Interview: From Butterfly to Little Sparrow, Soprano Patricia Racette Soars

Expect the unexpected from cabaret stylist Patricia Racette. Yes, I said "cabaret." If you've only heard her at the Met or San Francisco Opera as Tosca or Madama Butterfly, you'll probably find her performance in "Diva on Detour," which I saw at 54 Below in New York, a revelation. Gone is the soaring soprano of "Vissi d'arte" or "Un bel di", replaced by a husky, mellifluous sound--she calls it "a high-note-free zone"--which doesn't give a hint that its owner spends most of her time on some of the world's great opera stages.

In other words, it's a kind of "Madama Jekyl and Signorina Hyde" experience.

"I needed to sing"

Racette didn't start out to be an opera singer, but "kind of fell into it" in college on her way to a career in jazz and the American Songbook. (In fact, she says she was "forced" to take opera lessons at North Texas State University, now University of North Texas, which was a great jazz school.) "I always felt like I needed to sing," she recalls, and joined her high school choir. The director was a big lover of jazz and was taken with her voice; he invited her, at 15, to sit in with him and his buddies on Saturday afternoon jam sessions.

"We'd listen to 15 different versions of 'Guess Who I Saw Today?' (the Murray Grand/Elisse Boyd tune from "New Faces of 1952" included in her cabaret performance), then we'd jam." She explains that her voice "lives naturally in the mezzo range" (which will be a surprise to anyone who has heard her high notes) and that she uses chest voice and mixing for her cabaret style.

More freedom

What major difference does she find between performing opera and doing cabaret? "In opera, you have a particular voice and you're assigned that music. In cabaret, you have much more freedom--to take a song up a third or make it a ballad. I get together with Craig Terry, my collaborator and pianist, and we come up with an approach together. It's an opportunity to carve out a song the way I want to. You don't get to do that in opera"

In the course of her cabaret performance, Racette brings her musical insights, style, charm--and acting skills--to everything from the Gershwins' "I Got Rhythm" and Sondheim's "Not a Day Goes By" to a trio of songs associated with Edith Piaf. In particular, I found she connected with "Milord," "Padam" and "La Vie en Rose" exquisitely. She also shines in an unusual, Bach-tinged version of the Arlen-Mercer standard, "Come Rain or Come Shine."

Who are her influences? On the jazz/American Songbook side, there's Nancy Lamott, who was a fixture on the New York cabaret scene in the '90s, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan (known as "Sassy," which fits Racette as well). Operatically, heroes include Renata Scotto and Maria Callas ("she imbued every note with meaning").

Puccini to Piaf

The two sides of Racette have more than a little in common.

Whether she's doing Puccini or Piaf (a/k/a the Little Sparrow), Racette has opinions about what she sings--and what she doesn't sing. "After my last performance in Verdi's IL TROVATORE at the Met this winter, I said 'Leonora, R.I.P.'," Racette told me, laughing. She adds, "It's incumbent on every artist to ask 'What can I bring to this role?' For me, it has to be compelling theatrically as well as musically. If that appeal is not there, it's not worth my precious time and energy." Roles she has retired also include LA BOHEME's Mimi and CARMEN's Micaela.

There are others to replace them, of course. "I'm a good musician," she avers, "and I constantly try to challenge my musicianship." She returns to the Met in May to sing Madame Lidoine in Francis Poulenc's DIALOGUES OF THE CARMELITES for the first time, having previously sung the role of Blanche. Then she crosses the plaza to the New York Philharmonic for a rare performance of Dallapiccola's difficult one-act opera, IL PRIGIONIERO. Next season's new roles include Elena (Helen of Troy) in Boito's MEFISTOFELE for the San Francisco Opera and Maddalena in ANDREA CHENIER at the Met." I enjoy playing complex women that offer a rich emotional experience."

Puccini, Puccini, Puccini

She's currently in Washington, DC, at Kennedy Center doing Puccini's MANON LESCAUT, one of the operas that is "in my verismo comfort zone, where I live." She loves the composer, but she prefers his other operas (including IL TRITTICO, where she sings all three soprano roles) because the drama doesn't really start to move until Act III. And, frankly, she finds the character "a little difficult to sympathize with" because she is so obsessed with jewelry. More bluntly, she adds, "Let's put it this way: I wouldn't go out to dinner with her."

Tosca and Butterfly, her most popular roles, are an altogether different story--she never gets bored with them. She began this season at the Washington National Opera with eight (!) performances of TOSCA plus two orchestra rehearsals over a two-week-plus period. "I was very focused and became a Tosca machine," she says. "I had no life except for going to the gym occasionally, sleeping 10 hours a night and adapting the day accordingly." She admits to being "slightly germaphobe" around performances: "I don't take public transportation and don't do sightseeing." (Speaking of TOSCA, when asked if there was a role she coveted, Racette admitted only one: the opera's tenor role, Cavaradossi, because the music is so wonderful.)

As for Madama Butterfly, which she sang in the Met's worldwide HD broadcast in Anthony Minghella's brilliant production, Racette says "it's too massive a task to ever tire of." "Puccini did such amazing work here, shining a light on these characters."

After hearing Racette in opera or cabaret, one could say the same for her.

***

Racette returns to New York's intimate cabaret space, 54Below, from March 26-30. The "Diva on Detour" CD for GPR Records is available on Amazon.com and iTunes.

Puccini's MANON LESCAUT, Washington National Opera, The Kennedy Center, Washington, DC, through March 23.

Poulenc's DIALOGUES OF THE CARMELITES, Metropolitan Opera House, New York, May 4-11.

Dallapiccola's IL PRIGIONIERO, New York Philharmonic, Avery Fisher Hall, New York, June 6-11.

DIVA ON DETOUR, Ravinia Festival, Cincinnati, June 22.

Puccini's MADAMA BUTTERFLY, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, July 20-29.

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