Interview with stars of Cincinnati Opera's "Silent Night"

Gabriel Preisser (Photo: Provided/Opera Philadelphia, Dominic Mercier)

As the Cincinnati Opera gears up to be the latest company to present Kevin Puts' Silent Night, the Cincinnati Enquirer sat down and interviewed three of the leading baritones from the production. Here is the interview with Craig Irvin, Gabriel Preisser and Andrew Wilkowske.

You were all in the world premiere at Minnesota Opera in 2011. Tell us about your characters.
Preisser: I play Lt. Gordon, the Scottish lieutenant who proposes the truce. I think he’s the kind of person who’s trying to do the right thing. He doesn’t go into it wanting to fraternize, but his troops are exhausted and he’s told they’ll be home for Christmas. The Scottish, I assume, have no idea why they’re fighting. It’s not their war. Yet there they are. So when he sees these German soldiers singing Christmas carols, and the bagpipe player jumps up on the trench, he has no choice but to say we need to have a truce.
Irvin: I’m Lt. Horstmayer, the German, who has to deal with Sprink (a private who is an opera singer), who’s questioning him all the time and going into no-man’s land, where Horstmayer feels he’ll be killed any moment.
Wilkowske: My character is Ponchel, the aide-de-camp of the French lieutenant. He’s the comic relief. … In an opera that’s about people getting killed all the time, it’s nice to be the guy who gets to have a couple of jokes. He carries an alarm clock to remind him that he used to have coffee every day at that time with his mother.
Irvin: In the Muppet opera version, we decided he’s Fozzie.
Preisser: In the “MASH” version, he’s Radar O’Reilly.

[Read the entire interview at the Cincinnati Enquirer]

Performances are on July 10 and 12 and tickets are available online.

Morgan Pearse discusses his career

Morgan Pearse in Owen Wingrave

Australian barihunk Morgan Pearse has become a reader favorite since first appearing on this site in 2011. We've followed his young career, as he's won singing competition, continued honing his craft in London and making a splash on stage, including his popular "crack" performance in Handel's Imeneo.

He recently wrapped up a successful run in Britten's Owen Wingrave with the Sydney Chamber Opera. He sat down with Sylvia Rosenblum of East Side 89.7 FM's "Arts Wednesday" to discuss his career. Listen to the entire interview HERE.

Pearse will be competing in the prestigious Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition next week. We'll be following him and a number of other amazing baritones. Click HERE to listen to Pearse sing Schubert's Im Fruhling.

Interview with Lee Poulis

Lee Poulis as Zurga in Sarasota Opera's 2013 production of Bizet's The Pearl Fishers

Lee Poulis is performing Zurga in Bizet's Pearl Fishers at the Sarasota Opera through March 22nd. Below is an interview that appeared on the Sarasota Opera blog. The link to the entire interview is at the end of this post. Tickets are available online. 


Q.  What drew you to become a singer?  Was there a specific “Aha!” moment of clarity?

A.  I actually began in music as a trumpet player in the 4th grade.  Pretty soon I realized I enjoyed hearing the trumpet being played in an orchestra rather than in the band, which was where I played.  I began listening to the classical station and heard some opera in the mix.  I was immediately drawn to it and wanted to hear and know more about it.  I began renting opera videos from Blockbuster at the age of 12 and saw my first opera at the Metropolitan Opera in that same year.  As years passed and I buried myself in recordings and videos from the public library, I could sing along with many of the operas while reading the libretto.  I also did my first Pavarotti impression pretty early on, handkerchief and all.  When I was 15 after some long-term nudging from my parents, who knew nothing about opera but apparently had an ear, I sang for my high school chorus teacher.  The rest is history.

Q.  What are you looking forward to most about performing this particular role?

A.  I like that I’m playing the leader of everyone else in the opera.  Sounds like a lot of power.  So far it’s one fishing village, but I hope to expand my sphere of influence as soon and as widely as possible and take over all of Sri Lanka, where this opera takes place.

Q.  Is there something unique about your process when preparing a role for performance?

A.  I don’t know if it’s unique, but it’s how I do it!  It’s a process of singing through, translating, feeling, putting myself in the character’s shoes, singing it through with a pianist, working on it with my voice teacher, and raising the stakes dramatically and vocally wherever it’s called for in the story and the music.  Almost all of these facets of preparation are occurring all the time and in no particular order from day one of my role preparation until the last performance is over and sometimes beyond that too!

Read the entire interview at the Sarasota Opera blog.