Latonia Moore (K. C. Alfred)
By4 p.m. April 12, 2013
Verdi’s “Aida”
When: 7 p.m. April 20, April 23, 26; 2 p.m. April 28 (April 28 sold out)
Where: San Diego Opera at the San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Ave., downtown
Tickets: $45-$275
Phone: (619) 533-7000
Online: sdopera.com
Latonia Moore didn’t want to hear it.
“Why
are you thinking you are a contralto or mezzo soprano,” Moore remembers
her voice teacher asking her. “You are a lyric, full-out soprano.”
Moore,
who comes from a family immersed in music, had been performing since
she was a child. She knew she was an alto — even a second alto, the
lowest alto of all.
“I
immediately said, ‘That’s the end of this lesson,’ ” Moore said. “And I
left and went back to my dorm room. I didn’t want any more lessons after
that because I didn’t want to be a soprano.”
It
was not just that the teacher had challenged her identity; Moore had
certain preconceptions about sopranos that didn’t apply to her.
“I
felt sopranos were whiny. ... They were always whining about something.
‘Oh God, oh God; woe is me, woe is me.’ But the mezzos, they had
(substance); they had fire about them. They were the bad (rhymes with
witches) and sopranos seemed like weak little things.”
It
took Moore a week and a half to return to her voice lessons at
University of North Texas and longer than that to accept her soprano
status. But in roles like Verdi’s “Aida,” which she sang at the
Metropolitan Opera last year and will sing with the San Diego in a
Zandra Rhodes-designed production opening Saturday at the Civic Theatre,
she’s found strong soprano characters she can relate to.
“When
I got heavier into doing my repertoire, which is more Verdi, I saw that
sopranos in fact do have (substance),” she said. “They’ve got the fire.
Once I got rid of my ignorance about sopranos, I was ready to accept
what I am.”
All that jazz
Sopranos
may be the most misunderstood voice type, as there are sopranos and
there are sopranos: from coloratura sopranos, who have the lightest and
the highest voices and often end up dead and/or victimized by the
opera’s end, to dramatic sopranos, who have the most weighty voices (and
although they are typically also dead at the opera’s conclusion, at
least it’s on their terms). Then there are the soprano voice types in
between: soubrettes, spinto sopranos and lyric sopranos (which is where
Moore fits in).
Some
sopranos may tend to confuse their high-drama roles with their lives,
but Moore sees fewer and fewer divas and prima donnas, especially among
American singers. And she’s dedicated to leaving the drama on the stage.
“Some
companies still want the diva, and I can kind of understand why they
are attracted to that,” Moore said. “The women who are that way, they
give off this kind of ethereal air.
“But
that’s not really my personality. I’m from Houston, North Houston.
We’re just down-home chicks. We’re just very playful, laid back, calm
about things. If a hair is out of place, it’s all right; if the water’s
not working, or I don’t get my Caesar dressing (she said, looking at the
salad the opera company had brought her during a lunch break), I’ll
live.”
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