David Charles Abell: Conductor, Kiss Me, KateOpening night is here and the cast and crew of Kiss Me, Kate prepare for "another opnin' of another show" as this blog post goes up. Here is conductor David Charles Abell's take on the challanges and triumphs that come along with putting on Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate at an opera house:
I conduct both musical theater and opera and I find that it is, fundamentally, the same job. It is simply a question of style. Cole Porter has different stylistic challenges than Handel, who has different stylistic challenges than Wagner, and so on. For this production we’ve brought in seven or eight singers who are based more in musical theater than opera performance, which is exactly right.
It is important to note that there is not always a completely solid dividing line between musical theater and operatic performers. Lisa Vroman [Lilli Vanessi/Kate] sings musical theater, but also performs classical music regularly. Brad [Fred Graham/Petruchio] has a classically trained voice as well and can do anything. In fact, the other day in rehearsal we were working on “I’ve Come to Wive it Wealthily in Padua” and he was singing a high note, a high G, and it sounded great. We did the number again and he brought a completely different sound to it that really surprised me. He came up to me at the break and said, “OK, which version did you like? The opera version or the rock and roll version?” He could do both!
The members of the Young American Artists Program involved in this production, who sing not only in our show but in many of the other productions this summer, are all primarily opera singers, but they have a lot of musical theater in their background. They’re really embracing this style with open arms. I haven’t had to spend time correcting them or stopping them from singing Porter like Puccini. They instinctively know what to do. I really believe that American singers have the musical theater sound in their blood. Musical theater singing is much closer to the way Americans speak than opera is.
It is important to note that there is not always a completely solid dividing line between musical theater and operatic performers. Lisa Vroman [Lilli Vanessi/Kate] sings musical theater, but also performs classical music regularly. Brad [Fred Graham/Petruchio] has a classically trained voice as well and can do anything. In fact, the other day in rehearsal we were working on “I’ve Come to Wive it Wealthily in Padua” and he was singing a high note, a high G, and it sounded great. We did the number again and he brought a completely different sound to it that really surprised me. He came up to me at the break and said, “OK, which version did you like? The opera version or the rock and roll version?” He could do both!
The members of the Young American Artists Program involved in this production, who sing not only in our show but in many of the other productions this summer, are all primarily opera singers, but they have a lot of musical theater in their background. They’re really embracing this style with open arms. I haven’t had to spend time correcting them or stopping them from singing Porter like Puccini. They instinctively know what to do. I really believe that American singers have the musical theater sound in their blood. Musical theater singing is much closer to the way Americans speak than opera is.Photos:
1. David Charles Abell [Conductor, Kiss Me, Kate] leading the Glimmerglass Opera orchestra in rehearsal. Photo credit, Cory Weaver.
2. Brad Little [Fred Graham/Petruchio] and Lisa Vroman [Lilli Vanessi/Kate] in the final dress rehearsal for Kiss Me, Kate. Photo Credit, Cory Weaver.
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