Interview with Stage Director Eve Summer

Female directors are making waves in the opera world! Check out this Operagasm exclusive interview with free-lance stage director Eve Summer.

by Melissa Wimbish

“…if you haven’t heard of her already, you will soon. Only in her twenties, Eve has already accomplished enough for several lifetimes…” – Rachel Shuster, Pulse Magazine, January 2009

Operagasm had the privilege of interviewing this rising star of stage directing, Eve Summer earlier in the week. Currently working on a production of Lucia di Lammermoor with Commonwealth Opera, Ms. Summer’s approach to directing refreshes hope for the future of opera.

Commonwealth Opera, a professional opera company in residence in Northampton, Massachusetts, will be presenting two performances of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor on Friday May 7th at 7:00 PM and Sunday May 9th at 2:00 PM at The Academy of Music Theatre in Northampton.

Tickets are on sale now for $10 – $50, with Student Rush available at the door for $8. To order individual or group tickets directly through Commonwealth Opera (all box office fees will be waived) call 508-847-0517.

Tickets may be purchased through The Academy of Music Theatre’s box office beginning April 16th at http://academyofmusictheatre.tix.com or at 413-584-9032 x105. Box office fees may apply.

How do you feel that your experience as a ballet dancer contributed to your interest in directing?

Actually, when I was a ballet dancer, I never had any interest at all in directing, or really doing anything in the world besides dancing and one day choreographing and being a ballet mistress.  When I left ballet, I eventually went back to college so I could get a “regular” job and stay away from the theater.  That lasted about a week. I saw a flyer for auditions for Romeo & Juliet, and I couldn’t stay away. Following my performance as Juliet, the head of the theater department approached me to talk about a project he had in mind.  He asked me if I had any interest in directing.  I laughed!  Did he mean I should try doing something off-stage!  I wasn’t interested, I had always thought of myself as a performer, but he sat me down and told me he had a feeling that this would be something I would be good at, that would be right for me, he didn’t know why, he just had a feeling.  I acquiesced, and the experience was nothing short of an epiphany for me.  It felt so right, like I had been doing it all my life and it was meant to be.  I had never felt so rewarded and gratified in my life.  I have been directing full time ever since!  My experience as a dancer does inform a lot of my choices about movement and blocking, but I think that in general I approach directing in a totally un-dancer-like way; with un-choreographed and very human, gritty and ungraceful, and organic motivation.

Describe your first reaction to opera. How old were you? Who took you to see your first one? Did you love it or hate it?

“Nessun dorma” was playing on the stereo in the delivery room when I was born, that was probably my first time hearing opera!  My father would take me to the opera, the theater, the ballet, and the symphony a few times a month for most of my childhood, whenever he could.  My first opera experience wasn’t a life changing thing for me, it was my life, and it has always been a huge part of me.  I have loved opera for as long as I can remember and listen to it every day; it fills me with overwhelming joy and passion every day of my life.

What has been your favorite production to stage so far? Why?

At the risk of giving you a safe answer, whatever production I’m working on in the moment.  The moment I cast a show, it becomes a living, breathing organism whose growth is informed by each unique artist and their relationship with their character and with me.  Together we find motivation and insight in the text that makes each moment an exciting and beautiful revelation.  Every day I find my new favorite music, my new favorite moment, my new favorite part.  Right now I’m smack in the middle of Lucia and it feels amazing!  It’s my favorite… for now!

Who is your favorite heroine from the operatic repertoire? Have you ever had a chance to stage something involving this character? What did you do and why?

Susanna.  I have always loved Marriage of Figaro, and for some reason I felt a special kinship with her when I was young.  I would watch Mirella Freni in the Jean-Pierre Ponelle film over and over when I was 5 or 6 and I thought she was the most beautiful and perfect creature I had ever seen or heard.  I would “play” marriage of Figaro at home and I would always be Susanna.  I invented new adventures for her all the time, like she and Figaro had a baby and the Count wanted to take it from them and then they would have to go on the run!  There are many fascinating characters in opera, perhaps many that seem so much more complex than Susanna, but she has always been close to my heart.  I haven’t worked on Figaro, yet; I think it will be a lot of fun for me and I know that I will find new qualities in her, as I do with every character, that I couldn’t have seen without the uniqueness and individuality of the artist who plays her.

What qualities do you appreciate most from your actors, stage crew, etc.? What makes your job more enjoyable?

Trust and openness.  I ask all my actors, singers, and designers to let go of their preconceptions about opera and acting and what they think opera should be, and let me help them create a production that is simple and truthful and honest, with all of the intensity and frankness of a stage play.  I ask them to leave their opera conventions at the door and approach the opera fresh, starting just with the text.  Overacting and stock “opera” gestures can be a comfort zone for an opera singer, even for actors as well sometimes, so I ask them to try something that a lot of singers have never been asked to do: to let go of their “opera acting” training, to just exist inside their character, without any exaggeration, without magnifying their gestures for stage, without creating “opera moments” or pictures, to not listen to the music or move in time to it, but rather just to be inside their role and to happen to make the music themselves.  I ask them to trust me that their message will still carry to the audience, and will carry more powerfully, if delivered subtly.  When singers embrace this and put their full faith in me and begin to experiment and let go, my job becomes the most exciting thing in the world, not just traffic directing and choreography!  I ask my designers to take that leap with me, too; to think about how best to tell the story, and not how to create grand moments, but rather how to make a truthful production.  That is grand to me!

What production are you dying to direct? Any that you find more difficult than others?

Can I have two?  Carmen and my father’s Hamlet.  I studied flamenco dancing and learned to use castanets in my time studying at the Kirov Ballet, and am itching to stage an intense, truthful, sexy, staggering production of Carmen.  I love Shakespeare and I direct a good deal of it when I’m not working on opera, and I love my father’s music.  Me directing one of his operas will be a dream come true for both of us.  In terms of the difficulty of one opera versus another, we all know many opera stories and libretti are problematic, to say the least, so the hard part of my job comes in justifying some of these outlandish stories with the real and truthful characters I challenge my singers to create in the studio, rather than succumbing to melodrama and grandeur to disguise a dramatically flawed scene.  Approach a famous aria as just a few lines of text, which is what it really is.  Then we can interpret it fresh, which is what I seek to do with everything I direct.

What type of relationship do you think is ideal between the stage and musical directors? Do you think this (your description) is “the norm”?

An understanding and respectful one!  I have an amazing partnership with Ian Watson at Commonwealth Opera and love the way we work together.  When something needs some extra attention from him, I can sacrifice some of my staging time for some extra music coaching, and when a scene isn’t coming together just right and I need some extra staging time, Ian is patient with working that scene a bit longer.  We both respect each other immensely and never step on each other’s toes or give one another unsolicited suggestions in front of the artists; we present a united front and a collaborative partnership and vision.  We talk every night after the day of rehearsals to assess our progress, discuss the artists, talk about where our focus should be the next day, and make sure we are always on the same page.  We are very supportive of one another and we come together frequently to talk about the characters and the music so that we can ask the same thing dramatically and musically of the singers, so they in turn can clearly communicate both the music and the text, which for both of us are inseparable.  I think because we are the resident conductor and stage director at Commonwealth Opera, we have the luxury of really getting to know each other’s style and needs, working better and better together with each show we produce together; this is a relationship that isn’t always possible in our field.

Describe your typical schedule on a given week. How do you make time for yourself and your family?

Last week I got up at around 6 or 7 am every morning and caught up on emails and did administrative work (casting for next season, interviewing and hiring designers, scheduling invited auditions for singers I want to hear, planning with potential new collaborators, expanding our education and outreach opportunities) until I left for the rehearsal studio at around 1 pm.  I arrive at 2 and look over my notes and score for a half hour so I am already in the scene when rehearsal begins.  I stage from 2:30-5:30 then grab a quick bite, have another staging rehearsal from 7-10, then spend about 45 minutes going over that day’s business and the next day’s plans with stage management and the music staff.  I am home by midnight.  Then I say hello to my boyfriend who is waiting up for me with dinner, eat, read the rehearsal report and respond with my comments, crash and do it all again the next day!  It is definitely hard in this business to make time for my family (or myself!) during production, and I’m still working on finding a better balance!

What can you tell us about your upcoming production of Lucia di Lammermoor? In what ways do you feel this production will be original? What aspects, if any, do you think the audience will identify as traditional? What did you learn through the course of this particular project?

I am so excited about this production of Lucia!  First of all, the cast and orchestra is amazing and the scenery and costumes are stunning!  Each and every singer is a truly extraordinary artist and brave and thoughtful actor, and I think the audience will be blown away!  This will also be a very special production as we are performing it come scritto (as written), including the rarely performed Wolf’s Crag scene and the second act duet with Raimondo and Lucia. We are also not adding the many cadenzas that are typically heard in productions of this opera, rather we are performing Donizetti’s score as he wrote it!  I set the production in its intended period and location, 17th century Scotland, so the costumes and mannerisms will be traditional, making the production vastly different from the modern Così fan tutte I staged for Commonwealth Opera’s season opener.  I think, though, that this will be a truly exciting and unique production because although it has a traditional setting, I have approached the story and text with such a simple and truthful hand, that the overblown drama we typically associate with an opera like Lucia will be replaced with some powerful real relationships.  Each character is fully developed with real motivations and this honesty will make what is normally melodrama, a poignant tragedy because the audience will be truly able to lose themselves in the truthful relationships we have created.  I learned a lot about myself as a director during the process of staging Lucia.  Creating the kind of physical closeness, intimacy, and truthfulness that is so important to me at the same time as maintaining as much period accuracy as possible was quite a challenge, but I think the balance we ultimately achieved will be subtle and effective, powerful and heartbreaking.

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Eve Summer was trained as a classical ballet dancer with the Kirov (Universal) Ballet and Boston Ballet where, as a young dancer, she performed extensively with the company. Ms. Summer went on to dance professionally, performing Corps de Ballet and Soloist roles with the Inland Pacific Ballet Company in Los Angeles. Since she stopped dancing, Eve has continued to work in the world of theater as a choreographer, actor, and, primarily, as a stage director. Ms. Summer holds a degree in foreign languages (French, German, and Italian) and has written translations of Don Giovanni, Gianni Schicchi and Suor Angelica for Boston Opera Collaborative, and Così fan tutte for Commonwealth Opera.

Ms. Summer serves as Artistic Director for Commonwealth Opera and as Managing Director for The Foundation for Modern Opera’s annual The Shakespeare Concerts. She is also the resident stage director for both. Ms. Summer has long been a devotee of writer Thomas Berger and with his permission wrote a play based on his novel Neighbors which she directed in the spring of 2007 at Assumption College. Berger loved her adaptation, and corresponded with Ms. Summer during the process. Last season Ms. Summer worked primarily at Opera Boston where she Assistant Directed The Nose and The Bartered Bride and directed Little Red Riding Hood. This season she will stage the world premiere of Holy Ghosts, an opera by Larry Bell based on the play by Romulus Linney at the Berklee Performance Center, direct The Merry Wives of Windsor at MIT, direct The Telephone and L’elisir d’amore for Opera del West, and stage new productions of Mozart’s Così fan tutte, and Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor at Commonwealth Opera. Next season Ms. Summer will stage the fall production at Opera del West, as well as new productions of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and Gounod’s Faust at Commonwealth Opera.

For more information about Eve Summer, please visit her website at: www.evesummer.net

For more information about Commonwealth Opera, where she is currently the Artistic Director, please visit: www.CommonwealthOpera.org

For more information about The Shakespeare Concerts, for which she serves as Managing Director, please visit: www.ShakespeareConcerts.com