SHOW NOTES: Season 4, Ep. 4 - Joshua Hopkins, Daniel Norman, and Kevin Burdette, Principals in BILLY BUDD
Jul 12, 2019
My tiny recording studio in the Teller House in Central City was certainly packed on the afternoon of July 7 when I interviewed Josh Hopkins, Dan Norman, and Kevin Burdette. But it was worth it! Our conversation was so much fun, and these guys are some of the smartest, friendliest, and funniest artists on the hill this summer. (Did I say funny? Make sure you listen ALL the way to the end of their episode to catch an outtake... more on that later.)
In the recording studio, left to right: Dan Norman, Emily Murdock, Josh Hopkins, and Kevin Burdette. Photo by Josh Hopkins.
Baritone Josh Hopkins is performing the role of Billy Budd in our Colorado premiere of Benjamin Britten's grand opera, Billy Budd. He has sung on our stage before, as Argante in Handel's Rinaldo (2009) and Junius in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia (2008). I couldn't find photos from those productions, but I DID find the 2009 Central City Opera Company photo. Josh is in the black shirt, standing just in front of the black-and-white billboard on the right.
Make sure to follow Josh's career by going to his website.
Tenor Daniel Norman (Captain Vere) and bass-baritone Kevin Burdette (John Claggart) are both making their Central City Opera debuts, but they certainly are not newcomers to opera. We just haven't been able to book them! Keep up on what Dan is doing on his website, and check out Kevin's website here, especially his hilarious trivia page.
Okay. Let's dive into the episode a little more.
Dan mentioned that he has been singing Britten's music since he was a young kid, and he specifically mentioned Britten's choral pieces for kids, "Friday Afternoons." You can listen to a recording of these songs with Britten conducting the Choir of Downside School of Purley by clicking here. Such fun music!
Kevin talked about preparing his role of Master-at-Arms John Claggart, and he brought up the wonderful 1979 video of Sir Ian McKellen analyzing Macbeth's monologue, "Tomorrow, and tomorrow..." Watch this fascinating video here. Kevin also mentioned opera having horizontal development (moving the story along) and vertical development (stopping time and living in a moment, often a highly emotional moment), and he called out the beautiful "Dove sono" aria from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, sung by the Countess. The Countess has a long accompanied recitative in which the action and story moves along, and then she begins the aria "Dove sono," and time stops. Listen to Dame Kiri Te Kanawa sing this aria with Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 1973, and you'll see exactly what Kevin meant.
While I was going down the rabbit hole that is YouTube, I happened upon a TV interview with Benjamin Britten, the composer of Billy Budd. This was recorded in 1968 with the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). In this interview, Britten talks about how he sees his role as a composer, why he writes opera and loves the human voice, and even offers his thoughts about the Beatles. Click here to watch it.
I couldn't end the interview without asking Kevin what his reaction is to his daughter Isla's performance as Trouble in our production of Madama Butterfly. He is SUCH a proud papa! Here's a photo of Isla in the opera, taken by Amanda Tipton:
Finally, if you DID make it to the very end of the episode...you'll notice we included an outtake. Some context - at the beginning of each interview, I take about 5 seconds of room noise. This functions as a base noise level so we can edit out the sound of humming lights, air conditioning, whatever. Well...I think these guys have been hanging out around a few too many dudes lately (the opera IS an all-male cast) because one of them decided to manufacture a VERY funny bodily noise - artificially, thank goodness. HA! I just had to include this hilarious moment, because it really demonstrated just how funny and brotherly these three guys are. Thanks, Josh, Dan, and Kevin. I had a great time!
-Emily Murdock, Host & Producer