There’s a big difference between singing opera on a proscenium stage and crooning outdoors. But that’s what tenor Nathan Bowles will be doing when he makes his debut with Pacific Opera Project on Sept. 5 on the lawn at the Heritage Square Museum.
Kicking off POP’s 15th season, the 29-year-old will tackle the lead role of Canio in a six-performance run of Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. The immersive production under the stars is overlooked by gorgeous Victorian houses on the square, while table seating with wine included is available and audiences are also encouraged to bring food and drink.
“I know a lot of singers are really troubled by singing outside,” said Bowles, who appeared in three mainstage productions last season with Los Angeles Opera. “And although we’re not in a desert here, it is a dryer climate, and we worry about staying hydrated. I personally really enjoy singing outside, and as an apprentice last year at Santa Fe Opera — [since] everything is outside there — I got a good handle on how to keep myself hydrated and prepared to sing outdoors.
Bowles, who hails from North Dakota and affirms he is used to dry climates, said he’s excited for the challenge of singing Canio at the open-air venue.
As well he should be, since POP’s productions, in addition to unique locations, also feature top-notch performers and stagings. Having mounted dozens of productions over the years, including the U.S. premiere of Vivaldi’s Ercole su’l Termodonte at the Highland Park Ebell Club in January, 2021. POP recently staged Gilbert and Sullivan’s 1878 opera H.M.S. Pinafore at Heritage Square.
POP Artistic Director Josh Shaw is obviously fond of the locale, writing in an email, "From the moment I stumbled on Heritage Square several years ago, Pagliacci has been playing out in my mind. It’s the perfect setting for a late summer production of one of the most perfect operas in the canon. I’ve been saving this one.
“Fourteen seasons without [this opera] is surprising,” added Shaw. “But I was waiting for the right setting. Heritage Square — essentially a museum of a little town with its Victorian houses, church, and town square — is perfection. When our 1925 Buick rolls up hauling a pop-up proscenium stage, the audience will be transported back in time."
One of the most beloved operas, Pagliacci may be best known for the melancholy aria, “Vesti la giubba,” (“Put on the costume”), and its unforgettable main character Canio, the clown who must perform while his world collapses. Bowles, who joined LAO’s Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program last year, remains undaunted.
“I love singing that aria,” Bowles said. “I’ve been so lucky to have been coached [on it] so early. It fits well, [and] it’s my first big Italian role. I’ve done Don José in Carmen several times, but it’s my first leading Italian man. It’s a great fit for my voice.”
POP Music Director Blair Salter, who will once again be on the podium, is head coach for LAO’s young artist program and worked with Bowles to prepare the role of Canio. She described her take on Pagliacci in an email: “The opera offers a searing look at what happens when art and life collide. Leoncavallo shatters the line between performance and reality with music that grabs you from the first note.”
For Bowles, this is the essence of opera, and staging it outdoors makes it more democratic. “What’s been interesting for me, and I think could be interesting for others is that a lot of people — myself included — [think that] opera is about gods, Vikings, and hyper-idealized characters,” he acknowledged. “But this is about working-class people and real stories.
“Even though it’s in Italian and we’re singing the whole time, it’s the interpersonal dramas of real people” Bowles continued. “I would like people to see this as soap opera, or a drama, and much less an opera in the very traditional, classical sense. This is for real people, and I want them to feel that. That’s why I’m so excited.”
