‘Catalyst Sessions’ recap: Susan Hellman Spatafora
Soprano Susan Hellman Spatafora began Tuesday’s edition of The Catalyst Sessions by singing “The Trees on the Mountain,” from Carlyle Floyd’s folk opera Susannah, which she performed in a regional premiere with the St. Petersburg Opera Company in 2014.
It’s through the stunning soloist’s long association with that organization, and her frequent appearances with Opera Tampa, that Spatafora has become known and beloved by bay area music aficionados.
The native of Duluth, Minnesota native discussed the trajectory of her interest in opera – early on, she discovered that Broadway’s Rent was based on the classic opera La Boheme, investigated and discovered she preferred the original.
“Because I was in such good choirs when I was young, my voice was big,” she recalled. “And I really had to try to squash that. Because your love of choral music only exists as far as you can blend with straight tone and sound really perfect. And it took me years to recognize that these are two separate things.
“You can do that; it’s very hard for me to do it. I wish I could. I love singing in choruses. But I get super-tired doing it. There’s a technique I have not mastered. I think it was pretty evident that maybe that wasn’t the route that I should take.”
Today on The Catalyst Sessions: American Stage Production Director Jerid Fox.
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