HISTORY | MISSION | DAVID SPEERS
- GENERAL DIRECTOR
MAESTRO DANIEL LIPTON | OPERA ONTARIO CHORUS
BOARD OF DIRECTORS |
COMPANY REPERTOIRE
From: Ken Watson[Back]
1) My Audition
A friend introduced me into the Canadian Orpheus Male Choir in 1985. I was delighted to find a whole section who could sing notes as low as I could, especially my seatmate, Martin Zimber. Every few months, he disappeared for several weeks and when he returned I asked where he’d been, thinking he might have been ill, or on a changed shift. “No”, he replied, “I’ve been singing with the Opera Chorus. You’ve got a good voice, why don’t you try out?” “What do you have to do?” I queried. “ Just audition” he replied. “AUDITION!!! I don’t know any Opera”. “You sing in the Church don’t you? Just take a hymn”. And so on the appointed day, I did.
The audition was held in the Sanctuary of Centenary United. Off in the gloom was Daniel Lipton and Peter Oleskevich. I gave my hymn book to the pianist who took it with a raised eyebrow and launched into an intro. I finished 2 verses and was drawing breath for the next when a voice from the darkness called out “No Mr. Watson. We don’t need to hear the third verse. Thank-you”. I think I crawled out through the pile of the carpet. What a fool I’d made of myself!
But a couple weeks later, Peter called and asked me to join the Chorus and take advantage of the Development Program that was just being launched. I did. The Company owns half my soul for the faith and encouragement it showed me then and it hasn’t stopped doing so since. I’ve enjoyed participating in over 40 productions to date and count it a blessing to have had that chance.
2) A life long dream realized
When I was a teenager, I was not very socially inclined. I got along better with adults and because of that picked up a love of Opera. Milton Cross on a Sunday Morning broadcast of highlights and of course Saturday afternoon at the Opera were weekly fare. The first record I bought with my own money from my paper route, was “La Boheme”, and I wore it out, but never told any of my friends about it.
Fast forward 40 years and I’m selected to be in the Chorus for a production of “La Boheme” in 1995. For the first 3 music rehearsals, I could hardly see the music for the tears in my eyes. In my life, I had never dreamed that a chance to actually perform it, would happen to me. The dream of a child came true for an adult who never lost the hope, and I could hardly believe my good fortune.
3) & 4) Thank you notes
Performing in an Opera is such a powerful experience for me that it is hard to describe it. I’m lifted to levels I never thought I could reach. A lot of the credit for that goes to the many superlative principals who show care and kindness to help us in the Chorus as we struggle to do our job well. Every time one of them has shown me something special, I try to write a note to say thank-you for what their efforts have done especially for me. It probably wasn’t part of their contract to do that, and they likely wouldn’t know what they did for me without my saying, but it is important to me to say my thanks.
On one night, we were leaving the rehearsal hall, when one of the leads stopped me at the door and asked if I remembered her. I said that I did as I recalled that she’d been with us in a previous production a year or so before. She reached into her purse and withdrew a tattered piece of paper, fold fatigued and grimy with finger prints. It was my thank-you to her for the previous production! She held it out saying what it was and said she’d long wanted to say thanks for it. I was stunned! I couldn’t say anything. That I could do something that memorable for a person whose voice was a source of inspiration to me was something I never expected.
In another production, I sent a letter of thanks to the Diva on Opening Night. At the next performance, she came looking for me. At that particular moment, I was in the middle of a quick change on Stage Right, in the vestibule outside the Principals Dressing Room. When she had a moment’s break, the Diva asked one of the offstage helpers where I might be and that helper knew . The Diva opened the door behind me just as I had taken off my first costume and was standing there in my underwear. Surprised she stammer her thanks for the letter, and I replied that I usually didn’t receive principals in this state of undress. She smiled, I scrambled into my new costume and was ready for my next entry, with just a bit lighter step than before.
5) Backstage Breakdown
For the production of “ La Cenerentola”, the 24 members of the Men’s Chorus had to enter onto a high level deck about 10’ above the stage. Twelve marched up a staircase on each end of the deck to be onstage in time. On the night in question, everyone was in position ready for entry when the support for one side of the staircase on Stage Left suddenly broke with a loud snap. We all grabbed the “uphill” railing and to whispered urging, carefully backed down and ran around behind and burst up the other staircase behind that group, arriving a bit breathless but on time to sing. We caught a puzzled look from Maestro Lipton, but we never missed a beat.
6) Joke and Justitzia
Maestro Lipton is not easily surprised but on one occasion he was, by a tenor who takes pleasure in practical jokes. His first entry was supposed to be down stage Right. At the appropriate moment during the Rehearsal, Daniel glanced up from the orchestra and he wasn’t there but right on cue, his voice boomed from the stage left wings. Aware that a variation might be tried on Dress Rehearsal, Daniel looked up a moment early at that point and scanned the stage. No tenor. But we could see him tiptoeing across the house in the first row of seats just out of Daniel’s field of view. The tenor was standing right behind Daniel when the entry came and the tenor blasted forth in full voice. We on stage, were treated to the only time I remember seeing Daniel’s eyebrows hit his hairline. Daniel made the tenor repeat his opening number a couple times in front of the curtain at the break, just so there was no doubt about how things should go.
7) Superstitions
Whistling back stage is a definite no-no for reasons which vary depending on who you ask. But there is another superstition about how the opening night will go and it relates to what happens at the Dress Rehearsal. Perfect Dress guarantees a terrible opening so the superstition goes. Imagine the Maestro’s anxiety in our production of Norma when the Dress was flawless up to the break. As Daniel got a coffee, you could see the anxiety lines and hear it in his voice as he talked to the Chorus Master. I got the two others who stood with me DownStage Left and we all agreed on a strategy for relieving the Maestro’s apprehension. When we were to enter, we boomed out our lines one bar late. Things came to a crashing stop, we backed up and came at our entry again, guided by a much more relaxed conductor.
8) Fill the space
During the 3 weeks of staging rehearsals for Romeo and Juliet, our director gave the Chorus probably a year’s course in acting which will live long in our memory. It was truly liberating and inspiring to be under his direction. The guiding principal was to never be intimidated by the space of the stage. Our job was to ‘Fill It Up’. When you go our there, create a character whose presence blooms and bounces off that of your neighbours was what he urged. It is a wonderful life lesson.
[Back]
© Copyright Opera Ontario 2006 All Rights Reserved