Page 30 - 2020 Classical Singer Magazine January Summer Program Issue

Grace and Grit: Amanda Majeski
Composer from Ariadne auf N axos these days, soprano Lotte Lehmann debuted the role. “I don’t think that singers should shy away from roles that feel comfortable and natural, even when ‘out of their Fach,’” she says. “If you sing it well, you sing it well. Let go of the label. I think certain sopranos can sing things like Composer or Cherubino or Octavian, just as certain mezzos can sing things like Donna Elvira and Blanche de la Force.”
Opera singers are often quite attuned to the changes their voices undergo as they learn and grow,
and Majeski says she has found life experience to contribute to those changes. She says though it can be challenging to embrace each moment, that is what she must do in order to be an e ective performer. She says she likes to think, “I’ve never experienced this day before, so it’s essential to bring my full energy and e ort to this moment. Yes, some things might feel vocally di erent than the previous performance or another performance, say, a year ago—but that di erence
is often healthy and, with the right perspective, welcome. What do I have to bring now that I didn’t bring the last time?”
Majeski and her husband of six years, bass-baritone Sam Handley, met while they were both young artists at Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center. They call Wisconsin home and have a small apartment in Chicago. “For me, it’s extremely important to have a place that is grounded in family and life outside music, to remember that music is something I do and
love, but it’s only a small part of who
I am,” she says. Even so, her time at home can be limited. In 2018–19, her work took her to Santa Fe, Stuttgart, London, Colorado, and Australia, among other places.
Handley says they try to attend each other’s performances as much as possible. “Typically that will work out to three or four performances a year, though it can be more or less depending on the locations and other
Majeski as Vitellia in Paris Opera’s production of La clemenza di Tito, 2017
the right direction, in some way,” she says. “My days at Northwestern taught me the fundamentals of musicianship. Learning in a classroom setting and working consistently on my voice through my undergrad pushed me just the right amount.
“At Curtis I learned what it meant to be an opera singer. There were no classrooms, just coaching rooms and stages. I learned by doing and was
able to increase my stamina and prep roles and stage shows just as I would be expected to do in normal life. So when I graduated and moved into the Ryan Center at Lyric Opera, the shift was not huge. I was ready to meet the expectations that assignment held for me. And I’ve found wonderful mentors along the way who I know I can call up at anytime even today and ask for guidance.”
Majeski has done nine di erent productions as Countess (L e nozze di Figaro) in the U.S. and Europe.
“Though I enjoyed playing the Countess, I was ready to get a little space from her to grow in my artistry through other roles,” she says. That choosiness has recently led to more role debuts, such as the title role in Janáček’s Katya Kabanova with Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.
Majeski also does not constrain herself to a narrowly de ned Fach.
She certainly comfortably resides in the lyric soprano realm but in 2018, at Santa Fe Opera, she performed Strauss’ Ariadne auf N axos often cast as a mezzo- soprano. It was her second pants role, the rst being Ottone (Vivaldi’s La Griselda) with Santa Fe Opera in 2011. “I love the freedom and abandon that came from playing a young male, both physically and vocally,” she says. “The outbursts and extremes of emotions really taught me how to let go and trust and nd deeper release in my sound.”
Majeski points out though mezzo-sopranos most often perform
30 Classical Singer / Jan/Feb 2020
photo by Sébastien Mathé