Lyric Opera 2023-2024 Issue 2 - Audra McDonald/Gala

think about the type of audience that will be there, and what might appeal to them, but first and foremost, what will appeal to us . Andy Einhorn is your longtime musical partner. Our work is 100 percent collaborative. He’s a brilliant conductor, arranger, pianist—and he’s got a fantastic singing voice. He’s a friend. I really am very fortunate to have had this relationship with him for so long. He knows my voice inside and out, so not only is he up there conducting and playing, and behind the scenes arranging the music—he also coaches me through each of the tunes. I could not do this without him. Are there any living composers whose work connects strongly with you? I find that the subject matter Adam Guettel writes about is very accessible for me. I always think of him as a Poulenc or Debussy or Fauré; in its beauty and complexity, Guettel’s music makes me feel the same way those composers do. There’s a rawness with Michael John LaChiusa’s music that I respond to. Ricky Ian Gordon’s music lives more on the classical side, but the way it flows and soars! Do you also champion songs by women composers? Yes. For instance there is a brilliant singer/songwriter, Kate Miller-Heidke. She’s Australian and a soprano—she’s written some wonderful stuff. After you’ve performed a song for a period of time, do you ever start to hear things in it that you hadn’t before? That happens with maturation. With life experience. There are certain songs in my concert right now, including a song I knew as a child. It’s a children’s song that has taken on a whole new meaning for me. The way I sang it as a kid versus the way I approach it as an adult—what comes up for me emotionally is completely different. Can you share the name of the song? “It’s Not Easy Being Green” [by Joe Raposo, written for Sesame Street ]. You probably have countless admirers who hope every concert will include highlights from your musical theater roles. Is it important to you to include that repertoire? It’s not a big priority in my programs. In fact, I rarely do songs from my roles. I do sing “Summertime,” and every once in a while I’ll bring out “Mr. Snow” [from Carousel ]. With Lady Day , that would mean my having to approximate Billie Holiday’s voice, which feels odd to do in a concert setting. I have a few albums out, and sometimes people have favorites from those albums, and those I tend to include. The audience is of course hugely important in your concerts. What do you get from them that you don’t get from a Broadway audience? There’s no fourth wall in a concert setting. That’s the biggest thing: I can acknowledge that they’re there! Two shows on Broadway— Lady Day and Ohio State Murders— are the only times where my character addressed the audience. That’s the biggest difference with concerts— I am singing to them. Do you speak to the audience as well? I have ideas that I talk about between songs. It’s not scripted, and it changes from city to city. I’m not shy about telling the audience what it was like to get to that city. When I did a concert in the Grand Tetons, we got onstage, did our first number, and then it was, “We weren’t sure about getting here. What’s up with the bumpy weather?” I want the audience to feel like they’re in my living room and we’re going to have an evening together. “An Evening with Audra McDonald”—I take that quite literally. We’re going to share. There’s going to be a communion between me, the musicians, and the audience. I want them to have a more intimate knowledge of who I am. Lyric Opera of Chicago | 14 Autumn de Wilde