A relatively small group of stars at the pinnacle of the opera world, including Placido Domingo, Renée Fleming and Cecilia Bartoli, tend to head marquees and grab the headlines.
But right below them is a stratum of superbly talented singers who might not have the same widespread name recognition but are highly respected in the field and kept every bit as busy as their better-
known peers.
Solidly in this latter group is soprano Pamela Armstrong, who returns to Denver for her third Opera Colorado production. Beginning this evening with the first of five performances, she appears in the title role of Giuseppe Verdi’s “La Traviata (The Fallen Woman).”
Based on a play by Alexandre Dumas, the tragic 1853-54 tale revolves around the tumultuous relationship of Violetta and Alfredo, who are able to redeem their love only as she dies of consumption, as tuberculosis was referred to at that time.
Opera Colorado is reviving its popular 2004 production of the classic, which annually ranks among the 10 most produced operas in North America.
This will be just the fourth time that Armstrong tackles the challenging role of Violetta, which requires her to be onstage for significant portions of the opera’s three acts and still have energy for the culminating death scene.
“I think it’s something I do well,” she said. “I think it’s something that I will do more of. I don’t know that I’m typical Violetta, and that’s why perhaps I don’t get more opportunities. My voice is a very lyric voice, and you don’t imagine that it might have the reaches that this role requires.”
Most opera fans have probably heard a range of singers perform the celebrated role live or on recordings, but Armstrong refuses to be intimidated by potential comparisons.
“That doesn’t scare me,” she said. “I feel like I have something to offer them. Not to toot my own horn, but I feel like I bring a dramatic sense to the character, where you forget that it’s in an opera.
“When I go onstage, the singing has to come naturally. That just has to be there. It has to be about the dramatic content of the text – to tell the story really like an actress would.
“I find, oftentimes, you don’t get that on the stage of an opera. You often find opera singers just wanting to stand there and sing and sound really pretty all night. And that’s just not my objective.”
Few opera performers are busier than Armstrong, who in the first five months of 2008 alone will perform different roles with four major companies – Houston Grand Opera, New York City Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre and Opera Pacific.
Since earning her master’s degree in 1993 from the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, the Virginia native has appeared with top companies such as the Metropolitan Opera and Opéra Bastille. But she has no hesitation about traveling to smaller companies, such as Opera Colorado.
“As long as I’m performing, that’s really what is important to me,” she said. “It’s not about making tons of money. It’s, for me, more about the art of it – creating something and sharing it with people wherever and whomever they are.”
In her deciding where to perform, the size of the company is often less important than the people with whom she will potentially be working.
In this production, she is teamed with two longtime collaborators – stage director James Robinson (also Opera Colorado’s artistic director) and conductor Stephen Lord.
In 1993, Robinson staged Armstrong’s breakthrough student appearance in Christoph Willibald Gluck’s “Iphigenie en Tauride” at the Manhattan School of Music.
Edward Rothstein, a New York Times music critic, had ample praise for the young singer, who was known then by her maiden name – Pamela Moore.
“Ms. Moore showed striking vocal and dramatic gifts. … This was handsome, intelligent singing by a young artist who bears watching,” Rothstein wrote.
She considers Lord a mentor and works regularly with him, including a production of “I Puritani” last summer at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis.
“I put myself in his hands in every respect, and he takes care of me,” she said. “I know he’s there with me onstage. In fact, we feel each other so much that I don’t even have to look at him in the orchestra pit to know what’s going to happen. And he knows that I’m with him.”
Armstrong has recently added several roles to her repertoire, including the title character in “Thaïs,” Elvira in “I Puritani” and Konstanze in “The Abduction From the Seraglio.”
“Now, that I’m getting slightly older, the voice is sort of expanding slightly,” Armstrong said. “It’s just warming up. It’s becoming full and really present now.”
Kyle MacMillan: 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com.
“La Traviata” Opera. Ellie Caulkins Opera House, Denver Performing Arts Complex, 14th and Curtis streets. Opera Colorado’s revival of a 2004 production of the 1853-54 opera by Giuseppe Verdi. 7:30 p.m. today, 2 p.m. Sunday, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday and 2 p.m. Nov. 18. 2 hours, 45 minutes (three acts, two intermissions). $28-$157. 303-357-2787 or
