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What’s a classically trained singer to do between jobs?
For coloratura soprano Susan Oetgen it is less a matter of "what"
than "when" to find the time to squeeze it all in.
Oetgen says she approached the manager of Café Vivaldi, Ishrat Ansari, about starting an opera salon and that Ansari “was delighted” with the concept. “His idea for Café Vivaldi is to have the best presentations of all kinds of musical genre: jazz, classical, pop. So, I proposed this idea, where we would have a rotating cast where we would have opera singers come and perform in that setting.”
By: Paul Joseph Walkowski
OperaOnline.us
What’s a classically trained young opera singer to do between gigs?
The answer to that question is varied, and for singers who don’t want to admit to a less glamorous “second job”, it’s a subject many would prefer to avoid altogether.
Answer or not, singers, and for young singers especially -- and most particularly those young singers not associated with a young artist program with an established opera company -- it’s not all roses and accolades when you’re in between engagements and your stomach growls and rent is due.
Cafe Vivaldi, located at 33 Jones Street, off Bleeker near 7th Avenue, in the West Village New York City.
THE INTRODUCTION:
“My name is Susan Oetgen” a young coloratura soprano wrote recently, “I curate and host a semi-monthly series called ‘The opera salon at Café Vivadi’ wherein singers are invited to present aria and art song in the intimate and informal context of a West Village night club.” Ms. Oetgen said she came up with the idea as a vehicle to introduce Village patrons to opera singers on a less formal basis than the opera house.
Once begun, however, the idea quickly caught on at the popular club/restaurant located on 33 Jones Street, off Bleeker near 7th Avenue. Although just a few months old, she said, the results have been gratifying. “The series is quickly growing into a favorite venue for opera aficionados and newcomers to the tradition.” She concluded her correspondence by adding, “If you find yourself in New York soon, I would be delighted to meet with you.”
Well, as it happened this writer was planning on being in New York that very weekend, and accepted the offer to meet with this different and imaginatively entrepreneurial singer who was taking charge of her life and branching out into an area that cast her not as opera singer/artist, but as manager/master-of-ceremonies, singer of pop jazz, recording artist, and aspiring performance company owner.
Phew, that’s a lot of ambition for a young woman of thirty.
OUR MEETING:
We didn’t have much time: she was scheduled for a rehearsal at 1PM Saturday afternoon and I was slated to be at the Met for a 1:30 performance of “Carmen”.
My bus arrived early at the Port Authority bus terminal on 42nd Street and we connected by phone, agreeing to meet sometime around 11:30AM.
Susan Oetgen is an attractive young woman who came to meet me in casual attire, looking more or less like any of the thousands of youthful travelers who pass through the Port Authority terminal daily. We greeted each other intuitively and as friends with a common objective. We sat for a cup of coffee at an Au Bon Pain and in forty-five minutes she gave me a capsulated version of her career which in many respects is the story of many young opera singers today who are in the early stages of their own careers, still searching for their niche as singers in the world of professional opera and willing to do what it takes to pay the bills until that day arrives.
A LEFT TURN TO A POP JAZZ BAND:
A 1999 graduate of Catholic University with a Masters Degree in Classical Vocal Performance, with a concentration in Latin American vocal, Ms. Oetgen began her career at the Washington Performing Arts Society working in the development department and then in the production office for a couple years before deciding to move on to New York to try her hand singing full time.
She was lucky. Upon moving to New York she quickly landed a job singing with the New York Opera Forum, a local concert opera group. “I did lot of concerts with a guitarist,” she said, describing her repertoire as “classical . . . for classical voice and guitar [and] did lots of projects both in New York and Washington.”
By the time she decided to settle in New York again, three years had passed and by 2003 she resolved to forego the grind of auditions, which she describes as “cattle calls” that come about every Fall or Spring.
It was time to reassess her objectives and strengths. She enjoyed opera; she was trained for opera; and she sings in Italian, French, Spanish and English, but opera was only one of the venues she enjoyed. “I took a left turn away from strictly opera,” she said, clearly excited by a new project
she began in the summer of 2003. It was at that time that she decided to put together [a band] ‘Likeness of Lily’ which she describes as “an original band with sort of one foot in opera and one foot in opera and independent pop rock.”
Why the name ‘Likeness to Lily’? I asked.
“It’s a reference to my great-grandmother as well as to the myth about a flower that blooms wherever saints tears fall,” she said, “I like the idea that suffering purifies the soul and ultimately gives way to greater beauty.”
As to the band itself, it consists of her and David Hurst, whom she met in 2002. Hurst was the music director/arranger for another project she performed in. The two joined with Jeremiah Lockwood (dobro, a resonator guitar), Ian Riggs (bass) and Evan Pazner (drummer), and cut their first album ‘Solitude’s Dollhouse’ - in the Spring of 2005 under an independent label. The band is now promoting the CD through its website and other “downtown venues where genre-defying new music has popular appeal”.
Don’t let the self-descriptive “genre-defying” definition scare you off. The CD has a mellow sound that crosses between Kate Bush on the new age, light pop jazz side, and Astrud Gilberto’s Brazilian “Girl from Ipanema” sound on the Latin side, and is quite good for a first effort. The difference is that Susan Oetgen is a classically trained singer who, while the tone of the CD is similar to the previously mentioned, the sound that emanates from this singer is qualitatively superior to either, and you get a sense of this when she sings “Apollo” and “Little night song” which can be accessed on the band’s website.
GOING BACK TO OPERA:
Oetgen says she approached the manager of Café Vivaldi, Ishrat Ansari, about starting an opera salon and that Ansari “was delighted” with the concept. “His idea for Café Vivaldi is to have the best presentations of all kinds of musical genre: jazz, classical, pop. So, I proposed this idea, where we would have a rotating cast where we would have opera singers come and perform in that setting.” Her job shifted to that of manager and MC of the program when Ansari agreed to the idea.
“We held audition in the early Fall (of 05) and singers came who perfortmed at City Opera, some who performed at regional companies, some students – everyone auditioned and we selected about twenty singers, and every other Tuesday night we have a different roster of singers based on who we had available.”
In the informal setting of a dignified bar/restaurant singers get a chance to ply their trade, not for pay but for tips, with a repertoire they select. “The idea was I wanted singers to have some control over how and what they performed, which in the world of classical music is often not the case.”
Eventually, Oetgen says, she would like to branch out and “have my own company like a performance company or theater company. It’s important as an artist,” she says, “to take control as much as possible of opportunities to make money and to value the contribution you maker to society. As a result, I’m trying to have both aspects very much part of my work.”
With the duties of pop and opera singer, songwriter, lyricist, manager and MC under her belt, one might think she has enough on her plate to satisfy. Not quite, she hints. She rustles slightly in her chare and leaning forward breaks out into a broad smile. There is something new in her future, she says. She’s been talking with others about the possibility of penning an operetta, but it’s too early for many more details. “I’ve been approached more often in the past few years,” she confides, “to collaborate on other things” and an operetta is high on her list of things she’d like to try. If it wasn’t obvious, she adds, “I’m interested in the more creative aspects of a thing.”
Aware that time is pressing in on both of us we end our interview with that thought and a mutual agreement to stay in contact to see what the future brings for this young artist and her ideas.
