13/14 Seattle University Series: “When Opera Meets Film”

Seattle Opera’s great tradition of free adult education at Seattle University continues! On select Tuesday evenings (at 7 pm) this season, join Community Program Manager Rob McClung and special guests for a FREE series of lectures and discussions about opera and film. For more information, please contact Seattle Opera’s Education department at (206) 676-5567 or visit www.seattleopera.org/calendar.

Wagner and Propaganda
October 29, 7 pm, Pigott Classroom 307
Guest: Richard Meyer, Lecturer in Film, Seattle University
Join film scholar Richard Meyer for a captivating presentation on the use of Wagner’s music in D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will (1935).

Richard Meyer at U-Bookstore talking about Jin Yan: The Rudolph Valentino of Shanghai
Katie Schmidt, photo

Of Mice and Men: Adaptations on Stage and on Screen
November 26, 7 pm, Pigott Classroom 307
Guest: Tony Kay, CityArts Film Correspondent
John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men has inspired adaptations for theater, film, radio and opera. We’ll examine two adaptations that tell Steinbeck’s story musically: the 1939 film by director Lewis Milestone and composer Aaron Copland, and the opera by Carlisle Floyd, premiered at Seattle Opera in 1970.

Tony Kay
Tony Kay, photo

The Film Operas of Gian Carlo Menotti
December 17, pm, Wyckoff Auditorium
Guest: Dan Miller, Artistic Director of Vespertine Opera
Join us for a lively discussion on three television operas, including The Medium, directed by the composer himself, Amahl and the Night Visitors, the first opera commissioned by NBC, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Consul.

Dan Miller at work at Vespertine Opera
Dan Miller, photo

Literature as Opera: Prokofiev’s War and Peace
January 21, 7 pm, Wyckoff Auditorium
Guest: Andrea McDowell, Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Seattle University
Russian literature specialist Andrea McDowell will lead a discussion on the operatic adaptation of Tolstoy’s War and Peace. We’ll show clips from Seattle Opera’s 1990 production and discover what this novel meant to Prokofiev and his audience in the post-war Soviet era.

The Carmen Phenomenon
February 25, 7 pm, Wyckoff Auditorium
Guests: Eric Ames, Professor of Germanics, and Jane Brown, Joff Hanauer Distinguished Professor of Western Civilization Emerita at the University of Washington
Join us for a conversation about George Bizet’s Carmen and its seemingly endless film adaptations – from DeMille to Beyonce—with key examples spanning more than a century of film history.

Jane Brown

Of Leitmotivs and Lightsabers: the Music of Star Wars
March 25, 7 pm, Wyckoff Auditorium
Guest: Dustin Kaspar, Seattle International Film Festival Educational Programs Manager
For many fans, John Williams’ iconic score for Star Wars remains unforgettable. Join Dustin Kaspar to explore the way in which Williams expertly incorporated Wagner's thematic principles into George Lucas' trilogy of “space operas.”

Dustin Kaspar at SIFF

The Hollywood Musical
April 22, 7 pm, Wyckoff Auditorium
Guest: Tony Kay, CityArts Film Correspondent
By looking at films spanning from The Jazz Singer (1927) to My Fair Lady (1964), we’ll look at the cinematographic techniques developed by Hollywood to create film musicals that rivaled original Broadway hits.

The Task of the Translator: Libretti and Screenplays
May 20, 7 pm, Wyckoff Auditorium
Guest: Jonathan Dean, Supertitles Author for Seattle Opera
The battle between words and music has been a longstanding one in opera history. Supertitles author Jonathan Dean will share a selection of scenes from opera and film to compare and contrast the forms of opera libretto and film screenplay from the writer’s point of view.

Jonathan Dean in the Supertitles Booth
Rozarii Lynch, photo

Meet Our Singers: ANDREW STENSON, Tonio

Andrew Stenson sings Tonio at the Sunday and Friday performances of Daughter of the Regiment. (Photo, left, by Elise Bakketun.) The Korean-born, Minnesota-raised tenor made his Seattle Opera mainstage debut as Arturo in 2010’s Lucia di Lammermoor, when he was in his first year as a Seattle Opera Young Artist. He went on to perform Don Ottavio, Werther, Ernesto, and Orphée in Seattle, and has a burgeoning career in New York and Europe as well. I checked in with him the other day about what he’s been doing since graduating from our Young Artists Program.

Andrew Stenson singing "Ah, mes amis"

Last time we heard you, you sang Orphée, covering an indisposed William Burden. Did that adventure change anything in your career?
That was such a rush! This company is fantastic—I had been so well-prepared by Seattle Opera, I felt so supported by everybody, production, artistic, top to bottom, that it really was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I’m really thankful for it. I got a wonderful review from the performance and I think that performance contributed to my being in Daughter of the Regiment.

Andrew Stenson as Orphée last season
Elise Bakketun, photo

Even in those days, it seems to me, you used to sing “Ah, mes amis,” this crazy aria from Daughter of the Regiment where you sing 9 high Cs in a row. Because you have this bizarre facility, with your voice, to live up in the clouds!
I think all young tenors practice “Ah, mes amis” secretly in their practice, you know, late at night when nobody is in the building, hoping to one day unveil nine magnificent high Cs at some point in the future. The first time I sang “Ah, mes amis” in public was at the Richard Tucker Auditions. Fortunately, it was also the best audition of my life!

And the thing with Orphée, too, is that that role is outrageously high.
Unbelievably high!

Which is higher, Tonio or Orphée?
Orphée is a much bigger sing. That big scene with the Furies, that’s almost all entirely above the staff. There’s a high D in there. When Berlioz transcribed that opera for mezzo, in the mid-19th century, he didn’t bother transposing parts of it—the last trio is in the same key!

You once described the high tessitura of Orphée as “my wheelhouse.” How do you get up there? Or is it comfortable for you, living up in the clouds like that?
Singing high is just something I’ve always been able to do pretty easily. I was talking with Larry [Brownlee, our other Tonio] about singing the other day and I asked him about his coloratura [singing complicated florid passages with dozens of brief, connected notes]. He said it was something that he was always able to do, that it was pretty natural for him to begin with. That was my situation with the high range—once I got the right technical help, it opened up the top and I’ve always found that part of my voice dependable.

So you had a turning point, but it was early on in your training. Then tell us: what is it like to nail “Ah, mes amis”? I mean, in that moment when they’re applauding, are you patting yourself on the head and thinking, “Hey! Guess what I just did!” You have to tell us...it’s not an experience any of the rest of us are ever going to have, with our deep, croaky voices. [laughs]
It’s challenging, but it’s a fun aria, because you get to play.

Andrew Stenson singing "Ah, mes amis"
Elise Bakketun, photo

Have you ever done it without much success?
I had a terrible, terrible audition once, where I was not feeling well but I went ahead and auditioned anyway, and for the last four of them I could barely vibrate...it was really, really bad! [laughs] That’s the other end of it. But when you “nail” it...yes, you can tell, by the energy of the audience, how you’re doing, and if you do well they go crazy. It’s so much fun.

Tell us about your experience in Glyndebourne this summer.
I was in Europe for five months, which was incredibly informative. I also found it quite isolating, to be that far away from family and friends. It made me realize what I appreciate about being home. But Glyndebourne itself was an amazing experience. We did a new production of Ariadne auf Naxos, starring Kate Lindsey, who sings here, as our brilliant Composer. We got to rehearse for seven weeks, so we had lots of little details. I was Brighella, and with the comics we got a nice dance sequence to go with our first ensemble.

It was really fun, and coordinating the dancing with the difficult ensemble took a LOT of work. Vladimir Jurowski was our conductor, he was always challenging us to improve, at all fourteen performances.

That’s a lot of Ariadnes! Was it televised?
Yes, simulcast around the UK and online.

What are you doing in New York?
I’m in my second year of the Lindemann Young Artists Development Program at the Met. This spring I’m going to sing Demetrius in The Enchanted Island. It’s the show I made my Met debut in, as a Quartet Singer, so I’ve been promoted! I’m really looking forward to that.

Andrew Stenson (Tonio) with Alexander Hajek (Sulpice) and the Regiment in Daughter of the Regiment
Elise Bakketun, photo

You told us once that tenors were usually the straight man in a comedy. Is that the case in this show?
There are some really, really brilliant, funny people in Daughter of the Regiment. It’d be pointless for me to try to compete! Larry and I get to have some fun, cute moments with Marie in the first duet; but Tonio has a lot more earnest music, serious scenes, and I like being able to provide that contrast to all these dozens of soldiers running up and down the stairs, that kind of thing.

But you do do some stuff in Daughter that tickles your funny bone?
Yes, Marie and Tonio have some playful banter, and when we enter for the duet we’ve stolen an officer’s bicycle, and crashed and hurt our legs, so there’s some slapstick there.

Are you sharing the stage with your former Young Artists Program Artistic Director, Peter Kazaras, who plays the Duchess of Krackenthorp?
Having learned so much from Peter, it’s such fun to see him in action and to be onstage with him. To see him at work—it’s great to see where that all comes from.

Meet Our Singers: PETER KAZARAS, Duchess of Krackenthorp

Peter Kazaras (photo, left, by Alan Alabastro) has been a mainstay of Seattle Opera since 1985, when he made his debut—as a tenor—in Jenůfa. He has gone on to sing dozens of principal tenor roles on our stage, including fantastic performances as Wagner’s Loge, Pierre Bezukhov (in Prokofiev’s War and Peace,) Britten’s Peter Quint and Captain Vere (in Billy Budd). In 2003, Kazaras made his Seattle Opera directing debut (Norma), and has gone on to direct such recent hits as our 2011 Barber of Seville and 2012 Madama Butterfly. As Artistic Director of our Young Artists Program and Director of Opera UCLA, he has mentored hundreds of young singers and directed sixteen productions. He appears in Daughter of the Regiment for a bit part in the final scene: the Duchess of Krackenthorp, a haughty grand dame battle-axe who is considering marrying her son to Marie, the regiment’s daughter. As always happens when we speak, Peter—one of the funniest men alive—had me in stiches within a minute.

You’ve given Seattle Opera many of our finest comedies over the years. Does Daughter play to your sense of humor?
Interesting question; Don Pasquale, which we did with the Seattle Opera Young Artists in 2012, does a little bit more. It’s such a masterpiece. But I think Daughter of the Regiment is lots of fun. And what beautiful tunes!

What’s the difference between these two Donizetti comedies?
It’s my experience—and I’m just at the beginning of my work on this production, so I don’t know if this comment applies here—that Daughter tends to be a bit broader, a bit more slapstick. But there’s always pain at the core, with Donizetti. Which is wonderful. You know, Marie sings “Il faut partir” and Tonio sings “Pour me rapprocher de Marie,” and you’ll find that kind of music in Donizetti’s other comedies as well.

Lawrence Brownlee (Tonio) sings "Pour me rapprocher" to Joyce Castle (Marquise) in Daughter of the Regiment
Elise Bakketun, photo

This production is filled with former Young Artists. Can you comment on the success of these singers’ careers, and what it means to the company to have them return?
It’s great that we have everybody from Sarah Coburn and Larry Brownlee to Andrew Stenson, who’s singing the Silver Tonio. This is the reason to have a Young Artists Program. It’s not only so that we have young and attractive people who can be a public face for the company and do outreach concerts; it’s also about making the pool of singers in the world richer. And Larry and Sarah are certainly evidence of that. They both have stellar careers and have sung at all sorts of important places.

Lawrence Brownlee and Sarah Coburn as Tonio and Marie in Daughter of the Regiment
Elise Bakketun, photo

And I have no doubt that Andrew will go out and join their ranks. He is already doing beautiful work at the Met, and every second onstage for him is filled with the joy of singing.

He wasn’t a Young Artist here, but Alexander Hajek, who plays Sulpice, is also a talented young singer in this cast. Have you worked with him?
I was talking about this with Alex, and I think our paths crossed many years ago in Chautauqua. It’s a small world! You run into people again and again and again. It’s an important lesson for Young Artists, or students in a university. Down at UCLA I tell my students: “Somebody will call me at some point, and ask me to tell them the real story about you.” And that’s one thing if they’re asking, “Does this singer have the voice for this role?” and something else if the question is: “Is this person to be counted upon? Do they cause panic in the streets?” And you have to answer truthfully, or else your own reputation is jeopardized.

Peter Kazaras as the Duchess of Krackenthorp in Daughter of the Regiment
Elise Bakketun, photo

Whose idea was it to have you do this role of the Duchess?
Originally, Bernard Uzan was going to do it. He’s a fantastic actor. And I happened to be with Aren [Der Hacopian, Seattle Opera’s Artistic Administrator] and Speight [Jenkins, General Director] when Aren said, “Oh, my God, Bernard can’t do it, because he’s directing Carmen in Germany or whatever,” and I was like, “I’ll do it!” And Speight said, “Done!” It was the easiest sell I’ve ever made. The problem is, I know that Bernard would be unbelievable in this role. I was onstage with Bernard once, I was Eisenstein and he was Frosch, and I could not stop from laughing.

When was this?
It was In Dayton in 1988. It was pretty much the nadir of my professional existence, but meeting Bernard made it a lot of fun. I know he’d be unbelievable in this, so in my mind, I’m trying to catch up. It’s like trying to sing Britten after Peter Pears—I know exactly what he would do with it, and it would be definitive. So I'll just have to ignore my mental image of Bernard and just do my own thing. It's been great working with Emilio Sagi because he has come up with some pretty out there suggestions which add to the general mayhem. Plus, any moment with Joyce Castle is always an invitation to anarchy, whether onstage or off...

That’s right, the two of you have a long history together.
Of course it is a special treat to share the stage with my beloved Joyce Castle once again—we have appeared together in Seattle as Peter Quint and Mrs. Grose (she resplendent in green plaid), as Fricka and Loge, and as Herod and Herodias. But this time she is actually accompanying not only Marie (her "niece") but also me, and she's quite something. I'm looking forward to a judicious bit of improvising with her, in French of course! She is the definition of what it’s all about. I have also had the pleasure of directing her in our last version of The Marriage of Figaro. So this is real fun – I hope for us both!

Have you done a drag role before?
In high school. I was Ruth in Wonderful Town, the Roz Russell role, and I was quite something! I looked like an enraged Eleanor Roosevelt for most of it. [Remembering a line from the show:] “Yes, that’s my typewriter, the letter W is missing. It fell off after I wrote my thesis. On Walt Whitman!” Directed by Barbara Alden, mother of David and Christopher. That was the last time I was in a dress...I should say, ‘for pay.’ There was once a costume party...I came as Turandot, in my grandfather’s old silk robe. Not sure if that counts.

Not a real Chinese dress.
No, but it looked great. I did the wig!

With all the spikes and balls?
Oh, yes. There’s a photo someplace; a bit out of focus, perhaps, but that only adds to the allure. The party was in Stephen [Wadsworth]’s apartment, and everyone was supposed to come as an opera character of the opposite sex. But people were all, “I’m coming as Fidelio,” “I’m coming as Cherubino,” and I thought, “Ach! You people have no imagination.”

How do you make the shift, from being a director to being directed?
How do you make the shift from driving to being a passenger? You just say, “For this car ride, I will sit in this seat.” Now, if you’re like me, you also scream at your husband: “Slow down!” And some director-friends of mine might tell you that I was occasionally second-guessing them, asking: “Do you really want me to do that?” Of course, now I act as a producer occasionally at UCLA, and that is also really interesting – my job is to support the director's vision, but within financial (and other) limits! But everybody has a different role to play in a production. The director has one role, and as an actor you have a quite different role.

Joyce Castle as the Marquise of Berkenfield and Peter Kazaras as the Duchess of Krackenthorp in Daughter of the Regiment
Elise Bakketun, photo

We understand you’re going to favor us with a little piece from Offenbach--the "Drunk" aria from La Périchole. How did that come about?
Speight was not sure about several suggestions I made, for what to sing, and this idea came from John DeMain [Artistic Director of Madison Opera]. I thought it sounded like fun, so I suggested it to Yves [Abel, conductor of Daughter of the Regiment], who said, “Great! No matter what you do you’re going to be funnier than some of the others I've worked with!"

Brownlee CD Signing Before Sunday Performance

LAWRENCE BROWNLEE will sign copies of his new cd, "Spiritual Sketches," outside McCaw Hall’s Amusements Gift Shop on Sunday, 10/20, from 1:30 to 2 pm.

Mr. Brownlee will sing one of these spirituals when he appears on "New Day NW" on Monday 10/21. If you'd like to be in the live studio audience for this television show, you'll need to be in the studio (at 333 Dexter Ave N. in Seattle)by 9:30 a.m. The taping will end about 11:30. Learn more at NEW DAY NW, or email newdaytickets@king5.com.

Meet Our Artists: YVES ABEL, Conductor

Maestro Yves Abel conducted his first Seattle Opera production in 1996, when he was just starting out. He remembers those days—and looks forward to conducting two fantastic operas in French this season for Seattle Opera, La fille du régiment and Les contes d’Hoffmann.

Why should people come to hear Daughter of the Regiment?
It was one of the greatest hits of its day, because its music is of such high quality. And there’s a beautiful story behind that music, concisely told, with all the contrast of farcical nonsense on the one side and great, deep human feelings on the other. I think that combination, wrapped up into this piece, with these memorable tunes and such a great cast, is well worth seeing!

Seattle Opera is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this season, and I looked it up...you first worked here 17 years ago! What memories do you have about some of your ancient history with this company?

My very, very first important contract was in this house, in 1996, when Speight took a chance! There was this young guy, and people were saying, “Hey, he’s doing some good things in New York, try him out!” And what I was doing in New York was French opera...but Speight hired me for La Cenerentola. But I love that, because with that opera, for one side of it you need a young person’s energy and verve and excitement; but there’s another side of it, more serious and mature. I think I was more successful on the first side, in those days!

Have you conducted that opera since?
Yes, with Larry [Brownlee, Seattle Opera’s Tonio] in Pesaro, at the Rossini festival, with a largely Italian cast, and we had a great time. But thank God I’d been able to do it before! Our Seattle Cenerentola in ’96 went very well, we had a wonderful cast, and then Speight asked me to do something totally different: Vanessa, by Samuel Barber, which is an amazing opera.

By then you must have been getting used to Speight surprising you with his requests!
Well, he has this instinct. It has served him extremely well over the years. I’d never done Vanessa; in fact I’d done very little American opera. And I took it very seriously, studied the piece inside out, went out to Scotland to visit Gian Carlo Menotti in his castle. We talked about the libretto, and he shared all sorts of secrets, things that were ‘inside information’ between him and Sam, who were friends at the time. I got a wonderful bird’s-eye-view of the inside of the piece, and its compositional history, the premiere, etc., so I felt like I had prepared as well as I could before I arrived here.

And that was a new direction for you, at the time. Later, in Seattle, you did The End of the Affair, another new American work. Have you done lots of other contemporary work?
Yes, but mostly symphonic. Modern opera is now being done so rarely, it’s become a specialty of certain conductors. But I must say I love doing it. I loved doing both of those operas. And then, I also did Die Fledermaus in Seattle!

Right, which probably has more in common with Daughter of the Regiment than many of the shows you’ve conducted in Seattle!
Speight pointed out the other day, this is actually the first French opera he’s asked me to do!

Joyce Castle (Marquise of Berkenfield) in Daughter of the Regiment
Elise Bakketun, photo

And a colleague who was also in that Fledermaus is back: Joyce Castle, who played Orlofsky in ’99. Any other previous connections with this cast?
Just Larry and Joyce. But I’m very impressed with the caliber of the cast; the role of Marie is extremely difficult, and Sarah Coburn is doing a fabulous job with it. Not only has she found the Italian style behind the French style, but you need two sides to it: you need the pathos, and the farcical, energetic side, and she has them both! And Larry, of course...he’ll never miss any of those high Cs, I can guarantee that!

Sarah Coburn (Marie) and Lawrence Brownlee (Tonio) in Daughter of the Regiment
Elise Bakketun, photo

Tell us a little more about this curious situation with, what did you say, “Italian style behind the French style.”
All the composers of that period, everybody wanted to make it in Paris. Because Paris is where the bucks were. An Italian composer working for a Paris theater would make five times as much money as he would writing an opera for an Italian theater. So there was this rush of Italian composers, hurling themselves at Paris, hoping that somebody would grab their opera. That included Rossini, who wrote not only Le Comte Ory, but the most famous opera of that period, William Tell. And Donizetti, whose Fille du régiment became such an enormous hit. Because of these unbelievably catchy militaristic tunes, plus its completely Italian style—these slow, languid cavatinas—Italian style, but they’re sung in French. Donizetti did this, and a French version of Lucie de Lammermoor, and Les Martyres, a massive piece. And Verdi later wrote Don Carlos for Paris, and a version of Macbeth...and Trovatore, do you know he did this Le trouvère with an added ballet for Paris?

That’s amazing.
But getting back to Fille, this opera has these two sides: these French farcical strophic songs, and then these more signature Donizetti pieces, “Il faut partir,” for Marie in Act One, which is probably the equivalent of “Una furtiva lagrima,” you know, this gorgeous melting tune which could only be written by an Italian. She sings two arias in that style; in the second act her aria starts in that style and then breaks into “Salut à la France!”

I wonder if this situation, with Donizetti composing a French opera, is anything like Mozart writing operas both in his native tongue, German, and also in Italian.
Composers were so facile back then, so good at so many different styles. They were exposed to a lot of what was going on, and they were anxious, for the sake of a compositional challenge, in learning something new.

Yes, hopefully building on what they knew they could do well.
I suppose it’s like Oscar Wilde writing Salomé in French, or Beckett. Or Joseph Conrad or Nabokov, writing amazing novels in English, even though that’s not their first language.

We’re looking forward to hearing you lead Hoffmann later this season. What can you tell us about this production? What scenes, what acts, what music will we hear?
It’s not yet finalized. But we know which version we’re doing—we’re not doing the critical edition, which has way too much music, it goes on for hours and hours. We want to be concise, and to tell the story as well as we can, without holes but without making a Wagner-length evening out of it! We begin with what was a more traditional Hoffmann, the one that’s been done all over the world, but we’re adding little bits and pieces here and there to expand the role of the Muse/Nicklausse.

Kate Lindsey

That will be the fantastic Kate Lindsey—one of her strongest roles. So...no septet?
Well, we’re discussing that! I’m pushing for it, in fact...I think the music is fantastic, and it’s not SO long.

Oh, my! That may be new to Seattle. At least, in recent memory. Well, we’re greatly looking forward to hearing it!

The Daughter of the Regiment TRAILER

What IS a “Vivandière”? Real-Life Daughters of Regiments

Rob McClung, Seattle Opera's Community Programs Manager, has been sharing the music and mirth of La fille du régiment at free previews all over the Puget Sound region these last few weeks. Today, as our Guest Blogger, he explains a very special word which you'll hear them singing in Fille when they need to describe the title character: "la VIVANDIÈRE."

Sarah Coburn (Marie) and the 21st Regiment
Elise Bakketun, photo

In marketing its production of La fille du régiment, with the action updated from the Napoleonic wars to World War II, Seattle Opera chose to describe the title character as a “tomboy.” The word itself did not exist in the nineteenth-century, nor of course, did the concept as we understand it. Donizetti’s score allows liberal room for interpretation: he did not shape Marie’s character in great detail. Yet we can certainly glean from the text and music the character of a young lady who is more comfortable in the barracks than in the domestic home. In nineteenth-century France, girls from the country were naturally different in demeanor than girls raised in the posh urban centers such as Paris; but Marie is something else entirely. What is she? In her duet with the regiment’s Sergeant Sulpice, we learn that Marie takes pride in her recent promotion to the position of “vivandière.” It’s a word which means little to us without a bit of historical digging.

19th-century illustration of Marie and Sulpice

The term “vivandière” and its equivalent “cantinière” denoted women who served in the French military in an auxiliary role. The terms were used interchangeably but designated essentially the same function. Vivandières were not sanctioned to fight—though reports exist of many who did—but to sell food and drink to soldiers. Vivandières also vended much-appreciated items such as tobacco, wig powder, paper, and ink. An army may march on its stomach; but in those days the French military did not provide food for its soldiers. Infantrymen were on their own when it came to preparing meals, so a warm dish prepared by a vivandière held appeal and assured her popularity among the soldiers. Of course vivandières were popular for other reasons: many became wives of soldiers and mothers to their children. These military families lived and traveled together on foreign campaigns, so the children of soldiers and vivandières, literally sons and daughters of the regiment, experienced a childhood not unlike that of Marie, if less tuneful.

During the Napoleonic wars, the role of the vivandière expanded within Napoleon’s Grande Armée, a military force vast in number that spent more time abroad than ever before in French history. Vivandières not only served food and drink—sometimes under gunfire—but washed soiled uniforms and nursed wounded soldiers. La fille du régiment, written in 1839 but set in 1805 in the foothills of the Tyrolean Alps, places the story within the War of the Third Coalition, a conflict that placed France against a newly formed alliance that included Russia, the United Kingdom and the Holy Roman Empire. In this context, one understands the Austrian Marquise de Berkenfield’s indignation toward the French soldiers who accost her in the opening scene of La fille du régiment.

Placing La fille du régiment within its historical context, however, does not explain its mysterious origins. Most operas are based on pre-existing stories: Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor was inspired by Sir Walter Scott’s The Bride of Lammermoor; his Maria Stuarda was based on an Italian translation of Schiller’s play Mary Stuart. Yet we know virtually nothing about the source for the story of La fille du régiment. One clue, however, may point us in the right direction. Thomas Cardoza, whose most recent book Intrepid Women: Cantinières and Vivandières of the French Army illuminates much about vivandières and French military life, cites an interesting legend that surrounded a particular vivandière in the second Zouave Regiment in Algeria:

One of the regiment’s cantinières, known only as ‘La Belle Marie,’ joined the regiment in 1834, and it was said among the soldiers that she came from a prominent and wealthy French family. Supposedly, she loved a common soldier and yearned after a simple life, so she feigned her own death in order to spare the family any embarrassment, and secretly ran off to Algeria, where she lived out the rest of her days as a simple cantinière.

Cardoza then references La fille du régiment, and though he makes no claim that this account is the opera’s source, impresses upon the reader that tales of this nature circulated among French soldiers and civilians. Thus it is fair to speculate that Donizetti’s librettists Vernoy and Saint George felt that a vivandière of a mysterious aristocratic background offered great material for the subject of a comic opera. And it does.

Rob McClung
Bill Mohn, photo

Meet Our Singers: SARAH COBURN, Marie

Sarah Coburn stars as Marie, the Daughter of the Regiment, in our fall production. A graduate of Seattle Opera’s Young Artists Program, Sarah has given us terrific mainstage performances as Adele in Die Fledermaus and Rosina in The Barber of Seville. But this role is an even greater challenge, and Sarah shared with me some of its difficulties—and some memories of her first Seattle Opera experiences, a dozen years ago!

Sarah Coburn singing "Il faut partir"

Sarah, have you ever sung so long and exhausting a role as this Marie?
Susanna, in Marriage of Figaro, is probably longer. But it doesn’t have Marie’s taxing tessitura; Susanna just sings a lot of recitative and duets and so forth. Lucia is long, but it’s nothing like this. And once you get to the end of the night in Lucia, the Mad Scene, it’s easy. Daughter of the Regiment is a marathon—especially Act Two. You’ve got lots of physical comedy, then right into an emotional, vulnerable cavatina, which has to be beautiful and has to have soft moments. And then into “Salut à la France!” And then into a funny trio. And it keeps going and keeps going. And her mood changes so quickly, especially after the lesson scene. I’d say this role is deceptively difficult. It’s not like Norina or Adina... vocally it’s more dramatic.

Sarah Coburn and Alexander Hajek (Sulpice) in rehearsal for Daughter of the Regiment
Alan Alabastro, photo

Marie is a tomboy, or perhaps ‘army brat’ is a better description, forced to become a lady. How do you relate to her journey, in terms of this boy/girl question?
I’ve always seen her as very boyish—completely unaware of her femininity and how it affects the guys around her. As far as she’s concerned, she’s one of the guys. So she’s uncomfortable and vulnerable once she’s out of that situation. We’re taking a slightly different twist with this production; here she’s less artless, she knows a little about how to use her feminine wiles to manipulate men. It’s a bit more modern, befitting our updated production.

Yes, it’s the Number One thing for me that seems to call out for ‘suspension of disbelief’—how realistic is it for there to be this sweet, innocent young ingenue who’s grown up her whole life around soldiers?
She’s innocent in that she’s unaware of her effect...but she’s crass. She swears when she is around the guys and doesn't necessarily sit like a lady.

Sarah Coburn in rehearsal
Alan Alabastro, photo

Now, the cussing we’re doing in our French dialogue here is still pretty G-rated, correct?
“Corbleu!” and “Sacre bleu!” That kind of thing. And we don’t really see the fruition of this quest to make her a lady, because the funny part is how uncomfortable she is in those constraints. If she’s all of a sudden comfortable as a little princess in a ballgown, it wouldn’t be funny.

Do you like singing in French? What was it like doing Lucie de Lammermoor in the French version?
I do enjoy singing in French, although it is a bit more difficult than singing in Italian. I think that the healthiest thing I can do as a singer is to approach French opera as if I were singing in Italian, meaning that I want to strive for purity of vowels and long legato lines. I would like to sing more French roles- maybe Manon in the future. I sang the French Lucia in 2005 and 2008 and I do love singing it, but it is an Italian opera, with French text sort of superimposed on top. The mad scene has a few rearrangements and is in a higher key, but the role was written for the Italian text, so it doesn't work as well as something that was composed for an original French text. Even the alternate aria in Act 1, "Que n'avons-nous des ailes" was originally from an Italian opera, Rosmonda d'Inghilterra. I do love the high f at the end of the French mad scene!

Sarah Coburn (Adele), Dana Johnson (Ida) and Patrick Carfizzi (Frank) in Die Fledermaus, 2006
Rozarii Lynch, photo

We’ve always seen you in comedies here. When do we get you in a tragedy?
2016!

How are comedy and tragedy different, from your point of view?
Comedy is so much harder. You have to pay so much more attention! There are so many teeny tiny moments. And it’s tricky, with comedy, to remount a production that was originally done for other performers. You might have ideas or inclinations about the show, but you have to wait, and figure out what they did last time, and then hopefully you can layer on top of that something creative, something you can bring to it yourself. Without overdoing it, or changing the style, or not melding with what your colleagues are doing. It’s challenging, because we’re not building something from scratch, we’re coming into something that’s already there.

Sarah Kleeman (Tisbe), Adriana Zabala (Cenerentola), and Sarah Coburn (Clorinda) in the 2002 Young Artists Program La Cenerentola
Chris Bennion, photo

We’re celebrating Seattle Opera’s 50th this year, and on our history site we have a funny photo of you as Clorinda in La Cenerentola. What memories do you have of being a Young Artist?
It feels like a century ago! It was stressful, I remember that—we were young, just starting out, learning to audition; Larry [Brownlee, who sings Tonio in Daughter of the Regiment] and I were just reminiscing about it the other day, how we did the Act 1 finale of Così and took it on the road, did concerts all over the state! I will never forget listening to Larry and Ryan Taylor sing the duet from The Pearl Fishers. It killed me every time.

What’s the most important thing you learned that year?
Getting more comfortable onstage. The outreach was fine—that year we were doing the first-ever Opera Goes To School show, Perry Lorenzo’s Magic Flute—but the concerts were fantastic, and that was most helpful to me in terms of getting out there and learning how to sing in front of people on a regular basis.

Sarah Coburn and Lawrence Brownlee in rehearsal for Daughter of the Regiment
Alan Alabastro, photo

Are you and Larry very different people now, do you think?
Oh yes! We’re both married and parents of two children! We’re a lot more tired! Larry’s career, or course, has skyrocketed, but I don’t know that he’s really very different. He is very much down to earth and a good friend, as he always has been. Seems like he used to be really into salsa, and now he’s into ping-pong, but you’ll have to ask him!

"DAUGHTER" Creative Chat Video

Maestro Yves Abel and Stage Director Emilio Sagi discuss Donizetti's delightful music, what this opera has in common with American musical comedies, and their plans to freshen up this new-to-Seattle production. Includes footage of principal singers in rehearsal.

Meet Our Singers: LAWRENCE BROWNLEE, Tonio

Superstar tenor Lawrence Brownlee is a great friend of Seattle Opera. One of the most accomplished alumni of Seattle Opera’s Young Artists Program, this amazing singer is in demand the world over, wherever bel canto is performed. We’ve had the great good fortune in Seattle to hear him in operas by all three of the great bel canto composers: Rossini (L’italiana in Algeri and Il barbiere di Siviglia), Bellini (I puritani), and Donizetti (Don Pasquale and now La fille du régiment.) We checked in the other day and chatted about this particular role, about his relationship with fellow Seattle Opera YAP Alum and co-star Sarah Coburn (the daughter of our regiment), and about the future of the Young Artists Program.

Lawrence Brownlee singing "Pour me rapprocher"

Thanks for joining me today, Larry! Let’s talk about high notes. Should we be impressed by anyone who has the ability to sing 9 high Cs in a row?
Ok, now, I’ve done this aria, “Ah, mes amis,” for many years, and yes, people are fascinated by the fact that there are 9 high Cs. But I actually sing roles with more than that in a single aria—I think Le Comte Ory has 11 in one aria, and Zelmira has several high Ds. But people know this one, and it can be impressive; but the more difficult aria is the second act aria, “Pour me rapprocher de Marie,” which has a high C# and which has challenges of line, legato phrasing, breath control, all those things.

Sarah Coburn and Lawrence Brownlee at Daughter of the Regiment rehearsal
Alan Alabastro, photo

That second act aria, that’s the one that’s going to make you cry. Or at least it should, as opposed to “Ah, mes amis,” which is just a guy who’s all “Woo-hoo! I’m happy, happy, happy!”
Right, he’s exuberant. But the thing is, if you have a high C in your voice, the way that aria is written, it’s not such a difficult feat. With “Pour me rapprocher,” it is difficult really to SAY something.

Lawrence Brownlee at Daughter of the Regiment rehearsal
Alan Alabastro, photo

What does it feel like, to nail “Ah, mes amis?” You must have that moment of: “All right! I did it!”
You pace yourself from the beginning so you can build up to that moment, because you know that a lot of people who are coming to Daughter of the Regiment are coming to hear whether the tenor can sing the 9 high Cs. So you want to try and deliver something that’s exciting and full of energy. You have to have a cool head and a warm heart, and hopefully it comes off without a hitch.

Lawrence Brownlee (Almaviva), Sarah Coburn (Rosina), and David Hogan (Ambrogio) in The Barber of Seville, 2011
Alan Alabastro, photo

The last time you sang for us, you were Rossini’s Count Almaviva—masquerading as a poor student, a drunken soldier, a conniving music teacher, and finally revealed to be a haughty nobleman. Tonio is a much, much simpler character. How do you make him three-dimensional?
This character can come off as a bit of a buffoon. I just try to make him sincere. He really is in love—if you think of what he does, the great lengths to which he goes—he joins an army, and not even his own army, all for a girl. Think about that. Patriotism, love for your own country, is so important...and yet because she’s made this promise that she wouldn’t marry anyone that wasn’t a part of the regiment, he sacrifices all that stuff to be close to her. And the tragedy is that when he does that, the minute he says to Sulpice and the regiment, “You have to let me marry her,” he’s told that she has to leave. So you make him feel those emotions sincerely: the excitement and the loss.

That’s so interesting how he switches national allegiance—in our production he’s a French guy who becomes an American soldier...
That’s right, you renounce who you are, in order to be with this girl. It’s that important to him. He’s not a coward. He’s come to this camp, in the beginning, he’s all alone; they think he’s a spy. But he’s not hiding anything. In fact he blurts out, “I love you! I came here to be close to you!”

How often have you played this role?
I think I’ve done it 6 or 7 times. I’ve done the Laurent Pelly production at the Met a few times, set in World War I; I’ve done it in Hamburg, in Cincinnati...

Have you and Sarah Coburn sung this together before?
No. This is the first time we’ve done Daughter of the Regiment.

Alex Hajek (Sulpice), Sarah Coburn (Marie), and Lawrence Brownlee (Tonio) rehearse Daughter of the Regiment
Alan Alabastro, photo

But you’ve done other operas with her, such as Barber of Seville here in 2011. And you go way back with her. Casting back, if you can, to 2002 in Seattle Opera’s Young Artists Program...how are you both different?
Ah, but I actually met her in 2001. We met at the Met Auditions that year, we were both two of the ten finalists. How have we changed? We’ve grown. It’s wonderful to watch her grow as an artist. She knows I’m a great fan of her singing. And her career is going very well, she’s worked with important people at all the right places. And I think she is a great musician. We have a very close relationship, we’re regularly in touch, talking about things, from parenthood to politics. I’d like to think that she treats me as a bit of a big brother, even though I’m not!

And have you also learned about yourself, watching your own growth and career reflected in Sarah?
I think so. The more you respect someone, the more you realize what you’re doing yourself. That respect or admiration says something about what you offer as a singer.

Now as you know, Seattle Opera was happy to announce that we balanced our budget last season; but one of the keys to fiscal stability has been this hiatus for our Young Artists Program. What advice do you have to the new General Director, in terms of the next step with that on-hiatus program?
As a former Young Artist, I find that the program is of course extremely close to my heart. I came here in the fall of 2000, and the relationships I made in the program have been so important to me—with Speight, with Perry Lorenzo, Kathy Magiera, Dean Williamson, Chuck Hudson, and so many other people. Some of the people have changed, but a lot of them are still here, which says a lot about the culture of Seattle Opera. And this Young Artists Program has done a lot to launch many people’s careers, people who are now working around the world. It’s sad to see it go. It’s part of a vision for the future of our art form, so I certainly hope that’s still part of what Seattle Opera does.

Lawrence Brownlee (Lindoro) in The Italian Girl in Algiers, 2006
Rozarii Lynch, photo

When you were in the program, in 00/01 and 01/02, the big production was always over in Bellevue. In the last few years, that switched to giving Young Artists more opportunities on the mainstage.
Yes, like when we did Barber of Seville two years ago, and Daniel Scofield was Fiorello and Adrian Rosas was the Sergeant. Having traveled to lots of companies with Young Artists Programs, yes, people do that all the time. Andrew Stenson, who’s doing the other performances of Tonio here, is a Young Artist at the Met right now, and is singing roles at the Met. They trust these people, and invest in them—with the best stage directors and conductors, on one of the best stages in the world. It’s a mark of the faith they have in these young singers, that they can put them in front of the public. I think that opportunity is necessary, to attract the highest caliber young singers. I certainly gained enormously from having such opportunities, as a Young Artist.

Norah Amsellem (Elvira) and Lawrence Brownlee (Arturo) in I puritani, 2008

Is Daughter of the Regiment a good opera for kids?
I think it’s a great opera for anybody. It’s something people can easily follow; it’s light enough, you’re not going to go home depressed. This is an opera where you can go away humming the tunes. The costumes and dancing and chorus and everything that’s going on is captivating, and I think people will say, “That wasn’t fluff—that was good, clean, honest fun.”

Have your kids heard any of this opera?
My kids are very little; my son is 3, and my daughter is not yet 2. But we played a clip of this opera for my son, a little video of me singing the high Cs in Berlin. He was fixated on it, and—we have a video of his reaction, too, it’s really cute—he turns to my wife and nods his head, as if to say, “That was okay. I approve!”

Meet Our Singers: JOYCE CASTLE, Marquise of Birkenfield

Joyce Castle returns to Seattle Opera as Daughter of the Regiment’s Marquise of Birkenfield (photo from rehearsal, right, by Alan Alabastro). This legendary performer (and professor at the University of Kansas) has given Seattle Opera a series of remarkable characters over the years, including her famous Augusta Tabor in The Ballad of Baby Doe, her 1990 debut (Mère Marie in Dialogues of the Carmelites), and most recently a brilliant Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro. Seattle is lucky to have this versatile artist bringing one of her favorite roles to town. When I spoke with Joyce the other day, we discussed the complicated journey taken by the Marquise, the many operetta characters that are descended from her, and some of her exciting upcoming projects—including a new recording of a work by William Bolcom and a new opera on A Wrinkle in Time.

Joyce Castle singing "Pour une femme de mon nom"

Welcome back, Joyce! Now, once upon a time you sang Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus for us (conducted by Yves Abel, who’s also working on this opera with you). Is Daughter of the Regiment an operetta?
I think it is. As Yves says, it led right into Offenbach. I have a fair amount of experience doing operettas; I’ve done Gilbert & Sullivan, Offenbach—Public Opinion in Orpheus in the Underworld. And music theater, too.

In Gilbert & Sullivan, I’m guessing you play those haughty contraltos—the Fairy Queen, Katisha...
Yes, Buttercup, the Duchess of Plaza-Toro, Ruth in Pirates...I’ve done a lot of them.

That’s interesting, these characters seem to have a lot in common with the Marquise, your character in Daughter of the Regiment.
They do—including the ‘reveal’ at the end. Usually, at the end, I get to say: “But he’s my SON!” Or, “she's my daughter...”

From Le nozze di Figaro, 2009: Arthur Woodley (Dr. Bartolo) and Joyce Castle (Marcellina)
Rozarii Lynch, photo

That’s right, and how we figured this out because of the birthmark shaped like spatula! [laughs]
And the Marquise certainly gets that moment. She may have started that entire tradition. It makes for great theater, great comedy. The dialogue and the music, the way it’s written is very theatrical.

Seattle Opera hasn’t done too much operetta: Fledermaus comes back every so often, and we’ve done The Merry Widow, but there’s worlds of Gilbert & Sullivan and Offenbach and other operettas we haven’t presented. Are we missing out by not doing more of these lighter pieces?
Let the other theaters do them. We’re doing great work here also with Wagner and Strauss!

From Salome, 2002: Joyce Castle as Herodias
Gary Smith, photo

Both of which you’ve done in Seattle, Fricka and Waltraute (in the Ring) and Herodias (in Salome). But even when you’re in a serious opera, like Heggie’s The End of the Affair, which we did in 2005, your characters often get laughs.
Well, Mrs. Bertram, in The End of the Affair...she is pretty comic. She’s just...a ‘snappy’ lady. She has fun, she likes to dance. I think she thinks she’s younger than she is.

From The End of the Affair, 2005: Joyce Castle as Mrs. Bertram
Bill Mohn, photo

It’s interesting you speak about her in the 3rd person. Are you distanced enough from the character, to know that she’s funny?
Sure, now. When I’m doing the scene, I’m in the scene! But later I’m able to stand back and see the whole show. When I step in, I become part of the story, and I’m not commenting on myself then, I’m just playing the character. If I play the character in a real natural way, it will work—if I believe in her.

From Die Walküre, 1995: Joyce Castle (Fricka) and Monte Pederson (Wotan)
Gary Smith, photo

Tell us about the Marquise. You’ve done this role a lot; is she a funny person, does she get a lot of laughs? She does get laughs. But I’m certainly not playing the Marquise for laughs. If I stand back and look at her... [chuckles], well, she’s quite interesting, she’s certainly happy with herself, very happy with herself. But she needs more. And she’s carrying this huge secret. She has a personality that’s larger than life; but she’s covering up, with this loud voice, or, shall we say, ‘colorful personality,’ she’s covering up something that’s very important, very serious in her life. And people do this in real life. You speak too loud, and maybe there’s something underneath there.

From The Ballad of Baby Doe, 1992: Sally Wolf (Baby Doe) and Joyce Castle (Augusta Tabor)
Gary Smith, photo

Interesting—we’re trying to speak so quietly about THAT, so we compensate by speaking too loudly about THIS. And once she gets it all off her chest, is her life going to be different...is she going to live differently with herself?
Well...she has her daughter. And her daughter is happy. I’m sure she feels better about the life she’s had.

How do you teach young opera singers to perform comedy?
It’s very important for any actor to be inside the character. If you’re inside a character, and really commit deeply to that character, and she happens to be funny, she will be funny. If she happens to be crazy, you’ll see that. But for me to PLAY funny, or to play crazy...that doesn’t work.

From The Turn of the Screw, 1994: Joyce Castle (Mrs. Grose) and Cyndia Sieden (Flora)
Greg Eastman, photo

You’re going to play the piano in this opera.
I’ve played piano since I was 6. My mother started me and my older sister on piano lessons very early.

Did you play any other instruments?
At first I was a cellist, but they sold the cello out from under me, so I started alto clarinet, which some people say isn’t even a real instrument. And then I played tenor sax in the dance band, and when I was a senior in high school I decided to play oboe, because I thought that was a very, very difficult thing to do. But throughout, I played piano.

I imagine that comes in very handy, as a teacher of singing.
Oh, yes. And in Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. I play Widow Begbick, who has a night club, or cabaret, whatever it is, and somebody always plays the piano onstage. And when I do it, I play it myself.

From Dialogues of the Carmelites, 1990: Joyce Castle as Mère Marie
Ron Scherl, photo

I hear you have a cd coming out.
Yes, William Bolcom wrote a cycle for me, The Hawthorn Tree, on poems by Willa Cather, it’s a chamber work, with a small group of instruments. We just did it with Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, but the recording was made with musicians for The Orchestra of St. Luke’s, from the premiere. It should be out in a couple of months on Americus Records and for download.

When the link is available for download, we’ll be sure to publish it.
That’s what they do nowadays! I was looking at a Sondheim recording I did, so long ago it was on 33 1/3! And that’s also available by download now.

From Rusalka, 2001: Joyce Castle (Jezibaba), Owl, and Gwynne Geyer (Rusalka)
Gary Smith, photo

One last question: tell us a little about this new A Wrinkle in Time opera you’re doing!
Yes, Ft. Worth Opera has commissioned Libby Larsen to write an opera on this very popular book. I’m going to be Mrs. Which. Not Mrs. Witch, Mrs. Which! This is for their Spring ’15 Festival. The composer flew to Kansas City to meet me—same thing happened with Jake Heggie, when he wrote a piece for me, Statuesque, it’s fantastic, to poems by Gene Scheer. This was before we did The End of the Affair, Jake called me up from San Francisco and said, “You know, I really don’t know you very well, can I come out and see you?” And so he flew out, like Libby Larsen did, and stayed overnight, and got to know me more, listen to my voice, and wrote some beautiful things. I’m expecting great work from Libby. They’ve done a preliminary workshop.

Sounds like a fantastic subject for an opera. Those books are so evocative—it was twenty years ago, I was in elementary school when I read them, but I’ll never forget how they made me feel.
I think it will work, people will come.

Meet Our Singers: ALEXANDER HAJEK, Sulpice

Making his Seattle Opera debut in our Daughter of the Regiment is Canadian baritone Alexander Hajek, who sings the gruff but loveable Sergeant Sulpice, father-among-fathers to Marie, the daughter of Sulpice’s regiment. Alex spoke with me the other day about his background, about his full-time job singing for Dresden Semperoper, and about the spectacular cast assembled in Seattle for this warm and witty opera.

Sarah Coburn and Alexander Hajek singing "Au bruit de la guerre"

Welcome to Seattle Opera! You’re new here, so please tell us a bit about your background and your training.
I’m Canadian, from Toronto, but I did my training in the United States—I attended the Juilliard School for my undergrad, grad, and post-grad.

When did you begin singing?
I first started singing in choirs when I was around 10. I went to St. Michael’s Choir School; there were about 150 of us, from grades 3 to 13.

Did they take you on tour with the school’s choirs?
I think I’ve been to pretty much every single state and province with those tours. We’d take two tours a year, one in the winter, for ten days, and then for two weeks in the spring. Sometimes we’d go someplace far afield, like Ireland or Italy or the Caribbean. We once took an island-hopper in the Caribbean, and stopped at every single island just so we could say we’d been there!

Alex Hajek with Director Emilio Sagi in Daughter of the Regiment rehearsal
Alan Alabastro, photo

Who are your mentors, your most important teachers?
The late William Perry was my teacher at the Royal Conservatory of Music, in Toronto; then I studied with Daniel Ferro and Cynthia Hoffmann at Juilliard; Two directors really stand out in my mind, Tom Diamond, whom I met at the Canadian Opera Company, and Stephen Wadsworth, who was my professor at Juilliard. And who’s done so much great work here in Seattle.

Speaking of Stephen, how did you end up being asked to sing in Seattle?
When Speight Jenkins was visiting New York City, Stephen Wadsworth asked him to come to Juilliard and hear some of his singers. Speight listened to me sing "Madamina" from Don Giovanni, and said, “Ah, nice. What do you think of Sulpice?” And I, having no idea what\who that was, said, “Is that a type of soup?” Stephen face-palmed himself, and Speight said, “Why don’t you run on up to the library and find a score of Daughter of the Regiment and take a look?” So I did....... (never having found a score so quickly in my life)....... reviewed it and seeing it was a good fit.....the job was mine!

You’ve just come from Dresden, where you are fest. Can you explain a bit about how that system works, and how it’s different from working in the US and Canada?
Yes, it’s a full-time job. You’re a salaried employee, twelve months a year.

It’s not like in the US, where usually you get paid per performance?
No. In Germany you do get a small performance-fee bonus. It’s really nice to have a stable salary, and health benefits—everyone should have health care! It’s wonderful NOT to worry about how much it might cost me if I were to get sick.

Alex Hajek with Joyce Castle (Marquise de Birkenfield) in Daughter of the Regiment rehearsal
Alan Alabastro, photo

What has been the most challenging thing you’ve done in Dresden so far?
Oh, Die Fledermaus, by far. We did the dialogue in Sächsisch, the local dialect in Saxony. For me it would be hard enough to do it all in Viennese German, the way it was written. But we tailored the show very much for our city, lots of political references...and I’ve never heard the audience roar with laughter the way they did with that show.

So did you end up with a good Sächsisch accent?
My colleagues in Dresden were very kind in setting me up for success...because no, with my pronunciation it’s easy to spot the Ausländer. I remember the famous bass-baritone Hans Joachim Ketelson, he was Eisenstein and I was Falke, and for our first dialogue, on opening night he goes off-script: “Oh, Dr. Falke! I see that you’ve spent ten years in Canada! Tell me, what was that like?”

[Laughs] And you had no idea he was going to do that!
No idea, so I had to think on my feet. But it was a good way to let the audience know: “Oh, this guy is Canadian!”

And in Germany, do they have the same stereotypes of Canadians that we have in the U.S.? That y’all say “Eh?” a lot, and that you’re extremely apologetic all the time?
Oh, yes. It’s a badge we proudly wear all over the world.

Alex Hajek with Sarah Coburn (Marie) in Daughter of the Regiment rehearsal
Alan Alabastro, photo

Returning to the business at hand, what is Daughter of the Regiment about?
It’s about family, reuniting long-lost family. There’s family you’re related to, whom you might not necessarily want to be related to; and there’s family you’re not related to, who can be closer to you than blood.

I’m guessing this opera isn’t really about war, or soldiers...
Hardly.

Is it possible for a girl raised among a bunch of rough and rowdy thugs to stay as sweet and innocent as young Marie?
No, this is suspension of disbelief at its finest! And I imagine in Donizetti’s day, the life of a soldier was even rougher than it would be today. The salty epithets...

That’s right, what are the expletives and curses you’re throwing out in this opera?
Oh, here it’s all pretty tame...“Morbleu!” and “Corbleu!” and “Sacre bleu!”, that kind of thing.

Awesome. Speaking of that, you’ve got a lot of French dialogue in this opera. As a Canadian, did you grow up speaking French?
It was required until about grade 10, and after that you had the option of continuing or not.....I chose not.

Does it help, as a performer, to have been brought up bilingual like that?
It does help, to get it in the ear; it sits in your mouth more easily. As a Canadian you do speak a tiny bit of French every day, even if you’re a real Anglophone.

Plus, you’re working with a French diction coach on this production, Marie-France Lefebvre.
Yes, who’s French-Canadian herself. She is fabulous: kind and warm and infinitely patient!

Alex Hajek with Sarah Coburn and Lawrence Brownlee in Daughter of the Regiment rehearsal
Alan Alabastro, photo

Why should people come to Daughter of the Regiment?
We have a really fantastic cast. I think it’s rare to get such a collection of up-and-coming and established singers. And it isn’t a warhorse opera, but it’s spectacular—I think you’ll recognize more of the music than you expect—and it had a huge influence on a great many operas that came after it.