arts & entertainment

Fall Opera Preview

A young, award-winning countertenor makes his MOT debut.

Suzanne Chessler
Contributing Writer

A

nthony Roth Costanzo decided
against a traditional bar mitz-
vah, but he experienced a staged
connection to the ceremony.
Cast at age 11 in Falsettos, his first
Broadway tour, he had a singing role
as a boy about to have his bar mitzvah.
Costanzo decided that "pretend" would be
enough for him.
He shared his choices — and his profes-
sional commitments — during a phone
conversation from the road as he anticipates
appearing in this seasons second produc-
tion of the Michigan Opera Theatre.
"Because I had a very busy career at that
age, we decided that I would have a nice
representation of the tradition," explains
Costanzo, 30, who will be seen in Handel's
Julius Caesar as Tolomeo.
"Judaism was part of my life professionally
and personally, and it comes from my moth-
er, whose family also is Hungarian. I took my
mother's last name as my middle name:'
The fall opera season at the Detroit Opera
House starts off with Rossini's The Barber of
Seville, an amusing love story that follows
a count assisted in his pursuits by a bar-
ber, Oct. 13-21. Julius Caesar follows Nov.
10-18. The spring opera season includes
Beethoven's Fidelio (April 13-21) and Verdi's
Aida (May 11- 19).
"The Tolomeo character is ruthless and
straightforward, and that makes him really
fun to play:' Costanzo says. "There are three
different arias that I sing.
"I'm a countertenor so that means I'm
singing in a woman's register, which is very
unique. Most people haven't heard that
before even if they go to the opera a lot. It's
a tradition that goes back to the 17th and

WNW

Nate Bloom

Special to the Jewish News

‘12 New Flicks

a

t Argo, opening Friday, Oct.12, is based
on true events. In
November 1979,
Iranian militants
seized the American
embassy and held
52 embassy mem-
bers hostage until
Arkin
January 1981. Six
staff members, who
were away from the embassy during
the seizure, managed to find refuge in
the home of the Canadian ambassa-
dor, Ken Taylor.

54

October 11 • 2012

18th centuries when castrated men sang
certain roles:'
The opera, written in 1724, follows
Caesar's conquest of Egypt and seduction
of Cleopatra. It is the first baroque opera
ever produced by MOT and is presented in
Italian with English supertitles.
The production, directed by Michael
Shell, has cast acclaimed countertenor
David Daniels, making his MOT debut, as
Caesar. Daniels, 46, switched from tenor to
countertenor during his graduate studies at
the University of Michigan.
"I think this opera has some of the most
beautiful music that has ever been written,"
Costanzo says. "The ways that it allows us
to explore human emotion and the different
phases of each internal contemplation are
really profound.
"On top of all that, it really can be funny,
too. It has a little bit of everything"
Costanzo's interest in singing began when
he was 8 years old and taking piano lessons
in his home state of North Carolina. His
piano teacher suggested that singing would
help his music proficiency.
"I wound up liking singing a lot and audi-
tioned for my first musical, which was in
community theater," he recalls. "After that, I
went on to professional roles in New York:'
The singer's parents, both psychologists
teaching at Duke University, arranged their
schedules so one of them could be with him.
"I began pursuing opera and took some
detours to make films:' says the entertainer,
whose cinema credits include A Soldier's

Daughter Never Cries.
"As an undergraduate at Princeton
University, I majored in music and got a
certificate, the equivalent of a minor, in
Italian studies. Because of the core require-
ments at Princeton, I took a lot of different
courses, and they proved very useful in

A CIA agent came up with a plan to
pretend that a Hollywood film com-
pany wanted to make a film (Argo) in
Iran. The six pretended to be part of
the film's location scouting crew and
were able to board a regular flight out
of Iran in January 1980. Ben Affleck,
who also directed the film, plays the
CIA agent, with Alan Arkin, 79, play-
ing a fictional Hollywood producer
who helps him. Most Canadian crit-
ics are upset that
Taylor's paramount
role in the opera-
tion has been down-
played.
Here Comes the
Boom, also open-
Winkler
ing on Oct.12, is a

having insights into characters and how the
world works."
Costanzo, after immersing himself in
vocal performance as a graduate student at
the Manhattan School of Music, has worked
with many opera companies.
Recent engagements have included por-
trayals of Armindo in Partenope at the New
York City Opera, Ottone in Agrippina at the
Boston Lyric Opera and Oberon in Britten's
A Midsummer Night's Dream with the
Seattle Opera's Young Artists Program.
"My most memorable roles are the
ones I did in The Enchanted Island at the
Metropolitan Opera': says the first-prize
winner of the 2012 Operalia competition.
"I had the role of Ferdinand and filled in
as an understudy for a leading role. It was a
new work for the Metropolitan Opera and
a spectacular production. Four thousand
people came every night."
With many engagements on concert and
recital platforms, Costanzo can recall work-
ing as a soloist with the Detroit Symphony
Orchestra. As a teenager, he appeared in a
Christmas spectacular.
Costanzo, who learned to speak Italian
and French while working in Europe, is
perfecting his German and Spanish to pur-
sue richer performance experiences.
Special interests include taking in cultural
events in New York and wherever roles take
him. He also enjoys cooking and making
dinner parties for large groups of people.
"I have a half-brother and half-sister on
my father's side of the family, and my sister
works in the production of rock music,
touring with different bands:' he says.
"We're always trying to influence each
other one way or another. She'll send me a
new rock band recording to listen to, and
I'll try to get her to listen to opera."
As a friend of Rachel Grady, the co-film-

comedy starring Kevin James as a
high school teacher who becomes a
martial arts fighter to raise money to
save his school's music program and
the job of his music-teacher buddy,
played by Henry Winkler, 66.

Joining
The Tribe

Back in June, I
reported on the
Reform Jewish
wedding of actress
Drew Barrymore,
36, and art consul-
The
tant Will Kopelman,
Kopelmans
33. Just before
the wedding, Barrymore's press
rep denied tabloid reports that she

Anthony Roth Costanzo

maker of the movie Detropia, Costanzo
previewed the film in New York and got to
learn about MOT through the production.
"My main goal is to connect with audi-
ences," he says. "I would love to have an
international opera career that keeps me
busy for the next 30 to 40 years.
"Once a year, I would like to do an inter-
esting project, like a film or a play that takes
me out of my comfort zone and expands
my sense of what it is to make art."

❑

The Barber of Seville runs Oct.
13-21 at the Detroit Opera House.
Performance times: 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Oct.13; Wednesday, Oct.
17; Friday, Oct.19; and Saturday,
Oct. 20; there is a 2:30 p.m. mati-
nee Sunday, Oct. 21. A pre-opera
talk begins one hour before each
performance. In appreciation of
$536,000 in donations to the
company's Preserve the Legacy
campaign, audiences will be served
champagne and sweets following
each performance. Evening perfor-
mances of Julius Caesar, staged
Nov.10-18, are 7:30 p.m. Saturday,
Nov.10; Wednesday, Nov.14; Friday,
Nov.16; and Saturday, Nov.17; there
is a 2:30 p.m. matinee Sunday, Nov.
18. $25-$125. (313) 237-7464; www.
michiganopera.org .

was going to convert to Judaism.
However, on Sept. 23, The Sunday
Telegraph, an Australian paper, pub-
lished what seems to be a totally legit
recent interview with Barrymore.
The article says: "Kopelman's father
is the former CEO of Chanel, and he
was brought up in a traditional Jewish
family. Barrymore is in the process of
converting."
Barrymore is then quoted as saying:
"[Judaism] as a faith is so beautiful,
and it's so much about family being
together, first and foremost. I sub-
scribe to that so much in my own life,
so that's a really wonderful and easy
transition." Barrymore gave birth to
the couple's first child, a daughter
named Olive, on Sept. 26.