Soprano proves 'fat ladies gone'

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Editor

Robin Follman is Violetta in "La Traviata." Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

"I auditioned four or five years ago, and was not available for other roles till now," she said. "When someone canceled out, I was free this time."

The Orange County, Calif., native has performed with numerous opera companies from coast to coast — the Los Angeles Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Piedmont Opera, Toledo Opera, Madison Opera and in Europe and Japan.

"Any time you play a prostitute, you're playing a 'bad girl,'" Follman said about HOT's season of "wanton women."

"But Violetta is a complicated character; she appears so much, one way, in the public eye, but a fun-loving female with some overriding forces and difficulties, to provide food and shelter for herself," she said. "Born in a time period and not having title in nobility, she became a courtesan, getting involved in the world's oldest profession as a means to afford the lifestyle she thinks she wants."

In terms of 2002 lifestyle, Follman doesn't think Violetta is a bad woman. "She's one of the original women's libbers, for sure. And she chose a profession available to her to provide for herself."

Follman has sung Violetta in concert, but this is her first time at bat in a full-on staged production. "It takes some time to get under her skin," she said. "So many things about her, elusive till now, have surfaced in the rehearsal process."

Rollman is a now-generation opera artist, who's helping to shape the genre for the current and future crop of patrons.

"Many general directors and artistic directors are casting not only for the voice but also for visual reasons," she said. "The era of the fat ladies is gone. While it still takes huge voices to deliver a performance, the tendency is to sign people with appeal for the TV audience, singers who really look good in their roles. I view what I do also as a sport; we're like athletes, who have to stay in shape, be fit, be physically ready."

So she works out. In Hawai'i, it's been running on the beach with earphones, rehearsing her vocals and spending time at the Honolulu Club.

"I would say that what drives me to continue to do opera — what's constant — is the sense of creating something that is not necessarily tangible, which is the music. I'm a perfectionist, always striving to do better the next time. Singing is the most imperfect of all art forms, so it's a non-ending cycle, a spiritual connectiveness that drives me to always trying to be one level better than before, to create an incredible experience."