They may as well have been neighbors talking over the fence, legendary soprano Deborah Voigt and Vero Beach Opera President Joan Ortega-Cowan. With one visit to Vero to host a benefit ball already on Voigt’s calendar in January, Ortega-Cowan wondered if she’d come back in March and stage her first-ever vocal competition through Voigt’s Vero Beach-based foundation.
If it’s hard to imagine the celebrated soprano as an approachable girl-next-door, her ease with a wild range of topics will be on full display at Vero’s Majestic 11 theatre Saturday (and around the globe): she’ll be emcee-ing the Met Live in HD simulcast of a scandalous 20th century opera, the sex- and violence-filled “Lulu,” directed by William Kentridge, a South African artist who also directed “The Nose.” The New York Times called the production “wrenching.”
Voigt has had some practice of late keeping her composure when the conversation turned to scandal. She’s been promoting her recent autobiography, “Call Me Debbie: True Confessions of a Down-to-Earth Diva.” The book, published by HarperCollins in January, recounts in detail her struggles with weight, bad relationships and addiction, even as her renown swelled first for her command of the Italian repertoire and later, when she tackled Wagner.
Raised in Chicago by rigid Southern Baptist parents who didn’t know what to make of her talent outside of singing at church, Voigt believes it was God himself who spoke to her as she woke up one morning at 15: “You are here to sing.” With that sense of purpose came enormous pressures, none more distressing than when her weight got in the way of a plum role. Gastric by-pass surgery followed in 2004, and she has been adjusting psychologically and physically ever since.
Not that anyone would notice. Fans today see a glamorous 55-year-old blonde brimming with confidence, able to laugh at herself in a moment of conversation, and to move listeners to tears when she sings.
Voigt will be signing copies of her book in the lobby of the Vero Beach High School Performing Arts Center after first sitting down with Ortega-Cowan’s daughter Tania for a live interview, the night before the competition begins. “I was blown away that she wanted me to interview her on stage,” says Tania Ortega-Cowan. “I told her I would tell her my list of questions ahead of time and she said no need – she didn’t want to know them and no subject was off limits.”
The audience is allowed to ask questions as well, she says.
The three-day event March 24-26 is considerably condensed from the week-long vocal competitions staged here for the past three years through the foundation of Met tenor Marcello Giordani.
After last spring’s competition, Giordani made clear that his run for mayor of his hometown in Sicily meant he couldn’t make plans to return this year. Instead, Vero Beach Opera decided to host four of his competition’s past winners in “Remember Me Then – See Me Now!” on Sunday afternoon, March 13.
Giordani has been invited to attend – he didn’t win the election – but at this point, he has a prior commitment, Ortega-Cowan says.
Voigt’s competition will whittle the talent in advance to a field of around 30, far smaller than Giordani’s 80. The age range is 20 to 30, a younger cut-off than before.
All will be housed with Vero families.
“Debbie said she wanted them all home-stayed,” Ortega-Cowan says. “And she’s not charging an application fee. She doesn’t want them spending any more money than they have to.”
Voigt will judge the singers with two other people, still to be named. Consensus will be reached informally, as opposed to Giordani’s point system which was cumbersome to tally at the end of the evening.
Voigt’s last appearance here was at a Christmas concert in 2013 that featured the high school orchestra – at her suggestion. In 2008, she and Giordani both came down after appearing together in Puccini’s “La fanciulla del West” at Chicago Lyric Opera in 2012. She has since said the role of Minnie is one of her favorites, in part because it feels familiar: a Bible-reading, gun-toting, poker-playing, outlaw-loving heroine.
Joan and Roman Ortega-Cowan have known Voigt since 2003, Joan says, shortly after they took the helm at Vero Beach Opera. Until recently she owned a condo on the barrier island just south of the Indian River County line.
Conversations about a Vero vocal competition began in 2012 over breakfast with Voigt in New York, Ortega-Cowan says. It was then that Vero Beach Opera agreed to run Voigt’s newly created foundation. So far, it has focused on mentorship, initially allowing an opera student to shadow Voigt in a role. That grew difficult, though, and the most recent winner received lessons with a well-known teacher instead, meeting from time to time with Voigt for guidance.
This past year, Voigt spent much of her time promoting her new book, which comes out in paperback in January.
On Feb. 3, she’ll be doing her one-woman show, “Voigt Lessons,” for Palm Beach Opera. The work came together in a collaboration with playwright Terrance McNally and Francesca Zambello at the McDowell colony, an artists’ retreat in New Hampshire. Directed by Richard Jay-Alexander, the collection of 18 songs interspersed with narration from her often difficult life experiences, premiered at Glimmerglass Festival in 2011.
The Metropolitan Opera’s production of Alban Berg’s “Lulu” featuring Deborah Voigt as host screens Saturday at 12:30 p.m. with an encore presentation Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Majestic 11 theater in Vero Beach. Tickets are $25 and $20.
Vero Beach will get its first glimpse of the diva-next-door when the Vero Beach Opera season opens Jan. 10. The Sunday afternoon performance of the operetta “Die Fledermaus” – the Bat – written by Johann Strauss will be directly followed by the Grande Masque Ball hosted by Voigt at Grand Harbor’s clubhouse. Tickets to the ball, available only to those who’ve paid membership dues to Vero Beach Opera, are $275.
Tickets to An Evening with Deborah Voigt March 23 are $30, $40 and $50. The March 24-26 Deborah Voigt International Vocal Competition includes a two-day $20 pass to watch the preliminary and semi-final competitions. Tickets to the Saturday night finals concert are $30, $40, and $50. All tickets are available through the Vero Beach Opera website.