Opera role 'Golden' for Wheeling native
It's been a pistol-packing season so far for internationally acclaimed dramatic soprano Deborah Voigt.
The Wheeling native has starred as the heroine of Giacomo Puccini's California-set opera “The Girl of the Golden West” (“La Fanciulla del West”) in major engagements across America.
Voigt made her role debut as Minnie, the paradoxical saloon owner and virginal Bible teacher, for a new San Francisco Opera production last summer. She then had the honor of starring in a revival of “Girl of the Golden West” in New York at the Metropolitan Opera, which staged the world premiere back in 1910. Voigt's Minnie was also seen this month via the Metropolitan Opera's series of live high-definition simulcasts in movie theaters around the world.
Now Voigt is home at the Lyric Opera of Chicago for her third Minnie go-round in a revival originally created by Tony Award-winning director Harold Prince.
“It's nice to be coming in just having sung it and not have to go through the ‘first-day-of-school nerves' that one has when you're in an unfamiliar city with an unfamiliar opera company,” Voigt said, though she admits some difficulty in adjusting to a different staging.
Voigt's Baptist upbringing has helped her form a bond with the Bible-quoting character of Minnie, who displays a nurturing and sunny outlook through much of the opera. But the role has also been known to trip up other sopranos with its potentially treacherous vocal range.
“She's tough. There's no question about it,” Voigt said of the role's technical aspects.
Voigt says she has an advantage singing Minnie after learning to pace herself through other long and dramatic roles like in “Tristan und Isolde” and “Salome.” “That being said, the more lyric aspects of Minnie's role are more challenging for me than maybe for some others,” she added.
Voigt's operatic career is famously associated with the title role of Richard Strauss' “Ariadne auf Naxos.” Not only did Ariadne become Voigt's breakout and signature role, there was the worldwide controversy that blew up when she revealed that London's Royal Opera House fired her for being too heavy to appear in a 2004 revival of “Ariadne auf Naxos.”
Since then Voigt has lost 135 pounds thanks in part to gastric bypass surgery. She even triumphantly returned to the Royal Opera House in 2008 as Ariadne.
But many opera fans have lamented what they perceive to be a change in Voigt's voice along with her drastic weight loss. A 2010 Metropolitan Opera DVD release of “Ariadne auf Naxos” (taped pre-surgery in 2003) has only added more fuel to fire that debate.
“Of course things are going to change vocally dramatically with that significant physical change,” Voigt said, “But things are going to change if a singer has a 25-year career in the public eye regardless of that.”
Voigt says she can't bring herself to watch the “Ariadne” DVD, but then she's always been squeamish about watching or hearing recordings of herself. When it was suggested that she could watch the Met's “Girl of the Golden West” rescreening in a multiplex on Wednesday evening following her Jan. 26 Lyric matinee, Voigt said, “That sounds kind of sick, doesn't it?”
“Aside from whatever vocal differences (people) may perceive, histrionically it's got to be more compelling what I'm able to do today onstage as compared to then and carrying around that kind of weight,” she said. “I certainly feel I'm able to give a fuller characterization not being impeded that kind of physical restriction.”
Future roles for Voigt include Brünnhilde in a new Metropolitan Opera production of Wagner's “Die Walküre” this spring, and Annie Oakley in Irving Berlin's “Annie Get Your Gun” at the Glimmerglass Festival in summer. But for now, Voigt is happy to be Minnie again amid this season of centennial “Fanciulla” productions.
Feeling humble, she frequently questions how far she has come in her operatic career. “But then I also feel the diva inside who comes up and says, ‘Why not me?' You know, I am a leading lady and I'm an American one, so who else should take on Minnie?”
<b>“The Girl of the Golden West” (“La Fanciulla del West”)
Location: </b> Lyric Opera of Chicago, 20 N. Wacker Drive, Chicago. (312) 332-2244, ext. 5600, or lyricopera.org
<b>Showtimes: </b> Nine performances through Feb. 21: 7:30 p.m. Jan. 22, Feb. 4, 9, 12, 15 and 21; 2 p.m. Jan. 26, 29 and Feb. 18. Sung in Italian with projected English translations.
<b>Tickets: </b>$33 to 赯