Interviewing Mignon Dunn in the same way that I have others just wouldn’t work. Like interviewing your aunt for a school paper, it’s too close to make it objective. Instead, I decided to tape a live question and answer session with the legendary mezzo and twenty students involved in a program — IIVA — where she teaches in Chiari, Italy. This second part of the resulting interview is filled with vital information for young artists.
Mignon Dunn has had a mezzo’s dream career. She’s sung everywhere, with everyone — she was in the cast of La Forza del Destino the night Leonard Warren died on stage at the Met. In addition, she is a successful director, a respected educator, and had been blessed with a happy marriage to a great musician, conductor Kurt Klippstatter, until his untimely passing last year. “Make sure you say that he taught me everything I know,” she said to me as a last request after our rap session was over. With pleasure, Aunt Mignon…
Laura Farmer of Hoboken, NJ: How do you prepare mentally and physically for a high-pressure performance or audition?
Mignon Dunn: You shut off five days before, get a lot of rest and are very careful about how you treat yourself. I don’t drink any wine – which I love. Concentrate on the performance, keep your voice healthy and have very little rehearsal during those days.
Greg Bruce of Johns Island, SC: You said that five days before an audition you shut down. Do you think there is a certain amount of time when you should put your music away?
MD: You’ll find that out for yourself. But if you’re doing an important audition, you certainly don’t want to get ready the day before. You want to be ready — and go for blood, for winning. Don’t just do it offhand.
Celina Guerrero of New York: Can you name three things that motivated you to stay in music as long as you have?
I love music, I love the theatre, I love acting. And I could never think of doing anything else. When I was a kid I never wanted to do anything but sing. I loved to hear these wonderful people and see them on the stage, especially when the music is so fantastic and the orchestra is great. It’s where I lived and I loved it. I had a lot of fun doing all these performances, too. I certainly did not stay locked up in my room all that time.
Albert Lee of New York: How you make the transition from performing to teaching?
MD: You have to compartmentalize. If you have a performance to do, you really cannot teach for several days before; it just doesn’t go. The voice is tired, ragged. You have to make a choice.
Maria Zouves: When you are involved in a production do you have a hard time turning off the teaching?
MD: You keep to yourself. But I would never go to anybody and suggest anything vocal unless they were to ask me.
MZ: When did you decide to become a teacher?
MD: I started doing masterclasses more than anything, but I thought I would do more directing than teaching. I didn’t think I would be a voice teacher even though I like young voices. But in a masterclass I found that they couldn’t do what I was asking them to do because their voices weren’t working. I thought, “it would be so easy if they would only….” So I meddled. I thought that they should be doing “this and this” and I remembered that I made just about all the mistakes that everyone else made! It’s really fascinating because I have always liked puzzles and everyone that comes into my studio is like a puzzle. I don’t have a method because their faces are different. You want the voice to come out, and you want it free with breath working. It was a logical way to go — to try to give what I have learned with all the really fabulous people that I have worked with by remembering what they did. You must not teach if you are a frustrated performer and you want to sing what they are singing.
I have to say one thing to young singers: Be careful of your colleagues. They may mean the best thing possible but don’t ask your colleagues how you did — ever! Because they don’t hear you the same way [the audience does] — they are on the stage with you. If there is one colleague you really trust, fine. Don’t, in general, ask somebody because they probably don’t know and it’s just going to make you unhappy.
Albert Lee: What do you think are some of the greatest vocal faults of young singers?
MD: Breath… breath and pronouncing everything with your jaw like we Americans do. We don’t use our lips or our tongues. You let it free, and so consequently it’s like chewing. There is too much tension there. I really think the breath is very, very important. I think it’s different for everybody.
I think also that sometimes singers listen to themselves too much. Remember that you are listening through bones. In all the things I have sung well in my life, my voice felt to me very light, never big. Once in awhile I would think, “What a great big luscious sound that was.” And nobody would say anything to me after the performance and I wondered why. And then the next time I would get a feeling that, “Oh, it’s weedy.” And everyone would say, “Hey, you were sick last week, right? Because you sound really like yourself tonight.” You can’t hear it too honestly and you always need an outside ear. A coach, a teacher, someone.
Celina Guerrero: How did you deal with travel and family?
MD: I’ve been very lucky. I know people that have had children; it’s very difficult for them. I never had children. I was married to my husband for twenty years and he was in the business, so we understood that there was a lot of away time. I know people that had to have somebody with them all of the time. I never had to. My husband was as busy as I was and I was thrilled when he could come to me or I could go to his performances. But I never needed someone waiting in the dressing room for me. Nor did I ever have an entourage, because I always had something better to do after a performance [laughter from the students]. There is a lot of time that you spend by yourself, so you had better like yourself.
Lillian Roberts: What is the best possible way for young singers to get their languages underneath them besides going to another country?
MD: Study, listen, and if you want to get a little more fluid with it, look at comic strips. It has the pictures to go with it. Get a paperback – something really simple. The newspapers are difficult. Sometimes they are just worded in a hard way. But you have to listen. You can do it; it just takes time. [Addressing Greg Bruce]Greg, how many times did you work on that recitative — and it was really good last night. You do it slowly and loudly, until you absolutely have it around your mouth and lips. That’s the way you do it. It’s work. Sometimes you have to spend a lot of time on just one phrase. But then it gets easier and easier.
Meghan Joynt: As a singer, do you need to go over and above the usual things? What can we do to help ourselves?
MD: Yes, you do need to go over and above everyone else. The best medicine is sleep. There are very few of us that can go without it. Teresa Stratas never slept a lot and she always gave wonderful performances. But I think that you have to find the amount of sleep that works for you and get it. You have to do this yourself, don’t wait for somebody else to tell you. When you start getting sick, go to the doctor. Don’t be a hero and think it’s going to get better. Find somebody that you trust. Find the foods that work. Some people thrive on red pepper. Some people would be horrified to know that I drank milk in my coffee during a performance. What works for you? But don’t push hard and think that you’re not going to get sick. I think its maybe the most important thing. Sooner or later it shows on the voice. And don’t study right up to the time that you are going to sleep because then you won’t be able to [sleep]. When you have to sing don’t talk. And believe in vitamins! Be sensible and take care of yourselves.
Maria Zouves would like to extend grateful thanks to the International Institute of Vocal Arts for allowing her to hold this special forum and to all those aspiring young artists who participated in this project.
