[nat sound: audience talking before the show]
In the audience, students and opera lovers waiting in anticipation for the show to begin. Backstage, four Bienen soloists doing the same…next to the opera star who was about to critique them: Sondra Radvanovsky.
[Sondra Radvanovsky singing Puccini]
JERRY TIETZ: Sondra is a primabella. She’s a diva. She sings all of the big, lush, bel canto and verismo opera rep, but yeah she sings the same kind of stuff that you in cartoons imagine the fat woman with the horns singing. She’s just got a ginormous voice, she’s wildly charismatic on stage, and she’s enjoyed an international career now for decades.
That was Jerry Tietz, Bienen’s Director of Concert Management.
[nat sound: audience talking before the show]
The Bienen School of Music hosts three vocal masterclasses each year. The workshops attract top names in the vocal performance industry. With 10-dollar and under tickets, they are a relatively affordable—albeit atypical—alternative to seeing a whole opera.
[Sondra Radvanovsky singing Puccini]
TIETZ: There are members of the public who come from far and wide—and particularly when it’s an artist of Ms. Radvanovsky’s fame—so that they can sort of share the same air.
[nat sound: event opening speech]
Bienen faculty selects four singers with vocal profiles similar to the guest teacher to perform solos, or, arias, as they are called in opera. The selected graduate students found out just one month in advance that they would perform for Radvanovsky…who would then critique their vocal technique…with the audience watching the whole lesson.
Cynthia Hu took the stage first.
[nat sound: Cynthia Hu singing “Ah! non credea mirarti” from Bellini’s La sonnambula]
CYNTHIA HU: I ended up picking “Ah! non credea” from Bellini’s opera La sonnambula.
Hu was followed by Isabella De La Torre—both sopranos, like Radvanovsky.
[nat sound: Isabella De La Torre singing “Il est doux il est bon” from Massenet’s Hérodiade.]
By stepping onstage, both vocalists entered their comfort zone: performing.
HU: To be honest, I don’t really get stage fright.
ISABELLA DE LA TORRE: So when I got on stage I was actually kind of shocked at how not nervous I was.
In fact, each said the audience did anything but shake them. Even while they received their feedback.
[nat sound: Cynthia Hu singing “Ah! non credea mirarti” from Bellini’s La sonnambula]
HU: Pretty easy for me personally to tune out the audience and just focus on what she was saying and apply the corrections as quickly as I can. It felt like a lesson. It felt like a bunch of people were just observing, and I never felt like it was uncomfortable.
[nat sound: Isabella De La Torre singing “Il est doux il est bon” from Massenet’s Hérodiade.]
DE LA TORRE: I really feel like in the moment singing for crowds like that is what envigorates me and what reminds me of why I do this because I really get to tell a story to people that are rapt and are listening and want to hear what I have to say.
[nat sound: Radvanovsky’s live workshop feedback]
To the untrained eye and ear, Radvanovsky’s teaching methods seemed somewhat unconventional.
Which is part of the reason why De La Torre says she enjoyed it so much.
DE LA TORRE: She was playful which was fun up there, you know. Because sometimes you’re in the face of these huge operatic legends and, you know, they are telling you, ‘Here’s all the things that you could do better,’ but I thought she gave that information in a really laid back and encouraging way.
From pushing the singers’ chins down, to pretend tightrope walking, to literally having students feel her breathwork–
DE LA TORRE: I was holding her ribcage going ‘Oh my god I’m holding Sondra Radvanovsky’s ribcage right now.’
Radvanovsky’s kinesthetic teaching was certainly part of the show.
Ultimately, both Hu and De La Torre were relieved not to receive any groundbreaking criticism this far into their vocal careers.
HU: None of the information was new. It was just different perspectives, different ways of looking at how to fix these technical problems.
[nat sound: Isabella De La Torre singing “Il est doux, il est bon” from Massenet’s Hérodiade.]
DE LA TORRE: Nothing that she said came as a shock to me. Nothing that she said was controversial to me.
Instead, they found value in the feedback that didn’t rely on its novelty.
HU: Singing is your health. You’re the only one who knows yourself and your body and what feels right and what feels wrong, so you have to filter what you decide to do and what you don’t decide to do. And when I’ve heard something three times—like three different people say it—then I’ll believe it. So I think it just placed, I think, a more serious emphasis on me applying a lot of these exercises into what I do.
DE LA TORRE: I found it incredibly helpful but also really gratifying to be able to work with someone in the industry, who’s giving you feedback, who’s had a long and very prosperous career, and being able to imagine myself in her shoes one day, giving back to the next generation of opera singers. It feels really nice to have gained a connection with someone who is living the dream.
[nat sound: Sondra’s closing words.]
On top of that, Tietz said having Radvanovsky teach the class was significant for reasons besides her fame.
JERRY TIETZ: She also has a genuine passion for working with young singers.
Radvanovsky’s passion was clear— it echoed throughout the concert hall.
Georgia Kerrigan, WNUR News.
[nat sound: Isabella De La Torre singing “Il est doux, il est bon” from Massenet’s Hérodiade and audience applause.]
Web Sources:
Sondra Radvanovsky sings Puccini: Turandot, Act II: “In questa Reggia” (with Pappano, Santa Cecilia)
Sondra Radvanovsky Vocal Master Class | Northwestern Bienen School of Musi
