JAMES STRECKER: Please tell us about one or more projects that you have been working on or have recently completed. Why exactly do they matter to you and why should they matter to us?
JOHN HOLLAND: This year has been a ‘Year of Leporello’ for me, so to speak, and it continues to be a joy to take on the role of Don Giovanni’s sidekick, and cataloguer of his romantic conquests. This role journey continues with the March 2nd performance of Don Giovanni with Southern Ontario Lyric Opera (SOLO). Not only is this an opportunity to revisit Mozart’s beautiful music, but it is also a chance to grow in the role of Leporello, and to refine my interpretation of him.
JS: How did doing these projects change you as a person and as a creator?
JH: Singing opera has a significant impact on the way I listen, the way I think, and the way I make music. Opera is very different from art song and other forms of singing. the music is always rooted dramatically in a character of scenario, and very seldom detached. Opera is an arena of action and reaction. You listen to the other characters, and have to react vocally as your own character would. You have to embody your character both dramatically and musically, and that process has to inform your singing.
JS: What might others not understand or appreciate about the work you produce or do?
JH: Bar none, the biggest thing that people don’t understand is the language immersion that takes place. Not only do professional singers practice regularly, but many of us take extensive language training in sung diction, spoken diction, and grammar and vocabulary. I took three years of German in university days, French and Latin all the way through high school, three summers of Italian diction work with Nico Castel (the former diction coach at the MET), and also, for my area of expertise, Czech language study as well. I haven’t even begun to talk of the variants of sung Latin (French Latin, German Latin, etc). Classical singers are also linguistic experts.
JS: What are the most important parts of yourself that you put into your work?
JH: Definitely my imagination. Opera singers cannot become a character without visualizing themselves as that character. I imagine my character in different situations. How would they react in these scenarios? How do they feel about the other characters in the opera? This is all a huge part of how I prepare for a role, and how I interpret a character’s music.
JS: What are your biggest challenges as a creative person?
JH: I think the one of the biggest challenges is finding the time to create. Having the time to experiment with repertoire choices, vocal colours, collaborative projects, and the like, can be very difficult. Also, sometimes our largest growth as artists comes from what others would perceive as failure. Musicians take chances, and while they don’t always turn out the way we want, invariably they inform us more about ourselves as musicians, and help us refine our craft.
We live in a society that is a results-driven world, and it can be non-conducive to experimentation, and taking those chances to create something amazing. Also, music is a lifelong process. It is not something one studies for in university and then just stops growing. Singers in particular go through vocal changes their entire life, and travel through different phases in regards to operatic roles. Since our instrument is directly connected to our physical body, as we age, our voices mature. The greatest challenge in this regard is the feeling of being rushed, and the pressure of having to excel and achieve before a voice is fully ready and developed.
JS: Imagine that you are meeting two or three people, living or dead, whom you admire because of their work in your form of artistic expression. What would you say to them and what would they say to you?
JH : Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, the great German baritone, and lieder specialist. I would probably ask him for a lesson, and he would say yes but only if I brought something other than German Lieder. I read in his biography that he was always disappointed more students didn’t to him to study opera arias over German Lied. Nico Castel, the diction guru from the MET. I studied with him for three summers at the Opera Nuova training program, and coached major Italian roles with him, including Figaro and Leporello. He was a wonderful mentor and friend, and to him I would thank him for passing on his dedication for clear and comprehensible sung language, and, in turn, Nico would probably ask me to speak recitative lines as dialogue so he could hear my diction. I would hope he would be happy.
Lastly, it is a tossup between Mozart and Dvořák, my two favourite composers. I admire both so much and adore their music. For both, I would ask them to each write one more opera, and I feel the music world could only benefit this. While Dvořák was a bit more methodical in his composing, I’m sure Mozart could fire off an opera in short turn-around time, and we would all be the better for it!
JS: Please describe at least one major turning point in your life that helped to make you who you are as a creative artist.
JH: I have had a few major turning points in my life as a professional singer. The first was being part of the Ontario Youth Choir back in 1999. That was my first opportunity to be part of an artistic experience with peers who were as addicted to music as I was. I had found the courage to be musical amongst those who were just like me.
I have been able to work with many great voice teachers over the years, but my time studying with Ted Baerg at the University of Western Ontario was a defining moment for me as a young singer. With Ted, I was with a vocal instructor who was my voice type, who knew everything that was going on with my voice from a pedagogical sense, and knew every bit of repertoire that I had sung, or would ever sing, on an intimate level. Studying with not only a great teacher, but also a great performer, was pivotal in my growth as an opera singer.
I recently spent three summers in Prague as part of the Prague Summer Nights Festival, performing in opera productions as Leporello and Masetto (Don Giovanni) and Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro). Not only was it great to sing these roles, but the productions were at the Estates Theatre, one of the oldest opera houses in the world, and the last remaining opera house in which Mozart himself had conducted. In fact, it was in 1787 in that very theatre, that Mozart conducted the world premiere of Don Giovanni. Stepping on to that stage, and knowing that Mozart had stood there to conduct Don Giovanni, was a moment that elevated the performances for me. You could sense Mozart there in the theatre, and needless to say, everyone raised the bar on their performances.
For three summers, Prague and the Estates Theatre were my operatic home. Also, the fact that the production was directed by the legendary baritone Sherrill Milnes (a famous Don Giovanni in his career) was truly something else. Being able to rehearse recitatives and duets with one of your idols, myself singing Leporello, and Sherrill singing the Don, was a period of substantial learning and growth for myself.
JS: What are the hardest things for an outsider to understand about your life as a person in the arts?
JH: As I mentioned somewhat before, the idea that music is a life-long journey, is something that can be difficult to process. In university I had friends from other faculties who would ask when I finished classes for the day, and would suggest going out to socialize, and I would often say, “Well, I have practice times booked”. They would often respond by saying that I had told them my classes ended at the same time as theirs. I would agree, but restate that I had practice times set up. They would always say that when they were done classes, they were done for the day and would leave campus. They couldn’t fathom that once music classes were finished, there was still more work to be done. The daily dedication that professional singers put in, whether vocal warm-ups, practice sessions, language study, or stage work, singers are daily engaged vocally, physically and mentally in their profession.
I am fortunate to have a wife who understands the dedication that goes into this profession. She sees me through the entire process, from learning new roles and bashing out notes on the piano, to seeing that same role on stage. In the case of Leporello, she has seen me from that learning stage, to singing the role in Prague at the Estates Theatre, to a 2018 Ontario tour of Don Giovanni, and now to the upcoming SOLO production.
Also, there is no on-the-job training. When you are hired for a new role, you are expected to have it learned and ready to go at the first scheduled rehearsal. There is no grace period to learn on the job, or paid training sessions. All of our preparation is done on our own. We are responsible for having our roles in good shape, and if not, there are eager singers waiting in the wings for roles.
JS: Please tell us what you haven’t attempted as yet that you would like to do in the arts? Why the delay so far?
JH: Honestly, I have very few aspects of singing that I feel I have missed. I have sung in professional choirs such as the Ottawa Bach Choir, the Toronto Orpheus Choir and the like. I have sung with the Canadian Opera Company, and operas houses and concert spaces in Europe. Outside of singing, I am the conductor and music director at Blessed Trinity Church in Toronto, I regularly lecture on opera and other musical topics for the COC, RCM, and other venues, and have been a six-time judge for the Juno Awards.
I have tried to be a well-rounded musician, and while sometimes I have bit off more than I can chew, I feel that performance, research, lecturing, and the like all inform who I am as a musician. The only thing that has been delayed or sidetracked is composition. I used to compose a fair amount in my undergrad days and I would like to explore it a bit more. It is just another creative outlet.
JS: If you could re-live your life in the arts, how would you change it and why?
JH: There is not much I would change in my artistic life as I feel I have grown into the artist I was meant to be. For example, I bought my Don Giovanni score ten years before I ever used it for a professional production, so that ‘loose end’ so to speak, was tied up very nicely with all the Leporellos I have done in the past few years. The main things I would change is to have kept my piano skills in better shape. Growing up, I took years of piano studying, and then got out of it for a long time as I focused on singing. Now my muscle memory has all but vanished, so I am working at getting back into playing shape.
Obviously, If I could have carte blanche, I would change it so that opera was treated on the same level as hockey in Canada. While I am a huge hockey fan, and don’t take anything away from the ability needed to play the game, the same amount of intense training goes into singing, and we would certainly love to share the same pay grade!
JS: Let’s talk about the state of the arts in today’s society, including the forms in which you work. What specifically gives you hope and what specifically do you find depressing?
JH: Opera gets a bad rap in today’s society, perhaps more so than any other musical genre. I am confronted by people who love the melodies, but don’t like to listen to singing, or people who say that opera is an elitist artform, or those who have never seen and opera, but say that they don’t like it. First of all, if you never try it, then you won’t know if you like it or not. It’s the only way to know for sure. Opera is a vocal art form, and I feel that while beautiful melodies are what they are, the original intention of a composer work can be taken out of context, or diminished, when removed from its medium. The accusation of opera being an elitist artform is extremely outdated. While throughout history there were royal court opera companies, there were many more public opera houses across the world, putting on these works for the masses, not just the elites. Opera has been loved by people from all classes and ways of life. Also, when hockey tickets in this country are in high triple-digit prices, and it is not called elitist, then opera should have nothing to worry about.
So, what makes me happy about my artform? Well, the fact is that there is more access to opera than any point ever in history. There are thousands of opera productions on DVD and Blu-ray, there are streaming broadcasts from many opera houses across the world, that are shown in movie theatres and streaming services. In Canada, we are blessed with a strong group of professional opera companies, and also, we have a plethora of pop-up opera companies, in-concert opera companies, and artist-driven opera companies. These groups such as SOLO, Against The Grain Theatre, Opera By Request, Pellegrini Opera, Abridged Opera, Bicycle Opera, OperOttawa and others, are bringing opera to audiences at the grassroots level all across the country! There has never been a better time to take a chance on opera and experience it for the first time!
JS: What exactly do you like about the work you create and/or do?
JH: I am addicted to stories and music, and opera combines these two loves. I love becoming a character and following their story through music. I love being able to leap in an out of imaginary worlds for blocks of time, and being able to create something that transcends our everyday lives. It is a chance to exist in time periods specific to the composer’s music, or the setting of the drama. I have spent a lifetime indulging my imagination, and am invigorated and rejuvenated through musical drama. I have the opportunity to the favourite aspects of my life (music, singing, acting, history, and imagination) and combine them into one artform!
JS: In your creative life thus far, what have been the most helpful comments you have heard about your work?
JH: The most helpful piece of musical advice has been repeated to me by multiple teachers, conductors, and coaches, and that is to listen and absorb. Sherrill Milnes would often tell us to be sponges, and to soak up all we could from recordings, live performances, masterclasses, and of course, colleagues. He always advises “if you like what a certain singer is doing on a recording or live, then steal it!” I was always told to listen to multiple interpretations, of a piece or a role, and discover things that I would like to emulate and make my own, or things I would like to stay away from. There is a worry out there from some teachers that some singers will just end up mimicking a specific performance or voice, but that is very different. Informing oneself about the stylistic and interpretive choices that generations of singers have done before us, is something for which one is responsible, and in an age where so much is available through recordings, and re-discovered archival footage, there is more to absorb than ever before.
JS: Finally, what do you yourself find to be the most intriguing and/or surprising things about you?
JH: I have always been very goal-driven, and for myself, I am consistently pleasantly surprised by my strength of character and my dedication to this artform. Opera has a glamourized view in popular culture, but it is a difficult lifestyle, whether through long rehearsals, constant auditions, difficult learning processes, living out of a suitcase, or being away from loved ones for extended periods, it is not a lifestyle for everyone. I have seen many colleagues take themselves out of the opera world, and while they all remain wonderful singers, the commitment can sometimes be overwhelming.
I grew up doing a lot of competitive sports (hockey, figure skating, swimming, etc) and I surprisingly, a lot of that goal-driven nature applies perfectly to role study and opera performance. You immerse yourself in a project that may last for a month or so, and focus on it right until the performance, and then do it all again. Aside from performing, I am die-hard musicologist, and many of my colleagues find it odd that I perform but am also a dedicated music researcher. Again, it comes from my addiction to stories. I want to know about an opera, the composer, the context of its composition, and other aspects of music. I sometimes feel like I lead two lives, the singer, and the musicologist, and a lot of people are shocked that I have time to do both.
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