Here are edited excerpts from that conversation.

What was your familiarity with the Korngold opera?

Honestly I wasn’t familiar with it. Like most people I’m familiar with Die tote Stadt and it begins and ends with that. When I got a copy and looked through it, I liked it. It’s a wonderful, intimate piece with five characters who all have clearly established wants and needs and are generally likable. The music seems really wonderful as well. It’s unique.

The opera only had its first performance in the United States earlier this year. What’s special about the opera? Why do you think it hasn’t been performed more?

I can address the second first. It’s an awareness problem. I know that Numi Opera is committed to presenting these forgotten works by Jewish composers who had been silenced during the Nazi regime. This is primarily why it is not performed very frequently. The popularity propelled by repeat performances is something Korngold and Alexandre von Zemlinsky (a prolific Austrian composer best known for Die Seejungfrau – The Mermaid) were denied.

Korngold’s musical voice is really really sublime. It’s a very interesting harmonic language which is obviously influenced by Wagner’s tonalities. But it is very much his own voice. It is a comedy. Most people familiar with Korngold are familiar with his work for film and Die tote Stadt – which is decidedly not a comedy. This is light-hearted. You wouldn’t expect his style to jive with comedy, but the comedy is very light but it still very much his language.

Alex Ross, writing in The New Yorker, called Der Ring des Polykrates “overflowing with effortlessly effective writing…Mozart’s youthful pieces lack comparable individuality.” What is so appealing about the vocal writing in this one-act opera?

The vocal writing is very modern in that it is a through-composed piece. There aren’t a whole lot of numbers like there are in Mozart pieces. It’s a writing that sort of captures the way people speak in a more musical way. 

Numi Opera is a new company. What inspired your choice to join them for these two performances?

I mean, I have to pay my bills, too. There is a component of that. People offer me work I generally take it. But I think the mission is an important one. I think there are a lot of composers beyond Korngold and Zemlinsky who have written wonderful music that hasn’t been performed. It is interesting to me academically and if there is an audience we can cultivate, that’s wonderful.

Korngold said, “What differentiates artists from historians, whether in music, painting or any art form – that they create something beyond the more or less photographic image of their era, something that stands above and beyond time and environment.” What did Korngold create with this opera and what do you hope to create before your career is over?

Wow. That is an interesting question. I’m not sure what I can say about myself. I don’t know what I would want to leave behind. I don’t know if I even want to think about it. I suppose what I’d want to leave behind is an exuberance and enthusiasm for the work I do that inspires other people to have the same enthusiasm for music and for hearing something the makes you feel something.

As for Korngold, what did he leave behind with this piece? I think he left behind something very different from the rest of his output, but just as important and unique in that it’s fun. It’s fun to share and fun to watch.

Photo of Alex Boyer in “Carmen” at San Jose Opera (Photo by Bob Shomler/Courtesy of Vox International Artists)

This post has been updated with a new photo provided by Boyer’s management)

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Der Ring des Polykrates is a one-act comedic opera that tells the story of a young man, Wilhelm Arndt, who seemingly has everything: he has money and a happy marriage. When a long-absent friend, Peter Vogel, returns into his life Arndt finds himself challenged by Vogel to find something he can – and should – sacrifice so that his good fortune continues.

Tenor Scott Ramsay sings the role of Arndt. Soprano Shana Blake Hill sings the role of Laura (Arndt’s wife.) Roberto Perlas Gomez, a baritone, sings the role of Vogel. Also in the cast are Alex Boyer and Emily Rosenberg. Francesco Milioto conducts.

Directing Der Ring des Polykrates is Numi Opera founder Gail Gordon. To learn more about Numi Opera go here to read our interview with her when Numi Opera launched it first season in May. (This is their second production.)

Korngold’s work in both film and classical music is wildly entertaining and deserving of far greater attention that it receives today. That Numi Opera has selected this lesser-known work represents a step forward for opera in Los Angeles.

For tickets go here.

Photo of Erich Korngold by Cosmo-Sileo Associates (New York, N.Y.)/Courtesy of the New York Public Library Archives

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Boyer, who has performed with the Festival Opera, Dallas Opera, Chicago Opera Theatre and more will give local audiences a chance to discover him when he joins The Verdi Chorus for their Sound & Fury concerts this weekend in Santa Monica. These concerts mark a return to the ensemble for Boyer as a guest soloist.

Last month I spoke to Boyer about his rising career, these two concerts and what he’d like to do in the future.

What was your familiarity with The Verdi Chorus prior to first joining as a soloist?

I didn’t have a whole lot of familiarity with them. Shana Blake Hill is a friend of mine and we’re on the same management roster. She put my name in the hat to sing with them. 

What most interests you about The Verdi Chorus and the work they do?

It’s always a great thing to have people excited about opera, which I’ve chosen to make my career in. There are a lot of Verdi operas that aren’t performed. I know the Chorus doesn’t exclusively sing Verdi, but it’s nice to dabble in a few of these things.

Last year we did some numbers from Nabucco. I guess it is reasonably frequently performed, but not terribly frequently. It’s a piece I’m not very familiar with but there is a lot of great music in it and some of these pieces that people don’t get to hear and I don’t get to be involved with are performed. This year there will be some things from Otello, which is a popular Verdi piece, but not one I get to sing very much.

Your resume includes performances in Il Trovatore and Tosca. What are the challenges of getting fully invested in an aria for a concert without having the lead-up to those arias as they play out in an opera performance?

That’s my job. It’s something I can do. There is a fun difference between stage work and concert work. In a concert sometimes all of the things you might not do in a fully-staged version you are musically more open to doing because it is out of context. There are moments you can indulge a lot more which is a lot more fun for me and what an audience expects.

You’ve sung with multiple opera companies. What is the path for getting bigger roles with bigger companies?

You sing at one company and then someone asks who can do [a role you’ve just done.] Someone says “oh my friend did this at this company.” As you get yourself out there people begin to talk.

What are the roles you’d ideally like to do in the future?

I would love to do Andrea Chénier. Lohengrin is also amazing. I’m not quite sure. I’ve done a lot of stuff that’s been all over the map with my voice type and age. I lean away from stuff for older singers – work like Wagner. But I don’t think Lohengrin would be a problem. 

One opera Boyer will soon be tackling is a little-known one-act opera by Erich Korngold called Der Ring Des Polykrates with Numi Opera. The two performances will take place at Zipper Hall at the Colburn School in December. When it gets closer to those performances, we will have another quick chat with Boyer about the opera and what he enjoys most about its music.

Photo of Alex Boyer courtesy of The Verdi Chorus

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Anne Marie Ketchum, Music Director of The Verdi Chorus, has assembled a program with some of the best known operas of all time.

From Verdi come Otello and Il Trovatore. From Puccini come Turandot and Tosca. From Lehár comes The Merry Widow. (There may not be too much fury in that last opera, but there is plenty of beautiful sound.)

There are three soloists joining this weekend’s programs. Shana Blake Hill – soprano, Alex Boyer – tenor and Malcom MacKenzie – baritone are all guest artists. Laraine Ann Madden is the accompanist.

That this group has lasted this long is a testament to two things:  First and foremost, the passion of Ketchum to keep it not just alive, but thriving. Her tenacity is remarkable. Secondly, they wouldn’t be around this long if they weren’t talented and there wasn’t an audience for what they do.

Opera-goers on the West Side don’t have many options to experience opera and The Verdi Chorus gives them their fix. Perhaps people from other parts of town aren’t as inclined to drive to Santa Monica for a concert. To ignore a talented ensemble because it isn’t geographically desirable is to short-change yourself from some great music.

For tickets to either Saturday evening or Sunday afternoon, go here.

Photo of The Verdi Chorus by Tim Bereth/Courtesy of The Verdi Chorus

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