Harolyn Blackwell - Early Career

Early Career

In 1979, while preparing a recital program for her master's degree, Blackwell auditioned for the Broadway revival of West Side Story. Impressed with her audition, Leonard Bernstein hand picked her for the role of Francisca (formerly named Consuela in the original 1957 production) and the understudy for Maria in the 1980 revival. As Francisca, Blackwell sang the song Somewhere from the orchestra pit during the final scene of the musical. For the next two-and-a-half years she toured with the show, gaining skills no operatic training could have provided. Blackwell said, "I learned about characterization, how you went about becoming that person", she said. "I learned stamina, how to do eight shows a week. And I learned to make the stage my home, where I felt 100 percent comfortable." At the show's premiere, critics remarked how similar Blackwell sounded to opera singer Reri Grist who originated the role of Consuela. Coincidentally, Blackwell met and befriended Grist in 1985 when she coached Blackwell for her European debut as Oscar in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera with the Hamburg State Opera. She repeated that role the following year at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

In 1981, Blackwell auditioned for and was accepted into both the Houston Grand Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago young artist programs. Having to choose between the two, Blackwell decided to go to Chicago. After singing with the company in small parts for a year, Blackwell left the program and moved back to New York to study vocal technique more intensely with Shirlee Emmons. She went on to win the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 1983. Up to this point Blackwell was still uncertain as to whether she would continue pursuing an opera career or go back to musical theater. With winning the Met Auditions, however, her career path became decidedly reoriented towards opera. "It fit so naturally", she explains of the then new foray into opera, "it was as if I'd put on a pair of old shoes." Following her win, Blackwell continued in her apprenticeship at the Lyric Opera of Chicago for a year. In 1987 she made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Poussette in Manon. Since then Blackwell's career has flourished. She has appeared several more times with the Metropolitan Opera in productions such as Un ballo in maschera, Le nozze di Figaro, Die Fledermaus, and Werther among others.

In 1989 Blackwell performed and recorded the role of Clara in a critically acclaimed production of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera. The recording won a Grammy Award and Blackwell performed the aria "Summertime" at the 1990 Grammy Awards. That performance was praised highly and raised Blackwell's profile as an opera singer to watch. In 1991, Blackwell made her debut with the San Francisco Opera as Zerlina in Mozart's Don Giovanni. That same year she gave a highly praised performance as Oscar in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera with the Metropolitan Opera opposite Luciano Pavarotti. The performance was video taped and subsequently aired on PBS' Great Performances. Blackwell appeared on Great Performances again in 1993 in the concert Sondheim — A Celebration at Carnegie Hall where she performed music from Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd. The concert has subsequently been released on DVD and CD.

Throughout the early 1990s, Blackwell remained active in performances with opera companies throughout the United States and Europe. Most notably, in 1994 Blackwell replaced Kathleen Battle as Marie in La fille du régiment at the Metropolitan Opera for the entire run when Battle was fired from the production for unprofessional conduct. This has inevitably caused critics to compare the two singers, and indeed both women have played many of the same roles and share a similar vocal quality. In a 2003 interview Blackwell said, "Kathleen has been very supportive and very good to me over my career. Mattiwilda Dobbs, Reri Grist and Kathy were basically the predecessors for me and I really am grateful to those women, especially with my particular fach. I mean, singing Aïda or Leonora is one thing, but the lyric repertory roles are not star vehicles. It just doesn't happen and I think these women have really helped in that respect."