Voice majors apprentice at Italian opera company

Conservatory junior Limmie Pulliam and senior Mimi Watkins spent part of the summer working in an opera company in Rome, where they performed in Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore. They resume their roles as Nemorino and Giannetta in the fall opera here at Oberlin and will be in the Nov. 22 and 24 shows. Arts editor Gaby Gollub spoke with them.

GG: Could you tell me about the Operafestival di Roma program, structurally and so forth?

LP: Basically the program is a new kind of apprenticeship program. This was its second year running. It's geared toward older students.

MW: Yeah, but there were a number of people our age there, as well as older students, which was nice because there was a big variety of age and experience.

GG: What was the opera that you performed?

LP: The opera was called L'Elisir d'Amore, which is The Elixir of Love, that we're doing this fall [at Oberlin].

GG: How were you chosen for the opportunity?

LP: I actually knew the director of the company from high school. She's a voice professor in Missouri. I was going through some summer applications in the Con and happened to run upon it and saw her name on it and sent her a tape.

MW: I knew I was going to be in Italy for part of July and August and I wanted to do another program for June and I had already done the Oberlin program there. I heard that Limmie was doing the program, so I asked him what it was and then I sent a tape in.

GG: How do you think the apprenticeship affected your future, both academically and professionally?

LP: I wouldn't say it affected it that much academically, because we were pretty much at the level [of expected performance]. As far as the language barrier, that was no problem because we'd had Italian before we'd gone. More artistically, it affected me because I know what type of people I like to work with, what type of people I don't like to work with. It really makes you open your eyes. It's really a lot different when you're sitting here in Oberlin and you do things, you see things done here and when you're out there doing it, you're actually doing it. It's very different.

MW: You don't know the people and your relationship with the director is totally different. Not only that, but you have to learn to make everything positive. Even if it's negative, you make it into a positive. You learn from what you don't want to do or how you don't want to be. And we worked really, really, really, really hard.

LP: It was very gratifying to see things come together, especially when you're just thrown together with 14 or 15 other people that you've never seen before in your life.

MW: Throwing together an opera in three weeks is no easy task. We were there, and it's Rome and it's hot and we're outside and we're singing all day long, constantly working. And we worked really, really hard. And the director was extremely vague.

LP: That's a nice way of putting it. MW: Very vague about things. Also, Italian energy is extremely different from American. The work ethic is very different. The director and the conductor would constantly get into huge fights that would take up so much of the time. Five 15-minute fights a day take up a lot of time... Professionally, being in that situation, you learn. Also, coming back here-

LP: No matter what you do, especially out there doing it on your own, it's going to be a learning experience, no matter what.

MW: You're the one who chooses to make it bad or good. I think that's always the case. So we chose to make it good. There were some extremely talented people in the cast. We really worked hard and got things together. And it ended up being pretty good, for what we were given to work with under the circumstances and time. So that was rewarding.

LP: Some nights we had recitals and we would rehearse. Rehearsal started at eight and the recital started at nine... Things got pretty hectic.

LP: Mimi had to work really hard. She probably worked twice as hard as the rest of us did to get everything done. One thing I learned, which I think is important especially in singing, is pacing. In that type of situation, it's easy to burn yourself out and you're just totally stressed out. You just go and push yourself over the edge and totally burn yourself. That was probably the biggest thing I learned. As Mimi said, how to just pull things out of nowhere. You show up, hop up on stage, someone starts playing the music and the next thing you know you're singing and they're throwing all this stuff at you and you're like, `OK, what do I do now?' And they're just expecting you, once they give it to you, for you to do something with it.

MW: We had no character talks when you discuss the relationship of your character with every other person on stage, whether it be the town dog or your lover. It's so specific here [at Oberlin] and every production I've ever been in has... always had a goal in mind. There was a final product in the director's head. And with this one, it was never communicated what the final product was. So we were all just trying out new things and it resulted in a cast that was really, really close. We had a lot of fun, actually. I've never been so free on stage in my life.

LP: One thing was that we would show up to rehearsal and the director would not know what she wanted to go over for the day. She would say, "OK, everybody on stage." And then she would say, "OK, let's start here." And then you would start singing and she's yelling blocking out while you're singing. And you're expected to move and sing at the same time, trying to concentrate on singing-

MW: And not write it down.

LP: Right, and not being able to write it down, you have to know it right there on the spot. She just yells it out. She doesn't have it written down herself. That was probably the most difficult part to deal with, the director. She was somewhat unorganized to begin with.

MW: But it's the Italian way. That was always the excuse.

LP: When you asked why she did [something] that way, she'd say, "It's the Italian way."

MW: Even though she's Greek.

GG: What would you say is your most outstanding impression of the experience overall?

MW: It was a good experience.

LP: I think it was honestly a good experience. I think it's something that everyone at any major conservatory, especially someone our age, should experience. To just be out there, doing things on your own. You get here and you see people doing things and a lot of people are doing the same thing. You see a lot of people out there are doing something different; it really gives you something that you want to work for. Once you get out there on your own, you really know if this is what you want to do.

As far as the program, I think the program was a good experience for me. The program itself has great potential. I would totally recommend for other people to go. I think it would be a great learning experience for anyone.

MW: Definitely. And the cast and the people on the program make the program what it is, just because of the situation of the program. It's not one of those programs where there's this incredibly faculty and you pay so much money to work with this amazing coach or this amazing maestro. You go and you perform this opera and you're in the country.

On another level, as singing actors, the more you learn, the better performer you are, the more that you live. I firmly believe that. It's hard to be all these different characters and constantly be someone else on stage. We're up there and it's us. It's my voice and I'm communicating this. In order for me to be a really good communicator, I think that you need to have lived, so people can relate to you when you're doing that. And I think that this is a living experience and it's a growing experience. I think it's impossible for anyone to go on a program like this and not learn anything.

LP: A lot of the orchestra are faculty at the Rome Conservatory or are students. Some of them play in the Rome Opera Orchestra.

MW: And they loved Limmie and I because we spoke Italian. So we made friends with lots of the orchestra members and they took us out to eat. It was fun, it was just so much fun. The freedom on stage thing was kind of scary but it was also really exciting. I have lots of funny stories.

I'm in the middle of doing my little thing [during a performance] and I sit down and I'm trying to socialize with the other peasant ladies and my friend is having a picnic with his other peasant friends. So he throws me this humongous tomato. Somehow I catch the tomato - this is also while Limmie is singing his solo aria, so everyone's supposed to be focused on him anyway. So this guy throws me this tomato, so of course I bite it. I take a bite of the tomato and the tomato explodes, totally sprays the woman next to me, all over her face. It went all over my costume, all over everything. And we were totally in hysterics and I had to get up and sing my little solo bit for three minutes. So I threw the tomato over my shoulder, wiped off my face and kept singing. It was really, really funny.

LP: Probably the funniest thing was one of Mimi's entrances [during rehearsal] where she was wearing this pair of flip-flops. She was supposed to run in, screaming, bringing this message for the sergeant. So she comes running in and she starts singing her line -

MW: See the stage is made out of pieces of plywood and when you step on one, all the other ones fly up. And I'm wearing flip-flops and I'm running.

LP: And she trips on the pieces of plywood as it pops up. So she takes off running across stage, running towards the edge of the stage. Mind you, the stage is seven feet off the ground.

MW: Running?

LP: She couldn't stop, she had her momentum going the wrong way.

MW: I had the momentum of everyone on stage... All the weight of everyone on stage went into my body.

LP: So she was going towards the edge of the stage -

MW: Sliding on my stomach.

LP: Going right towards the sergeant who could have stopped her at that point. But he stepped out of the way and watched her slide. And then she stopped and she was hanging halfway off the stage and the orchestra members are all looking up at her.

MW: And my dress is completely around my neck. I had splinters all the way down my stomach, all the way down my legs... [After coming to a stop,] this Argentinian lady jumped on top of me and pulled my skirt over my head, which hurt more than the whole wipeout itself. That was so funny.

LP: Probably one of my favorite memories was when we went to the Vatican and saw the Pope. I'm not Catholic, but that was something that I'll always remember because not everyone gets to have that honor, where they can sit in the same room with the Pope... It was very weird at first because it was almost like a rock concert.

MW: The room was like Carol Brady, Jetsons, orange shag carpet, military men with machine guns behind tinted glass that had holes in it and this '70s statue of Jesus melting.

LP: It was the Resurrection... So we're all sitting there and people are talking. All of a sudden, the lights in the room shoot up as bright as they can and this guy starts banging on an organ. People are screaming and crying. It was like we were at a rock concert.

MW: It was interesting to see him. And Rome is such a fabulous city. It's really one of the only cities in the world that has preserved its history in such a beautiful way. All these incredible ruins are everywhere. It's so beautiful. The Romans are wonderful. They're really friendly. The Italians are so friendly and great, especially if you're a blonde.

LP: I think another thing that we both enjoyed was the fact that the Oberlin in Italy program [participants] -they finish their trip every year in Rome - they happened to be there during one of our performances and they got to see us perform, which also made me a lot more nervous. I was almost sick, I was so nervous. I wasn't nervous until I knew they were there. I knew they were coming. The performances up until they came, I was fine. But when they were there, I was a wreck.

MW: One of my favorite moments of the summer was going to see La Bohème in Rome. It was actually one of the best productions I've ever seen of an opera. I saw my voice teacher, Miss [Daune] Mahy, and I sat next to her and we cried from the first pitch until the end. It was absolutely phenomenal. The Italians, they love their opera.