VIVA
Virtual Intensive Vocal Arts Academy
Opera Project Columbus
“A PEEK Behind The Curtain—What REALLY Goes On”
A Course For Opera Lovers Everywhere
Wednesdays in February
(February 3, 10, 17, 24)
7-8 pm EDT
$50 donation requested
Feb 3: A Tour of Opera in Italy | Fred Plotkin
Feb 10: From Whetstone High School to La Scala, My Life as a Leading International Singer | Eugenie Grunewald
Feb 17: My 50 Years of Dressing Opera Stars at the Met | Charles Caine
Feb 24: Ask the Maestro, Q and A with Maestro Alessandro Siciliani and Ed Bak
Session Details
A Tour of Opera in Italy | Fred Plotkin
February 3
Fred Plotkin leads a varied career in which he is a universally recognized expert in his fields of specialization. Whether it is opera, classical music, gastronomy, wine, or anything related to Italy, Plotkin is much sought-after for his knowledge and the joy and passion with which he shares it. He is the author of nine books, and has written for dozens of leading publications, including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, Opera News, Gourmet, Time, Newsweek, GQ, Travel & Leisure, Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph, Gastronomica, and magazines in Britain, Germany, Italy, and elsewhere.
He has worked in opera and classical music for more than 40 years, having begun as a teenager. This included production work at the opera companies of Bologna and Verona while a student, followed by a two-year stint as a stage director at La Scala, Milan, working as an assistant to Giorgio Strehler. [This work was partially supported by a Fulbright Scholarship.] Then he was Performance Manager of the Metropolitan Opera for 5 years, responsible for running all theater operations at every performance. Later he worked as a consultant for the National Endowment of the Arts, which brought him to many opera companies, including those of Chicago, San Diego, Long Beach, Phoenix, and Minneapolis to analyze and streamline operations and improve artistic product. In 2019 Vanity Fair described him as a “foremost opera expert.”
In 2012, the Robb Report wrote that Fred Plotkin "knows more about opera than probably any other American." In 2014, Fortune magazine described him as "one of the world’s most renowned opera experts."
Plotkin teaches and lectures on operatic topics for the Metropolitan Opera, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Dallas, Boston, and others, and writes program notes for the Met, Glyndebourne, Chicago, Seattle, Omaha, Cincinnati and Los Angeles. He lectures regularly on opera, classical music, history, culture, cuisine and Italian topics at the Smithsonian Institution (more than 150 talks), and has also spoken at the Juilliard School, Columbia University, NYU, Caltech, Brown, the University of Minnesota, at the Salzburg Festival and all over Italy. He was scholar in residence for the 2012 Verbier music festival. He has presented lectures at Carnegie Hall and given numerous pre-concert talks for the New York Philharmonic.
Fred Plotkin has been a popular guest on the intermission features on the Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network, and many programs on National Public Radio, Sirius Satellite Radio, the BBC, and RAI. He is featured in documentaries about Maria Callas and Renata Tebaldi presented on French and German network television. In January 2006 he broadcasted from Austria for NPR during the festivities surrounding the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth. In August 2008, he broadcasted from Torre del Lago, Italy to coincide with observances the 150th anniversary of Puccini’s birth.
Since 2010 he has led a hugely popular series at the Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò of New York University called Adventures in Italian Opera in which legendary singers and conductors as well as rising talent join him to co-teach.
From Whetstone High School to La Scala, My Life as a Leading International Singer | Eugenie Grunewald
February 10
From Aida to Lohengrin - Il Trovatore to Anna Bolena - Don Carlo to Cavalleria Rusticana - the sensational dramatic mezzo who increasingly appears on the short list of major opera houses such as Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Gran Theatre del Liceu Barcelona, Hamburg State Opera, Marseille Opera - is Eugenie Grunewald. For good reason she is becoming the artist of choice for the next generation of dramatic mezzos.
When she saved the day for Houston Grand Opera's Il Trovatore, in a cast that included Marcello Giordani and Sondra Radvanovsky conducted by Patrick Summers, MusicalAmerica.com took up the cheers where the frenzied audience left off: 'Stepping in for Dolora Zajick was no easy task, but Eugenie Grunewald showed herself a mezzo on the move. Praised at home and in Europe in this role and for portrayals of such demonic women as Amneris, Ulrica, and Ortrud, the young American has a huge voice loaded with grit, and she knows how to project it with color and power.'
The good news caught on quickly when the Dallas Morning News raved: 'She's the very incarnation of the gypsy hag's vulnerability and tenderness as well as her burning rage and sheer weirdness.......this is an all-out performance, the tone lava-hot on top, blazing down into chest voice below.'
In 2006 she caused a sensation at the Marseille Opera in a new production of Menotti's Maria Golovin where she galvanized the stage: 'Eugenie Grunewald brought out in the Mother the depth and grandeur of the character. This mezzo soprano possesses so much in terms of voice and soul' announced the France Bleu Provence.
'Eugenie Grunewald as the Mother stands out as the most astonishing singer in the cast, not only because of her impeccable diction in English that makes each word she sings absolutely crystal clear.......But, above all the commanding inwardness and intensity with which the singer invests her interpretation does full justice to the character's psychological depth' rang out Les Echos.
American Mezzo-soprano Eugenie Grunewald has performed to popular and critical acclaim in a broad repertoire that encompasses both the dramatic roles of Verdi and Wagner and the “bel canto” repertoire of Bellini and Donizetti. She has earned recognition not only for her dramatic abilities but for her vocal artistry on the stages of leading opera companies here and in Europe. Theaters in which she has appeared include the Lyric Opera of Chicago (Frugola in Il Tabarro and the Witch in Hansel und Gretel), San Francisco Opera (Amneris in Aida and Ulrica in Un Ballo in Maschera), Houston Grand Opera (Azucena in Il Trovatore), New York City Opera (Mother Marie in Dialogues of the Carmelites and Mrs. Grose in The Turn of the Screw), Teatro Liceu in Barcelona (Giovanna Seymour in Anna Bolena, Amneris in Aida, Preziosilla in La Forza del Destino, Eboli in Don Carlo, and Ortrud in Lohengrin), Teatro Real in Madrid (Morgan le Fey in Albeniz’ world premiere staging of Merlin), Bilbao (Giovanna Seymour), Oviedo (Sara in Roberto Devereux), Teatro Maestranza in Seville (Azucena), Hamburg State Opera (Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana, Preziosilla in La Fortza del Destino, Ulrica, and the Nurse in Ariane et Barbe Bleu), Opera de Marseille (Ulrica, Contessa and Madalon in Andrea Chenier and the Mother in Maria Golovin), Theatre du Capitole in Toulouse (Amneris and Dido in Les Troyens), and Opera Toulon (Dame Quickly in Falstaff). Other companies with whom she has appeared include the Florida Grand Opera (Santuzza), Fort Worth Opera (Dame Quickly), Toledo Opera (Baba the Turk and Mother Goose in The Rake’s Progress), Kentucky Opera (Mother Marie and Azucena), New Jersey State Opera (Azucena), New Jersey Opera Theater (Santuzza), New Orleans Opera (Santuzza) and the summer festivals of Glimmerglass (Santuzza) and the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy (the Mother in Maria Golovin).
A sought after artist on the concert stage, Ms. Grunewald has performed the Verdi Requiem in Lisbon, Washington D.C., New Orleans, Dusseldorf, Aspen Music Festival, The Riverside Chorale of New York and the Los Angeles Master Chorale; Brahms' Alto Rhapsody with the Tulsa Symphony; Mahler’s 2nd Symphony with the Arkansas Symphony, Jocasta in Oedipus Rex with Aspen Music Festival conducted by David Zinman; Joan of Arc in Tchaikovsky's The Maid of Orleans and Lubov in Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa opposite June Anderson and Sergei Leiferkus at Carnegie Hall; Anaide in Leoncavallo's Zaza and Margherita in Mascagni's Guglielmo Ratcliff at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center, Mahler’s 8th Symphony with the Bruchnerfest in Linz and SWF-Sinfoniaorchester of Frieburg (Michael Gielen conducting), Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with The Columbus Symphony Orchestra under Christian Badea and the Orchestra of St. Luke's under Sir Gilbert Levine. She was also a featured soloist on “Live from Lincoln Center’s Pavarotti Plus.”.
Ms. Grunewald is a graduate of Ohio State University and was the first prize winner in the Enrico Caruso International Voice Competition. She has also received grants from the Olga Forrai Foundation, the Sullivan Foundation, The Gerda Lissner Foundation, and the Singers Development Foundation.
My 50 Years of Dressing Opera Stars at the Met | Charles Caine
February 17
International costume designer Charles Caine spent nearly two decades at the Metropolitan Opera draping divas in dresses and tenors in tails, all the while amassing tales of personalities and pitfalls along with souvenirs of operatic creations. — The Berkshire Eagle
For this VIVA session we will take a trip into the rarefied world of opera as Caine shares personal stories and memorabilia -- such as legendary Carmen Emma Calvé's scarf and Zeffirelli's Cleopatra bodice for Leontyne Price.
A Manhattan native, he studied theater design at college. When the draft sent him to a television training center in Augusta, Ga., he befriended a local conscript who as a teenager worked backstage whenever the Met toured south.
His friend left the army and joined the Met full time, helping Caine get a job managing the costume shops.
"It was the late 60s, the last year of the old opera house," Caine said.
On an early assignment, he costumed Maria Callas on her return to New York to sing "Tosca." An incredible lady, he recalled, with the highest standards and always prepared -- unlike the tenors, who often didn't know their music or waltzed in late.
"She became very short-tempered with them," he said. "That's what gave her the bad reputation."
While the new Met took shape, he worked with architects and also prepared eight productions for the first season at Lincoln Center.
"They gave me a week off to get married that summer," he recalled.
As resident costume designer, Caine turned concepts by famous designers into costumes and adapted them for subsequent productions.
"We ended up having eight or nine different sets of ‘Tosca' costumes in different shapes and sizes," he said.
In a career highlight, he worked alongside artist Marc Chagall on "The Magic Flute," "collaging thousands and thousands of little pieces of fabric in all sorts of colors" onto white costumes.
"I sat in a studio with Marc Chagall for three and a half months, hand painting along with him all these costumes," he said. He will display two pieces that he framed. "They're a blaze of color -- they are beautiful."
When a warehouse fire destroyed many costumes in the ‘70s, he made his Met debut designing costumes for a new production of "Don Pasquale."
"It opened on New Year's Eve," he recalled.
After 17 years, he left to work for opera companies from San Francisco to Miami and overseas. He designed Berkshire Opera's final three shows, dressing local soprano Maureen O'Flynn in her first "trousers role" as "Cherubino" in "The Marriage of Figaro."
When a tenor went down on one knee at a "Carmen" dress rehearsal in front of four thousand people, "all of a sudden I heard krrrk -- the crotch of his pants had split open."
"His big blousy underwear started falling out," Caine recalled. "He looked like he was giving birth to white cotton."
Once, during a "Die Fledermaus" fitting, he walked in on a naked Kitty Carlisle. Ten years later, when they met on the staircase at a publisher's party, "she said, ‘I know you from someplace,' " he recalled, " ‘and oh, you know a lot about me, more than most people do!'"
For VIVA, Caine will share some revealing secrets of his own.
Ask the Maestro
Q and A with Maestro Alessandro Siciliani and Ed Bak
February 24
Alessandro Siciliani
Life and career
Siciliani's early life was spent growing up in the opera world of Italy where his father was the director of the country's most prominent opera company, La Scala from 1957 until 1966. His musical interests were formed while attending his father's rehearsals where he had the opportunity to rub shoulders with the world's leading conductors, musicians and opera stars.
Siciliani received his musical training at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan and at the Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome. His studies focused on conducting, which he studied with Franco Ferrara, piano, and composition, graduating with highest honors in all three.
As a conductor, Siciliani has divided his time between opera and the symphonic repertoire. In opera, he conducted extensively at the New York City Opera and made his debut with the Metropolitan Opera on opening night of the 1988/1989 season.[3] Most recently he conducted at the Mariinsky Theatre (formerly the Kirov) in Saint Petersburg, Russia in 2008. As a symphonic conductor he has performed with major orchestras in Prague, Munich, Cologne, Dallas, Pittsburgh, and Washington DC, among many others.
From 1992 to 2004 he was the music director of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra. During his time on the podium the orchestra achieved some of its greatest successes to date, increasing its audience and celebrating its 50th anniversary with a debut appearance at Carnegie Hall. Siciliani's vivid interpretations of the romantic symphonic repertoire and of Italian opera endeared him to audiences in Columbus where he remains a popular figure. In July 2008, he was enthusiastically received when he returned to the podium to conduct the musicians of the Columbus Symphony in a benefit concert during the CSO's recent contract dispute.
Currently, Siciliani maintains his career as a conductor, making guest appearances in Europe and the U.S. He is the Artistic and Musical Director of Opera Project Columbus in Columbus, Ohio, a company dedicated to providing a platform for exceptional emerging talent. He also continues composing, writing works for symphony and chorus.
Early life
Siciliani grew up in Florence and Milan in the home of his parents Ambra and Francesco Siciliani. His father was one of the most important and powerful Artistic Directors in Europe in the 20th century who helped revive some of Italy’s great opera houses after World War II.
Francesco Siciliani was Artistic Director and Manager of La Scala in Milan, The San Carlo in Naples, La Ferenci in Venice, and Theatre Covenale in Florence. He was famous for promoting the early career of such artists as Maria Callas, Renata Tebaldi, and Mario del Monaco.
Alessandro attended all of his father’s rehearsals at the famed Teatro Alla Scala from the time he was a young boy and it instilled in him a deep affinity for opera. Renata Tebaldi was his Godmother.
Siciliani studied at the Giuseppe Verdi Milano Conservatory and at Santa Cecilia in Rome graduating with highest honors in piano, composition, and conducting. He studied conducting with the legendary Franco Ferrara, Leonard Bernstein, Lorin Maazel, Ricardo Muti, and Zubin Mehta.
Siciliani also taught Theory and Solfeggio at the Conservatory of L’Aquila in Abruzzo 1979-1983, as well as Theory and Harmony at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in rome 1983-1988
Career
After graduating from Santa Cecilia Conservatory, Siciliani started making guest conducting appearances with orchestras all over the United States and Europe including at the New York City Opera, Metropolitan Opera in New York, Opera company of Philadelphia, Wolf Trap in Washington, DC, Pittsburgh Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Prague symphony, Radio Orchestra of Munich, National Symphony
Orchestra of Mexico City, English Chamber Orchestra, Teatro dell’Opera of Rome, Teatro Liceo of Barcelona, as well as orchestras in Hong Kong, St. Petersburg, Sao Paolo, Buenos Aires and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. among others.
Maestro Siciliani took the helm of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra 1992-2004 where he led the orchestra’s first recordings in over 20 years and he took the Columbus Symphony Orchestra to debut at Carnegie Hall in 2001. He has a unique ability to take classical music and make it accessible to everyone and during his tenure with the Columbus symphony he continued to lead the orchestra performances to packed houses.
In 2010 until the present, Maestro Siciliani has returned to his operatic roots as the Music Director of Opera Project Columbus where he uses his talents to boost emerging opera talents from central Ohio and beyond.
Ed Bak
Ed Bak is a pianist, professor in the vocal area at The Ohio State University School of Music, and the Artistic Administrator of Opera Project Columbus. He was appointed to the full-time position at OSU in autumn 2014 following 10 years as a vocal coach and collaborative pianist in the school. He is highly sought after as a collaborator and appears regularly in concert with established artists and emerging talents, and has been heard in such venues as the Teatro Colon, The Monnaie, The Festival Lanaudiere, The Philips Collection, and Kolarac Hall. He is active as a chamber musician and has shared the stage with members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Chicago Symphony. He has also worked with great artist teachers like Renata Scotto, Ellen Faull, Shirlee Emmons, Renee Fleming, and John Shirley Quirk. He is a regular faculty member at Prelude to Performance in New York City, and at the AIMS institute in Graz, Austria.