season to come! The 2018-19 season line-up looks smashing: great casting, beautiful sets, exciting new productions, and, of course, the exquisite music itself. Trying to decide what shows to see can be daunting: I mean, why not see them all?! However, if you need some help deciding on your subscription package, why not get the inside scoop from some actual opera professionals? We're here to help, as always.
Here’s what members of the Met Chorus are particularly excited about, in their own words:
Dan Smith: "There are plenty of revivals I will love (La Fanciulla del West is one!), but I’m most looking forward to the new productions of Samson et Dalila, La Traviata, Marnie & Adriana Lecouvreur. Samson has great choral music, a cool-looking, modern set, and Maestro Mark Elder, whom I remember fondly from doing the opera in 2001. We usually get the best seats in the house for the Bacchanale — I can’t wait to see how choreographer Austin McCormick treats the super-charged dance. And the singing will surely be phenomenal with Garanča and Alagna! The new La Traviata looks lush and stylish, and our new Music Director Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin will help us shape a new treatment of Verdi’s classic. Marnie will no doubt give us lots of musical textures to explore, since Nico Muhly has always been a champion of choral music. I always love diving into a brand new score! Adriana Lecouvreur features some of my favorite Met Opera singers — Anna Netrebko and Piotr Beczala, who always bring dramatic involvement and supreme music making. It features a pretty small chorus — I sure hope I’m cast in that one!"
Mary Hughes: "Dialogues of the Carmelites! I have done it a few times and it’s an emotional roller coaster that has the most frenzied, brutal, and heroic end. I think that is the only show that I’ve ever cried in...maybe Suor Angelica, too, which is also coming back."
Liz Sciblo: "Dialogues of the Carmelites: one of the most exquisite pieces of music along with one of the saddest TRUE stories that many people don’t even know happened. This is an important piece that I wish was performed more often.
Falstaff: One of the best and most imaginative productions I’ve ever seen. This comedic opera is perfection.
Samson et Dalila: Two words - Elīna Garanča. Enough said."
Sara Heaton: "The show that pops out for me is Marnie. I saw Nico Muhly’s Two Boys at the Met before I was in the chorus and thought it was one of the most exciting opera experiences I’ve ever had. The story had me on the edge of my seat, and the music told the story in such a poignant and compelling way. I have no doubt that Marnie will be a similar experience, except that this time I (might) be experiencing it from the other side! Plus, it includes two other loves of mine: Hitchcock, and 1950's style. I have a feeling this will be a must-see for next season."
Photo: Joshua South Photography
Lianne Coble-Dispensa: "As a lighter voiced soprano, I went through college unimpressed with anything Wagner wrote. ("Too loud." "God, just cadence already.") But this job has made me a complete Wagner convert, and I'm thankful for that, because the depth of feeling in his music is off the charts. One of my favorite pieces of orchestral music is Siegfried's Funeral March from Götterdämmerung. I absolutely cannot WAIT to see the show, and hear the world-class MET Orchestra play that stirring, exciting, heroic, unfathomably moving piece. I have goosebumps just thinking about it."
Edward Albert: "Boïto’s Mefistofele was part of the Met’s inaugural season in 1883, racking up 67 performances here to date. I’ve never seen the opera, but often listened to highlights from the Caballe/Domingo/Treigle recording (do you remember vinyl highlight LPs?). In the famous Prologue and Epilogue, I think we’ll all be carried aloft by tremendous waves of sound. To paraphrase a Met slogan, 'The music must be heard — LIVE'."
Lynn Taylor: "Marnie! My favorite author Winston Graham wrote the book, Hitchcock filmed it to rave reviews, and the leads are Isabel Leonard and Christopher Maltman; how could it not be fabulous? Also Mefistofele, a favorite opera of mine, in which I recently saw my favorite bass (husband Steven Fredericks)!"
Meredith Woodend: "What exciting programming the 2018-19 season holds! Here are just a few highlights that I think are worth running to the box office for:
Samson et Dalila opens the season. It’s a story of love, betrayal and duty with voluptuous music and an incredible cast. The role of Dalila will be split between Elīna Garanča and Anita Rachvelishvili, two powerhouse mezzo-sopranos that know how to tell a story. Roberto Alagna and Aleksandrs Antonenko will definitely be their equal in the role of Samson. This promises to be a spectacular start to the season.
La Clemenza di Tito brings forth a cast that will give new meaning to vocal acrobatics. Lead by Matthew Polenzani, Joyce DiDonato, Elza van den Heever, Christian Van Horn, Ying Fang and Paula Murrihy. I can't imagine better casting for this beautiful piece.
La Traviata gets a makeover with a gorgeous set designed by Michael Mayer. One of the most exciting things about this reimagining, aside from the aesthetics and the incredibly talented musicians, is that our fearless leader will join us in the pit. We are looking forward to Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin leading the extraordinary cast and incomparable MET orchestra.
Marnie is the new creation of composer Nico Muhly that will star the ever-talented Isabel Leonard.
Die Walküre is sure to blow the roof off the opera house. This will be an evening to remember."
Check out the exciting season to come, and pick up a subscription while you're at it, so you can lock down those seats for your favorite shows! We can't wait to see you in September!