Meet Fantastic Mrs. Fox Renée Rapier with Opera San Antonio

By: OPERA San Antonio

While singing in the cast of Tobias Picker's most recent opera, Dolores Claiborne, which premiered last fall at San Francisco Opera - mezzo-soprano Renée Rapier was impressed by what she witnessed behind the scenes as well as onstage. "Seeing Tobias's passion and involvement backstage to get things just right was a great experience," she says. "He's a composer who really cares about individual voices and how the singers feel about his music."

Rapier, who went through San Francisco Opera's prestigious Adler Fellow training program, leaves no doubt that as far as she's concerned, she's hooked on Picker's music. For all the darkness of the story told in Dolores Claiborne, the singer remembers how she and her colleagues went about "humming tunes from the opera the whole time when we were hanging out backstage. I'm so happy to be able to sing any of Tobias's music."

Taking on the role of wife of the hero of Fantastic Mr. Fox is an altogether different beast in comparison to Dolores Claiborne. Rapier's onstage husband, who will be sung by the award-winning young baritone John Brancy, is the clever plotter in Roald Dahl's children's book. His wily schemes outmaneuver a band of vengeful farmers and protect his family.

Rapier said, "Mrs. Fox is a mother first and foremost. She is the home that her husband is working to save. Without her there's no way Mr. Fox could be so charming and adventurous. I really like bringing my own ideas to rehearsal and being challenged by great directors to find something new during the rehearsal process. So I think this will be a really interesting challenge, not only to sing but to act."

Rapier explains how Picker is able to create musically differentiated portrayals of each character. "In the score you will notice that Mr. Fox has many challenging rhythmic motifs and leaps and an extremely energetic vocal line. In contrast, when Mrs. Fox is saying goodbye as he sets off on his adventure, she sings much slower music and has this smooth, constant line that is lovely and loving. It mirrors their relationship so well."

After performing Mrs. Fox, Rapier will have still another opportunity to leave hermark on a Tobias Picker character when she appears in the cast of Emmeline, Picker's first opera, which is being staged in June 2015 by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Meanwhile, Rapier, an artist very much in demand, heads to Los Angeles Opera later this season to sing two Cherubinos: Mozart's version of the love-sick page in The Marriage of Figaro and the Cherubino who has fathered a child with his beloved (the Countess) whom we meet in John Corigliano's contemporary opera The Ghosts of Versailles.

OPERA San Antonio audiences can get another taste of Rapier's artistry right here at the Tobin Center this coming January. She's been cast as the Page in the company's second production of this inaugural season, Richard Strauss's early operatic masterpieceSalome.

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