{"id":43480,"date":"2017-03-07T13:51:12","date_gmt":"2017-03-07T18:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=43480"},"modified":"2017-03-07T17:43:42","modified_gmt":"2017-03-07T22:43:42","slug":"interview-daniel-okulitch-is-not-afraid-of-new-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2017\/03\/07\/interview-daniel-okulitch-is-not-afraid-of-new-music\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW | Why Daniel Okulitch Is Not Afraid Of New Music"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Daniel
Daniel Okulitch (Photo: Rob Daly)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Canadian bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch shares his thoughts on his career and on tackling new music.<\/em><\/h3>\n

D<\/span>aniel Okulitch is the archetypal new generation of opera singers. Not only does he have a beautiful voice, a surfeit of musicality, solid foundation and excellent training, he\u2019s also blessed with leading-man good looks, an athletic figure, and a charismatic stage persona that makes him a stage director\u2019s dream. He also happens to be a quick study, not an inconsiderable advantage when it comes to learning new repertoire. Combine that with a willingness to face the challenge of the new, there\u2019s little wonder he\u2019s in demand. His schedule the last few years includes an extraordinary number of contemporary operas, many of these world premieres \u2014 Ennis in Brokeback Mountain<\/em>, Herman Broder in Enemies, A Love Story<\/em>, Lt. Horstmayer in Silent Night<\/em>, Lyndon B. Johnson in JFK<\/em>, and Joseph De Rocher in Dead Man Walking<\/em>, this last to come in Vancouver this spring. It all started when he took the opera world by storm as Seth Brundle in Howard Shore\u2019s The Fly<\/em> in 2006, generating a huge amount of buzz \u2014 pun intended \u2014 and putting him on the operatic map.<\/p>\n

That said, Daniel Okulitch is also a fine Mozartian, regularly taking on both the Count and Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro<\/em>, as well as the title role of Don Giovanni<\/em>. Just last November, he added Leporello in Don Giovanni<\/em> to his repertoire, for the first time at Op\u00e9ra de Montreal. My experience of Okulitch onstage was as Count Almaviva and Don Giovanni, both at the Santa Fe Opera. Given his stature as an internationally ranked artist, having sung at prestigious houses the likes of La Scala, Paris, and Madrid, it\u2019s curious that Okulitch has yet to sing opera in Toronto. So far, his appearances here have been limited to a recital at the Glenn Gould Studio, and a run of Messiah<\/em> this past Christmas with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra \u2014 \u201cit\u2019s my first!\u201d<\/p>\n

It is his affinity for new music that\u2019s bringing him back to town this month, to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra\u2019s New Creations Festival<\/a>, in the world premiere of Owen Pallett\u2019s Songs From an Island<\/em>.\u00a0 We recently met for a chat, during which he shared his thoughts on singing new music, and on his burgeoning career. A real feather in his cap is the feature in the June 2016 issue of Opera News<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 when you\u2019re the cover boy in one of the most prestigious opera magazines on the planet, you\u2019ve arrived!<\/p>\n

JS:<\/strong> Welcome back to Toronto. We don\u2019t get to hear you very much here \u2014 I only recall a recital at Glenn Gould Studio, although I did hear you last summer as Don Giovanni in Santa Fe. I read that you\u2019ve just sung your first Leporello. How does it feel to go from the Don to the servant? <\/em><\/p>\n

DO:<\/strong> Yeah, it was just last month in Montreal. Singing Leporello \u2014 vocally it feels really easy. It\u2019s lower, and I consider myself a bass-baritone. It\u2019s more of a character role, so it feels less stressful in that sense. However, when you\u2019ve done Don Giovanni for 10 years like I have, there are certain things that are automatic. With Leporello, I have to consciously tell myself \u2013 this is not your moment to sing! I have to continually remind myself not ever to go on automatic pilot.<\/p>\n

JS:<\/strong> It\u2019s all muscle memory isn\u2019t it?<\/em><\/p>\n

DO:<\/strong>\u00a0 It is<\/em> all muscle memory! You hear a musical cue, and you want to jump in. I didn\u2019t have as much trouble when I did the Count for the first time. I\u2019ve done Figaro for years, but Figaro and the Count don\u2019t sing together very much. Leporello and Don Giovanni sing together all the time! The amount of focus it took surprised me, but it was fun, and I hope to do it again.<\/p>\n

JS:<\/strong> Let\u2019s talk a bit about your background. You were born in Ottawa, and your family moved to Calgary. And I read that you come from a family of scientists\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

DO:<\/strong> Yes, my father is a geologist. When I was three and a half, he got a job with the Geological Survey of Canada in Calgary, and we moved there. My grandfather was an astronomer, and he was Dean of Science at UBC.<\/p>\n

JS:<\/strong> You made your debut as Amahl in Amahl and the Night Visitors?<\/em><\/p>\n

DO:<\/strong> Yes, I was 12!<\/p>\n

JS:<\/strong> Wow, you\u2019ve had a very long career already!\u00a0 What year was that?\u00a0 I guess that\u2019s a roundabout way of trying to find out how old you are.<\/em><\/p>\n

DO:<\/strong> That was 1988. I\u2019m 40. I consider my career started when singing was my only job, when I sang Schaunard in Baz Luhrmann\u2019s Broadway La boheme<\/em>. \u00a0Prior to that, I was still in college. I sang Morales at Calgary Opera, also Benoit\/Alcindoro. I did Masetto with Dayton Opera, things like that. That would have been in the early 2000\u2019s.<\/p>\n

JS:<\/strong> So you began in very standard repertoire stuff \u2014 Figaro, Count, Masetto… Did you sing other Mozart roles? Like Papageno?<\/em><\/p>\n

DO:<\/strong> No, I\u2019ve never done Papageno. There has been a trend for light lyric baritones to do it, but if you go back not that many years, it was sung by darker voices, voices with more weight. It doesn\u2019t go very high or low \u2014 it\u2019s more of an acting role.\u00a0 I\u2019d love to do Papageno; it would be a lot of fun!<\/p>\n

JS:<\/strong> With your personality, you\u2019d be a terrific Papageno and other comic roles. <\/em><\/p>\n

DO:<\/strong> Funny that unless people have seen me do it, they don\u2019t think of me in comedy. I love doing comedy! I\u2019ve just done Leporello, and I\u2019ve done La Calisto<\/em> (Jove) in Cincinnati.<\/p>\n

JS:<\/strong> Oh! Is that the one you were in drag??\u00a0 I saw pictures of it on the internet.<\/em><\/p>\n

DO:<\/strong> That\u2019s a scary series of pictures (big laughs)! \u00a0I\u2019ve also done LBJ in JFK<\/em>, a completely comedic role, and it\u2019s coming to Montreal in January 2018. \u00a0Also, The Last Savage<\/em> in Santa Fe was broadly comedic.<\/p>\n

JS:<\/strong> Do you do Figaro in Barbiere?<\/em><\/p>\n

DO:<\/strong> No, that\u2019s too high \u2014 lyric baritone land! I\u2019ve always had the ability to sing some high notes, but I just don\u2019t like staying up there. That\u2019s the challenge. I was asked to do Valentin (Faust<\/em>) at one point. I can sing those notes, but I\u2019d be unhappy at the end of the evening. Recently I was in conversation with a company to do Oppenheimer in Doctor Atomic<\/em>. I have all the notes, but I\u2019d have to be in the most perfect shape of my life to do it. On the other hand, roles like Leporello, I can get up there and not be in perfect shape and still sing it. Those are the roles you want. If the stars have to align perfectly for you to sing a role and not fail, it\u2019s not for you!<\/p>\n

JS:<\/strong> What about Onegin?<\/em><\/p>\n

DO:<\/strong> \u00a0I\u2019ve been asked a number of years ago. I would do Onegin, it\u2019s just that the last 20 minutes is a killer. Everything up until then is great for my voice. I think I can do it if I have enough time to prepare, and I wouldn\u2019t want to debut in a big house.<\/p>\n

JS:<\/strong>\u00a0 You sing a lot of contemporary music, what draws you to it? Or was it more or less an accident?\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

DO:<\/strong>\u00a0[Pause] It wasn\u2019t necessarily an accident. When I was still in school, trying to work out the kinks technically, it was easier for me to sing contemporary English repertoire. I speak French, but in Italian and German, I had this idea of needing to sing in an operatic way that\u2019s not entirely natural. If it\u2019s in English, the expectation wasn\u2019t there. It was just in my school years.\u00a0 I felt all my dramatic instincts could be used in this rep because there wasn\u2019t this expectation of perfect bel canto<\/em> or perfect Mozart line that I was still struggling with technically. People started encouraging me in that vein. What started out as a means to an end, I grew to really like it. It has made me a better musician, having to learn this complex music. As time went on, I was able to apply those principles to the standard repertoire. I love doing the premieres (of contemporary works), I love the freedom of it.<\/p>\n

JS:<\/strong> What about the vocal demands of contemporary music?\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

DO:<\/strong> That can be very tricky. It depends on the composer. Some are more adept at writing for the voice. The joke among singers is \u2014 you have to be careful about telling the composer what you range is! It\u2019s a joke, but\u2026<\/p>\n

JS:<\/strong> Not all contemporary composers write gratefully for the voice.<\/p>\n

DO:<\/strong> No. but when you look at things like Wozzeck<\/em> and Lulu<\/em>, we are not going to say they are written gratefully for the voice, but they are written intelligently, and if you work on it enough, you\u2019ll find the line in it. It\u2019s highly angular and challenging music, so we\u2019ve grown from the bel canto principles where it\u2019s purely about the beauty of the voice, to something where you do actually want angular things, for the dramatic effect.<\/p>\n

JS:<\/strong> You\u2019ve had pieces written with your voice in mind, such as the Owen Pallett piece? What else have been written for you?<\/em><\/p>\n

DO:<\/strong>\u00a0 Not so much written for me but tailored for me. When I did The Fly<\/em>, we had long sessions where I could say (to the composer) this works for me, and that doesn\u2019t. Howard Shore was very amenable to that. Also with art songs, I\u2019ve worked with Ricky Ian Gordon, Jake Heggie, and they\u2019ll change keys and adjust things. They want it to sound right for your voice.<\/p>\n

JS:<\/strong> Does Owen Pallett write gratefully for the voice?\u00a0 What are your thoughts on singing this piece? <\/em><\/p>\n

DO:<\/strong> Absolutely.\u00a0 Owen and I talked about the piece last year while he was still writing it, and I sent clips and sample material of what I sang for him to listen to, all of which showed what my voice was most comfortable doing.\u00a0 The music sits perfectly where I like to sing.<\/p>\n

JS:<\/strong> How long did it take you to learn the piece? Is it tonal and accessible for the singer and the audience? <\/em><\/p>\n

DO:<\/strong> The music hasn’t been difficult to learn, compared with some other new works I’ve done.\u00a0 He writes tonally and the musical language feels familiar.\u00a0 Rhythmically there are some syncopations and turns that catch you off guard if you’re not paying attention, which I like. Owen has a unique style and approach, quite unlike other pieces I’ve done.\u00a0 He loves long drawn out moments where the music lingers in the air, repeated themes, all very atmospheric.\u00a0 It feels very intimate.<\/p>\n

JS:<\/strong> Since I am not familiar with the piece, can you say a few words about the meaning of this work? Does it “tell a story”?\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

DO:<\/strong> Owen has told me that the pieces are part of what is\/will be a larger cycle of songs, in which there is a larger story being told.\u00a0 I feel like Owen would be best qualified to discuss that narrative arc.<\/p>\n

JS:<\/strong> How does this piece compare to the other pieces you have performed?<\/em><\/p>\n

DO:<\/strong> Very different!\u00a0 I haven’t done much in the way of new concert works with orchestra, though of course I’ve done a fair amount of new art song.\u00a0 These pieces feel very specifically composed for voice and orchestra \u2014 I’m not sure if they could function if reduced to piano accompaniment.\u00a0 They feel like a definite part of a larger narrative arc, and one that I could see being staged, perhaps with dance, video, etc.\u00a0 It’s exciting to be here for the beginning part of it.\u00a0 Musically these songs feel unlike the other new pieces I’ve done.\u00a0 These aren’t part of the Neo-Romantic school of art song of which I’ve done a fair amount, but rather feel like a bridge between Classical and Pop or electronica.\u00a0 I think you can hear those influences quite strongly.<\/p>\n

JS:<\/strong> Thanks Daniel for sharing your thoughts with us, and toi toi toi for the premiere!<\/em><\/p>\n

You can hear\u00a0Daniel Okulitch sing the world premiere of Owen Pallett’s\u00a0Songs From An Island this Wednesday,\u00a0March 8, at the TSO’s New Creations Festival. \u00a0Full details here<\/a><\/span>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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