Gratitude & Bikes & Plans

This year was lots of fun!

In addition to the shows my program at McGill produced, I had experienced my first season as Artistic Director for TriCities Opera. Both seasons were filled with such amazing collaborations between singers, conductors, directors, designers, pianists, orchestras, production teams, patrons, and backstage/front-of-house crews!

It was a lot of opera. Personally, I directed 6 of the 11 shows that happened this past year at Opera McGill (Ariapalooza, Essential Rossini, The Impresario, Trouble in Tahiti, The Rape of Lucretia, and Alcina) and 2 of the 4 shows at TCO (Gianni Schicchi and La Traviata). But I also produced or artistically directed (meaning I was involved in casting, scheduling, administrating, or other artistic decisions and duties) another 6 shows – 4 student directed one-acts at McGill and 2 TCO shows (Amahl and the Night Visitors and Lucidity). I had so many composers swimming in my head: Handel, Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, Britten, plus many others. When one does the math, it was 14 "shows": 12 opera titles, one scenes program, and a lobby concert.

Did I do it alone? Of course not. This type and level of operatic activity takes huge forces. Literally hundreds of people crossed into these collaborations - some so integral it would have been impossible to make any of it happen, some who did seemingly small things like pour wine onstage during two acts of Traviata (but supers are important too!), and some who gave and gave and gave of their time, talent, and craft to put it all together. I was quite humbled by all of them working so hard to bring live performances to audiences in Montreal and the Southern Tier of New York state.

Often times, people only think about the conductor and singers onstage as being the "opera". But more and more, audiences are becoming aware that opera really is a community of people all focused on bringing to life these crazy, moving, emotionally-charged, gorgeous, funny, tragic pieces that are communicated on multi-levels of art. From the carefully chosen colors of the costumes to the painstakingly timed lighting shifts to the thousands of hours spent on perfecting the details of the musical score with its millions of notes (yes, millions!) by the singers, rehearsal pianists, conductors, and orchestra members, opera is one of those great, old-fashioned art forms that brings together the artistic and the artisanal.

A few shout outs to my partners in crime: Stephen Hargreaves, Opera McGill's music director who is too amazing for words and Giovanni Reggioli, TCO's music director who is also too amazing for words. They are both musical geniuses, and I don't use that word lightly. The fact that they aren't both having huge international careers still makes me laugh at the absurdity that is the classical music business. Neither have great maestro hair or the stereotypical countenances associated with the job. Both are quite literally two of the greatest musicians I've ever been in a room with, and both share a love for music, making music with others, and sharing their knowledge with young and old alike. I challenge anyone to play from the full score of Wozzeck like Stephen can, and I challenge anyone to conduct Verdi or Puccini more beautifully and from deep in their bones like Giovanni can.

Then there are all of the teams at TCO and Opera McGill: JohnR, Jennifer, AmarA*jk, JohnC, Chris, Serge, Vincent, Ginette, Florence, Claire, Stephanie, Brett, CK, Cate, Jay, Kellie, Madyson, Sean, Devon, Maureen, Martha, Richard, the coaches and voice faculty members, and so many others. Plus all of the students who not only were on the stage, but spent time supporting the shows as ADs, ASMs, SMs, Props, and LDs. None of these shows could have happened without their tireless support.

And then there's the singers... Such GREAT singing happened in my sphere from professionals and students alike. Tons of ornaments, great high notes, powerful musical moments, beautiful tones, and yes, some not so beautiful tones (usually planned!). Lots of rehearsing. Mostly rehearsing. Tons of rehearsing. Actually hundreds and hundreds of hours of rehearsing. When one puts the hours of rehearsals next to the actual number of hours in performances, the former is where all of it happens. No comparison. It's where my life in opera is centered. I'm constantly telling students that if they only want the applause, they are in the wrong business. It's about rehearsing. Failing. Being frustrated. Trying new things out. Watching others triumph and fail. Learning from it all how to do better the next time.

So what's next?

I've got a few trips planned - off to see TCO's Opera and Beer, final coachings with our wonderful RAs Kate, Darya, Jason, and Michael, hearing a couple of auditions for roles, a big design meeting. Then off to Toronto to witness the final rehearsals and opening nights of Opera 5's Toronto Opera Festival where over a dozen Opera McGill students (current and alumni) are singing in their shows (there's a link below, if you're around the GTA, get a ticket and go!) Most of June will be gardening, learning two new operas, and planning the stagings for the rest because I'll have no time to prepare once the fall starts. July might have a surprise in store for me, but that gig is not confirmed yet. Then off to Greve in Chianti to enjoy the Tuscan sun, coach singers, and stage a Suor Angelica for Bel Canto in Tuscany. It'll be our 5th summer there and it is Elizabeth's "happy place". Can't wait to see our friends and colleagues again!

Then the 26-27 season really begins. What's in store? Basically a show a month from September to May. Here are the plans:

September 30: ARIAPALOOZA for Opera McGill (OMG)

October 16 - 18: HANSEL and GRETEL for TriCities Opera (TCO)

November 13 - 14: FELLOW TRAVELERS (Canadian academic premiere) for OMG

December 11 - 13: Red WHITE and Blue CHRISTMAS for TCO

February 4 - 6: COSI FAN TUTTE for OMG in Pollack Hall

March 5 & 7: COSI FAN TUTTE for TCO

March 19 & 20: CONSIDERING MATTHEW SHEPARD for OMG at the Paradoxe

April 24: LA BOHEME for TCO at the Forum

May 1: CONSIDERING MATTHEW SHEPARD for Toronto Mendelssohn Choir

Along the way there'll probably be two student-directed one-acts with OMG's Horizons Projects in April. These student initiated productions are extremely popular with our students and provide an amazing opportunity for singers majoring in singing to spread their multi-hyphenate wings and become directors, designers, and stage managers. As well, along with Tracy Smith Besette, I'll continue as co-coordinator of the Voice Area for Schulich School of Music.

I'm really looking forward to these nine shows. The two Cosi fan tutte productions will both follow the same concept: updating the show into the sexual revolution and women's liberation movements of the early 1960s that gives balance to the plot allowing the women characters to have a ton more to say about it all. I first did this over twenty years ago at Ithaca College and then at McGill during my first year as director of opera studies. It's one of my favorite updates I do. This time around, I'll also be conducting it! Fellow Travelers (written in 2016 by Gregory Spears) is new to me and is set in the 1950s McCarthy-era Lavender scare. Considering Matthew Shepard (also written in 2016 by Craig Hella Johnson) is an oratorio that we are going to stage in a collaboration with Jean-Sébastien Vallée's Schulich Singers and OMG at the Paradoxe Theatre. Then J-SV and I will take some of those ideas and put them into play over in Toronto with his Mendelssohn Choir. The Cosi and H&G productions at TCO are being designed to be much more immersive than recent productions there. All of this will be challenging, I'm sure, so I'm taking the time this month to get it all planned out as much as possible. Want to know what I'm doing on April 20, 2027? I can tell you with a quick look at my schedule!

So how does one find that "life balance" with all this activity? I don't know many people who are putting this many shows together in the same amount of time, but I'd love to find a few and ask them how they do it. Certainly when I first arrived in Montreal, I was basically in charge of just 3 shows and then in the summers, I'd be a part of 4 other shows. That seemed like a lot. Now my program at OMG has increased student enrollment by 150% and tripled the number of shows we regularly put up. So this life balance so many Millenials and GenZers talk about all the time?

I think for us GenXers (I'm not a boomer...), life has always been wonderfully in balance, from a certain perspective. We were always out and about. Not heavily scheduled and taxied around by our parents, but each day - particularly in the three summer months of vacation - we were pretty much free to do what we wanted. It was our choice to grab our bikes, head down to the railroad tracks for the shortcut to the pool where we'd spend a chunk of the day. Then off to a creek and walk barefoot through broken beer bottles (yes, not exaggerating) to pick up fossils. Then it was lunch time and we'd find our way back to someone's house where we'd make bologna or PB&J sandwiches. Then off to a park for little league baseball practice, then over to a piano teacher's house for a lesson. Then maybe back home for dinner. Then out again. The days were full and free. I think this trained our brains to want activity.

For many of the GenXers, they're moving into their 50s now. I'm on the front end of that generation, having grown up mostly in the 70s, HS and College in the 80s, and then life onwards never looking back. On the way, I learned to make sure I was prepared for whatever came my way - doors opening, fantastic opportunities unlooked for, and difficult people I'd run into from time to time. My time in the 1970s on my bike roaming around my town without any sort of leash while also being financially independent because I started teaching piano lessons when I was 13 taught me huge lessons about autonomy and autodidactic learning. My time learning how to sing, dance, and act on various community and HS stages taught me how to interact with other artists and to see that no matter the budget the show was strong or weak based upon the cast. My time at Simpson College and DMMO where I did practically every job in opera - from cleaning urinals, bartending, being a super, calling donors for money, being an assistant conductor and rehearsal pianist, singing a few roles onstage (ah, the Emperor in Turandot) to coaching apprentice artists much older than me; all of that prepared me for my life in opera.

As an adult, it's clear I have an emotional support system that rivals many other people I know: my wife Elizabeth. She's not just a touch stone, not just the talented member of our family, not just our emotional center, she's the person I trust. The only person I trust, let's be frank. My confessor, my inspiration, my muse in many ways people would never understand. I really don't know how others get along in life without such a partner. Maybe it's why the world is so screwed up nowadays?

But if I could have a summer back to myself again, I think I'd like to be back biking my way to the Dolphin Swim Club in Council Bluffs, Iowa listening to the great pop songs from the late 70s. It was a restful time, before all the craziness of the world happened. Back when you could be on a baseball team, play Bach fugues, go to tap dancing class, and bask in the sun getting a burn you'd regret decades later without anyone thinking it strange. That past is long gone, but frankly with every new show I do, every time I step into a rehearsal room, the "scary" unknown that many fear is actually where my "happy place" is. Where it has always been since my very magical childhood.

I hope to see many of you there this coming year!

Here are links: https://www.tricitiesopera.com/ https://www.opera5.ca/ https://www.mcgill.ca/music/ensembles/opera