Author: Alexandria Strother

I have never been the type of person to walk around with ear buds buried in my ears, barely aware of the noises of the world that surround me. I have subscribed to the belief that the need for constant stimulation is not a sign of boredom but fear – the fear of being left alone with ones thoughts and where their mind might go if they allow it to wander. Yet, following the rediscovery of my iPod nano (a first generation vintage classic which was never lost, rather stored in a really, really safe place) I have found myself reaching into my pocket nearly every time I leave a building, unwrapping my earbuds from around it and hitting play as I make my way to my next destination.

A year ago, I barely ever had an iPod on me and since my phone has only enough memory for a maximum of two apps and a few texts at a time, I have never used my phone to listen to music. Yet, as I began to drive to between Ann Arbor and Chicago on a biweekly basis this past summer, I tired of the Top 40 hits that were played over and over and over again on the radio. So, switched to hooking up my iPod to my car’s stereo allowing me the ability to listen to something other than “Can’t Feel My Face” and “Cheerleader” for four hours straight.

I fell in love with listening to the free Freakonomics Podcasts and feeling productive during those hours with my hands on the wheel. When school started, I figured why not continue using that typically unproductive transportation time to learn something. I found myself first using my iPod only with my car’s stereo as I drove to school, then on my ten minute walks from the Orange lot to the EECS building, and now I find that it has become a habit, that more often than not I am walking with earbuds unwrapped, inserted and allowing my podcasts and music to flow from my iPod to my brain.

While it has been a more productive use of transportation time, I must wonder what I am giving up. Those moments of quite respite between classes and homework that allow my brain to recharge – what effect has losing those had on me these past few weeks? I don’t have an exact answer to that question, but I feel that this constant state of being “plugged-in” has to negatively effect me in some manner – that the constant bombardment of my brain with music or words with no time to recharge hinders my creativity and my ability to function at a high level academically and musically. Perhaps it doesn’t, and I’ve bought into too many studies that have made wild and inappropriate conjectures from there result, but just in case I think now is a good time to unplug and store my iPod in another super safe place.

In the past couple weeks I have been writing many of my blogs about various performers and artists that have been or are associated with the University of Michigan. Today I will continue this trend as I introduce you all to the fabulous Jessye Norman.

Jessye Norman was the first opera singer I had ever heard live. It was the beginning of my freshmen year and she gave some special Gershwin concert at Hill Auditorium. I remember being in awe of how smooth and rich her voice was. Here we were in Hill Auditorium – which is a HUGE space – and every inch of the hall was filled with her sound, a sound that was never forced or pushed but poured out of her with such ease. After googling her name following the concert, I was not surprised to discover that not only has she received numerous honorary doctorates, but has been honored with the National Medal of Arts and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Jessye Norman graduated from the University of Michigan in 1968 after studying with Elizabeth Mannion for her Master’s degree in Vocal Performance. Following her graduation Norman moved to Europe to establish herself where she landed a three-year contract with the Deutsche Opera Berlin via the ARD International Music Competition in Munich. During this three year contract, Norman spent quite a bit of time behind the Iron Curtain in East Berlin. With her American passport it was easy to go through Checkpoint Charlie and here she was captivated by how much the arts and music met to the people behind the Iron Curtain. “They would arrive hours before the performances were to begin just to stand in line, knowing that they had tickets already, just to know that they were anticipating the music as much as the people who were going to present the music. Even though they lived under the oppressive regimes, that their spirits were not squelched — that they lived anyway, that they allowed their spirits to be free in any case. And that made a great impression and still makes a great impression on me”.

Four short years after graduating from the University of Michigan and moving to Europe, Jessye Norman made her debut at La Scala as well as the Royal Opera at Covent Garden performing the title role in Verdi’s Aida and Cassandra in Berlioz’s Les Troyens respectively. Jessye Norman spent much of her time performing in concerts and recitals primarily focusing on the European markets, only expanding to North America once she was an established artist in Europe. According to Encyclopedia Britannica “By the mid-1980s she was one of the most popular and highly regarded dramatic soprano singers in the world” during which she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1983 for their 100th anniversary season, singing at the inauguration of Ronald Reagan and Queen Elizabeth II’s 60th birthday celebration.

Now, as Jessye Norman is later in her career, she continues to perform although she has transitioned to performing numerous roles from the mezzo-soprano repertoire. Additionally she has partnered with the Rachel Longstreet Foundation to open the Jessye Norman School of the Arts, a tuition-free after-school program for economically disadvantage youth in her hometown of Augusta, Georgia. In her personal time she avoids listening to opera, instead focusing her attention on hip-hop, and never on an iPod as “there isn’t enough bandwidth on an iPod to give you the full scope of a trained voice or a beautiful violin… you’re not going to hear the timpani in the background or the wonderful soft entrance of the clarinet in the second movement, and all of these things that make this really great music, that is hundreds of years old, and we cannot stop listening and playing because it is so wonderful”.

As for the changes in her voice over the years and the changes in herself, Norman wisely says “I find that to be wonderful, that we can accept the passing of the years as being a positive thing. Life and living can be a marvelous thing if we simply, as it were, embrace the passing of time with love instead of shunning it and pretend that it isn’t happening”.

The best part of attending the University of Michigan is the plethora of opportunities which are available in such enormous quantities that it is easy to neglect them. It is easy to assume that there will always be another opportunity, to become numb to the significance of each event as it has become a new state of normal and to miss meeting people & attending performances that students around the world have only dreamed of attending.

One such opportunity will take place this Sunday afternoon at 4 pm. At this time David Daniels, a new faculty voice professor within the School of Music, Theatre and Dance, will present a recital – completely free of charge.

For those of you who are not familiar with opera this may not seem like a big deal, after all, it is simply a recital that is being given by a new faculty member at the university. However, for those who are familiar with opera you will realize that this is David Daniels that we are talking about. The same David Daniels who is credited with reestablishing the countertenor as a major force in opera and is embraced as the world’s greatest countertenor. The same David Daniels that has sung at the biggest opera houses around the world where thousands of patrons have paid hundreds of dollars to hear him sing. And this same man is performing a concert free of charge on campus.

As David Daniels has said his “goal is to try to give this as long a life as possible and perform it in as many places as I can. Careers don’t go on forever, so I would like to do it as often as possible. I’ve sung 20 years as countertenor and I don’t feel like I’m slowing down at all. In fact, I now have a confidence level that I didn’t have 10 years ago. I feel like a deeper artist, a better communicator. I actually prefer that to fireworks. More realness, honesty, and…maturity. Yeah, that’s a good word! Maturity.”

The university is lucky to have such a wonderful, mature artist as part of their staff. Let us not become numb to how extraordinary this opportunity is and I hope that Britton Recital Hall is just as full as the other venues that Daniels is used to singing at.

Many people consider opera outdated – a relic of the past which served its purpose and now is beginning to fade into history due to its lack of modern relevance. Many people consider pageants outdated – a feminist’s nightmare held together by hairspray and rhinestones, a spectacle holding the country’s attention only during the brief swimsuit competition.

Before I had seen my first opera I bought into the stereotypes associated with it: women in horny hats wearing chest plates, “singing” that sounds more like screaming than music, and convoluted plots obscured by foreign languages. Before I competed in my first pageant one year ago (see my previous post The Day I Became a Pageant Girl for more about this) I assumed that pageantland was filled with blonde bimbos desperate for a rhinestone crown and a TV contract.

One year ago, I decided on a whim to compete for the title of Miss Washtenaw County. I did not know a thing about pageants – I had never even watched Miss America on Tv – but the promise of scholarship money was alluring and I figured that at worst I would end up with a good story about “that one time in pageantland”. Now, almost exactly one year later, I am less than 24 hours away from giving up the title which changed not only how I see pageantry, but its place and relevance in today’s modern world.

When I say that becoming Miss Washtenaw County and my resulting association with the Miss America Organization (MAO) changed my life, I do not simply mean that I’ve made amazing memories that I will cherish forever. I mean that I do not recognize the girl I was a year ago, and that these changes are not fleeting but are so profound that they will stay with me my entire life.

The production of pageantry, like most other theatrical events, is at its core spectacle. Yet, once you see past the swimsuits, the rhinestones and 4” heels, its easy to see that there is so much more to it. Then you can see that with the crown comes a microphone that helps you reach more people than you ever thought possible. The crown gave me unprecedented access to schools and volunteer organizations across Washtenaw County. Without it, I would never been able to talk to over 1,500 kids about STEM in the past year – because as Alexandria no one wanted to listen, but as Miss Washtenaw, I had all-school assemblies called for me because they believed that if MAO thought I had something to say, I might be worth listening to.

There are plenty of people in the world who don’t get opera and, frankly, never will. There are plenty of people who feel the same way about pageantry, but I have seen first hand the positive change that involvement in the Miss America Organization has had on me. So just as with opera, pageants will stay a part of my life because in the past year they have proven their relevance.

This year, the University of Michigan Department of Theatre and Drama turned 100. Additionally, it marks Arthur Miller’s 100th birthday and 125 years of acting classes at the University available to be take for college credit. As a result, the theater department has put on numerous special events to mark this very special anniversary including producing Arthur Miller’s All My Sons in the theater on North Campus named after the playwright.

Many people know Arthur Miller from high school English class where they (most likely) begrudgingly read Death of a Salesman. Death of Salesman was and is more than a Pulitzer Prize winning drama, the work gets to the core of what it means to be an American and to have the chance to fight for and earn the American Dream. Though commonly listed as one of the most influential American plays of the 20th century, Death of a Saleman was not what established Arthur Miller as one of the preeminent playwrights of the 20th century – rather it was All My Sons written in 1947 that produced such a reputation.

To those unfamiliar with Arthur Miller’s life, the celebration of Arthur Miller and the University of Michigan’s Theatre Department may seem to be a case of convenient timing – however – Arthur Miller’s connection to the University of Michigan is much more. After graduating from high school in Brooklyn, Miller worked numerous menial jobs to afford tuition at the University of Michigan. It was here where Arthur Miller studied Journalism and wrote for the Michigan Daily, and where he wrote his first play No Villain which after winning the Avery Hopwood Award prompted him to consider a career as a playwright rather than a journalist. After his graduation from the University in 1938, Arthur Miller maintain strong ties to the University establishing two awards named after the playwright and lending his name to the theater built on North Campus in 2007 – the only theater in the world that bears his name.

As we mark 100 years of Michigan Theatre and of Arthur Miller, it is important to remember that 100 years from now we might well be celebrating the next great mind who graduated from this institution. For it is the opportunities which this University provides that helps it’s students develop into their full potential, potential that one day may change the way people see the world just as Arthur Miller has.

If I have not said it before let me make this clear: I love spectacle. I love the all inclusive nature of spectacle; how it combines singing, dancing, lights, sets, costumes – essentially everyone and everything into it’s world and leaves the audience agog at the sheer magnitude of the production. To many in the classical world, spectacle is a cheap trick which impeaches the purity of the music, yet, in the musical theatre world spectacle is a given.

Saturday night I attended the opening night of The Merry Widow at the Detroit Opera House presented by Michigan Opera Theatre and yesterday night I attended the final dress rehearsal of The Music Man at the Power Center presented by the University of Michigan Musical Theatre Department. As I sit here thinking about the pieces which I have seen this week, I cannot help but think about the 2/3 full opera house on opening night compared to a 2/3 full Power Center during a dress rehearsal that was only opened because every single other performance sold out weeks ago. As I sit here, I can’t help but wonder why.

Ignoring the obvious oversimplification that modern people do not like opera, and ignoring the factors which are beyond the scope of this blog post such as substantial differences in ticket prices, location and accessibility of the theatre, the use of foreign languages etc. I think the biggest problem opera has when “competing” with musical theatre is the perception of Park-and-Bark singers in unrealistic circumstances screeching about their lives for a minimum of 2.5 hours.

This perception is there for good reason as unfortunately, many opera productions turn out that way. And frankly, I think it’s because opera houses aren’t expecting enough from their singers.

For a “dying” art form, opera is oversaturated with singers deluded with notions of becoming the next Pavarotti and stuck with no back up plan, but thousands of dollars of debt. Most of these singers are incredibly talented. Most of them have good diction and are fluent (or at least conversational) in the languages they sing in. And most of them continue to barely make ends meet as they live gig to gig, supplementing their income by teaching the next generation of opera singers.

As with anything in life, when you have more people who want a position than you have positions available, you are able to ask more of the canidates. You can extend the requirements from a good voice to a great voice, from 1 semester of ballet (which did not do much more than have the singer realize how bad they are at dance) to years of dance training and Park-and-Bark singing to acting that makes you love and feel for the character. This is what musical theatre requires and I see no reason that opera should be any different.

Yes, it is a lot to ask of a performer. But it is a lot to ask of an audience member to spend $200 on a ticket just to see you sing. If it is only about the voice, as some claim, strip away the costumes and the sets and lower that ticket price down to $100. But if a performer wants to transport the audience to a different time and a different place, I cannot be sitting in the audience noticing your unpointed feet or floppy fish hands as you dance, or the dead expression in your eyes as you sing about how happy you are.

I love opera. I think it is a complete art form but so often this seems to be forgotten as Park-and-Bark infiltrates its way into otherwise stellar productions. If we as artists want the tradition of opera to strongly into the future, we must embrace spectacle just as musical theatre has or soon opening nights that play to 2/3 full halls will dwindle down to shorter runs and fewer productions.