Tweet
MEMPHIS' GIFT TO OPERA, ESPERIAN, TO SING 'TOSCA'
Michael Huebner
Birmingham News
March 2, 2008 Sunday
Alabama
Early in her career, Kallen Esperian was hired by La Scala, the
Italian opera house renowned as much for its scandals as its singing,
for Giuseppe Verdi's "Luisa Miller." She was under contract to be
soprano Katia Ricciarelli's understudy when, on opening night, one of
La Scala's infamous brouhahas erupted. It gave the diva from Memphis
more than she bargained for.
"I had never been in La Scala before," she reflected last week at a
downtown Birmingham coffee shop. "I was sitting in the box watching.
(Ricciarelli) wasn't feeling well, and things weren't going so well."
The "loggioinisti," the band of mercenary opera fanatics who inhabit
the upper reaches of La Scala, began booing Ricciarelli. The conductor
stopped and tried to start again. The soprano stopped, reportedly
shouting, "May God's curse strike you all!" and left the stage.
"My immediate reaction was to cry," Esperian said. "I had never
witnessed anything like that in a theater. I'm thinking, 'I'm going
to get a call."'
She did, of course, and with the privilege came the opportunity of
facing the loggionisti head on.
"It was scary," she said. "Every time I tried to vocalize, I would
start crying."
Ricciarelli's husband, Pippo Baudo, later got in a fist fight with
one loggionista, a Web site has since reported. Newspapers had a field
day. Esperian's performance was a huge success. She was showered with
gifts and received 17 curtain calls. It was much better treatment
than stars such as Renee Fleming and Roberto Alagna have received
since then.
"Maybe it was also against her, but I was very grateful," she said.
"They created this fake feud in the press. It sold tickets and got
everybody talking. I was invited to La Scala twice more after that."
On the strength of her talent - not her happenstance involvement
in scandalous incidents - Esperian began to rack up engagements at
the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, Opera National de Paris, the
companies of Bologna, San Francisco, Chicago, Naples, Los Angeles,
and her home town, Memphis.
On Thursday and Saturday, she debuts four hours down Corridor X
in Opera Birmingham's production of Puccini's "Tosca." The Alabama
Theatre isn't exactly La Scala, but judging from the impressive cast,
it's shaping up to be one of the company's finest productions.
"Not many times in the life of a regional opera company do you get
a singer like Kallen," said John Jones, Opera Birmingham's general
director. "We're very privileged. There might be 12 to 14 sopranos
who sing 'Tosca.' Six of them shouldn't and three of them you don't
want to hear. She's Memphis' secret weapon."
'Driven by love'
Esperian sings the role of Floria Tosca, a singer who is in love with
artist Mario Cavaradossi. When Cavaradossi is jailed for helping his
friend, Angelotti, escape from prison, Tosca tries to save him by
agreeing to submit to the advances of the evil police chief, Scarpia.
Instead, she stabs Scarpia, then takes her own life when she learns
Cavaradossi has been executed.
"She is driven by love," Esperian said of the character she plays.
"She'll do anything except what Scarpia wants her to do, which is
repulsive to her. She doesn't decide to kill him until the very last
second. Then, it's almost a mistake."
The fantastic, very operatic plot doesn't exactly reflect Esperian's
own eventful life, but she frequently draws from her experiences to
portray the characters she plays.
"I'm very happy-go-lucky, but I just went through a divorce," she
said. "Until that point, I don't think I ever felt anger in my life.
At times, now, I use that."
The death of her mother four years ago also affected her profoundly.
"I sat up with her and was with her until the very end, when her heart
stopped," she said in a hushed tone. "I thought about it again when
I performed 'La Boheme' a couple of weeks ago."
Growing up in Barrington, Ill., outside of Chicago, she studied
ballet for 15 years, which trained her how to move on stage. After
getting a voice degree at the University of Illinois, she married
opera conductor Thomas Machen. Their son, John is 14. She started her
singing career as a mezzo-soprano, but after entering, and winning,
the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition in 1985 as a
soprano, she moved permanently into that voice category.
Esperian developed a lasting friendship with Pavarotti, partnering
with him in "Luisa Miller," "Otello" and "Il Trovatore" and getting
frequent vocal advice.
"He always said, 'I don't teach,' but he did," Esperian said.
"Every time I was on stage with him, it was a voice lesson. We didn't
talk so much technically, but he would guide me. Luciano would always
stress the language, never giving up on the vowels. I have a lot of
video of us together, and you can see him watching."
She gives Pavarotti some of the credit for getting her through the
"Luisa Miller" incident at La Scala.
"Luciano had prepared me, and I had already done it in Vienna and in
a small theater in Verona," she said.
Zeppelin, rap in her rep
She is also one of the few sopranos to have sung with all of the "Three
Tenors," performing several roles alongside Placido Domingo and Jose
Carreras at the Met and La Scala. Among her recordings are "Kallen
Esperian - Live," an aria collection that includes "Vissi d'arte,"
from Tosca, and albums of Christmas music and American traditional
songs. Reminded of her recent diversion into rap and rock on Memphis
radio, she laughed heartily.
"I was totally improvisational," she said. "The afternoon crew was
calling for 'Immigrant Song,' 'We are the Champions,' the Kinks,
Van Halen. People would come up and say, 'Man, loved your Zeppelin."'
Now 46, Esperian credits her long career with her smart lifestyle
decisions.
"I haven't overbooked myself," she said. "I would never fly and sing
on the same day. I try to give myself time to recover if I'm going
to Europe. I have a 14-year-old son and he will always be my No. 1
priority. However, singing is a Godgiven gift, and singing makes me
very happy."
One reason she stays healthy, she said, is her adopted Southern diet.
"The last time we went to Niki's West, I had a triple portion of
collard greens," she said, referring to the Birmingham restaurant.
"They have a lot of vitamins. Sometimes I'll cook them with turnip
greens. Growing up in Chicago, that was considered health food."
About her rather exotic name, she explained, "My grandfather came from
Armenia when the Turks invaded. He was a stowaway on a ship that landed
in Massachusetts. His name was Kaloust, and when I wasn't the boy
they thought I would be, my father said, 'let's just call her Kallen."'
"People never know where I'm from," she added. "They don't even think
I'm American. Gosh, born and bred; eat collards."
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Michael Huebner
Birmingham News
March 2, 2008 Sunday
Alabama
Early in her career, Kallen Esperian was hired by La Scala, the
Italian opera house renowned as much for its scandals as its singing,
for Giuseppe Verdi's "Luisa Miller." She was under contract to be
soprano Katia Ricciarelli's understudy when, on opening night, one of
La Scala's infamous brouhahas erupted. It gave the diva from Memphis
more than she bargained for.
"I had never been in La Scala before," she reflected last week at a
downtown Birmingham coffee shop. "I was sitting in the box watching.
(Ricciarelli) wasn't feeling well, and things weren't going so well."
The "loggioinisti," the band of mercenary opera fanatics who inhabit
the upper reaches of La Scala, began booing Ricciarelli. The conductor
stopped and tried to start again. The soprano stopped, reportedly
shouting, "May God's curse strike you all!" and left the stage.
"My immediate reaction was to cry," Esperian said. "I had never
witnessed anything like that in a theater. I'm thinking, 'I'm going
to get a call."'
She did, of course, and with the privilege came the opportunity of
facing the loggionisti head on.
"It was scary," she said. "Every time I tried to vocalize, I would
start crying."
Ricciarelli's husband, Pippo Baudo, later got in a fist fight with
one loggionista, a Web site has since reported. Newspapers had a field
day. Esperian's performance was a huge success. She was showered with
gifts and received 17 curtain calls. It was much better treatment
than stars such as Renee Fleming and Roberto Alagna have received
since then.
"Maybe it was also against her, but I was very grateful," she said.
"They created this fake feud in the press. It sold tickets and got
everybody talking. I was invited to La Scala twice more after that."
On the strength of her talent - not her happenstance involvement
in scandalous incidents - Esperian began to rack up engagements at
the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, Opera National de Paris, the
companies of Bologna, San Francisco, Chicago, Naples, Los Angeles,
and her home town, Memphis.
On Thursday and Saturday, she debuts four hours down Corridor X
in Opera Birmingham's production of Puccini's "Tosca." The Alabama
Theatre isn't exactly La Scala, but judging from the impressive cast,
it's shaping up to be one of the company's finest productions.
"Not many times in the life of a regional opera company do you get
a singer like Kallen," said John Jones, Opera Birmingham's general
director. "We're very privileged. There might be 12 to 14 sopranos
who sing 'Tosca.' Six of them shouldn't and three of them you don't
want to hear. She's Memphis' secret weapon."
'Driven by love'
Esperian sings the role of Floria Tosca, a singer who is in love with
artist Mario Cavaradossi. When Cavaradossi is jailed for helping his
friend, Angelotti, escape from prison, Tosca tries to save him by
agreeing to submit to the advances of the evil police chief, Scarpia.
Instead, she stabs Scarpia, then takes her own life when she learns
Cavaradossi has been executed.
"She is driven by love," Esperian said of the character she plays.
"She'll do anything except what Scarpia wants her to do, which is
repulsive to her. She doesn't decide to kill him until the very last
second. Then, it's almost a mistake."
The fantastic, very operatic plot doesn't exactly reflect Esperian's
own eventful life, but she frequently draws from her experiences to
portray the characters she plays.
"I'm very happy-go-lucky, but I just went through a divorce," she
said. "Until that point, I don't think I ever felt anger in my life.
At times, now, I use that."
The death of her mother four years ago also affected her profoundly.
"I sat up with her and was with her until the very end, when her heart
stopped," she said in a hushed tone. "I thought about it again when
I performed 'La Boheme' a couple of weeks ago."
Growing up in Barrington, Ill., outside of Chicago, she studied
ballet for 15 years, which trained her how to move on stage. After
getting a voice degree at the University of Illinois, she married
opera conductor Thomas Machen. Their son, John is 14. She started her
singing career as a mezzo-soprano, but after entering, and winning,
the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition in 1985 as a
soprano, she moved permanently into that voice category.
Esperian developed a lasting friendship with Pavarotti, partnering
with him in "Luisa Miller," "Otello" and "Il Trovatore" and getting
frequent vocal advice.
"He always said, 'I don't teach,' but he did," Esperian said.
"Every time I was on stage with him, it was a voice lesson. We didn't
talk so much technically, but he would guide me. Luciano would always
stress the language, never giving up on the vowels. I have a lot of
video of us together, and you can see him watching."
She gives Pavarotti some of the credit for getting her through the
"Luisa Miller" incident at La Scala.
"Luciano had prepared me, and I had already done it in Vienna and in
a small theater in Verona," she said.
Zeppelin, rap in her rep
She is also one of the few sopranos to have sung with all of the "Three
Tenors," performing several roles alongside Placido Domingo and Jose
Carreras at the Met and La Scala. Among her recordings are "Kallen
Esperian - Live," an aria collection that includes "Vissi d'arte,"
from Tosca, and albums of Christmas music and American traditional
songs. Reminded of her recent diversion into rap and rock on Memphis
radio, she laughed heartily.
"I was totally improvisational," she said. "The afternoon crew was
calling for 'Immigrant Song,' 'We are the Champions,' the Kinks,
Van Halen. People would come up and say, 'Man, loved your Zeppelin."'
Now 46, Esperian credits her long career with her smart lifestyle
decisions.
"I haven't overbooked myself," she said. "I would never fly and sing
on the same day. I try to give myself time to recover if I'm going
to Europe. I have a 14-year-old son and he will always be my No. 1
priority. However, singing is a Godgiven gift, and singing makes me
very happy."
One reason she stays healthy, she said, is her adopted Southern diet.
"The last time we went to Niki's West, I had a triple portion of
collard greens," she said, referring to the Birmingham restaurant.
"They have a lot of vitamins. Sometimes I'll cook them with turnip
greens. Growing up in Chicago, that was considered health food."
About her rather exotic name, she explained, "My grandfather came from
Armenia when the Turks invaded. He was a stowaway on a ship that landed
in Massachusetts. His name was Kaloust, and when I wasn't the boy
they thought I would be, my father said, 'let's just call her Kallen."'
"People never know where I'm from," she added. "They don't even think
I'm American. Gosh, born and bred; eat collards."
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress