S12 E38 - Delaware State of the Arts - Wilmington Concert Opera

Prepare to be captivated as we delve into the enchanting world of opera with the Wilmington Concert Opera. We explore their upcoming performance of Hansel und Gretel, a German opera that's rarely seen on stage but holds a wealth of beauty and emotion. Attendees of the family-friendly performance on November 12th are in for a treat with crafts, snacks, and a gingerbread house building activity. We also delve into the significant benefits of introducing children to opera at a young age, all while enjoying the soothing notes of the famous lullaby from the opera.

This episode doesn't stop at the performance, we draw back the curtain on the larger mission of the Wilmington Concert Opera. With a passionate commitment to diversity, inclusivity, and nurturing new talent, we uncover their strategies for discovering fresh voices in opera. We also discuss their expansion plans, including a virtual recital series and upcoming performances of Diefle der Maus and the Voices of Home Gala in May 2024. Lastly, we turn our attention to the role of creativity and risk-taking in fostering successful careers in opera. This episode is a must-listen for opera enthusiasts and anyone curious about the art form and its future.

The Delaware Division of the Arts, a branch of the Delaware Department of State, is committed to supporting the arts and cultivating creativity to enhance the quality of life in Delaware. Together with its advisory body, the Delaware State Arts Council, the Division administers grants and programs that support arts programming, educate the public, increase awareness of the arts, and integrate the arts into all facets of Delaware life. Learn more at Arts.Delaware.Gov.

Delaware State of the Arts is a weekly podcast that presents interviews with arts organizations and leaders who contribute to the cultural vibrancy of communities throughout Delaware. Delaware State of the Arts is provided as a service of the Division of the Arts, in partnership with NEWSRADIO 1450 WILM and 1410 WDOV.

Transcript

Andy Truscott: 0:10

For Delaware State of the Arts. I'm Andy Truscott. My guests today are from the Wilmington Concert Opera. Wilmington Concert Opera, an exclusively woman and minority-run company, was founded on principles of diversity, inclusivity and accessibility. Annually, they present the works of dozens of local opera singers and find ways to bring them in front of new audiences statewide. Upcoming November 10th through 12th is your next performance of Hansel und Gretel. Let's just jump in. Tell me a little bit more about it.

Dr. Marisa Robinson: 0:41

Well, it is part of our mission to do a full opera in its original language every year, and so we will be doing a rarity Hansel und Gretel auf Deutsch, in German in its entirety. It's almost always presented cut down in English. We're very excited about that. It's a beautiful work. Obviously, it has both very beautiful music for the opera lover and the person who would like complex and beautiful music. But it also has beautiful tunes and a wonderful brother's grim story. It is family-friendly.

Dr. Marisa Robinson: 1:14

All of our performances are family-friendly, but we're really excited this time to bring a very specific family from friendly matinee on November 12th at 2. That is a family-friendly, sensory-friendly performance. Snacks and digits and a gingerbread house building craft. At one o'clock before the performance. We'll let the gingerbread houses set during the performance. You can take them home afterwards. There's a costume-for-rated intermission. There's just all kinds of fun things happening and we really hope that people will bring their children and have a great time, because we really think this is a great piece to introduce your kids to opera. Also, if they already like opera, you should still bring them.

Dr. Kirsten Kunkle: 2:00

Yeah, we're also going to be—normally we're in gowns and tuxedos and this time we'll be in a little bit more individualized costume-type wear. It will still be concert version and there will be super titles so that you can read what's going on in English, in case you're worried about the German. If you think you don't know any music from Hansel and Gretel, you do. It's actually got a very, very famous lullaby that you've heard, probably in commercials or on children's toys, things like that and it's just a beautiful piece of music. It's not an extremely long opera. It's a lot of fun and I think that every audience member will really enjoy this. It's something that our singers and pianists enjoy and love a lot, and I think the audience also really just hones in on the beauty of the music and also the fun story. It's something we all know and love from our childhoods.

Andy Truscott: 2:57

Talk to me a little bit about how youth and art started for you both, and then what you hope performances like this do to engage and make them aware of some of the offerings that are out there for them.

Dr. Kirsten Kunkle: 3:09

I started out in the arts as young as I can remember. I started out in ballet at age two and took piano lessons very young. My mother played piano and had been a dancer. I loved musical theater growing up, as I think many of us opera singers tended to do, and I was very active in musical theater. When I was 12, I started voice lessons and my teacher got me started on the trajectory of singing classical music. For me that opened that door and she also got me involved in my very first opera, which was just a gateway for everything else. So for me that's how that started.

Dr. Kirsten Kunkle: 3:44

But I think for us as a team here and also as a company, we realize that if you reach children young, that they can fall in love with anything that you put in front of them, whether it's sports or arts or whatever that might be. So we want to at least provide the opportunity for people to have the experience of being able to see opera for free in their own community. And that's really what is, you know, the cornerstone of our mission. We want to bring professional, quality opera, world-class opera, to Delaware for free for the masses, and that is really what it's all about so that they can have the exposure, to have that experience and hopefully they will come away with at least a great time, if not a newfound love of music.

Dr. Marisa Robinson: 4:32

I also definitely was, you know, in the theater as young as I can remember, but actually from the backstage side. My mother costumed theater and dance when I was a small child. So some of my first childhood memories were going to the dance store and looking for loose sequins on the floor and going to costume fittings Because I was the costumer's daughter. I made my professional dance debut at nine because they needed a child for the modern dance piece and they knew that I was capable of sitting still for 15 minutes, which was really the main choreographic requirement for these.

Dr. Marisa Robinson: 5:05

I know I always sang. I did dance a little as a besides, you know, accidentally professional dancing. I did take ballet as a small child and then I also started voice lessons at 12. And you know that the Phantom of the Opera on Lame is were such like a gateway for those of us who were already singing in the early 90s. And if you found that that was a thing that you know suited your voice, then you know quickly the voice teachers like. But which would you like to? And the answer is yes, I would like to. I would like to sing that, that Mozart, or that that Mendelssohn or whatever.

Andy Truscott: 5:39

What are some ways that parents or guardians can expose their children to what to expect from the opera before they arrive? What do you think are some effective ways that someone might let their, their child, know what to expect before they arrive that day?

Dr. Kirsten Kunkle: 5:54

Well, I think there are your traditional standard answers. Right, like there's. Like they show them a video on YouTube or read the story beforehand, read the synopsis. Those are the things that we tell people all the time. For this particular production, we actually have outreach events that they can go to.

Dr. Kirsten Kunkle: 6:11

There are a few events that are actually planned that they could specifically take their child to. The most prominent one, I think, is the Halloween Fall Festival in Spooktacular at Presbyterian Church of the Covenant, which is also the location for our performances. That is from two to five on October 28th. It is family friendly, very family friendly, lots of events, and you can hear snippets from the opera so that you can hear the witches' aria and one of Gretel's arias, and they'll be explaining what's going on too. So that's a small taste to see if it's something that they can enjoy and sit through. Also, with our sensory friendly production date of November 12th, if they are just not feeling it, you can take them out. You can go have them, have a cool down in the cool down room and come back, and that's okay. We're absolutely open to that. We want it to be accessible, and so I think that that is the prime goal of November 12th's performance.

Dr. Kirsten Kunkle: 7:15

Yes, we plan to give you a fantastic performance as well, but we want it to be something where people can feel that they are having that experience, whether or not the children are ready to sit through an entire show or if it's just brand new to them. You know, it might be that this is something that they could be an older child, but they've never sat through an opera before and they might not know what to think. So, yeah, I think exposure is, or before they come, is great. If not, that's okay too and it's all right. We are open to that and we're perfectly fine. If there's a rapper in the middle of the performance, you know that's okay. Something like that, something that might be frowned upon at a bigger theater or a more grandiose site.

Andy Truscott: 8:02

Something I've heard with sensory friendly performances is there's sometimes called relaxed performances, with the idea right that the rules are relaxed to air quotes, that if you're really excited about what's going on, you can clap in the middle of the song. Everything will be okay, you know, lights can be up. Similarly, you can walk out of the event to kind of decompress and come back in without kind of that judgment from other audience members around you, and so I'm thrilled to hear that it's finding its way deeper and deeper into some of our organizations in Delaware. Hansel and Gretel is the end of your 2023 calendar season. Talk to us about some of the highlights. What were some of the great successes? What were some of your favorite moments?

Dr. Marisa Robinson: 8:44

So I mean the highlight of 2023 really is the realization of this season.

Dr. Marisa Robinson: 8:49

The title of the season all of our seasons have titles is Back to Before and for us, as a company whose mission is both about bringing opera to new audiences and also about supporting local singers, when we say back to before, what we mean is that the two productions we did this year the Belcanto Gala and Hansel and Gretel were the reopening of the contracts for the productions we did not do in 2020.

Dr. Marisa Robinson: 9:16

We thought it was really important to honor the intention and the contracts for that work, but that was the big. The big joy of the season is that and of course, also that you know Hansel and Gretel is just going to be so fun and multi-layered and exciting and beautiful and rewarding to sing and rewarding to listen to and hopefully, as Pearson said, you know, a joyful and comfortable place for audiences to be. We like to think it's always a safe place to say yay in the middle of the aria. We would rather have your joyful noise than not have you bring your children and to any of the performances. You know, if Sunday doesn't work for you and you want to come to this Friday night performance and you have your children with you. That is also great.

Dr. Kirsten Kunkle: 10:00

Yeah, we actually had a dog bark in one of our performances for Geron Deans and I remember that that was a new experience for all of us. We didn't expect that Somebody had brought their service dog and it was just kind of like, oh there's a bark there, you know. But we were fine, we made it through with no problems.

Andy Truscott: 10:18

How do you feel like your artists have kind of rallied and gathered around you as the organization has grown?

Dr. Kirsten Kunkle: 10:25

I think that, from what I noticed, everyone was very grateful to have a contract actually followed through with from 2020. We were able to increase their pay from what we initially planned, which was really appreciated Because you know, we are back, so to speak, but it's still rough. I mean, covid is still very much here. We've got another wave coming, there are things happening, so trying to do group numbers is tricky Because you might lose somebody at the last minute, and we have. We have been in that situation where we've lost somebody at the last minute and had to regroup the morning of a performance. You know, so it's it's tricky.

Dr. Kirsten Kunkle: 11:03

We're still navigating that as a whole, as an industry. But I think the, the singers and all the musicians I don't want to just limit it to the singers have all been grateful for the work and I don't want to speak out of term, but I think that they enjoy working with us. I mean, I've gotten the impression that the vast majority of people I've talked to have been very happy to work with us and in an environment where they know they can bring their child if they can't get a babysitter, or they can come late if there's a problem with traffic and we are not going to Dr Pay. I think that it's been very positive overall.

Dr. Marisa Robinson: 11:39

You know, to speak to your the corner of your question about you know the caliber of artists. You know the caliber of. You know there's obviously there's a core of singers. You know every company has singers that you you bring back time and again because they're great and you like working with them. We're always, always looking to hear new voices and the caliber of submissions that we receive and the number of them continues to increase and frequently they do come addressed with other singer friends who has worked with you who said that I should apply and it said X, y and Z wonderful things about the experience of working with you.

Dr. Kirsten Kunkle: 12:14

And we do try to include at least one or two new people for every concert, even if we are solidly bringing back a large number. But we use new people all the time. And the other thing is that we still have our virtual recitals going. So that's one nice thing that we have for both local and further out distant people, that they have opportunities to be heard that way or bring new repertoire to our audiences that we wouldn't have otherwise. Like, for example, we had had a Filipino recital of all Filipino music that we would not have had otherwise if we hadn't had this virtual recital series. So it's still something that we are always expanding our singer base.

Dr. Marisa Robinson: 12:55

For that reason I mean we had a delightful virtual recital in September. That was all relatively new music, I mean within the last 10 years I think, by living composers who were all friends with the soprano who programmed it. That was like a really cool niche lane of things, but it was all just such fun and she was clearly having such fun performing. It was beautifully sung. Highly recommend checking it out. It is on our YouTube channel.

Dr. Kirsten Kunkle: 13:25

That's something people can do with their children too is if they want to just get a taste of what we do. We do have excerpts from our big concerts, but we also have all these virtual recitals, and most of them have little breakaway introductions and things like that too, just to kind of set the scene.

Andy Truscott: 13:39

As we look forward into 2024,. You've got a whole set of upcoming performances and other kind of new initiatives coming. Tell us a little bit about what we can expect to see from Wilmington Concert Opera into the 2024 year.

Dr. Kirsten Kunkle: 13:55

Well, I think we're really excited about this season. We have again our Gala and our full opera. The full opera is Diefle der Maus and that will be. That is tentatively scheduled for September of 2024. And that is an operetta and it's lots of fun. It's comic and we haven't done too many comedic operas, but this one will be lots of fun. It's again in German, but we will do an English dialogue for that, just to make it more accessible. There's no reason for us to try to be butchering spoken German if we don't have to too much. In that there is a famous aria called the Chardash and the translation for that is, loosely, voice of Home, voices of Home. So that is the title of our Gala, which will actually happen before Diefle der Maus.

Dr. Kirsten Kunkle: 14:45

That will happen in early May and that is going to be about a curated program for Voice for pieces based on the individual heritages of the different singers on the program. So that is based on both heritage and ethnicity. We have a nice variety of singers scheduled for that of all different types of heritages, which is really exciting for us. We're going to be able to feature music that we wouldn't be able to feature otherwise, and I'm working specifically with each singer to try to make sure that we are honoring their heritage as they feel is done in a sincere and honorable way. So we have all sorts of different types of people. We have a Filipino singer, we have Native American singers, we have African American singers, we have singers of Jewish heritage. We have all sorts of different singers. So they will all be doing things that are either, if they only have one heritage that they want to showcase, we will be focusing on that, whether it's with a composer or a poet, and we will also be dealing with people who have multiple heritages and with those they will be showcasing some or all of their heritages, based on what they feel they want to feature.

Dr. Kirsten Kunkle: 16:06

And then, additionally, we will be throwing in some things about home and homeland that can open up the variety of pieces for ensemble work. One specific example that we plan to do is journey on from ragtime, so that will be something that we can do that features the idea of going home or coming to a new home. Anthem from Chess will be on there, and specifically, I know we're looking at Opatria and Mia from Aida as well. So those are all things that are not specifically about someone's individual heritage, but they talk about homeland as a whole, so that ties the program together as well. We're very excited about that. We think the audiences will love it. It's different from anything we've done before, and I know that our musicians are extremely excited about the prospect of showcasing who they are on a different level.

Andy Truscott: 16:56

Can you share some personal anecdotes or stories that illustrate the impact of these diversity and inclusivity efforts for the organization?

Dr. Kirsten Kunkle: 17:04

Specifically to me Marissa and I are both women. Obviously, marissa has a Jewish background. I am Native American. So, right there, we are not your stereotypical CEOs, if you will. We bring a different perspective, just based on who we are, and I think that that is something that we have always acknowledged as part of who we are.

Dr. Kirsten Kunkle: 17:28

As far as diversity and inclusivity, from the onset of the organization, that was always the goal was to be as inclusive as possible and accessible, so accessible to the audiences. Specifically, we wanted to bring in the biggest number of types of people. Backgrounds, levels of income, where people lived, it didn't matter to us. We wanted to be able to reach everyone. So that was always, from day one, one of the most important things to us as far as being inclusive.

Dr. Kirsten Kunkle: 18:02

As far as our performers, we wanted to make sure that, no matter what your background is, if you're a great singer, you can be featured. If you're a good colleague, you can be featured, and that's never been something we've ever had any issues with. It's something we want to feature more of, so that we are dealing with people of all ages, disabilities, races, backgrounds, cultures, religions. So, in and of itself, because I think we are coming from it from a perspective of being people who have been judged our whole lives as singers. But also the fact that we are women, that we are coming from backgrounds that are not necessarily the biggest majority of people, that makes us much more aware, and so we've tried to make sure our board is diversified, that we get different perspectives, that we ask our audience what do you see that you like? What are you seeing that could improve On a regular basis? So I think that that may be a broad answer, but I think that that's really we come from that, so we try to embody that.

Dr. Marisa Robinson: 19:14

It's sort of hard to narrow down because it's so profoundly what we do.

Andy Truscott: 19:18

As you look to engage this younger generation, do you have any advice for young aspiring opera singers who may be considering a career move into this field?

Dr. Marisa Robinson: 19:28

Question whether those gatekeepers really have authority over you. Are the people who are telling you know people whose opinions you would actually respect if they were talking about anyone else? And do you love it? Is this what you wake up with in your heart every day? Then that's what it is, that's the thing for you.

Dr. Kirsten Kunkle: 19:47

Yeah, I think that I'm that person that someone says I can't, so I find a way to do it just to spite them.

Dr. Kirsten Kunkle: 19:54

I think that doesn't inspire it's actually hard, but, yeah, I think that there's a lot to be said for that. If you don't love practicing, if you don't love it and enjoy that and have that be a respite for the rest of your stresses, it's going to be a very hard career. I would say that more than anything, in addition to what Marisa said, which I absolutely agree with be open to whatever opportunities come your way, even if it's not something that was in your plan. My career has been exceptionally varied and gone in ways that I never, ever, could have anticipated. I don't think either of us ever had a goal of opening and starting a company. It happened because the pieces lined up so obviously to us that we fell into it, and then we fell into it full force because we realized the need for it but also the love that we had for it.

Dr. Kirsten Kunkle: 20:45

Everything that I've done in my life career-wise that has been really positive has been because I've taken a leap into something I didn't know if I could actually do. I thought I could, I thought I might be able to, but because I trusted it myself enough that I could said okay, I'm going to try it and see where it goes. It has opened so many more doors. So I think if you're set, I'm only going to sing If I can perform at the Met. This is not the career for you. If you want to sing because you love singing, then it might be the career for you If you're willing to make all those sacrifices and do all those things and also realize there is not one clear-cut path for everyone. It's all very different, especially nowadays.

Andy Truscott: 21:26

You can learn more about Wilmington Concert Opera at their website, wilmingtonconsertoperacom, and a reminder that their next upcoming performance of Hansel and Gretel is November 10th through the 12th Ladies. Thank you so much for joining me and I look forward to seeing kind of all the exciting things coming now through the end of 2024. Music.