Page 22 - Classical Singer Magazine November/December 2019

Dorothy Danner
Danner with Bob Hope
Next, he said to me, “I’ve just been o ered a show, but it would really be better for you because it has a lot of movement.” He gave me the show! But I felt so behind. That’s why I am forever constantly buried in Nico Castel’s books.
Next, I was asked to choreograph a couple of comic ballets for La traviata and Die Fledermaus at Lake George, and I received other invitations from there. At that point in time, opera companies were trying
to build their audiences by including lighter fare,
like musical theatre shows and, because that was my background, I would be given Gilbert and Sullivan or The S tudent Prince (seems as if I did hundreds of those!), The M erry Widow, O enbach’s The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein and La Périchole. And that’s what got me into it—the timing of their needs and my background.
As a stage director, what shortcomings do you perceive in terms of today’s typical training of opera students?
Well, so many of them have minimal movement or dramatic training—though I nd that singers today have more physical vocabulary than they did in the past. One of the most di cult challenges seems to be
CONTACT INFORMATION
music.depauw.edu 765-658-4118 georgepalton@depauw.edu
SCHOOL OF MUSIC
2020 AUDITION DATES
February 1, 8 and 29. Auditions also available by appointment.
22 Classical Singer | November/December 2019