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Opera singers have often sought fame and fulfillment outside the opera house. Leonard Warren tried Hollywood before becoming a leading baritone at the Met. Eileen Farrell had a radio program. Marilyn Horne lent her voice (but not her actual screen presence) to Carmen Jones. Ezio Pinza was a matinee idol. There was a time when popular singing and opera singing were not so dissimilar, as far as the training and utilization of the voice went. Musical theater singers such as Barbara Cook, Julie Andrews, Gordon McRae and Robert Goulet might well have had opera careers had they chosen them. But with the arrival of rock, the popular and the classical-style voice diverged; "crossing over" became more complicated and opera singers began to sound quite out of place in the pop and musical theater worlds.

Still, there are those who enjoy success in the world outside the opera house. One is Harolyn Blackwell, who made her professional debut on Broadway in West Side Story and later returned to star in Candide. Even after earning her college degree in classical voice, the two worlds-Broadway and opera-called Ms. Blackwell. She spoke with USOPERAWEB recently about this and other matters.

Harolyn Blackwell grew up in the nation's capital and is proud of her Washington, DC, roots. "I'm a true Washingtonian, born, raised and educated in Washington, DC."

But music was not a family affair. "I did not come from a musical family. I had a fourth grade teacher that introduced me to music and she also became my piano and voice teacher. I sang at the Catholic Church, and in high school I started doing musicals-Sound of Music, Brigadoon, Oliver, and so forth. I thought maybe this would be what I would pursue after high school, although even in my senior year in high school I had doubts. I wanted to go into history or fashion design. But, I had a wonderful choral director who said 'no, your calling is music,' and she convinced me."

"I attended Catholic University but I wasn't quite sure whether I wanted to pursue classical or musical theater. I knew that whichever I chose, I wanted to have a classical training. It was important to me to have the technical expertise as well as also the theory and understanding of classical music. Catholic University was the best of both possible worlds, as we say in Candide, because they had a very strong drama department as well as a very good music department. They were next door, so I spent quite a bit of time going back and forth between the drama department and the music department.

"After graduate school I came to New York to do West Side Story and it was after it closed on Broadway that I decided to pursue a classical career. It took me a long time to decide because musical theater was my first love."

We were curious to know if Ms. Blackwell found it easy to move between opera and musical theater, specifically between singing with and without a microphone. "I had started from the beginning of my career singing without a microphone, so the adjustment to me was learning how to sing with a mike. But even when I was in college, all the productions were done without mikes, the old fashioned way [she laughs]. The head of the drama department was of the old school: you got out there and you sang without mikes. I didn't really learn to sing with a mike until I was with a group doing a review in Washington."

We pointed out to Ms. Blackwell that she shared West Side Story with an eminent predecessor. "Yes, Reri Grist. When I heard about the audition-this was when I was still in Washington-I told my voice teacher that they wanted me to sing 'Somewhere,' but I really wanted to sing 'Maria.' She looked at me and said, 'How dare you! Do you know who sang 'Somewhere?' Reri Grist.' I had never heard of Reri Grist and the illustrious career she had so I started reading about her. Later, I was in Germany and I telephoned her to introduce myself. I told her that I had done West Side Story and that I was now singing opera and that every time I walked into an audition they told me I reminded them of her. She was so kind and gracious to me. Later when I did Oscar in Germany, I worked on the role with her. You know, she came to every performance. She will always have a special place in my heart."

Back to West Side Story… "Unbeknownst to me, what was so special about this production was that it was the 25th anniversary of West Side Story. They had gathered the original collaborators to work on this production, so Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim and Jerome Robbins were all there. I got the part and my intention was to come to New York and to begin my Broadway career. But after West Side Story closed, I didn't know what to do next and a friend said to me 'you have a degree in music and performance, I think maybe you should pursue it.'

The Big Decision

"My goal was to see if I wanted to see if I really wanted to pursue an operatic career. Thus, I applied for apprenticeship programs around the country and was accepted to the Houston and Chicago programs. I decided to go to Chicago and that was really beginning of my operatic career. I had already done musical theater and I knew I could come back to New York to sing on Broadway, but I had to see if I really had the where-with-all and the passion to pursue this. It took a couple months, but it clicked.

"Then I did the Met auditions in '83 and that was the turning point. There were four of us representing the Chicago Midwest area and of the four I was selected as one of the finalists and that was the first year we did a full program with the Met orchestra. I came back to New York and, of course, no one knew who I was. I had been in a different world altogether when I was here before. The Met auditions opened so many doors for me and finally in 1987 I made my Met debut as Pousette in Manon."

Ms. Blackwell's opera roles fall in the soubrette and lyric coloratura categories (Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Marie in The Daughter of the Regiment, Adele in Die Fledermaus, Gilda in Rigoletto, etc.). Coming from musical theater, we wondered if it had been difficult to find the opera repertory best suited to her voice. "It was a major discussion in Chicago with the apprenticeship program. They saw me in the lighter repertoire and my voice teacher and I saw me in the lyric repertoire. I had the wonderful opportunity to go study in Busseto with Carlo Bergonzi and Renata Tebaldi and wonderful woman by the name of Sylvia Barrachi and her husband, Maestro Barrachi, both from Chicago. At the end of the program Mrs. Barrachi and Renata Tebaldi sat down with me and told me what roles I should sing if I wanted to have a major career. Having those two women take the time to talk to me made a big difference. I have always been the type of individual that takes all the information and then makes the decision that's appropriate for me. I can be very stubborn. I remember telling Matthew Epstein one day, 'I know, I know, you told me this a long time ago. But, you know, I had to come to this decision myself.' I really do have to credit those two women for saving me. A conductor said to me a long time ago, 'you're a helden-soubrette,' because I have a strong middle voice and I have this top also. People often just ask, 'what are you? Can you sing Mimì and Liu?' At the same time, I could do all of the soubrette roles as well, so it was trying to find my voice and where I should concentrate my career and those two women really just hit it perfectly."

Ms. Blackwell followed closely in the footsteps of another African-American soprano, Kathleen Battle. Their repertories were similar; Ms. Blackwell even stepped in to replace Ms. Battle on a few occasions. We wondered, in a business that tends to see singers as "types" rather than individuals, if Ms. Blackwell had found it difficult to establish herself away from Ms. Battle's shadow, especially after the well publicized career crisis the latter suffered in the mid-'90s. "Kathleen has been very supportive and very good to me over my career. Mattiwilda Dobbs, Reri Grist and Kathy were basically the predecessors for me and I really am grateful to those women, especially with my particular fach. I mean, singing Aïda or Leonora is one thing, but the lyric repertory roles are not star vehicles. It just doesn't happen and I think these women have really helped in that respect."

"Kathy has always been very kind and gracious and good to me. You know, people have come up to me and told me I reminded them of Kathleen Battle. But it's interesting, when I first started out, people told me I reminded them of Reri Grist. It was something obviously in my personality that reminded them more of Reri than Kathleen. I have sung many things that Kathy has done. I recently did Honey and Rue with Andre Previn [http://www.schirmer.com/composers/previn/bio.html], which was written for her. I remember when I first started working on the piece, she was doing it and I asked her if I could sit on rehearsal. It was no problem. I mean, I have a different viewpoint altogether. I've gone in and I've been Harolyn and, you know, that's who I am."

Ms. Blackwell returned to Broadway in 1997 to star as Cunegonde in a revival of Leonard Bernstein's Candide. The production, which originated at Lyric Opera of Chicago, was directed by Hal Prince and featured Jason Danieley (Candide), Jim Dale (Voltaire, Dr. Pangloss, et al.), Andrea Martin (Old Lady), Arte Johnson (multiple roles) and Brent Barrett (Maximilian). The production ran for 104 performances. For Ms. Blackwell, it was a matter of being in the right place at the right time. "People always asked me when I would return to Broadway and I said I would consider returning to Broadway if it was the right project. I had heard rumors that they were going to do Candide, but I had assumed that Elizabeth Futral would be doing it because I knew they were doing the Chicago production and she had done Cunegunde there. Ricky Ian Gordon is a friend of Charlie and Christina Prince (Hal Prince's son and daughter-in-law) and he had written a song for their wedding and asked me to sing it. I wanted to do that because they have been so kind and really dear friends. Ricky asked me if I was interested in doing Candide and I said, 'Ricky, are you crazy? I've done eight shows a week. End of discussion.' After the wedding party, Hal Prince came up to me and said he wanted to talk to me about something. The next day he called me up and asked if I would be interested in doing Cunegonde. I told him I'd have to think about it. So it was just one of these things that happened like that. I didn't audition; I was there at the right place and we just started discussing it. I thought about what I had said before and I realized that this was the project. At first, I said there was absolutely no way, you know? I was in the middle of this career. But then I thought, my love has always been Broadway. When would I have the opportunity to go back and do a role that is almost tailor-made for me? And to work with Hal Prince was always been a dream of mine.

"I happened to have that period open and I asked my manager and we both agreed it was a great opportunity. I didn't know where that ride was going but I decided I was going to take it. And I really learned a lot. I had great colleagues. It was so much fun; it brought back so many memories of my West Side Story days. I will tell you something-I now say this to all of my friends who are opera singers-you don't know what hard work is until you've done eight shows a week. I have the utmost respect and admiration for Broadway singers."

Candide seems to be everybody's favorite flawed musical. There is little argument over Bernstein's inspired score. But for many, the book is a major weakness in the show and it has been overhauled for almost every major revival since the 1956 premiere. "The book is problematic and there are some things that, yes, we were able to take care of and some things that still didn't quite work. The second act is a problem and I think it will always be like that. We ran only for a couple months. We were in the Gershwin Theater which is a huge barn, and you know, it was difficult to pack it night after night. I think it's a piece that's an acquired taste. You know, someone in the Midwest is going to go see Beauty and the Beast over something like Candide unless they really love Voltaire, or Bernstein.

"It was a fabulous cast-Jim Dale, Jason Danieley, Andrea Martin, Artie Johnson. But it's a hard piece and it's difficult to pigeon-hole and I think they need to be able to do that today on Broadway. There are moments where it's pure musical theater and there are others where it's the most fiendishly difficult opera music I've ever sung. People criticized it because it was not quite a musical and not quite an opera, instead of just accepting the piece for what it is. In some respects that's why the piece has always intrigued me-that gray area. It's interesting as I open the current Opera News and I see that everyone's doing Sweeney Todd now. Okay, fine, it's a great musical, but it's not an opera."

A Caribbean Black Boy in a Swedish Court

The role of Oscar in Verdi's The Masked Ball has been important in Ms. Blackwell's career. It introduced her to many opera houses and brought her instant fame when she appeared on the Metropolitan Opera's telecast of the opera in 1991. We asked about preparing the role. "Two people truly helped me with that role character-wise, Reri and [director] Piero Faggioni. Faggioni had found information about a young boy from the Caribbean who was in Gustavo's court. It was as if a light bulb went off when he told me that. It suddenly made so much sense and I was able to use that information dramatically. That was the key to the character for me because it made me understand the playfulness of the character and the relationship between Gustavo and Oscar, which was almost father/son or mentor/student. I think this is why Oscar is able to get away with so many things-the play from that first act aria and the indignant attitude in the second aria. Then at the end when Gustavo dies there is the realization that I'm the person who caused his death-I've killed my father, my mentor, the most important person to me. I also thought about the fact that there was no one else in that court like him-he's this little black boy. When I first did this role in Hamburg it was my European debut and I worked on it with Reri and she really helped me to discover so much about this character. One of the first roles I did in my career was Jemmy in William Tell and in the process of preparing that I would walk down the street and watch the young boys walking and playing and talking and just seeing how they functioned and trying to imagine what they were thinking. It was a challenge."

Playing the parts of young boys or girls is common for young opera singers; but getting older often necessitates a major reevaluation of the career. The world is always wanting for a Brunnhilde or Aïda; but there has never been a shortage of soubrettes waiting at the stage door. How does a singer deal with this? "You get to the point where you say to yourself that you can no longer play a 9-year-old boy or a 13-year-old girl. You mature, not only physically, but also mentally. Now I'm going into the bel canto repertoire and starting to sing roles like Lucia, Norina in Don Pasquale, Juliet in I Capuletti ed i Montecchi and Lakme. I said to my manager one day, 'I would love to have roles where I stand there and sing! I have spent my entire career running around on stage.' There is a point where you have to see where the voice is going. It's also a matter of finding those roles where you are at that particular point-vocally, physically, mentally and also spiritually. So, the next step is what I call the 'real women' roles."

Such a change can also mean having to repackage and remarket oneself in a highly competitive business. "It's difficult at times, there's no question about it. There are individuals out there who have the foresight to see and understand where you're going. One person who really has been in my corner in that respect is Speight Jenkins. Long before anyone else, he saw exactly where I wanted to go and he helped me in so many respects through that transition. It's difficult for some people to see you past that, and they do pigeonhole you, there's no question about that. But I can't sit there, I've got to keep going. "

Has race been a factor in Ms. Blackwell's career? "I would say that race has been a positive thing for me. I have always said, 'this is who I am, an African American artist,' and I bring to that experience to my career in a positive way. I celebrate who I am in what I do. There's prejudice in everyone in some subtle way, you know? Some people may not like large singers, some people may not like Asian singers, and so it's something that we all deal with. This is such a subjective business.

"My parents were part of the civil rights movement so it was always discussed in our house. Both my parents were teachers and I think what they instilled in us was that your job was to go out there and to educate people about the goodness in everyone. That breaks down barriers ten times better than anything else. It's the one-on-one contact. And I have to tell you, this is just not being black, it's being an opera singer and not even because I'm a black opera singer, just because I'm an opera singer. Here in the United States of America it's still considered an elitist art form. So I try to go out and educate an audience and say, 'no, this is music that you, too, can love, music that you can appreciate.'"

How has your family reacted to having an opera star among them? "It's really been my husband, my family and my faith in God that have gotten me this far. I'm very fortunate. I'm the eldest of five children and my parents always taught us that whatever we decided to pursue they would be there to support us. I have this wonderful story I tell people. I was singing in the Metropolitan Opera finals and my mother said to my brother who was in high school at the time, 'Harold, we're going up to New York to hear Harolyn at the Metropolitan Opera. Don't you want to come?' And he said, 'Mommy, I've heard her before.'

"It really puzzled my husband that when we first arrived home, because no one stops in my family. You fit into their program, they don't fit into your program. It's not about being the diva, they really just put you in your place. What has kept me absolutely grounded has been my family from day one and my husband and friends."

Does opera matter today?

"We don't have audience participation anymore, partly because of being raised on television. We have become an audience that receives entertainment in a passive way. I think in order to participate you have to have knowledge and knowledge means you have to take the time to sit down and educate.

"I taught at two parochial schools, one in Washington, DC, and the other in Bethesda, Maryland, and I had to fight for my children to be able to go down to the Kennedy Center to see an opera. I got the English teacher, the history teacher and the art teacher to come together and work on this project where we all talked about the music, the art, the history and the literature from the period. I called to get the buses and the principal's secretary said to me, 'I'm sorry, Miss Blackwell, they're yellow school buses, they don't have air conditioning. I don't think the children will be able to go.' I told her that if she didn't get me those buses I would call the archdiocese of Washington, DC. I said, 'they won't melt?'

"I used to do a program years ago called the Affiliate Artists where we went into the community and people met the artists one-on-one. When you are able to communicate with people and show them you're just another human being with a gift, it makes all the difference. My gift happens to be singing. When you go to an opera you see so many people, but you don't have an opportunity to have that one-on-one contact and that's what was so great about that program. It used to be that the schools would take the responsibility for an arts program but we have nothing now. I saw this happening fifteen, twenty years ago, so where are we now? It can be done but it takes effort and money. Perhaps if we took some money from the military and put it towards the arts. The greatness of a society is measured by its contribution to the arts."