Interview by Tiziano Thomas Dossena, Published on L’IDEA Magazine N.12, Vol.II, 2002, NY

Conductor Vincent La Selva has been a New York institution for almost 50 years. He founded the New York Grand Opera Company in 1973, which is unique in the world for presenting fully staged opera productions that are free to the public. Since 1974, he has chosen New York’s Central Park for his productions of grand opera, which have been attended by more than three million people. Maestro La Selva has earned special renown for leading performances that cut to the musical essence of these scores with a directness, lyricism and passion that has often invoked the conducting style of the late Arturo Toscanini. The New York Grand Opera Company, led by Mr. La Selva, is synonymous with grand opera, idiomatically performed—and accessible to all. 

    

L’IDEA: Maestro, you have been awarded the prestigious Bridge Personality of the Year 2002 by the editors of Bridge Apulia USA. This, unlike the many other awards you receive, was presented to you by an Italian publisher. Is this the first time you receive an award from Italy, and how do you feel to be recognized by the land of your parents?

Maestro La Selva: Well, I thought it was wonderful to be honored by Apulia and the Bridge magazine. I was very honored by that because I have very strong feelings and ties to Italy even though I was born here. Now, in terms of publications, I think that the first award I did receive from Italy. I did receive, though, other acknowledgments, such as the Knighthood from the ItalianRepublic (Croce di Cavaliere). Furthermore, the mayor of Parma, who is also the director of the Opera House of that city, offered me a plaque, with his city keys, in the occasion of his visit to New York…

 

L’IDEA: Well, how deep are your Italian roots? That is, what does it mean for you to be an Italian American?

La Selva: My parents were born in Italy, I grew up in an Italian neighborhood, amongst my fathers’ friends, people who were all from Conversano and that area, Puglia, so I had always very, very close feelings and ties to Italy. I grew up very Italian. American, but with strong feelings about Italy and its customs. My grandparents were also born in Bari, both of them… very strong.

L’IDEA: You have been conducting since you were a teenager. Could you explain to our readers how you got to be interested into conducting, and how did it become the essence of your life, artistic and not.

La Selva: Well, it happened just by accident. When I was in Junior High School, in 7th grade, I was twelve, the director of the School orchestra asked me to conduct, so that’s how I started. I was advanced musically and the music that was being played by the orchestra and the band was too easy for me, so I started to lose interest in both of them. I’m sure the reason he asked me to conduct was to keep my interest going. I never thought about conducting. Who would think about conducting at that age? But, that’s how I started, and I have been doing it ever since.

L’IDEA: How did that develop now into a full time interest?

La Selva: Well, I kept conducting… It wasn’t only that one time; I was doing it all the time. I continued conducting throughout High School. I was the only one in the whole city that they never called in a substitute for. Also, when a conductor was sick, they would have me take over. Then, after High School, I came to NY, to the JulliardSchool. After a year I became a conducting major and I graduated with a degree in orchestral conducting.

L’IDEA: What would you say is the main attribute of a conductor, for him to be effective? What does it really mean to conduct? People see the conductor move the hands and keep the rhythm…

La Selva: Well, that’s a really good point that I make myself all the time. People really don’t know what a conductor does. They think you wave your arms and you keep everybody together. That’s an insult to me… an insult. In fact, I asked some conductors to try to explain to their relatives what a conductor does, but they didn’t know how. Even families of conductors really don’t know. It’s hard to put into words what a conductor is supposed to do. It’s not just to beat time. That’s not conducting. The whole idea of conducting is to make music. On what level you make music depends on what level you’re on. You can’t tell anybody anything, it depends on how well you know a piece, what your experience and your instincts are… An orchestra, singers or whoever, they either respect the conductor or not by whether they know how much the person knows. It’s like in any other business. If the head of a department in a corporation goes into a room, it doesn’t take any more than three minutes for everyone to know if he doesn’t know what he’s doing. If he’s got the job, but he really doesn’t have the experience and he doesn’t know, the workers recognize that, because their experience tells them so. It’s the same with the conductor: the musicians know very quickly what a conductor knows. You have to know what Verdi is, what’s his music means. What did he feel, what’s the impulse, what’s the drive, what’s the energy? It’s all those things that you see on the page. It’s not just black notes in black and white, its what those notes mean. There was his feeling behind it, so you have to try to capture what that feeling was. You also have to understand the styles of the different people…

The highest attribute of a conductor is the grasping of the music, what the composer intended, and the ability to teach that to everybody. A conductor is a ‘maestro’, which means teacher, and that’s basically who he is. You’re teaching the music to whoever you conduct. That, of course, is relative, because if you’re either conducting a great orchestra of the world or a college orchestra then you’re teaching them in different ways. In other words, you can only teach a subject to the extent that you know the subject. When a conductor gets up in front of a group, and he doesn’t know the piece really well, what is he going to teach, to rehearse, what is he going to tell them to do? Now, the level of the conductor is based on what he knows more than anybody else, and that’s what makes the different levels.

It’s also important how you communicate. There are some people that conduct who are good musicians, however they don’t communicate. They can’t show to people, and demonstrate in all ways, how to get what it is. They may have it up here, in the head, but it’s not in other places. Teacher’s instincts are very strong and deep. A person writes the notes and it looks beautiful on a piece of paper. A musician goes to play it and it’s a piece of junk, it doesn’t say anything. It’s like a person who looks good, but when they talk there is nothing to listen to.

Conducting, Wagner said it best, is to grasp the intention of the composer and stamp it on everybody. Verdi said the same thing in different words. What the intention of the composer was, that’s what you aim at. How do you know the intention of the composer? The first thing is that you have to have insight, and that is something you can’t teach anybody. So, a conductor has attributes that you can’t teach people. Simply said, conducting cannot be taught. You have to know the piece intimately, but not only do you have to know it, you have to teach people what it means.

L’IDEA: Which is the opera that you like most and why?

La Selva: That’s a hard question. Most of the time, the opera that you are doing at the moment is the greatest.  That symphony’s the greatest, and then you’re doing another one, and THAT’S the greatest… When you’re dealing with pieces of great composers, it’s as if you’re captured by that piece at that moment… the greatness of it, the insight of the composer, the depth of what the composer reached. All this makes you have a never-ending relationship with the compositions. It’s like with Shakespeare; you never come to the end. You never come to the end with Beethoven, with Verdi, with any of those composers. It’ll take you five lifetimes and you still won’t be at the end. Because they put things down that you still strive to capture fully what they really mean.

I consider Verdi the biggest giant in opera, the greatest genius, because of the depth, the power and the insight that he had.  As much as I love Puccini, and without taking anything away from his brilliant works, I believe Verdi is really the giant. Puccini could’ve never have written Othello.

L’IDEA: Which is the opera that you find most challenging or difficult to direct, and why?

La Selva: Don Carlos was difficult. Not to conduct, though, I didn’t have a problem conducting. Difficult in capturing the essence of what the piece is. Don Carlos was tough because I did the original French five act versions, which was one of the most difficult ones. Aida, as much as it’s a big spectacle, doesn’t have great conductorial difficulties. The bigger the opera, the bigger the spectacle, the easier it is to do. Everybody sees masses of people, they think it’s difficult, but they are easier, because it stays at the same tempo for bars at end. Whereas, in some other things, there are changes all over the place. Pagliacci, for example, is a very tough opera to conduct. Much more difficult then Boris (Godunov), or Aida. The comedies, also, are more difficult, because there is more movement, more words, more everything. Puccini is more difficult to conduct because there is so much movement, more acting on the stage, because of the complexity of the stories. In the early days, the stories were not as complex, and everything was blocked, with no movement…

 

L’IDEA: Who is your favorite composer and what characteristics of his music are most interesting for you?

La Selva: Well, if I talk about music in general, I think Beethoven is. Then, of course, Verdi, my favorite operatically, and Wagner. They’re the big three for me.  I’ve done a lot of Beethoven, and symphonically, for me, he’s the top of the mountain. Beethoven was such a giant. As a composer, what he had to say, the depth of the things that he did… As Verdi said, when you mention the name Beethoven, you kneel. He said it because that’s what he thought of Beethoven, and he was right, as usual. He was always right. I feel more from Beethoven, more ‘drammatico’, more personality, more temperament, all those things that he brought into music… He was the first composer really to bring himself into music. His personality is in his music, which’s why I find it so great. It’s not only on top of the musical intellect, and he had musical intellect that was unbelievable, he changed the whole course of music, by putting his temperament into the music. Lots of people think that Mozart was greater. I won’t deny that he was a great genius, there wasn’t anything that he couldn’t do. But, Mozart didn’t do that. Beethoven was the one that really started that. Not in the very beginning, because he was still following the classic example, Haydn, Mozart, those people… After awhile, though, it started to show, it was him. And that’s what Verdi did himself too, because when he grew up it was Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini who were giants. But once the public had a taste of Verdi, he pushed them all aside, because people didn’t feel from them, as great as they were. They didn’t feel what they got from Verdi. That energy and drive from Verdi that conquered the public, well, that was something that they didn’t experience before.

 

L’IDEA: Tell me something of your creation, the New York Grand Opera.

La Selva: Well, actually, in 1969 I started something called the NY School of the Opera. After about a year or two, I started developing all these people and I said to myself: –­ –­ ­ Well, since there’s a lot of talent around, I think maybe New York needs another opera company! –­ –­  So that’s what I did, simple as that; in 1973 I started the opera company…

 

L’IDEA: What are the future plans for the New York Grand Opera?

La Selva: It was 30 years ago that I started the company… I’m thinking a lot about what different kinds of things I might do, but I just don’t know. I like to do different kinds of things; I’ve always done that. I’ve done operas in the park that many people haven’t even heard of… We’ll see… Regarding the possibility of having a stable opera house, I have to say that it’s very hard to find a permanent inside home in NY, because there is no place available. Without having millions and millions of dollars, where do you find a theater building? You can’t, its almost impossible. My summer home is basically Central Park, while during the winter I’m at Carnegie Hall…

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New York Grand Opera Company plays ‘La Boheme’ at the Naumberg Bandshell in 2011

Posted on August 11, 2013 by editoreusa | Leave a comment

by Tiziano T. Dossena

L’Idea Magazine – Volume II – Issue # 40, 2010
        Next April, the Taconic Opera, in collaboration with the Circolo Culturale di Mola di Bari, will offer to the Westchester public the American premiere of Doña Flor, an opera by Niccolò van Westerhout.   Last October, I had the occasion to be at the opening of their production of Verdi’s Macbeth, and I have to confess that he exceeded all my expectations. The music was flawless, the singers competent and pleasant, the direction exciting and original. We take the opportunity, then, of introducing you the General Director of this esteemed Opera Company. Supplemental information may be found at their site: http://www.taconicopera.org
 
L’IDEA: Dan Montez, General Director of the Taconic Opera, tenor, pianist, composer, writer, and the list goes on… Is there something in the Arts you have not explored?
Dan Montez: My parents were both artists so the arts were in my genes.  My mother started me on the piano at age six.  At 14, I became church organist and began playing with a local orchestra.  The conductor encouraged me to explore composing.  I also loved acting and studied drama in high school.  In college I was on piano and voice scholarship at the same time.  But the voice is what really excited me the most.  I found the voice to be the most expressive of all instruments, and although I felt it was the most difficult for me, I decided I would figure out how to sing.  I became an opera singer and found that that the best opera singers were never just singers, but well-rounded musicians, most of whom were also pianists.  Wanting to sing at Lincoln Center was a dream of mine, which I achieved during my 14 years of full time singing.  During this time, I also had many opportunities to direct operas.  When I began running the Taconic Opera 12 years ago so I could raise my children, I decided to make directing my focus rather than singing.
L’IDEA: You manage to balance an extremely hectic life with an exceptionally positive attitude. Were you always this way or was there a specific point of your life when you picked that up?
Dan Montez: I worked for the Zig Ziglar Corporation (a motivational book and tape company) as a teenager.  In order to motivate me to achieve my dreams and goals, I listened to tapes and read books on motivation and achievement for many years.  I am not self-motivated–I really needed external motivation.  I began publishing a subscription periodical, Positive Life, and wrote articles on positive attitudes and overcoming the negativity that surrounds us.  I wrote a cover story for Norman Vincent Peale’s magazine as well.  I ended up writing my own books, like Don’t believe It, to help inspire others to achieve their own dreams.  I have also long believed that creating a balanced life, where family comes first, has kept me grounded and positive.
L’IDEA: Mr. Montez, you founded the Taconic Opera 12 years ago as a “resident opera company”. How well has this original blueprint worked in practice and what was the inspiration behind this resolution?
Dan Montez: Taconic Opera has always used only local artists to present its productions (you can read our philosophy on our website on our philosophy page).  This has worked well for us.  The community enjoys seeing their own local singers perform for them.  They are a part of their community and they are proud to have and support their own artists.  The artists as well get to know each other on stage and learn how to react off of one another’s acting styles.  This creates a more cohesive production where singers aren’t trying to get personal attention from the audience, but rather committed to an ensemble production the same goals of telling the story and transmitting the intentions of the composer.
L’IDEA: Why did you choose Westchester County, and in particular the historic Yorktown as the location of your company?
Dan Montez: Westchester didn’t have a fully professional opera company, and being less than an hour north of New York City, I felt that they was such a shame with so much talent residing in the area.  In addition, I live here myself and want to see the arts grow.  Yorktown is only one of the venues we have performed.  We perform throughout the county, in Purchase, Harrison, Yorktown and also Peekskill.
L’IDEA: The Taconic Opera also works with the schools of the area. Could you elaborate on the programs you run?
Dan Montez: Taconic Opera produces both in-school and main stage productions for children.  We go into schools in our county and even surrounding counties with short operas for children and other programs.  In addition, three times a year, we bus in children from schools to come see our main stage productions–the same ones seen by adults.  The singers and orchestra get off of work to do this great service at 10AM in the morning so children can be exposed to the arts.  Taconic Opera feels an obligation to the next generation. Exposing children to the arts increases their cognitive abilities, their IQs, and also helps to develop the creative, problem solving side of their brains.
L’IDEA: In one of your articles, you state that “Who the artist is as a person is evident in the work the artist produces”. In view of the fact that, observing the artistic world as a whole, this does not seem to appear as a self-evident truth, could you clarify this fascinating statement?
Dan Montez: It’s hard to see this evidence from an audience standpoint because the audiences are kept from witnessing the personal lives of performers, making it hard to make comparisons. However, having been in the arts my whole life, I have come to believe that it is impossible to separate the art from the artist.  Everything we are and everything we experience has an artistic influence on the art that we produce.  We are limited in our art by our lack of character.  Our experiences add to our palettes, our styles, and our intentions we use to produce that art.  Apart from popular opinion, unhappy and depressed artists don’t necessarily create better art.  In fact, when we force artists to go on the road rather than sing locally, we keep artists from having the experiences that the rest of us have in being part of families and communities with their accompanying sacrifices.  Ironically, then we turn to these artists to create a vision of how we can lead better lives when the artist himself doesn’t even know what it means to live a normal life.  Good art requires balanced artists.  If not, then society becomes as myopic and self absorbed as the artists are.  They begin worshiping the mediums of art and do not see art as only a vehicle that is supposed to show us something else–something better than ourselves.
L’IDEA: Doña Flor will be the thirtieth opera you will direct, in the spring of 2010. Directing all these celebrated composers’ works has undeniably vested you with an enviable experience, but how do you feel about presenting to the American public a musician who is little known by them? Do you feel that this is an added responsibility toward the composer himself?
Dan Montez: It’s certainly more difficult.  Mainstream composers have many books written about them and commentaries abound criticizing their works, their strengths and weaknesses.  Unknown composers require a bit more homework. I personally feel that I want to the audience to know the special things that Westerhout has to offer that are unique to him.
L’IDEA: Has this work by van Westerhout interested from the first introduction or did you have to warm up to it? What do you feel are the musical characteristics of this opera that will charm your public? What about the narrative itself?
Dan Montez: Van Westerhout, like many composers that were not given as much of a chance to be heard, like say, Puccini, has much of his own style to offer.  Much of his strengths reveal themselves by working out the music.  First, we work out the musical issues and just sing through the piece.  Phrasing and interpretation have to be explored during this process.  We have to make decisions on style without being able to consult the composer.  Sometimes the period he composed the work lends a clue along with the residence of the composer and the people he studied with.  His librettist lends clues as well.  Then we move on to staging and creating a dramatic interpretation.  This causes us to rethink decisions we may have made musically.  Slowly, the composer begins to reveal himself.  This is a painstaking and detailed process.   The opera, Doña Flor, is interesting in many ways, if only that it is one of the few times a lover kills her own beloved through manipulation.  The baritone, or role of the Ambassador, reveals and interesting personality in that he doesn’t  choose violence himself but rather manipulates others to violence–just the way an Ambassador would do in his political position.  This is great fun in many ways in spite of the fact that the opera is a tragedy.  And, of course, what opera wouldn’t be complete without a Venetian tenor to make the soprano happy.
Posted on August 11, 2013 by editoreusa | 2 Comments

Italian politician in visit to New York…

Posted on July 9, 2013 by editoreusa

Italian politician in visit to New York...

The governor of Apulia Nicky Vendola in visit to NEw York met with the authors of Dona Flor and organizers of the American premiere of the Opera.

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From the experience of bringing an opera to America came the book about the composer, which I wrote with Leonardo Campanile….

Posted on July 8, 2013 by editoreusa

DOÑA FLOR, The Opera by van Westerhout, is a paperback in Italian, with facing English translation. The book narrates the life of Niccolò van Westerhout (1857-1898) and it explores the questions and concerns related to the first performance of his opera-masterpiece.
Enriched with a foreword by the Maestro Vito Clemente, this book also contains the original text of the libretto, the biography of the librettist Arturo Colautti (1851-1914) and the genealogical tree of the van Westerhout family, from their first migration to Apulia to the composer’s birth.
The fascinating story of the birth of this 1895 opera, is complemented by an essay on the musical characteristics of this lyrical drama, a commentary on the libretto, an essay on the composer’s home town, Mola di Bari, and the theater named after him, and 24 black and white illustrations.
The authors’ notes, moreover, allow the reader to learn of the events that brought to the discovery of van Westerhout’s tomb and the final return of his remains to his loved hometown.

The book by Dossena and Campanile.

The book by Dossena and Campanile.

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The birth of an idea…

Posted on July 8, 2013 by editoreusa
L'Idea Magazine 30

The return of van Westerhout’s remains to his hometown…

It all started a few years ago…

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