Peter Kazaras turns Britten's Screw

By Jonathan Dean

After a recent Seattle performance of Porgy and Bess, soprano Angel Blue delighted local opera fans when she called Seattle Opera her “artistic home.” Another vital member of our Seattle Opera family is Peter Kazaras, who has called our stage home for over three decades. The artistic contributions Kazaras has made to Seattle Opera are many, ever since his 1985 debut as the handsome but worthless playboy Števa in Janáček’s Jenůfa.

In Seattle, Kazaras has sung everything from Faust to Tamino to Pierre in War and Peace to his definitive Loge in the Ring, and has directed both crowd-pleasers (The Marriage of Figaro and Madame Butterfly) and less familiar operas (including The Consul and the world premiere of An American Dream). As a teacher, he has trained an entire generation of opera artists, both in Seattle and in his other life as Director of Opera UCLA, where he directed Angel Blue in her first performance of Suor Angelica during her masters training.

The Seattle arts scene has also benefited from Kazaras’s affinity for the operas of Benjamin Britten. Not only was Kazaras unforgettable as the tormented Captain Vere in Billy Budd; he directed ingenious productions of several Britten works for Seattle Opera’s Young Artists Program, making the riches of these complicated and challenging operas available for both performers and audiences.

Seattle Opera has not presented Britten as often as some would like. Kazaras played the ghost of Peter Quint in our first Turn of the Screw, back in 1994, and he remembers how that intensely dramatic show inspired Seattle Opera’s tradition of post-show talk back. “Honestly, Speight [Jenkins, then General Director] figured the talk back would help people process this show. It’s not the kind of opera where you can just relax and let it wash over you. There’s no ‘transfiguration by love’ at the end! I think Speight hoped to save himself a lot of letter-writing by talking with patrons immediately after each performance.” But what makes The Turn of the Screw so challenging for the audience? Certainly the opera’s ambiguity can make people uncomfortable, particularly those who like everything spelled out and explained. People tend to read all sorts of horrors into the backstory of trauma and repression at the country estate of Bly, even though neither the original Henry James novella nor Britten’s operatic transformation ever explicitly answer the question of what happened there. James even makes a dig, in his preface, at readers frustrated by such a lack of explanation: “‘The story won’t tell...not in any literal, vulgar way.’”

Stage director of Seattle Opera's The Turn of the Screw, Peter Kazaras. 

Kazaras thinks Britten’s music actually intensifies this effect. “It’s the construction. This opera is not just tight; it’s obsessively, perfectly constructed. If you really listen to it, by the time you get to that final scene you are tormented by the clash of keys associated with the Governess and Quint. Britten leads you down the garden path of tonality in a musical analogue to what James meant by ‘turning the screw,’ which was actually a real-world torture device. People are able to withstand a certain amount of pressure; but if you take them to that level, and then intensify it, one little thing is enough to push you over the edge.”

According to Kazaras, “it is clear that neither Britten nor his librettist Myfanwy Piper intended a definitive answer to the question of whether the ghost ‘really’ exist. Merely creating singing characters was not an absolute answer to that question. Do the ghosts really exist? Good question! I like how Henry James answered that, with another question: ‘Do the ghosts exist? I don’t know, do you believe in ghosts?’ There are all sorts of ways to understand and/or explain the Governess and her fears,” Kazaras continued. “But even before all you get to that, here we have two kids who are orphaned and neglected. Their parents have died, as have the two other key figures in their life, and their guardian says, ‘Never contact me.’ Isn’t that horrible enough?”

Kazaras’s goal, as director, is to create a theater piece that makes your hair stand up on end. “When we did The Turn of the Screw in Bellevue, in 2006, I was very happy when a patron said to me, ‘I had stopped breathing by the end...how did you do that?’”

Rafi Bellamy Plaice (Miles) and Elizabeth Caballero (The Governess) in Seattle Opera's The Turn of the Screw. Philip Newton photo

Clearly, the opera tells the story of something that goes terribly, terribly wrong. But beyond that, Kazaras wants to leave room for everyone in the audience to complete the story. “A good production of this opera must preserve the ambiguity. If you depict the Governess as an inmate in a mental asylum, for instance, you spoil the opportunity for dramatic crescendo across the course of the opera. It should be slightly surreal, to knock people out of their comfort zone; but it should get more and more intense as the Governess feels she’s losing control, as the situation gets increasingly out of hand. Britten’s musical construction accomplishes this brilliantly. Follow his lead and you will get precisely where you need to get—to a place of utmost anxiety, and eventually to tragedy.”

And the audience must be seduced into dismantling their defenses and coming along for the ride, explains Kazaras. “It doesn’t work if they come in thinking they already know what’s going on. The essence of fear is the unknown. We hide our faces behind our fingers, not when we see something scary, but when we’re afraid we’ll see something scary. That’s what The Turn of the Screw is built on. The scariest monsters are the ones that live inside us. The scariest thoughts are the ones WE have. As Henry James put it: ‘Only make the reader’s general vision of evil intense enough...and his own experience, his own imagination, his own sympathy (with the children) and horror (of their false friends) will supply him quite sufficiently with all the particulars.’”

So there’s the challenge for Kazaras and his creative team: to invite you to join them on this journey to the beautiful country house of Bly, and then give you room to supply your own terrors to fill in the gaps in the Governess’s story. “We start with a wall, upon which we can project both reality and dreams; quite literally, projections of what’s going on in the characters’ psyches. But it starts to shape-shift. You thought it was flat? Suddenly you realize it isn’t flat. Slowly it starts to morph, and to reveal things about itself. But nothing is certain. Ambiguity is the heart of The Turn of the Screw.

When fans of The Turn of the Screw asked author Henry James if the ghosts in his Gothic novella were real, James simply replied, "Do you believe in ghosts?" Moral ambiguity is at the heart of Seattle Opera's The Turn of the Screw. 

Seattle Opera's The Turn of the Screw 
Oct. 13-27, 2018 at McCaw Hall
Tickets & info: seattleopera.org/turnscrew

What the heck is The Turn of the Screw really about?

By Jonathan Dean 

What the heck is Britten's opera, The Turn of the Screw, really about? Something terrible happened at Bly, and something appalling happens to the characters in this opera; but what was it? Will someone please tell us what is going on!?

No, we won’t! 

Ever since Henry James’ novella appeared in Collier’s magazine, serialized over the course of several months in early 1898, the many, many unanswered questions of this story have intrigued, frustrated, tantalized, and infuriated readers, not to mention those who encounter the story as translated into opera, TV, and film.

Are the ghosts real? Is the Governess crazy? Why was Miles expelled from school? Should we believe Mrs. Grose, when she describes Quint as truly despicable? How did Miss Jessel die? Was she pregnant, and if so, who was the father? What did the kids witness? What do the kids understand? Was there a crime, and if so, who was responsible?

But The Turn of the Screw is not a mystery, it’s a ghost story. Mysteries typically answer the questions they pose—including “Whodunit?”—by the end. Not only does The Turn of the Screw fail to answer any of those questions, its very lack of clarity is perhaps the point.

As poet Brad Leithauser wrote of James’s masterpiece in The New Yorker, “The book becomes a modest monument to the bold pursuit of ambiguity. It is rigorously committed to lack of commitment.”

Because this work of art is completely open, it functions as a bit of a Rorschach test. People have a tendency to find in it whatever issues they happen to bring into the theater with them. 

Some examples of how the work is interpreted:

The “No sex, please, we’re British” take:

Perhaps what happened at Bly wasn’t quite so dire, at least not by 2018 standards. Perhaps the kids learned about the birds and the bees due to the fact that their former Governess was carrying on an affair with a colleague. And Miles may have been expelled from boarding school because he dared discuss sex with his classmates. In Victorian England, the stigma of such an affair might very well destroy both Jessel and Quint, as seems to have happened. Which was worse for the kids—witnessing that whole sorry story, or having to pretend it never happened?

The Freudian view:

Or was the Quint-Jessel affair not a problem until the kids’ new Governess made it one? Early twentieth-century psychoanalysis often diagnosed a condition known as ‘sexual hysteria,’ that is, severe psychological problems arising from the sexual repression demanded of well-bred women in those days. (Even the word, ‘hysterical,’ is misogynist. Etymologically, it derives from ancient Greek “hustera,” or uterus, thus equating “the condition of having a uterus” with “an excessive and chaotic emotional life.”) In the opera, the Governess sees her first ghost when she’s alone in the park, fantasizing about an imaginary visit from the children’s uncle, on whom she seems to have a crush. Does that mean the ghosts are manifestations of her own suppressed libido? Or her nightmare-visions of what Flora and Miles will become, if she fails to protect their (or her own) innocence?

The relevance of #MeToo:  

Anyone who isn’t currently living in a cave, with a blindfold on and earplugs in, will get the sense that Bly is haunted by traumatic memories of some monstrous evil. (The exact details—rape, murder, incest, child abuse, self abuse, molestation, etc.—are left to the audience’s imagination, making the evil far scarier.) Ghosts may not really exist, but memories certainly direct and control all our lives, both repressed memories of trauma and fond memories of those we loved and lost. Are the ghosts scars in that sense, memories of people whom we loved, who hurt us, or both?


The 12-step reading:

As the opera unfolds, the Governess sets herself the job of freeing the kids from their malicious tutors in evil. She believes the ghosts are controlling the kids from beyond the grave, puppet-mastering their bad behavior. But stopping that bad behavior isn’t so easy, because now these kids are addicts: ashamed of what they’re doing, aware it’s destructive and wrong; but unable to stop. And as anyone who’s ever tried going cold turkey knows, it’s isn’t as easy as “Just say no.” (That’s true whether we’re talking about addiction to sex, drugs, a bad relationship, drinking too much Diet Coke, or just checking your iPhone every time you breathe.) The Governess is a kind of social worker, who appoints herself the duty of freeing these kids from their addiction. But it’s impossible to break someone else’s bad habit for them, and she ends up fixating on it obsessively. Isn’t that another kind of addiction?

The “love that dare not speak its name” take: 
Benjamin Britten, who composed the opera, clearly identified with Miles, the perfect little English boy who’s good at his lessons and plays the piano so brilliantly. But Miles/Benjamin also fantasizes, late at night, about a visit from the handsome valet who used to work for his uncle, despite a maternal figure who would probably prefer he be dead than gay. In some ways Quint mentors Miles the way W. H. Auden mentored Britten: the poet helped the composer accept his sexuality and find his voice as an artist, although eventually Britten felt it necessary to sever all his ties with Auden (who tended to be domineering). In both cases, student was transformed by teacher; but for better or worse?

Stage director Peter Kazaras, in a recent interview with Broadway World, rejects the either/or approach, common enough in Turn of the Screw criticism, which posits that ‘EITHER the ghosts exist, OR the governess is crazy.’



"It’s the wrong question to ask,” says Kazaras. “The death of art is reductivism ...You ask that in order to get yourself off the hook: ‘They’re ghosts; or it’s all in the woman’s mind. So there’s nothing we can do.’ As a society we’re all culpable for lack of involvement and empathy.”

One lesson we all can take away from The Turn of the Screw: if you see something, say something. For the Governess, the first indication that all is not well is the letter from Miles’s school, expelling the boy. Her response is the worst possible choice:

Mrs. Grose: What shall you do then?
The Governess: I shall do nothing.
Mrs. Grose: And what shall you say to him?
The Governess: I shall say nothing.
Mrs. Grose: Bravo!

Unlike Mrs. Grose, let’s not applaud that decision. Avoiding confrontation with the people in your life is usually not the answer. If we learn nothing else from The Turn of the Screw, may it at least encourage those who speak up as soon as they perceive a problem.

The Rorschach test is a psychological test in which subjects' perceptions of inkblots are recorded and then analyzed using psychological interpretation, complex algorithms, or both. Some psychologists use this test to examine a person's personality characteristics and emotional functioning.

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Sit down for The Turn of the Screw—if you dare!

Seattle Opera marketing image for The Turn of the Screw. Photo by Philip Newton

By Gabrielle Kazuko Nomura Gainor

As Halloween approaches, the movies aren’t the only place for a thrill in a darkened theater. This October, a ghost story will come alive through live music at Seattle Opera’s The Turn of the Screw directed by Peter Kazaras and conducted by Maestro Constatin Trinks. Set in an old mansion in the countryside, Benjamin Britten’s opera depicts a tale of haunted children that fans of Stranger Things, The Shining, and The Sixth Sense would love.

An unnamed Governess moves to an English country house to take care of two siblings, Miles and Flora, only to experience supernatural goings-on, and ominous whispers about the past. As she gets to know her young charges the Governess becomes increasingly convinced they are suffering some form of demonic possession. Britten dials up audiences’ adrenaline by leaving no easy answers: Are Peter Quint and Miss Jessel actual ghosts, returned from the dead, or are they products of the Governess's hysteria? Are the children demonically possessed, neglected victims of abuse, or just normal mischievous kids? Britten was fascinated by the mysteries of human behavior. What makes people act as they do? What hidden forces compel their choices? His operas (The Rape of Lucretia, Billy Budd, and Peter Grimes to name a few) were filled with moral ambiguities and loss of innocence, and The Turn of the Screw is a perfect example.

Britten's operas are haunted by moral ambiguities and loss of innocence, not unlike classic movies such as The Shining and other eerie horror films and TV shows that place children at the center of a dark, supernatural plot. 

Alternating in the role of Miles are two 13-year-old boy-sopranos making Seattle Opera debuts: Rafi Bellamy Plaice of England, who was named the BBC Radio 2 Chorister of 2017, and Forrest Wu of Seattle who sings with the Northwest Boychoir. Inspired by the ethereal qualities of the adolescent voice, Britten’s operas often gave children opportunities to sing just as much as their adult co-stars.

“This piece offers a chance to see incredible young singers holding their own with adult professionals—not something you see every day in opera,” said Aren Der Hacopian, Seattle Opera’s Director of Artistic Administration and Planning, who helped cast the show. “When a storyteller adds a plot twist to create tension, this can be referred to as a ‘turn of the screw.’ These accomplished young artists play a big role in creating that scary and suspenseful experience.”

The cast also includes four singers returning to McCaw Hall. Cuban American soprano Elizabeth Caballero, who most recently sang here as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni (2014), returns as the Governess. Frequent performer on The Metropolitan Opera stage Maria Zifchak, Ragonde in Seattle Opera’s Count Ory (2015), returns as the housekeeper Mrs. Grose. Starring as the two ghosts-in-residence, Peter Quint and Miss Jessel are Ben Bliss and Marcy Stonikas respectively. British/Iranian soprano Soraya Mafi makes her Seattle Opera debut as Miles’ sister, Flora.

Rafi Bellamy Plaice (left) and Forrest Wu (right) make Seattle Opera mainstage singing debuts as Miles in The Turn of the Screw. 

The Turn of the Screw opens Saturday, Oct. 13 and runs through Saturday, Oct. 27. 

Tickets are available online at seattleopera.org/turnscrew. 

Local history fuels world premiere at McCaw Hall

Nina Yoshida Nelsen, Adam Lau and Hae Ji Chang play the Kobayashi family who is forcibly removed and incarcerated during World War II. In reality, this happened to more than 120,000 West Coast Japanese Americans during the 1940s.  Brandon Patoc photo

When Seattle Opera’s brand-new opera, An American Dream, premieres this August, Japanese Americans will see the story of their community coming to life onstage.

Locally sourced personal histories such as the wartime incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans, many of whom were from the Seattle area, have provided inspiration for this world premiere. Composed by Jack Perla with libretto by Jessica Murphy Moo, An American Dream is a deeply human and hauntingly relevant work that speaks to the universal immigrant experience. In this story, the fate of two families unexpectedly becomes bound together following the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the heartbreak of World War II. When the Kobayashi family (Nina Yoshida Nelsen, Adam Lau, and Hae Ji Chang) is forced to leave their home on an island in Puget Sound, Eva (D’Ana Lombard), a German Jew and her husband, Jim (Morgan Smith), an American veteran, move in. As Eva awaits news from family in Germany, she slowly pieces together the history of her new home.

The evening begins with a dramatic pre-performance experience in the McCaw Hall lobby beginning an hour before curtain. Viewers will be able to see, hear, and experience what their region was like during World War II through documentaries, exhibits, and personal testimonies from people who were affected by the mass removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans.

Seattle Opera in the community: Nina Yoshida Nelsen who plays the mother in An American Dream, performed for residents at Nikkei Concerns, where many of the residents were personally affected by the mass incarceration and removal of Japanese Americans. This was especially meaningful for Nelsen, a yonsei or fourth-generation Japanese American whose grandmother, a Seattle native, was also incarcerated during the war. 

During the opera, innovative staging and seating will bring the audience even closer to the action onstage. Following the performance, viewers are invited to stay for a 30-minute post-show discussion featuring members of the creative team, artists and former incarcerees. 

An American Dream Community Events:
Community Preview at Wing Luke Museum 
6:30 p.m. on June 30, 2015 
Free preview featuring Community Programs Manager Nick Malinowski, librettist Jessica Murphy Moo and a Community Partner representing the Japanese American community. 
Tickets & Information:
www.wingluke.org

Preview Performance at Bainbridge Performing Arts 
7:30 p.m. on August 13, 2015 
Final dress rehearsal open to the public featuring the cast and orchestra. 
Tickets by donation
More Information:
www.bainbridgeperformingarts.org

Events related to An American Dream received funding from OPERA America’s Opera Fund. 

The creative duo behind An American Dream: Jack Perla, composer with Jessica Murphy Moo, librettist.
Brandon Patoc photo 

Performances: 

7 p.m., Friday, August 21

2 p.m. Sunday, August 23

Approximate Running Time: 2 hours (including a pre-performance event and a post-performance discussion). 

In English with English captions
Marion Oliver McCaw Hall

Performance Schedule:
7:00-8:00 p.m. (1:30-2:30 p.m. Sunday) Pre-show activities including documentaries, presentations with people who lived in our region during WWII, and historical exhibits
8:00 p.m. (2:30 p.m. Sunday) Performance begins
9:30 p.m. (4:00 p.m. Sunday) Post-performance audience and artist discussion

Production sponsor: True-Brown Foundation

An American Dream Community Partners:

Holocaust Center for Humanity, Bainbridge Island Historical Museum, Densho, Japanese American Citizens League–Seattle, Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI), Wing Luke Museum of the Asia Pacific Experience and Japanese American National Museum.

Your Meeting with "The Consul" Is Coming Soon...

It's been an exciting week in our South Lake Union offices: Rehearsals for The Consul have officially begun! This Seattle Opera premiere will undoubtedly take audiences on a thrilling yet nail-biting ride through a story that, while fictional, remains tragically relevant to this day. 

Menotti's Cold War tale depicts an inhuman bureaucracy that poses a formidable obstacle for a woman desperate to flee a totalitarian state with her family. Gian Carlo Menotti’s intensely human score won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1950, the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Musical Play, and played for more than 100 performances on Broadway. Seattle Opera’s production, which features several leading alumni of the Seattle Opera Young Artists Program, opens on Saturday, February 22, and runs for seven performances through Friday, March 7. 

General Director Speight Jenkins says The Consul was timely when it was composed, and it still is even today. 

"Its success on Broadway and all over the world has made it one of the most important 20th-century operas," Jenkins says. "In my opinion, it not only is a great work, but it is also clearly Menotti’s masterpiece.”

At the podium it's none other than Italian conductor Carlo Montanaro, whose Seattle credits include Don Quichotte, Attila and last year's La bohème. 

Returning to direct is longtime Seattle Opera director and performer Peter Kazaras. (You last saw him in a lovely purple ballgown as The Duchess of Krakenthorp in Daughter of The Regiment). Like Jenkins, Kazaras emphasizes the relevance of this human-rights story. As Kazaras put it, The Consul is the tale of what happens when people become numbers rather than human beings. Whether it's in Syria, in parts of Africa, or elsewhere, one need only turn on the news to realize this is still happening today.      

Introducing The Consul to Seattle Opera, Kazaras invited the staff and the cast to share our own, and our families', experiences of fleeing persecution. The stories that people shared were haunting: from family members running from the Nazis, to grandparents who had suffered under Communism, many of us have either experienced or had a family member who has suffered under bureaucratic oppression. It goes to show that opera need not be set in fantasy land or "long ago and far away." Opera is about us. 

One of the highlights of the show will no doubt be the performance of dramatic soprano Marcy Stonikas sing in the leading role of Magda Sorel, a devoted wife and mother desperately trying to save her family. Stonikas, who last year sang Leonore in Fidelio and the title role in Turandot for us, is one of nine former Seattle Opera Young Artists graduates in the production.

Marcy Stonikas will sing the role of Magda Sorel
in the Seattle Opera premiere of "The Consul"

Additional former Young Artists include mezzo-soprano Sarah Larsen, who returns to play The Secretary back-to-back following her role as Maddalena in Rigoletto; Michael Todd Simpson, who recently sang Marcello in Seattle Opera's 2013 La bohème, now returns as freedom-fighter John Sorel; Alex Mansoori as vaudeville magician Nika Magadoff; Joseph Lattanzi as Assan; Dana Pundt as Anna Gomez; Deborah Nansteel as the Foreign Woman; mezzo-soprano Margaret Gawrysiak as Vera Boronel and Vira Slywotzky as Magda Sorel in the alternate cast.
 

The Consul at McCaw Hall
February 22, 26, 28 and March 1, 5, 7 at 7:30 p.m. February 23 at 2 p.m.
Approximate Running Time: 2 hours and 30 minutes, with one intermission
For full cast, more information and tickets, please click here.

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!"

Kazaras and Garman Introduce "Viva Verdi!'

On April 6, Seattle Opera’s Young Artists Program will perform a unique Viva Verdi! concert. Following on the heels of a successful production of Verdi’s King for a Day—indeed, the Seattle performance at Benaroya Hall sold out—the Young Artists are ringing in the end of the 2012/13 season with a dynamic sampling of Verdi’s operas.

2012/13 Seattle Opera Young Artists: Baritone Hunter Enoch, Mezzo-Soprano Deborah Nansteel, Pianist/Coach Christopher Lade, Mezzo-Soprano Sarah Larsen, Bass-Baritone Matthew Scollin, Soprano Dana Pundt, and Tenor Theo Lebow
(Photo by Alan Alabastro)

Listen to the voices of our Young Artists on SoundCloud.

The Seattle Opera Chorus and the Seattle Opera Young Artists Orchestra will join the Young Artists onstage. The concert will be semi-staged, meaning there won’t be sets and costumes, but you’ll be able to follow the stories because of the acting and supertitles.

Here to answer questions about Verdi, the concert, and the origins of the “Viva Verdi” rallying cry are Peter Kazaras, the program’s artistic director, and Brian Garman, the program’s music director.

What does the “man in the street” need to know about Verdi?
Kazaras: The person in the street needs to know that Verdi's music is so special (as Verdi himself well knew!) that when he was preparing the premiere of Rigoletto at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, he made sure NOT to give the tenor the famous 3rd act aria, “La donna è mobile,” until the dress rehearsal. He knew that once the tenor sang it in rehearsal, the gondoliers would have it memorized by the time the performance was over. And according to legend, this is precisely what happened! His music is irresistible. And you will hear “La donna è mobile” in our concert…but not if you stay in the street!

Peter Kazaras
(Rozarii Lynch photo)

What does Verdi mean to you?
Garman: No other composer understood the human voice as well or wrote for the voice as well as Verdi. He was a consummate melodist; no one else (except for Bellini, perhaps) was able to take a simple musical element—a scale, for example—and so easily spin it into a dramatic or heartbreaking melody. Above all, he was a man of the theater, and almost every bar of his operas is written with the drama in mind.

Brian Garman
(Rozarii Lynch photo)

Who made the musical selections and how?
Kazaras: Brian Garman and I both made the musical selections. It was really about fitting together the puzzle of which voices could do which pieces. For example, we have two mezzos in our current program—but there are not that many plum lyric mezzo parts in Verdi operas. Most of Verdi’s mezzo roles tend to be meatier and heavier, like Azucena in Il trovatore or Amneris in Aida. So we have pieces like Fenena’s beautiful aria from Nabucco, which is appropriate for a younger and lighter voice, and also the “Rataplan” from La forza del destino. The role of Maddalena in Act III of Rigoletto also works for a younger and more lyrical voice.

In Dana Pundt, we have a soprano whose voice has point and agility—she was a perfect choice for Violetta in Act I of La traviata, and also for Gilda in Act III of Rigoletto. Our tenor, Theo Lebow, is an elegant and beautiful fit for the roles of Alfredo and the Duke. Hunter Enoch will sing the excerpts from the role of Rigoletto and also Rodrigo from Don Carlo. Our bass Matthew Scollin will be a sinister and elegantly sung Sparafucile in Rigoletto.

Don Carlos at Seattle Opera, 1993
(Gary Smith photo)

Don Carlo is a beautiful and unforgettable work, and the Garden Scene in Act III is one of the more lyrical sections of the piece. So we have programmed that to give our audience a taste of this great piece. Also, because we have the wonderful Seattle Opera chorus at our disposal, we have programmed pieces such as the famous "Va, pensiero" (The chorus of Hebrew Slaves) from Nabucco. This beautiful and moving chorus has long served as a sort of unofficial Italian national anthem. Once you hear it, it’s easy to understand why.

What do the Young Artists stand to learn from spending a year with Verdi’s music?
Garman: It’s great for the Young Artists to be able to perform this music. There’s so much that can be learned from Verdi about language, phrasing, musicality, theatricality, and of course, singing. There are places in the music of many other composers where you can “hide.” But you can never hide in Verdi: you always have to really sing.

Kazaras: By working on Verdi for an entire year, our singers continue to learn how to shape a line, how to sing with a beautiful legato, how to use the Italian language to convey emotion, how to make their techniques responsive to the wonderful and inspiring challenges posed by Verdi. There’s no one like him for that! And remember that one of our Young Artists is Christopher Lade, a pianist and conductor-in-the-making. I am sure Christopher would tell you that a year of working on Verdi is like balm not only for your musical soul but also for your musical skills.

Can you say a little bit about the participation of the Seattle Opera chorus?
Garman: It’s very exciting that the Seattle Opera Chorus will be joining us for this concert. I conducted them in McCaw in La traviata back in 2009, and I’m delighted to work with them again. I’m also excited about our continued work with the Seattle Opera Young Artists Program Orchestra. To my knowledge, we are the only Young Artists Program that has a professional orchestra that plays specifically for us and bears our name. So collaborating with these two excellent ensembles will be a wonderful way to end our season.

Seattle Opera Chorus in Act 1 of La traviata, 2009
(photo by Rozarii Lynch)

Kazaras: The excerpts from La traviata and Rigoletto would not be the same without the chorus—how fantastic to be able to hear the male chorus perform that incredible “storm effect” in Rigoletto! We would never be able to consider such pieces unless we had a top-notch chorus on hand, so this gives us a rare chance to showcase the great Seattle Opera chorus as well as our Young Artists.

Viva Verdi graffiti

What’s behind the title “Viva Verdi”?
Kazaras: “Viva Verdi!” is a rallying cry both in music and in politics. As 1861 approached, the date of Italian Unification under King Victor Emmanuel, legend has it that audience members began to cry, “Viva Verdi” at performances of Verdi operas, but their acclaim contained a coded message. They were not just applauding Italy’s greatest composer, but were also crying, “Viva Vittorio Emmanuele, Re d’Italia!” or “Long live Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy!” The abbreviation of this was, of course “Viva V.E.R.D.I.”!

BUTTERFLY'S CHILD Author Comes To Rehearsal

Today's post is by Angela Davis-Gardner, author of the new novel, Butterfly's Child. This book, which takes up the story where the opera leaves off, is for sale in Amusements, the gift shop at McCaw Hall, as well as in bookstores nationwide.

"At the end of a performance of Madama Butterfly a few years ago, a friend turned to me as the curtain fell and said, “I wonder what happened to Butterfly’s child?”

That question was the seed of my fourth novel, Butterfly’s Child, which was published last year and has just been reissued in paperback by Dial Press/Random House.

During a book tour to Seattle two weeks ago, I was thrilled to be invited to a run-through rehearsal of Madama Butterfly, which is being performed this month by the Seattle Opera (May 5-20). Brilliantly directed by Peter Kazaras, and starring acclaimed soprano Patricia Racette as Cio-Cio-San (who gives a masterful, culturally correct rendering of a 19th century geisha), this is the most glorious production of the opera that I have experienced. And as a novelist who has been working with this story for the past several years, being enveloped in the production in such an intimate way was one of the most exhilarating and oddest moments of my life.

I sat behind Kazaras, close to the singers, from whom music poured with such gorgeous intensity that it lodged in my body. During the second act, as I was several times moved to tears, I realized that I had written my novel not only because of curiosity about Butterfly’s child, but also because of the profound, timeless expressions of longing and denial that are at the heart of this opera.

Angela Davis-Gardner and Peter Kazaras

In one of the layers of my metafictional novel, Butterfly’s Child, I investigated the origins of the Butterfly story and the history of the opera. As I was writing, I was surprised by an unexpected development in which my character Frank Pinkerton encounters himself as a character when he attends a performance of Madama Butterfly (in Chicago, in 1907).

At the Seattle rehearsal, I was immersed in the opera, as Pinkerton had been, in a way that suspended all sense of time and place. When I woke from this dream, I had the weird sensation that I myself had been present -- as a character watching a production of the opera that had inspired me -- in a part of my novel that I hadn’t written.

And what happened to Butterfly’s child? Here she was – rather, here they were, the two charming girls who play the role this May in Seattle, Gabriella Mercado and Elizabeth Janes -- walking up to me after the performance, smiling, holding out a gift of a blue origami crane."

- Angela Davis-Gardner

Angela Davis-Gardner with Gabriella Mercado and Elizabeth Janes

The interview between Angela Davis-Gardner and Peter Kazaras has been published by The SunBreak.

Madama Butterfly - Preview Trailer

Our new preview video features dress rehearsal footage, complete with full orchestra, and showcases the stirring performances and emotional intensity of this traditional production.



Learn more about Madama Butterfly on the Seattle Opera Website

Madama Butterfly: Director's Talk with Peter Kazaras

Sit in on a staging rehearsal as director Peter Kazaras introduces you to the "two great couples" who alternate as Butterfly and Pinkerton. Kazaras also shares his thoughts about other exciting artists involved in making this traditional production really sing.



Learn more about Madama Butterfly on the Seattle Opera Website

WERTHER: Director's Talk

Meet the Young Artists singing the lead roles, and hear why the program is performing this "specialty" (according to Stage director Peter Kazaras) opera. Find out which role Kazaras calls "a killer" because of its difficulty, and see it all coming together in rehearsal.



Learn more about Werther on the Seattle Opera website.