If you haven’t caught an opera recently, you’re missing out on a truly epic—and relevant—experience. Experience is the key word here: there are few other art forms that hit you on so many levels at once. Opera encompasses pretty much all of the arts, from visual to musical to literary, in live performances that can be both vast and intimate, historical and contemporary. If you think it’s just for old rich people who want to romanticize the ancient past, Tulsa Opera is here to help you think again. Root sat down with Tulsa Opera’s programs coordinator, Sam Briggs (a stunning singer himself and one of TO’s Filstrup Resident Artists), to talk about how the company is engaging the present moment with vibrant community programs and innovative stagings of powerful works, such as this weekend’s immersive production of Richard Strauss’ Salome, with a libretto by Oscar Wilde. (Hint: there will be drag queens.)
Root: It's always interesting to see new ideas and approaches popping up from organizations that have been around for a super long time. With the programming Tulsa Opera is doing now throughout the community, I'm like, “Ooh, that's really interesting,” because all of a sudden y'all are just everywhere.
SB: I think the biggest challenge about opera is making it accessible to younger people. A lot of people don't reach it until they're in their late forties and fifties. And so when we’re in a place like American Solera or Philbrook or the Gathering Place, our goal is to make everyone aware that opera is here and is for everyone. We have a really wonderful director of outreach named Dani Keil. She’s like the tank engine. She gets us in everywhere. We do opera storytime, where we go into places that already have a program set up and give a different sensory response for really young kids and a bigger picture idea about what storytelling is. With Arias and Ales, we started that program in order to reach a group of young professionals under 40. It's a casual evening of songs paired with local pubs—something you might just happen upon. We have a young professionals group called the High Note Club and we specifically do these events to try to engage them. But it's so exciting because we’ve found that when we do these events, they’re reaching more people than we expected, which is really wonderful. We do Aria Yoga over at River Parks, where we pair opera music with a simple yoga flow for all levels. It's not the crowd you normally see at an opera show, and that's really what we're all about right now.
What kind of response do you get from people who encounter you all at an event like this?
SB: We get a lot of, “this is not what I expected,” which I love to hear because it tells me we're doing the right thing. We get a lot of new people who say, “I would never have thought that this would be something I'd be interested in.” Of course we have our longtime patrons who come to everything we do and they love it. When we finished our yoga session on Tuesday last week a woman came up and said, “Why does the Opera do this?” I was like, it really is just about presenting things in a new way. And we do get some weird looks. But after we tell them, you know, we're so passionate about music and we want people to know that it can be a part of their lives in whatever they do, we see big smiles and lots of laughs and they love the drama of it, too. We are about the drama at the opera.
In general, what do you find that people who maybe haven't been exposed to opera a lot come to it expecting?
SB: I think people—particularly my age, in their young 30s—sometimes feel like it's old, the stories have been told, it's not new, it's not shiny. We live in a society where we're on to the next viral thing every other day. But the truth is, opera keeps getting done because the stories are so good and the drama is so good. And so sometimes people need a little taste of it and then they go, oh, maybe I was wrong. Maybe I need to rethink this.
What kind of pieces are you choosing to perform at these events?
SB: We get a lot more flexibility for our outreach events because they're not main-stage shows. And so we feature a lot of music from the upcoming shows, then we mix in a little classical musical theater, or we mix in a little modern day. We'll do some Gershwin. You'll get everything from a Richard Strauss art song to the habanera from Carmen to something from Hamilton. It’s kind of like a juggling act. You've got to be able to pull out different things for different groups. Stephen Sondheim said when his musicals were done in front of opera audiences, they were operas. And they were musicals when they were presented in front of a musical audience. Those labels are so constricting, People enjoy all kinds of music. When you're doing Hamilton for your opera audience, it can be an aria and you can make it an aria.
It's exciting to know that more of the community is getting exposed to this. Because another piece of baggage that’s passing away is that opera only lives in the opera house. Those days are gone.
SB: That's so true. Tulsa has such a lively music scene. You can go to any bar on a Friday night and you're going to hear a band. That's what Arias and Ales is all about. We want it to feel like opera is just part of the Tulsa landscape. And with Tulsa Opera, it feels like we're in a change. We've got our shows lined up for next season, but we don't know what's beyond and what's in the future. And that feels like limitless possibility. It's really exciting. I get goosebumps.
Tell me about the Filstrup Resident Artist program that Tulsa Opera is running and that you’re part of. People don't become opera singers overnight. It's a process, it's professional development over time. I'm curious about how new talent is being uplifted here in Tulsa, and is this program part of that effort?
SB: I think it is. The program has a local outreach component, which is what I'm a part of. And then we have a national program that brings younger singers in and gives them a chance to perform in different settings like Arias and Ales. Oh my gosh, we go everywhere. We go to retirement homes and things like that. It gives the artists a chance to get some real hands-on practice performing throughout different communities. You really do have to be ready for anything on the national level. But then they do some smaller roles in a show or they cover larger roles, so if somebody got sick they could fill in. The resident artist part of the program is designed to pair extremely talented young singers with established composers and directors. It broadens their network and broadens the context that they're working with to give them a better shot after their young artist years, because you do age out eventually. The outreach by the local artists is a group of young performers based in Tulsa who also take part in outreach endeavors; they're given trainings and coachings and we build them up to perform in opera as well. They may not be working on a national level quite yet. But the hope is that many of them would go on to do major young artist programs. The opportunities are really wonderful. I mean, we go out and we perform and it's wonderful to be able to be financially supported by the opera company. These performers I see working for Tulsa Opera are also doing things across the community in major league roles, or they're doing special gigs, or producing their own work. It's really quite special to be able to be a part of it.
There's so much collaboration going on across disciplines inside of opera, nationally and internationally. There are so many stories being told that have never been told in opera before. This art form is speaking to people now in some very, very powerful ways. What can you tell me about the show that's coming up this weekend? I see the word “immersive” and I think I know what that means, but can you give me a little more?
SB: Tulsa Opera’s never done anything this big before. Salome tells the story of King Herod and his stepdaughter Salome. Herod tries to take advantage of her. He tries to elicit some things from her and she rebuffs him. And ultimately she does this dance and Herod is so taken by storm by it that he will give her anything she wants—and she asks for the head of John the Baptist. It's all set at this palace feast, in a banquet hall, so we're presenting it like it's King Herod’s birthday. There'll be festivities in the lobby, with a red carpet walk and some Bollywood dancers and a marching band. We’ll have some drag queens strolling about … it's going to be delicious. The immersive aspect starts there, but then we'll have a group of onstage seats for people who will get to take part in the action as it's happening. We're gonna serve birthday cake. We're gonna serve champagne. There's gonna be waiters coming in and out while the opera is happening. It feels decadent and big. I think the director, Tulsa native Thaddeus Strassberger, who conceived this with TO’s artistic director Tobias Picker, was very heavily inspired by the Kardashians and rich Hollywood, and so it does feel excessive in a way. It's very Instagram-worthy. For a lot of those people on stage, the drama is going to be like six feet away from them. It’s going to be insane.
Tulsa Opera Salome April 29 and May 1, 8pm Tulsa Performing Arts Center