Opera‘s Greatest Hits

Sept. 21, 2005

If conductor Kevin Rhodes seems more fired up than usual about the opening concert of the Traverse Symphony Orchestra (TSO), it could be because he spent two months in Europe this summer on a tour that included making his conducting debut with the Paris Opera in Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet.
That has a special significance because the TSO is kicking off its fall season with a gala Night at the Opera, to be held at 8 p.m. Saturday, September 24 and 3 p.m. Sunday the 25th at Corson Auditorium in Interlochen.
“I want it to be like Oscar Night, a real event,” Rhodes said in a TSO release. “The audience will be in for some special surprises from the moment they step out of their cars.”
For Northern Michigan, the event is the equivalent of an all-star smash with some of the best singers in the state participating. Performing select works from some of the world’s greatest operas will be sopranos Nicole Philibosian, Kimberley Dolanski and Colleen Papa; mezzo-sopranos Jayne Sleder and Emily Austreng; tenors Eric Ashcraft and John Bragle; and baritone Jeffery Norris, as well as the NMC Chorale and Traverse Symphony Chorus.
And those singers will be drawing upon the vocal heights of Carmen, La Boheme, Turandot, Lakme, Rigoletto, Don Giovanni, Prince Igor, Tales of Hoffman, The Magic Flute, The Elixir of Love, Tannhauser, La Forza del Destino, Un Ballo in maschera, Die Fledermaus, Madame Butterfly, Il Trovatore, Barber of Seville and Samson & Delilah.
“I’m really looking to bringing this great music of the opera house, with which I have lived for years, to the audiences in TC,” says Rhodes. “It was this music that originally made me want to become a conductor. I knew I couldn’t sing it and I didn’t play a standard orchestral instrument, so conducting was all that was left.”
TWO AUDIENCES
Concertgoers can expect to hear voices as refined as those America has to offer, says TSO Executive Director Andy Buelow.
“Most of the time we stick with people from Michigan for the soloists,” he says. “We haven’t found that people from outside the state sing any better than our own soloists.”
There is tremendous pressure on the soloists however; performing a single number on a stage stripped of opera’s lavish props, costumes and sets makes for an especially keen experience.
The operatic show straddles a mix of classical and pops concerts that are drawing listeners from a variety of backgrounds to TSO events.
“We’re not purists,” Buelow says. “Right now, if you include our ‘Home for the Holidays’ show in the pops genre and one other pops show we do per year, it’s a nice balance with the symphony’s classical side. I’d like to see us eventually add another pops concert to our schedule; I think there’s a market for that here.
“In other communities you find that the pops concerts are very distinctive from the classical events,” he adds. “They draw two separate audiences that are completely separate in their interests.”

TSO ON THE GROW
Buelow came here four years ago from Wisconsin where he was director of public relations for the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Since then, he’s spent much of his time upgrading TSO productions along with working to get more funds for performers and rehearsals.
“The TSO has grown a lot in four years,” he notes. “Back then our budget was just under $500,000 and now it’s just under $800,000 per year.”
Symphonies need heavy funding not just to pay for performances, but also for rehearsals, Buelow says.
“When I first came here, musicians were paid a stipend for their work,” he notes. “But the problem with that was it didn’t allow us to get musicians from beyond our local area. We used to rehearse six times before a concert but maybe for the first three rehearsals you’d have half a string section.
“We wanted to grow an ensemble and you can’t really grow if the conductor’s working with half an ensemble,” he adds.
With orchestras such as Flint paying their musicians twice as much as the TSO, Buelow put extra effort into fundraising to raise the quality of the symphony and local performances.
“Now, we’re getting performers from as far away as Kalamazoo,” he says. “The performers still aren’t making a lot of money -- most have regular jobs in addition to performing -- but they’re driving up four or five hours to play here and are receiving a reasonable per-service rates for rehearsals and concerts.”

TRAVELING CONDUCTOR
Even conductor Rhodes is a traveller: he’s in the region an average of two weeks of every month, working with the 30 core members of the TSO along with extras from outside the region.
When he’s not in town, chances are you’ll find Rhodes waving a wand before his other orchestra, the Springfield Symphony in Massachusetts, or on the road, as in his recent tour of Europe.
Less than 12 hours after the final note of his season in Springfield this spring, Rhodes was on his way to Vienna to lead the State Opera Orchestra in Romeo and Juliet. On June 7, he arrived in Paris to begin rehearsals for the same opera with choreography by the famed Rudolph Nureyev.
This marked Rhodes’ first time conducting in Paris, one of the principal centers of western art music since the late 19th century. The cast for the ballet included the star dancers of the Paris Ballet, and the notoriously difficult Paris Ballet Orchestra, not to mention the also tough Parisienne audience, one of the most discerning and blunt in the world. These are the descendants of those who rioted and threw vegetables at the premiere of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring in 1913.

RARE GESTURE
“Before opening night, Kevin warned us not to be surprised by anything,” said mother-in-law Phyllis Young. “In Paris, if they don’t like you, they boo.”
But the Parisienne audience, orchestra, and dancers were delighted with Rhodes’ work, giving him a standing ovation on his first night. When he stepped onto the podium for the second performance, the orchestra applauded him with hands and feet, an extremely rare gesture of approval. As a result, Rhodes has been re-engaged as a regular conductor of the Paris Opera; he will conduct two productions annually there, beginning with the 2006-2007 season.
And of course, he will continue his work with the TSO and Springfield Symphony.
“I found them to be delightful and pleasant to work with,” recalls Rhodes, “not to mention extremely engaged in making the performance as exciting as possible each and every time. I’m looking forward to going back.”
He’s also looking forward to channeling some of that European energy into the TSO’s first big show for the season -- a greatest hits of opera that will be simply dripping with musical passion.
-- Robert Downes contributed to this story.