The Indie Opera Podcast

Arnold Geis is a Los Angeles based tenor and performer for Film, Television, video games, and opera companies around the world and Soprano Chabrelle Williams who is an an avid arts advocate, and three-time District winner of the New York Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Our guests were both performing at the Lincoln Center Theater in Lynn Nottage and Rocky Ian Gordon’s opera, Intimate Apparel, as Mr. Mark’s and alternating as the lead role of Esther, in a production directed by Bartlett Sher, which has been suspended because of the Covid-19 outbreak. this episode is also available on youtube - https://youtu.be/MN5WiKcIhTw

Our guests from Brooklyn-based creative producing company The American Opera Project assumed leadership of this thirty-year old company in July 2019. In addition to curating AOP’s season and overall output, they also provide theatrical and musical dramaturgy to AOP works in development, AOP’s Collaboration with the NYU Opera Lab and the family and schooling that shaped their lives and careers as creative artists.

We listen to selections from "Hu Tong", Kui Dong Composer, Monika Datta Librettist; and "The Veil", Daniel Reza Sabzghabaei, Composer (دانیال رضا سبزقبایی), Yashar Saghai and Mina Salehpour, Co-Librettist.We also question how white opera is, the influence of Flamenco on opera, the Prototype Festival and more.

We sit down for an invigorating discussion with composer Ricky Ian Gordon & soprano Jennifer Zetlan about the chamber opera Ellen West which is receiving it’s NYC premiere as part of Prototype Festival 2020. Jennifer talks about her solo debut album with Ricky, Your Clear Eye and Ricky about their upcoming production of his next opera premiere, Intimate Apparel with Lynn Nottage for a 10 week run at Lincoln Center Theater.

The Indie Opera Podcast sits down for a fascinating conversation with director Louisa Proske and Music Director/Arranger Daniel Schlosberg two of the co-founders of Heartbeat Opera about their contemporary version of Weber’s Der Freischutz.

Indie Opera Podcast's co-hosts welcome Joseph Martin Waters, Dr. Daniel Pate and Rodolfo Giron for a fascinating conversation about the new opera they’ve been developing, El Colibri Magico (The Magic Hummingbird) - A California Story, which is an update of the story of St. Francis set in modern day San Diego and Tijuana that follows three upper middle class So Cal teenagers as they interact with a community of Honduran refugees marooned at the border who have connections to ancient Mayan rituals and secrets.

Guest co-host and soprano Natalie Polito joins us in a conversation with Gregory Spears, who is currently working on a new evening-length opera, Castor and Patience, with former U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy K. Smith, commissioned by Cincinnati Opera.

In part one of Indie Opera Podcast’s coverage of Opera Philadelphia’s 019 Festival, Chuck Sachs talks first with Conductor Gary Thor Wedow, Mezzo-Soprano Daniela Mack and Tenor Alek Shrader about their work as part of Director James Darrah’s production of Handel’s SEMELE. We hear about what makes they keep returning to work at Opera Philadlephia, why they believe that the story of SEMELE is relevant to today’s audiences and how to reconcile duel artistic careers with their marriages. Two solo interviews follow with Tenor Jonathan Johnson and Soprano Wendy Bryn Harmer about their Opera Philadelphia and role debuts in Alessandro Talevi’s new production of THE LOVE FOR THREE ORANGES conducted by Corrado Rovaris. Jonathan shares the wildly complicated and farcical character journey for The Prince and Wendy shares recollections about the training and mentoring she received in three of American Opera’s most prestigious Young Artist programs.

Internationally renowned bel canto tenor Barry Banks and his youthful goal to be a concert trumpet player morphed into his highly successful career in opera. Other topics covered include how to co-parent a 13-month-old while on tour, and mr. Banks' exciting upcoming season including his performance of Truffaldino in The Love for Three Oranges as part of Opera Philadelphia's 019 Festival.

With infectious charm and humor, Victoria Bond shares stories about singing in the NYCO children's chorus, visits from the hoi polloi of the classical music world to her childhood apartment, studying acting at UCLA, being introduced to conducting by Leonard Slatkin, and building an expansive and impressive career despite the institutionalized misogyny and sexism of the music business.