Meet the Artists: Pa…….pa..pa…

[This is the first in a new series of posts, Meet the Artists, in which we will introduce you to some of the many young artists who have worked with us since our inception in 2006. Stay tuned for more!]

coópera audiences may remember Adam Cavagnaro and Nina Riley as the charming Papageno and Papagena in our 2007 production of The Magic Flute. We at coópera know them as two of the most positive, hard-working and fun singers we have had the pleasure of working with so far. Adam also joined us in our first season as Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro, and in 2008 as Junius in The Rape of Lucretia, a production in which Nina sang the role of Lucia. They were kind enough to answer a few of our questions and share a bit more about themselves, onstage and off…

What is your favorite opera role you’ve ever performed?

Adam: I really enjoy Papageno in Magic Flute. He is such an honest character which often gets him into trouble, but in the funniest way possible! It was great to do this role with POM because of the open attitude they have about opera. In order to give as honest a performance as Papageno calls for, it's important to feel supported by the company you're working with. I was able to try anything on stage and felt confident I would get constructive criticism back from the production team.

Nina: Despina in Cosi fan tutte – it was the first role I ever did. I had so much fun playing the character and it helped me to really let go of my shyness, especially playing the doctor and notary.

If you could play any operatic role in the repertoire, regardless of fach, what would it be and why?

Adam: It would have to be Rosina in Barber of Seville! I love the aria "Una voce poco fa." I love the character and flavor of the piece, not to mention the amazing coloratura!

Nina: I have never sung Susanna from Le nozze di Figaro, and it is the role I want to do most. Why? Because it’s one of my favorite operas ever!!!!

Describe a fun or humorous POM memory.

Adam: The season I did Flute with POM was filled with so many stories! We did two performances in one venue and the final two performances in a different venue. Papageno has a line that says, "May the earth swallow me whole!", and he was supposed to sink into the stage and be "swallowed" by the earth. In the first venue there was some creative staging that let me fall to the ground behind a half-wall so the audience couldn't see what was actually happening. For the last two performances, because we changed venues, the staging we had previously used was not going to work. The problem is I realized this as I was on stage about to say the line! Thanks to some quick thinking I said, "May the earth swallow me whole,"and dropped to the ground and rolled off stage!! Many thanks to POM for being the kind of company where rolling around on the floor is OK!!

Nina: I was going to say the same thing! It still makes me laugh to think about Adam rolling off the stage. A fun memory for me was the entire process of putting on The Rape of Lucretia – the music was so gorgeous. Hard, but I loved it!!!

If you were a musical instrument, what would you be and why?

Adam: A wind machine. I mean, come on.

Nina: Ummmm.....maybe a piccolo? Because… I have a high voice?

If an opera were written about your life, what composer (living or dead) would write it? What famous singer could sing the role of you?

Adam: I would like Adam Guettel to compose and Matthew Worth to perform. I really like Adam's music; it's a combination of musical theatre, pop and opera. As for Matthew Worth: who wouldn't want to be remembered as a hunky baritone with an amazing voice?

Nina: I think the role of me would be a soubrette. Maybe Mozart could write it....that would be cool!

Do you have any pre-show/audition traditions or superstitions?

Adam: When I was in high school I had a plastic coin that I got from a cereal box, that I took to all of the community theatre auditions I went to. I also took it to my undergrad admissions audition at Montclair. After I got into Montclair I decided I didn't need it anymore, and left it at my parent's house. When I audition now, I like to use Scope mouthwash before I leave my apartment, and I like to arrive at the audition venue 30 minutes before hand to focus myself.

What is your favorite meal?

Adam: I love turkey burgers (from Lucky Burger on 52nd street) with Lucky sauce, fries and a black and white shake.

Nina: My mom’s curry rice, Japanese style.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Adam: In 10 years I will be 36. I would like to be on the roster at NYC Opera, have been featured on the Barihunks website and have well established myself as a teacher in Manhattan.

Nina: It all depends. If my singing career is going well then I might be wherever my voice takes me. If not, then I will probably go back to Japan, my home country!

What kind of music, besides opera, is on your iPod?

Adam: Right now I'm listening to Ragtime by Ahrens and Flaherty. On my iPod I have some Jason Mraz, Dave Matthews, Audra McDonald, John Coltrane, Britney Spears, Counting Crows, David Archuleta, India Arie, Kelly Clarkson and about 100 others.

Nina: A lot of Jazz, Gospel, old school R&B, actually pretty much everything, but I don’t necessarily listen to it all.

Who says singers aren't tough?!

The BBC News reports that Puerto Rican soprano Ana María Martínez fell into an orchestra pit at Glyndebourne festival during a performance of Rusalka on Friday.



Our favorite part of the article: "Despite Ana María wanting to continue with the performance, she was immediately taken to hospital as a precautionary measure."

Singers: be careful out there! And instrumentalists: watch out for falling singers!

Waiting for life to begin

“It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end.” ~Ursula LeGuin

Every career or calling has its own path, and certainly a young artist knows he or she is not choosing the easiest course. There exist careers whose trajectories almost seem like a checklist: get _____ undergraduate degree, _____ graduate degree, apply for _____ certification, land one of many available jobs in your field, and voilá, your career awaits. Perhaps many musicians have personalities that rebel against such predestination and lack of surprises anyway, but the uncertainty of a life in the arts has its own pitfalls. Perhaps foremost of these is that we often feel like we’re waiting for life to begin, always waiting to achieve whatever we define as success in our field. We know better than to expect that we will get one big break that will do it, but we might assume that one smaller break will be followed by another smaller break, and it will all lead in a straight line toward success. We have our sights on the signposts along the way: the first professional gig, the summer program, the young artist program, the competition prize, the agent contract, the ability to quit our day-job to focus on music. All along the way, there are also technical signposts: “When I have a solid high C...” In the moment, it can feel like the next one will be it, the next one will make us feel secure or accomplished, or, at the very least, give us a sign that we are going in the right direction. After the next accomplishment, we can relax for a while. But then that next accomplishment doesn’t happen as we’ve planned, or doesn’t give us the security we foresaw, or we get there and can only see what needs to be done next. And in the meantime, are we truly enjoying life, or are we letting it pass us by? If we’re busy thinking that our lives will begin when we achieve __________, then are we stuck in a state of suspended animation while we work and wait?

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” ~John Lennon

We are artists because we have something we want to tell, some emotion we want to share. If we are not truly experiencing life along the way, our art may become stagnant – focusing on future success may make our present performances less vital, less human. Good friends, good food, traveling, experiencing other arts: these and other pleasures make our lives better in the meantime, and, as an intrinsic benefit, may serve as catalysts for our creativity.

“Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.” ~James Dean

I recently had a dream in which I was explaining something I truly believe but have never been able to articulate in waking life: “The way we choose to live our lives is our ultimate work of art. All other art is documentation.”

Exploring music in the world

Lately there seems to have been an explosion of books, articles and documentaries about various topics related to music: music and human evolution, music and the brain, music and culture, etc. For example, take a look at the following clip from a presentation given by Bobby McFerrin at the World Science Festival recently:

How interesting that, despite the differences in music across different cultures, some scales and intervals seem to be almost universal...

For more on these musical universals, we highly recommend The Music Instinct, a recent PBS documentary about music as related to the human brain and culture, which was co-hosted by Dan Levitin, author of The World in Six Songs and This is Your Brain on Music. In the documentary, the connections between music and all other aspects of our humanity are vivid, inspiring and thought-provoking. For example, did you know that evolutionary anthropologists and neuroscientists largely agree that music most likely evolved almost entirely independently from language, and therefore probably had a separate evolutionary purpose? The most plausible theory of this purpose seems to be tribal bonding and synchronization within groups. Yet no one can be certain which evolved first, music or speech. Could there have been a time when humans used only wordless music to communicate?

We're also currently reading Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, by renowned neurologist Oliver Sacks; many may know him as the doctor whose work and writing inspired the movie Awakenings. We'll post a full review of this fascinating book soon.

Any other books, films or links to recommend to fellow music-lovers?