Changing the face of opera

Young Chang

Denyce Graves was once a shy girl who clutched onto mother Dorothy

Kenner’s skirt in the back of her family’s gospel group.

Her mother had formed the chorus to help Graves break out of her

shyness. But siblings tackled most the solos.

My mother “would say, ‘OK Denise, now you have to sing a solo,’ and

I’d cry and say I didn’t want to do it,” Graves reminisced. “She didn’t

know what she was creating.”

The shy girl blossomed. Graves, who will perform at the Orange County

Performing Arts Center tonight as part of Opera Pacific’s Voices in Song

series, is now an internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano. She is not

only singing solos, but also looking for ways to test the limits of

classical music.

“I don’t feel that I’ve even scratched the surface of what I want to

do,” said Graves, who is known for her signature title roles in the

operas “Carmen” and “Samson et Dalila” which she debuted at the

Metropolitan Opera in the ‘90s.

“I’d like to have more of an influence, and I’d like to take more

liberties within the classical structure. I’d like to change the whole

style of the recital art form, for example.”

Her recent project, a recital recording with BMG Classics and longtime

collaborator Warren Jones, does exactly that. Graves, 36, said the album

might raise eyebrows, but that doesn’t deter her.

“There are all sorts of songs and material out there that I would love

to sing and explore,” she said. “And have the freedom to shape it and

mold it with my own musical style and taste.”

Her repertoire includes German lieder, French melodies and Broadway

musical tunes, and others. She said she can’t begin to choose a favorite.

Performing in “Carmen” and “Samson et Dalila” has landed her in opera

houses around the world, as have such productions as “Otello,” “La

Vestale” and “Rigoletto.”

And she has probably sung more with Placido Domingo -- whom she calls

“sweet,” “fun” and “courageous” -- than with any other performer.

Her mother, who said she always knew Graves had a “beautiful,

beautiful, beautiful voice,” expected this.

“Whenever we sang in church . . . she may have been nervous on the

inside, but I could not tell, and the audience couldn’t see how shy she

was,” Kenner said. “Right now, when she goes on stage, she owns it. She

says she’s still nervous, but I can’t tell.”

For Graves, it was a challenge to free her mind.

Especially because, as a trim African American, she does not fit the

opera singer stereotype of a heavyset European.

Graves said her first hurdle was convincing herself she could carry

off traditional roles -- such as Carmen. Once she did, she convinced

others.

“Producers, directors, designers and board members, they’re all people

who have their own particular frame of reference, and for whatever

reason, they dream as they dream,” she said. “And I realize that

sometimes my face may not be a part of their vision, so I have to work

very, very hard in what I do and in my commitment to what I do.”

Her message is simple: “The art is greater than our minds.”

While a student at the New England Conservatory in Boston, Graves went

from being Denise to Denyce.

She was at an automated teller machine machine withdrawing cash when

she looked up and saw a sign that read “NYCE: New York Cash Exchange.”

She decided then that she wanted her name to embody a similar spirit.

“I want to be well-known, I want to be successful, I want my name to

spell success,” she said.

Graves credits her mother and a teacher named Judith Grove, whom she

calls her “guardian angel,” for her opportunities.

From the family chorus, the young Graves joined a school choir headed

by Grove at a Washington, D.C., elementary school. When she graduated

from middle school and started junior high, Grove became the music

teacher at the new school. During this time, Grove encouraged her student

to audition for the Duke Ellington School for the Performing Arts.

They filled out the applications, Graves auditioned and was accepted.

Shortly after, Grove became the principal of Duke Ellington School. She

encouraged Graves from kindergarten through 12th grade.

Perhaps that support from her teacher is why the cause that is most

important to the opera singer today is furthering arts and education.

“It’s the one that moves me the most because I realize how important

education is and how important the arts is to education in every

well-rounded person,” Graves said. “The arts affects everything. And I

know. I watched the miracle of it in my own life.”

FYI

WHAT: Denyce Graves

WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday

WHERE: Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive,

Costa Mesa

COST: $35-$65

CALL: (714) 740-7878