Lyric Opera 2018-2019 Issue 3 Idomeneo

L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O October 13 - November 2, 2018 | 17 Karita Mattila was Donna Anna. Davis wasn’t able to rehearse their arias with them ahead of time, so “we talked, and both of them said to me, ‘I think I’d like this a bit slower than what we’ve been doing.’ And I said, ‘No, I disagree – I think you’d like it a bit faster.’ Finally each said, ‘OK, I’ll try it.’ In both cases they told me, ‘You’re right!’ ey were willing to go with my perception of what would make it easier. Sometimes a conductor knows better than a singer what’s good for them!” With any music-related issue, Davis hopes that during a rehearsal period he and the artists have come to a mutual understanding about how any passage should go. “Of course, it can happen at a performance that the singer might do something completely different, as if you’ve never rehearsed it. en it might be storming-into-the-dressing-room time, but storming isn’t my style. I suppose my aim in working with a singer is the same as working with orchestras: I have never, temperamentally or philosophically, thought that being dictatorial is what a conductor should be.” ere are certain qualities Davis looks for vocally, musically, and textually in any singer with whom he works. “I’m hoping to find a great voice with intrinsic beauty of sound, expressiveness, uniqueness, where you could listen to six notes and say, ‘Ah, that’s So-and-So.’” Just as important is “an intelligent collaborator, as regards both the music and staging.” Davis wants singers “who aren’t afraid to express their opinions, whether musical or dramatic, and who are willing to have serious discussions with a director. ey should really have a vision of the whole opera and their role in it.” He actually finds this quite frequently: “ e vast majority of singers want to fulfill their role in the piece to the best of their ability, but they’re also aware of all the relationships that go on. ey’re good colleagues.” Davis cares greatly about singers’ comfort levels, which includes feeling confident that they will be heard over the orchestra. In achieving proper balance, “I do rely on our music staff – I always ask them about this. I don’t think enough care is taken about balance by some of my colleagues. It’s a serious problem if you can’t hear the singer or the text.” It varies according to the house – “you get to know in the pit whether the balance is working or not. I’ll ask the music staff in the house about something, but I’m pretty sure I know what they’re going to say already.” Occasionally a director asks a singer to do something anti-vocal and anti-musical, which can cause Davis to intervene on the singer’s behalf. “Whether the problem came from their costume design or their being asked to contort themselves onstage while singing, I would support them. A lot of directors will find some sort of physical compromise, so the singer can actually do what he or she has to do and yet remain within the overall concept of what the director is trying to achieve.” Sometimes directors don’t budge, “but they’re absolutely the exception. And then you get into a situation where there can be a real confrontation, where the singer will say, ‘You change this or I’m out the door.’ I always support the singer in that situation, but it almost never gets to that kind of crunch point.” Although he likes to work on music with the singers at the start of the rehearsal period, “for the most part, instead of actually having a day set aside to go through the whole score with the cast, in quite a few instances, when we’re rehearsing a particular scene, I prefer – with prior agreement from the director – to start with the musical side. You rehearse each scene as it comes up . en you stage it, and while you’re staging it, if something happens, you say ‘we agreed…’ In my opinion, it helps that way to cement the music to the production.” Musical preparation is rigorous with any well-rehearsed opera, although some require more collaborative work between conductor and singers than others. With the extraordinary casts with whom Davis performed Lulu and Wozzeck at Lyric, “we had very extensive musical rehearsals first. I don’t think I’ve worked with a director where I haven’t in the course of a staging rehearsal been able to interrupt and say ‘We need to fix something musically.’ I see myself being constantly vigilant about the music, and that’s important to emphasize. You can’t just say, ‘Everything musically is going to be fine!’ When you’re staging, you’re concentrating on other things besides the music, and I understand that, but I don’t want bad habits to form during that process.” Davis has had some intensely memorable moments with singers in rehearsal and performance that represent to him the ideal in terms of spontaneity – that is, something a singer unexpectedly added to the handling of an aria or even a particular phrase . He has wonderful memories of the late Johan Botha, who was “musically remarkable. Every now and then he’d do something a bit different with a phrase, and in a way you wouldn’t have expected that of him because he was such a disciplined musician. I always went with it – I’d be there with him like glue. I miss him terribly.” DAN REST TODD ROSENBERG In addition to three operas, Sir Andrew Davis’s collaborations with Renée Fleming at Lyric have included several concerts, including those in which they were partnered by Jonas Kaufmann (left) and the late Dmitri Hvorostovsky (right).