07/22/16 PORTopera - Caroline Koelker and Maestro Stephen Lord
Posted by Erik Jorgensen
(Photo: Caroline Koelker and Maestro Stephen Lord representing PORTopera and President Laura Young)
Russ Burleigh, who was there at the genesis of PORTopera, introduced our guests today: PORT’s managing director Caroline Koelker, who was joined by Maestro Stephen Lord, the company’s conductor, to discuss our own grand opera company’s activities in greater Portland this summer. PORTopera has just completed three performances of Carlo Menotti’s 'The Medium,' and will be mounting this year’s mainstage performance, of Bizet’s 'Carmen,' at Merrill Auditorium later this week.
Mr. Lord talked about why opera matters and how it’s done. He recounted the story of his family’s first stereo from 1958. He told us how Enrico Caruso’s scratchy voice “grabbed him viscerally,” and how he’s been grabbed ever since. Today’s Grammy winners, he suggested, have failed to match the “physicality” of opera, which he described as “a metaphor for the world; one where disbelief is suspended.” He challenged us, as parents and grandparents, to play “good music” for our children.
He spoke of the thrill of conducting, being “inside the stereo speaker,” a place that allows you to connect with the inspiration of the composer. He noted that it’s the only place where “a guy can dance and sweat with the oldies and still be moved to tears.” He spoke of the role of solitude in his work, and of the rigors of life on the road.
He commented on the artistic challenges particular to his art form. When they are doing live unamplified music, he noted, performers need to be extraordinary. He pointed out that “97% of opera singers are unemployed on any given day” and that in many cases a director is choosing just 30 out of 1500 applicants for a role, so it is a difficult job involving lots of travel, long hours and unpredictable compensation. Most opera singers now have to go to Europe to find steady work, he said.
He pointed out that opera brings management challenges equal to its artistic ones. Ticket sales barely provide a third of the cost of an opera production – the rest comes through contributions, grants, etc. He also noted the rare nature of the Merrill Auditorium as a top notch acoustical experience. That it is owned by the city is even more unusual, and he commended Portland for investing in it.
We’re grateful that PORTopera has such capable artistic and managerial direction, and that the company is willing to assume these risks, as it has each summer for the past two decades. Their production of “Carmen” still has some tickets available, and will be occurring on Wednesday and Friday. Tickets start at around $40. For more information/tickets, go to: www.portopera.org/