Prelude to Performance: The Making of an Opera Singer

By

Martina Arroyo
I’ve attended many opera performances at the Metropolitan Opera and other venues in recent years.  But I’d never reflected upon the many layers of work, expertise and skill that go into the productions I enjoy for a couple few hours (and then go home).  How do talented opera singers even get to perform at venues like the Metropolitan Opera?  Or how do singers achieve world class status?  These are questions I never asked myself, instead taking for granted the polish of the performance I was usually paying top dollar for.

This summer I attended the Martina Arroyo Foundation’s Prelude to Performance Highlights Concert and final productions of both Falstaff and Cosi Fan Tutte and got a look at the tremendous work, effort and dedication that brings an opera to life and a snapshot of the path to becoming a professional opera singer.  

Prelude to Performance is a six-week summer course in New York City of classes, master classes and hard work that culminates in the presentation of two complete operas.  Each opera is performed twice and is double cast so every singer is able to perform once. 

I was unable to view any of the early rehearsals or master classes, but two weeks before the final shows we attended Prelude’s Highlights Concert which gave me real insight into the artistic process of opera production. 

The Highlights Concert at HunterCollege’s Lang Recital Hall presented a series of scenes from the operas that would be performed in their entirety a couple of weeks later.  The directors of the operas explained each scene in great detail before the singers came out, to help place the audience in the opera.  The stage was empty but for barebones props, a piano and the singers themselves in formal wear.  They were accompanied only by the pianist, not an orchestra, and led by a conductor who stood to the right of the stage.  The lack of orchestra, costumes and props was significant as the focus became the voices, acting and presentation.  The students were able to create the scene even with the few props on hand, through their movement onstage and the way they interacted with their fellow singers.

Being presented with only portions of scenes from an opera in development made me far more aware of the performers’ movement around the stage while singing.  The stripped down nature of the Highlights Concert allowed me to focus fully on the singers and watch them take direction from the conductor, or not.  I noticed when someone wasn’t facing the audience while singing and how it wasn’t as easy to hear their voice.  A few singers periodically would lose contact with the conductor and momentarily not be in sync with the music, though the vast majority of the singing was lovely.  This greatly whetted my appetite for the final performances.  I wanted to see the full production, full story and whether the performers had improved and how the full show came together.  I remembered singers from the Concert and was excited to see how they developed.  I was curious to see the evolution from the last few weeks of preparation and how the singers performed on stage, in full costume with orchestra and a packed house. 

Falstaff     (courtesy of Jen Joyce Davis)

For the full performance of Falstaff, we sat in the second row 8 feet behind the conductor.  I could actually see the sweat pouring down his head, a testament to his huge effort, a sight I have seldom seen in big opera houses.  Being closer, I could see the singers’ efforts as well.  I could sometimes see them “acting”.  There were other points where I was aware of how beautiful a singer’s voice was, but I stayed very present as an observer.  Not because I was not enjoying the production, but for the first time, I was conscious of all the different moving pieces and layers that have to work in concert to make an opera a success.  But in the final scenes of Falstaff, I completely stepped out of being aware this was a theatrical presentation and truly lost myself in the story, the music, the moment.  It was absolutely thrilling.  In a deep woods at night with fairies flitting about, all the singers were onstage in masquerade costume singing together.  It felt like a magical fairy tale. 

At Cosi Fan Tutte two days later, we sat near the back of the balcony.   Sitting around us were the casts from Falstaff as well as the other cast of Cosi.  Their electric energy was infectious as they buzzed about before the show talking to one another about their own performances the night before and their excitement for their friends and peers’ performance about to start.  I became excited and anxious for that night’s singers. 

Cosi Fan Tutte   (courtesy of Jen Joyce Davis)

When the performance started, however, there was no anxiety on stage (at least apparent to me) and the singers were confident and soaring.  I particularly loved seeing the scenes from the Highlights Concert performed in full costume with props and sets.  The singers had improved both their singing and their acting from only two weeks before.  And their colleagues could obviously tell, as they cheered for their friends, knowing how much work had gone into this one show.  During parts of the opera I could hear the peers whispering around me, supportively comparing that night’s production to the one they were in.  Their relief was palpable at times when a piece of particularly difficult stage work was pulled off successfully.  Being in the midst of the other cast and singers whooping and hollering for their friends made us root for the success of the opera even more.  It was something I had not experienced before.  I felt a part of the production, invested in it in a different way than when I am at the Met or another world class venue. 

Attending the final Prelude performances as well as the Highlights Concert was exhilarating and enlightening, especially as a relatively novice opera goer.  I have been attending operas sporadically for over a decade, but going to Prelude to Performance’s Falstaff and Cosi Fan Tutte was the first time in my life that opera has felt fully approachable and inclusive.  I saw many of the facets of producing an opera that I hadn’t even been fully aware existed.  The opera was edited such that the story was straightforward and easy to follow.  The venue was great—it was at HunterCollege’s Kaye Playhouse, close to the subway.  The acoustics were good and had a pit for an orchestra.  For all intents and purposes, it was a professional performance just without the pomp and circumstance of the large opera institutions.  For opera novices who may be intimidated by the large scale of some arts institutions, very long opera pieces, or opera stories with which you are not familiar, then Prelude to Performance is just the thing for you.  And who knows, no doubt one day that singer you heard at Martina Arroyo’s program will be performing at the Met, as many already have, and you will have known them when. 

-Elizabeth Frayer and Shawn E Milnes

Auditions to Prelude to Performance’s 2013 season begin in December 2012.  For more information or to support the Martina Arroyo Foundation or Prelude to Performance, visit www.martinaarroyofdn.org.
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