2008 Woodie Awards
Opera star Carol Vaness visits Conservatory
Teresa Sheffield
Issue date: 9/29/08 Section: Culture
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The classes took place in White Hall, where ten students sang for Vaness and an audience of about 100 students.
Typically, a master class is when an expert musician listens to students perform and then either critiques or commends their performance.
Vaness, who has sung with opera stars like Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo, runs her master classes in an entirely different manner.
"This is my master class," she said. "I don't care what other people do."
"Masters" usually are sort of uptight and sit on the stage a distance away from the students, but Vaness stood right next to them and freely touched them.
She went behind the singers many times and held their arms up from behind like a puppet master to make them relax and have emotion, she pushed against their bellies to check their breath support and she hooked arms and walked around the stage with them.
When one student had a really tense stomach, she said, "Loosen up, you don't normally have to take your shirt off, and no one's going to punch you in the stomach."
She leaned on the piano with her head in her hands talking and listening to the students. She even began to sing along with one student.
"I'm sorry," Vaness said. "It's my aria - I gotta sing it."
She was harsh, while still being personable, and quickly fixed many problems the students had.
When teaching the students, Vaness emphasized the importance of acting.
"If you want to be an opera singer you have to act," she said. "Otherwise, it's just chamber singing. The minute I'm onstage I'm not Carol anymore. Whatever happened to me last night doesn't exist because my character didn't experience it."
She talked about taking care of the vocal instrument.
"Don't pedal to the metal," Vaness said. "You don't want a flash-in-the-pan two-year career. You don't want to be treated like a Kleenex, used and then thrown out. Know what you can and cannot do. If I was singing tonight, you wouldn't see me today because I'd be protecting my voice for myself and the audience."
At the question and answer session, Vaness seemed really relatable.
"I love CSI," she said. "I got sick in Amsterdam and had to stay there for awhile, but I was like 'At least they have 'CSI' and 'Law and Order'.'"
She even has a Facebook profile.
"You can find anything on Facebook," she said. "I use it to check on students' pictures to see if students really are sick when they cancel a lesson or if they just stayed out way too late last night."
She talked about the difficulty of an opera career, and what's needed to succeed in the field.
"You need to have bravery in a career like this," Vaness said. "Don't give up hope. Don't say before an audition, 'If I don't get this I'm done.' Think of it as 'It's just another opinion.' There were greater voices than mine when I started at the beginning who fell by the wayside because they couldn't take it. Is it hard work? Yes. But is it worth it? Yes."
She talked about how important it is for a singer to find their individuality.
"You need to find your own voice," she said. "I basically think a voice should be yours - not what you heard on YouTube."
Vaness has performed in many of the major opera houses in the world, and is well-known for her portrayal of the title role in the opera "Tosca." She currently runs the lauded Opera Workshop Program at the University of Indiana.
tsheffield@unews.com
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