Opera singer gets golden opportunity

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Editor

Quinn Kelsey says the fact that he grew up singing in church provided him with a background for operatic singing. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

Kelsey credits singing in church as one of his links to performing in Hawai'i Opera Theatre productions. He is one of 23 singers, selected from more than 700 applicants nationwide, to be tapped for a spot in the prestigious Merola Opera Program.

It's kind of a coveted finishing school for opera wannabes. Selectees will train in a workshop and hands-on sessions, learning all there is to know about the traditional and intensive craft of grand opera.

"The program will be at the San Francisco Opera Center, where we'll work with vocal teachers, professional singers and coaches, to not only attend master classes but get tips in such things as sword play," said Kelsey, who has been in the final leg of exams at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, where he will earn his bachelor's degree in music this summer.

"It's one of the best programs," Kelsey said of the Merola, for which he flew to Los Angeles last November to strut his stuff in the usual cattle call.

"Since Hawai'i no longer has a strong force of voices," noted the baritone, who already has earned his stripes in HOT productions, "regional auditions no longer are held here. I know the Metropolitan Opera used to come over and do tryouts here — but no more."

Though he's committed to complete the Merola program and return to HOT's 2003 season, in which he will sing the role of Marcello in Giacomo Puccini's "La Boheme," Kelsey is keeping his options open.

He's still devoted to his solo singing at Central Union Church, which, he said, enabled him to get HOT to notice him and pull him from ensemble to smaller lead roles in the spring opera season.

He performed in last week's "Turandot" programs with the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, so he's well on the way to getting his voice heard and his name noticed.

"Church singing had a lot to do with my eventual participation in Hawai'i Opera Theatre," said Kelsey, a graduate of the University of Hawai'i Lab School. "Every Christmas, at Central Union, I would perform Handel's 'Messiah,' and I'd be a soloist at Sunday services. This got me doing 'Messiah' solos with the Honolulu Symphony and the O'ahu Choral Society."

He wound up in ensemble choruses with the HOT productions, but earned a smaller servant's role in "MacBeth" in 1998 that led to more featured roles over the past five years. "La Boheme" will give him his largest lead yet.

Church singing keeps the machine, the voice, going, he said.

"I've been blessed with having a lot of opportunities in and outside of opera," he said

That Kelsey is immersed in music is no surprise, because his parents met in the chorus at UH. While at Stevenson Middle School, he had the opportunity to perform with his father on the Blaisdell Concert Hall stage, when dad was part of the Kamehameha Alumni Glee Club signing in "Aida."

Kelsey, who is of Hawaiian, Filipino and Caucasian extraction, thinks his game plan to a full-fledged singing career is on track.

"I'll return to Hawai'i after the Merola program and spend the holidays here before getting ready for the Hawai'i opera season," he said. "But I would also like to get a stage audition some day, to try out with the Chicago Lyric Opera this fall, too."

Like San Francisco, Chicago has a prestigious opera program, along with New York's Metropolitan Opera (the leader in the field) and the Houston Grand Opera and the Seattle Opera, not necessarily in that order.

Kelsey knows he's doing some things right, because after he appeared in Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde" in 2000 here, he was contacted by the director of the Young Artist Program at the Met, as well as the general director of the Seattle Opera.

"It's kind of nice and comfortable, not having to worry about next season," he said of his prospects.

Though he said that Luciano Pavarotti, in his prime, might be his favorite icon of the operatic stage, Kelsey favors no particular artist at the moment.

"I listen to a lot of singers, not only baritones, but I like to set my own paths," he said. "I don't think I've been influenced by any one particular performer."

He said he settled on opera years ago "because it's something I do really well, and get feedback from people who think that I do well. It feels good to do what you like and know you're doing a good job making people feel good about you."