Majel Connery, one of today’s most innovative and stimulating singers, defies traditional operatic norms. Her new collaborative work with Doug Balliett will be performed at the Multiphonics concert! This Cantata tells the story of Cleopatra’s death, through voice and bassoon. Balliett is calling it a “Cleopatra Cantata”, with Connery delighting us as Cleopatra, and Brad on the bassoon. According to Connery, Balliett’s Cantata is “half Hollywood pop and half Baroque,” She adds, “Balliett’s music is playful and catchy, but it’s also incredibly complex. I don’t know how he does it. And I don’t know anyone else who is writing like this.” This extraordinary vocalist first met the Balliett brother team when Opera Cabal, Connery’s company, commissioned the brothers and Eliote Cole to write HECUBA.
She has a classical opera background, though she threw away most of the traditional technique. Connery expresses “you have to hold yourself in a certain way to keep the apparatus working.” For Connery, opera is point of departure, as she finds her niche from her traditional roots. With influences like Judy Garland and Carole King no wonder she’s got such a cool style!
She is very excited to have her debut performance with the Metropolis ensemble. The pair is sure to delight the listeners.
Check out Majel Connery’s performance of There is No One here:
You have a very unique style, while breaking traditional operatic norms. Could you describe your style, process, and artistic vision?
I’m still figuring out my identity as a singer. I found opera very constraining. You have to hold yourself in a certain way to keep the apparatus working. You’re not supposed to bob around or make weird hand or chin or hand gestures. Some singers completely avoid milk. I just didn’t know how to be myself doing opera. I had stopped singing entirely when I met Doug & Brad Balliett. We were in the studio one day – my company, Opera Cabal, had commissioned the Ballietts and Elliot Cole to write HECUBA – and they were like, “Go take a crack at the mic!” and I went over and started improvising in this weird Thom Yorke voice, and that became “Helen,” the first track on our first album together. I never really knew that singing like that was okay; it violates every rule I know. But it’s so much more fun.
Could you talk to me more about your collaboration with Doug. What was your approach to this work and text, and how this kind of project fits in with your vision of voice, song, and contemporary music?
Doug likes to write for the high part of my voice, which isn’t my easiest or favorite register, so it means when I first get his music, I have to figure out how to really own those vocal lines, make them mine, without defaulting to a basic opera voice. Doug’s first piece for me was “Where Did You Go?” which ended up on the HECUBA album too. I think he called me up on a muggy summer day and we went over to an apartment in Park Slope with a kind of home studio and banged out a couple takes with sweat dripping off our faces. It was super fun. Doug’s “Beauty Is” for another album with Oracle Hysterical and New Vintage Baroque is one of my all-time favorites. Doug uses all possible styles interchangeably, which makes singing his music pretty exciting: you never know what he’s going to ask for. “Cleopatra” with Metropolis is half Hollywood pop, half Baroque, and I’m excited to dust off my Monteverdi voice for that. What I like about Doug’s writing is that it combines the learned with the playful. You have to be a master of all idioms to compose the way he does, and he’s very good. Balliett’s music is playful and catchy, but it’s also incredibly complex. I don’t know how he does it. And I don’t know anyone else who is writing like this.
What inspires you to sing, and how did you find your voice? Who are your influences?
Some strong influences of mine are probably Judy Garland & Carol King, both of whom I listened to obsessively as a kid. I had a record player in the bathroom that my mom would set up to listen to while I was taking baths. My background is in opera, and though I’ve largely thrown my operatic training out the window, it survives in bits and pieces. I get really excited when I bump into success stories like Shara Worden with a similar vibe: she has the classical training, but it’s just one tool among many. I feel like this is similar to the path I’m forging. It’s about using opera as a point of departure, and then exploring where you can go from there.
Why is your art/style important to you? What message do you strive to send out to others?
I just think that the word ‘opera’ could connote something more fun and unpredictable than it does today. If I say “painter” that could mean Matisse or it could mean a performance artist covering her body with mud or it could mean Banksy. But we don’t really have that same diversity in opera, probably because opera is almost never an independent activity. It’s a group activity, and group activities take organization and money to pull off. I want to make sure that opera acquires more range, and stops being so risk-averse.
How did you get involved with Metropolis?
I’ve followed Metropolis’s work for many years, and I love their work, but I’ve never collaborated with them before. I’m pumped for this concert!
Can you talk about your awesome dinosaur keyboard that you perform with, it’s a very cool addition to your music!
Thanks! It’s actually a crocodile :) I’m sorry to say it got water logged in hurricane Sandy and no longer works. I bought it to accompany myself at an audition, and then kept it around. I’ve looked high and low for a replacement but Toys R Us no longer makes them. I’m working on learning the electric autoharp in the meantime, but it’s not nearly so cute & green in a plastic kind of way.
post by: Sequoia Sellinger