CLASSICAL
Who will win HGO’s Concert of Arias?
Drama comes baked into Houston Grand Opera’s annual Concert of Arias, the climax of its Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers, which is now approaching its 33rd edition on Feb. 5.
Yes, there is a cash prize for the winner — up to $10,000, in fact — but, in a sense, the stakes are even higher elsewhere: The concert is also the final step in the audition process for a multiyear residency at HGO Studio.
All the finalists have to do is impress a panel of judges who could well become their future colleagues. Brian Speck, a former HGO chorister and director of HGO Studio since 2015, notes that potential is in the mix right alongside raw talent.
“An artist who we feel might have kind of already reached the peak of what they can do is less interesting to us as an organization in terms of the long-term relationship with an artist (possibly) appearing on our stage over a period of many, many years,” he says.
This year’s nine finalists — three tenors, two sopranos, two mezzo-sopranos and one baritone and countertenor apiece — have trained at prestigious institutions such as Florence, Italy’s Mascarade Opera Studio; Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music; and the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music.
Closer to home, four others are currently studying in the Master’s program at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. Several have trained at the studio’s own Young Artists Vocal Academy, an intense weeklong program for undergraduates. (The deadline for applications for this year’s academy is Feb. 23.)
“We’re very fortunate to have really great musical training in Houston, with Rice and the University of Houston, and so many great musicians in town that attract incredible talent,” says Speck.
But — and this is important — the winner of the concert may not necessarily be invited to join HGO Studio. Speck says the program is looking for more than just technical brilliance: artists who raise the temperature of a room when they sing.
“That’s one of the reason the Concert of Arias is such an incredible recruitment tool,” he explains. “It gives us the chance to identify that person who comes to life in front of an audience, and who is ingrained in your mind and makes you think, ‘Oh, I want to see that person perform again’.”
HGO actually began livestreaming its Concert of Arias five years ago. This year’s will be broadcast through its Facebook and YouTube outlets, as well as on partner Marquee TV. Naturally, comfort with a camera was an integral part of the audition process this time: HGO and several other leading U.S. opera companies teamed up to create a uniform virtual-audition template for all their young-artists competitions.
“I think that’s something that we’ve had a lot of conversations with performers over the course of this year,” says Speck. “I will say that through the whole HGO Digital season, I have been so incredibly impressed with the way I’ve seen our artists make that mental shift to performing, and essentially putting the audience in their head, in a way, instead of having those live bodies in front of them.”
It helps, he adds, that there will be at least a few people in the Wortham Center’s Cullen Theater, where the concert will be filmed. Judges this year include HGO artistic and music director Patrick Summers and artistic adviser Ana Maria Martinez, a former winner of the competition, as is this year’s host, soprano Tamara Wilson.
In the days leading up to the concert, the finalists will find their schedules filled with oneon-one sessions, informational meetings, outfit fittings, video interviews, and even a chance to sing in the Wortham’s larger Brown Theater. The high degree of personalization could be a preview of the singers’ new life at HGO Studio, notes Speck.
“One thing we’ve stayed really committed to is looking at each artist as a distinct individual, figuring out what they need to be successful and pursuing that as a really individualized program. We’re not looking to make them a version of someone else,” he says.
“We’re looking to make them sort of an amplified version of themselves who can feel free to be expressive in every possible way,” Speck continues. “So if they want to make a choice as an artist onstage, they’ve developed the skills to be able to respond to their own instincts.”