General and Artistic Director.
There is to be no more summer vacation for the Asheville Lyric Opera.
2015 will be the first official year of the group’s season being a year-round calendar model, with summer performances of Rigoletto kicking off at the Brevard Music Center and the Diana Wortham Theatre.
General and Artistic Director David Starkey says the Opera’s goal was always to expand the program, and this summer’s performance was born out of a seed planted two years ago in the form of a summer training program.
“It’s such a highly specialized career and skill set,” said Starkey, who likened the training program to a residency for a doctor at a hospital. “To become a professional singer at the operatic level, you’re doing as much training as any doctor or lawyer: studying five languages, music history, music theory, and learning to play the piano, plus learning material to sing.”
By moving away from the traditional operatic calendar and toward a year-round format, Starkey said the Opera will be able to bring unique projects to area audiences all seasons of the year. He hopes this rigorous program will pay off when the curtain drops for Rigoletto, Giuseppe Verdi’s masterful opera. It’s the Lyric Opera’s first ever operatic collaboration with Brevard Music Center, and Starkey, an alumni of the center, says it will be a one of a kind presentation.
“We’re intermingling artistic forces of both organizations and putting world class people together, which is just phenomenal,” he said.
Starkey explained that the training center is bringing up and coming talent to the performance, and the Lyric Opera is bringing world class performers.
“It’s like mixing the Met roster and the Juliard kids together. It will be a dynamic that people will never have seen before,” he said. “The artistic resources of each company will only be enhanced because we’re able to draw upon each other’s strengths.”
For Rigoletto, Starkey said the opera brings a really eclectic blend of traditional and contemporary styles that will appeal to any audience, from the seasoned opera-goer to first timers.
“This is a piece that challenges both organizations,” he said. “It’s incredibly dramatic and powerful, and it has some of the most beautifully recognizable opera tunes. To take the popularity of it and then to manage the dramatic challenges, not everyone can handle it the way I think we will.”
Starkey said the moment he’s waiting for is the audience reaction upon hearing the singers meld with the orchestra for the first time.
He explained that the most artistically dynamic moment for him is the singer’s first rehearsal with the orchestra. There are two pieces of the score – the instrumental and the vocal – both practiced separately, which are then brought together in one moment.
“These people have never been together doing this, it’s one of a kind,” said Starkey. “I get to have the sneak peak at rehearsal, but I really get excited when the audience is introduced to that never dying magnitude. I’ve already seen and witnessed the impact, and I can’t wait to just give the cue and boom…they go. That enthusiasm is never a lesser moment for me. That moment never dissipates, it just builds.”
If You Go: Rigoletto can been seen at the Brevard Music Center’s Porter Center on June 25 and 27, 2015, and also at the Diana Wortham Theatre in Asheville on July 2 and 5, 2015. Tickets can be purchased online at www.dwtheatre.com or by calling (828) 257-4530.