The Musical

My experience and training have been in the realm of opera, but even as early as my undergraduate schooling I was an active participant in the musical. My favorite roles have been in shows like Brigadoon, Carousel and Once upon a Mattress. I've also enjoyed my share of musical theatre performances and continue to marvel at the richness of the musical theater world.

If someone were to ask me to name the major operas of Rossini, Mozart, Puccini etc...I would be able to rattle off this opera usually sung by this voice type along with whose singing it now at the major opera houses. (Perhaps I am an opera nerd.) But when it comes to musicals I can name a few and have a bit of knowledge about who might be doing what show on Broadway, but overall I am pretty ignorant to the wealth of material.

So it was a (wonderful) surprise when I saw a posting for an open call for "The Color Purple" on one of my opera job websites. I debated for several days whether or not to even go for it as my operatic stylings could seem out of place for a such a gospel-flavored piece, but then I thought back to my training at Capital University where I sang opera, operetta (there is a difference), musical theater, jazz and even a bit of gospel. I remembered that "voice" and went to the audition.

It seems the vocal chameleon gods were with me as I belted a jazzy version of "A Woman is Sometime Thing" from Porgy and Bess. Soon I was being called back to perform a song from the show and to read for one of the major roles. After a full day of waiting, I finally got my chance to shine. The feedback was pretty positive so now I wait. I wait not only for some response,(Oprah, can you put in a good word for me?) But I also wait to see if perhaps the musical theater world is my "calling."

I am currently in a production of the musical "Boy Meets Boy," and will follow that up with a concert version of "Kiss Me, Kate." I would not have thought that I was the right "type" for either role, but am finding it a wonderful challenge to get the audience to look past my "type"( more on that another day) and simply see me as a singing actor.

Perhaps the musical will afford me more options as opposed to opera which can still be a bit limited in its vision of who can sing what based not only the all-important voice type, but also the casting trend of "looking the part." While this is also a large part of the musical theater world, opera singers of color have a difficult time assimilating to the roles of opera characters based on the time, place and situations that surround opera characters. Some companies are becoming more and more adventurous and singers of color are taking on more and more interesting roles that are not just "black" characters.

Whether I land up doing mostly opera or musical theater or some combination of both, I look forward to what I can learn from each experience and how I can become a better performer whether singing a show tune or finessing an opera aria.

Peace,

Eric