The motto of the United States Marine Corps is “The Few, The Proud,” and at the moment that seems like a very apt motto for Carthage’s Opera Workshop as well. For a combination of reasons, there are only two students enrolled this semester in workshop – a situation which nearly led to workshop being cancelled. Truth be told, if the powers-that-be (my department chair and my dean) had gone strictly by the numbers, opera workshop would have gone dark this fall. But given the lovely things we did in workshop this past year, and the fact that the two students in question, London Roysden and Cory Pollard, are such talented and dedicated students, the decision was made to let workshop go ahead even with such a small enrollment and in a much simpler format.
And in fact, the three of us have had a terrific time working together on two sequences from Donizetti’s delightful comedy ‘The Elixir of Love’ and doing things that would have certainly not been possible with a larger group. For one thing, we have had the time to have long and profound conversations about the characters that they are portraying – and we have been digging deeply into fine details of the music they are singing. The weirdest part of it has actually not been that there are only two students – but rather that I am the only teacher. I have always been able to collaborate with somebody in workshop …. for many years with stage director Matt Boresi, and more recently with Peg Cleveland, Elena Batman and Allison Hull. Sadly, this small enrollment has meant that it is just little old me teaching them this semester. I can’t tell you how much I miss having the input and collaboration of colleagues- and I hope that this business of flying solo is a temporary thing.
The very fact that I’m leading workshop by myself this semester is probably why I so deeply appreciate the contributions shared by two different visitors to workshop – one a very recent Carthage grad and the other a legendary voice teacher who just retired from the faculty at Lawrence University. At least forty years of age and experience separated the two of them, but each of them had something really valuable to offer. The first visitor was a former voice student of mine named Nick Huff whose exemplary work while at Carthage has been followed by exciting experiences at Eastman School of Music, the Milwaukee Florentine Opera and the Merola program in San Francisco. In fact, Nick has already had the exciting experience of singing major roles in two different operatic world premiere, including the world premiere this past summer of a brand new opera by the renowned Jake Heggie. And in the middle of September, Nick came back to Kenosha and sang an absolutely spectacular recital to a standing-room-only audience at Kenosha’s Creative Space. To say that I am proud of Nick does not begin to convey what it feels like to see him doing so splendidly well- and to see him so happy.
Nick joined us a couple of weeks ago for what turned out to be a delightful session in which he watched London and Cory as they performed their act one sequence from ‘Elixir’ – and then offered some insightful suggestions as well as plenty of encouragement and affirmation. It has sometimes been my experience that a fairly young person, when thrust into the position of being the “teacher” or “visiting consultant” (or whatever) for the first time will sometimes go out of their way to harp on lots and lots of things …. anxious to demonstrate how much they know by being very difficult to please. I was delighted that Nick was completely comfortable with praising what he thought was praiseworthy – and also that he seemed to have a knack for couching his suggestions and criticisms in the most encouraging terms. He also didn’t try to be too fancy or esoteric in his comments- He was happy sticking with the bread & butter basics that all of us need to remember. Both Cory and London loved working with him, and afterwards one of them said something about how easy it was to relate to Nick because he carried himself in such a comfortable, down-to-earth way …. more like a colleague or a peer than a visiting dignitary. And of course, for all that Nick has already experienced since leaving Carthage, he is young enough to vividly remember what it was like to be where London and Cory are right now. One other thing that should be mentioned is that Nick sang the role of Nemorino (Cory’s role) in the slightly abridged production of ‘Elixir’ that we did during J-Term of Nick’s sophomore year at Carthage. So he knows this opera well- and remembers it fondly as the opera in which he really stepped into his own as an opera singer.
It was exactly one week later than we welcomed Dr. Kenneth Bozeman, a recently retired voice teacher from Lawrence University who is easily one of the most renowned voice teachers in the entire country. Over the last twenty years, I have been bowled over time and time again by the Ken Bozeman students that have sung at NATS competitions. He has always had an uncanny knack for drawing out the biggest and most beautiful sound that someone is capable of producing – but without resorting to pushing or to artificial manipulations. He just knows how the human voice functions- and it is little wonder that gifted young singers from all over the country have been desperate to study under him. Fortunately, he is as nice as he is accomplished …. which makes it very hard to hate him. (LOL) He actually spent a full day at Carthage as a guest of the music department, speaking to several different classes – and I was thrilled when the offer was extended for him to visit Opera Workshop as well. Unlike Nick’s session, which was devoted almost entirely to matters of character and stagecraft, Ken Bozeman asked to focus on the singing itself …. and his work with both London and Cory yielded some very exciting results. He was relentless and methodical – picking apart one note at a time – spending quite a few minutes on perhaps one or two measures of music at the most. And as impressed as I was with the level of his insightfulness, what impressed me every bit as much was how open and responsive both London and Cory were. If we could somehow resurrect the great Enrico Caruso and bring him in for a master class, the results would be negligible if the singers weren’t receptive to what he had to offer. Both Cory and London soaked up everything that Ken Bozeman had to offer …. and I was thrilled to see it.
It was not only exciting to see what Ken Bozeman accomplished in that one hour with Cory and London- but it was also nice for me to realize that I could fully enjoy the experience in a way that would have been much harder for me ten or fifteen years ago. Once upon a time, I think the demons of self-doubt and envy would have done their best to make me feel entirely uncertain of myself and my worth as a voice teacher in such a scenario. And I am speaking from experience on that; I can still vividly remember master class settings in which I found it hard not to inwardly cringe when I heard somebody else drawing splendid new sounds from one of my students – as though their ability to do that was some sort of direct indictment of my abilities as a teacher. I would (usually – and eventually) be able to drive off those kind of thoughts, but not before feeling those thoughts very vividly and even painfully. Thank goodness I have finally been around the block enough to understand that all of us have our own particular gifts — and that there is no earthly reason to engage in a fruitless and pointless comparison game with other teachers and the way that they teach. I am very good at certain things- not so good at others- but when you add it all up, I’m a good voice teacher with plenty to offer to the students I am charged with teaching. What matters most is that I give those students my best …. and I am realizing more and more that giving them my best actually means allowing them to benefit from the best that other people have to offer as well.
And the ‘best’ that was offered up by Nick Huff and Ken Bozeman is what teaching is all about.