At the 2013 Festival of the Voice. (photo by Dion Ogust)
The logistics are daunting. In the five days from July 30 to August 3, roughly 5000 people are expected to flow through the hamlet of Phoenicia (population: 309, as of 2010) for the fifth annual Phoenicia International Festival of the Voice. Approximately 130 volunteers will shepherd the audience, plus some 60 performers, 40 orchestra musicians, and 80 choir members through 21 scheduled events.
Performances will be presented on the outdoor stage at the Parish Field and at other venues around the town, as this year’s Spanish theme brings Manuel De Falla’s flamenco ballet/symphonic suite El Amor Brujo; a semi-staged The Barber of Seville; the Cambridge Chamber Singers performing music of the Spanish Renaissance; and much more.
On July 17, festival co-founder, co-organizer, and mezzo-soprano Maria Todaro learned that the county was going to re-pave Main Street the following Tuesday and Wednesday, weather permitting. And a tractor-trailer full of lumber to build the stage was due to roll in on Thursday, with a rehearsal on the stage scheduled for Monday. “We’re super-grateful that this is going to happen,” said Todaro, in her French accent, “but we’re now in a state of prayer. We’re doing the dance of the rain to make sure the rain doesn’t happen. Volunteers will be placed behind the road crew to pep-talk them and make sure they’re working hard.”
Humor is one way of handling stress — in this case, supplemented by a call to the highway department to obtain reassurance that the new paving would be firm enough to support a giant truck. “We already have a Plan B,” said Todaro. “We’re hiring pelicans to carry the lumber overhead and drop it on the field. But really, the Town of Shandaken has been super-supportive, and they’re making sure the town is pretty for the festival. Things happen like this all the time. We have a plan and something comes to disrupt, a little bit, the plan.”
Problem-solving and decision-making are funneled through “the collective brain” said Todaro. Four years of learning from the annual festivals have resulted in a structure that features a group of four at the top level: Todaro; her husband Louis Otey, a baritone who has performed worldwide, including gigs with the New York City Opera and Metropolitan Opera; virtuoso pianist and Fleischmanns resident Justin Kolb, also an international performer; and Kolb’s level-headed wife and page-turner, Barbara. The four make the major decisions — such as how to angle to stage this year so the Sunday afternoon sun does not shine into the eyes of the musicians. Instructions from the top are transmitted to a second layer of eight people, who in turn relate to 23 directors of departments that include parking, ushering, artist housing, publicity, backstage, ticketing, artist liaison, and more.
“I can’t control everyone, but I am a control freak, and I always want to know what’s going on,” said Todaro. In addition to her organizational duties, Todaro is singing Rosina in Rossini’s comic opera The Barber of Seville, with a cast that includes baritone Lucas Meacham and features New York City Opera conductor David Wroe. She is the director of the Phoenicia and Woodstock Community Choirs, which will join other local choruses to perform the festival finale, the Argentine folk mass Misa Criolla, under the baton of Argentine conductor Jorge Parodi. And perhaps most challenging of all, she is bringing her father from France to sing a program of popular Mediterranean songs.
“It doesn’t matter how old you are,” said his daughter. “Your parents are always your parents, and you want to please them.”
Originally both her parents had planned to perform, but her mother, Brazilian mezzo-soprano Maria Elena de Oliveira, was not able to obtain a visa in time — one glitch that didn’t quite get solved. Turning on a dime, Todaro rearranged the program. At a Tuesday evening rehearsal, Italian-born tenor José Todaro charmed the community choirs, who will be backing him up as he performs an array of classics, from “O Sole Mio” to “Besame Mucho.”
Going for baroque
On another level is the difficulty of attracting audiences to classical music that’s not widely familiar, such as Thursday night’s program of Baroque music, starring countertenor Brian Asawa, accompanied by period instruments. “People don’t understand the magical thing it is,” said Todaro, comparing the 17th-century castrati, with their high voices and, frequently, costumes of leather and chains, to Lady Gaga. Singers of the past might enter the extravagant sets by rising through the floor, accompanied by fireworks. “Those are the weirdos of the classical industry,” she insisted. “You have to be out there to do Baroque. You’re also improvising, and that’s part of the excitement. My heart is broken I can’t sing on Thursday.”
Other highlights of the festival include gospel music with Lisa Daltrius and Lawrence Craig; Louis Otey singing in a workshop performance of the opera Clarimonde, based on a tale of the supernatural by Théophile Gautier; “The Art of the Cantor,” with cantor Jack Mendelson returning to the festival stage; and the world premiére of a play, The Seven Favorite Maladies of Ludwig van Beethoven, written by Carey Harrison, who performs as Beethoven’s harried physician during the period when the composer is going deaf. The hypochondriacal Beethoven will be portrayed by festival co-organizer Justin Kolb. Program notes state, “No working piano will be harmed in the production of this play.”
For more information, tickets, and the schedule of events, see www.phoeniciavoicefest.org/.