View full sizeBaritone Robert Orth has been a regular guest artist at Portland Opera since 1985, appearing in numerous productions, including 2010's "Cosi fan tutte," which showcased his skills as a comedian.Singer
is caught up in a moment of confusion.
The baritone is working on a complicated bit of staging with
's artistic director Christopher Mattaliano for the company's upcoming production of Leonard Bernstein's
and Orth has plenty to juggle.
In his hands, he has a push-broom and a script for dialogue he hasn't memorized yet. In his head, he's grasping at faded memories of how the staging went when he and Mattaliano did the production together a decade ago.
"Bob, I know you'll remember this from the last time," Mattaliano says as he points to the right end of the stage, where Orth needs to move with the broom.
"Believe me, I remember nothing," Orth says. "I am a clean slate."
And then, with a quick push of the broom, his face flashes bright with recognition, and he launches the acerbic song "Words, Words, Words." In it, his character rips into the ideas of optimism and Utopia, describing life as a cesspool of misery. "This is the worst of all possible worlds," he snorts, punctuating his point with harsh, guttural laughs.
Mattaliano likes the moment Orth created: "This one has so much potential," he says, putting his arm around Orth's shoulders.
"Actually, it said that on all my report cards," Orth says, laughing.
It's been a long time since anyone talked about Orth having potential without a healthy dose of irony. He's well into his fourth decade in the opera world and in recent years has become one of the most in-demand singers, performing five or six operas a year for companies across the United States and Canada. And Portland audiences have been able to watch Orth's artistic growth through more than 25 years of his career. Since 1985, he's appeared in 13 productions here -- more than any other guest artist in recent decades.
The variety of roles he's portrayed reflects his versatility on stage, ranging from smaller supporting characters in romantic operas such as "Romeo and Juliet" and "Madame Butterfly," to star-turns in comedies such as "Die Fledermaus" and "The Love for Three Oranges." "Candide," which opens Friday at the Keller Auditorium, is the only time he's repeated a role here -- four roles, actually, since he plays multiple characters in the show.
Consistency and comedy
Orth is from the affluent Chicago suburb of Libertyville, though during opera season, he's likely to see more of Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco than he does of home. Every two or three years, the right role comes along to bring him back to Portland. That suits him just fine.
"They keep asking me back, which is wonderful since Portland is honestly my favorite city," he says. "It's picturesque and compact and has a vital downtown. And the company treats me really well when I'm here."
Mattaliano says Orth keeps getting hired because his voice has been consistently strong and healthy over the years, and his charisma as a performer has made him a favorite with audiences.
"There is that indefinable thing that Bob has that can't be taught and can't be directed," Mattaliano says. "A performer either has it or they don't, and Bob has it in spades. He is an incredibly engaging performer on so many levels."
For Orth and Mattaliano, "Candide" is familiar territory -- they've done the show a total of four times (twice here, twice elsewhere) -- but Orth never stops digging into the work to mine new richness and meaning. Mattaliano says that because Orth never stops trying to improve, his performances have a complexity that's hard to match.
Robert Bailey, who preceded Mattaliano as artistic director until his retirement in 2003, agrees that Orth's demeanor both onstage and in the rehearsal studio is a key part of why he's so in demand.
"That ability to not take yourself too seriously but to take your work seriously is a winning combination for a professional singer and getting along in this crazy opera world today," Bailey says.
Robert Orth
Age:
"Let's just say that I'm no longer in any danger of dying young."
Family:
Married 43 years to his wife, Jane; two sons and one granddaughter.
Background:
Taught elementary school for nine years before becoming a full-time singer. His stage career began in summer stock doing plays and musicals before shifting to opera in the mid-1970s.
Repertoire:
He's performed more than 130 roles, including world premieres of Jake Heggie's "Dead Man Walking," "The End of the Affair" and "Moby-Dick," Andre Previn's "Brief Encounter," and the title character in Stewart Wallace's "Harvey Milk."
Dream roles:
"I would love for somebody to write a wonderful opera based on 'The Dresser,' that old movie with Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay. I'd play either part. And I'd love for someone to write a new opera based on 'King Lear.' I could certainly do that."
What he loves about opera:
"Opera makes me better than I am. If I'd stayed in musical theater -- and I don't want to disparage musical theater -- I wouldn't have been stretched the way I have in opera. It's better than I am, and I'm always trying to pull myself up to be as good as it is."
What annoys him about opera:
The snobbery of some hardcore opera fans. "I don't go online into some of those opera chat rooms. I hear about them, and they get vicious. Vicious!"
When he's not singing:
He loves walking, watching movies and going to the Oregon coast and the Portland Japanese Garden to meditate. "It's the most beautiful Japanese garden in the world. I love to go up there alone and sit in those little huts when it's raining -- which it usually is."
Candide
When:
Opens 7:30 p.m. Friday and continues 2 p.m. May 13 and 7:30 p.m. May 17 and 19
Where:
Keller Auditorium, 222 S.W. Clay St.
Tickets:
$20-$140,
, or from the Portland Opera box office, 503-241-1802.
Orth's affable nature comes through in the rehearsal studio, when banter with other singers and Mattaliano has vocal flourishes that evoke Mel Brooks, Sacha Baron Cohen, even Curly Howard of the Three Stooges, punctuated with the occasional Woody Woodpecker laugh. Orth says his personal taste in comedy runs a touch more cerebral -- Christopher Guest films such as "This Is Spinal Tap" and "Waiting for Guffman," late-night comics Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.
"But I'm not above low humor," he says. "Old people falling down is often good for a chuckle -- as long as they're not hurt."
More than a comic
Having an affinity for physical comedy serves Orth well in "Candide" or Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte," which he performed here in 2010 with a mix of slapstick and panache that resembled the body movement of silent film star Harold Lloyd. But being a funny man has a downside.
"Because he does a fair amount of comic roles, if there's one area where Bob is underestimated, it's what a complex artist he is," Mattaliano says. "He's capable of great depth as a performer. He's an incredibly skilled musician. He learns music very quickly. He has a very good ear, so he can learn difficult, contemporary music."
Like the music of Dominic Argento. Soprano Phyllis Pancella, who has known Orth since the mid-'80s and has seen him perform many times recalls the wonder of seeing Orth perform Argento's one-man, one-act opera "A Waterbird Talk" in Chicago.
"It remains, 20-some years later, one of my top five theatrical experiences of all time," she says. "I know from my own work with Argento how difficult his music is to learn. In the hands of some performers, that would translate into 'difficult to listen to,' but Bob goes further than just learning the music."
Portland audiences got to see how well Orth tackles difficult music when he portrayed Richard Nixon in composer John Adams' landmark "Nixon in China" in 2006. The score has complicated time signatures and minimalist melodies that challenge singers. And because Nixon is onstage for most of the show, it's taxing on the voice.
Since then, Nixon has become one of Orth's signature roles. He's performed it in Chicago, Cincinnati, Denver, Vancouver and Toronto, as well as in a live recording. And when Adams was asked to conduct a concert version of it later this year, his first call went to Orth.
"Dick Nixon has been very good to me," Orth says. "Not many people can say that. Having lived with him so long, my opinion of him has changed greatly. He's still a troubled man, which makes him great fun to play. But he was a liberal. He would not be allowed in the Republican Party today, which is pretty ironic when you think of it. That's why they let him go to China. He was the most conservative thing around, and they knew he wouldn't sell us out to the Communists. But he was for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Environmental Protection Agency -- things people are trying to get rid of now."
Orth says his vocal type and roles like the ones he plays in "Candide" have given him a sort of career longevity that escapes other singers.
"I'm so fortunate to be a baritone, because they write all these great roles for old baritones and basses," he says. "It's harder for sopranos and tenors. Those roles are all written for young, attractive people. They don't write as many roles for old coloratura sopranos. The poor girls hit 40, they put on a few pounds and have a couple of kids, and the producers are looking for the next 24-year-old who can roller-skate and sing high G's upside-down."
But there are some roles he used to sing that he's had to say goodbye to.
"Things change, and the roles you can do change. Nobody wants to see an old Figaro," he says. "I just want to keep doing it as long as I can."
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View full sizeIn 2001, Robert Orth gave his portrayal of Agamemnon in "La Belle Helene" a bit of Texas twang.Five standout roles for Robert Orth
Robert Orth has performed a wide variety of roles on the Portland Opera stage, ranging from light operettas to intensely dramatic modern works. Here's a look at five performances that showcase his range:
Eisenstein in "Die Fledermaus"
(1994):
Orth dazzled in Johann Strauss' bubbly operetta. "Here's a singer who can run around the stage roaring with laughter, yet still project a song into a 3,000-seat house," wrote The Oregonian's David Stabler.
Agamemnon in "La Belle Hélène"
(2001):
In Jacques Offenbach's comedy about the start of the Trojan War, Orth portrayed the king of the Greek gods in cowboy boots and a 10-gallon hat, delivering malapropism-filled dialogue in a Texas twang -- a delicious skewering of the fellow who occupied the White House at the time.
Alfieri in "A View From the Bridge"
(2003):
Orth provided the somber backbone to William Bolcom's modern adaptation of the Arthur Miller play. As the lawyer and narrator, he made the desperation of the 1950s Brooklyn tenements feel real and raw.
Richard Nixon in "Nixon in China"
(2006):
Orth brilliantly channeled the conflicted former president in a superb production of John Adams' modern opera. From the facial expressions and physical mannerisms, he was Tricky Dick to the core, and his lyrical singing reflected the insecurity and paranoia that would prove his downfall.
Don Alfonso in "Cosi fan tutte"
(2010):
As a cynical old bachelor out to prove that love is fickle, Orth showed his knack for broad, physical comedy in the Mozart classic.
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