Lyric Opera 2019-2020 Issue 3 Luisa Miller

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 12 Becoming an opera singer takes years of very hard work. So why do it? Ask tenor Eric Ferring: “There’s something very gratifying about singing the way opera singers do. Being able to produce that unamplified sound is like nothing else.” The preparation is endless, the sacrifices enormous, so “you can’t do it unless you’re 1000 percent committed,” adds soprano Emily Pogorelc. “You need to love it, and on the toughest days, you say, ‘I’m going to do it again tomorrow.’” To succeed in opera you need not just a terrific voice, but also a foundation of knowledge and skills that can see you through a high-pressure career. Ferring, Pogorelc, and four other singers are solidifying that foundation as second-year members of The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center, Lyric’s world-renowned artist development program. They’re completing their training under top-flight teachers and coaches, and they’re collaborating in rehearsal and onstage with many of the world’s most celebrated artists. All six second-year Ryan Opera Center singers recently took time to reflect on what brought them here and what they learned in their first year at Lyric. Everyone had particular reasons for applying to the program, whether the varied performance opportunities, the vocal instruction, the coaches, or the connections they could make in the professional world. Ultimately, though, they all wanted what mezzo- soprano Kayleigh Decker describes as “experience that bridges the path from student to artist.” These gifted singers hail from as nearby as Wisconsin and Iowa, and as far away as Puerto Rico, North Dakota, North Carolina, and Maryland. (In recent years Ryan Opera Center members have also hailed from Canada, Mexico, South Africa, Japan, and China.) Advancing from preliminary auditions, they all participated in the Center’s Final Auditions in September 2017 – their most life-changing audition to date. “I was ecstatic to walk onto that stage,” says baritone Ricardo José Rivera. At this early stage of his career, “I never in my wildest dreams thought it would happen.” For Pogorelc, “it was surreal to be standing where so many singers I admire have stood.” Once accepted, the singers joined the program in May 2018 and immediately found themselves in a total-immersion experience: three weeks rehearsing 11 opera scenes, presented for an invited audience, in costume and fully staged. The summer also included intensive language instruction taught by native-speakers – group classes in Italian, French, and German. The language work has been hugely important for bass-baritone David Weigel: By Roger Pines Kayleigh Decker (left) and Emily Pogorelc (right) in Cendrillon , 2018/19. The second-year members of the 2019/20 Ryan Opera Center ensemble. First row, left to right: Kayleigh Decker, Christopher Kenney, Emily Pogorelc. Second row, left to right: Ricardo José Rivera, David Weigel, Eric Ferring. Todd Rosenberg Todd Rosenberg Rising to the occasion How emerging artists at the Ryan Opera Center prepare for their careers