THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 16, 1995 TAG: 9511150017
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: By HOPE MIHALAP
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
``A star is born.'' It's a phrase you read in reviews from time to time, and rarely does it create a bigger stir than when it refers to opera. Readers from The New York Times saw it in the front page back in the 1960s when Birgit Nilsson made her debut at the Metropolitan. Subscribers to The New Yorker recall its application to an entire company - the Virginia Opera - when Andrew Porter reviewed Musgrave's ``Mary, Queen of Scots'' in 1979.
We read it again last month in Hampton Roads. The rising stardom of young Korean soprano Sujung Kim, singing Gilda in ``Rigoletto'' dazzled five audiences at the Harrison Opera House before the show moved on to Fairfax and then to Richmond. The Washington Post's critic Joseph McClellan described Sujung Kim's performance as ``one of the most exciting local debuts I have seen in years.'' McClellan, premier reviewer for the nation's capital, has witnessed a lot of operatic debuts.
This is not an accident. Our state opera company - and to Hampton Roads residents it's our personal opera company - does not exist simply to bring us great opera, which of course it does consistently. Its general director, Peter Mark, a musician as well as an administrator, has recognized the broader vision of the company. The incipient stardom of Sujung Kim, like those before her of Diana Soviero, Renee Fleming, Florence Quivar, Rockwell Blake, Ashley Putnam and Frederick Burchinal (to name just a few) is one of Virginia Opera's vital and intentional byproducts.
Virginia Opera nurtures young, talented opera singers. Talent requires experience, and the company offers it in several ways. It provides the SPECtrum Resident Artists Program, steered by Jerome Shannon, assistant artistic director. SPECtrum is a statewide educational program of ingenuity and variety that reaches some 250,000 young people.
Amy Johnson, who captivated audiences in the world premiere of ``Simon Bolivar'' and will sing Rosalinda in Virginia Opera's current production of ``Die Fledermaus,'' started as a SPECtrum artist.
That's not all. There are private coaching sessions and solid secondary roles that larger houses simply do not have the time or desire to offer to younger artists. The Metropolitan Opera's Vernon Hartman, last month's Rigoletto in Virginia, remarked on yet another characteristic of this type of regional policy - the opportunity it offers new singers to perform major roles 10 full times before knowledgeable audiences across the commonwealth, with the support of first-quality production values, orchestra and chorus. These are opportunities that don't come along often to stars in the making.
And they do become stars. We have just heard the debut of Sujung Kim. Nine short years ago we heard the first performances of Renee Fleming; last month she opened the Metropolitan Opera season opposite Placido Domingo in Verdi's ``Otello.'' Her reviews, from the major critics of the United States, were better than Domingo's (``The evening belongs to Renee Fleming as Desdemona.'' - New York Magazine).
We watched Jeannine Altmeyer here live in ``Il Trovatore'' and then saw her on television, singing Wagner in Bayreuth and at the Met. We cheered Craig Schulman here in ``Tales of Hoffmann'' - and Broadway audiences applauded him in ``Les Miserables.'' Cynthia Haymon created Harriet Tubman here and then went on to mesmerize them at London's Covent Garden. Jake Gardner starred in ``Mary, Queen of Scots'' and is now a leading baritone in German opera houses. More than 30 Virginia Opera alumni are on the Metropolitan Opera roster.
If stars explode into being from time to time in our local artistic cosmos, it is because a nurturing regional company is providing the right conditions for their creation. Virginia Opera now ranks 18th in the nation among the 117 professional opera companies. We in the audience are luckier than we realize; you don't get to be present that often at celestial events. MEMO: Ms. Mihalap, a writer, a speaker and a former secretary to Sir Rudolf
Bing of the Metropolitan Opera, lives in Norfolk. by CNB