DonnaPimental - Page: 1 of 1

By Paul Joseph Walkowski
OperaOnline.us

Soprano Donna Maria Pimental (29) is pretty much like any other young singer just starting out in the world of professional opera: she’s excited about her prospects, a little uncertain about where her career will lead, and just idealistic enough to believe that singing is the end all, the only thing that really matters in a career that places her before an audience every time she performs.

A graduate of Brevard College where she earned her degree in music, graduating cum laude in 2000; and Wichita State where she earned a masters in music in 2005, Pimental says that while it may be different for others, for her, at least, when she sings, she has to feel the role in her “heart and soul.” A strong vocal performance without a strong feeling for the role, she says, just doesn’t satisfy her or serve the art. “My explanation is this,” she continued, “you sing what you love and you have to connect with what you can make happen artistically. And if you can connect with what you make happen artistically, then that’s all there is to it.”

To see her perform is to understand just how seriously she takes her own advice.

In 2005 when I viewed her as a contestant in the Connecticut Opera Guild’s annual vocal competition, I spoke with her after the show and observed that she had a certain “IT” that not all singers possessed, and that while this may not have been enough to win her a prize, although she did place as a finalist, it was, in my opinion, enough to set her apart and be noticed.

She sang the aria “Glitter and be gay” from Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide” and scorched the stage with a performance that oozed sensuality and feeling. Moreover, she wore the “little black dress” very well. Whether this fusion between performer and role carries over throughout her career is yet to be known, but that she believes strongly in it now, is enough to give her – or should be enough to give her – a good start.

“The thing I want to get across about me,” she said in a telephone interview with OperaOnline. us in April, “is that the art of singing classical and opera, should be served with every ounce of heart and soul.” She continued: “A lot of people when they talk about the technique of performing say you have to keep a certain part of yourself to yourself, but I don’t understand that. When I step out on stage I don’t think about other things, I think about what I know that is already instilled in me and I go with exactly how and what I feel and I let that take me over.”

How important is this “extra” to an professional singer? Some will argue that while it’s certainly important, it isn’t a necessary ingredient to earning a living singing opera; the voice is what counts. This is true, if all one does is record CDs. But no star – at least no Twenty-first Century star -- can be a major player in the opera world without bringing with them a helping of genuine charisma to the stage, something Pimental certainly displayed when last I saw her. It’s that extra “IT” that sets one singer apart from the rest, and makes audiences focus on them when they’re standing center stage. Indeed, how many times have competent singers sung the role of Carmen but opened to lukewarm reviews because they weren’t the character they portrayed, but rather just a singer – albeit good singer -- singing the music.

The fact is, reviewers heap glowing adjectives like “spellbinding” and “riveting” on a singer’s performance when they both hear and see something special in a portrayal. When the audience hears and sees it, it makes them want to hear and see more -- and when that chemistry is present, a successful career is sure to follow.

But it isn’t all bravura with Pimental, who says she fits comfortably with either the coloratura or lyric soprano label. After a one year absence from her career to attend to family matters Pimentel says she felt the pangs of anxiety when she decided to get back into it in 2007. She was a contestant in the “Hefner/Williams Vocal Competition,” held in Lincolnton, North Carolina. She was nerve wracked, she recalled, something she hadn’t felt before when competing, and certainly didn’t feel when singing at Shreveport or Connecticut where she competed and placed in 2005.

But coming off a one year absence, she worried about her performance. “Oh, my God, I’m about to go on stage again,” she remembered, and thought, “it’s the first time in so long. It was exciting, but it was getting to the point that I started to get scared, and I said, ‘Oh, my God.’ So I cornered myself in a backroom before I went on and said, ‘Donna, you can’t do this to yourself.’ It was just an overwhelming feeling that I was getting ready to do it (sing) again. It wasn’t so much a question of whether I was ready, because this is my life; this is what I love to do more than anything in the world; to share me, through a character, with the audience. It surprised me.” After a few tense moments, she stepped center stage, took a few deep breaths and gave it her all.

Even after her performance her doubts crept back into her mind. Backstage she wondered whether she should just change into her street clothes and wait around to applaud the finalists – of which she didn’t think she would be one; or should she stay dressed and prepare for some good news? Again, she fortified herself with an inner pep talk. “I’m looking at my street clothes,” she recalled, “denying myself the opportunity to believe that maybe I made the finals. So I cut that off and said: ‘Donna, stay in your dress; go out there and stop second-guessing.’ And sure enough, they announced me as one of the six people in the finals. I patted myself on the back and said, ‘This is who you are; this is what you do.’”

Her performance earned her second place.

Today, Donna Maria Pimental feels she’ ready to move on; her confidence is back and she’ll never again harbor any doubt in her abilities. “I’m not scared one bit,” she said. “In my dictionary it’s all communication.” And so she’s auditioning, practicing new roles, competing, attending a master class run by former CAMI agent Connie Barnett, and hoping for the big break that will give her added traction and a chance to show her skill to others. “I think vocally, all I need to know is what I have already been taught,” she said, noting that her voice teacher, Dr. Dorothy Crum of Wichita State, laid a solid foundation, grounded in technique and trust. “At this stage in the game” she said, “I’m very comfortable and have confidence in myself.”

And her confidence shows.

Recently, after her audition (as part of the Voce Carolina collaborative Carolina Opera Companies audition) before David Starkey, General and Artistic Director of Ashville Lyric Opera, she was asked what her next step would be. Without hesitation she said she was going on a series of auditions in New York and after that, “My next step is singing for you again, and hopefully getting into your season.” Starkey must have liked what he heard because he did, indeed, invite her back to sing. He picked four arias from four different operas and set a date for her to sing in May of 07.

Singing regionally is where she says she’s comfortable starting. I reminded her of Deborah Voigt’s experience coming from California to perform in Boston, as a regional voice with a promising but static career. You never know who’s sitting in the audience, I told her. If a good review did it early on for Voigt, maybe the same will happen to her. “Maybe there’s someone out there who will take me under their wing,” she concluded. “That’s what I’m waiting for.” In the mean time, she said, it’s audition, compete, audition, compete until, like so many other singers, that first break into the world of professional opera is her next, natural step.

“I want to sing,” she said, then thinking for a moment followed with the obvious, “but you can’t just sing; you first have to be hired.”