Page 25 - Classical Singer Magazine November/December 2019

updated productions, but I don’t want to force contemporary work on my style.
Oftentimes when we attend operas nowadays, it’s more about the stage director’s concept than the composer’s music and the librettist’s text and story. Are opera productions meant to serve the story and composer or the director?
When I listen to the music over and over again, for me, it’s about the imagery that I get. I feel an obligation to the text and music. Perhaps the most exciting thing is having the opportunity to premiere new works after you workshop them with the composer.
Richard Wargo and I have done
ve operas like this, and there is no experience more fascinating. We all are searching—searching for the characters
Danner backstage with Carol Burnett in Once Upon a Mattress.
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