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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

 In the dimly lit studio at Kansas Public Radio (KPR) in Lawrence, Dr. James Seaver reads over his script. His soothing baritone voice warms the microphone. Sitting across from him is his 40-something engineer, Chubby Smith.  Dr. Seaver has been recording his radio show Opera is My Hobby since before Smith was born.  It is the longest continuously running radio program of its kind  and it airs Friday nights on KPR 91.5 FM from 7-8 p.m.

At 91 years of age, James Seaver is a veritable treasure trove of opera facts.  Moving more carefully through the halls of KPR these days, he can tell a good story and enjoys sharing his observations and experience with his audience on air.  
 
Born in Los Angeles, California in 1918, Dr. Seaver's early years were filled with music.  His father sang and played the guitar, and the family enjoyed making music after dinner. His father also introduced him to Shakespeare in the late 1920's, but it wasn't until 1932 that he found opera.  
 
He tells the story of his introduction to opera this way. "My sister was quite handsome and she attracted a good many beaus, particularly in the summer since she was quite an attraction on her surf board.  Scotty, one of the boys who liked her was a tenor studying opera in Los Angeles.  He invited her to see Carmen but she had another date so she suggested he take me - little Jim.  I thought that was a good idea." And so Scotty took the 12-year-old James. "The next time he asked my sister, she wasn't available again and I got to see Verdi's Il Trovatore.  That was the opera that converted me."  

He explains "Opera had the excitement and costumes of Shakespeare, but it was enhanced by the music. It seemed like something one step beyond theater." This early love of opera inspired Seaver to study singing in high school; he even contemplated opera as a career and not just a hobby. 
 
Opera is My Hobby began airing on KANU-FM in 1952, the same year the Kansas University affiliated station was created.  Dr. Seaver, a professor of ancient history, started spinning his extensive vinyl opera collection of LPs and 78's as a way to share his passion for opera with a broader audience.  Other stations around the country began carrying the show and this national exposure led him to appear on several intermission radio broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera in New York.   
 
Seaver exposes his audience to voices most modern ears have never had the pleasure of hearing. He even occasionally plays selections recorded on wax cylinders so listeners can experience the primary source material of singers who performed for the Romantic composers. His historical collection is housed in the Archive of Recorded Sound at the University of Kansas. Through the Archive, the Seaver Opera Collection, along with the Wright Jazz Collection and the Bierley Early Band Collection, are stored, maintained and made available to the public for research and enjoyment. According to the Department of Music and Dance website "The Archive contains all equipment necessary for playback of its various early recording technologies, including Pathe, Edison, and cylinder players." 
 
But listeners don't have to do the leg work themselves. Opera is My Hobby does it for us. Seaver's meticulously researched programs often revolve around a particular singer or theme.  He enjoys comparing and contrasting the singers and their careers, leading listeners on an auditory adventure through time. Recently he's explored the career and art of soprano Selma Kurz and heldentenor Jacques Urlus peppering the musical selections with interesting details about their lives and loves. 
 
Seaver has many favorite singers including Enrico Caruso whose technique, range, and vocal brilliance defines what he believes makes a great singer. In the last forty years Seaver names the late tenor, Luciano Pavarotti for his wonderful high notes and Peruvian tenor, Juan Diego Flores as the best. Among the women he favors, Renee Fleming, French soprano Natalie Dessay, Russian soprano Anna Netrebko and dramatic soprano Debra Voight.  Kansas City audiences have had the opportunity to hear many of these operatic stars on the Harriman-Jewell Series; and this coming season, Ms. Voight will be in recital on that series.  
 
Watching opera is like looking through a window to view a pure, distilled version of the human drama. Listening to James Seaver's Opera is My Hobby offers audiences a conduit through which the great voices of the past can still inspire and amaze us today.  
 
Dr. James Seaver 
Opera is My Hobby  
Airs on KPR FM 91.5 
Friday nights from 7-8 p.m.  
Visit the website for audio samples of the show at www.kpr.ku.edu 
 

By Megan Browne Helm

Classical, Vocal and Theatre Contributor

Megan Browne Helm grew up singing, dancing and acting.  Inspired by Emma Kirkby as a high school student in St. Louis she went on to study voice and sing with the Collegium Musicum at the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio where she also had a radio show of contemporary classical music on WOBC.  At the University of Kansas she had the pleasure of working with former Kings’ Singer, Simon Carrington in his Collegium Musicum and Oread consort. Years later, she was a choral fellow at the Yale School of Music’s  Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.  She is currently singing with the Kansas City Symphony Chorus under the direction of Charles Bruffy. 

 As a freelance music and culture writer her work can be found on KCMetropolis.org, presentmagazine.com, the Lawrence Journal World, Shawnee Magazine, Leawood Lifestyle Magazine and KC Parent.  She was one of 26 journalists in the country chosen as a NEA Institute Fellow for Classical Music and Opera at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. 

Her current interest is how classical music remains relevant through active collaborations with artists in different fields, including science.  She also sees a connection between classical music, travel and food as a way to engage all of the senses in a 360 degree cultural experience.  She blogs at raworganum.wordpress.com.

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