A Unique New Voice: Michael Maniaci

Male soprano Michael Maniaci has been acclaimed throughout the world for his otherworldly voice. He has sung on many American stages, as well as in Europe. This season, he plays Orphée in Glimmerglass' production of Orphée et Eurydice, a beautiful production populated with extraordinary voices. However, this extraordinary voice has an unusual story. Through a lucky coincidence, Michael's voice never changed.
"My larynx is smaller. My cords didn't lengthen and thicken as much as they could have, but they did fully develop, in that I don't sound like a boy when I go to sing," he said. "I haven't encountered any other men who had the experience that I did--where developmentally, this just naturally happened. I've met with and performed with some falsettists that sing in a soprano range, but I've not encountered professionally anyone else."

Although he was originally drawn to musical theatre, Maniaci realized that there were more roles for him in the world of opera. Indeed, he is one of the few male sopranos singing opera today.
"Actually there are plenty of roles. People sometimes assume quickly that it would be quite limiting, when instead it's the exact opposite. At the end of the day most people will end up narrowing their focus to about a half a dozen to ten roles. There's certainly plenty for me within early Mozart operas or the whole Handel canon."

Music from the Baroque and Classical Eras suits Michael well. During that period, many roles for men were written for the castrati, who sang in a range only approached today by countertenors and mezzo-sopranos. Michael's unchanged male soprano voice makes him perfect for opera characters that are usually considered pants roles.
"I'm fortunate in many many ways, particularly in terms of timing. If there weren't this big Baroque revival going on right now, I wouldn't be having the opportunities that I'm having. There seems to be a real interest on the part of companies and audiences in reviving these works. I've fallen in love with Baroque music; the simplicity, the beauty, the classiness, and also the way that emotion is dealt with in that period is so similar to how we deal with it today. That's why I think it resonates with emotional situations that we still have today--hundreds of years later."

Maniaci believes this is especially true with the Gluck.
"The piece goes in and out of these brilliant juxtapositions. You start the show with this beautiful glorious overture. If you don't know the piece and you come to this opera, you think you're in for a night of grand comic opera. And suddenly it becomes this unbelievably subtle, soft thing. It's transformed into melodie. In the first act, when the chorus is gone and I'm let on stage alone for that huge chunk of time, for me that's just like singing any French melodie. It asks for very quiet static quality, but the text is alive and the music is alive. Then you go from that into a religious hearkening back to Bach and then a pre-Mozartian bravura aria. It's amazing. The piece goes through all of these peaks and valleys--it's wild."

As much as Maniaci has enjoyed performing Gluck's masterpiece, he has also enjoyed the audience's reaction to his unique voice.
"There hasn't been any stopgap with the audience. People say,'oh, this is so weird because you're not a countertenor and you don't sound like a woman--you're just this other weird thing.' Thank God it's been an asset. At the same time, I feel a tremendous amount of responsibility and frankly, pressure. I don't ever want to be successful because I'm weird. Wherever my career continues to go, I want it to be because my talents, my artistry, my musicianship, my vocalism warrants it. There's an enormous responsibility on my shoulders to make sure that I continue working my tail off to keep hashing away at those things."

Putting it Together: The Tech Rehearsal

Glimmerglass productions get seven onstage tech rehearsals prior to dress rehearsals with piano and orchestra. Often, this means they hit the stage while still finalizing choreography and staging, and before all costumes and set elements are completed. This schedule gives the creative team a chance to see all of the elements together, which means if things need to change, there are still two weeks to fix them. This week it's Offenbach and Gluck on stage.

Gluck chorus member and Music Intern Dan Richards was surprised that adding technical elements made such a large difference in the way the show was performed. "Before we went to tech rehearsal, we ran the show at the rehearsal venue and it really felt like it was ready to be performed, but then we got into the space and we had to make the performance fit into that space," he said. "The artistic team tried some new ideas. Adding the set, lighting, and costume made everything come together, to feel more like a whole."

Both shows open the first weekend in July, so rehearsal time is crucial for everyone, both on-stage and off, to perfect their parts. The cast, stage and lighting crew, and creative team are in rehearsals six hours a day. Meanwhile, the other crews are still working away on props, costumes, and set pieces.

During tech rehearsals, many costumes are finished. However, there are some not quite finished and some that need to change. "It's all about being flexible--it's just adding and changing every time. Sometimes we have to make adjustments on stage, so the designers can see what it looks like," Shelby Newport, Assistant Wardrobe Supervisor, said.

One thing is for certain--everyone's busy preparing what looks to be an exciting season!

Opera Extras in CCAL seminars

While the staff at Glimmerglass Opera is hard at work preparing each opera production, they are also whetting the appetites of operaphiles and neophytes alike with a variety of related events. The company holds seminars during the year about the operas, but for those who enroll in Cooperstown's Center for Continuing Adult Learning (CCAL) Opera at Glimmerglass course, the company offers a seminar on each of the four operas of the season. Participants hear talks about producing the operas and excerpts from the operas sung by members of the Young American Artists Program.

Last week, the group met John Conklin, set designer of the Gluck, and Kelley Rourke, titles guru and lyricist of the Offenbach. Conklin took them on an in-depth journey through the process of building a set for an opera, showing set models, costume designs, and his own sketches used to plan the set.

He discussed the initial conception of the show's design. "Always the question is 'is the Gluck an 18th-century opera?' Yes, it was written in the 18th century, but it's being seen with modern sensibilities, so in that sense one doesn't want to make it a historical, archeological object. We want to make it vivid and human, but still reflecting some of the ideas of the 18th-century world."

Rourke treated the audience to her take on translating and writing English lyrics for operas. The Offenbach, originally written in French, has undergone many translations, but Rourke created an original one for Glimmerglass to use this season.

"I'm careful about the word 'translate.' It is step one—the translation is one part, but it's not a direct translation of what is going on in the libretto." Rourke tries to stay as true to the libretto as possible, but sometimes the language is convoluted and wouldn't make sense in English. As an example, Rourke cited a line in the Gluck where Amour literally asks Orpheus in French, 'What do we owe you?' "I don't think it's actually true to the intent of the librettist," Rourke said.

After hearing excerpts from the opera, participants go to a production seminar, which is also attended by the staff and guild of the company. Here, the creative team for each of the operas meet and discuss their choices in producing the opera. Friday's rather lively discussion about Offenbach featured Kelley Rourke, Director Eric Einhorn, Set Designer Allen Moyer, Costume Designer Gabriel Berry, Lighting Designer Shawn K. Kaufman, and surprise guest Production Manager Matthew Kirby-Smith. Discussion topics ranged from Offenbach's off-the-wall plot, to the concept behind each set location (Olympus, Earth, and the Underworld), to creating crazy hell costumes.

Berry explained, "Luckily, I got the 'Orpheus goes to France.’ I mean, going in your underwear is fun, going to the underworld is better, going to France in your underwear to the underworld—that's best of all. I had a few mandates from the company and from [director] Eric, and one of them is that we're in the 19th century. I'm like 'great', because that's corsets and hoop skirts." Berry's designs are definitely not strait-laced Victorian, though, warned her audience to be prepared for "cleavage and the occasional studded leather garment."

"What I wanted to talk about with this particular team is pushing the envelope, because I think that that is the quintessential point of this show, whether it is scenery or lighting or costumes,” said Kirby-Smith, who pointed out the sheer size of such a spectacular and grandiose production, especially "the automated moving instruments that we have, the sheer number of costumes, and the thousands and thousands of pounds of scenery that somehow goes up and down."

For more information about CCAL, click here.
For more information about Glimmerglass events, click here.

Gluck Discussion Panel

What does it take to put on an opera? What sort of research is done? Over 150 people were asking themselves the same questions today at noon, when the first of 4 panel discussions were held in Alice Busch Opera Theater (ABOT). At the helm were seven members of the production team for Berlioz’ edition of Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice, all integral components of the planning, rehearsal, and performance stages of a performance. The panel included, from left to right, Kelley Rourke (Dramaturgy/Projected Titles), who moderated the discussion, Lillian Groag (Director), Nicola Bowie (Choreographer), Julian Wachner (Conductor), Robert Wierzel (Lighting), Constance Hoffman (Costumes), and John Conklin(Set).

In planning the production, Director Lillian Groag focused on not just the story of a man, but the story of how a community deals with death—in this case, a community in the 18th century. An understanding of Gluck’s cultural context helps explain the alterations he made from the original myth, mainly, that Eurydice is resurrected a second time. As a German Lutheran, Gluck's belief in redemption would have been a central tenet of his faith. Resurrection and rebirth is a central theme in Christian literature, from the raising of Lazarus to the resurrection of Jesus. Gluck was also living at the crux of the Enlightenment, a time when human invention and intelligence were held to the highest standard. “To send the audience home depressed would be a highly illogical decision,” quipped Groag; rationality had to prevail, as was the style of the time.

Conductor Julian Wachner said that cultural surroundings played a significant role in the music as well; Gluck was working right in between the Baroque and Classical periods. Wachner called the piece “a watershed event [in that] musical expression could be connected to everyday life”. This opera unfolds in real time, meaning a character does not have a six minute aria to portray one emotion. They only have as much time as we do—sometimes mere seconds—to show the world what they are feeling. Wachner also touched on which aspects of the show were altered by composer Hector Berlioz. Keeping the libretto in French, Berlioz reworked the piece less than one might presume. He did, however, create an orchestration that substituted modern instruments for those no long longer in existence, with careful attention to creating a more Baroque sound. He also transposed the role of Orpheus, which already existed in versions for castrato and haut-contre, to a mezzo-soprano. This, of course, required a few key changes. Wachner confessed that he, along with the whole production team, has been “swimming in the love of the music”.

Choreographer Nicola Bowie brings movement in all forms into both earth and the underworld. Although Bowie worked closely with all members of the cast, it was Trey Gillen and Katarzyna Skarpetowska who were a large part of her focus in the rehearsal process. Trained at The Julliard School, both dancers play the roles of instigators, guides, storytellers, as well as a constant reminder of death and its presence in our lives. Their transformation scene by scene, as well as that of the chorus, is overwhelmingly impressive and like a good lighting plot or set design, instantly pulls the audience into the moment.

Since this production just started rehearsing in the theatre this week (their rehearsal space up until now has been off campus), many elements of production including sets, costumes, and lighting were only recently added. This panel discussion allowed the designers to shed some light on their individual and collective inspiration. John Conklin, who designed the set, rooted his inspiration in the spirit of the 18th century, and, like Groag, wanted to connect the audience to the urgency and universality of the story. Conklin tapped into the work of two period artists, Francisco Goya (1746- 1828) and Giovanni Piranesi (1720-1778). In these artists’ depictions, Rome’s fall had left behind countless grandiose ruins and fallen architecture. The people of the time used what they could, by taking pieces and using them as building materials, or squatting in the rooms of crumbling palaces. Conklin used this theme of “melancholy in lost grandeur of a classical world” and allowed his set a pastoral element while still remaining aware of the outside world and its influences.

Costume designer Constance Hoffman was also drawn to Goya; her goal was to make sure the person wearing the costume was the focus and not the other way around. Simple, breathable clothes made from modest materials like linen and cotton allow the singers to portray different characters over the course of the opera.

Light designer Robert Wierzel focused on creating a singular mood for each scene. The lights give the audience an instant hint to the scene they are about to walk, writhe, or dance into. Wierzel also added that one of the advantages of working at the Glimmerglass Opera is having the time to experiment in the space through the whole summer. And considering that Gluck opens in two weeks, it is incredible to think that the performers and designers already have a chance to put the piece together on stage.

Insider Rehearsal Report: Gluck Staging, Week 2

Demons, a tragic accident, a trip to hell and an enduring romance. No, it’s not Hollywood’s latest blockbuster. It’s Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice.

The second week of rehearsals is well underway and the exciting story is coming to life, guided by director Lillian Groag’s artistic vision.

With only three days left until the first rehearsal on Glimmerglass’s Alice Busch Opera Theatre, the schedule is becoming increasingly intense. Actors must be available all day for music rehearsals, costume fittings, and stagings. Staging rehearsals take place in a school gymnasium, creating an interesting juxtaposition of the school’s wrestling mats and pieces of the real opera set—in this case, large broken chunks of Greek architecture. Groag, choreographer Nicola Bowie, and conductor Julian Wachner share responsibility for running rehearsals, dictating new blocking and movement, correcting old staging, and polishing the music, both for expression and accuracy. When it’s rehearsal time, singers often rehearse in front of as many as 10 staffers—the director and assistant director, choreographer, stage manager and assistants, conductor and assistant conductor, chorus master, rehearsal pianist, and various production staffers. Fortunately, these singers are used to performing in front of an audience.

Stagings this week are all about what works and what doesn’t. Coming up with creative, believable staging is all about experimentation. Groag often allows her leads, Michael Maniaci (Orphée) and Amanda Pabyan (Eurydice), great freedom in their blocking, letting them determine how best to physically express their character and tweaking where she sees fit. Other times she has very specific ideas of what she wants from them, even giving exact measure numbers when blocking is to occur. Still other times, she decides to wait until the staging rehearsal to see how things look on the big stage.

With an opening on July 8th, the cast is well on their way, but a number of elements still need to be added to this dramatic production—set, lighting, titles, costumes, orchestra, and of course, the audience!

To see more photos from Gluck rehearsals, click here.

To visit the Glimmerglass website with ticket information and more, click here.

A Work in Progress

It's about a month before the first production and already Glimmerglass is bustling with activity, off-site as well as on-site. Glimmerglass employs over 300 people in the summer and all are vital to the success of the season. During the season, designers, directors, stage managers, builders, administrators, marketers, costumers, conductors, and interns of all ilks descend on the Alice Busch Opera Theater and work furiously to bring their individual efforts into one cohesive piece of artistry.

Set building is well underway. The production crew saws and welds away in the scene shop, but often share the stage with the lighting crew, who must hoist approximately 300 lights over the stage of Alice Busch Opera Theater. The set is not merely built on stage, though. Smaller set pieces and props must be constructed, painted, and polished to be ready for opening night.

The costume shop is busy constructing and fitting costumes for four different productions. The racks overflow with over 200 costumes for the summer season.

The 29 members of Glimmerglass’s prestigious Young American Artist Program are busy as well. Several members have lead roles in the summer’s productions, but all are participating in smaller roles or chorus responsibilities. They also have to prepare for masterclasses, on-site auditions, and recitals.

Rehearsals began last week for Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice and Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld. The singers came with their music already memorized (“off-book”), so the directors, choreographers, and conductors started work almost immediately on staging the opera. Singers rehearse daily in preparation for the opening night in three weeks.

While most of the staffers’ efforts revolve around the current season operas, plans are already in the works for next season. This week the director of Glimmerglass’s much-anticipated North American premiere of Wagner’s Das Liebesverbot, Nic Muni, toured the facility in order to explore the space in which he will stage the production.

It looks to be an exciting summer all around. For more info, please visit the Glimmerglass website, keep checking back here, or add us to your feed.