PART I: A panel of general directors at an Opera America Workshop (Atlanta, Ga.)
“I’m looking for singers who will excite me. If they excite me then they’ll excite Atlanta patrons and donors,” says Atlanta Opera General Director Dennis Hanthorn at a recent workshop for singers hosted by Opera America, a national opera service organization. He sums up his expectations concisely when auditioning singers he looks for strong musicianship, precision, and technique.
The other panelists at this workshop, “Strategies for Building a Successful Career”—Diane Zola (Houston Grand Opera), Roberto Mauro (Arizona Opera), Brian Salesky (Knoxville Opera), and Hector Vásquez (Houston Grand Opera)—contribute additional singer attributes to Hanthorn’s list. Here it is in a nutshell: A singer with a comprehensive knowledge of style, who is unique and possesses both vocal and communicative gifts, will get work.
As the morning progresses I begin to wonder what it would be like to walk around in an impresario’s shoes. As a former singer, I remember all too well the men and women sitting behind the table listening to my auditions. Some smiled, some looked down for the duration of my performance, some asked me questions, and one was even downright rude. (It took me a good six months to get over that one.)
What are these general directors thinking when they wield their decision-making power? How do they maintain that stoic and impartial poker face?
When I was auditioning I remember thinking, “Do they have any idea how much I practiced that aria? Better yet, do they have a clue about the price of a plane ticket these days? Would they hire me if I told them that I have only a half-eaten jar of spaghetti sauce and a box of Minute Rice waiting for me back at my studio apartment?”
It’s easy to caricature these powerful people who get to play God and decide who goes onstage and who gets a rejection letter. They either make us jump for joy or break our hearts. Upon a closer look at the inner workings of an opera company, however, it becomes clear that these “heartless” general directors may have a lot more on their plates than singers sometimes realize.
Hanthorn, for example, runs a $6.5 million opera company in Atlanta, Ga.—or Hot-lanta, as some may affectionately call it. The city boasts a population of 4.9 million in the metropolitan area. It’s home to 15 Fortune 500 companies, the world’s busiest passenger airport, and some fascinating Civil War history.
That’s not all. Atlanta is also home to a vital arts culture that includes hip-hop, the Grammy-winning Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (producing Osvaldo Golijov’s opera Ainadamar in 2007), and a rich choral legacy, thanks to Robert Shaw.
Hanthorn took the helm at Atlanta Opera in 2004. Originally a horn player studying in Boston, Hanthorn’s career trajectory led him to arts administration, first at Dayton Opera and then with the Florentine Opera in Milwaukee. He has worked in opera for 28 years.
In Atlanta he quickly balanced the company’s budget and negotiated an appropriate venue for the opera as a resident company within the impressive $145-million Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, which opened last September.
This season Hanthorn truly delighted his patrons with a new co-production of Hansel and Gretel, with whimsical puppeteer Basil Twist as designer and director. He also programs operas that may garner local interest and resonate with Atlanta Southerners, a strategic move that paid off for Hanthorn when he produced Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess in 2005. That successful production led to an invitation from the Opéra-Comique in Paris, where the Atlanta Opera Chorus will perform this year.
Hanthorn, like many of the general directors you sing for when you audition, holds together a complicated organization and produces a pricy art form. Singers are only one facet of the machine. Singers enter a market in which buyers (the general director) and sellers (you) exchange goods and services. In essence, a singer is offering a product that encompasses voice type and quality, physicality, age, experience, and reputation. Roberto Mauro, Arizona Opera’s senior director of artistic operations, emphasizes that the hiring of singers is a subjective process. What one administrator likes another may not.
Another consideration is budget. Brian Salesky engages singers for Knoxville Opera productions and admittedly casts what he calls a “wide net,” hearing both managed and unmanaged singers. Salesky has only $200,000 per production to spend and therefore offers singers a smaller fee than what other opera companies can pay. This also means that Salesky can take a chance and hire a singer who has never done the role before. “With a smaller budget you have permission from your audience to take a risk,” he says.
Hanthorn and Eric Mitchko, Atlanta Opera’s artistic administrator, hear singers throughout the year in performance and elsewhere. They hold auditions each fall in New York City for managed singers, and local Atlanta auditions for both managed and unmanaged singers. Of the 43 singers Atlanta engaged for the current season, the company hired 13 as a result of auditions. The others the company knew from previous work, either with the Atlanta Opera or elsewhere.
After the workshop I had more questions about how an opera company works and what a general director faces each audition season. Two weeks later I caught up with Hanthorn at the Atlanta Opera offices.
PART II: An interview with Dennis Hanthorn, general director of Atlanta Opera
How did you get your start in arts administration?
The business of arts administration found me. I was teaching at the university level. I was teaching horn and music appreciation, and conducting bands, at Pacific Lutheran University, which was my first job. University of Alabama was my second job. In order to receive tenure at the university you needed to have your doctoral degree, and so I decided I’d better start working on the DMA.
I went to the University of Cincinnati on a full scholarship for performance, and I needed a minor. It was advised that I consider arts administration. I thought that arts administration prepared you to be a dean of a music program, which I could see myself doing . . . When I started taking some of the classes I realized that this was developing grants, marketing, fundraising, and boards for nonprofits.
At the time, I had a brass quintet that was made up of members of the Cincinnati Symphony. I founded it. I could see how I was making a living by getting grants and selling myself, freelancing. The classes suddenly became very financially beneficial because I was making money immediately. I didn’t really understand nonprofit accounting, but I figured that out later on the job.
Suddenly I became in control of my own destiny. I wasn’t waiting for the phone to ring saying, “Oh, we’ve got a Broadway show coming up. Would you like to play principal horn?” I was developing the jobs. I was in control of my work.
My first job was as the general manager of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and my first opera job was as the managing director at Dayton Opera.
What are your responsibilities as general director of Atlanta Opera?
The general director has both the artistic and the management direction and control. I fundraise. I have to be able to tell in eight minutes whether or not you can sing the role. I’ll travel to hear people sing. I need to be aware of marketing—what works and what doesn’t work. I need to be able to read balance sheets. You have to be able to manage board members.
As general director you have to provide the vision. Then you have to motivate the board members to buy into the vision. It’s a vision-leadership balance. You have to inspire board members and volunteers, stay ahead of them, and then they get excited.
If you have some major donations that don’t come through, you have to figure out how to substitute for that. My role is very much parallel to a small, liberal arts college president. I’m out shaking hands, in the public’s eye, talking about economic development with county officials.
How does an opera company keep its doors open and what percentage of Atlanta Opera’s revenue comes from ticket sales?
[For] opera companies our size, about 33 to 35 percent comes from ticket sales. The rest comes from contributions, endowments, public funding, or sponsorships. We’re looking at how we can develop that kind of support from a community that does not have a history of philanthropic giving.
Auditioning is an emotional process for singers. A great deal of preparation and expense for these hopefuls goes into just getting to one audition. What should singers know about the inner workings of an opera company that may be enlightening or helpful to them as they audition for jobs?
If they’re coming to an audition they need to know what the company may be looking for. If I’m just holding a general audition, it’s sort of a cattle call. If I’m auditioning for a Young Artist Program, you need to know that. If I’m auditioning for the upcoming season you need to try to find out from someone in the company what [the company is] thinking about doing in the future. They’ll give you a series of six or seven shows that they’re thinking about.
Some companies may be looking at the following season. It’s January and I’ve already cast 2008-09 completely, and we’re going to announce that shortly. . . . The only way there are going to be any changes . . . is if there’s a cancellation.
I’m already thinking about 2009-10. I’m now thinking about how much money we will be able to raise. This is really looking into the crystal ball, because not only did we move out of downtown, but also into a new theater. We’re developing a new donor base. How many tickets will come our way? What will the donors do?
I’m juggling a lot of things and predicting. We’re trying to figure out what the level of support will be and plan the program accordingly.
How do you and Eric Mitchko, the artistic administrator at Atlanta Opera, prepare for auditions? Do you study scores, listen to recordings of past singers who have sung the roles you are casting, or read over the résumés of auditioners in advance?
If we’re auditioning singers in New York we’ll send the agents in New York a list of what we’re thinking about for upcoming seasons. We then ask them to send us recommendations. A number of the singers we already know. We already know what he or she sounds like and we may not need to hear them but if we haven’t heard them for a while we may want to. We’re looking for the new people who are coming on, but we already have a group of people. If we’re going to do “Butterfly,” we already have a list of ideas of who can sing Butterfly or Pinkerton.
I will study a score or a work that I don’t know. For instance, if I’m going to do a Janácek, something off the beaten path, or I’m going to do a Baroque opera that I don’t necessarily have a complete knowledge of, I’m listening to it in my car, have a score, and I also have reference books.
If [some production] has to have a B-natural, we’ll look for something that demonstrates that. It doesn’t necessarily have to be an aria from that work. If it’s a general audition a singer can contact the production company, Eric and his folks, and ask what they’re looking for . . . You can e-mail.
Now we’re starting to have children’s productions on Thursday mornings, and we’re beginning to do that this next year. With the types of singers we’re hiring, if we believe that the two [principal] singers may not want to sing the children’s performance we’ll have other singers come and do that. That’s a great way to get your feet wet.
Should singers send their marketing materials to the Atlanta Opera? Will you look at them?
They should send their résumé and a head shot. They don’t need to send marketing materials. I don’t have time to read the press reviews. It’s one person’s opinion . . . what you [the critic] wrote is your personal opinion and you’re hired to do that. But that doesn’t mean that I feel that way.
I have agents call me and say, “You ought to hear so-and-so.” Well, I think about who the conductor was and what they do in that company differently than I do in mine. Because “Cristina” sang in XYZ doesn’t mean that I want that singer for my company, but it’s nice to know she did that. . . . It’s fun to know that one of your other colleagues whom you respect also hired them. . . . It’s an endorsement.
Do general directors really look at singer websites?
Yes and no, if suddenly someone is ill and I need to find someone. I used to look in Opera News. That was your source of information on who sang what. I’d try to check the last 10 or 12 months because then I knew it was still in his or her voice, or should be. And there are other search sites where you can find, for example, who’s just sung Manon, [such as] Operabase.
With the sound clips I always get worried because there’s a microphone, and I don’t know what you sound like in the hall. There’s one singer that I hired for next year that I’ve not heard personally, but we’ve had colleagues who have heard that singer sing and we have a recording that sounds really good. So we think we’ve made the best decision.
Websites are very good for PR. I see myself as the type of general director who really wants to hear you sing, because it’s my name and reputation, and I can’t afford to make a mistake. Not all of my colleagues work that way. I wouldn’t say not to do it, but make sure the first or second sound clip selection is really good.
Networking is an essential part of any business, but in “show business” the message many singers hear is: “Don’t call us, we’ll call you.” How should a singer network with you once he or she has sung for you?
Right now I don’t have time, but Eric might. I’m not sure how much feedback he’s giving to people. I’ve also said to people, “I’m not a music teacher, so I’m going to speak to you very straightforward. You ask and you have a right to know, so I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you if you were singing under pitch, or if I didn’t think you were singing through the phrase, or if it didn’t bloom.” I’m not sure how they’ll respond to that.
I wouldn’t badger someone, and if someone doesn’t get back to you, don’t take it personally.
