{"id":9448,"date":"2013-02-02T10:32:23","date_gmt":"2013-02-02T15:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=9448"},"modified":"2013-02-02T10:32:23","modified_gmt":"2013-02-02T15:32:23","slug":"interview-american-mezzo-isabel-leonard-demonstrates-art-of-shaping-a-character-in-debut-as-canadian-opera-companys-sesto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2013\/02\/02\/interview-american-mezzo-isabel-leonard-demonstrates-art-of-shaping-a-character-in-debut-as-canadian-opera-companys-sesto\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: American mezzo Isabel Leonard demonstrates art of shaping a character in d\u00e9but as Canadian Opera Company’s Sesto"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"(Dario<\/a>
(Dario Acosta photo for Opera News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mezzo Isabel Leonard, one of the bright young stars of the North American opera world, makes her Canadian Opera Company d\u00e9but on Sunday afternoon as Sesto in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito<\/em>. She is beautiful and her voice is superb. But another reason she is so hot is less obvious: She is a great actor.<\/p>\n

During a recent post-rehearsal breather, Leonard and I talked about how mezzos frequently find themselves singing male charactetrs — known as trouser roles. These roles cover the full gamut of types, and that’s before each director put their own spin on the situation and its characters.<\/p>\n

“The story is different from any I’ve done so far,” says Leonard of preparing her d\u00e9but as Sesto, who is caught in the middle of a conflict regarding his feelings for Vitellia and her wish to see Roman emperor Tito dead (because it looks like he isn’t going to marry her).<\/p>\n

Sesto thinks he has killed Tito, but later discovers he hasn’t. His conscience forces him to confess — an act of contrition that eventually earns Tito’s forgiveness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis whole idea of betrayal is a very modern concept, and I think we all experience it on some level \u2013 whether we are the one who is betraying or who is betrayed,” says Leonard. \u201cThe level of this betrayal is, I think, more than most of us can comprehend, and that\u2019s where the challenge lies in the acting part of it \u2013 the becoming of Sesto himself and who he is, what makes him tick and why does he listen to Vitellia as much as he does.\u201d<\/p>\n

“It’s been a very interesting process,” the singer concludes.<\/p>\n

It’s one that many opera audiences take for granted, because there is already so much going on with a full orchestra and singing.<\/p>\n

In the case of master composers, like Mozart, the music contains all the emotional cues a listener needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you know the text very well, or if when you go to the opera you understand the language when it\u2019s coming out of the singer\u2019s mouth, I think [the music] could be enough, because you\u2019re listening to beautiful music and you can respond to it immediately. That would be a very enjoyable experience,” Leonard responds. \u201cBut from one animal to the next, we need that physical component. We read so much on body language.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mezzo says that behavioural science is teaching us more and more every day about body language, \u201cbut we pick up on these things instinctually. One of our jobs as an actor is to recreate or create them onstage so that it\u2019s a full character, where the body is part of it. Maybe what he\u2019s saying is one thing, but his body is saying something else \u2013 and that\u2019s a conscious choice, because we do that in real life as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is a wide range of ways in which opera directors address the physical side of acting.<\/p>\n

Opera Atelier’s Marshall Pynkosky, for example, favours the broad, unambigious gesture. Others, like La clemenza di Tito<\/em> director Christopher Alden, provides a broad view for each scene, leaving the detail work up to each singer.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not telling us who we are and what we\u2019re playing, but he is guiding us very narrowly in what he\u2019s looking for,” Leonard explains.<\/p>\n

The period in which an opera is set has a big role to play, as well. One of Leonard’s most requested roles is as the male servant Cherubino in Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro<\/em>.<\/p>\n

As a servant, an 18th century Cherubino needs to be mindful of his low rank on the social ladder. \u201cThe relationship with Susanna needs to be close, but within the constraints of that time period. In a modern production, it can be much more close physically,” says the singer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think I try to inform the character\u2019s way of handling a situation and his or her decisionmaking process, their relationship to their world and to the other characters on stage appropriately, according to whatever sense of the period that I get that is the strongest,” Leonard explains.<\/p>\n

It is one way of explaining why some operatic updates sit more comfortably in their new surroundings than others.<\/p>\n

Leonard was lucky enough to grow up in New York City, the daughter of an American father trained as a visual artist and a physicist mother from Argentina with a great passion for opera.<\/p>\n

When she was little, the future Juilliard graduate’s parents dragged her to museums, the Met, put her in ballet lessons at age 5 and sent her to a performing arts high school.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Leonard thinks the dance lessons may have been the most helpful. Dance helped her develop knowledge of her body and how to move it. \u201cIt also helped provide an extra technique for creating characters with your body and to know what that means,\u201d says the mezzo.<\/p>\n

Her later studies included tap, jazz and Flamenco, all of which she wishes she still had time to practise. \u201cI got through my undergrad at Juilliard dancing, even though I was in the vocal arts department,\u201d she smiles.<\/p>\n

In fact, dance even introduced her to her first trouser role.<\/p>\n

Leonard spent two Christmases dancing in the Joffrey Ballet’s Nutcracker<\/em>. The first year, when she was 9, it was as a doll. The following December, she was cast as a boy in a party scene. \u201cAt that time it was, okay, are you tall? You\u2019re a boy,” she recalls.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy line now is that someone should have told me at 10 that I would be playing boys later on,” Leonard laughs. “I was devastated as a 10 year-old; I wanted to be a girl in the party scene, with frilly dresses and curls \u2013 any girl would have wanted to wear those dresses, and I was horrified.\u201d<\/p>\n

“I was already being typecast,” she smiles.<\/p>\n

Because of the care Leonard takes in preparing a role — and because it can just as easily be a male character as a female one — she wishes the opera world could make more progress in eliminating labels.<\/p>\n

“Down with the labels! Down with the labels!\u2019\u201d she laughs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn theatre, you don\u2019t say she\u2019s a female actor. She\u2019s just an actor. I\u2019d like to call my self Isabel, singing actor,” Leonard insists. “I would like to take all those labels down and do whatever\u2019s appropriate \u2013 a play, musical theatre, opera, whatever I can do to the best of my abilities and with integrity on stage. I\u2019d be okay with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

+++<\/p>\n

Leonard joins an excellent cast in the Canadian Opera Company production, which runs until Feb. 22.<\/p>\n

Tito is sung by tenor Michael Schade. Charismatic American Keri Alkema returns to Toronto as Vitellia, and a trio of excellent young locals fill out the remaining roles: Mireille Asselin (Servilia), Wallis Giunta (Annio) and Robert Gleadow (Publio).<\/p>\n

You’ll find all the details, as well as a wealth of background information here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

+++<\/p>\n

Here is Leonard singing “Ah guarda sorella” in a 21st century update on Mozart’s Cos\u00ec fan tutte<\/em> from the 2009 Salzburg Festival. Her stage partner is Miah Persson:<\/p>\n