{"id":2120,"date":"2011-04-06T12:35:56","date_gmt":"2011-04-06T12:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=2120"},"modified":"2022-04-24T16:31:34","modified_gmt":"2022-04-24T22:31:34","slug":"brian-stucki","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/brian-stucki\/","title":{"rendered":"Tale of a Tenor: Brian Stucki Finds His Voice"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Brian Stucki at home (photo by Laura Durham)<\/p><\/div>\n


\n<\/a>\u201cTenors are seen as being a little neurotic,\u201d explains singer (and tenor) Brian Stucki, \u201cand I think it\u2019s because it\u2019s a high wire act. The demands on the tenor are greater than the demands on just about any other part. The big notes are a big deal and people wait for them. Sopranos get this too, but tenors are talking about technique all the time.\u201d Stucki is reminded of a tenor he once worked with. He described him as a totally normal guy apart from the fact that he slept with a silk scarf on his neck. \u201cI don\u2019t know what he thought was going to happen or what magical properties the scarf had\u201d he laughs, \u201cand I\u2019m still not sure he was telling the truth. Maybe he was kidding (polite pause)\u2026but I don\u2019t think he was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brian Stucki is what you might describe as a traveling opera singer. He \u201clives\u201d in Holladay, but in 2010 he did seven full productions and performed in a number of concerts and recitals which meant he was home for only 15 weeks last year. He has traveled all over the world from Seattle, to Mexico City, Rome, Warsaw and Tel Aviv singing everything from Mozart to Philip Glass. However, an operatic career isn\u2019t exactly what Stucki originally planned for himself.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Brian Stucki in Pearl Fishers<\/p><\/div>\n

Cello had always been Stucki\u2019s instrument. He excelled at it in high school and earned a degree in cello performance from Brigham Young University. But somehow, as a cello major, he also earned the University\u2019s \u201cSinger of the Year Award\u201d as he performed the lead in two BYU opera productions. After graduation he moved to Chicago to play in the Civic Orchestra which is run by the Chicago Symphony. \u201cMy plan was to stop philandering around with this singing thing and focus on the cello\u201d he says, but somehow, during the orchestra\u2019s off season he ended up at an audition for a local opera company. L\u2019Opera Piccola did two Italian operas every summer and Stucki decided to fit in an audition for La Boheme on his way back from playing a wedding. \u201cI had a tuxedo on, no portfolio with me and sort of just crashed the audition. They asked me if I had a head shot or anything to show them. I\u2019m sure they were like, \u2018Who\u2019s this idiot?\u2019 and they finally asked me, \u2018can you sing?\u2019\u201d Stucki sang the aria from La Boheme and they cast him as Rudolfo.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

In “Cosi Fan Tutte”<\/p><\/div>\n

Doors started to open. It didn\u2019t take long for Stucki to learn that as a singer, he had more possibilities to express himself musically than he would as a cellist in an orchestra — and it was more fun. \u201cThere are issues with morale in the professional orchestras\u201d he explains. \u201cThe people who get these jobs have trained to an extremely high level, but when you\u2019re in an orchestra you\u2019re expected to subsume your personal musical perspectives in deference to the conductors and your section. There\u2019s not a lot of scope for personal expression. It can be exciting in its best moments, but with the Civic Orchestra I saw how it can become a job. I saw how I\u2019d have to pursue other things outside of orchestral playing to be fulfilled as a musician.\u201d<\/p>\n

After earning a masters degree in vocal performance at Indiana University, rather than establishing himself in New York, he went the non-traditional route and settled in Salt Lake City. \u201cWork was taking me everywhere but the big city for the first year after graduation. It didn\u2019t make sense to live in the most expensive place in the nation and maintain an empty apartment there for the bulk of the year.\u201d He realized he could base his family anywhere as long as an airport was nearby. \u201cIt has been wonderful\u2014such a beautiful and serene place to come home to, not to mention much cheaper. With the money we save on living expenses, I can travel to New York as often as necessary.\u201d Stucki has sung with companies and orchestras from coast to coast and on three continents. Highlights include The Pearl Fishers with Seattle Opera, Cos\u00ec Fan Tutte with the New Israeli Opera, Haydn\u2019s Creation, with Boston Baroque, The Barber of Seville with the Compa\u00f1a Nacional de Mexico in Mexico City, and The Fall of the House of Usher with the Polish National Opera.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>While high culture dominates his \u201con the clock\u201d time, pop culture is very much a part of his down time. Just for fun, we flipped through his Pandora stations beginning with Depeche Mode which he endorses as an excellent station \u201cI never have to skip a song\u201d he says. On to Henry Purcell Radio, Beck Radio, They Might Be Giants, Danny Elfman, Aaron Copland, White Christmas, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Police, New Order, Cake, etc. When it comes to TV, he cites Arrested Development as being one of the best things that has ever been on television and Community and Modern Family are currently on his \u201cto do\u201d list. He mused on modern writers and how they have moved away from formula which segued perfectly into my next question about his thoughts on modern opera.<\/p>\n

Modern operas are frequently adaptations of plays and books. Stucki admits there\u2019s nothing particularly ground-breaking about opera right now, but new opera isn\u2019t necessarily interested in being ground-breaking. \u201cSome people will say that makes it less vibrant. Modern operas deal with things that are more immediate and real rather than fantastic and outrageous. Some of the modern operas have great musical moments, but they are still trying to accentuate drama with music, rather than accentuating great music with drama.\u201d If Stucki were to introduce someone in the modern world to opera, he would still start them with La Boheme, Carmen or La Traviata rather than an American opera with a more relatable story. \u201cThey illustrate what makes opera a powerful artform \u2013 and that\u2019s music — music that tells a compelling story, but really, it\u2019s about the music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just like most art forms, opera is trying hard to build audiences, but at the same time they\u2019re trying to stay true to their perceived roots as high art. \u201cToday\u2019s audiences are dramatically minded; they care about believability. Opera has gotten a bad rap in the past because of players who can\u2019t really act. He explains, \u201cSomeone told me about an old book called Acting for Opera Singers and it was just a bunch of pictures of gestures for happy, sad, etc.,\u201d he laughs. \u201cWhat happens too frequently is opera singers will bring their arms out, not because they\u2019re motivated by something in their emotional story, but because they\u2019re singing a high note.\u201d The challenge is that opera houses are huge and the distance between the performer and the audience members is huge. Although Stucki wouldn\u2019t describe it as one of the best musical experiences he\u2019s had, one of his favorite theatrical experiences was in Warsaw playing Roderick Usher in The Fall of the House of Usher by Philip Glass based on the Edgar Allen Poe story. \u201cThe director dealt with it as a piece of modern theater, and it was a smaller ensemble, in a smaller theater so the audience was closer to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The traveling life of a performing artist can be very exciting, but it isn\u2019t necessarily easy. Packing up and being \u201cportable\u201d all the time can be taxing, but Stucki has been doing the traveling thing for five years now and packing for one person has become a cinch. But Brian Stucki rarely travels alone. He and his wife Ann have two children: Colin (5) and Jane (2), plus another on the way. \u201cIt is definitely harder by several orders of magnitude to pack for two months with two kids than just for yourself. You might think it\u2019s just four times harder, but it\u2019s more like 72 times harder.\u201d Taking his family in tow has its challenges, but for Stucki, being able to see them every day is worth the effort and extra expense. \u201cMy first year out of school, we were on the road for 10 out of 12 months. My son would not have known who I was if we didn\u2019t spend most of that time on the road together.\u201d Having the kids around also keeps him grounded. Stucki recalls a fancy premiere party in Warsaw: \u201cIt was the closest thing to a paparazzi moment I\u2019ve ever had with all these photographers around. And then I go home and as I\u2019m getting ready for bed Colin throws up. So I went from my fancy party to cleaning up kid puke.\u201d<\/p>\n