Catch 22

As young singers, we're always intrigued to read articles in the mainstream media regarding opera and opera singers. While we often have bones to pick with some of the statements on the world of opera by the New York Times, we appreciate their willingness to pull back the curtain and see how things really look behind the scenes. Sunday's article, Hire That Hot Tenor Years in Advance, and Hope for the Best, by Anthony Tommasini, was no exception.

As the title suggests, Tommasini explores the trend of casting popular singers years in advance, which leads to inevitable cancellations due to health issues (vocal or physical) or vocal changes. Although these situations involve many different players (the popular singers offered these roles, their managers, the administration who offers the contracts, the audiences who buy tickets hoping to see the star of the moment, the –often younger—singers who end up filling in if the stars cannot fulfill their contracts), this article tells the story from the administrators’ point of view, mainly through the eyes of Peter Gelb, new general manager of the Metropolitan Opera.

Newsflash: Voices change, from year to year, sometimes month to month. Voices change in unexpected ways while we mature and age. A woman's voice sometimes changes after giving birth. These changes can be good or bad or neutral. Some singers might show gradual signs of vocal strain which later turn into full-blown vocal issues, whereas other problems might occur overnight, as in the case of soprano Carol Vaness, who damaged a vocal cord screaming to escape a burning car after an accident. (She —and her voice— are now fine.)

In a perfect world, it might be a wiser idea NOT to book singers more than a year or so in advance of a performance, but that's just not possible if opera houses are competing for what they believe is the top tier of singers.

Second thought: Some of these problems could perhaps be avoided if major opera houses had better vocal technique consultants involved in casting decisions. Too often these decisions seem to be based on audience popularity and made by administrators who are removed from the world of technique. Of course, audiences should have a say in these matters. Opera-lovers know what they like and companies need to be assured that their singers will help them fill the seats. But having more input from a vocal technician could help companies predict whether or not today's stars are singing in a sustainable manner.

Then there’s the fact that these last-minute cancellations offer the possibility for one of the more exciting narratives in the performing world: the young, last-minute replacement, who is offered the chance of a lifetime and bursts onto the scene in a triumphant debut. Young soprano Elaine Alvarez received her big break filling in for Angelina Gheorghiu at Chicago Lyric Opera in 2007, after some unprofessional behavior on Gheorghiu’s part. Soprano Erika Sunnegardh filled in for both Karita Mattila and Andrea Gruber within a span of a few weeks that same year. During Pavarotti's last few years of performing, opera houses everywhere still wanted him on their stages badly enough to prepare in advance for the possibilities of his frequent cancellations; this offered more than one young tenor a chance in the spotlight. So are these really opportunities in disguise?

The Met seems to be hoping for another success story in the featured vignette of this article. 31-year-old tenor Joseph Calleja has been tapped to take over the title role in The Tales of Hoffmann this coming year. The production was originally conceived three years ago to showcase Rolando Villazón, who is currently recovering from vocal surgery. As Tommasini points out, 31 is quite young for a tenor, and perhaps this particular casting is not a wise decision. But when the author says, of Calleja's recent portrayal of Alfredo in Traviata, "I still heard elements of a singer figuring out technical details," it gives us pause. Let's face it: As singers, we will be "figuring out technical details" for the rest of our lives. We are all in an endless process. (Let's go back to the newsflash: Voices change.)

Thus the age/vocal maturity conundrum: Young singers are rarely given chances to perform for professional companies, and yet, when given the chance, they're expected to be a “finished product.” If voices take longer to mature, when they finally reach that maturity, they are told they don't have enough professional experience on their resumes. It's a catch-22 that very few singers manage to escape.

However, kudos to this article for the benefit of the doubt it gives most of the featured singers: Instead of judging as divas or divos those who back out of performances, Tommasini recognizes that, as difficult as it can be for all involved, sometimes cancelling an engagement (or maybe accepting a last-minute one) is the wisest decision one can make. Regarding casting musical chairs in a recent production of Traviata, he writes, "in retrospect the artists involved knew what they were doing."

Believing that artists know what they're doing… How refreshing.