“I haven’t counted through the whole opera, but in the aria “Ah! mes amis” there are at least nine high C’s,” says Marcus Shelton nonchalantly. “And two D’s and two C-sharps.”
A former Seattle Opera Young Artist, the tenor has performed with the Greek National Opera and Spain’s Opera Oviedo, and was recently featured in Opera Now magazine’s “What’s Hot” section. Before a Tacoma Opera rehearsal, though, he’s relaxed on a couch, not sounding at all like someone who routinely sings two octaves higher than a speaking voice.
“You wanna do an E?” asks conductor Bernard Kwiram.
“Sure, if it’s there. Sweet!” says Shelton.
In a way, “Daughter of the Regiment” is all about the high notes – and the sweet notes, and the fast notes. Written in 1839 by an Italian keen to succeed in the Paris opera world, it has the spoken dialogue (in English, for this production) and laughs of the comic operas of the time, plus the lyrical bel canto vocal style. Set during the Napoleonic wars, about an orphan girl Marie “adopted” by the French army who falls in love with her Tyrolean rescuer, Tonio, it has about as much to do with war as a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, focusing instead on Marie’s chase after Tonio.
“If there’s a war going on, you wouldn’t know it,” explains TO director Kathryn Smith. “And don’t wait for the plot to make sense. It really is all about the music.”
And, in some ways, all about the tenor. Donizetti, like other composers, would have written his roles around the rock-star tenors (and sopranos) of his day, showing off their talents rather than creating profound musical drama. Today, we’re still in love with tenors: Touring the world are the Three Tenors, the Three Mo’ Tenors, the Three Chinese Tenors, the Three Redneck Tenors and a host of others seizing on the instant success of high-note singing.
So what is it, exactly, with all this tenor-fascination?
It goes back, says Kwiram, to Donizetti’s own day, when tenors went from singing high notes in their head voices (a kind of falsetto – think Bee Gees) to singing them in full voice. “Ever since then,” Kwiram says, “tenors have been stars,” spurred further to recent rock-stardom by Luciano Pavarotti, who himself launched to fame as Donizetti’s Tonio.
And why do we love the guys with the high voices? Maybe because it’s sexy, maybe because it’s a rare talent, maybe because – as Kwiram points out – it’s the voice that takes the most energy to produce, and that energy is exciting to hear. But the real reason, say Kwiram and Shelton, is that we’re waiting to hear the tenor mess it up.
“If a soprano’s high note doesn’t work, it’ll just be out of tune,” says Kwiram. “But if a tenor’s high note doesn’t work, it shatters everything.”
“It’s got that maniacal edge,” adds Shelton. “It could be a train wreck.”
“And it’ll only happen live,” points out Kwiram with a grin. “It’s like a high-wire act, a vocal circus. Will he fall?”
It’s a fair enough reason to see opera live – entertaining, if not profound. But for “Daughter of the Regiment,” ringmaster Kwiram is confident his tenor won’t fall.
“Even if he’s sick, he still hits the high C’s,” he says. “It’s amazing.”
Rosemary Ponnekanti: 253-597-8568
rosemary.ponnekanti@thenewstribune.com
