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Maureen O’Flynn Claude Corbeil Singers. Actors. Voice Teachers
Photography by Jane Feldman Interview by Harryet Candee
Harryet Candee: I met Maureen O’Flynn, and Claude Corbeil last May in 2012, when they presented the public series of Master Classes at Berkshire South Community Center, in Great Barrington. Hi Maureen. Hi Claude. I’m interested in learning about your musical backgrounds and professional careers. How you both started and where the road took you, separately and together. Your voices are the key to your success, and you have given audiences all over the world a true gift of music and love. I bet there were many people who did not realize that you’ve added teaching to your already established and extensive musical careers. Between the two of you, there must be a lot of performances under your belt, and not just of the Operatic nature. Now, having more time in the Berkshires, the world of teaching becomes part of your daily lives together. What path lead both of you to being able to make this change, and still continue to give great performances?
Maureen: Claude and i met doing a production of mozart’s the marriage of figaro. he was figaro, so i married him. (laughs) At that time, Claude already had a 33 year international career in opera, as well as his own television program, and numerous concerts singing Quebecois folk songs throughout his beloved Quebec and Canada. i’m going into my 28th year – can’t believe i’m saying it – of opera and theatre, and recently cabaret. so yes, between us, there’s been hundreds of performances, and beyond that, a lifestyle completely
12 October 2012 the ARtful minD
unique to itself. for us, mostly on the road, not so much at home, until this past year. i’m in the twilight of my operatic career now, so i’m adjusting to that, and to having more time at home.
Harryet: i know Claude has been teaching for more than 20 years now, but this is new for you, maureen. is that an adjustment, too? Maureen: We always thought when we stopped traveling as much, we’d start to teach more at home. it’s kind of the best of all worlds; doing what we love and doing it in the place we love most. it’s why i love performing at home. so this was a natural progression for us, and the timing is right for me. i finally have something substantial to offer. i have something of value to say, to instruct, and beyond the technical, i can help someone do that by discovering the actor in them; to teach someone to enjoy the taste, and the texture of a word spun on a true, intentioned note, the sublime feeling of that liberated breath and emotion…that’s a thing of beauty. And it’s not about the singer, or the perfection of the note, but more about the expression and connection, what’s being said. What i’ve discovered is my own singing and my own acting having improved, and deepened both in their technical strengths and in the truth of each. in showing, i’ve discovered how “to do” better. When you teach, you have to articulate something you perhaps have never needed to put into words for yourself. so it forces you to examine your own art and your own technique. it’s a never-ending fascinating journey.
Claude: Actually, teaching here in our home and studio is our preferred place to work. Our studio here is growing with people from all levels of singing to all levels of age and life: an 18 year old who has just discovered he loves to sing, and can; a 73 year old Quebecois/American who saw me give a master class at umAss, and comes to learn how to better sing his beloved Quebecois folk songs. Architects. lawyers, college students, community theatre singers, choral singers, and a 50 year old woman whose parents told her never to sing when she was a little girl, and just discovered her voice. it’s like a Dickens novel, with all kinds of different and interesting people coming into our lives. Harryet: have you two become “homebodies”? Working, entertaining, relaxing, cooking, etcetera…doing it all from the home? Claude: We are indeed homebodies! it seems we love few things as much as being home, preparing a good meal, sharing a good bottle of Bordeaux, bien sur! it has been our ritual since coming home from long periods away when maureen was working. We would look forward to this on the return flight. Our studio is part of our home, surrounded by photos of our lives performing, and of our friends and family—souvenirs everywhere. it’s full of our life in music. so it’s a fitting spot for us to be teaching and passing on what we’ve learned and experienced.