Pop Music & Opera thoughts from a K-pop dancing, musical theater and jazz-loving opera singer

Kristen Choi photographed by Kate Marley.

(Santa Fe, NM) - The first time I encountered mezzo soprano Kristen Choi, she was onstage as Wowkle in The Santa Fe Opera’s 2016 production of La Fanciulla Del West. At the time, I didn’t realize Kristen was an apprentice artist in a principal role. It wasn’t until her second apprentice season that we properly met and became friends, Kristen having some of my fave musical moments (and 80-90s outfits) in the world-premiere of Mason Bates and Mark Campbell’s The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs.

It was a delight to get to know this incredible artist through her Instagram feed and DMs as she worked and traveled across the USA and Europe. In addition to operatic roles, Kristen joined the Lincoln Center Broadway Production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I as an ensemble member and Lady Thiang understudy; we were thrilled to see her June 20, 2018 performance of this classic in Albuquerque.

I was hopeful that Kristen would be interested in sharing her pop music and opera thoughts because in addition to opera, her Instagram account is my one-stop shop for all things K-pop - the latest hits regularly shared though dance videos of her original choreography (not to mention avid rock climbing, nature, food and family adventures). Authentic storytelling is the key, as you’ll see below. - JM

---

By Kristen Choi

(Los Angeles, CA) - “What could opera learn from pop music?” What a simple yet loaded question. Let me begin by introducing my background in music and the journey of my falling in love with opera and then pursuing it as a career.

I was a Disney kid who loved singing along to classic songs from Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. Popular mainstream music was always on my playlist, too, along with boy bands, Britney Spears, musical theater and jazz in the mix. My musical tastes have always been eclectic, especially since I love dancing; I was no stranger to 90s and 2000s hip-hop.

In truth, I never really listened to classical music recreationally unless it was to help me practice piano or to focus while studying so, understandably, I wasn’t drawn to opera or exposed to it. However, I was always open to it. So when I was fortunate enough to go on school field trips to see an opera, I was always blown away. But opera didn’t really stick until I was older. I’d begun studying classical voice at university, but was still undecided on what career path to take. It wasn’t until I landed the role of Barbarina in a regional production of Le nozze di Figaro that I truly fell down the opera rabbit-hole. Maybe it was the power of Mozart, but something about telling this hilarious story in Italian captured my full and undivided attention. From that point forward, I was hooked. I’d had my “A-ha” moment and finally understood the big deal of this beautiful art form. 

So, what can opera learn from pop?

What it all comes down to is why “pop” music so appealing. As a K-pop fan, why is this genre garnering so much attention globally and in the United States? How did this South Korean Hallyu (South Korean wave) arrive and then go on to sweep the global music market?

I honestly don’t think opera must conform or change itself to sound more like pop. As librettist Mark Campbell said, it doesn’t need to be “accessible” in order to be successful. Pop music is popular music and right now that means an array of eclectic sounds and styles. Further to this point, artists are actively blending genres and styles. Fusion is most definitely “in”.

If fusion is a pop music trend, couldn’t pop music borrow from opera, becoming even more unique and exciting?

Just like when I was growing up, many people aren’t exposed to opera or their idea/impression of the art form, as a whole, is that it’s archaic, traditional, boring and elitist.

I do have a theory as to why K-pop became popular in the USA. One of the biggest K-pop groups is BTS - you’ve probably heard of them because their song “Dynamite” just hit Number One on the Billboard Hot 100, making BTS the first all-South Korean group to achieve this; they’ve pretty much taken over the genre and are a global phenomenon. But how did they achieve this incredible success? Their secret sauce is actually quite simple.

BTS uses their music and art to encourage healing, and to spread a universal message of self-love to people of all ages around the world.

This BTS fan knows that group members are heavily involved in the writing and production of their music, and that they consistently demonstrate how they care about their listeners and fans. Like opera singers, their art is genuine. Their storytelling is also genuine and feels that way, too. So often, it’s this genuine STORY-TELLING that gets lost in translation across so much of today’s popular art and music. BTS is different, though, and it shows up in their success and fan loyalty.

We also connect through stories in opera. The majority of us aren't in this industry just to make money or flaunt musical knowledge and/or our egos. And yes, I understand that not all operatic works tell a great or coherent story (ahem, Handel’s music or some Rossini operas), but the spectacle and virtuosic talent found in these works remain integral to the global, musical firmament.

Whether it’s K-pop, opera, musical theatre or pop music, we all benefit from genuine stories told through song.

Kristen Choi as Suzuki in Lyric Opera of Kansas City’s Madama Butterly (2018).
Photo by Julius Ahn.

---

Mezzo-soprano Kristen Choi has been hailed by Opera News as a “powerhouse in the making” for her portrayal of Suzuki in Madama Butterfly. Her 2019-2020 bookings included a house debut in this signature role, with performances at Opera Omaha. Kristen is set to make her Opera Philadelphia house debut in their 2022 production of Puccini’s masterpiece. Recent engagements also included a role and house debut with Opera Maine as the Third Lady in Mozart's The Magic Flute, as well as creating the title role in a brand new production of Murasaki's Moon, a completely new work in partnership with Onsite Opera and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Wall Street Journal review here). Kristen Choi is represented by Stratagem Artists.

Visit Kristen Choi on Instagram | kristenchoi.com

Opera Innovation featured on "What's the -TEA with ACP" Facebook Live Chat

Opera Innovation’s James Mowdy joined Aural Compass Project’s“What’s the Tea with ACP” Facebook Live “NovelTEA” conversation with host and Virginia-based tenor Elliott Paige and YAC Tracker Founder and tenor Jordan Weatherston Pitts. (August 30, 2020) CLICK image to watch!

(Santa Fe, NM) - Opera Innovation’s James Mowdy was a featured guest on Aural Compass Project’s 30AUG Facebook Live, joining host and tenor Elliott Paige and YAC Tracker founder and tenor Jordan Weatherston Pitts for a conversation on “the NovelTEA of…innovative ideas in opera.” Host Elliott moderated a far-reaching, in-depth discussion powered by a series of questions developed pre-show, the group exploring Jordan and James’ respective projects, as well as everyone’s thoughts on the future of opera in a new normal. A wonderful opportunity to share bold and exciting predictions and prognostications for the business of opera .

From James:

It was great to introduce the Opera Innovation concept, my BSPOKE Brand Consultancy initiative; I’d long wanted to have conversations focused on the business of opera and how the art form could not only find common threads but also meaningfully engage individuals and businesses outside the opera ecosystem. Given that, the opportunity to join “What’s the Tea” with Elliott and Jordan was an honor and definitely in my wheelhouse!

My Bay Area and Silicon Valley experience with small biz and startup culture has always been the filter through which I see opera. It was a delight to share my particular journey, which began with famed countertenor Brian Asawa, a friend for 25 years who became a BSPOKE client in 2014. This led to company-wide brand storytelling for The Santa Fe Opera in 2015, collaborating with the company’s public relations, marketing and Apprentice programs, respectively. Once equipped with opera world experience, my love for the art form began appearing in my own, independent BSPOKE projects, such as #Operatawk live conversations on Periscope and #bspokeofficehours interviews on Instagram Live. These experiences ultimately led to the launch of Opera Innovation - business of opera conversations based upon unique contributor storytelling while receiving pro bono BSPOKE content marketing and public relations attention. Thus far, the ability to raise profile for a variety of individuals and small businesses in and outside of opera has been gratifying, an organic growth success.

Elliott’s “What’s the Tea with ACP” format is centered around a theme and moderated Q&A powered by previously submitted guest questions; our conversation’s “NovelTEA” theme spoke to innovation and the novelty of new ideas, so it felt right time, right place for all of us! Both gentlemen are so thoughtful, sharp and forward-thinking, an absolute delight to discuss an array of topics with them.

Before we jump into Jordan Weatherston Pitts’s questions, a little background from the ACP promo:

“We are excited to introduce tenor Jordan Weatherston Pitts! Jordan made his principal artist debut to critical acclaim as the young queen Renata in Iain Bell and Mark Campbell’s world premiere of Stonewall with New York City Opera and continues an active performance schedule of romantic and lyric repertoire. His most recent roles include Roméo in Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette with the Hawaii Opera Theatre, The Magician (Nika Magadoff) in Menotti’s The Consul with Opera Saratoga, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Achille in La Belle Helene, Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, Alfredo in La Traviata, Younger Thompson in Tom Cipullo's Glory Denied, Pinkerton in Madama Buterfly, and MacDuff in Verdi's Macbeth. In 2018 Jordan was both a Studio Artist with Opera Saratoga’s Young Artist Program as well as an Orvis Studio Young Artist with the @hawaiioperatheatre. Jordan is a community leader and advocate for young artists globally.”

Jordan’s questions are quite literally sourced from his own experience as an artist, as well as the founder of YAC Tracker, an important social media-based tool as community with a bright digital future. Jordan’s questions and my bullet point responses follow, but watch our video for the best essence and captured nuances of our conversation:

• How will COVID-19 affect young artist programs moving forward in the future - will they be more transparent/less? What could be the long term effects? 

  • Safety considerations are now 100 percent paramount

    • How to make the YAP experience safe & secure across the board?

    • New policies and procedures and perhaps restructuring of what the YAP actually looks like

  • Digital / video element i.e. auditions, livestreams will become permanent

    • Shoutout to Ted Pickell (Pick-ell) and Jóhann Schram’s Conduit Studios Media, creating high-quality, multi-camera artist videos i.e. could their video and digital work become the opera industry standard?

  • Transparency 100 percent required. There is a much higher NO BS attitude rising now that the meteor of corona and BLM have hit the earth. In terms of applications, process, experience and the expectations from young singers. It could become a buyer's market. If there are no singers, there are no programs. It's a very interesting moment, I think that this could actually happen. Companies will need to step up their game and perhaps start to court singers more than before, similar to how tech companies scout the best programmers, engineers and so forth

  • The power of leverage - blocks of artist and opera professionals uniting, creating leverage within the industry

  • Survival of the fittest. Not all will survive, especially smaller programs who depend so heavily on young artists programs to fuel their full season

• How might the young artist program grow and evolve to become more of a real “job” and less of an unpaid internship? How will infrastructure need to change to support young artists in their early stages of career?

  • My previous answers apply but also...

  • More value add from companies. If they cannot necessarily pay artists more, there should be more assistance offered. Cite Santa Fe Opera examples, as well as pro bono Brand Therapy

  • So, generally speaking, more hands-on to help and connect artists to their future managers, artistic directors, conductors, et al. Leveraging their pre-existing networks for the benefit of their young singers - could and should become standardized across the young artist experience. Alumni Association model!

My Questions to Elliott and Jordan:

• A question for you both. Perhaps beginning with the mission and vision of Aural Compass Projects, a socially-conscious performing arts collective, how might other small companies or even opera management firms (managers + rosters) begin to use their collective power as business leaders and artists to create real change within the opera industry and A-house companies i.e. the AGMA Soloist Coalition platform and objectives?

• A question for Jordan. My understanding is that the Young Artist Community Tracker will have digital presence as a forum-based website. In my own career, I've relied on the Glassdoor website and app, specifically crowdsourced feedback on the interview process, leadership and the workplace experience, good and bad. Could the YAC Tracker could become the Glassdoor of Opera, something that currently doesn't exist? Mobile is everything, so are there plans for an app ? <-click to watch snippet

Some important takeaways from our 1 hour, 20 minute conversation:

• How young artist programs must consider a new litmus test - not only how it “looks on paper,” but how if actually feels to work there, i.e. to experience and learn the craft from the young artist perspective. These brand experiences (my words) will define what actual, on-the-ground conditions are like and if they meet young artist needs i.e. livable (not minimum) wage, low-stress environment for high-stress demands, reflective of company’s brand values in every way;

• Per Jordan, the digital streamlining of the young artist program application. How the pandemic clearly caught artists out, but how job security can be shored up to protect artists i.e. health, safety, benefits, housing. How the European young artist studio model works, what important takeaways are found there;

• Per Elliott, how opera must begin rebranding itself - the experience, how it engages audiences and who those audiences are i.e. broader, younger, more diverse. Creating new marketing, audience, funding funnels, or just throwing all funnels out and redesigning the operatic audience experience from the ground up? Casting off the elite or elitist experience that many perceive to be the whole of opera and/or an experience that feels exclusionary to many, keeping newcomers away. Telling a story through song, just like pop or Broadway, perhaps newer, smaller and more nimble companies are best set up to accomplish;

• How the dinosaurs of opera might not be able to outrun or outmaneuver our new normal as unified cries for an Opera 2.0 (per James) become louder and more defined;

• Speaking to the closure of Columbia Artist Management, Inc., how CAMI is the canary in the coal mine for opera’s legacy brands (per James). How, due to COVID-19, the destruction of old artist management models is creating a new breed of artist manager entrepreneurs, more small, boutique operations and the totally self-managed artist (thanks to NYC-based arts consultant Cristin O’Keeffe for this reconnaissance and insight);

• Various ways opera companies can “value-add” to the young artist experience right now, creating greater loyalty, connection and positive word of mouth in the marketplace;

• Per Elliott and Jordan, a great exploration of high-value, local connections between artists, businesses and opera companies, especially since community-level initiatives require community-level hiring of local talent, now more than ever;

• How opera must actively strive to move beyond its current elite space / positioning, creating new, more equitable business models that aren’t overly dependent upon donor and patron-based participation. Assertively building connections with investors outside opera (i.e. tech), finding common goals for collaboration and mutually beneficial ROI.

My sincerest thanks to Elliott Page and Aural Compass Projects Founder and Artistic Director Michael Lewis. It was an honor to join you, as well as Jordan - Opera Innovators across the board!

JM

CLICK TO WATCH “What’s The -TEA, Episode 7”

---

Elliott Paige, a tenor, has been praised for his "handsome and sweetly rounded tenor" (Judith Malafonte, Opera News). He was an Apprentice Artist with The Santa Fe Opera, where he sang the role of Parpignol in La Bohème while being in various choruses for the summer. Also at Santa Fe Opera, Mr. Paige covered Grand inquisitor and Baron in Candide. Prior to his arrival in Santa Fe, Elliott premiered Laura Kaminsky's world-premiere chamber opera Today It Rains with Opera Parallele in San Francisco as the "Quartet Tenor," while also covering the role of Aubrey, In past years, Elliott was an Apprentice Artist with Palm Beach Opera, where he covered Spoletta in Tosca, and Governor in Candide. He was also a Young Artist at The Glimmerglass Festival, where he performed as Nelson while covering Peter and Crab man in Porgy and Bess and as Giacomo de Wisants in The Siege of Calais. In addition to hosting “What’s The Tea with ACP,” Elliott began performing with Aural Compass Projects in 2020. | ElliottPaige.com

Tenor Jordan Weatherston Pitts has been recognized for his "heroic", "passionate" and "bewitching" performances both on the operatic stage, as well as in concert. He has been seen in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Classical Review, The Financial Times, Opera News, OperaWire, The Boston Globe, Early Music America Magazine, and The New York Times. He has made guest appearances on NPR, WQXR, New York 1, and ABC News as well as featured articles in The New Yorker Magazine and The London Times International. | jordanwpitts.com

---

Aural Compass Projects is a non-profit music organization founded in 2019 that is dedicated to performing new and less-performed works. We strive to foster and develop a solid moral compass which guides our work in advancing towards equality and better representation in the arts. We believe that following a strong code of ethics while cultivating a space for new music and music that has not had the opportunity of being fully appreciated is our duty as artistic ambassadors and is incredibly important for the collective growth of our community and world. Aural Compass Projects is the brainchild of CodyRay Caho and Michael Lewis. | AuralCompassProjects.org.

WATCH “What’s The -TEA, Episode 7” BELOW

In this weeks edition of What's the -TEA? with ACP! We are pleased to have Elliott Paige host our guests, Jordan Pitts and James Mowdy. We will be discussing...

CCA Santa Fe Brings "UnShakeable" Hope to Our Pandemic Lives

Santa Fe Opera illustration; renderings by Wilberth Gonzalez | The Santa Fe New Mexican, April 8, 2016

(Santa Fe, NM) - We’re coming into our seventh month of an out of control American pandemic. When the reality of COVID-19 became clear in March, one of the very first things that came to mind was composer Joe Illick’s and liberettist Andrea Fellows Fineberg’s opera UnShakeable; I had the opportunity to see its 2019 production at SITE Santa Fe. The global pandemic in Illick and Fellows-Fineberg’s opera is different, but just as devastating; “Erasure” leaves an indelible mark, robbing human beings of their memories, identities and shared experiences. The same is true for COVID-19, but with the added possibility of death. In both cases, human history is impacted, altered, redirected.

To say I’m “thrilled” that the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe is screening UnShakeable as part of its pay-per-view “Living Room Series” tonight isn’t exactly right. “Grateful” is a better word, but hold that thought. From The Santa Fe Opera’s press release:

“Set in an abandoned theater in New Mexico 25 years in the future, UnShakeable is the story of Wyatt and Meridian, Shakespearean actors and former lovers who have varying degrees of memory loss due to Erasure, a viral pandemic resulting in memory loss. Separated from Meridian at the start of the viral pandemic, Wyatt has been searching for his love ever since. Exploring themes of memory, connection, and the power of story, UnShakeable incorporates language from some of Shakespeare’s iconic works to create a modern romance.”

In 2019, when I saw UnShakeable with good friends soprano Adelaide Boedecker and baritone Calvin Griffith singing the roles of Meridian and Wyatt, I was blown away its simplicity, complexity, music and story. All elements came together for this operagoer. Now, many months into the pandemic, the recollection of watching Addie and Calvin bring the piece’s themes to life makes the real-time weight of COVID-19 all too palpable.

Erasure.
Without fanfare.
Erasure
The game is up.
All that mattered,
Memory shattered.
All of the people I knew
Have vanished from my mind,
Vanished into thin air.
Who were my father and my mother? Did I have a sister or a brother?
All of my memory has faded away
And left no trace behind.
Did I have friends?
Was I ever in love?                                                                                                                             

Given ongoing coronavirus disease, death and resurgence, as well as the en masse loss of personal histories, experiences and interactions, our 2020 version of Erasure seems to have arrived.  Adding in socially-distant everything and a sometimes overwhelming fear of others, shorter, impactful operas like UnShakeable may help us collectively heal - or provide temporary, necessary respite - from the endless emergency. But I also try to remember that when I departed my 2019 UnShakeable experience, I did so with an overwhelming sense of hope and joy.

When I shared the development of this blog with Kathleen Clawson, UnShakeable’s Dramaturg and Stage Director, she wrote to share that the experience “remains one of my proudest artistic achievements and the happiest of collaborations.” UnShakeable’s Librettist Andrea Fellows Fineberg went to the heart of the piece. “When contemplating writing an opera in commemoration, you are in the domain of memory. Add that it is Shakespeare and the opera could become many things. What it became, though, is a love story.”

I’m beyond thankful that Ms. Fellows Fineberg sent me the UnShakeable libretto this week. I’d forgotten some of the most pivotal words and powerful moments she’d created, which echo something I’ve been doing since pandemic began. Every clear evening, I step outside to look up at the New Mexico stars, wishing for something good to come out of this, usually finding some hope before I go to sleep. Lately, I’ve started doing this while listening to a fave pop song on repeat, now my pandemic mediation.

“‘Cause love is love, it never ends. Can we all be as one again?”

So, yes. Love. Once you’ve seen UnShakeable, let’s follow Wyatt and Meridian’s good example, connecting as one through our personal “wishing stars.” They matter and they work. - JM

---

Opera Innovation asked several individuals involved with UnShakeable and this screening for their thoughts.

Jason Silverman, Cinematheque Director
Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe

Why is this screening of “UnShakeable” especially important right now? Please also expand on the critical role CCA Santa Fe plays in the community.

“A functioning society depends on humans connecting with each other. That’s true in good times and bad. I believe cultural institutions in this difficult moment, as always, must continue to find innovative ways to bring us together, across boundaries, in ways that give us hope and energy. We’ll need that hope and that energy as we confront the enormous challenges we must face. The CCA and The Santa Fe Opera are just two of many cultural organizations that are finding new methods of connecting us. The work being done is, to me, essential, as artists and other deep thinkers hold many clues to solving our problems.” 

“The UnShakeable event is the 41st event in the CCA’s Living Room, and our second collaboration with Santa Fe Opera, and through these programs we’ve been able to create, I think, a new virtual gathering space where important ideas, expressed by passionate and committed artists, educators, activists and others, can be shared.” 

Could you speak to CCA Santa Fe’s mission, vision and history of collaboration with The Santa Fe Opera?

“The CCA and The Santa Fe Opera have been collaborating for most of my 16 years at the CCA, and these collaborations remain a highlight for the CCA family.  Andrea Fellows Fineberg and The Santa Fe Opera team are visionary and generous, and they are brilliant at executing programs that move audiences. Together, we’ve produced shows with live music, deep and meaningful panel discussions, family programs, strange opera films from around the planet … and we even celebrated Igor Stravinsky’s birthday with a giant cake!”

Jacquelyn Stucker, Soprano | Intermusica Artists

“I am so honored to have created the role of Meridian, and I look back on the premiere and revival with fondness and nostalgia. Memory diseases run on both sides of my family, and my experiences with an aunt, and uncle, and multiple grandparents with either Alzheimers or FTD made my involvement in this project deeply meaningful for me on a personal level. The Santa Fe Opera’s strong track record when it comes to producing new American works is unparalleled, and I love that they’ve combined their hallmark artistic integrity with the realities of memory disease, an important and complicated aspect of modern life.” - Jacquelyn Stucker, Soprano

Soprano Jacquelyn Stucker as Meridian in UnShakeable (2016) | Ms. Stucker represented by Intermusica. Photo: CCA Santa Fe

Jarrett Ott, Baritone | IMG Artists

“Illick and Fellows Fineberg’s work holds a deep place in my heart. Years later, I find myself still humming or singing parts of Unshakeable. It triggers the emotions of dealing with the current circumstances we’re facing, but also provides hope that as a community we can find each other again. We need to keep searching diligently for our own new realities and creative selves. Hopefully our post-pandemic reality can be half as beautiful as Meridian and Wyatt’s.” - Jarrett Ott, Baritone

Baritone Jarrett Ott as Wyatt in UnShakeable (2016) | Mr. Ott is represented by IMG Artists

Soprano Adelaide Boedecker | Stratagem Artists

Bass Calvin Griffin | ADA Artist Management

“UnShakeable is near to my heart, because I was able to work with Joe (Illick) while it was being workshopped. It was such an honor and a thrill! As a result, it had even more of an impact on me, especially when Santa Fe (Opera) asked my husband Calvin Griffin and me to perform Joe and Andrea’s piece for the Spring 2019 tour. Being able to delve into a work that explores memory loss with a significant other was powerful, to say the least. Now, as we’re separated from loved ones due to COVID-19, we can identify with the loneliness that Wyatt and Meridian must’ve felt. What a poignant and beautiful story, showing us how love and music truly are essential in helping humanity heal and connect.” - Adelaide Boedecker, Soprano

Bass-Baritone Calvin Griffin (Wyatt) and Soprano Adelaide Boedecker (Meridian) in UnShakeable (2019)

WATCH UnShakeable

with Jacquelyn Stucker and Jarrett Ott

TONIGHT ONLY | FRI 28AUG via CCASantaFe.org

• WHAT: Online screening of UnShakeable and a panel discussion with notable New Mexico poets presented by the Santa Fe Opera, Fort Worth Opera and Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

• WHEN: TONIGHT, Friday, August 28 at 7 pm MDT / 9PM EDT.

• HOW: Interested parties may register via the CCA’s website. The cost of admission is $12.00.

---

If you’d like more UnShakeable, or miss tonight’s CCA Santa Fe performance, watch Adelaide Boedecker and Calvin Griffin’s UnShakeable (2019) performance at SITE Santa Fe.

Parea Virtual Recitals: Contactless Personal Connection In Action

Parea Virtual Recital Series Co-Founders Will Meinert and Emily Misch.

(Santa Fe, NM) - As the pandemic continues to interrupt our ability to gather for live performance, opera singers around the world are actively meeting the moment. Over the last six months, many have applied their energies and imaginations to various virtual initiatives that, in no uncertain terms, pave the way to what could become standard across the performing arts - equally-weighted live and virtual programming running side by side. The Santa Fe Opera’s General Director Robert K. Meya said as much in a recent Associated Press article, highlighting the company’s well-received Songs from Santa Fe virtual opening nights.

Two singers who’ve taken up this digital / virtual challenge are soprano Emily Misch and bass Will Meinert. Based in Herndon, Virginia, Emily was set to be a Glimmerglass Festival young artist this summer, while Will was scheduled for his second season as a Santa Fe Opera apprentice artist. As their summers and lives changed, they began executing an ambitious plan. The results thus far are impressive; as of this writing, the Parea Series format appears to be the only one of its kind online. Viewers are treated to wonderful, longer form recitals with expert guest conversation around a given topic. Parea’s shorter form Instagram promotional videos also deliver maximum interest - and bang - at around three minutes (see below). If you’re seeking classical music entertainment with interesting, connected conversation in uncertain times, look no further. - JM

---

By Emily Misch and Will Meinert

How do we maintain personal connection without personal contact? 

As opera singers, my partner Will and I have become experts at nurturing connections over physical distance. Our biggest success story may be our relationship: we met while performing Derrick Wang’s Scalia/Ginsburg together in 2018, then spent most of our first year as a couple on opposite sides of the country in different opera residencies. But we stayed connected.

Musicians get to be very good at this. One of the most maddening but also wonderful aspects of our profession is how we’re constantly traveling and forming new communities. It’s maddening because these communities are physically fleeting—at the end of a production, we generally go our separate ways—but wonderful because the ties we create often grow and strengthen over years of working together in different contexts. 

However, with the current public health crisis, those same ties can feel stretched thin. We no longer have the promise of “see you next season,” because none of us know when we’ll really be back in the theater. As the distance settles in and begins to seem more permanent, how do we nurture these personal connections? 

For Will and me, the answer was to create something new: virtual recitals in a unique format that allows us to look deeply and differently at the music we perform, safely collaborate, and strengthen our connections with musical friends.

In our Parea Series, Will and I perform music and then discuss it with expert Guest Artists in short video interviews. Our full-length recitals put these different perspectives in conversation to create a concentrated fusion of music and discussion available on a “pay what you want” and “watch when you want” basis. No in-person contact is involved in our work; our productions are completely COVID-safe for both audiences and artists. 

We believe that the personal connections involved in making music are just as interesting and important as the music itself, and that these ties bring us closer together, even while we’re physically apart.

CLICK IMAGE TO WATCH: Parea Series’ “Crisis as Catharsis” virtual recital promo and preview via Instagram.

Our Guest Artists are friends and mentors from a wide variety of our musical communities; while it would be rare for these people to all meet in person, our remote format allows us to have deeper conversations with a wider range of perspectives than would be possible at an in-person recital.

In case you’re wondering, we’ve taken our name from the Greek word parea, a concept deeply rooted in Greek culture. Parea suggests that personal connections and lively conversations with circles of friends are meaningful, valuable, and indispensable parts of life. In our work so far, this has proven to be very true. 

In our first recital, we performed music centered around themes of despair and hope, defiance in the face of oppression, and humor—all ways one might seek relief during a maddening and confusing time. We interviewed five of our musical friends: director Alison Moritz, Yale professor Richard Lalli, opera factotum Rob Ainsley, and coaches Vera Danchenko-Stern and Ken Weiss. For our second recital, we’re performing Menotti’s The Telephone, a short comic opera that, at its core, is about the ways that people communicate, connect, and adapt to reach each other. We’re interviewing friends old and new: composer Bruce Adolphe, pianist Anna Betka, baritone Trevor Neal (Artistic Director of Newport Music Festival) and, of course, our director—the phenomenal Audrey Chait, who directed us in that production of Scalia/Ginsburg two years ago!

Although we’re physically separated from our musical communities, our ideas about and passion for the music we perform keeps us in conversation, and deeply connected to each other. With the Parea Series, we invite you to join our circle of friends, and experience the personal connection that music—making it, talking about it, listening to it—can bring.

Visit Emily and Will at Pareaseries.com

Follow Parea Virtual Recital Series on Instagram.

Librettist Mark Campbell on Pop Music, Opera and 'the Lucy/Jessie Saga' of it all

Photo: Frances Marshall, Final Note Magazine.

(Santa Fe, NM) - In August 2015, I met librettist Mark Campbell at the press conference for The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, his opera with composer Mason Bates. Consulting with Santa Fe Opera public relations, I took photos of the gents, live tweeted and (with coworker Anh Lê) launched the first live Periscope broadcast of a breaking news event by a North American opera company. Fast forward through (R)evolution workshops at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in September 2015 and September 2016, the 2017 Santa Fe Opera world premiere, in addition to the workshops, events and 2019 world premiere of Opera Parallele’s Today it Rains. Together, these events span the five years that my partner and I have become better acquainted with Mark’s landmark work, his authentic warmth, one-of-a-kind wit and a killer sense of humor. We’re glad to be friends as well as fans.

When I launched this series, I’d hoped Mark would agree to share his ideas (so grateful he did). Shortly after (R)evolution’s world premiere, I asked if he thought his and Mason’s opera could be successful on Broadway. “YES!” As Mark shares below, The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs did, in fact, find its inspiration in pop music. Without further delay, a Grammy-winning librettist with some brilliantly crystallized thoughts. - JM

---

By Mark Campbell

What a useless and corrupting little label “pop music” is. The word reared its ugly short head around 1926, reduced to a three-letter palindrome from the phrase “music with popular appeal,” and was devised by marketeers to distinguish music that you could hum or dance to from an equally inane label, “Classical music,” which might break your ears off. Separating music into labels like this does a disservice to both: pop music is considered cheap and lowly but fun and Classical music intellectual but boring. The comparison kind of reminds me of the Stephen Sondheim lyric from Follies, “The Story of Jessie and Lucy.”

“You see, Jessie is racy
But hard as a rock.
Lucy is lacy
But dull as a smock.
Jessie wants to be lacy,
Lucy wants to be Jessie.
That's the pitiful précis.
It's very messy.
Poor sad souls,
Itching to be switching roles.
Lucy wants to do what Jessie does,
Jessie wants to be what Lucy was.”

 When we try to apply the term “pop” to music composed for opera it becomes even more complicated. For a very long time—indeed throughout most of opera’s history—opera music was considered pop music. People listened to arias from operas as they would listen to the latest hit from Taylor Swift today. Sadly, critics and academics started to condemn anything that might be perceived as pop music in opera as frivolous and pandering about the same time audiences began to condemn contemporary opera for its lack of “tunes.” It’s the “Lucy/Jessie saga” all over again. And that has pretty much created a lose/lose situation for opera. 

 It has also created a horrible struggle when we have to find words to describe a new work. We are sometimes forced to use the word “accessible” to define a composer’s sound, lest we scare off our audience and sell no tickets. But “accessible” only means “similar to music you’ve heard before,” which reduces the composer’s voice by making it seem unoriginal. And composers get the damned if you do/damned if you don’t scenario when they are taught to write as complicated and alienating as they can to appease critics’ and academics’ claim of superiority over audiences. 

 My own work as an opera librettist isn’t seriously affected by this issue. But what actually makes a tune a tune is not how the notes are arranged but an audience’s familiarity with it—or how often a composer chooses to repeat a melody. And the repeat of a melody usually requires a librettist to know how to write using song structure in which sections of songs repeat in scansion and rhyme scheme—like you find in “pop music.” 

 There should be no shame in stealing from pop music. There should be no shame if a composer hears a sound in pop music that will help them tell a story truthfully. Mason Bates’ music for The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs certainly finds inspiration in pop music—but it also perfectly captures the period and the soul of its titular subject; and there is not a moment in that score that isn’t a challenging and complex as any in the modern repertoire. Similarly, Paul Moravec’s brilliant music for the score of The Shining contains true arias—even those that follow the pop song structure of AABA. But it always does what the story demands and never panders or strives to be “accessible.”

Since I don’t believe in the separation of pop music and Classical music and love both forms, I don’t think one or the other can save opera. What will save opera—if it needs saving—is music by composers that doesn’t fall on either the Jessie or Lucy side of these labels.  Opera will only succeed if composers are good storytellers and continue to write in their own voices. And…if we tell stories that are relevant to the times in which we live.   

Mark Campbell is represented by The Barbara Hogenson Agency

Visit markcampbellwords.com

Mark Campbell at The Santa Fe Opera | August 10, 2019 | Photo: James Mowdy

What Could Opera Learn From Pop Music?

Teatro di San Carlo de Napoli’s production of Bellini’s Norma, Teatre Principal, Palma, Spain (June 2018).

By James B. Mowdy

(Santa Fe, NM) - When I arrived in Paris last summer to see what were thought to be French pop icon Mylène Farmer’s final concerts, I didn’t realize how these experiences would not only transform how I see pop music, but opera, too.

Mylène Farmer 2019 began with “Coming from the Vortex,” our alien queen Mylène arriving onstage in a glowing orb lowered from the ceiling, followed by two hours of highly choreographed, Jean-Paul Gaultier-costumed extravaganza - successive, visually impactful vignettes with uniquely talented musicians and dancers. The finale was the dramatic full circle of "L’Horloge,” a poem by Baudelaire set to the music of decades-long collaborator Laurent Boutonnat, as well as the explosive opening of her first 1989 tour. Like the high priestess of the Druids, the high priestess of French Pop seemed to channel Bellini’s Norma, exiting the stage though a massive wall of projected flames augmented by billowing steam or smoke, climbing to the top of her own funeral pyre. After seeing this concert twice at Paris’ La Defense Stadium, I realized that the French word “spectacle” would forever describe the incomparable career bookend I shared with 50,000 fans over two nights. Stepping back a bit, Mylene’s oeuvre has always been quasi operatic in vocal style (high soprano), dramatic video visualizations and her ability to make an arena intimate. For over 30 years, across screens and on stages in the French speaking world, Mylène has presented universal human themes, touching on revolution, rebellion and renewal. The dark and the light. Sex, blood, murder, death and various forms of rebirth. If that’s not operatic, I don’t know what is.

WATCH: Mylène Farmer performs “L’Horloge,” the finale of her “Mylène Farmer 2019” series of concerts and the final performance of her Paris residency (June 22, 2019).

After seeing Mylène for the second and final time, I returned to my Air BNB between Opéra and Place Vendome, but not before having the foresight to video some of these operatic thoughts in front of the Palais Garnier Opera House (swipe left until you reach the 8th video).

Et voilà, the perfect segue…

Fast forward to April 2020. Isolated in New Mexico, the pandemic spreading, I accidentally discovered Christine and the Queens’ new EP as short film, the brainchild of “Chris” herself (a.k.a. songwriter, dancer, and creative extraordinaire Héloïse Adelaïde Letissier). Filmed entirely on the premises of the Palais Garnier de l’Opéra de Paris, “La Vita Nuova” is, in fact, an opera of sorts, augmented by visually arresting moments and incredible dance sequences, all powered by five of Chris’ dreamy, activated electropop cuts sung in English, French and Italian. Letissier says this in the New York Times, relating a preliminary conversation she had with director Colin Solal Cardo: “ I want to use the postcard of Paris, and I want to be the broken clown inside it. And then a faun will haunt me.”

Héloïse Adelaïde Letissier and actor Félix Maritaud as The Fauna begin their ill-fated entanglement atop the Palais Garnier in Christine and the Queens’ La Vita Nuova, a short musical film released on February 27, 2020, directed by Colin Solal Cardo. Photo: Vogue Magazine and Christine and the Queens.

In the opening shot, the Paris skyline in sight, the gorgeous dandy Chris encounters The Fauna, a mystical creature with lustful intent (as above). Loosely drawing from Dante’s work, a series of fabulous sequences follows, viewers literally falling into the Paris Opera Ballet’s dance studio with Chris, then onto the Garnier stage, into the Grand Foyer and then into the bowels of the building. At this point, she sucks the creature’s life away to herself become a lustful Fauna who pines for vocalist Caroline Polachek in the title track’s club-like sequence that Vogue dubbed as Thriller meets Paris is Burning. Is it a classic text fairy tale set to pop music? A “fever dream”, as described by an artist who “(likes) to think of everything as a novel” because she enjoys them? A melding of dramaturgy, fantasy, pop and dance set in the one of the world’s greatest monuments to classical arts?

Yes.

And we should factor in how many Christine and the Queens fans might now consider a visit to Opéra de Paris, based upon how beautifully La Vita Nuova showcases - and markets - it and the art that’s created there. The same could be said for Kylie Minogue’s Music’s Too Sad Without You, filmed at Venice’s famed Teatro La Fenice in 2018 (this Kylie fan’s interest doubled).

Yes, Christine and the Queens is one of France’s hottest pop acts and La Vita Nuova is an incredible achievement. However, Letissier isn’t an opera singer and her work isn’t considered operatic. But like Queen of French Pop Mylène Farmer, she creates musical connectivity to a visual story as a composer and librettist might, drawing upon universal human themes often found in literary works of high renown, their art songs for our time. And we can’t forget that when opera arrived, it was the pop music of its day. Now that operatic performance is mostly banished from the stage (as we knew it and for an unknown period of time), what could 21st century opera learn from contemporary pop music and the pop music concert experience? To create greater appeal and adoption by global audiences in a world primed for reconnection through music? To become a better, more widely appealing and durable art form?  

This is the open question we’ve posed to several professionals, all of whom have deep operatic experience and training, as well as an understanding of pop music’s unifying power and mass, cross-cultural resonance. Each individual has been encouraged to utilize their personal definition of pop music. Their interpretations and/or opinions will center around their primary area of expertise (or not, that’s their call). Looking forward to their thoughts i.e. how does opera innovate, perhaps borrow elements of pop music that make the most sense, evolving into something that still includes classical voice?  Our first contributor’s thoughts arrive soon. In the meantime, watch Christine and the Queens’ La Vita Nuova and, like opera, enjoy the visit to a visually arresting sound world. JM