This interview was originally recorded on February 14th, 2024.
The Oral History Project is supported by the Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Charitable Foundation.

Linda Brovsky, stage director

Linda Brovsky’s innovative productions are found on operatic stages throughout the United States and internationally, including at Seattle Opera, San Francisco Opera, the Santa Fe Opera, LA Opera, San Diego Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Florentine Opera, and The Atlanta Opera, with repertoire ranging from standard classics to world premieres. She earned international acclaim for her 2011 production of Don Quichotte for Seattle Opera and later for the Canadian Opera Company. Her passion for new works has led her to direct numerous world and U.S. premieres, including David Carlson and Peter Beagle’s The Midnight Angel (Opera Theater of Saint Louis/Glimmerglass Festival), Scott Eyerly’s The House of Seven Gables (Manhattan School of Music), and Lowell Liebermann’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (Florentine Opera).

Brovsky’s talents extend to the world of musical theater, where her 2014 production of The Wizard of Oz at Milwaukee’s Skylight Music Theatre earned six BroadwayWorld nominations. Committed to educating singers and audiences alike, Brovsky has served as guest director for productions at Yale University, the Manhattan School of Music, the Academy of Vocal Arts, San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, Portland State University, and the University of Michigan.

Transcript

Marc A. Scorca: Linda Brovsky, it is such a pleasure to see you, after a number of years, and thank you so much for joining us, for being part of our Oral History Project.

Linda Brovsky: Well, I'm thrilled to be part of it. I looked at some of my cohorts in this project and I thought, "My God, so many mentors and colleagues and people that have crossed my path through my career. It was quite exciting to be part of this team, and what a great project for you to do.

Marc A. Scorca: Well, thank you. There are just so many stories that need to be captured and I don't wanna lose them. So thank you for being one of our storytellers. If you've listened to a few of them, you know that I have a first question for everyone, and it is: who brought you to your first opera?

Linda Brovsky: The ballet. I know; you didn't expect that answer, did you?

Marc A. Scorca: Well, that's kind of a curve ball.

Linda Brovsky: I was studying ballet at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, and I had just been promoted to the advanced class, and Norman Cornick, who was the head of the Colorado College Dance Department, but also taught that class said, "I'm choreographing Hansel and Gretel, would you like to be one of the 14 angels". And I was like, "Sure. Another chance to dance, and it isn't The Nutcracker; you got it." So I was one of the tiny 14 angels and I stayed in the wings during the opera, because my junior high school choir director was The Father, and I wanted to watch his performance. And I realized that I knew a lot of the songs. I had learned those songs in fifth and sixth grade in my music classes. "Brother, come and dance with me" and "The Prayer". And I was totally mesmerized. But ballet brought me, and then ultimately my parents took me to see a production of Manon the following year.

Marc A. Scorca: In Colorado, again?

Linda Brovsky: In Colorado Springs; local company - kind of an ambitious production for them. And then, in order to pay for dance classes and toe shoes, I signed up (when I went to high school) to be on the stage crew because they paid you. And my first stage crew gig was with the Colorado Springs Symphony. And Charles Ansbacher, who was the conductor, recognized me because he'd conducted umpteen Nutcrackers that I had danced in. And he said, "Can you read music?" And I said, "Yes, I can." And he said, "Great, we need someone to be a showrunner for us, because we didn't have a paging system in the theater." And I said, "Sure, I'll do that." And so I became the Symphony's showrunner, and my first star was Jan Peerce. And fast forward, probably towards the next season, it was Richard Tucker and Pinchas Zukerman. I mean, they had quite an interesting series, but I had never heard a 'real' opera singer before, and I remember sitting on the side of the stage - I'm sure I was just enraptured hearing "E lucevan le stelle" by this little man with big dark glasses. And he was charmed by this kid sitting on the stage looking at him, watching him, and so he came up and started talking to me about opera. And that theater and that stage crew also serviced the local opera company. And I met Don Jenkins, who was founding the Colorado Opera Festival, and he said, "Hey kid, you want a summer job?" And I said, "Well, yes, but I've got this internship with Ballet West in Aspen to dance, and so I would only be available for the last one." And he said, "Well, we can't give you college credit, but we could give you a stipend." And so when I finished dancing, I started work at the Colorado Opera Festival and worked kind of all the way through high school and college.

Marc A. Scorca: It's remarkable and wonderful to hear. I think you may be the first person who approached opera through dance, but from being a stage runner and a dancer to being a stage director: so how did the connection get made to stage direction?

Linda Brovsky: Again, I sort of worked my way up at the Colorado Opera Festival, and we were exposed to incredible repertoire; they were a very ambitious little company. They brought singers from New York City Opera and Chicago Lyric and The Met, and they used a combination of college kids and high school kids for the crew. But we were all integrated; there wasn't a lot of division of labor. If you needed to be in a rehearsal, you were in a rehearsal and then you did props, and maybe you helped sew the hems in the costume shop. Again, because I was a dancer, one of the directors was Hanya Holm, a very famous modern dancer, and they needed someone to translate dancer-speak to opera singers, and so they asked me to be her assistant. And I was totally intimidated. She was this very famous modern dancer. I didn't know until much later that she had been the original choreographer for Kiss Me, Kate, Camelot and My Fair Lady on Broadway. I had no idea. I just knew she was a famous modern dancer. So I started sort of assisting her and I was bumped up to being a stage manager by then. I was a drama major in college as well as a Russian major, a dance minor, and I had just graduated from college and Arnold Voketaitis from the Chicago Lyric and Gary Glaze from New York City Opera...we were all sitting at lunch one day and they said, "Okay, now that you have two fancy degrees, what are you gonna do with your life?" And I said, "I don't know. Maybe I'll do foreign service, maybe I'll be a designer". I really didn't know. And I don't remember if it was Gary or Arnold who said, "You know, I think you'd make a good assistant director". And I didn't even know what that was. And they explained what it was. They said, "Well, it's what you've been doing with Hanya and with the various directors". And I said, "Okay, how do you do it?" And I remember they said, "Well, you'll probably have to work in the box office for five or six years, and then maybe you'll bring coffee to the director". And I'm thinking, "My parents just spent all this money on these two fancy degrees, and I'm gonna bring coffee. This seems a waste of their money". So I came to New York and I sent out resumes as a production stage manager/assistant director, and I got hired by a touring company called Eastern Opera Theater because not only could I assist their director, but I could also stage manage their touring productions and I could choreograph. So I was kind of this triple threat person.

Marc A. Scorca: What was Eastern Opera Theater? It could not have been too long lived.

Linda Brovsky: It went on for years; it had been well established when I came along. They always opened shows at Pace University, and then they would take it on the road and it would go pretty much throughout the East Coast. I don't think it went much further than probably St. Louis, but east coast, south, a lot of little towns.

Marc A. Scorca: What's the first opera you went out on tour with?

Linda Brovsky: First opera I went out on tour with was La Bohème, and we opened that one at the Bardavon Theater in Poughkeepsie with Imre Palló conducting. And unfortunately, that director was not particularly successful in the production, and the cast was not particularly enamored with him. And the next show was Marriage of Figaro that we took all over. And then we did the premiere of Greg Sandow's Christmas Carol. I believe that was in Connecticut. And again, I'm stage-managing, I'm choreographing, I'm assisting whoever the director is.

Marc A. Scorca: What's the first opera you directed?

Linda Brovsky: La Bohème, because this director was not well liked. We were remounting it in the spring to go to Stratford, Connecticut to that theater and with full chorus, with everything. And the producer, Donald Westwood came up to me and said, "Well, you know the show, why don't you direct it?" And I loved directing it. We had great fun. I did know the show. I did my own interpretation. And because the master flyman at Stratford thought of me as the production stage manager, when I went out to take my curtain call, he dropped the curtain on my head 'cause he thought the stage manager had come out, and there must be trouble.

Marc A. Scorca: I haven't heard Donald Westwood's name in a long, long time.

Linda Brovsky: So that was sort of the launch. And then I kept going back to Colorado Opera Festival and I started assisting directors and doing my own productions. And one director sort of led me to other companies or to...I assisted Pat Bakman. He was doing a production at Glimmerglass Opera, and he was bringing Dottie Danner for that one. But he said, "They have a difficult director that they need an assistant for. Are you up for it?" And I said, "Sure". And I met Lou Galterio, and Lou then took me to a lot of companies.

Marc A. Scorca: These are just great names. Patrick was a wonderful director.

Linda Brovsky: Patrick was fabulous. Patrick was a huge inspiration.

Marc A. Scorca: And Lou was such a pillar of the American opera industry in his day.

Linda Brovsky: I learned a lot from Lou. I learned a lot about just the business from Lou. And Richard Getke, he was another director I assisted. Assisted Hanya again, Peter Mark Schifter, Joaquin Romaguera on an Aida...

Marc A. Scorca: Peter Mark Schifter was actually a cousin of mine by marriage.

Linda Brovsky: We did Regina together. That was a time in the arts where you learned by doing it, rather than getting yet another degree. You learned invaluable lessons by seeing what worked and what actually didn't work. You learned as much from the directors that maybe weren't as accomplished as Lou or Pat or Richard or Peter. And as I was directing more, I'd watch my colleagues like Colin Graham and go, "Oh, that's how he handles that. That's interesting", or, "Oh, that's an interesting choice. I'll have to remember that".

Marc A. Scorca: Linda, in just doing some research to come on this Zoom with you: your repertoire. And even you just mentioned it in your work with the Eastern Opera Theater, you talked about a work for the inherited repertoire, and then you talked about a premiere. Your directing career has included both tranches: the inherited repertoire and the new works, and some very important new works along the way. I'm kind of curious to know - you, as a stage director - whether your approach to the repertoire (inherited or new) was different, or did you approach every work the same, irrespective of its performance history?

Linda Brovsky: Ah, no. No. I think I approached every work differently based on its performance history or if it was new. For some works that were in the canon like La Bohème and La Traviata, I did a lot of history work. I did a lot of background work of what the source was. Dear Imre Palló (was) the conductor for my first Traviata, and he sat me down at my kitchen table and said, "Okay, I'm talking you through the score". And he literally said, "See this fermata, something has to happen here. See these three measures, I have to see their eyes". I still have those markings in my score. In fact, I just had lunch with Imre last spring, and I said, "I still have all of this, these many years. I still follow all of your teaching". But the new works - first of all, you've got the composer there. And in an odd sort of way, I think it taught me to respect dead composers more, by working with the living ones, because you realized how much they were influenced by not only what was happening in their society and around them, even if it was a production taking place in 1914. What was going on around them and in their lives really influenced what they were writing. An example would be Midnight Angel (by) David Carlson. I was also the dramaturg on that, as well as the director and David Carlson and Peter Beagle, (the librettist) and I would meet in San Francisco at the bar of the hotel that I was staying in, and we'd work on the show. And we did this every couple of months. We just had this complete creativity session. There were things that I would say, or David would say, within the context of the meeting that would wind up in the opera. I remember coming back from a bad date and talking just socially - "Oh, I had this date, and you know", and one of the things I said, wound up in the opera. We did a workshop of it in St. Louis, which is where it was premiered. And I remember Colin Graham saying, "The ending isn't right. Act two doesn't work; you need to go back to the drawing board". And we had about six endings, and we still knew it wasn't right. We just hadn't found (the solution). And I had a friend who was, at that point, dying of AIDS, and I happened to talk to him during a break. And I said, "David, we're not coming up with this. This is, you know, what's going on. This is one ending, this is another." And he said, "You know, when you're dying, you don't think about any of that. You think about all the opportunities you failed to love". And I am writing all of this down, and I take it into Peter Beagle and David Carlson, and I said, "Okay, what can you do with this?" And that gave us the ending of the show.

Marc A. Scorca: How wonderful.

Linda Brovsky: But again, you realize that you need, if it's Puccini or Verdi, to go back and kind of see what were they dealing with at the time. What were their influences? What were they trying to say with that piece?

Marc A. Scorca: Now, you've named so many people. From Lou Galterio and Patrick Bakman, and David Carlson, Colin...so many. Was the spirit of the opera world different early in your career?

Linda Brovsky: Yes. It was not as compartmentalized. I came along at a time when the arts were having a huge renaissance, and the arts were exploding, but everyone was poor. People went back and forth in various jobs. They weren't 'I'm just a director'. I was a director, but then I'd go be a production stage manager somewhere, and then I'd go off and choreograph something. We weren't so segmented from each other. And likewise, I felt like there was a lot more exchange of ideas between other art forms where we all were sponges. There were a lot more community-based companies and touring companies, which helped form for the singers and certainly for those of us who went on tour with them, a much more sense of ensemble and camaraderie, where you might be singing Violetta tonight, but tomorrow night you're gonna sing Annina, and then you're gonna be in the chorus for the third performance, so you could more or less rest your voice. You also learned how to read a room as an artist, because you might do La Traviata in Savannah, which was a very sophisticated audience, but then three nights later you might take it to an Indian reservation where they had never seen opera. It was in English, so they could sort of follow along. But you learned what they responded to, and maybe you needed to be clearer in your choices. So yes, it didn't seem to have as much a prejudice or bias racially, or in terms of ageism, because it was whoever could sing the role. And Leontyne Price, and all of these famous, famous black singers were the people I had recordings of, so it never occurred to me that they couldn't sing those roles. And likewise, these smaller companies, they cast who could sing it, so consequently I would have a cast where I'd have an Asian Violetta and maybe a Hispanic Alfredo and Germont was black - and no one even thought anything else about it. It was fine. And I think that all kind of shifted with the AIDS crisis. I think there was a lot more hunkering down after that, and being a little more parochial about things.

Marc A. Scorca: Interesting. What an interesting connection of societal forces there. Now I want to get back to you as a director some, because again, you've done a lot of work over the years and sometimes you've taken works of the inherited repertoire and updated them and taken them, and looked at them through a new lens. And one of the ones that I read some reviews about was your Rigoletto in Seattle, which was set in fascist Italy. And I'm curious - as a director, your goal in updating something, in treating something, and where are the boundaries for you? We see so much of that. I'm kind of curious to know whether you actually think there need to be some boundaries, even as we're being creative with productions.

Linda Brovsky: I do. I don't think it's my job as a stage director to "save" an opera through tricks and fancy visual effects. I feel like it's my job to illuminate the composer's story, the composer's work from within. So my goal is also to be a clear storyteller for the audience, and try to make these characters as human and multifaceted as I can. The fascist Italy production came along because originally we were going to have a new production of Rigoletto, and then some of the funding went away. And Speight Jenkins, who was the head of Seattle Opera at the time, was upset. I was upset 'cause it was a big deal. And I said, "I need to find a way to make this production interesting. If it's gone, then it's a new production, but maybe there's a way we can save the new production, and I was talking to a film designer, Eugenio Zanetti, and he said, "Look at Fascist Italy". I didn't know anything...yeah, I knew who Mussolini was, but I didn't really understand what he was saying, but I did know that I wanted to show society how dangerous it was. How this was the elite forces - the Duke and his people - you didn't step out of line. You couldn't step out of line, or you could be killed, or beaten like Monterone is. And that it was a very segmented hierarchy, very dangerous, very debauched, brutal, and that Rigoletto and Gilda were really victims of this society. So I looked at fascist Italy and I went, "Wow, the topography fits". Every single point that you need to fit if you're going to update. We didn't need to change anything. We changed one word from 'sword' to 'blade' because the black shirts carried these long dagger knives as part of their uniform. So it made perfect sense that they had blades. I called Speight, and I said, "So Speight, you have this old set that you haven't used in many, many years according to your archives that's really beautiful. What if we use the old set and do new costumes and redecorate and make it updated to fascist Italy. At that point, Seattle Opera had never updated a traditional piece. And Speight was like, "Well darling, it's risky, but let's take the risk". 'Cause he was a big history buff, and he knew exactly what I was talking about. We had so much fun. We got Bob Dahlstrom, the original set designer of the old set to totally reconfigure it and rethink it with pool tables and martini glasses. We had a blast. And it also made all of the cast rethink their roles, because the one thing I wanted was to convey this sense of danger and desperation, which I didn't think guys in pumpkin pants and tights really did to today's audience. And we also needed a time period where women didn't have rights. And that was true in Italy until after the war.

Marc A. Scorca: So when does a production go too far?

Linda Brovsky: I think a production goes too far when you go out singing the scenery, or where the audience, all they can talk about are the visual effects, but they don't talk about the beautiful singing or the story. You have to remember what the composer's intention was. Verdi was writing about the Duke of Mantua, but he was also writing very much about what was going on in Italy at that time. He just couched it in an earlier period. Verdi was writing about Violetta in La Traviata. Well, that was like writing about any one of our current news items because everyone knew Marie Duplessis. The newspapers carried pictures of her. It would be like us doing an opera now about Princess Diana. We know who that person is. So I think when you go a little too far is when you totally deny what the composer had intended in terms of the soul of the opera, rather than...Costumes can change, scenery can change, if it's not grounded also in a period. Tosca, you've got the Battle of Marengo and Napoleon. They talk about it throughout the opera. It's hard to get away from that particular date. You can make it look more modern in your approach to what they're talking about, but they're very specific. The Castel Sant'Angelo - you can't decide that that's gonna be in Texas at the Alamo. It just doesn't work. It's a very specific place we're talking about.

Marc A. Scorca: Interesting. Oh, these lively debates.

Linda Brovsky: I love the creativity that my colleagues bring to things. I sometimes wish that the really over-the-top creativity went towards something completely new, because the audience is not always on board, and like it or not, they pay our salaries. You know, we need to respect them as well as our own creativity.

Marc A. Scorca: Now you mentioned Speight. Just a great general director, and I will say a great general director who always saw himself as the representative of his audience. He carried his audience sensibilities with him. Now you and I, years and years and years ago, had some interesting times with some challenging general and artistic directors. Given all that you've worked with, what makes a good general director of an opera company from the point of view of a stage director?

Linda Brovsky: Passion: that they're passionately committed to the art form and to artists. I would also add probably that they are curious not only about the singers they hire, but curious about every aspect of the production. That was something Speight was a genius at. Speight knew how to cast singers, but he would often sit next to me and go, "Now darling, why did you change that?" And I would explain. And it wasn't that he was criticizing it, it was far more (that) he wanted to know what I saw, that he missed. And then he'd go, "Oh, oh, okay". And he did that with all of us, as singers, directors, conductors. We had a safety net. We had a very nurturing environment to be our best, but so did everyone in that company. And kind of like the beginning days when I started, that was a company where everyone had a voice and everyone felt invested in the project. So Pete Olds, the prop master, would come up to me and say, "Wouldn't it be funny if, when they play the harp, you see strings break?" And I'm going, "Okay Pete, how are you gonna do that?" And he said, "I don't know; I'll figure it out". And he did; that it broke on cue. I remember my first show with Speight, which frankly I almost didn't get, because the phone rang late at night and I heard this, "Hello Linda, this is Speight Jenkins" And I went, "Yeah, right," and I hung up. I thought it was a friend playing a joke on me, and the phone rang again and he said, "No, no, no, Linda, don't hang up. It really is Speight Jenkins". And I was mortified, but I did get the job. On that particular production, it was La Fille du Régiment, with Harolyn Blackwell and Gran Wilson and François Loup. And Harolyn had missed the first dress because she had back problems, and she didn't go into costume; she needed to just chill. She couldn't be in the corset. We see her at her final dress, and Speight comes up to me and goes, I have only one note, and I'm surprised you didn't take it: "That dress looked great on the second cast Marie, and it looks terrible on Harolyn". And I'm thinking, "Well, the costumes are rented from Australia and they're million dollar costumes. What are we gonna (do)? And we have two days, and we open". That staff didn't blink. They laughed and said, "Well, Speight: what do you want?" "Well, I want a different color". And suddenly the prop people were saying, "You know, we have those curtains from Rosenkavalier that are sheer, could we put an overlay?" Wigs and makeup was saying, "I've still got those roses from blah blah. Could we add those as trim?" Vinnie Feraudo, the fabulous production stage manager, was sitting there already scheduling fittings. I mean, by the end of that meeting, we had a new dress, and she looked gorgeous in it, but that was the kind of creativity he nurtured and brought forth. You don't always get that in producers, but Speight was truly unique.

Marc A. Scorca: Now, you mentioned, years ago, early in your career and I'm gonna go back and say, 'Okay, early in your career,' and we know you started as a child, so we can go back many years, you were a rare woman stage director. I think of Rhoda (Levine), (who) was around, and you were a rare stage director, working as a woman and I'm wondering whether you felt prejudice, barriers. Was it hard to make your way as a woman stage director?

Linda Brovsky: Oh, absolutely. I remember I was up to do the scenes program at the Santa Fe Opera, and I had been assisting Lou at Manhattan School of Music. I met Carolyn Lockwood, who was (John) Crosby's right hand person. And Richard Gaddes had recommended me to Santa Fe. Carolyn called me in and said, "Okay, you're gonna go in for an interview. You must wear a suit, preferably a dull color, a white blouse, no jewelry, no makeup, and sensible shoes". And I'm like, "What? What are you talking about?" And she said, "If you want the job, miss, you need to do this". And I called up Richard, and I said, "Richard..." And he said, "Follow her advice". So I did. I looked like a mini Carolyn Lockwood, and she wanted my hair in a bun. I had to borrow everything. I didn't own any of this stuff. So I was borrowing from neighbors and my sister, and I go in for the interview. I get the job. I show up in Santa Fe with the long hair and the flippy peasant skirt and the jewelry. And Crosby had no idea who I was, and wondered who let this strange person on campus. Yeah, women were not really considered right for the dramas. If you got hired at all, you usually got hired to do the operettas - the Gilbert and Sullivan, the comedies. I mean, even with Speight, who I wound up doing 12 productions for Seattle Opera under Speight's tutelage...even Speight...I was the go-to girl for comedy. And it took his staff seeing The Picture of Dorian Gray in Milwaukee to call him during intermission and say, "She's great at drama. Why haven't you given her a drama?" And I remember him calling me and saying, "Well, I'm taking a chance on this". And then from then on, I only did drama.

Marc A. Scorca: So the prejudice in that instance, not reflected in your being hired or not hired, but what repertoire you were getting?

Linda Brovsky: What repertoire...I mean, I remember various agents getting the response, "We don't know if she can handle the men in the cast" or "the Italian men in the cast", in particular. And I think it didn't help that I was five foot two and did not look like a severe director. But it was sort of like, "They're just people. I can handle them. What's the issue?" So yeah, it took a while. And also, in a way, the prejudice was also a benefit, a blessing because the men that were coming up with me, they wanted the Ballos; they wanted the Don Giovannis, because they wanted a production that they'd then get hired to do in several companies. I was willing to take the obscure Fair at Sorochinsk by Mussorgsky. I was willing to do the premieres. I was willing to do the Il furioso all'isola di San Domingo by Donizetti. I mean, you know, not every director has that on their resume. But I learned a lot by doing the really obscure repertoire.

Marc A. Scorca: Which of course will wind up getting the reviews because people haven't seen it, and people will travel to see it.

Linda Brovsky: Right, right.

Marc A. Scorca: Did you have role models coming up the ladder?

Linda Brovsky: Oh, yeah. I would say Pat Bakman for sure. Patrick had an amazing imagination and facile mind where he could look at something and it wasn't quite right, and you just see him change it on the spot. And he was very encouraging and guiding as I was coming up through the ranks. Hanya Holm: looking back, I didn't realize it at the time, but Hanya had an impeccable sense of timing and physical comedy that I learned from her, by osmosis, really. Lou Galterio, certainly in terms of how he conceived things, 'cause he was very prolific in the days when I worked with him. There were things I learned not to do, like stamp my feet because he was a six foot three man, and 260 pounds. When he'd stamp his foot, the whole room would shake. I realized that was not the best way to get your way, but he was very creative. Richard Getke was wonderful at handling people. He had a wonderful, kind, sort of nurturing approach to directing. Peter Mark Schifter came from theater, so that was a whole different kind of approach. And Colin Graham, who was a genius, and to have him as someone to watch...I never assisted Colin, but we were often back to back at Opera Theatre of St. Louis. So I could go in and watch his rehearsals. He'd come in and watch mine. And you learned so much just watching how he handled situations, watching choices he made. And also, I have to add Speight Jenkins as a role model because Speight had such a passion for everything he did, and he made sure he knew everybody in that production. And not just, 'I know their name', but he took time to get to know them, and I thought that was an invaluable lesson. Certainly Richard Gaddes - he taught me more about being political, I think. And Charles MacKay was a wonderful, encouraging mentor. Ed Purrington was a wonderful mentor, and looking back at it, in an odd sort of way - he could be difficult - John Crosby. He was quirky. It took a while to get used to him, but he noticed everything. I was directing Don Giovanni and I came back. We mounted it; I went away and then we remounted it towards the end of the summer, 'cause that's how it fit into the five opera (season). And we had a couple (of) new cast members. And I remember being in the tech rehearsal and him standing next to me and he said "The light gels weren't switched over correctly". And he was absolutely right. There were two lighting instruments that were the wrong gel color, but that wasn't even his show. And he noticed those things. So, they were all mentors.

Marc A. Scorca: Attention to detail.

Linda Brovsky: Attention to detail. And you learn.

Marc A. Scorca: You've also done a lot of work at universities, working with younger people. And here you've worked with great professionals, you've worked with young professionals and here (you) have worked with students. What are the unique challenges and rewards of working with a student population?

Linda Brovsky: Well, first of all, the rewards are great because they're like sponges. They're hungry. I see me when I was in college, where it's all new. It's all exciting. It's like opening a box of candy and you don't know whether to take the creams or the nuts because there's so much there. The challenge, frankly, is (that) so often you get singers who sing beautifully, but have had no acting training whatsoever. Again, when I started out, because we weren't so, 'Oh, you are an opera singer', you just took musical theater, or you took theater. You were a theater major and then you had voice lessons and music. The kids today, a lot of them don't get really basic acting skills. So you're teaching them the fundamentals of acting as well as trying to direct the show. Also, I think because departments are often so segmented, they don't have dance training. They don't have the things that early on maybe they did have. And it's not hard, but it's something, as a director, I really work to build an ensemble and a collaborative atmosphere where they realize the lighting designer and the super and the prop master are just as important as they are. And that we're all in it together. When you can do that, magic happens. I love watching them grow. I love when they find their tribe, because you often see students that are probably outsiders. You see them the first few days where they sit alone. They know their role, but they're not part of the in-group. And to watch them suddenly find their tribe and find their their people is really exciting.

Marc A. Scorca: Beautiful. Now, I assume that the young people you work with in a university or a conservatory setting, they've gotta ask you for advice. And I'm kind of curious, what is at the heart of Linda Brovsky's advice to the young aspiring opera performer or creator?

Linda Brovsky: Well, that one actually is easy. Put down your phone and nurture your imagination. Read the great works of literature, read history, go see other art forms. Go to the ballet, go to the museums, go to the symphony, see what other artists are doing. Travel, explore new cultures. And most of all, come with curiosity. To realize that you should come with an entire trunk full of ideas when you approach a production, and also realize that there is no one way of doing anything. There's just one that works for that production. And if you're being thrown something that isn't the way you thought it should have gone, use it as a way to explore something new. And also be a good colleague. Be a good colleague because in that university situation, you never know who in that class is going to have a major career. I mean, I brought a singer from the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program to Manhattan School of Music, when we were doing Rappaccini's Daughter with Daniel Catán, 'cause they needed a tenor. And this kid who had been in my Don Giovanni, and I'd directed him in the scenes program. I thought he was very talented. He wasn't being given the time of day that season in Santa Fe, but I really liked him. And I told Manhattan School, he can do it. Maybe if you give him voice lessons, he won't have to pay; you know, whatever. And he auditioned; he got the role. Well, the kid was Brandon Jovanovich, and he's an international star. You don't know who's gonna be the star or who's going to be the general manager of a company, or if not the general manager, who's gonna be the donor. So if you inspire all of them. And as a singer, don't assume you're going to go to The Met immediately. You might, just to pay the bills, assist a makeup artist and realize that's your passion far more than singing Adina. Or you might realize that you are really good at organizing things and you are really good at putting people together. And you may become a general director someday. You just don't know.

Marc A. Scorca: Well, it is a whole lot to think about if you're a young person to take all of the advice to heart, but I think you speak great truths there.

Linda Brovsky: Well, I love the young singer. I love coaching young singers just because there's so much opportunity out there. And opportunity not only in opera, but also in musical theater because someone who maybe does not have the voice for The Met could have a very good living, singing on Broadway.

Marc A. Scorca: Sure. Well, Linda, I just want to thank you for taking the time today to share some of your stories, to bring up names everyone should know about in the history of American Opera. Of course, yours among them.

Linda Brovsky: Well, thank you. It was a huge pleasure and an honor. Rhoda Levine was sort of ahead of me, but we all went, "Well, if Rhoda can make it, maybe we could". So, it's wonderful to hear their stories and have that as a legacy.