Set aside all the stereotypes that you have about opera. New York City’s Underworld Productions (UP) creates operas that speak to 21st-century audiences and demystifies opera so that all may enjoy it. Among the ensemble’s aims is to dissolve the separation between cast and audience with performers who, like their audiences, represent many ethnicities, diverse walks of life, and every stage of life. I recently had a conversation with UP’s artistic director, Gina Crusco, about their innovative approach to opera.

Gina, what sets Underworld Productions apart from other opera companies?

We realize that expecting three-plus hours of passive listening from today’s audiences — laudable as that degree of concentration may be — is no longer reasonable. Our productions eliminate opera’s “trial by length” by abridging longer works, and we break the language barrier with supertitles in both English and Spanish. Rather than imposing our artistic imperatives, UP builds bridges with the community and avenues for audience interaction, creating pride of ownership in our presentations. In our most recent show, Mozart’s Così fan Tutte, we invited community groups from teens to seniors to help us create variant endings to the opera, and then asked audiences to vote on them by text-message during the show.

What’s the biggest challenge of running an opera company?

The biggest challenge is to create not just a company but a community. I value the people I work with more than any specific outcome. Yes, I have strong directorial ideas that I would like to see come to fruition, but to impose those ideas in a top-down fashion would be counterproductive. My singers co-create their roles and shape the production with me. By the evidence of UP’s ability to retain singers from one production to the next, this process is working.

Your website describes your Resident Artist program. What kinds of singers have you had audition for this program? What do they gain from it?

In addition to singers already on the opera track, we hear a lot of auditions from musical theatre performers who want to cross over into opera. We had a phenomenal group of talented Resident Artists this year. Opera requires a unique skill-set including vocal, dramatic, and linguistic expertise, and we work with our singers in each of these areas. The program included a session with Marcello Giordani, the Metropolitan Opera tenor who is on UP’s Advisory Board, during which Mr. Giordani attended a rehearsal and answered the cast’s questions about everything from building a voice to building a career. Janet Gerson from Theatre of the Oppressed offered a movement workshop, and Dr. Robert C. White of the Juilliard School and the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artists Development Program led a workshop on vocal technique. The RAs were well prepared to take their places beside professional opera singers in our performances.

Please describe your “pOpera Cabaret” programs.

As the voice teacher of many cabaret singers, I regularly attend their performances and got to thinking about how much opera could gain from the directness of communication that caberet offers. “pOpera Cabaret” is a cross-fertilization of opera with this genre: it’s a fast-paced, informal hour of music, mixing standards and contemporary art music, complete with high stool, patter, and wine and cheese. We hope audiences discover the exhilaration of opening up to an earful of brand-new music.

What has been your greatest success to date?

Così fan Tutte: Defining Women was a huge success in a number of ways. By inviting audiences to “play the matchmaker” and determine the ending of the opera by text-messaging us backstage, we raised the interest -– and some hackles -– of the cultural forces in New York and beyond. Underworld Productions Opera Ensemble’s name exploded onto the scene in the New York Times, the Post, and New York Magazine all in one week, and we were invited to send results stories to critics as far away as London and LA. Equally important, audience members came up to me after the show and said, “This is the first time I’ve been to an opera. I loved it.”

How did you find out about Fractured Atlas and what motivated you to become a member?

I found out about Fractured Atlas at a Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts incorporation seminar in 2004. As I listened to the description of the all the hoops we would have to jump through as a non-profit, I decided that fiscal sponsorship was a better route for the time being. Through Fractured Atlas, which gave UP tremendous support and guidance, we were able to get our feet wet applying for grants and individual support. Once on solid footing financially, we incorporated in October 2008, and are now an organizational member.

How do you use your Fractured Atlas membership?

Fractured Atlas provides benefits as intangible as a sense of community with a wide network of other artists, and as tangible as event liability insurance and equipment insurance. When I was confused about how to provide certificates and co-insurance, FA’s superb staff held my hand through the process.

Congratulations on receiving a Creative Development Grant! What will you use it for?

I will participate in the Theatre Ontario program in August, which will enable me to hone my skills as a director for an uninterrupted block of time: pure luxury! Since my daily life is a continual balancing act — juggling the administrative and artistic needs of Underworld Productions with my need to actually earn a living — I have precious little time to develop the very creative impulses that led me to found the company. I am eternally grateful to Fractured Atlas for the award, and for stipulating that it cannot be used for a project — usually my all-absorbing focus — but must instead be used to nurture my own skills.

Is there any advice that you would give to an opera singer at the start of their career?

I would say to opera singers, or to any one beginning the life of an artist, nurture your inner life first. Find time every day for yoga or a walk in the park or writing in your journal. Too often we focus on packaging the external image to the detriment of the creative spark.

What’s next on your professional horizon?

No techie myself, there is no avoiding the fact that technology is the new conversation. I’d like to go out on a limb even further with Underworld Productions as we reach new levels of technological integration in our performances. I also have some ideas about how to present new music. And in my spare time, I’m writing a libretto.

How can we experience and learn more about Underworld Productions?

Visit our website to see video clips from our past productions, and come to the pOpera Cabaret!

Images:
Top: Underworld Productions Opera Ensemble, Inc., Gina Crusco, Artistic Director. Così fan Tutte: Defining Women, April 29-30, 2009; Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre at Peter Norton Symphony Space, NYC. Photo by Suzanne Trouve Feff.

Bottom: Artistic Director Gina Crusco with Advisory Board member Marcello Giordani, a Metropolitan Opera tenor. Photo by Manuel Servin.