Leland Kimball is the Producing Artistic Director for Opera Delaware and is stage directing Center City Opera Theater's upcoming world-premiere of The Picture of Dorian Gray. He recently took a moment to describe what he faces as a stage director. Leland has had the unique and varied experiences of being, not only a singer himself, but also an architect.

A MOMENT WITH STAGE DIRECTOR
LELAND KIMBALL
BY JANELLE MCCOY

Q. How do your experiences as both a singer and architect relate to the way that you direct?

A. As an architect, I have been trained to visualize space without having to see it first. So it is very easy to plan a complex blocking scene in my head before I get to a rehearsal. I often use tools that I learned in architecture, such as scale models of furniture and singers. Regarding singers, I know what lines are difficult to sing, what lines are difficult to project; I try to respect the needs of the singers for those moments. So I don't ask a singer to sing a high C while leaning upside down over a bed, for example.

Q. What is the role of a stage director? Do you allow organic development or do you have everything sketched by the first rehearsal? How do you balance your ideas with the singers' ideas?

A. I like to sketch things in before the rehearsal because there are a certain number of technical things that can be worked out in advance. For example, one character might have to be next to another for an aside, or near a door, and so on. Determining those things on the spot by trial and error is a complete waste of time for everyone. I usually base movements on acting "beats", or changes in emotion or action. Of course, if the singer has a clear idea that is different, I always try it. They are usually right! Sometimes, though, I have to insist on a certain interpretation that fits into the emotional "spine" of the work that would take precedence over an individual singer's interpretation.

LELAND KIMBALL (cont'd)

Q. How does the process of directing a contemporary work differ from directing an existing, more established work?

A. No different... I start at the beginning and tell the story as clearly as possible. Often librettos leave out a lot of stage "business" that needs to be in the action in order to understand the story. If the work is contemporary and set in modern times, there is less work to make the singers comfortable with a different world view and life style. It's sometimes hard to get young American singers to understand the dynamics of an 18th century aristocratic class system, for example.

Q. What are the greatest challenges in directing a contemporary opera?

A. Having worked on 15 world premieres with composers and librettists like Libby Larsen, Charles Strouse, Sheldon Harnick, Tina Davidson, Michael Ching, Conrad Cummings and others, I would say that the biggest challenge for a stage director in a new work is tuning in to the musical language of the particular composer and try to feel how they use the music to dramatize the action. Sometimes composers clearly write in specific musical action (a stab with a knife, for example), while others generalize. One finds that these things are usually easier with contemporary opera rather than with Baroque opera.

Q. How is opera relevant, specifically new American opera, in today's society? Why should they be produced?

LELAND KIMBALL (cont'd)

A. If we do not start producing and presenting new works, the audience for opera in the future will simply die. Furthermore, if we do not present American opera, new American audiences will eventually lose interest in opera. Somewhere out there is the next Mozart, but we won't find him or her if we don't give new composers a chance.


Q. How does The Picture of Dorian Gray compare to other American works you have directed?

A. It's the most "traditional" and deals with "grand" emotions I associate with 19th century European opera.


Q. Are there specific themes or ideas in The Picture of Dorian Gray that you wanted to highlight?

A. The theme of physical beauty taking precedence over the inner soul is one that resonates in our image-conscious society.

Q. Are there other American operas in your future?

A. I will be directing Little Women at Opera Delaware next spring.

Mezzo-soprano Janelle McCoy frequently performs opera, pops, orchestral and chamber works across the United States and in Europe. Her next appearance is with world-renown classical guitarist Joel Brown at the Luzerne Music Festival.