Giovanni cast brings rebel past
Florentine Opera set for Mozart show
Although opera singers are often painted as self-absorbed divas, rampaging until they get their way about any and everything, the truth is that opera is a tremendously collaborative art form that relies on singers working closely with and depending on each other.
Three of the least diva-like singers you might ever meet spoke recently about their roles in the Florentine Opera’s upcoming production of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni,” offering a peek into their often-misunderstood careers.
Musa Ngqungwana (N-[click]GWA-nah), the South African bassbaritone whom Florentine audiences will remember from the company’s 2015 production of “Elixir of Love,” will sing the role of Leporello in this production.
Speaking with a deep, commanding yet gentle voice, Ngqungwana said, “The story of ‘Don Giovanni’ is a legend, but we have to treat it as though these are real people.”
Fascinated by his character, he said, “Leporello is a servant to Don Giovanni, but he can read and write, which would have been very unusual. Where did he get that education?”
“Leporello is also a rebel,” he continued. “He talks back to Don Giovanni and they fight back and forth. They have a love/hate relationship.”
Comparing himself to Leporello, he said, “I have been a rebel in my life too. I have never liked it when people told me what to do.”
He was in engineering school when he decided to become a singer, a tough thing to explain to his parents. “I had no proper arguments to stand on, but I knew it was what I wanted to do,” he said.
Bass David Leigh is his own brand of rebel, as a younger-than-usual singer for his corner of the profession.
Currently part of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Metropoli--
tan Opera, he earned a degree in composition, following in the footsteps of his father, Mitch Leigh, who wrote the music for “The Man of La Mancha.”
As he was finishing his composition degree at Yale, a professor told the composition students that commissions were hard to come by and it would help them to be able to play an instrument.
“I was a terrible pianist,” Leigh said. “I really didn’t play anything well. But I had this weird, kind of cool voice.”
So he made what he calls the most impulsive decision of his life, and auditioned for graduate vocal programs in New York City, winning a spot and a scholarship at the Mannes School of Music.
“I had been thinking of this as a way to get commissions, but then I found myself in a practice room with a soprano next door, making the loudest, most ridiculous noise, Leigh said. “I wondered if somebody could teach me to do that.”
Singing the role of the Commendatore puts him in the position of playing an aging man who was once a physical force to be reckoned with.
“I’m 28,” Leigh said. “At auditions, I will sing something and people will look at me and ask how old I am. I never
know if I should lie younger or older, so I just tell them the truth.”
Emily Fons’ rebel tendencies lie in the fact that she’s a mezzo-soprano singing the soprano role of Donna Elvira.
The role, she said, is a dramatic character who does not have to sing “endless lines of music at the top of the staff.”
“Still,” she said, “there are definitely moments that I think are written for a soprano. But then singing Mozart is always a bit of a voice lesson.”
In addition to the appeal of character’s energy and dramatic nature, she said, “If you ask me, she’s got some of the best music in the show.”
Fons, who will sing traditional and contemporary opera roles across the country this year, is commuting to her Florentine gig from her Milwaukee home.
She grew up in Appleton, attended UW-Milwaukee for two years, did young-artist’s training with the Chicago Lyric Opera, and has family here in the Milwaukee area, Fons moved back recently after about 15 years away, and is glad to be home.