Author: Opera Grand Rapids

This story is part of a series of 50 stories we are releasing to commemorate 50 years of opera in West Michigan. Browse more stories and follow our journey throughout the season.

What makes a great opera singer? Verdi was only half right.

What makes a phenomenal opera singer? Answering this question correctly is crucial for an opera company. The answer is an axis around which revolve a cast, a business, a symphony, even a wider community. At the center of the publicity, the construction projects, and the audience is the core from which the rest is built: an exquisite human instrument. People come to be dazzled by the voice. For over twenty-five years, the task of answering opera’s crucial question—what makes a phenomenal opera singer?—belonged to Opera Grand Rapids’ Maestro Robert Lyall.  

When asked this very same question, Lyall is quick to invoke immortal composer Giuseppe Verdi. “The classic response is to quote Verdi himself. He was asked the three most important characteristics of a great opera singer. He said, ‘Voce, voce, e voce.’ It’s voice. It’s what, in opera, we would call ‘the gift.’ A person can be a wonderful performer in so many ways, but a truly great opera performer must have a magnificent instrument that is properly trained to project over full orchestral sounds and fill a hall.”  

But here Lyall expands on Verdi’s pithy answer. While being a singer of surpassing quality is necessary, the maestro says a performer must also have theater skills. “There used to be an old joke that said the term ‘operatic acting’ is an oxymoron.’ Well I can assure you that in today’s world, it is not. Opera singers now train in all aspects of theater arts and physical conditioning to make themselves complete participants in the drama.” 

Maestro Lyall is an expert on the ingredients of that operatic drama. He joined Opera Grand Rapids in the autumn of 1989, and served as Artistic Director and General Director for twenty-six years. During his tenure, he had the pleasure of knowing a great many phenomenal opera singers, at many different chapters in their respective careers.  

According to Lyall, courting and featuring emerging artists is intrinsic to the role of the regional opera house. The world stages have their roles to play, certainly, but a regional company of great repute functions differently. “Hiring famous singers is often a question of funds, but to identify burgeoning, emerging talent, and looking at their potential, is a special path opera companies should follow, particularly with our native artists.”  

Opera Grand Rapids has indeed hosted its share of famous performers. 1997’s Aida at Van Andel Arena featured Piero Giuliacci in the role of Radames. Giuliacci regularly performs all over the world, bringing classics like Tosca, La bohème, and Turandot to Shanghai, Rome, and, of course, Grand Rapids. “But accompanying him were many emerging talents who were singing at regional companies, and eventually ended up at the Metropolitan Opera.” It’s important to Lyall that the highly-visible principal singers are surrounded by gifted hopefuls who may one day become stars in their own right.  

Lise Lindstrom is another singer to grace the OGR stage during her rise to operatic prominence. Known as one of the world’s leading performers of both Salome and Turandot, Lindstrom has captivated audiences by bringing delicate shading and grace to some of opera’s most bombastic roles—something she did early on at OGR. 

Some artists who perform at Opera Grand Rapids are truly just beginning their careers, and go on to feature in opera’s legendary arenas. A young Brian Hymell had only performed one professional production when he sang Tamino in Die Zauberflöte at OGR. His career arc is a perfect encapsulation of Lyall’s philosophy—cultivate potential, and become part of the rising star’s story. “Look at him now,” says Lyall. “He graces the world stages, singing the major repertory at the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, La Scala, and Vienna State Opera.”  

The pantheon of great singers who have taken our stage is a source of pride for the maestro. Says Lyall, “There is a long list of distinguished artists that were featured in the earlier phases of their career by Opera Grand Rapids. I’m probably more proud of that than if I had been able to hire the world’s leading celebrities. Celebrities have already arrived at their level of distinction. We wanted to have some ownership of the development of great talent.”  

In reflecting on his career, Lyall’s pride is always collective, spread around those who helped him sculpt a host of cherished memories. A clear sense of community and fellowship permeates his reflections. His pride in the Opera is matched by his love for the city itself. “[Having distinguished performers] is very special for establishing the role of Opera Grand Rapids in this city. This is a wealthy city in its intellectual promise, in its industrial promise, and we felt we had a very specific role to play in contributing that element to the quality of life that great arts can do,” says Lyall.   

The maestro is adamant that no discussion of his career is complete without mentioning the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra. Says Lyall, “This is one of the finest professional symphony orchestras in the country. My artistic partnership with them was one of the most gratifying parts of my work in Grand Rapids. We made great music together. We like to tout them as a partner in our ventures with great pride.” 

It’s clear that Verdi wasn’t wrong with his somewhat reductive take on what makes a great opera singer, but Maestro Lyall’s career suggests the quip may have been incomplete. Opera will always revolve around the voice. But that voice must be trained, recognized, and allowed to flourish. Directors must take chances on unproven artists in supporting roles, balancing the need to cultivate local and emerging talent with the public’s demand for exquisite performance. Dozens of musicians must play in perfect harmony, and the totality of the spectacle must form a moving story. The voice at the center must be sublime, but the voice alone is not opera. Perhaps a better question for the multimedia age is not “What makes a great opera singer?” but rather, “What makes a great opera?”  

Lyall himself explains it perfectly: “Opera is music, it is theater, it is art. When you’re working in opera, there is a unique set of challenges. Because of the lighting, the set design, the individualized personalities, as well as the glories of the sound of the full symphony orchestra, and the grand choral works that animate it. To me, it is truly the Wagnerian Gesamtkunstwerk concept—Opera is the total artwork.”

OUR FOUNDERS HAD A BOLD PROPOSITION: to build a professional opera company that would put Grand Rapids on the map for a very discerning audience. 50 years later, we are humbled to be the modern bearers of classical standards and modern ingenuity. Learn more.

SUPPORT OUR NEXT 50 YEARS

As an integral part of our city’s artistic fabric, it’s our responsibility to see to its continual flourishing. Please consider donating to Opera Grand Rapids to ensure our artistic excellence for the next 50 years and beyond. You’ve already made us great. With your support, there’s no limits to the height our voices can reach together. Give today.

This story is part of a series of 50 stories we are releasing to commemorate 50 years of opera in West Michigan. Browse more stories and follow our journey throughout the season.

With New York Fashion Week upon us, we revisit some of the most stylish patrons of New York’s venerable opera house.

The Metropolitan Opera is known for its elaborate costume design on the stage, but for celebrity and elite patrons attending the opera, what’s worn to the performance is just as important. The opera house understands this well, and has taken the initiative of featuring the fashions of its opera attendees through “Last Night at the Met” social media platforms.

Browse the entire gallery here.

OUR FOUNDERS HAD A BOLD PROPOSITION: to build a professional opera company that would put Grand Rapids on the map for a very discerning audience. 50 years later, we are humbled to be the modern bearers of classical standards and modern ingenuity. Learn more.

SUPPORT OUR NEXT 50 YEARS

As an integral part of our city’s artistic fabric, it’s our responsibility to see to its continual flourishing. Please consider donating to Opera Grand Rapids to ensure our artistic excellence for the next 50 years and beyond. You’ve already made us great. With your support, there’s no limits to the height our voices can reach together. Give today.

This story is part of a series of 50 stories we are releasing to commemorate 50 years of opera in West Michigan. Browse more stories and follow our journey throughout the season.

“Good buildings come from good people and all problems are solved by good design.” – Stephen Gardiner

Have you ever tried sharing a (big) pizza with three friends, only to have the planning phase devolve into bedlam? Toppings are suggested and sneered at, hands are thrown in the air, someone claims they “like everything,” but they don’t. Late in the discussion, someone reveals he’s allergic to pineapple and the mere threat of its presence is enough for him to opt out altogether.  

Now imagine you’re ordering a pizza with these friends, but the pizza is about fourteen thousand square feet. It will have 862 toppings, with extra cheese on one slice only, and you have to cook it while stepping over and around a live power line that’s draped across the kitchen. This is, more or less, the story of the Betty Van Andel Opera Center building.  

But there’s nothing uniquely byzantine about the saga leading to the Opera Center’s final home on East Fulton Street. False starts, left turns, compromises, and thorny situations are the order of the day in the development and construction game, according to Paul McGraw, President of McGraw Construction. It’s just that most people don’t have a window into the epic prelude to a building’s actual construction.  

Like the best stories, the Opera Center’s began humbly, borne of necessity. “Originally, the Opera was almost begging and borrowing spaces to rehearse in. These spaces were generally a landlord who had a large vacant building. Traditionally those are pretty run down spaces. For a while they were rehearsing in an old Fruit Basket Flowerland,” says McGraw. For a time, strip mall patrons carrying Chinese takeout may have cocked their heads, wondering if they really did hear a faint soprano voice issuing from the vacant storefront next to the discount fireworks shop. 

The Opera was moving through rehearsal spaces as landlords and availability dictated. While some landlords donated their spaces, others did not. Scheduling was complicated, and the moves themselves were not easy—the Opera staff regularly had to drag its entire costume shop into dusty alcoves and unpack it, only to repeat the process a few days later. The situation ate at OGR’s funds, and tested the resolve of the staff, who had to continue running an opera company as nomads.  

In the mid aughts, a group of city luminaries who loved and supported opera, including Carol Van Andel and Paul McGraw, began a development process that would take years. Each board member of the development committee had his or her own idea about the location, and whether a new or existing building should be used. “Altogether, I think we looked at about thirty properties,” says McGraw. “We were trying to find all the right conditions and the right location. Every time we looked at a new location, we had to run the financials behind it. There were huge amounts of moving parts involved.”  

With a generous fundraising kickoff from the Van Andel Family, architectural design by the Beta firm, and the expertise of McGraw Construction, the moving parts were assembled into the beautiful contemporary building where the Opera resides today.  

“It’s important, from a neighborhood perspective, since you’re making a mark in a neighborhood, to keep people in mind. Architecture is debatable, but it’s important not to forget the human side of things,” says McGraw. They decided on a glass facade, for instance, so that people could see inside. It gives people walking or driving past a sense of connection with their fellow townsfolk working inside. “You’ve driven by buildings that are all boarded up in the front. It’s not very inviting,” he says. When it comes to creating a part of the landscape that will be there for decades, the stakes are high. It’s a really, really serious thing. Even though I’m not that serious of a guy, socially… I am deadly serious when it comes to this business. The effect on the community, on people’s safety, on the minds of people walking by outside, and the effect on the environment, they’re all things you have to consider.” 

Making the Opera Center friendly to the environment was no small task, especially in the case of maintaining the rigorous federal LEED—Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design— certification attached to the building. (LEED requires a building meet especially high safety and energy standards, and even takes into account employee well-being metrics, like how much natural daylight reaches employees.)     

At the end of a long journey, there stands a 14,000 square foot, environmentally-friendly rehearsal and office space. It’s a permanent testament to the vision of all those who made it possible, like the Jay and Betty Andel Foundation, former Executive Director John Peter “Jeep” Jeffries, Paul McGraw, and countless others.  

In addition to serving as the nerve center of opera operations, the Opera Center is a venue in its own right. October of 2016 saw the Center hosting its first opera performance: Maria de Buenos Aires. The show sold out and received great reviews. Afterward, Opera Grand Rapids installed theater seating, ensuring that future performances in the space would provide patrons the comfort and experience they deserve. Meanwhile, the Opera Center has also been hosting diverse and intimate recitals, from New York’s Polydora Ensemble to the Opera Grand Rapids Emerging Artists.   

The Opera Center’s main attraction, The Violet Wondergem Rehearsal Hall, is open to the public for rental. High ceilings, generous daylight, and bamboo flooring bring a warm, natural feeling to performances and rehearsals alike.

Opera Grand Rapids plans to bring a series of engaging performances, grand and small, to the Opera Center stage, and open its doors to the community as often as possible over the coming seasons. The Opera Center is a space for gathering, creating, and celebrating. The years ahead will see the space embodying the vision of those who worked so hard to make it a reality.

OUR FOUNDERS HAD A BOLD PROPOSITION: to build a professional opera company that would put Grand Rapids on the map for a very discerning audience. 50 years later, we are humbled to be the modern bearers of classical standards and modern ingenuity. Learn more.

SUPPORT OUR NEXT 50 YEARS

As an integral part of our city’s artistic fabric, it’s our responsibility to see to its continual flourishing. Please consider donating to Opera Grand Rapids to ensure our artistic excellence for the next 50 years and beyond. You’ve already made us great. With your support, there’s no limits to the height our voices can reach together. Give today.