“Carmen is a bully… She makes fun of Don José.”
“I came out privately with my friends and family when I was 21. But a lot of my industry didn’t allow me, or kind of rejected me, to come out for a long time” , explains opera singer Michael Fabiano. “It seems a little weird to people. “You say the arts? What are you talking about? The arts must be one of the most gay-friendly verticals in the world. And to a large extent, that’s true.
But opera and the classical worlds are more traditional and conservative than other genres. All the more so for singers who aspire to play leading roles.
“I’m a leading artist, singing lead tenor roles, which are historically known as warrior-type strongmen, or romantic men, who fall madly in love with a woman,” says Fabiano. “I would say there was a lot of resistance in the first five to ten years of my career to being openly gay, because of the kind of undercurrent of people who resist hiring me if they knew that I didn’t really fall in love with women.”
Thankfully, that has changed for Fabiano, and he suspects the others are too. That is, as long as they don’t forget their purpose, which is to act and play the role correctly and convincingly.
“Even though you can be openly gay and live the way you want to live,” he says, “they still have to be ready to fully be those characters on stage in every way – to own and live the role of whoever it is. either.. If it’s a warrior, be a warrior. If it’s a romantic Romeo, it must be that. I have this responsibility towards the music, the librettist and the public.
These days, Fabiano, who recently turned 38, is one of opera’s most in-demand tenors, regularly performed in lead roles by the world’s most heralded companies, from New York’s Metropolitan Opera to Royal Opera in London, Teatro Real in Madrid at La Scala in Milan, Houston Grand Opera in Dresden Semperoper in Germany.
He is preparing to make his Washington National Opera debut, playing the lead role in one of the world’s most popular operas, Bizet’s Carmen. Fabiano is Don José, the humble soldier who rejects everything and everyone after becoming infatuated with the titular seductress, played by fellow opera superstar Isabel Leonard.
“In light of the way the world is right now, Carmen may seem taboo to some people and sensitivities, as a man violently murders a woman at the end of the opera,” he says. “But we still face huge problems of violence against women in our society today, where men stalk women until they are murdered. We can’t deny that this sort of thing still happens to this day.
“Nor can we deny that bullying still exists,” he continues. “Carmen is a bully. That’s how it is. She makes fun of Don José. She is fully aware that she is taunting him too. She pushes him so hard that he becomes infatuated with murder, which happens If we don’t show that there can always be this kind of trouble between humans, we are actually denying the reality. Carmen is that it is an extremely real story.
CarmenThe appeal and continued relevance, however, goes far beyond that.
“There are so many amazing questions to ask inside the opera Carmen. I think we get lost in some fun songs and some dancing and a great duet. But there are life stories inside this opera which, if performed well, really tell what not to do and what for do in life.
In recent years, Fabiano has helped launch the nonprofit ArtSmart, which provides free music lessons and mentorship to children in underprivileged communities across the United States.
“What I do is not just teach music,” he says. “I teach children life skills. I teach kids how to prioritize, how to plan, how to set goals, how to communicate with each other. So they are more ready for the real world. He does all of this on a voluntary basis, as a way to “give back to the community that has already given me so much”.
During a recent half-hour interview on Zoom, Fabiano expressed concern about the state of America.
“People have lost the ability to relate to each other and share ideas and have differences of opinion [without wanting] slit their throats,” he said.
“One thing that’s great about opera: when we’re on stage and performing in front of the audience, opera becomes one of the greatest democratic institutions in the world. Because people may agree or disagree, like or dislike what’s happening on stage, but they don’t leave the theater in complete civil discord and turmoil. They end up talking to each other about why they like the voice or why they don’t like the voice, why they like the show or why they don’t like it.
“And it’s that kind of talk that’s open, that doesn’t lead to animosity. And what we need to refine in our politics and in our daily lives is where we can talk as colleagues, as allies, as friends, and still disagree, and still break bread together and sit across from each other.
Washington National Opera Carmen until Saturday, May 28 at the Kennedy Center Opera House.
Tickets cost between $25 and $299. Call 202-467-4700 or visit www.kennedy-center.org/wno.