Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Ten Questions with Scott Brunscheen

Ten Questions with...



Scott Brunscheen, tenor
Spoletta in Tosca



1. My favorite thing about being a singer is:
Making art within a genre that has no “delete button”; once you sing and put that sound out into the world, there is no way of taking it back. It’s very exciting.

2. The greatest challenge in being a singer is: 
Convincing friends, family, or complete strangers that opera is beautiful, relevant, and entertaining and not just an elite novelty.

3. A live music performance I’ve attended that I will never forget is:
Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Verdi’s Otello at Carnegie Hall. The combination of artistic forces, acoustics, and excitement those on stage and in the audience created this indescribable energy; everybody knew they were part of something special.

4. A few of my favorite films are: 
Clue, V for Vendetta, Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet, Soap Dish.

5. Three things I can’t live without are:
Coffee, a good pillow, and cheese.


6. My number one hobby is:
Cooking - nearly any kind of cuisine.
7. If you could perform with any singer, retired or deceased, who would it be?
Birgit Nilsson - though I don’t think anybody would hear me singing with her!

8. If you weren’t a singer, what profession would you be in?
If not for my voice teacher in high school threatening to drop me as a student if I didn’t pursue music, I would have gone to study architecture.

9. What role do you wish you could sing that you could never sing because it’s the wrong voice type/gender?
Lucia - or basically anything with a mad scene. (Maybe at some point I’ll get to do a Peter Grimes and go thoroughly crazy!)

10. Describe your favorite moment on stage. 
My most memorable moment on stage was during a performance in graduate school of Ned Rorem’s Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters (such a bizarre show!). For our staging, Samuel got shot in the middle of his aria and spent the rest of the time “opera dying.” At the end, when I finally slumped over of a very intense performance, there was a moment of complete silence on stage and in the audience- until my 3-year-old niece said to my sister, “Oh no! Did he die?” We had a really difficult time moving on with our macabre quintet of “dead characters” without laughing.
Bonus: One question you wish someone would ask you (and the answer).
What book or movie should be made into an opera?

Clue
! Of course, Wadsworth would be a lyric tenor. Yvette and Miss Scarlet would be Mezzos; Mrs. Peacock and Mrs. White, sopranos; Professor Plum, a countertenor; Colonel Mustard, a Baritone; and Mr. Body and Mr. Green, basses. Just think of the possibilities for arias and ensembles! During intermission, the audience could vote on what ending for that night…. Brilliant.


See Scott in Madison Opera's production of Puccini's Tosca November 1 & 3 in Overture Hall. Tickets start at just $18why wait?

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