Page 95 - Classical Singer magazine 2019 Fall University Issue

For more modern fare, Janáček lls out the roster. “There is so much you can learn from his operas on how he used the voice.”
And Britten’s P eter Grimes is
a pinnacle. “I remember when I rst heard it,” he says. “It was John Vickers in 1984 in L.A. when the olympics were there. Also, I had just heard S weeney T odd with Angela Lansbury and George Hearn. That all these things were possible on the lyric stage really blew my mind.”
The composer’s day begins with a walk from home to his regular co ee place, where he grabs his all-important fuel and appreciates the relative low-key anonymity of San Francisco. “They know I write music,” he says of his local baristas, “but they don’t really know what kind or what it means.” Co ee in hand, he continues to a studio he has rented for 14 years. The garage-
level space in an old Victorian was originally soundproofed for percussion.
“I can write or not—no one
will know,” he says. “What was it Hemingway said?” The exact quote he is searching for is this: “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”
Heggie writes his scores by
hand, scans them, and o to the copyist they go—leaving him free from the curse/blessing of modern composing software. Judging by the quantity and diversity of his output, the system works for him. Instead of worrying about computer bugs, Heggie is thinking in notes and does his best to keep the background noise to a minimum.
When we meet on a sunny June day outside the War Memorial Opera House, we chat for a bit about word games. Heggie and I
have both recently become addicted to the N ew York T imes “Spelling Bee,” but Heggie is giving it up. “I found that in the back of my mind I was thinking about the game instead of working on music,” he admits.
The War Memorial is a second home to Heggie, the stage his living room TV. He attends everything and thrives on the sense of community. I saw him there the other night. Like much of the audience, he was walking about a foot o the ground at the intermission of a transcendent performance of Rusalka. I once saw him kneel at Sondra Radvanovsky’s feet backstage after a stunning performance in Roberto Devereux.
It is no surprise he seems well liked, but Heggie is a bit wary of the word nice. “Nice people will say whatever you want to hear,” he says. “A kind person tells you the truth
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PRESIDENT OF THE JURY
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Founder, Carmela Altamura; Lewis Ehlers, Lombardo Management Assoc; Domenico Boyagian, Cleveland Opera Theater; Dr. Krzysztof Biernacki, Professor of Voice & Opera, University of North Florida, Camille Coppola, New Rochelle Opera
Father Graeme Napier, Rector, St. John in the Village, NYC
PRELIMINARIES: OCT 22/23/2019 - 11 AM - 7 PM, AT THE EPIC BLDG., OTELLO ROOM, 2067, BROADWAY, N Y, NY 1002 FINALS: OCT 24, 6 PM TO 10 PM, National Opera Center, Opera America -
www.altocanto.org Carmela@altocanto.org
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WITH, CARMELA ALTAMURA, FOUNDER AND ROGER MALOUF, METROPOLITAN OPERA -- - FOR INFO - TEL: 201-863-8724
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DEADLINE: SEPT. 20, 2019 - REGISTRATION $100 - WRITE TO, CARMELA @ALTOCANTO.ORG
330 Seventh Avenue | New York, NY 10001
www.csmusic.net 95
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