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Making It Look Effortless
Karen Iris Tucker / New York
 'NOW I'M GONNA TELL YOU SOMETHING': The charismatic Bernstein offstage |
He may be an opera singer, but he got his first break in the romantic tradition of Broadway musicals of yore, when the star for whom he was understudying could not go on.It happened in 1998, with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, when Welsh singing star Bryn Terfel was scheduled to sing the title role in Le Nozze di Figaro. On opening night, Terfel fell ill, and Richard Bernstein was called in, with 11 hours� notice, to take over.
"It had all the elements of being a complete disaster, but for me it was a tremendous success," says the 32-year-old Bernstein of the evening, which was conducted by Zubin Mehta, and broadcast live on BBC radio. It was a stroke of fate similar to one his namesake Leonard had 55 years earlier with the New York Philharmonic, when he took over for an ailing Bruno Walter at the last minute, and became an overnight sensation.
"Richard blew everybody away. His time had very definitely come," says John von Rhein, music critic of the Chicago Tribune, who was there. "And he fit right into the ensemble as if he had been working with them all along. He obviously takes direction very well," Von Rhein points out. "He's very well schooled, he has a beautiful voice, and he looks good onstage."
By all accounts, Bernstein is on the verge of recognition as a major new voice in the world of opera. Von Rhein dubbed him "the most interesting operatic newcomer" of 1998. Other landmarks along his path toward the top have been critically acclaimed appearances as Leporello in "Don Giovanni" with the Los Angeles Opera, Escamillo in the same company�s production of "Carmen," and the title role in Opera Pacific�s "Don Giovanni." About the latter performance Susan Bliss, opera critic of the Los Angeles Times, wrote that "from his entrance, the bass-baritone created an electricity that lasted until the moment of his inevitable demise."
Bernstein, who toured Israel in June, performing Rossini�s Stabat Mater with the Israel Sinfonietta, says the defining moment leading to his entr�e into the grand world of opera came when he was 15. At the time, his greatest artistic achievement had been musicals with his high school theater troupe. He and his father attended a Colorado Springs recital featuring the soprano Martile Rowland. Bernstein was sufficiently moved to run backstage and beg her to take him on as a student.
There was, however, the matter of his pop music obsession. "When I was in my early teens, I loved Barry Manilow, Billy Joel and Linda Ronstadt. I was always attracted to good voices," says Bernstein. He continued to "rock out" to Joel in his dorm room at the University of Southern California -- where he earned a bachelor�s degree in music in 1988 -- but maintains he's never had the desire to be a rock star. Rather, Bernstein came to the conclusion early on that to make the most of his vocal gift and "sing seriously," he would have to go with classical study.
Armen Boyagian, Bernstein�s current voice teacher, recalls meeting the then-fledgling talent seven years ago in New York. "I was too busy at the time to deal with him," says Boyagian, whose formidable student roster includes renowned basses Sam Raimi and Paul Plishka. "He was begging me to take him on as a student. I have to say that�s one thing about Richard -- and I mean this in a nice way -- he is a pushy person. Charmingly pushy."
Persistent too. Bernstein attempted to hook up with Boyagian several times over the years before they began meeting a year and a half ago for the hour-long sessions they now have whenever Bernstein is performing in New York.
"My lessons with Richard are fascinating," Boyagian says. "Bernstein listens raptly, and when he gets what I'm trying to say," Boyagian explains, "he gets almost hysterical -- to the point where he runs over and hugs me. It�s all very endearing."
The same determination and charm that helped Bernstein win over his plum teacher were also reflected in his acclaimed rendering this past March of the role of Angelotti in Puccini�s "Tosca," at the Metropolitan, with Luciano Pavarotti. Bernstein performed the role of the escaped prisoner with a charged urgency, and his voice, once described by New York Times opera critic Anthony Tommasini as "robust and virile," commanded the intensity essential to his part.
Anow -infamous photo shoot for Opera News served to spotlight Bernstein's marketability as a good-looking performer. The normally staid magazine featured him emerging from a swimming pool, sporting a skimpy bathing suit, in a shot ostensibly designed to convey Bernstein�s interest in water sports, such as swimming and scuba diving.
"We wanted to show our readers that there are opera singers out there who are not at home, sitting around eating bon bons," says Gregory Downer, the editor who interviewed the Los Angeles-based Bernstein. Downer recalls that the photo "caused some flak. In Opera News, it�s not the kind of thing that people expect to see."
Eyebrows were indeed raised. Bernstein�s spokesperson, Karen Kriendler Nelson, recalls getting incredulous phone calls from people within the opera community. "I told them that if the article had come out in the winter, they would have shown him on the slopes. Richard loves to ski, too."
Downer, too, considers the brouhaha nothing more than a "tempest in a teapot." What he has found far more memorable about Bernstein are his performances and the depth of his character. "His personality is graceful and he's physically graceful. He has a very sophisticated presence for a young singer," says the editor. Downer maintains that Bernstein performs at a level "you�d expect from someone who is at a more advanced stage in his career. We all know that what opera singers go through onstage is very complicated. Richard makes it look as though it's effortless."
At 1998�s Lincoln Center Festival, Bernstein appeared in "A Celebration of Leonard Bernstein," singing the composer�s "Dybbuk" suite -- five cantorial prayer segments in Hebrew -- with the Eos Orchestra. "Cantorial music is beautiful, but it�s an incredibly difficult style of singing," recalls Bernstein. The singer learned Hebrew in the Sunday school of his youth, and during college sang in a synagogue choir.
Since those early days, Bernstein�s career has had its highs, but also its share of mishaps. There was the time when he ripped his pants five minutes before he was to sing Escamillo in a Los Angeles Opera performance of "Carmen." When his dresser quickly had them fixed, Bernstein promptly tore them once again and went onstage with his boxers peeking through the costume. (He claims that nobody ever had the nerve to mention having noticed.)
Bernstein also remembers fondly the final night of "Where The Wild Things Are," by composer Oliver Knussen, with libretto by Maurice Sendak, on whose children�s book it is based. Bernstein forgot to look up and bellow his offstage part, because he was writing a farewell card to conductor Randall Behr. "He teases me about that to this day," says Bernstein.
Bernstein has no doubt benefited from some sound stage tips from his family. Both his mother and younger brother have directed theater, and his sister is the actress Didi Conn, best known for her performance in the film version of "Grease," and its sequel. (She now appears in the daily children�s TV series "Shining Time Station," together with Thomas the Tank Engine.) Bernstein says his father, a clinical psychologist, and mother, who di-vorced when he was 11, were supportive, but never attempted to direct his professional interests.
The Bernstein clan was present for the singer�s May Carnegie Hall appearance, where he performed in the Verdi Requiem with the New York Choral Society. Though Richard appeared composed in his white tie and tails, his unruffled demeanor was actually misleading. He admits that he is often nervous before going onstage.
"But it's a good kind of energy. It comes from wanting to please, wanting the audience to enjoy what they are going to hear," Bernstein says, while conceding, "I�m too much that way. Everybody can�t like you. You can try to be a gentleman, a good person, that's all you can do."
Critics, voice teachers, as well as the people who know him personally, all attest to the fact that Bernstein does more than that. The artist has never canceled a performance, not even when he had food poisoning and a fever of 105 degrees Fahrenheit in Spain or after receiving 10 stitches to his head after falling in Colorado.
It is this tenacity that Boyagian sees as inherent to Bernstein�s stage appeal. "He doesn't spare himself," the vocal instructor says, adding, "He loves his audience and seems to take them into his confidence as if to say, �Now I�m gonna tell you something.� When you have that kind of charisma, we call it star material."
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