Interviews and Conversations

William: I had the opportunity in Santa Fe to conduct an interview with Elza van den Heever, at whose San Francisco Opera stage debut I was present in June 2007, and who was Santa Fe’s Donna Anna in this summer’s presentation of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”. With virtually all artists I interview, we discuss various milestones … Read more

Wm: Last year, you were in Santa Fe for the new production of Britten’s “Billy Budd”? What was it like working with Paul Curran the production designer-director and that cast? LM: It was a truly great experience. Curran is an awesome director. Not only did I play the role of Donald, but I covered Teddy … Read more

Wm: What life experiences did you have before you became an opera singer? LM: My first job was at age 15, in swimming pool construction, but  I always sang in church and in the house. I grew up in the tiny town of Carthage in South Central North Carolina, where there are no inter-urban freeways. … Read more

[Wm: This is the second part of my interview with Ian Campbell, the General and Artistic Director of the San Diego Opera, and the stage director of a new production of Massenet’s “Don Quixote (Don Quichotte).] Wm: I understand that you became friends with Luciano Pavarotti in Australia in the 1960s. IC: Yes, it was in … Read more

[Note from William: Continuing my interviews with persons involved in producting live operatic performances, we begin a two-part series with Ian Campbell, General and Artistic Director of the San Diego Opera.] [Photo: San Diego Opera’s Ian Campbell; edited image of a photograph, courtesy of San Diego Opera.] Wm: You commissioned and are personally directing a … Read more

As a reviewer of substantial numbers of operatic performances, one comes to appreciate that a truly successful performance requires much more than good singing by the singers in the lead roles. Often, a good performance becomes a great one when the opera’s storyline is enhanced by the strong dramatic presence of singing actors in “supporting” … Read more

In June 2008 Clifford (Kip) Cranna, Ph.D., San Francisco Opera’s Director of Music Administration, became the 35th person to be awarded the San Francisco Opera Medal, an honor created 38 years ago.  It was the first medal to be awarded since 2005, and thus the first of General Director David Gockley’s tenure. (A few days … Read more

Note from William: I recently traveled to Pittsburgh for opening night of the 2008-09 Pittsburgh Opera season, featuring the role debut of Stephanie Blythe in Saint-Saens’ “Samson et Dalila”. This provided an opportunity to interview the newly appointed general director of the Pittsburgh Opera, Christopher Hahn. [Below: Christopher Hahn, photograph courtesy of Pittsburgh Opera.] Wm: … Read more

In December 2007, joining members of my family and my Opera Warhorses colleague, Tom, I attended one of the annual Christmastide Bracebridge Dinners at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park.  As it turned out,  several of the San Francisco Opera choristers were spending the latter half of December in Yosemite, as performers for the … Read more

Last October, I was impressed by the insightful conducting of Pittsburgh Opera’s musical director, Antony Walker, whose work complemented the extraordinary Moffatt Oxenbould production of Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” from Opera Australia. Having returned to the Pittsburgh to review its mounting of Bellini’s “I Capuleti e i Montecchi”, also to be conducted by Walker, I had … Read more

The following conversation. discussing the new “operawarhorses.com” website took place between myself and Peter V. Lee, MD of the University of Southern California. November, 2005 PVL: “Bill, It’s a great start. . . .  Did you realize that “warhorse” in this sense [an often-performed opera] was first used only in 1947, by Alfred Einstein, in Music … Read more