Falstaff Preview Trailer

Pranks, disguises, and good laughs abound in the latest production to take the stage. See for yourself in this new trailer as you preview the new sets, new costumes, and fabulous voices. But don't worry, we won't give away ALL the jokes.

To watch more videos or learn more about Seattle Opera's production of Falstaff, visit the Seattle Opera website.

Falstaff Dress Rehearsal Photos

If the Falstaff dress rehearsals are any indication, this production is not to miss! The audience was rolling and clapping and enjoying every single joke Verdi wrote into his final masterpiece. Catch a sneak peek of the action that opens this weekend in these dress rehearsal photos. Enjoy!

FALSTAFF Characters: FORD

Time now for Falstaff’s one vaguely serious character, Ford, the cuckolded husband. In Shakespeare it seems as if the relationship between Alice and Ford has never been without a little friction, mostly based on his perceiving that she outclasses him: that she’s prettier than he is handsome, that her family was richer than his, that grace and beauty and nobility come more easily to her than they do to him. Certainly she’s used to getting what she wants and having things go her way; nothing in play or opera indicates that she has any experience losing anything. She’s aware of her husband’s jealousy but hasn’t ever figured out a good way of dealing with it.

Left, David Lara played Ford in Seattle Opera's 2007 Young Artists Program Falstaff.

To Weston Hurt, who plays Ford in the current production at Seattle Opera, Ford’s jealousy has less to do with his relationship with Alice than with his sense of himself and his standing in the community. Says Hurt, Ford thinks that being a cuckold is the worst shame that could possibly befall him; he’s so terrified of people thinking Alice is cheating on him that he’s incapable of thinking rationally about his situation. Of course Alice would never cheat on him, particularly not with the repellant Falstaff. But Ford can’t see this obvious truth, not when blinded by his worst nightmare. His blindness is what’s so true, so scary and funny about him.

Ford’s jealousy—-the dark kernel at the core of Verdi’s bright, sunny comedy—-is treated comically in Shakespeare. Remember, Merry Wives of Windsor is a farce; there’s nothing serious about it. I’ve always seen Frank Ford played for laughs in Shakespeare. It’s hard to take Shakespeare’s Ford too seriously because Mr. Page (the other Husband of Windsor) is a major character in the play, and he isn’t jealous of his wife at all. He even tries to help Ford see that he’s being a jerk. But Boito’s libretto eliminates the reality-check provided by Page, and Verdi’s music takes seriously what in Shakespeare is actually a goofy speech on the part of the jealous Ford:

What a damned Epicurean rascal is this! My heart is ready to crack with impatience. Who says this is improvident jealousy? my wife hath sent to him; the hour is fixed; the match is made. Would any man have thought this? See the hell of having a false woman! My bed shall be abused, my coffers ransacked, my reputation gnawn at; and I shall not only receive this villanous wrong, but stand under the adoption of abominable terms, and by him that does me this wrong. Terms! Names! Amaimon sounds well; Lucifer, well; Barbason, well; yet they are devils' additions, the names of fiends: but Cuckold! Wittol!--Cuckold! the devil himself hath not such a name. Page is an ass, a secure ass: he will trust his wife; he will not be jealous. I will rather trust a Fleming with my butter, Parson Hugh the Welshman with my cheese, an Irishman with my aqua-vitae bottle, or a thief to walk my ambling gelding, than my wife with herself; then she plots, then she ruminates, then she devises; and what they think in their hearts they may effect, they will break their hearts but they will effect. God be praised for my jealousy! Eleven o'clock the hour. I will prevent this, detect my wife, be revenged on Falstaff, and laugh at Page. I will about it; better three hours too soon than a minute too late. Fie, fie, fie! cuckold! cuckold! cuckold!

I fondly remember teaching the opera Falstaff to a high school class, years ago, and a very bright student who noticed that in the music Verdi uses to introduce this speech, we hear not only Ford’s anger and jealousy, but also his panicky fear:



But even though that monologue (it’s not technically an aria) is the dark core at the heart of Verdi’s otherwise sunny opera, it too contains a musical joke. Because cuckolded men were traditionally represented, in medieval and Renaissance Europe, as wearing horns, opera composers like Verdi always give their French horns an opportunity to mock characters like Ford, or Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro, who obsess about their wives’ suspected infidelities:




By the end of Shakespeare’s play, Ford caves in entirely to Alice:

Pardon me, wife. Henceforth do what thou wilt;
I rather will suspect the sun with cold
Than thee with wantonness: now doth thy honour stand
In him that was of late an heretic,
As firm as faith.

In the opera, he loses out both to Alice and to his daughter Nannetta (who in the play is not his, but rather his neighbor Page’s daughter). That’s the topsy-turvy world of comedy for you: where men lose every battle in the war of the sexes!

FALSTAFF Characters: FENTON

Verdi and Boito’s wilting lyric tenor Fenton is a transformation of the eponymous character from Merry Wives of Windsor, who’s your typical Elizabethan hero: handsome, dashing in his tights and poofy white shirt and rapier, cute Elizabethan beard-—and a prominent wart above his left eye! In the play, his girlfriend Anne Page’s dad, Mr. Page, discusses Fenton with the Host of the Garter Inn:

HOST
What say you to young Master Fenton? he capers, he dances, he has eyes of youth, he writes verses, he speaks holiday, he smells April and May: he will carry't, he will carry't; 'tis in his buttons; he will carry't.

PAGE
Not by my consent, I promise you. The gentleman is of no having: he kept company with the wild prince and Poins; he is of too high a region; he knows too much. No, he shall not knit a knot in his fortunes with the finger of my substance: if he take her, let him take her simply; the wealth I have waits on my consent, and my consent goes not that way.

The wild prince is Hal/Henry V; Poins is one of the drunken thieves who hangs out with him and Falstaff. As a good middle-class dad, Mr. Page is very responsibly trying to keep his daughter away from such young rakes.

Verdi and Boito remove any reference to Fenton keeping unwholesome company, and expand upon the attractive, poetic nature Shakespeare gives this lovestruck young swain. Alone among the characters of Merry Wives, Fenton speaks almost exclusively in blank verse:

FENTON
I see I cannot get thy father's love;
Therefore no more turn me to him, sweet Nan.

ANNE PAGE
Alas, how then?

FENTON
Why, thou must be thyself.
He doth object I am too great of birth--,
And that, my state being gall'd with my expense,
I seek to heal it only by his wealth:
Besides these, other bars he lays before me,
My riots past, my wild societies;
And tells me 'tis a thing impossible
I should love thee but as a property.

ANNE PAGE
May be he tells you true.

FENTON
No, heaven so speed me in my time to come!
Albeit I will confess thy father's wealth
Was the first motive that I woo'd thee, Anne:
Yet, wooing thee, I found thee of more value
Than stamps in gold or sums in sealed bags;
And 'tis the very riches of thyself
That now I aim at.

Marcus Shelton as Fenton wooed Ani Maldjian's Nannetta in Seattle Opera's 2007 Young Artists Program Falstaff.

In the opera, Verdi and Boito invent a little routine for Fenton and Nannetta, a call-and-response “our song” they sing three times, as a code to declare their love to each other; and they also invent a marvelous scene for Fenton, wandering around in the woods in the middle of the night, improvising a metaphysical love poem.

For their call-and-response song ritual, Fenton and Nannetta use an old Italian saying, a line from Boccaccio’s Decameron (a bawdy collection of medieval Italian stories along the lines of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales). Story 7 of Day 2 of the Decameron ends: “So the girl, who had slept with eight men a good ten thousand times, lay down beside him as a virgin, and got him to believe it. She went on to live a long and happy life as his queen. Whence the saying:

Bocca baciata non perde ventura;
Anzi rinnova, come fa la luna.

Like most idioms, this saying is almost untranslatable; it vaguely means that virginity and sexual attractiveness wane and then wax like the moon. Blagoj Nacoski, who plays Fenton at Seattle Opera, conjectures that perhaps Fenton gave Nannetta a copy of the Decameron, that they first kissed when reading this particular line, and that they keep singing this passage because neither can wait to take it past kissing to the next level. But, as both of them are about 15 years old, their breathless innocence is part of their charm.

The opening of the opera’s final scene, in which Fenton improvises a sonnet while alone in the woods, is a brilliant and entirely Shakespearean addition to the opera. (I’ve always thought Verdi and Boito stole the idea for this scene from Orlando in As You Like It, running around the Forest of Arden etching poems in honor of his ladylove Rosalind into the bark of the trees.) Fenton’s poem consists of three rhyming quatrains, the final rhyming couplet interrupted by the quote from the Decameron:

FENTON
Dal labbro il canto estasiato vola
Pe' silenzi notturni e va lontano
E alfin ritrova un altro labbro umano
Che gli risponde colla sua parola.
Allor la notte che non è più sola
Vibra di gioia in un accordo arcano
E innamorando l’aer antelucano
Come altra voce al suo fonte rivola.
Quivi ripiglia suon, ma la sua cura
Tende sempre ad unir chi lo disuna.
Così baciai la disiata bocca!
“Bocca baciata non perde ventura.”

NANNETTA
“Anzi rinnova come fa la luna.”

FENTON
Ma il canto muor nel bacio che lo tocca.

ALICE
No signore!

Poetry is what gets lost in translation. So here’s, not a translation, but a poem (in rhyming couplets of tetrameter because that’s the only way to rhyme on a supertitles screen!) inspired by Fenton’s little sonnet:

FENTON
From two parched lips a song takes flight
hoping to drink deep in delight.
Deep in the woods the yearning song
finds thirsty lips who sing along.
Two melodies then dance and play;
their chords are codes which secrets say.
In lovesick air as dawn comes on
the singers look their loves upon.
When thirsty eyes drink lovers’ sight,
four separate lips at last unite.
Thus lips’ thirst is quenched with a kiss.
“Lips once kissed lose not their allure.”

NANNETTA
“Like the new moon they are made pure.”

FENTON
But song falls silent when lips drink this.

ALICE
Oh, no, you don’t!

FALSTAFF Characters: ALICE AND MEG

As you move from Shakespeare’s play to Verdi and Boito’s opera, you’ll notice the two shows have different title characters: Verdi and Boito wrote a show about Falstaff, whereas Shakespeare thought the stars were the Merry Wives of Windsor, Alice Ford and Meg Page. The Merry Wives are formidable women: beautiful, smart, strong, full of vitality, humor, and life. We first meet them as they (assisted by Quickly and Nannetta) read Falstaff’s absurd form letter:

Ma il viso mio su lui risplenderà
Come una stella sull'immensità.


(But my gaze shall gleam upon his face
like a star, shining on endless space.)

Ordinarily, solo opera characters never sing in unison; Verdi is making another musical joke by having them all sing the letter together, the mezzos (Meg and Quickly) joining in to thicken the sound as the melody dips toward the bottom of the staff.

Although Verdi went so far as to have the Merry Wives sing in unison, Shakespeare was more interested in the differences between the two women. In the play, Meg’s response to Falstaff’s attempted seduction is a little more practical and less imaginative than Alice’s; Meg lets Alice do the actual work and run the danger of the game of pretend-seducing Falstaff. Here’s what Shakespeare’s Meg says, upon reading Falstaff’s letter:

What a Herod of Jewry is this! O wicked world! One that is well-nigh worn to pieces with age to show himself a young gallant! What an unweighed behavior hath this Flemish drunkard picked--with the devil's name!--out of my conversation, that he dares in this manner assay me? Why, he hath not been thrice in my company! What should I say to him? I was then frugal of my mirth: Heaven forgive me! Why, I'll exhibit a bill in the parliament for the putting down of men. How shall I be revenged on him? for revenged I will be, as sure as his guts are made of puddings.

When she finds out there are multiple letters, Meg is suddenly less interested in revenge, and chalks it up to “Così fan tutti gli uomini”, all men are like that:

Letter for letter, but that the name of Page and Ford differs! To thy great comfort in this mystery of ill opinions, here's the twin-brother of thy letter: but let thine inherit first; for, I protest, mine never shall. I warrant he hath a thousand of these letters, writ with blank space for different names--sure, more,--and these are of the second edition: he will print them, out of doubt; for he cares not what he puts into the press, when he would put us two. I had rather be a giantess, and lie under Mount Pelion. Well, I will find you twenty lascivious turtles ere one chaste man.

Alice Ford, on the other hand, is mystified by Falstaff’s behavior, since she remembers being impressed by his courteous manners. Alice gets stuck trying to understand the fat knight, and thus is born the plot of the drama:

Read; perceive how I might be knighted. I shall think the worse of fat men, as long as I have an eye to make difference of men's liking: and yet he would not swear; praised women's modesty; and gave such orderly and well-behaved reproof to all uncomeliness, that I would have sworn his disposition would have gone to the truth of his words; but they do no more adhere and keep place together than the Hundredth Psalm to the tune of 'Green Sleeves.' What tempest, I trow, threw this whale, with so many tuns of oil in his belly, ashore at Windsor? How shall I be revenged on him? I think the best way were to entertain him with hope, till the wicked fire of lust have melted him in his own grease. Did you ever hear the like?

But that’s in Shakespeare. Verdi and Boito keep the focus on Falstaff, and rush through the scenes with the Merry Wives like quicksilver lightning. We hear the giggling musical theme Verdi uses to characterize the Merry Wives in Alice’s Act Two Scene Two arietta, “Gaie comari di Windsor”:



The Merry Wives rip up Falstaff's letter in Seattle Opera's Young Artists Program 2007 Falstaff: l to r Ani Maldjian as Nannetta, Sasha Cooke as Meg, Teresa Herold as Quickly, and Holly Boaz as Alice.

Since there isn’t as much Merry Wives material in the opera as in the play, the performers have a little more room to interpret their characters. Says Sasha Cooke, who plays Meg in Seattle Opera’s production, “With a small role like this, you can do anything you want.” Cooke is making her mainstage debut in this production, although she also sang Meg Page in Seattle Opera’s 2007 Young Artists Program Falstaff, at the Meydenbauer Theatre. But she’s not simply bringing her old Meg Page across the lake from Bellevue; Cooke, who has been extremely busy since 2007, has developed as a person and an artist, and so has Meg. In particular, she notes, Meg is extremely mischievous, and really only gets interested in the plot to tease Falstaff when it gets dangerous—-at which point she gets a tremendous kick out of throwing fuel onto the fire.

As for Alice, Svetla Vassileva makes her Seattle Opera debut with this production, sharing the role with Seattle Opera favorite Sally Wolf. According to Vassileva, Alice is at first flattered by Falstaff’s letter, only to become a bit crestfallen when she realizes that he sent the exact same letter to Meg, as well. Vassileva has played Alice in several previous productions, and likes the spirit of fun among her Seattle colleagues. In some productions, she notes, the wives treat Mistress Quickly as their servant, lower-class, as she is in Shakespeare; but Vassileva prefers the idea that they’re a bunch of friends, equals, seizing the opportunity Falstaff has provided for them to have an extremely entertaining day.

A Chat with Blagoj Nacoski

Macedonian tenor Blagoj Nacoski was practically born to be an opera singer. His mother is a mezzo-soprano in the ensemble of the Macedonian National Opera, and his grandparents sang in the company’s chorus. Growing up, he’d spend time with his mother while she was learning her roles and was always attending her rehearsals and performances—in fact, he says he could probably still sing all of her repertoire today.

This weekend, Nacoski adds a new role to his own repertoire: Fenton in Verdi’s Falstaff. This is also his U.S. debut, and he’s pleased to be with Seattle Opera for it. “I feel like I’m in a big family, so it helps me to better face this double debut,” Nacoski says.

The young tenor is actually relatively new to Verdi roles. He’s sung Casio in Otello, but otherwise, his repertoire is mostly Mozartean, and usually a mix of “‘good guys,’ lovers, and counts.” The role of Fenton—the young tenor in love— certainly resembles Nacoski’s usual characters. And since it’s new to him, he’s been doing a lot of preparation. “I work on the text and I try to give the right expression to everything I sing,” Nacoski says. “I also usually know every other role of the opera, which helps me to be in my role 100%.” When creating a performance like this for the first time, Nacoski says he follows “the indications of the composer, and I try to listen to as many different recordings as I can. If I find things that I like I use them, but I always try to give something personal to the role, that will make it different.”

Nacoski, a lirico-leggero tenor, looks forward to someday singing roles in the French repertoire, such as Des Grieux, Werther, and Faust. But in the meantime, he’s enjoying his current roles—and he’s definitely happy to be singing in Falstaff. “I think this opera is really a masterwork, where you can feel the maturity of the big Italian maestro,” he says, noting that Verdi’s sense of humor truly shines through in the piece. “Verdi was almost 80 when he wrote it, and yet the music and story are so fresh and comic.”

FALSTAFF Characters: Bardolph and Pistol

As we gear up for Saturday’s opening night of Falstaff, I’ll be introducing on this blog some of Shakespeare’s beloved characters as re-imagined by Verdi and Boito. Let’s start with Falstaff’s two drinking buddies, cronies, and untrustworthy followers, Bardolph and Pistol.

Of Shakespeare’s gang of tavern low-lifes, Verdi and Boito retained only these two, discarding a variable number of others. (The exact population of Falstaff’s tavern varies from play to play and production to production; occasionally seen in those taverns are Prince Hal and Fenton, who, it’s said in Merry Wives, “kept company with the wild Prince and Poins.”)

As for Bardolph, who appears in Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, Henry V, and Merry Wives, he’s the most useless and pathetic of all Falstaff’s buddies, a hopeless wino whose nose lights up like a lantern every night as he drinks. As Falstaff says of him:

“O, thou art a perpetual triumph, an everlasting bonfire-light! Thou hast saved me a thousand marks in links and torches, walking with thee in the night betwixt tavern and tavern: but the sack that thou hast drunk me would have bought me lights as good cheap at the dearest chandler's in Europe. I have maintained that salamander of yours with fire any time this two and thirty years; God reward me for it!”

Verdi and Boito’s Falstaff also gets a great line describing Bardolph, in the big free-for-all in the final scene:

FALSTAFF:
Nitro! Catrame! Solfo!!
Riconosco Bardolfo!
Naso vermiglio! Naso bargiglio!
Puntuta lesina! Vampa di resina!
Salamandra! Ignis fatuus!
Vecchia alabarda! Stecca
Di sartore! Schidion d'inferno!
Aringa secca!
Vampiro! Basilisco!
Manigoldo! Ladrone!
Ho detto. E se smentisco
Voglio che mi si spacchi il cinturone!!

TUTTI:
Bravo!


(FALSTAFF: Saltpeter, tar, sulfur! I recognize Bardolph! Vermillion nose, wattled nose! Pointy awl, flame of resin! Salamander! Ball of wildfire! Old battle-ax! Tailor’s yard! Roasting-spit from hell! Dried herring! Vampire! Basilisk! Rascal! Monstrous thief! I’ve had my say, and if I’m lying, may my great big belt snap!!
ALL: Bravo!)

As for Pistol, in Shakespeare he’s distinguished by his explosive temper and libido (Falstaff, for one, can never resist making dirty puns on Pistol’s name) as well as his unnecessarily ornate language. Here, for instance, is how Pistol picks a fight in Henry IV Part Two:

What! shall we have incision? shall we imbrue?
Snatching up his sword
Then death rock me asleep, abridge my doleful days!
Why, then, let grievous, ghastly, gaping wounds
Untwine the Sisters Three! Come, Atropos, I say!

That kind of thing survives, in Verdi and Boito’s Falstaff, when Bardolph and Pistol tell Ford “La corona che adorna d’Atteòn l’irte chiome su voi già spunta” (The crown that adorned Acteon’s locks already grows upon you), to which Ford-—unfamiliar as he is with Greek mythology—-can only respond: “Say what?” (They explain, Acteon’s crown = horns, i.e. Ford is a cuckold.)

Two of my favorite musical jokes in Falstaff involve Bardolph and Pistol mocking monks and church music: first, the sarcastic “Amen” they sing when Dr. Caius vows never again to go drinking with rogues, but only with godly, pious, sober company:


And secondly, the funny self-flagellating melody they sing when trying to get Falstaff to take them back, at the beginning of Act Two, to the words “Siam pentiti e contriti” (We’re repentent and contrite). This line always reminds me of the monks bonking themselves in the heads with boards in Monty Python and the Holy Grail:



In Seattle Opera’s Falstaff, Steven Goldstein plays Bardolph and Ashraf Sewailam plays Pistol. Goldstein, who has previously played such roles as Squeak in Billy Budd and the Bear in Siegfried at Seattle Opera, played his first Bardolph when this production was presented by Opera Cleveland. But Sewailam, who is also returning to Seattle Opera, is new to Falstaff. He has sung bass roles in earlier Verdi operas, including Ferrando in Il trovatore and (in his native Cairo) Ramfis in Aida, but finds that working on Verdi’s effervescent final comedy is like “drinking champagne”. As for Goldstein, he’s happy that in this production Bardolph and Pistol make such a cute couple: “a tall Egyptian and a short Jew!”

Composing Thoughts: Daron Hagen

A few weeks ago, Amelia composer Daron Hagen met with John Clare, a classical music enthusiast and professional broadcaster. Watch Hagen discuss composition, including his Northern Lights, Violin Concerto, Piano Trios and the upcoming world premier of Amelia. Filmed in January 2010 in San Antonio, Texas.

Composing Thoughts: Daron Hagen from John Clare on Vimeo.

A Chat with Eduardo Chama

Before Eduardo Chama goes out on stage, he always makes sure he double-checks the important things: “Check that my pants zipper is up and there’s no spinach between my teeth,” he said. And he always enters the stage with his right foot first—“simply superstition.”

You can bet the Argentinean bass-baritone will do all of those things before making his role debut as Falstaff (in the Sunday/Friday cast) next week. A regular performer of both serious and comedic roles, Chama notes the difficulty of comedy. “I think both types of roles are very difficult, but comedy needs perfect timing,” he said. Serious roles “are more about intensity…death, illness, violence,” but what makes an interesting comedy, he says, is the ability to touch on those serious subjects and still make people laugh. “The challenge in any opera is to make the audience believe you and enjoy—laugh or cry—make them be with you all the way.”

Although it’s certainly a comedy, Chama says that Falstaff has a bit of a serious side, too. “Falstaff has nothing to do with death, but with life,” he says. “There is one phrase that the first time I sang it with my coach in Philadelphia I almost cried because it is so beautiful and not funny at all: “ber del vin dolce e sbottonarsi al sole” (drink sweet wine and open your shirt to the sun). I guess there’s nothing much more to life than that, huh?”

Chama enjoys adding new roles, like Falstaff, to his repertoire. “Each role, whether it’s serious or comic, requires a fresh start,” he says. “Every score is like a treasure map, we have to discover the code if we want to find the treasure….There is always new stuff to discover, and I think the secret is always having fun.”

And there’s certainly no shortage of fun in Falstaff. “What’s not to enjoy? It has fantastic music and drama,” Chama said. “Verdi’s last opera has it all—it’s like he was waiting to put everything he knew into this fantastic comedy.”

You can catch Chama’s performances on February 28, March 7, and 12. And he’ll back next season as Sancho Panza in Don Quixote.

Photo: Eduardo Chama in Don Giovanni, 2007. © Bill Mohn photo

Francesco Demuro Makes La Scala Debut

Francesco Demuro, the Sunday/Friday Alfredo in our recent production of La Traviata, recently made an unplanned La Scala debut.

The Italian tenor was at his home in Lucca on Friday, February 5, when he received a call from his agent asking how he felt about making his La Scala debut as the Duke of Mantua...in about four hours! He was scheduled to make his company debut in October 2010 as Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore, but someone was needed to replace tenor Stefano Secco in Rigoletto that night. "And without even thinking for a moment," Demuro said, "I told him 'Yes!'" Demuro immediately left for Milan, arriving at the theater about 10 minutes after the performance began. He had mere moments to get staging and musical notes before going onstage.

"I wanted to show the world 'I am here,'" Demuro said, calling his debut "un grande successo!" And making his debut at La Scala in this role - a house where so many of the world's great tenors have performed - was extremely meaningful for him. Afterward, Demuro reflected on his amazing journey thus far - from singing folk songs in town squares in his native Sardinia to performing onstage at one of the world's greatest opera houses: "from the stables to the stars," he said.

Congratulazioni, Francesco!

Photo: Francesco Demuro as Alfredo in La Traviata, 2009. © Rozarii Lynch

Falstaff: Director's Talk with Peter Kazaras

Stage Director Peter Kazaras says Falstaff is a "celebration of theater." Watch Kazaras in action in exclusive rehearsal footage and hear him as he gushes about both all-star casts.

To watch more videos or learn more about Seattle Opera's production of Falstaff, visit the Seattle Opera website.

Amelia Preview in Seattle Weekly

In Seattle Weekly's Spring Arts Guide, Gavin Borchert talks to Amelia composer Daron Aric Hagen, tenor William Burden (who sings the role of Amelia's father, Dodge), and Seattle Opera's Costume Shop Manager Susan Davis about the excitement and freedom of working on a world premiere production.

Lawrence Brownlee Returns to the Régiment

On Tuesday, tenor Lawrence Brownlee had a busy day of rehearsals for Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Met. During a costume fitting, he was asked by the company’s artistic director how he felt about the role of Tonio in La fille du régiment—a role he hadn’t sung in over two years. Still, Brownlee said he felt secure and could sing it on short notice.

That was just the answer the Met was hoping for. Brownlee was asked to go on that evening for an ailing Juan Diego Flórez—and had only about 5 hours to prepare: reviewing the music, learning staging and choreography, having costume fittings, doing a quick walk-through on stage, and memorizing the Met’s extensive and specially-written French dialogue. To add even more complexity, Diana Damrau, the scheduled Maria, had fallen ill, and her cover, Leah Partridge (our alternate cast Lucia next season) was singing that night as well.

You can catch Brownlee back in Seattle in 2011 as Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia. And congratulations to both him and Leah Partridge on a job well done!

Photo: Lawrence Brownlee in Seattle Opera's 2008 production of I Puritani. © Rozarii Lynch photo

A Chat with Weston Hurt

Weston Hurt returns to Seattle Opera this month as Ford in Verdi's Falstaff after making his company debut in October as Germont in La Traviata. I caught up with Weston to see how he's preparing for his role debut as Ford.

Why do you enjoy the role of Ford?
Ford has one of the greatest arias written for the baritone voice. It’s an absolute thrill to have the opportunity to debut this role in Seattle. In addition to the music that Verdi gave him, his ability to always believe that he has the upper hand in the situation—when in reality he never does—makes for a very challenging, but enjoyable role.

How do you make it your own?
As with any role, I try to find how the character and the piece speak to me as an actor. Dramatically, you must simply know who the heck your character is. Once you can answer the “who, what, and how?” questions, the rest seems to fall in place. Vocally, you must know and understand the traditions, but at the same time give 100% of yourself to the process.

What sort of character-work do you do to supplement the musical preparations?
Because this is my first production of Falstaff, I watched many of the great productions on DVD, listened to historic recordings, and reviewed my Shakespeare. :)

This is a much different role than Germont in La Traviata, the role in which Seattle audiences last saw you. Do you prepare differently for a comedic role versus a serious role?
The interesting thing about Ford is that he doesn't realize that he is funny. I'm not so sure that he really is a comedic character. He spends most of the time angry at Falstaff, jealous of his wife Alice, or plotting with his team of Bardolph, Caius, and Pistol.

Besides the obvious—the one is funny and one is serious—what are the differences between performing an opera buffa role and an opera seria role?
I find that serious roles are easier to tap into—one usually finds oneself playing the honesty of the situation. I find comedy to be much more challenging. One must never try to be funny or play “funny.” In order to be funny, one must know the honesty of the situation and oftentimes play against it. It’s funny to watch an overly-jealous husband make an ass out of himself... and that’s what I intend to do!

When did you begin singing?
I started singing in my high school choir at the age of 14 on the demands of my mother, who said that I had to take choir as my fine arts credit. Thanks mom. :)

Do you have any pre-performance/opening night rituals?
I enjoy getting to the theater a little early so that I know that everything is in place and where it is supposed to be. I also like walking the set before the audience arrives. I wouldn't go as far to call these things rituals, but they certainly make me feel more comfortable.

This is your second trip to Seattle—how are you enjoying your time here?
I absolutely love the city of Seattle. The views are gorgeous, the beer is delicious, and the food is outstanding! Not to mention this weather we are having—I'm a Texas boy at heart, but I am definitely getting used to the Pacific Northwest.

What’s coming up next for you?
Immediately following my performances here, I am singing the baritone solos in Orff's Carmina Burana with Dallas Symphony Orchestra and then am heading to Toronto for my debut with Canadian Opera Company as Lord Cecil in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda.

Behind The Scenes with Stephanie Blythe

One of the world's finest mezzo-sopranos today, Stephanie Blythe will shine as Dame Quickly in every performance of Falstaff. Listen to Blythe discussing the role and why Falstaff is one of her favorite works.

To watch more videos or learn more about Seattle Opera's production of Falstaff, visit the Seattle Opera website.

Young Artist Rehearses with Falstaff Cast

When tenor Alex Mansoori was offered a spot in the Young Artists Program for his second season, he was also asked to study the role of Falstaff’s Dr. Caius. Someone was needed to stand in for our Caius, Doug Jones, during the first week of rehearsal—which Alex did a few weeks ago.

“Falstaff is a huge ensemble piece, and it’s quite difficult, both musically and dramatically," Alex said. "When one of the ten singers isn’t there, it can be tricky. It’s easier to have someone to stand in for that performer so that the other singers have someone to play the scene with.”

When asked to stand in for Jones, Dr. Caius wasn’t yet a role in Alex’s repertoire, so he spent the past year preparing. First step: translating the entire score and listening to other performances. Then came “sitting down at the piano and plunking out my part and putting it into my head,” followed by numerous vocal coaching sessions. But what’s Alex’s favorite—albeit slightly unusual—way to prepare? “One of my secrets to learning a role is taking my iPod and the score to the gym. I hop on the elliptical and just listen and follow along. It typically garners a few odd looks.”

His time in Falstaff rehearsals, although brief, was “a tremendous amount of fun and a wonderful education,” he said. Director Peter Kazaras has staged this production before, so he generally knows how he wants everything to work, said Alex. “But at the same time he allows the singers to be inventive and wants them to bring their own ideas to the table. And the opera is a comedy, so when you’re not onstage, you get to sit back and enjoy the humor.”

For an opera star-in-training like Alex, an opportunity to rehearse with mainstage singers is a great learning experience. “Getting to work with established singers is one of the best ways a Young Artist can learn the craft. And it’s a fantastic cast. I was constantly taking mental notes on stagecraft—how to keep your body open, how to make big choices that will read to the back of the house. And working with these people made me meet them at their level.”

Alex is back with the Young Artists now, performing as Loge/Mime in Siegfried in the Ring of Fire. And you can catch him this spring as The Dancing Master/Brighella in the Young Artists’ Ariadne auf Naxos.


Photos: Alex with Peter Rose (Falstaff) and Steven Goldstein (Bardolph); Alex with Steven Goldstein. Both photos © Aubrey Bergauer. Alex performing Siegfried and the Ring of Fire with students at Lawton Elementary School. © Justina Schwartz photo.

Young Artist Heading to the MONC Semi-Finals

2009/10 Young Artist Maya Lahyani is heading to the Met. Maya was one of two first place winners of the Northwest Region of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions on February 7. Maya was also voted Audience Favorite. She will join the winners from 14 other regional competitions onstage at the Metropolitan Opera on Sunday March 7 for the national semi-finals.

Maya, who was only here for the fall portion of YAP (where she sang Dorabella in Così fan tutte), is currently an Adler Fellow at San Francisco Opera. David McDade, a coach-accompanist at Seattle Opera, who accompanied the singers at the auditions, recalls seeing Maya’s performance in Così: “I was struck not only by the excellent quality of her instrument but the subtlety of her singing and consistency of her character. She’s a fine performer and will only get better.”

On Sunday, Maya sang arias from Norma and Carmen. The third place winner, Michael Anthony McGee, was a Young Artist from 2006 to 2008.

YAP Music Director Brian Garman has known Maya since 2006, when she was one of his students at Mannes College of Music in New York City. “Maya is truly an exceptional talent,” Garman said. “Winning the Regional Met competition is a great step for her along the path to a very promising career, and marks yet another exciting achievement by a recent alumna of our Young Artists Program.”

Interestingly, McDade noted that the first singer of the day, Rachel Willis-Sorensen (the other first place winner) sang an aria from Wagner’s Lohengrin, and McGee closed the competition with a piece from Tannhäuser. “I thought it only fitting that in Seattle the competition began and ended with the music of Richard Wagner.”

Photo: Marcy Stonikas and Maya Lahyani in Così fan tutte. © Bill Mohn

Covering Siegfried

While the majority of the Young Artists are in Yakima this week for their second Opera Goes to School residency, the three singers who are not in the production—Eric Neuville, Vira Slywotzky, and Bray Wilkins—stuck around Seattle and attended coaching sessions for their spring production of Ariadne auf Naxos and the program’s first-ever German art song recital.


During the rehearsal process for Siegfried, Eric, Vira, and Bray, were involved in rehearsals because they are all covering roles in the opera. This means that if one of the singers is unable to sing his or her role, the cover steps in. Eric Neuville, for example, is the vocal cover for Michael Krzankowski, who sings Siegfried. “If Mike goes down, or loses his voice, I would sing the role from offstage while he acts the part,” Eric said.

But that doesn’t mean that if Eric was required to step in he could just read his notes off of the score. “I have to know how the character says things, his intentions, and what Mike has to accomplish onstage before saying the next line.” Essentially he has to be able to act the part offstage so Siegfried won’t lose any of the characterization Michael has created.

Luckily, the Siegfried performances have gone well so far. They performed today with students at Cottonwood Elementary in Yakima, so check back next week for some photos of the performance!

Photo credit: Eric Neuville in rehearsal. © Bill Mohn

Wagner vs. Verdi: Nationalism vs. Globalism

Tonight's adult education event at Seattle University, second in our series of broad Verdi vs. Wagner topics, will look at politics in the operas and lives of these two great composers; more specifically we'll investigate how both of them rode the great nineteenth-century wave of nation-building which created Italy and Germany, as modern political entities, and how both saw glimmers of a different kind of political structure down the road, the first inklings of a truly global culture.

Verdi wrote the theme music for Italian unification; his name even became a political slogan, so that those who shouted "Viva Verdi!" in mid-nineteenth century Italy were waving flags supporting the movement that eventually crowned Vittorio Emmanuele II as king of the united Italy. And Wagner's connection to German nationalism is well-known, its ramifications still debated. Tonight we'll look at moments from Verdi and Wagner operas promoting national identity, German and Italian, as well as the xenophobia which tends to accompany such statements of unity. Then, we'll glance through a handful of their operas, comparing and contrasting how they present political issues such as fascism, capitalism, socialism, communism, colonies and empire, slavery, prejudice, displaced populations, and the industrial revolution and the environmental movement. And we'll end by looking at the lives both lived outside their native lands: as exiles, dissidents, outcasts, travellers, and (eventually) lionized celebrities. (We'll even hear some of the music they wrote in celebration of other political groups, Verdi's "Hymn of the Nations" and Wagner's "American Centennial March".)

Come to Seattle University's Wyckoff Auditorium at 7 pm tonight, and join us for this interesting discussion!