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Kyle Oliver, who plays Zurga, says that overuse injuries can happen in opera, just like in sports.
Hanna Brammer, who plays Leila in “The Pearl Fishers,” calls rest the key to peak performance.
FIT TO SING There’s more to opera than staying in tune. The cast of ‘The Pearl Fishers’ explain how they achieve peak conditioning. SPENCER FORDIN A+E EDITOR
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Photos by Harry Sayer
Andrew Surrena, who plays Nadir in “The Pearl Fishers,” always carries his instrument with him.
ere’s something you’ll never see: An opera singer enters stage left, sings a powerful aria ... and then bends over and starts wheezing. Fitness is the unseen element in an opera performance, an ingredient that impacts every action a singer can take on stage. Without being in condition, singers cannot expect to hold notes as long as necessary or maintain the posture they need to perform. Recently, three members of the cast of “The Pearl Fishers” — Hanna Brammer, Kyle Oliver and Andrew Surrena — sat down with the Observer to chat about the physicality required to play their roles and the unseen hours of their lives in between performances. “It’s important to be comfortable and strong within your body,” says Oliver, who plays Zurga in “The Pearl Fishers.” “That can look like any shape and size, but you have to be connected with your body so you can appreciate the finer points of dealing with the mechanism itself, and also to be able to physically endure the stress of a two-anda-half or three-hour opera.”
When opera singers start out, they’re still learning their voice and their body. Surrena says one of the most important things is to learn to modulate your breath. You’re developing power and stamina one singing exercise at a time, and each time you practice, you get a little more acquainted with the process of filling your lungs. You’re also learning, at that early stage, how much you can handle in one sitting. “When you’re young, there’s always a tendency (to overdo it,)” says Surrena, who plays Nadir in “The Pearl Fishers.” “If you’re playing baseball, you always want to hit it to the fence. If you’re playing basketball, you want to shoot it from the 3-point line even though you might not be able to do it. And the same thing is true when you’re singing. “As a young tenor, you want to sing those glorious ‘Nessun dorma’ moments when you probably shouldn’t be touching that repertoire until you’re further developed. When I was starting out, even a five-minute aria would be really taxing. After that, I’d be like, ‘OK I need to take a break.’ If I had advice for a young singer, I’d say, ‘You have time. Pace yourself. Think about the fundamentals, and start with things that might not be as fun and glorious to sing.’” OPERA BUILDING BLOCKS
What are those fundamentals? Where does an opera singer even begin? Brammer, who plays Leila in “The Pearl Fishers,” says you need to be able to match the pitch you hear on a piano. Once you can do that, you need to project your voice up and over the orchestra, and you need to be able to coordinate your breath to the material so you’re never left flat-voiced. “It’s all this continuous thing that you try to make as automatic as possible,” says Brammer. “You’re really competing with yourself, and I think that’s an important thing to remember. It’s such a competitive field, just like SEE FIT TO SING, PAGE 2