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Interview with David Ward and Cindy Sadler
What do you love about being an opera singer and this career?
DW: I love the creative part of my job. I have sung almost one hundred performances of Le Nozze di Figaro, but it never gets old. I am always finding something new in the music, the staging and the relationships that develop between the characters. Every Marcellina I work with is different so I enjoy finding that new relationship with the mezzo. I also love being part of this old art form that has survived for so long because of how it touches people. Music affects us very deeply. I am thrilled when I hear the overture to Nozze, I well-up with tears at the opening bars of La Boheme, and I feel so fortunate that I can call this my life's calling. I also love the traveling. This Spring I went to China for the first time to sing Don Magnifico in Rossini's Cenerentola at the opening of the World Expo in Shanghai. It was the trip of a lifetime and is was all about making music.
CS: There's a charming short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. called "Who Am I This Time?". That's how I feel about opera --- who do I get to be this time, and how can I make her absolutely unique while still being true to the intentions of the composer and librettist? I was a musician long before I began to sing opera, but when I found opera, I quite literally found my voice. No other type of music making spoke to me so completely.
With opera, I am able to use every part of my body, mind, and soul to create, and there is no other feeling like it. I've also begun to direct--- I have my own young artists' program, called Spotlight on Opera --- and I find that I love using my own stage.
You play a couple in Susannah - Elder and Mrs McLean, and an 'accidental' couple in The Marriage of Figaro but both are very different. Are there special dynamics or processes when alternating back and forth between two characters while working so closely with one person?
DW: I LOVE working with Cindy. I can't believe this is the first time we've worked together - and it had better not be the last! And it is so easy - you would think, to watch us interact, that we have been doing shows together for years. We trust each other and very quickly started to feel each other's inner character. Our characters are so different in each opera, but we each brought in our own character and basically starting bouncing off of one another. And we ask each other, "does that work for you?" I think we are so in sync with each other as performers that it happens very naturally. And the feeling of each show is so different. Nozze has a lightness to it, a joyous feeling almost, while Susannah has a heaviness, a sadness that permeates it. These affects inform our character creation.
CS:Well, David and I had been warned about each other before we even met! Elden Little, one of our coaches and rehearsal accompanists, had been telling me for some time that I was going to have my work cut out for me with David, because he is so incredibly funny both on and off stage. But we took one look at each other and pretty much knew we were a match made in heaven. We are very much on a wavelength, and there have been several times in staging where David has just read my mind and reacted to something I did, or took a reading I was hoping he'd take, without either of us saying a word. He is absolutely a tremendous colleague. I would love to do a Falstaff with him!
As for the two different characters we each play, they are really so diametrically opposed. We both have completely different body language for each character. For me, Marcellina is rather glamourous and feminine (she certainly thinks of herself that way) and her movements are flowy or fluttery, depending on her emotions. Her music reflects this --- she has some beautiful soaring lines as well as some sharp, almost pecking sounds when she's angry. Mrs. McLean is a hard, severe woman who has had a hard life. She's perpetually angry and disappointed. So her movements are like her music --- spare, economical, often angular. I intentionally move less as Mrs. McLean.
You both are known for your tremendous comedic gifts, in fact there are those who think the opera's title should be changed to "The Marriage of Marcellina and Bartolo." Any special surprises in store for us?
DW:That change hasn't been made yet? I've been calling it "The Marriage of Marcellina and Bartolo" for years. I will not spoil the surprise, but the reveal in the third act is just delightful, when you discover that these two mature people were lovers a long time ago, and now the result has come home to roost.
CS:Well, our Figaro (Craig Irvin) and Susanna (Sarah Jane McMahon) are so charming and engaging that as much as I might like to steal the scene, it might not be possible! I always try to find the humanity and reality in my character, no matter how outlandish that character may be. I also always try to take something of a unique approach --- I never want to play a character the way it's "usually" played. Marcellina is often played as a frumpy old lady whose desperation to marry is funny merely because she IS an old maid. But the minute I started looking at the role, I knew who Marcellina is. She's the Cougar of Seville! She was a hottie in her youth (and the libretto supports this; it's clear that she got around) and she is used to getting attention from men. Her desperation stems partly from the fact that she never succeeded in getting any of her beaus to marry her --- a very real problem for her as she approaches old age --- but also because she knows her beauty is past its prime, but she doesn't really have anything else to trade on. This is why she dislikes Susanna so much at first. Susanna is still young and beautiful. Plus, let's face it, Figaro is a hunk --- who wouldn't want to marry him?
Your other couple, the McLeans, are not particularly likeable. What do you hope that your portrayal will lead audience members to think about this story and its message?
DW: In every good story there has to be a conflict, or a force to be reckoned with. The McLeans are a couple to be reckoned with. We represent a rigid religiosity and we base our judgment against Susannah upon misinformation and a bias against her. I hope people will be as upset about this and react to our hypocrisy. The composer has given us wonderful music to sing and he portrays the Elders and their wives so effectively. It is very powerful music.
CS:Maestro Floyd's libretto is so beautifully economical. It tells you everything you need to know, but a great deal of that is between the lines, especially for characters like the McLeans. And you often see them portrayed as very one-dimensional people, the narrow-minded meanies. With such a rich actor like David as a scene partner, I feel we are able to create a lot of backstory by the way we relate to each other. We have a lot of personal dialogue onstage --- the audience will never hear it, but it helps us with our relationship and reactions. He calls me "Mama", which is exactly what you'd expect to hear from parents in this culture. Once a woman has a baby, the fact of her motherhood practically erases all other aspects of her personality, at least in the eyes of society. When we are together, you'll almost always see David steering me around with his hand on my back --- which Southern men frequently do with their wives, and it's a very possessive gesture without being particularly affectionate --- but whenever he's with the men, he's very dismissive of me. You will usually see me standing just a little behind him, and often whispering in his ear right before he takes action. Mrs. McLean is very much the power behind the throne and the catalyst for the action against Susannah. You don't see it directly in the libretto, but it's quite clearly there between the lines. Another thing we have tried to do is create onstage moments with our son, Little Bat, played by Travis Richter. Often in this show, it's never really clear that Little Bat is the McLeans' son. It's mentioned, but you rarely see them together onstage and they have no dialogue with each other. Dugg McDonough, our director, agreed that we needed to find moments to crystallize that relationship.
I found myself having a difficult time with this character at first. One of the young artists even said to me, "You know, you're a lovely person, but I have a really hard time watching you onstage in this opera --- you're so mean!" But few people think of themselves as mean, and Mrs. McLean doesn't think of herself that way. I have been working hard to find and show the truth of who this woman is, and I've decided that she is an intelligent, capable person whose own ambitions and achievements are severely limited by the society she finds herself in, where she's risen to pretty much the highest position she can --- an Elder's wife. And like Marcellina, she is at that time of life where whatever beauty she once had has been eclipsed by the youthful beauty of girls like Susannah. So she is bitter and jealous, and when she sees not only her son, who is obsessed with Susannah, but her husband and then the visiting preacher --- who, by the way, she is very taken with --- paying lots of attention to this lovely and carefree girl, that's the last straw. She sets out to destroy Susannah, and she does.
What I hope I can do for the audience through my characterization is to help them to savor the complexity and subtleties of this amazing work.
What is your most memorable night in the theatre to date in your career?
DW:This is a tough one! I was onstage as a super at Leontyne Price's farewell in AIDA at the MET, I sang the title role in Falstaff in NYC's Central Park for New York Grand Opera on the night that company and its founder, Vincent La Selva, made the Guiness World Book of Records for the first Verdi cycle performing all his operas in the order they were composed (including an appearance by then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani as one of my servants!), the world premier of David Lang's MODERN PAINTERS at Santa Fe Opera where I sang two roles: The Judge and a painter. My debut at NYCO in Le Nozze di Figaro was memorable, as was my Carnegie Hall debut in a Dello Joio Christmas cantata. And the DMMO productions of Cenerentola and Barbiere are very fond memories, such wonderful casts and fantastic audiences.
CS:Once, when I was singing Amneris' Judgment Scene, I had one of those rare moments in which my own personality and thought processes were completely submerged in the character and I just sort of "went away" for a while. It's a very odd feeling, what I imagine being possessed must feel like. Like you're under many feet of water; you're still there, but you're not in the driver's seat any more. At that moment, Amneris was alive and in control. The same thing happened to me in a performance of Dead Man Walking, when I was playing Joe's Mother, the woman whose son
is about to be executed. It's hard for that to happen in opera, because you absolutely can NOT lose control. You have to be in contact with the conductor and the other performers, not to mention your own physical processes of singing. But when you have reached the point where you are so secure in those processes and you have such a great level of trust and communication with your conductor and other colleagues, sometimes it's possible to get lost in the music and drama and simply channel the character. It's a tremendous experience for the actor and the audience,too. There is an energy exchange between artist and audience that happens in live theater, and I certainly felt it like a lightning bolt on those occasions. I love these rare moments because I feel that my personal issues, whatever they may be, have been swept aside and I am there as a vessel for the music and the drama. This is my ultimate goal as a performer --- to channel the story in such a way that the audience is allowed to live it themselves, and are completely taken away from themselves by it.
Interestingly, I think such a moment may come in the revival scene of Susannah. I grew up in a fundamentalist Christian church and although our worship style was very different than what you see in Susannah, the emotions were very much the same. I don't have any solo singing in this scene, but Mrs. McLean is very much carried away by the sermon. In rehearsal once or twice, I have gotten so wrapped up in John Marcus Bindel's portrayal of the preacher Olin Blitch that I found myself shuddering and gasping for breath.
Do you have any pre or post performance rituals?
DW: Not really, though I do like to get lots of extra sleep before a show.
CS:I intentionally do not have rituals; not only am I fairly low maintenance, but I've seen colleagues become dependent on their rituals and then get upset when they can't have it exactly the way they're accustomed to. There are too many variables in this life to ask for that kind of regularity! I do like to do a moderate workout early in the day, and take my time warming up throughout the day; eating fairly lightly. I like to do a little yoga in my dressing room before I go onstage. Also, once I am in the theater, in costume and makeup, I don't like to talk and fool around, especially backstage. I am not one of those people who chatters and jokes up to the moment they step on stage. I prefer to concentrate and be in character.
Both of you have appeared with this company before. What do you find that is unique and/or appealing about the company?
DW: I love the "campus" feeling - maybe it's a family feeling - that we are all working together. Living together, working together, and having fun together - it means a lot to me. I get to watch Lisa Hasson's twin boys grow up (she is our Chorus Master, her husband Brian is an assistant director and fight choreographer), they come up to my apartment to play (and tear it apart) and I love getting to be one of their Uncles for the summer. I also have a deep respect and affection for Dr. Larsen and what he has created here. His vision is everywhere. I wish the season was twice as long! And I love this apprentice program. I have been around many different programs and I really think this has become one of the best. The apprentices are so talented and committed to their work, the staff is so dedicated and creative. This is an amazing place to spend 7 weeks. And everybody cares about each other, I think that is unique. The creative process can be difficult, revealing and even wrenching, and we can do that here and know that we are supported by our colleagues and the staff.
CS:Every opera company likes to call themselves a big family, but DMMO really is. When I come back here, I know I am coming to be among friends, some of whom I may not have seen since the last time, or for years before that. I also know I am going to be making new friends. People here really do care for each other and take care of each other. One of the things I love most about DMMO is that while there is tremendous talent and accomplishment at every level there are no divas.We're all here to do our best and make great art. That's a wonderful experience for us as artists, and for our audiences, who, ultimately, are the reason we are here.
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