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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

Life as an international opera star.

You stride purposefully, but calmly down the platform of a Paris train station, pursued by an army of redcaps with numerous bags containing costumes for the next performance.  You spot familiar faces among passengers on the Orient Express enroute to the lounge car to begin the journey with a light refreshment.

You pause briefly to wave to the photographers as the conductor calls "all aboard" and step into your private Pullman. Your day as an international opera star begins afresh.  Surely, glamour and elegance will follow you always...

And now - a day in the life of a real international opera star - Heidi Grant Murphy...

"The last thing you want to see is your caller ID with the number of your kid's school." 

That's how Heidi Grant Murphy day began recently.  She has four children.  One of them was sick and the school was calling. That's the difference between image and reality.  Image has you sipping champagne aboard the Orient Express.  Reality has you picking up your sick kid from school.

Talking to Heidi Grant Murphy is like talking to a friend you haven't heard from in a while.  She loves her children, her husband whom she met in college, and her work.   She works to find a balance between the role of working mom with four kids, and international acclaim.  There is nothing overbearing or presumptuous about her.  She could walk down any street of Kansas City and fit in with any of us.

But then......

She sings.  And the world sits up and notices when she stands before us on the stage of the Lyric Theatre, Yardley Hall or somewhere in Paris...

This is what Heidi Grant Murphy had to say about her life as an opera star.  Her real life:

 David Peironnet:   When did you first realize that you wanted to be an opera star?

 Heidi Grant Murphy:  Never. Not until I got to the Metropolitan Opera auditions did I realize that I could even do it.

 I went to college as an education major at the University of Indiana, and planned on  going into choral conducting.  My voice teachers suggested that I give singing a try.     I really didn't know what opera was about yet.

 I met my husband in college and he convinced me to go to the Met audition. I learned five arias - and that was it. I'd had relatively little vocal training and almost no language training. I didn't know what I was supposed to be afraid of, so I just went out and did it.

 DP:  Several reviewers have described your voice as "silvery."  How would you describe your voice?

 HGM:  Each singer has a different vocal quality.  Some try to impress you with volume. Some show their flexibility and agility in singing.  Others try to deliver a quality of sound.  My voice is not a large instrument although I can fill a large space because sound can be very focused.

 DP:  You've performed a lot of lyrical roles including Pamina in the Magic Flute, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, and Adina in the Elixir of Love, but also some lesser known, but very challenging roles in Poulenc's Dialogue of the Carmelites, and Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress.  There doesn't appear to be a common thread.  How do you explain this?

 HGM:  Oftentimes, directors will cast you by the sound of your voice.  I try to deliver a crystal, beautiful sound and that's what these roles call for.  For example, composers from Monteverdi to Gluck will write for someone with an angelic voice.  I can deliver that quality.  Poulenc's Dialogue of the Carmelites calls for a youthful persona, and that's who I am.

 DP: Performing in a concert setting such as what you will do in Kansas City with Mahler's Fourth Symphony is quite different from performing in an opera.  What is it like to have an entire orchestra directly behind you?  Do you prefer opera performance or concert performance?  Or, do you even have a preference?

 HGM:  I enjoy both.  Comparing opera to a symphony concert is like comparing apples to oranges; they are hard to compare.  Each one requires something different and I find something to like in both.

 In a concert setting, I have to be one of the musicians.  I may be a soloist but I am still one of the musicians, and I like doing that.

 In an opera, I am a performer.  The orchestra and the chorus are there to support the leads.   I enjoy that, too.

 DP:  You have recently recorded the Mahler 4th.  What draws you to this demanding role?  What do you want us in Kansas City to hear in your performance?

 HGM:  There is so much beauty in the Mahler 4th.  Being the soloist means that I get that one great seat, directly in front of the orchestra.  I usually remain seated through the first movements and just enjoy the music.

 It's also a great responsibility.  Even though I am the soloist, I have to be part of the musicians. I listen to those movements before I begin singing and absorb the passion of Mahler's work.  The orchestra musicians build this passion but I am the one who finishes.  The way I can best show respect to them is to finish the way they have built the entire symphony.

 
INTERVIEW:
Mahler's Monumental 4^th
Kansas City Symphony with Michael Stern
and Heidi Grant Murphy, soprano
Friday, April 9 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, April 10 at 8 p.m.
Lyric Theatre
11^th and Central Streets, Downtown Kansas City, MO
Sunday, April 11 at 2 p.m.
Yardley Hall, Carlsen Center at JCCC
12345 College, Overland Park, KS
For tickets call 816-471-1100 or www.kcsymphony.org

By David Peironnet

Special to KCM

David Peironnet has been a concert-goer for more years than he would care to admit, and can clearly recall hearing the Kansas City Philharmonic under the baton of Hans Schweiger. This comes from someone who admits to be only 24 years old though acknowleges that his undergraduate degree was not in math but rather political science -- a group of people who are notoriously able to see only those facts they want to see in statistical data.

David has churned out the newsletter for the Friends of the Symphony - Kansas City for six or seven years. He doesn't recall and really doesn't care how many years it has been because the only thing that's important is the next deadline -- and the one after that.

This is one of a series of interviews he runs periodically usually consisting of five open-ended questions which reveal answers which can give information to the person walking into a concert hall for the first time, or like himself have been enjoying concerts for many years.

David and Kathy Peironnet frequently work at the Friends of the Symphony gift shop which is located in the lobby of the Lyric Theatre. The next time you come to a concert, stop by and say, "hello." Ask for a copy of the current FoS newsletter. If a copy isn't available, just ask and one will be mailed to you.