MANSFIELD — A few weeks back I spent an evening at the Mansfield Liederkranz enjoying a ‘Liederabend,’ a rousing and hugely enjoyable evening of classical music and dance, complemented with beer and schnitzel.
The music came from the talented folks at Mid-Ohio Opera, led by Artistic Director and tenor singer Joel Vega.
I’d seen Joel perform at various events around town but we’d never spoken, so I suggested we meet for a coffee so he could tell me a little about himself and his upcoming concerts.
“I saw you singing at the downtown arts carnival,” I told him. “You were holding a viking helmet but you didn’t put it on.”
“By the carrousel? That’s right. The hard thing about that was I couldn’t hear myself sing.”
“But what about the helmet?”
I pushed further but received no definitive answer, and Joel did not seem as interested in it as I was. However, he did not explicitly rule out wearing it in a future performance.
Changing tack, I asked Joel if he’d been singing from an early age.
“No, not really,” he told me. “I sang in the high-school choir, but growing up I was more interested in rock ‘n’ roll drumming.
“Then in my freshman year at OSU, in Columbus, I joined the Glee Club, and someone there suggested I try out for an opera.”
Do you remember what that first one was?
“Yes, it was ‘Riders to the Sea,’ the most depressing work I could have started with!” he laughed. “Everyone ends up drowned on some god-forsaken island near Britain.”
It was while studying in Columbus that Joel met his future wife and musical collaborator Heidi Kirschenheiter. Both were Richland County natives but their paths had never crossed.
The pair moved to Flagstaff, Arizona when Joel transferred to Northern Arizona University to pursue a Bachelor’s in Music Performance, and it was here that Heidi began singing, too.
“She would sing around the house so I suggested she take lessons,” Joel explained.
She did, and it was clear she had talent right from the start.
“After hearing her, her teacher said she should be singing the ‘Queen of the Night’ aria from Mozart’s Magic Flute. This was after her first lesson!”
After Joel graduated, the couple moved back to Ohio so their son Gary could be born here, but after a year they relocated again: this time to Charlotte, North Carolina, where Joel became a resident artist with Opera Carolina.
“It was a great experience. We were on the road a lot, touring. It felt like being a minor-league baseball player. At the same time, we were always coming back to Ohio for holidays and other visits. St. Pete’s would hire us for concerts – it’s my wife’s home parish. I think the first performance we did there was Handel’s Messiah.
“Bill Johnson (the Musical Director at St. Pete’s) would call us and ask ‘when are you coming back home?’”
Eventually they did just that, returning to live in Mansfield in 2012.
“I could see there were a lot of arts coming to the fore here,” said Joel, “a real resurgence.”
We talked over some of Mid-Ohio Opera’s past events, and I was surprised to find I’d somehow missed ‘Hopera,’ a beer and opera pairing at the Phoenix Brewing Company, one of my favorite local watering holes.
“That was a popular one,” said Joel, “we sold out quickly. The fire marshall wouldn’t have let any more in. We should do something like that again.”
The recent gathering at the Liederkranz was similarly appealing, I told him. A relaxed social occasion with top-quality entertainment.
“Thanks. I mean you know people like beer, you know people like schnitzel. Not that I’m trying to sneak the opera in, like broccoli or something. But it helps to have a known quantity.
“I like the idea of events that feel more everyday, more informal,” Joel continued. “And Schubert (part of the Liederkranz performance) was made for small audiences.”
He explained how many famous classical pieces were not created to be performed in exclusive, formal settings.
“Take something like Mozart’s Magic Flute: this was essentially for somewhere like the Mansfield Playhouse. It was the people’s theater, full of jokes, pratfalls and so on.”
I once saw a Venetian opera singer perform stark naked at a smoky club in South London, as a birthday surprise for the owner, bellowing out his solo as the stage was invaded by the roaring, drunken crowd. It was a moment of chaotic brilliance and somehow more effortlessly decadent than any rock-n-roll show.
Now, I’m not recommending that Mid-Ohio Opera engage in this kind of high-jinks or that you should charge the stage next time you see them perform, but as Joel himself says, “opera singers were traditionally hard-living, gritty people. It doesn’t have to be formal, all white tie and fine china.”
We talked about how this kind of formal atmosphere can put some people off attending classical performances, and I told him about some friends of mine who’d been embarrassed at a classical concert when they dared to clap in between the movements of a symphony.
“Right!” Joel laughed. “I love jazz, and with the solos and riffs you clap right in the middle of the piece, it’s great. Stomp and yell, I want that, that’s fun! You want that feedback.
“I’ve always liked the idea of street opera, performed in courtyards, that sort of thing. My younger brother Aaron did something called ‘Guerrilla Shakespeare’ in New York, making use of unusual performance spaces. I took inspiration from that.
“I like to think of it as pop-up opera, in found spaces. The rent’s lower that way, too.
“In January and February we’ll be doing some recitals right here (we were talking in the Relax coffee shop). We’ll just wheel our piano down from Neo’s Dance (two doors up) and set it up by the window.
“It’s got one leg held on with toothpicks and glue,” he told me. “At the Liederkranz I was hoping it wasn’t going to collapse during the performance!”
So what’s up next? This coming Sunday (Dec. 12), Mid-Ohio Opera will be performing Camille Saint-Saëns’ ‘Christmas Oratorio’ at St. Peter’s Church.
“I think these small concerts are great to build up an audience,” said Joel. “And I like the partnerships we form, too. For this performance we’ll have Dr. David Tovey from OSU-Mansfield on the organ, and our opera chorus will be formed from singers from all over town.
“We’ll have five soloists, including myself and Heidi. Two sopranos, a mezzo, a baritone and a tenor.
So who was Saint-Saëns?
“He was a contemporary of Wagner, but more traditional. He was an organist himself. The Christmas Oratorio tells the story of the nativity. It’s in Latin and we’ll be using supertitles (shown on a screen).
“We’ll be up in the choir loft. The music really rains down on you.”
The performance will be free and tickets do not need to be reserved.
“Just show up,” said Joel, “we’d love to fill the church!”
Saint-Saëns’ Christmas Oratorio will be performed at 3 p.m. on Sunday December 11th at St. Peter’s Catholic Church, 101 W. 1st Street, Mansfield. Free and open to the public.
