First came the name, and then the fame
You couldn’t blame Cecilia Violetta López for believing in destiny.
On her birth certificate, her father accidentally gave her the name of one of opera’s enduring heroines. And now, Violetta from “La Traviata” is her signature role.
Performing on stages across the country, including an Aug. 15 Orlando appearance, is a far cry from her childhood — weeding beets alongside her mother in fields in rural Idaho while her father did other agricultural labor. But that unlikely setting is where the soprano first became interested in music.
“She would use music to distract me,” López says of her mother’s efforts to make the farm work go faster. “She would teach me songs she learned from her grandmother.”
Those songs were decidedly not operatic; they were mariachi and ranchero, the music of her parents’ native Mexico.
“They were never exposed to opera,” López says. “My brother, sister and I were never exposed to opera.”
But then she saw “La Boheme” — “the music, I was just completely enveloped” — and the rest is history.
On Sunday, López will kick off Opera Orlando’s annual summer recital series, formerly known as Opera on Park but now just called Opera Orlando in Concert.
López was studying to be a music teacher at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, when she saw “La Boheme.” She was student teaching when she called her mother: “Mom, I can’t be a teacher. My heart’s not in it.”
Mom gave her blessing, and she graduated with a vocal performance degree. A month later, she had her first contract with a professional opera company. Still, the performance world is filled with audition after audition. López enjoys the challenge.
“No one likes rejection, but that’s the work ethic that mom and dad instilled in my siblings and me,” she says. “If you believe in it, you can become it.”
And as her accolades and roles have increased, she has interested her parents in the art form — even if her sister had to remind dad to remove his cowboy hat at his first opera performance. They’re getting the hang of the genre’s storytelling.
“They’re supportive of it, and they’re inquisitive,” López says. “They ask, ‘Are you going to die in this one?’ ”
López has racked up rave reviews, featured on the “25 Rising Stars” list by Opera News and been named one of Idaho’s “Top 10 Most Influential Women of the Century” by USA Today. Her Carnegie Hall gown is displayed in an Idaho museum, where she’s saluted as a trailblazing woman, and she has been honored by a resolution from the state legislature. Since January, she has served as Opera Idaho’s artistic adviser.
“What do you say?” she exclaims about the honors. “‘Thank you’ does not cut it.”
So was it all preordained by the name?
López’s father meant for her middle name to be the Spanish word for violet — violeta — but in his pride and excitement, the happy dad added an extra ‘t’ — turning the word into the name of Puccini’s great heroine of “La Traviata.”
López remembers making the discovery at UNLV.
“In between classes, I went to the library and checked out a book of soprano repertoire,” she recalls. “I thought, ‘Woah … what are the odds?’ That’s impossible!”
She learned the role — and has performed it from Tampa to Minnesota, Wisconsin to Colorado.
For her Orlando recital, she will sing art songs by German and Russian masters, such as Richard Strauss and Sergei Rachmaninoff. The audience also will hear some of those Spanish-language songs learned from her mother.
Then, López will return in October — to sing Violetta in Opera Orlando’s production of “La Traviata.”
It all seems very far from humble beginnings.
“I grew up hoeing beets,” she says. “I pinch myself and say, ‘Is this me?’ ”
And even though deep down she knows it took a lot of work, her success still seems a bit mystical.
“My father misspelled my name … it’s like some musical, magical deity somewhere made it happen,” she says. “It’s like opera picked me.”
Concert series
What: Three recitals
from Opera Orlando
Who and when: Cecilia Violetta López, Aug. 15; tenor Victor Ryan Robinson singing arias and show tunes, Aug. 22; soprano Kirsten Chambers, singing romantic Italian favorites, accompanied by her husband, Aug. 29. All recitals are at 2 p.m.
Where: University Club of Winter Park, 841 N. Park Ave.
Cost: $45 for one concert or $105 for the series. Admission includes a reception with light refreshments and wine.
Info: Operaorlando.org/ summer
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