Chorus Spotlight: Lucy Weber

Lucy Weber, a longtime member of the Seattle Opera Chorus currently performing in Medea with Seattle Shakespeare Company. 

The Seattle Opera Chorus is made up of extraordinarily talented individuals. Under the leadership of Chorus Master John Keene, they can make us laugh as one of many zany characters in Count Ory, or tug at our hearts through the powerful "Va, pensiero" in Nabucco. Today, we talk to one of these accomplished singers. Lucy Weber has performed in mainstage productions such as Mary Stuart and Madame Butterfly, as well as at schools all over Washington State in Our Earth. But Weber, a lover of theater as well as music, doesn't limit her gifts to simply McCaw Hall. Currently, she is performing in Medea with Seattle Shakespeare Company. 

What’s your favorite thing about being a performing artist in Seattle?

I love the richness of talent here; many performers I have met literally go from job to job and stay employed fairly regularly. There was an article about how Seattle theaters try very hard to hire local talent. On the other hand, with so many talented people, it's also a highly competitive place. I feel very fortunate that I am able to perform semi-regularly with the Seattle Opera Chorus. I also love singing for the company's Education & Community Engagement Department; that keeps me pretty busy throughout the year.

How did you get into singing/opera?
I always had a passion for singing, but actually came to opera through theater and musical theater. Acting was a huge passion of mine in junior high and high school. After graduating, I considered making that my main focus, but ended up studying English and Journalism and pursuing theater on the side. When I was 25, I became interested in singing again, which is around the time most opera singers are beginning their careers. I had a voice teacher who felt I could do it, even if I was kind of late in the game. I feel like I am just finding my voice now; The Seattle Opera Chorus has helped me grow and develop.

Ausrine Stundyte (Cio-Cio San), Emily Clubb, and Lucy Weber. Elise Bakketun photo 

Proudest moment as an artist?
I have several, but one was particularly unexpected: I was asked to cover Sarah Larsen when she performed Suzuki in Madama Butterfly (2012). I was so humbled and honored, and it was a great opportunity for me as a singer. She is the most wonderful person; warm, generous, positive. I learned so much from watching her work and approach her role.

Most humbling moment as an artist? 
Being an artist in general is pretty humbling. However, being in Medea and working with these actors has been extremely humbling. The seriously talented women in this show work regularly in theater and musical theater in Seattle. They, as well as director Kelly Kitchens, have been nothing but supportive and welcoming.

Cast members of Seattle Shakespeare's Medea. Lucy Weber, Chelsea LeValley, Kathryn Van Meter, Dedra D. Woods, Maya Burton, Sunam Ellis. Photo by John Ulman

Talk about the single most challenging moment in your career as an artist.
Being both a mom and a performer is challenging. I feel so fortunate to be a working artist with a supportive family. But the reality is, I am often gone for soccer games, birthday parties, trick-or-treating...I've talked to other working mothers in this play and we talk about what it's like to juggle it all. We also ask a lot of our spouses; they take on the main parenting responsibilities when we are in rehearsals and performances. Finding that balance is really important.

What’s the biggest misconception about opera singers?
Singers are asked to do a lot more than sing; we have to be both musicians and actors, and this is actually very physical work. In opera, all our emotions are written for us, but we have to tell the story in an honest way that seems organic and spontaneous. I don't know if people understand how hard singers are working to tell the story that the audience is wanting to see and hear. I'm always in awe of the volume that the human body can create.

What keeps you going? 
Music and theater are so central to who I am. I can't imagine my life without them, but my family is what inspires me to work hard, to get up, and to stay focused.

Serena Eduljee, Lucy Weber, Melissa Plagemann, Cheryse McLeod-Lewis, YeonSoo Kim Lee. Jacob Lucas photo

Staff Chat with Chorusmaster JOHN KEENE

John Keene, Seattle Opera’s Chorusmaster, started with the company in 2013, after five years as Chorusmaster and Head of Music at Florida Grand Opera and five years as Music Director of Opera at Louisiana State University. He is thrilled to be working with such a gifted and versatile chorus. And because his favorite composer is always the one he’s working on, he is thrilled that Baroque operas like Semele are coming back into the repertory.

is a big chorus opera. Can you put that in context?
It is an enormous amount of work for the chorus. They have 10 separate chorus numbers, none of which are supporting scenes—all feature them singing alone. So it’s the equivalent of 10 arias, and a wonderful showcase. Other operas may have a lot of music for the chorus, but most of it would be supporting or background with principal singers in the foreground.

What do you like about Semele’s music?
It is sheerly gorgeous, inviting music, very pleasing to hear, and thrillingly dramatic in places. It’s similar in style to Messiah, the oratorio Handel composed just two years earlier. While they have some of the same qualities, Semele has all the makings of opera—the big themes of love, ambition, power, jealousy—and so the music reflects that.

How is it different for the chorus to sing in English, rather than the foreign languages common in opera?
English is equally challenging. For foreign languages, the chorus has to study pronunciation and learn the meaning and the emotion of that meaning. With Semele, it’s like actors performing Shakespeare—it’s our language but not our modern usage, so we need to figure that out and be sure it projects clearly to the audience.

And then you have to decide whether the pronunciation is British or American.
Yes, it’s a question of diction. We have to treat it just like a foreign language—this is the inflection, this is where we take a breath. There is a scene in Act I where the chorus sings, “Avert these omens.” Though that sounds very formal, it’s actually a moment of high emotion. We have to be sure that emotion reaches the audience, and in terms of diction, we have to consider how intelligible it will be. “Avert,” for instance, will have an open vowel sound in place of an American “r.”

Can you talk about how the voices need to blend?
I like to use the analogy of cooking. You have all the disparate ingredients of a dish, but they will combine to make a wonderful whole. There is leeway in proportions and in the spices—I try to help it all come together.

We have a Regular Chorus of 36 members (28 in Semele). They are very versatile and experienced artists, versatile actors, comfortable in different costumes from modern dress to various periods. As chorus members they bring their wonderful and unique voices into a “blend” so the audience can experience them as an ensemble—but we do want the energy and emotions of each equally important individual.

-Jessica Murphy
Photo by Alan Alabastro
This Staff Chat first appeared in Seattle Opera’s program for Semele in February 2015.

Staff Chat with Chorus Member DUSTIN KASPAR

Seattle Opera chorus member Dustin Kaspar met with me just before his costume fitting for Don Quichotte to talk opera—and movies. Kaspar works full time for the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), screening films and educating the community, but when an opera is in rehearsal, he happily burns the candle at both ends.

When did you start with the Seattle Opera Chorus?
I started in 2003, with Parsifal, the first show in McCaw Hall.

What was your training before that?
I started singing when I was younger, really caught the bug in high school, and ended up going to college in music education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During my freshman year I sang the role of the First Armored Man in The Magic Flute. That was the first of nine operas I performed while in college. I moved out to Seattle after college and got a job as a high school music teacher and auditioned for the Seattle Opera Chorus because I thought, “I want to keep doing this.”

How far in advance does the chorus start rehearsals? Do you start when the leads arrive?
We usually start two to three weeks earlier than the leads. When they show up, they know their music ahead of time and just come for the staging portion. The choristers could go off and learn all of our music individually, but then it would end up sounding like 40 solo singers, as opposed to an ensemble. When we get together and rehearse, it’s to make sure everyone is singing the same vowels, the language is clear to the whole group from the beginning, and that we understand the expectations. It’s a juggling act. Like the leads or anybody who’s performing onstage, you’re singing, you’re moving, you’ve got costumes to deal with that are sometimes more challenging than others, and you’re also trying to keep with the orchestra.

What’s a typical rehearsal schedule?
For the most part chorus rehearsals are from seven to ten at night. It’s a job where you can have another full-time job. For the music rehearsal, we might meet two to three times a week, but as we get closer to the stagings, that number might jump. Two weeks out from the show, usually we’re rehearsing five or six nights a week.

Could you tell us about a memorable role?
When we started staging the Anvil Chorus in Il trovatore, Neil Jordan and I were chosen to hit the anvil. Since we only had one anvil with the two of us, we added a metal piece that would look like we were working on a sword. This metal piece, when struck, sounded higher. Neil played the anvil on the beat, and I struck the metal piece on the off- beats. It was tricky to look like we really were working as blacksmiths.

Let’s talk about your full-time job at SIFF.
Dangerous.

It sounds fascinating. It is. It’s a lot of fun. I’m the educational programs coordina­tor and a film programmer for the Seattle International Film Festival. In addition to our big festival in May and June, we are a year-round organization with a year-round theater. We actually share a space in McCaw Hall with you, and in fall 2011, we’ll be opening the SIFF Film Center on the Seattle Center campus as well.

As the SIFF educational programs coor­dinator, what can you say about how the arts—whether it’s film or opera—can be used in the classroom?
Students today want to know why what they’re learning is important to them, and opera and film (as “total” art forms) have the opportunity to expand the academic curriculum with real world appli­cation. I can take a costume designer out to a history classroom to talk about how she researches to put things together. We might then create a costume design project in class, as an alternate means of assessment to writ­ing a paper. A screenwriter in an English classroom is an opportunity to take a short story and adapt it as a screenplay and think about writing in two different ways. Then the students see an example of how they can use this knowledge in their regular daily life.

Do you screen a lot of the movies for the festival?
There are about 20 of us on the programming team at SIFF, and through­out the year I’d say we watch about 2,500 feature films to cut it down to the 240 that will play in the festival in May/June.

Some people would die to have that job, but when you really think about it...
Yes, most people would die to watch movies all day, but they aren’t always the best movies. When I was at the Toronto Film Festival, I think I averaged six movies a day, and while that’s a lot of fun (and the movies there were very good), there’s a stamina to it that you build up to be able to take it all in.

-Jessica Murphy
Photo of Dustin Kaspar, right, with Gabrielle Jacobson and choirster Jeff Jordan at a Family Day matinee, by Bill Mohn
This Staff Chat first appeared in Seattle Opera’s program for Don Quichotte in February 2011.

Porgy and Bess: Preview Trailer

Gershwin’s portrait of life and love on Catfish Row boasts some of the most beloved songs ever written, including “Summertime,” “I Got Plenty O’ Nuttin,’” “I Loves You, Porgy,” and “It Ain’t Necessarily So.”



Learn more about Porgy and Bess on the Seattle Opera website.

Behind The Scenes: Porgy Chorus

When writing the score for Porgy and Bess, George Gershwin himself mandated that every performance of this work include an all-black chorus. To honor the composer’s request, Seattle Opera held auditions to find our newest chorus members, all local Seattleites with great stories to tell. Watch the chorus in rehearsal and meet a few new choristers in backstage interviews.




Learn more about Porgy and Bess on the Seattle Opera website.