Opera Roles Should Be Cast With Ears Instead of Eyes
Karen Slack, Photo credit: Roni Griffith
Renowned soprano Karen Slack joins Classical Post to discuss her new series Konversations, building her career, how roles should be cast with ears instead of eyes, how fewer Black women have international careers these days and more.
Classical Post: There have been a lot of beneficial digital conversations lately featuring Black classical artists that you’ve participated in and are hosting. Can you tell us a little bit about your series Konversations?
Karen Slack: Konversations was born at my kitchen table this past March. Late 2018 I had a desire to do a podcast while on the road. Interviewing my colleagues during our rehearsal periods was something I have always wanted to do but talked myself out of it many times. While my husband and I were having dinner the title popped into my brain. My idea was a conversation over drinks with a friend but social media gets to peek in and ask questions. HA!
CP: Can you talk about how you’ve built your career? Specifically, have you taken lower performance fees for roles that you wanted to sing?
KS: I have made sure that if the company engaging me has a lower scale that there is a future debut role attached to it. I look at it as a blessing to have sung at different levels of companies. Oftentimes I have found myself the most artistically satisfied in the smaller companies but I love the big house fees!! I definitely think more strategically now than ever before. Creating new roles, recital programming and telling more relevant stories are important to me, so when asked what I love about Opera I make a point to say putting my stamp on new projects.
CP: You’ve spoken about constantly trying to fight your way out of the boxes that people have put you in as a Black singer and how you’ve been unable to land Ariadne despite being able to sing the role. What steps does the opera world need to take to prevent this kind of boxing from happening?
KS: First to acknowledge that casting with eyes instead of ears and with the last famous person known for doing these roles is very problematic. Going back to voice first is what we need to do. Also, going back to the idea that many different voice weights and colors can sing the same role! Obviously you need a specific weight of voice to sing Wagner, Strauss and some of the heavier Italian repertoire like Turandot but again depending on the theater and performer there are more possibilities than what is being offered to the audiences.
"Es gibt en reich" from Ariadne auf Naxos - Karen Slack, Soprano
CP: Do you feel that opera directors discriminate based on a singer’s size to determine which roles they are best suited for? If so, is this something that you have personally experienced?
KS: I believe casting directors have a vision for what they’d like to see in theatre and on their stages. We are a long way from heavy singers ruling the stage because of the demand to be what we say is HD ready. While I have not had anyone say anything negative to my face, I know if I was 30 pounds lighter even at my smallest scale weight directors would look at me differently and cast me more often in certain roles. So the questions YES they discriminate! But so do Administrators, conductors etc. but not everyone falls into that category. I’ve gotten the opportunity to sing Violetta in La Traviata when I was at my smallest for my frame. The review mentioned my heavy arms but said I sang and acted so brilliantly he forgot I wasn’t what he considered ideal for the role. Critics are the other side of that coin. Oftentimes they critique the look of the FEMALE singer instead of the performances. We are going in the wrong direction.
CP: How are Black women and Black men currently viewed differently in the operatic community? Have things shifted from a focus on Black women to Black men over recent years? If so, why do you think this is?
KS: SO many Black men have been kept out of the industry for decades and now the tables have turned, George Shirley, Simon Estes, Willard White have seen International success. You see less Black american women having big careers these days and more men which is tremendous but why can’t the doors be open for both at the sametime in a diverse repertoire?
CP: When speaking about mentoring, you’ve said that your goal is to be the person that you wish that you had as a young singer without role models who looked like you. What actions do you take to support emerging Black artists?
KS: I make myself approachable and available to all young singers who want this career. Through social media or email I make sure to ask for recordings of their work before we actually speak. I have mentored quite a few singers but not just Black singers. I always try to recommend artists and suggest singers who are ready for the next step to audition for administrators and conductors whenever I can. I believe in bringing at least 2 people with me wherever I go.
Karen Slack
Hailed by critics for possessing a lustrous voice of extraordinary beauty and artistry of great dramatic depth American soprano Karen Slack has performed with major conductors in opera houses and concert halls around the world. She was most recently seen in Verdi's Aida with Austin Opera, Alice Ford in Verdi's Falstaff with Arizona Opera and in the West Coast premiere of Terence Blanchard's Champion as Emelda Griffith with San Francisco's Opera Parallele, Litton's Porgy and Bess Suite at the Bergen Festival in Norway, Mahler Symphony No. 2 with Lexington Philharmonic, Beethoven's 9th with both Quad City Symphony and Alabama Symphony and a house debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Serena in Francesca Zambello's production of Porgy and Bess which she has performed at both Washington National Opera and San Francisco Opera. She can be seen reprising the role of Serena in San Francisco Opera's production that was released on DVD in 2015.
