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A FEW MINUTES WITH: Shawn McDonald of the Arbor Opera Theatre
By Donald V. Calamia
While Ann Arbor is home to several professional and amateur theater companies, its also where the Arbor Opera Theatre resides, bringing professional opera productions to the community since the dawn of the 21st century. President and artistic director Shawn McDonald talked recently to EncoreMichigan.com about his company and its upcoming production of Lucia di Lammermoor that runs June 17-20 at Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre.
I suspect a number of our readers will be surprised to learn that there's a professional opera company in Ann Arbor - but there is, the Arbor Opera Theater. When was the company founded? And who are its founders?
Arbor Opera started in conversations between local singers who needed an outlet to perform. They had received training from music schools and needed a place to sing professionally-paid roles in order to be able to secure management. So, Karin White, Katherine Perkowski and myself incorporated Arbor Opera Theater in 1999, with the first main-stage production taking place in 2000 - and it was Lucia di Lammermoor.
Since then, we are constantly reminded that emerging professionals really appreciate and need opportunities to learn and perform roles with our company so that they gain confidence and move onto larger-scale opera companies and artist management firms.
What is the mission of the company?
Our mission is to provide outstanding opera productions for the Ann Arbor community, and in so doing, provide opportunities for emerging professional opera singers to learn new roles and perform them in fully staged productions. Over the years, we've seen more singers audition for us, and thus the quality has gone up. With the recent economic situation, singers are hard-pressed to find work. Our opera company is a happy solution. Though our pay is modest compared to more established opera companies, we keep the artists working and (hopefully) improving their craft.
What types of programming do you offer? And how many shows do you produce each season?
Our season is centered on a main-stage production that goes up the weekend of Father's Day.
This year we are producing Lucia, last year was Die Fledermaus, and Don Giovanni the year before.
The main-stage production has full sets and costumes (both of which are custom-made by our volunteer staff for each production.) We have an orchestra and supertitles. This gives both our singers and our audiences the chance to experience fully-produced opera.
Other events on our season calendar include a "cabaret" fund raising event the weekend of Valentines Day. This last year we presented a 1930s-style original radio show with dialogue and commercials and accompanied by a jazz trio. Next year, we plan to do a similar event but in the 1940s.
Also, we are experimenting with presenting a second opera over the year. We presented two performances of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas in January 2010, with a small set and hand-made costumes and a string chamber orchestra. We may continue to produce a second opera next season, but we have not yet made any final decisions on our 2010-2011 season.
Besides the main-stage opera and the Valentine's cabaret, we present a free concert at the Ann Arbor Art Fairs, as well as other concerts throughout the year. This year was the fourth year in a row that we collaborated with Paesano Italian Restaurant and Wine Bar to present a fundraiser of food, wine and opera.
The best way to know what we're up to is to join our email updates list at www.arboropera.com/contact.html.
Opera singers aren't a dime a dozen. Where do you pull your talent from? And how easy is it to cast your shows?
For the past two years, we've been advertising our auditions in nation-wide listings utilized by singers to find professional work. We've seen higher numbers of qualified singers apply for auditions, and they come to Ann Arbor from farther and farther away. It's really exciting.
Still, the talent in the Ann Arbor/Southeast Michigan (area) is so high that we find ourselves primarily hiring singers from the area, with only a few singers from out-of-town.
Casting shows is a matter of hearing the voices at the auditions and trying to construct a cast list based on voice quality, voice size, and ensemble with each other - and that is totally dependent on the voices that audition and our ability to put them together in a balanced way.
And of course, there's always a bit of chance and the unknown. In opera, there are so many details that a singer must attend to: musical accuracy, the beauty of their singing, true and clear diction in singing a foreign language, acting ability, etc. As a result, we look at audition materials very seriously. For example, resumes that have typos and misspellings in names of arias or operas rarely are offered an audition because it demonstrates possible neglectful behavior - and that's a major liability for a professional opera company! Artists' materials reflect the professionalism of the artists, so every detail is important in our decisions.
Is there a specific philosophy the company follows when selecting the operas it stages? For example, do you only produce shows from a specific time period or by certain composers?
We don't have a specific philosophy when deciding an opera, but we take a number of things into consideration: Will it offer many opportunities for emerging professional singers? Will the orchestra be of the size that will make sense in our venue (the Mendelssohn Theatre)? How much will the orchestral scores cost? Can we conceivably find opera singers for these roles that will take the job despite the amount of pay we can offer? Can we market it to our audience, and will it sell enough tickets?
We're into our 11th year of producing opera, and we're not yet ready to foray into obscure selections, and so our choices have been fairly traditional - La Boheme, La Traviata, Don Giovanni, Lucia di Lammermoor, etc.
We do, however, often present them in new and interesting ways. For instance, our 2008 Don Giovanni took place in Hell, where Giovanni interacted with "spirit" versions of his conquests. Our upcoming production of Lucia is set in 1940s London, with a "film noir" feel and stark settings scaled to make Lucia look tiny and overwhelmed.
As you've mentioned, your upcoming opera is Donizetti's Lucia Di Lammermoor. What's this opera about?
Lucia di Lammermoor is about a girl who finds herself stuck in the middle of a political crisis, in which her marriage to a powerful nobleman is the only way to salvage her family's political and financial security - but, the problem is, she is in love with the enemy of the family, Edgardo. Tricked by her brother, Enrico, she believes that her true lover has abandoned her for another woman, and so she agrees to be married to the man of Enrico's choice. Edgardo, her true lover, arrives at the wedding to find that she has betrayed him and curses her. Lucia goes mad, and she murders her new husband, returning to the party in her bloodied wedding dress. Lucia dies, and Edgardo kills himself to escape the pain of his broken heart.
Why was it chosen for this season?
We chose the opera because it's chock-full of beautiful music, has an orchestra that sounds lovely in the Mendelssohn Theatre, and a story so dramatic, it had to be true. (The opera is based on Sir Walter Scott's 1819 novel and actual events.)
The crux of the opera is about Lucia's fragile psyche and her relationship with the men in her life. This allows our directors and designers a lot of creative freedom to make new, and hopefully compelling art!
What makes this particular opera relevant for today's audiences?
Lucia has become a staple of the operatic canon, with the blood-spattered heroine viewed as a caricature of the "crazy" soprano.
One of the reasons we've moved it from its original 17th century setting to the 1940s is to highlight the fact that this is not simply "history," but a compelling story of real people in real situations. Of course, this reality is heightened through the singing, and acted against a stylized set, but this highlights the oppressiveness of the world in which these characters live.
On a purely musical level, it is filled with some of bel canto's most inspired music, and our modern audiences will be hard-pressed to find an opportunity to sit back and enjoy a theatrical and musical presentation as masterful as Lucia.
One of the things that's really cool about your company is its commitment to make opera accessible to families. How does that work? And how successful has this program been?
This year, we are offering a free ticket to children 8-12 years old who are accompanied by a ticket-holding adult in whatever section of the house where parents buy their tickets. Parents can just say the code LUCIA2010 when they are ordering their tickets at 734-763-TKTS (8587).
We saw lots of families at Fledermaus last summer, and we wanted to reach out and give parents a bit of a break. Now, Lucia isn't quite as family-friendly as Fledermaus, since it has such adult themes, but we wanted to inaugurate this child-ticket program and see how it goes from an administrative standpoint.
We strive to make the experience of attending our performances as friendly and professional as possible, so we are using Lucia as the guinea pig production for the family program - with the intention of keeping it as a standard offer for our main-stage productions in future seasons.
Backstage, families are a major part of our productions each year. At one time, we had a family that had three singers in the chorus and another on the supertitles; this year, we've had a father and his two daughters involved in backstage work; more than ever, we're seeing talented high school students in our chorus whose parents volunteer to help with other backstage stuff. It's neat seeing how family members come to drop off their kids at rehearsals and just stay because they love to listen to the music and want to help. Arbor Opera really is a community-produced professional opera company!
Another is the "Meet the Artist" program. What's that about? And when is the next event scheduled?
This has become a tradition for the last three years. After the Saturday evening performance, we host an Afterglow in an elegant room at the Michigan League. Wine and hors d'oeuvres are served, and guests mingle with the singers, set designers, conductor, donors and volunteers. We like to think of this as a time to get everyone together to enjoy our successful launch of the production!
Tickets for this event are $35 and are available at www.arboropera.com/luciaafterglow.html.
What will be next for the Arbor Opera Theater?
Well, as I said earlier, we haven't made any final decisions about our 2010-2011 season, but you can be sure that we will be busy throughout the year offering interesting and programming, beautiful singing, and affordable entertainment for the greater Ann Arbor community. Thank you for taking the time to allow us to let your readers know about Arbor Opera Theater!
ABOUT SHAWN MCDONALD:
Shawn McDonald brings diverse talents and experience to Arbor Opera Theater. As a singer, McDonald has portrayed numerous roles including Rodolfo in La Boheme, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Alfredo in La Traviata, Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Sivgila and Nerone in L'incoronazione di Poppea. In 2006 he sang "Paul Claudel" in The Promise for the National Opera Association's national convention. He has also participated in performance art, most notably a production of John Cage's Europera 5, directed by Jack Behrens. He has performed in concert with the Alma Symphony, the Clarion Symphony, the Ypsilanti Symphony, Friends of the Opera of Michigan, the Verdi Opera Theater, and the Tuesday Musicale of Detroit.
McDonald trained as a tenor with his mentor, Caroline Rogers of Marygrove College. He then continued his studies on a full scholarship at the University of Michigan, working under George Shirley and Shirley Verrett, as well as Martin Katz and Joshua Major. He earned a Bachelor of Music from Eastern Michigan University, studying organ with Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra and Mary Ida Yost and voice with Glenda Kirkland. Additional training included summer apprentice programs at Opera North (NH) and the Brevard Music Center, as well as the Elizabeth Mannion's Institute of Vocal Arts and private studies with James Berg. He continued his keyboard studies in Germany at the renowned North German Organ Academy with Dr. Harold Vogel and was the winner of the Ann Arbor chapter of the American Guild of Organists competition in 1997.
He worked at Marygrove College in various capacities since 1999, most recently as director of vocal activities. While at Marygrove, he oversaw multiple opera productions, including Amahl and the Night Visitors, The Marriage of Figaro and The Magic Flute. He also served as musical director for productions of Ain't Misbehavin', The Threepenny Opera and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. He is minister of music for Westminster Presbyterian Church in Ann Arbor, directing numerous choirs and ensembles, as well as serving as pianist/organist since 1995. He also currently works as staff pianist/choir director and composer/arranger in residence at Temple Israel, West Bloomfield. In 2009 Temple Israel produced its first CD entitled Kavanat Haruach, which featured McDonald's talents as a pianist and vocalist in addition to two of his original compositions.
SHOW DETAILS:
Arbor Opera Theate will present Lucia di Lammermoor at Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre, 911 N. University Ave., Ann Arbor, June 17-20. Tickets: $15-$40. For information: 734-763-8587 or www.arboropera.com.
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