| Catching Up with Stephen Costello | |||||||||
| Home > Newsletter Archive > Vol. 43 > Catching Up with Stephen Costello | |||||||||
By Suzanne Calvin Months before the curtain rose on the 2008-2009 Season, we seized our chance to sit down with tenor Stephen Costello, whose meteoric career has been the talk of the opera world. Here’s what he had to say. Suzanne Calvin: How surreal has this past year been for you? You’ve been on stage at the Metropolitan Opera, one of the youngest principals ever to debut at the Met. You stood onstage at The Dallas Opera’s 50th Anniversary Gala with Renée Fleming. Is there a surreal quality to everything that’s been going on? Stephen Costello: Yeah, it’s been a lot of fun. It’s been exciting. And it’s, you know, one great thing after another! It’s been a lot of fun—and the best thing about it is that here in Dallas and at the Met I worked with people I really respected and admired. Calvin: What do you now look for in a role? Because everybody’s falling all over themselves to try get you to sing with their company and you can pick-and-choose. What are you looking for? Costello: I’m looking mostly for bel canto roles; things that are going to help my voice progress, to fill out and grow. I don’t want to do anything that is too big, too soon. I’m really looking for artistic productions with strong cast members and a great musical staff. Dallas has been wonderful about that. I’ve done Maria Stuarda here, which is great. I didn’t expect to do it, so, it was even more of a treat to work with the singers and meet Maestro (Graeme) Jenkins. Afterwards, there was (the role of) Camille and The Merry Widow and that was the first time I had ever done that—my first operetta ever. So, that was a lot of fun. I’ll be back here to do Roberto Devereux, which is the second part of the Tudor trilogy. It’s really exciting—a role that isn’t often done anymore. I mean, how many singers have portrayed Leicester in Maria Stuarda—how many people get the chance to sing the part of Roberto Devereux? Calvin: How will your experience in Maria Stuarda affect the way you approach Roberto Devereux? Costello: There’s a lot of research that goes into these roles, a lot of background, and a lot of story, because you really have to get the relationships between the characters. And I wasn’t prepared for that with Maria Stuarda because, like I said, I got the score a week and a half before. You know what happened; I came at the last minute. So, when I got here, it was a little crazy. I had just learned the music and Maestro Jenkins hands me about five different titles and says, “Now read this book and read this book and read this book and I’ll see you in rehearsal tomorrow.” It was just a lot of background work. Calvin: And how was your operetta experience? Would you like to do more of it? Costello: I would and I’m doing The Merry Widow later on. I have a couple scheduled. I really enjoyed our cast: Ruth Ann Swenson and Rod Gilfry and Andrew Shore—it was really just a great experience. It’s very rare for an American to perform an opera in their native language. It frees you to spend all your time on characterization and interpreting the music. The music is gorgeous, really gorgeous. Of course, Camille had some of the best music in the opera, which is even better! Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I can’t wait to do it again. Calvin: What else are you looking forward to on your immediate horizon? Say, over the next year or so? Costello: Well, I have some things that I’ve been working on that I can’t really talk about yet. I’m looking forward to those. And I have some debuts in some houses that I’m really looking forward to. But what I’m most looking forward to is getting married in September (2008) to my fiancée, Eileen Perez, who is also an opera singer. Calvin: Congratulations! Costello: Thank you so much. I’m looking forward to that and, of course, going back to work with Maestro Levine at the Met and working with Maestro Muti in Salzburg over the summer. Calvin: There will be a lot of heart-broken females on and off-stage. Costello: (laughs) You know, it’s part of the job. Calvin: (laughs) We sincerely hope not! You started out as a trumpet player and thought that your musical aspirations were going to take you in that direction. Do you see opera performance as your choice for a lifelong career or would you like to eventually move into some other area or music? Costello: You know, people often wonder. They say, “Well, what would you like to do?” And I do I want to make opera my lifelong career. You know, people think about teaching too, but I’m going to leave that to the people who are really good at it because I have a great teacher, Bill Schuman, who is both an incredible teacher and incredible person. He has great success with his students because he knows what he’s doing. I know what I’m doing with my voice, but I couldn’t explain it the way he does to other singers. I couldn’t do that without being afraid of ruining someone else’s chances. I’ve always said: if you like the way somebody sings, find their teacher and study with them. Calvin: That’s a nice plug for teachers. Will your role in Roberto Devereux mark the first time that you’ve lost your head on stage? Costello: Yeah! Maria Stuarda lost her head in the last opera, so, I’m looking forward to it. | |||||||||
