Interview: Opera in the Age of the iPhone, with Tomer Zvulun at The Atlanta Opera

One of the first things Tomer Zvulun, General Manager-Artistic Director of The Atlanta Opera, said to me was, "These are interesting times for opera companies." I couldn't help but think of that apocryphal Chinese saying, "May you live in interesting times," which is really a curse on the order of "Hope for the best, expect the worst."

But that's not how Israeli-born Zvulun--a rare breed, as a working director as well as administrator--sees it. His approach to opera starts with great respect for the art form, which was born when he saw Ingmar Bergman's film version of THE MAGIC FLUTE and cemented after he saw his first live opera performance.

Sharp contrasts in opera

He explains, "There seem to be two sharp contrasts in the way many directors approach new opera productions today. On the one hand, there are directors being very out there, with approaches that are not sympathetic, not respectful to the music, singers or the art form. It almost seems like they feel the production should be something else other than opera.

"On the other hand, there is the stand-in-the-middle-of-the-stage approach--in other words, unimaginative--which is no longer acceptable to modern audiences, who want to see something they can relate to. So here we are, caught between directors and producers who aren't really respectful of the language, the art form, the other artists--and those who believe it is an opaque art form that is all about the work.

"Somewhere in the middle"

"The truth is somewhere in the middle," he concludes. "I think when it works best, the combination of the visuals, the voice, the music, the spectacle that you can bring on stage and the emotion makes opera the most powerful art form." And that's what he wants to bring to opera in Atlanta, a mid-size company in a large-size city, or at other venues where he still directs.

Zvulun, who moved to the U.S. in 2001, has lots of experience in finding the truth in operas, despite his relative youth (he's 39). Before arriving unofficially in Atlanta in 2012 (after the abrupt departure of his predecessor), he was an assistant director at the Metropolitan Opera, which often entails seeing that repertoire performances--beginning the season after a new production has premiered and the original artists involved have gone home--are ready for prime-time. (Before that, he held a similar post at the Seattle Opera.) He has also directed many productions, not only in Atlanta, but across America and in Argentina, Ireland and his native Israel, from LA BOHEME, RIGOLETTO and LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR to new works like Kevin Puts' SILENT NIGHT, David T. Little's SOLDIER SONGS and Jake Heggie's THREE DECEMBERS.

Imaginative, respectful, dramatic productions

So, what is that "truth in the middle" for Zvulun, a classic-movie junkie (ask him about Hitchcock's "Vertigo") opera director, who spent three years as an army medic? "I feel, in a way, that what I'm trying to focus on is the golden path of innovation coupled with respect for the art form itself. What I love are productions that are imaginative, respectful, dramatic," he says. "Like the new LULU at the Met," recently seen nationally in the Met LIVE IN HD series, "where it was obvious that the brilliant director--South African visual artist William Kentridge--knew the words, thought about every aspect of it and then brought his own world to it. I think that's the key."

Connection to the material is important, says Zvulun, who finds that directors without a strong opera background (increasingly common these days) often come to rehearsals with the CD booklet and not the complete musical score. "Good luck if you do that when you're trying to stage COSI FAN TUTTE, for example. What happens when you're directing the ensemble scene, with six people singing different things, and you try to follow a phrase in Italian that repeats 25 times in different dynamics, in different styles, from different singers?" He laughs.

A complete vision is vital

"When you come up with a concept as a director, it is vital that your vision be complete, so that you can convince everybody why this is the right thing to do," he avers. "Because if you don't convince them, then there will be people who do their thing--especially if they are famous opera singers, who have 'been there, done that'.

"Often when I tell people I'm doing a new production, the first question they ask is: What time period are you going to do it in and where? I think that's a superficial approach to a piece--it's almost a cliché. The first thing I ask myself is: Why am I telling this story now? Why would the audience care? And, how would I connect with them in the most effective way while respecting the piece?"

So, how does this approach translate into the opera house? One of the first productions that Zvulun did in Atlanta--after staging it first in Cleveland--was a LUCIA that he updated to the period of the film, THE GODFATHER. "It worked like gangbusters," Zvulun said un-ironically, "because you have those two families clashing--there's nothing at all Scottish about LUCIA. It's all Italian, so this approach worked very well. Trying to find a fresh way to tell a story but remaining true to it is the essence of what makes opera spectacular."

Dealing with loss

This season at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre in Atlanta opened with a new production of LA BOHEME, directed by Zvulun, which changed the era from 1840s Paris to just before the turn of the 20th century. "Why do we still go to see this opera? Because it tells us something about being young, being in love, having close friends and then dealing with loss for the same time. Is there somebody who hasn't gone through that?

"For me, BOHEME is a masterpiece that takes its story and encapsulates it into this phenomenal 'pill' of music. I tried to find an equivalent from a visual standpoint that would match what Puccini did with the ear. For me, it was photography. I changed it to around the time that cinema was invented, that photography was becoming prevalent everywhere, and in the same place: Paris.

"So we had a street photographer taking photos in Cafe Momus in Act II; at the end of the act, instead of rushing out of the cafe, all the Bohemians came together for a group photo. When the audience left at the intermission, the photo was projected on the curtain. In Act IV, when Mimi dies, the same photo of the happy days was projected on the last note, saying something about memories, about always keeping those memories that never go away.

Losing the essence

"I think it's good to find fresh and timely interpretations that will speak to a diverse audience--as stage directors, it's our job to find solutions. The problem I have with some of the interpretations I see is when they are forced on a piece, despite the intention of the original music and the libretto. Then the focus--instead of character development--becomes 'Let's prove that this works.' The minute you go in that direction, you lose the essence of the work."

But opera is more than new interpretations of the classics, even though there are certainly enough of them in Atlanta's short season. Says Zvulun, "I think some of the greatest composers are living and working in America--from Carlisle Floyd, who's having a world premiere in Houston in the spring, to Jake Heggie, who is one of my favorite composers, to Kevin Puts, who wrote SILENT NIGHT, and so many others."

Introducing new works

On the other hand, modern works don't necessarily make money. Zvulun explains that there is a method to his madness, because he is a realist. "Part of my job as Artistic Director in Atlanta is to introduce audiences to those new works and, but just as importantly, as the General Director, as a business person, is to make that introduction in a fiscally responsible way. So the model focus for us is: How can we increase the artistic risk by lowering the financial risk?

"Can we perform a new American piece like SOLDIER SONGS--which says so much about the human condition and would otherwise not be seen in Atlanta? Do we do it on our Main Stage and try to sell 11,000 tickets or do we do it as a chamber piece in a smaller house, where we might have to turn people away if it's selling well? How do we do it in an inventive way that keeps the quality of the production and the power of it operatic in scale? Those are the questions we ask.

He recalls, "One of the first things I did in Atlanta was to create the Discovery series, which has allowed us to do pieces like Heggie's THREE DECEMBERS (which had just three singers and an orchestra of 20) in a theatre that's just 700 seats. This year, we also did a theatrical interpretation of Schubert's WINTERREISE in the smaller theatre, asking our audience, 'How do you listen to classical music in the age of the iPhone?'"

Connecting with new audiences

On the other end of the spectrum, Atlanta will end its season with a new production of THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE. Why Gilbert & Sullivan and other musical theatre for an opera company? To connect to new audiences--and the result, says Zvulun, is that "it's selling more tickets than in my wildest dreams"--with productions that keep visual quality, vocal quality and musical quality as high as possible. This is fully staged," he emphasizes, "because the last thing that you want in operetta or musical theatre is to forget about the 'theatre' in it. Our production was originally done at Opera Theatre of St. Louis with Sean Curran, who's a wonderful choreographer-director and we have a very exciting cast.

With a lower budget (obviously) than the Met, where does he find his Gildas and Lucias? "We try to identify them before they shoot to stardom--the case of Nadine Sierra is a good example. When we hired her"--for RIGOLETTO's Gilda, recently her debut role at the Met--"she was starting to make her way and now she's booked until '20-'21. I travel extensively to audition but also to see young artists that are getting their first opportunities at Santa Fe, at Glimmerglass, Central City, etc., and I keep my eyes on the up and coming.

"That's number one. Number two: We often find a singer who wants to make an important role debut a little out of the spotlight, instead of doing it at the Met or in London--though that's more and more the case these days. Another thing we do--besides offering interesting repertoire-- is to treat our guest artists well. I'm a stage director and I've been traveling the past 15 years, 10 months out of the year and I tend to remember whether someone took me out to dinner rather than the size of my paycheck. It's a company culture for us to treat artists really well when they're in Atlanta."

Posting a surplus

It was no secret that, when Zvulun arrived, the Atlanta Opera (like most opera companies everywhere) was having financial difficulties. Speaking frankly, he says, "Fundraising is never easy, but I think the city gets behind companies that show fiscal responsibility and artistic innovation---and they're not mutually exclusive, those two. This past season, we posted our first surplus--$600,000. That's a lot. We're also focusing on increasing our endowment; one of my goals is to leave the company in sustainable shape for many years to come and endowment is a part of it."

Did he say "leave the company"? "Not anytime soon," he assures me (and his Board, too, methinks). How long will he be there? I ask him. "I don't know--when I've finished my job. I haven't done it yet," he says, smiling, "I'm just starting."

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