Unconventional. That word describes so many things about Peter Kazaras, artistic director of Seattle Opera’s Young Artists Program and director of Opera UCLA. Look him up on Facebook and you may think you have stumbled upon the wrong profile. When “Harvard” and “Juris Doctor degree” pop up on the screen, you’re sure this is another Peter Kazaras. Then, at the top of the page, you see Seattle Opera and UCLA as employers, and quickly realize that Kazaras is not the stereotypical singing artist.
Kazaras says that he was always interested in music and theater. Indeed, his parental heritage seemed to destine him for a musical career. With a Wagnerian tenor for a father and a musicologist for a mother, his path might have seemed set. Kazaras participated in musical and theater productions in high school and there fostered a friendship with David and Christopher Alden, the now-famous post-modernist stage directors. Their mother, Barbara Alden, noted for her Broadway performances, was the director for the musicals. During his senior year, Kazaras was cast as Ruth in Bernstein’s Wonderful Town. He took full advantage of this unexpected casting and performed with talent and charisma.
In spite of all of these remarkable experiences at such a young age, Kazaras knew as an undergraduate that he wasn’t ready for an operatic career. He began his collegiate career at Harvard, and though he did not major in music, the first thing he did was audition for Die Fledermaus (he was cast as Eisenstein and found himself onstage with voice majors from NEC and BU). Even through law school Kazaras continued to take lessons and sing recitals, training hard for the operatic career he knew he wanted. After graduating, he practiced law for a little less than two years and then he began his quest for the operatic stage.
Early Lessons of an Aspiring Singer
In 1980, director Martha Schlamme chose Kazaras to sing the role of Mack the Knife in her production of Die Dreigroschenoper at Aspen. The production was not produced by Aspen’s opera department, and since Kazaras was there, he decided to audition for the opera program as well. “They could not have been less interested,” he recalled. “I thought, ‘That’s interesting. I’ve been brought in to do this show and yet the opera department doesn’t care for me.’ So, I did the show and several people said, ‘Wow, you were surprisingly good! We didn’t think you could sing at all.’ That taught me a lesson early on that some people will get it and some people won’t get it. Some people may not get it at a certain time and then later on they’ll get it. That’s just the way it is.”
Despite initial discouragements, Kazaras pressed on. “I did what I had to do and went to whoever I thought could help me,” he says of those early years. He was privileged to enjoy the friendship and help of Schlamme, Alvin Epstein, Steven Blier, and college friends Colin Cabot (who ran the Skylight Opera Theatre) and the then up-and-coming and now world famous director Stephen Wadsworth.
“Often the people I knew got me a foot in the door, but it didn’t get me hired,” he remembers. “I still had to audition for music directors and, indeed, I was able to get management. That gave me a taste of life. There I was, a kid, on a roster with some of the biggest names in the business. It was insane. But, it taught me what good behavior is and what questionable behavior is. I am sure there were times when I did and said things I shouldn’t, but I tried to comport myself in a certain way and treat others as I would want to be treated.”
These are lessons that Kazaras now stresses to young singers trying to break into the business. “By the time you are out of school, you have to know how to behave,” Kazaras explains. “You need to be able to sit in a three-hour masterclass without your iPhone or without texting. You have to actually pay attention to the person who’s singing because it’s not only about my correcting that person’s closed French [e] vowel, but also about what the other student is doing with his or her body, and you need to pay active attention and participate mentally because you may be making the same mistakes.”
This idea that you must always be present and always be a professional is something Kazaras believes in strongly. “I actually had someone watching a rehearsal who was double cast and was supposed to do the scene in 10 minutes, and they were texting on their phone,” he recounts. “I said, ‘Are you kidding?’ and they said, ‘I wasn’t doing the scene yet.’ I said, ‘Yeah, but you have to do it in 10 minutes and because you’ve watched it, I expect you to be further ahead of the curve.’ In rehearsal, everybody must be committed, ready to work, and on top of things. A bad Zuniga or a bad chorus can screw up a production just as easily as a bad Carmen.”
This sense of professionalism is especially important as a young artist and an emerging professional. According to Kazaras, even when a director or teacher sends out an e-mail with an opportunity, singers should always respond out of courtesy, even with a “no thanks.” “What counts in a Young Artist Program?” Kazaras asks. “This is what counts. You must know how to sing. You must know how to move. You must know who you are. Finally, you must be decent and treat others with respect. This is how you will earn the respect and trust of those who do the hiring.”
Slowly but surely, Kazaras began to get cast. “The Skylight gave me my first chances in Britten’s arrangement of Beggar’s Opera and the first installment of Stephen Wadsworth’s Monteverdi trilogy Poppea in which I sang Nero,” Kazaras remembers. Francesca Zambello, a colleague early on, became a frequent supporter. Being hired to sing Bernstein’s A Quiet Place at Houston Grand, La Scala, the Kennedy Center, and the Vienna State Opera really got him some attention. Even then, some were surprised that he had done so well.
“Mine was not a path where everyone immediately jumped on the bandwagon and thought I was the next best thing,” he says. He appeared regionally and did some small roles in big houses, but his singing career was not typical. “I was known for a certain kind of rep. When people needed that, then I would get a call. It was thrilling to be at the Met with some of the world’s best singers and conductors.”
Transitioning to Director
When Kazaras decided to reinvent himself as a director, good relationships with influential people proved critical once again. “Yet another college friend and colleague, Jonathan Sheffer, gave me my first directing jobs with his Eos Orchestra in New York,” he recalls.
Another key player was current Seattle Opera general director Speight Jenkins. “Without Speight’s support, I would never have had the experiences I had. He asked me to remount a Norma, and ended up building an elegant and even radical new production for the same amount it would have cost to remount their old production. He, of course, chose me to head the Young Artists Program. He has been a constant support during my career.”
Good Things Come to Those Who . . . Prepare
The pattern of Kazaras’ career demonstrates that good things happen to those who are prepared, a lesson that he thinks is pertinent to young artists. “There are a lot of people who show up for major, major gigs who don’t know what they’re doing. This is a problem. How can that be? How can you show up and not know it? I still have nightmares where I receive a phone call that says, ‘Maestro Levine wants you in the pit at once for the second act of Elektra!’ And I think, ‘I didn’t know Elektra had a second act!’ But, that’s the level you should aspire to—to be that person who someone could trust to fill in like that.”
Often, this level of preparation requires a large monetary investment. “I find now that people say, ‘Oh, no, I can’t do private coaching because it would put me further into debt.’ I say, ‘You can’t go into debt? Really? Well, good luck with that. You enjoy selling real estate.’ I don’t counsel that you should add to your burden of loans, but you have to spend the money it takes. . . . It’s an investment, and a lot of people don’t think about that.”
Kazaras also has advice for those preparing for graduate school. “Your technique needs to be solid, or it needs to get to that place soon after you begin, because otherwise you will not really be able to profit from the other opportunities that will come your way,” he says. “It may indeed behoove you to do some extra training before you begin a graduate-level program.”
Approaching Young Artist Auditions
Kazaras knows how to demystify YAP auditions and makes them sound pretty simple. “There is no magic here,” he explains, matter-of-factly. “The singer needs to know what they are singing, how to pronounce what they are singing, and how to sing in tune. I don’t care what people say or write about the arias you should never sing in an audition. If you come in and sing ‘Ach ich fühl’s’ like Kathleen Battle, people are going to sit up and take notice. If you sing with proper Bel Canto line, a gorgeous color of voice, and charm and intelligence and wit or true feeling, people will love it.”
“The piece you start your audition with better be something that shows you off,” he adds. “The sad truth is that you have about eight to 10 seconds to demonstrate the sound of your voice, and if those first measures are not great, then people will lose interest. If the sound of the voice is not right, this is a fatal flaw. You may be artistic, you may be interesting, and your parents may love you, but you must sing properly in order to get hired regularly and repeatedly.”
As singers prepare for an audition, they often wonder what the directors are seeking from them. “As auditioners, we are looking for all sorts of things that may not even occur to the singer,” Kazaras explains. “Is this voice of sufficient size to fill a 3,000 seat opera house? Is this potential Young Artist a good match for the more mature artists with whom she or he may be appearing on the mainstage? Is this person together enough to work with the director or the conductor who is in charge of this production?
“Sometimes . . . it’s not about you, it’s about what the company needs,” he continues. “If we need to provide a Frasquita to the mainstage, then that is going to be our soprano in the Young Artists Program and we are not going to hire a young Wagnerian. In turn, the opera we choose for our full Young Artist production is a result of these other calculations.”
Kazaras also emphasizes that YAPs exist to help singers in a certain place in their career. “I don’t think it’s an age thing. At a certain point it’s about ‘What can we do for this person?’ When we hear a 34-year-old who is almost there but has vocal issues, that’s not for us. I have learned that there are people who we can’t help. Sometimes it’s vocal. Sometimes, it’s other things, such as nervousness or psychological or interpersonal issues. Being in a Young Artist Program is not the way to fix that.”
In general, singers must approach YAP auditions as they would any other job. A singer must be professional, prepared, and qualified, as well as being a person others would want to work with. “In my life, the good things that have happened to me have happened because I have been prepared to do my best at the task at hand,” Kazaras concludes. “I may not always succeed in the ways I had originally imagined, but the results have always been interesting, and I have learned to reinvent myself time and again. I am a very lucky guy.”
