Lyric Opera 2018-2019 Issue 4 Siegfried

L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O 18 | November 3 - 16, 2018 One of the program's most imposing voices recently has been that of bass Patrick Guetti. After their three years working together in Chicago, Faulkner finds most compelling “Patrick’s ability to scale down the voice’s magnificence when necessary and really show himself in his singing. In his time here, he became a consummate artist.” This season Guetti, who recently made his European debut at Glyndebourne, returns to Lyric in Siegfried and in 2019/20 will join the ensemble of the renowned Deutsche Oper Berlin. Guetti views Faulkner as “a very peaceful person – she gives you a sense of calm when you sing.” In her teaching, Faulkner is about making music, as opposed to just having well-produced tone. “She’ll say, ‘It’s technically right, but we’re here to tell a story and be part of the artistic process.’” What has always impressed Guetti is “how humble and unassuming Julia is. She comes to you with such an open heart, not this air of ‘I’ve sung at the Vienna Staatsoper.’ You walk into the room with her and you feel safe.” When a singer is preparing for a production, Faulkner observes how it’s going, especially towards the end. “I’ll try to go to the Sitzprobe [the singers’ first rehearsal with the orchestra] and dress rehearsal. I might say, ‘You turned too far offstage and I couldn’t hear you. You have to cheat at that point.’ I love to tell them when they’ve hit the ‘sweet spots’ onstage, where the sound kind of shoots out.” Assuming technical, musical, and textual matters are totally in hand, Faulkner can then talk to singers about character “and how their vocalization enhances – or distracts – from what they want to say dramatically.” It’s vital to Faulkner that singers have a complete idea of role preparation. For example, “you don’t just translate your part – you need to know exactly what everyone is saying all the time, even if you’re not onstage.” Faulkner encourages intellectual and artistic curiosity: “Chicago has so many offerings that can help in that regard. Theater, ballet, symphony, museums – this is the world you’re going to live in! It creates the artist within you and helps to make you a world citizen.” The topics Faulkner and her colleagues discuss with the singers are limitless, from working with agents to conversing with donors. During Faulkner’s own student days, social media didn’t exist and “we didn’t think that much about how to market ourselves. Nowadays mass appeal is important, and there’s an incredible amount of information that you need to communicate.” Overriding everything else is simply “learning how to be a good colleague, which is so important.” Many Ryan Opera Center singers choose to continue working with Faulkner once they leave Lyric. “Before they leave, they know they can always consider me their mentor. I’m there for them, and am thrilled to have been part of sending them out into the professional world. In what I’m doing now, I can use every aspect of my life and pass on what I know. I hope these singers will do the same one day. I think it’s so important to have a purpose in this art form, and whatever it is, we all do our part.” Roger Pines , dramaturg of Lyric Opera of Chicago, has appeared annually on the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts’ “Opera Quiz” for the past 12 years and also contributes regularly to opera-related publications and recording companies internationally. He taught a seminar, “The Glory of Great Singing,” last spring at Chicago’s renowned Newberry Library. (Top) During the 2017 season of Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, three Ryan Opera Center alumni appeared in La clemenza di Tito – mezzo-soprano Cecelia Hall, soprano Laura Wilde, and tenor René Barbera. Pictured at OTSL after a Tito performance are (left to right) Ryan Opera Center music director Craig Terry, Hall, Julia Faulkner, Wilde, Barbera, and Ryan Opera Center director Dan Novak. Julia Faulkner in voice lessons with soprano Emily Pogorelc (top) and tenor Eric Ferring (above). The pianist is Celeste Rue.