Philip Venables and Ted Huffman’s ‘Denis & Katya’ Opens with Brandon Bell and Jazmine Olwalia Saturday, May 6th
Pittsburgh Opera is ending its 2022-23 season with two back-to-back contemporary operas in May, with Denis & Katya being the first up at the company’s Bitz Opera Factory, 2425 Liberty Avenue, in Pittsburgh’s Strip District. The approximately hour-long work is based on an appallingly true story of “two teenage runaways [who] live-stream their standoff with Russian Special Forces, leaving behind a trail of devastating video footage.” “This visceral opera uses verbatim text to examine the vast public response to the events surrounding the tragedy of these two Russian runaways,” Pittsburgh Opera says of the work, “exploring how stories are shaped and shared in our age of trolls, conspiracy theories, fake news, and 24/7 digital connection.” The opera has received acclaim from reliable sources, with a New York Times’ observer calling Denis & Katya “an intimate, haunting triumph”, and Musical America calling it “… the most brilliantly original operatic work I’ve seen in a decade.”
Pittsburgh Opera Resident Artists Brandon Bell and Jazmine Olwalia
Recently, Chris Cox, the ever-cheerful Director of Marketing and Communications for the opera, took the time to interview the two singers involved in the production, and shared the results with us exclusively, so that we’ll hear from the singers some of their thoughts on the upcoming production that will be found nowhere else.
“The two of you are the only cast members in Denis & Katya,” Chris chose as a first and interesting question, “yet you do not portray either Denis or Katya. Instead, you each portray multiple characters. What is the process like preparing to portray multiple roles in the same show in such a tight window?”
“I try to individualize what each of them are saying and what their unique arcs are,” answered Brandon Bell, the baritone who we’ve to date heard only in a small Rusalka part, “to separate each of the characters. For instance, I play a Friend of theirs, and he has his own specific arc. I have to find out what he is trying to communicate at each moment of the opera, and find that through-line, and then do it times six – once for each different person. Finding that specificity early in the rehearsal process makes it a lot easier once they all get jammed together in the performance.”
“Tracking where each character is along the way is the hardest part,” added Jazmine Olwalia. “Making sure you understand each character’s goal – what are they trying to achieve by the end of this opera, how are they doing that, what is their physicality in doing that, and adding in all those things. It’s kind of like the word game Quordle, where you do four Wordles at once – you have to keep track of each different thing in your mind,” and when asked if it were difficult to remember which character to play next, Ms. Olwalia was an emphatic “yes,” seconded by Mr. Bell.
“Absolutely,” Mr. Bell added. “Staging has made it a little bit easier. For example, I can remember ‘if I’m sitting in this chair, then I need to go stage right next’ – you get little clues about what needs to come next. Sometimes it’s the movement that will clue you in, sometimes it’s the music, sometimes it’s the text. Physicality is really helping me separate the characters. For example, the Teenager sits in the chair backwards all the time – that’s his thing. The Friend, when he’s sitting in the chair, is more folded in and reserved.”
Pittsburgh Opera Resident Artists Brandon Bell and Jazmine Olwalia
Mr. Cox then questioned one of the most intriguing specifics to Denis & Katya. “This opera is rather unique in that it has no conductor,” was his very startling question. “What is that like?”
“It’s freeing, but it’s also not,” Ms. Olwalia offered. “You’re going off on your own musical ideas – there’s one less person in the room giving you interpretation and cues. In lieu of a conductor, we have a click-track going in our ears, which keeps us honest as far as where we are in the music. So, we’ve lost one thing, but are now beholden to another, which is literally in our ear. It’s challenging to concentrate on phrasing and dynamics when you have a device going ‘One-Two-Three-Four’ in your ear the whole time.” “It’s taught me to figure out other ways to be expressive musically, Mr. Bell was quick to dd. “With a conductor, you can collaborate to figure out ways to use the music. For example, if I really love a part of my voice and want to stretch it out, I can talk with the conductor and make musical choices together. Not having a conductor has forced us to think of other ways to use our voices as expressively as we need to.”
“So just to confirm what a click-track is,” Mr. Cox wished to clarify, “is it really going ‘click-click-click-click’ in your ear at certain speeds?”
“Yes, it times to whatever measures are in the bar,” Ms. Olwalia explained. “The speed varies depending on the music. Brandon’s character Friend has a lot of 6-8 music. Mine is usually in 3-4 or 4-4. We each hear our own unique click-tracks, as do all the cellists.” “There is also a lot of spoken text in this opera,” Mr. Bell added, “that’s also set to music, and we’ll hear a little bell ‘ding’ when it’s time to speak a line instead of sing it. It’s not completely different than seeing a conductor in front of you waving their hands and cueing you for things, but instead of visualizing the directions it’s all audio.”
Asked how performing a one-hour contemporary opera compares to a classic like Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Ms. Olwalia quickly answered. “In Denis & Katya, we’re able to reach the audience on a different level. The Marriage of Figaro has a lot of recognizable tropes – such as the couple with marital problems and the clever servants who outwit their employers. As singers we’re comfortable in those tropes. With this, we are very much off the reservation as far as musical language, as far as characters, and as far as what we even think theater is. The purpose of the production is to really get away from that. There’s no fourth wall – we’re speaking directly to the audience. Sometimes we have our backs to the audience, and that’s not something you see often in theater. Denis & Katya breaks out of a lot of the traditional conventions that you are used to seeing in theater and opera. I don’t know of any other opera where I’d play so many parts, and use a click-track – it’s different from any other operatic experience.” Mr. Bell added: “We’re inviting the audience to throw away their conceptions of what opera as an art form is ‘supposed’ to be. We’re inviting the audience to experience this theater, and storytelling, in a new way. There is a sense of exploration and openness that the piece really invites.”
Mr. Cox’s last question was what each singing actor was most looking forward to about these performances.
“I’m most looking forward to the audience’s reactions,” Ms. Olwalia concluded. “Unlike an opera like The Marriage of Figaro, where they all live happily ever after, Denis & Katya is very much open-ended in what you can take from it, how you feel about it, and how you feel about these characters. Even the ending itself is open to interpretation.” “I’m excited to share it with people,” was Mr. Bell’s final word on the subject. “It’s a very rewarding piece to get to perform. I’m excited for people to experience something I think will be very new for them.”
As always, you can learn more about the opera and its production details, but more importantly, tickets, at the Pittsburgh Opera website.
David Bachman Photography
Edited by George B. Parous
Categories: Our Posts, Show Previews
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