From gospel to opera, soprano Latonia Moore makes the world her stage
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Latonia Moore came to opera after singing gospel and jazz.Catie Dull / NPR -
Latonia Moore performs as Leonora with Gwyn Hughes Jones as Manrico in Washington National Opera's production of Verdi's "Il Trovatore"Scott Suchman -
Leonora is a character that's both a lustful young woman and a "strong warrior-like chick," Moore says.Catie Dull / NPR -
As part of her preparation, Moore painstakingly spoke her parts and those of the other characters in English in order to help her "get it all sung into my voice."Catie Dull / NPR -
Moore says her job as a soprano is to "sing the character into existence."Catie Dull / NPR -
Latonia Moore at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 18, 2022.Catie Dull / NPR -
Moore says the multifaceted nature of her character Leonora is "reflected in the staging and the costuming and definitely in the way I sing it."Catie Dull / NPR -
Opera is an art form based on the "suspension of disbelief," Moore says.Catie Dull / NPR -
The lavish costumes in Washington National Opera's production of Il Trovatore were designed by Martin Pakledinaz.Catie Dull / NPR
Latonia Moore remembers clearly the moment she fell in love with opera. She entered the University of North Texas as a jazz performance major, but a classical music requirement led her to sing in the chorus for Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci ("Clowns").
"I was just in the chorus, lowly little chorus girl, but I fell in love with being someone else," Moore said in an interview with Leila Fadel of NPR's Morning Edition. "Like me, Latonia from Houston, Texas, could be an Italian villager watching this comedia dell'arte troop come through town. I felt just so alive and at home."
Moore says she didn't grow up watching or performing opera — "my family's not into opera, that's not their thing" — but other types of music were a big part of her childhood. She sang gospel music — including in her pastor grandfather's own church — R&B and jazz. Her older sister Yolanda introduced her to art songs, and she joined a choir.
Today, Moore has graced opera stages around the world, with the title role in Verdi's Aida being her most performed and recognized one. But it's also one that comes with its fair share of controversy, since non-Black singers often perform in blackface or have their bodies painted to portray the enslaved Ethiopian princess, long after such practices have been shunned in other performing arts.
Moore says she's fine with the practice for the sake of art, so long as it doesn't go "over the line for most people." She herself has been painted darker in some cases for the role.
"When I started into opera, I didn't really think about the fact that I was black. ... It didn't matter what my skin was, because this is an art form that's based on suspension of disbelief," Moore said. "Anyone should be able to go up in any brand of skin and be able to convince you that they're an Ethiopian princess. So the makeup is not necessary ... but if most people are offended, then drop it. You don't need to do it.
"Convince them with your acting, with your voice. That's our job."
Moore pointed to other Black divas as sources of inspiration, including Leontyne Price, Shirley Verrett and Marian Anderson. "Being a Black opera singer, not a challenge — not really," Moore said. "I have no obstacles."
Singing her star-crossed character into existence
She spoke with NPR as she readied her performance as Leonora in Verdi's Il Trovatore at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. The Washington National Opera season opener runs through November 7.
Moore is quick to admit the notoriously difficult role was one she long avoided. "Vocally, whew baby, this is a big mama to sing!" she said. But as the soprano studied for the role, she uncovered more layers about the character, who with Manrico (played by Gwyn Hughes Jones) forms a pair of star-crossed lovers.
"This is a chick that's kind of more like Juliet than people give her credit for. ... She sees this guy, she falls for him immediately, and she's like, 'I don't care about anything else in the world,' " Moore explained. "So she gets to be young and youthful, but at the same time, kind of like this strong warrior-like chick, which you're going to see reflected in the staging and the costuming and definitely in the way I sing it."
Erhard Rom's spare sets of stairs, grids and drapes sharpen the psychological drama that unfolds on stage, with stark shadow projections by S. Katy Tucker bringing to life the traumatic past of Azucena the gypsy (played by an electrifying Raehann Bryce-Davis) and Manrico's tragic end. The lavish costumes designed by Martin Pakledinaz are richly detailed, from the soldiers' shining armor to bright, multilayered dresses.
On stage, Moore inhabits her character with joy, lifting her voice to the rafters, and with despair, convulsing it as she pleads for Manrico's life to the controlling and obsessive Count di Luna (played by Christopher Maltman).
"Our job as opera singers is to sing the character into existence, and the way to do that starts with the words and being able to speak them like a normal human being," she said. "It's way more important to have a pulse than to just be perfect and only do what's on the page." As part of her preparation, Moore painstakingly spoke her parts and those of the other characters in English in order to help her "get it all sung into my voice."
Thriving where jazz and opera meet
She demonstrated similar vocal agility in a production of Fire Shut Up in My Bones by Terence Blanchard that opened the Metropolitan Opera's last season — the first time the Met staged an opera by a Black composer. The two had met when Moore was still in high school. She described it as "a full circle moment."
"I was a jazz singer and, of course, he's a jazz trumpeter," Moore recalled. "It was such a beautiful coming together of opera and jazz and gospel and church and all of the things that I've known."
She noted that Black opera singers often are told to avoid getting "stuck" performing in Black operas or productions like George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess — in which Moore has performed many times.
"See, I'm that one opera singer that was totally cool with being stuck, because I didn't view it as stuck at all," Moore says. "For me, opera in jazz, jazz opera is the best of both worlds. ... There's something about these operas where I feel like I was put here for them."
Moore recalled Blanchard's simple guidance to the cast simply to be "real" on stage — a real person with real feelings, and just let the music sing itself. As a result, she says, the singers bared themselves emotionally. "I remember at opening night I could barely even sing my lines. I was already crying so badly. It just it hit home so deeply," Moore said.
The story, inspired by Charles M. Blow's memoir, recounts the poverty-stricken childhood of a man who as an adult ultimately decides not to take revenge against a cousin who sexually abused him.
Moore is keen on making opera more accessible. Eschewing a highfalutin attitude over the rich, complex nature of an art form that involves so many different dimensions — from the human voice and orchestral music to visual arts and drama — she notes that opera in its most basic form involves people telling stories about other people.
"What's more human that that?" she asks. "It should have never gotten to the point to where it was this hoity-toity, sort of snobby art form," she added. "Your mind expands when you listen to this kind of music. Yes, it's high art, but it's for everybody. Opera for all."
The audio version of this story was produced by Marc Rivers. Morning Edition host Leila Fadel conducted the interview.
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Transcript
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Verdi's "Il Trovatore" is a tale of jealousy, forbidden love and vengeance. It's also an opera that demands so much of its lead roles that late tenor Enrico Caruso said that all you need for a successful production is the best four singers in the world.
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UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: (Singing in non-English language).
FADEL: But don't say that to Latonia Moore.
LATONIA MOORE: That quote has always driven me crazy...
FADEL: (Laughter).
MOORE: ...Because it comes with so much weight and so much pressure, you know?
FADEL: That's true.
MOORE: Whew, what a heavy hat to wear. You know what I mean?
FADEL: Moore, who came to opera after singing gospel and jazz, is quick to admit the notoriously difficult role was one she long avoided. But as she studied for this month's performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., she told me about the layers she uncovered.
MOORE: This is a chick that's kind of more like Juliet than people give her credit for. She sees this guy. She falls for him immediately. And she's like, I don't care about anything else in the world. I'm committing everything about my life to him. So she gets to be young and youthful...
FADEL: Yeah.
MOORE: ...But at the same time, kind of, like, this strong, warrior-like chick, which you're going to see reflected in the staging and the costuming and definitely in the way I sing it.
FADEL: You have to sort of go into your character and check a lot of your own character traits at the door, right?
MOORE: Yeah.
FADEL: How do you actually do that?
MOORE: Our job as opera singers is to sing the character into existence. And the way to do that starts with the words and being able to speak them like a normal human being. I think it's way more important to have a pulse than to just be perfect, you know...
FADEL: Yeah.
MOORE: ...And only do what's on the page. And aside from that, I mean, vocally - whew, baby - this is a big mama to sing.
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UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: (Singing in non-English language).
MOORE: My family's very musical. I mean, we definitely did a lot of singing in church, R&B singing. I was a jazz singer when I was younger. When I went to college, I went as a jazz performance major. And they required that we take classical voice lessons. So I go into an opera course, and I loved it.
FADEL: So right away - it wasn't something that was acquired for you?
MOORE: As soon as I walked in and I was in the chorus and we were going through it, and we were - I was just, basically, an Italian villager in an opera, "I Pagliacci" - "The Clowns." And it's so fantastic, this opera. And I was just in the chorus - lowly, little chorus girl. But I fell in love with being someone else. Like, this has been the thing more - well, equal to the music that has attracted me was getting to be a chameleon. Like, me, Latonia from Houston, Texas, could be an Italian villager watching this commedia dell'arte troupe come through town. And I just felt so, like - I don't know - alive and at home.
FADEL: Yeah.
MOORE: Now, some people frowned upon it because I had success in the jazz world, you know? I mean, I'd been doing well, getting awards...
FADEL: So some people were trying to dissuade you from going this path?
MOORE: Absolutely - you know what I mean? - because it's not one that most Black singers take...
FADEL: Yeah.
MOORE: ...You know? So they're just like, do you know how hard this is going to be, the challenges? You're not as good at opera as you are at jazz. You'll be more successful in jazz. You'll go further. But I didn't care, you see, because when it came down to it, what was going to give me fulfillment? And even as a teenager, as an 18-year-old, I knew this. I said, this is what I'm supposed to do. I feel it in my bones.
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UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: (Singing in non-English language).
FADEL: There are fewer Black people in this industry writ large. Does it create more pressure on you?
MOORE: It does, and it doesn't.
FADEL: Yeah.
MOORE: I mean, I don't know. When I started into opera, I didn't really think about the fact that I was Black.
FADEL: Yeah.
MOORE: That didn't matter to me at all because my whole idea was becoming this chameleon and being, you know, someone Italian, being a 15-year-old geisha in Nagasaki, Japan. So for me, it didn't matter what my skin was because this is an art form that's based on suspension of disbelief. The challenge of being a Black opera singer - not a challenge, not really...
FADEL: Yeah.
MOORE: ...Because I've seen so many before me. Leontyne Price, Shirley Verrett, Grace Bumbry, Marian Anderson - oh, my goodness. You know what I mean? There were so many people that have been doing it. So I was like, I have no obstacles.
FADEL: But we live in a world where skin color comes up so often because of the history and because of the world where a lot of these operas were written.
MOORE: I'll tell you this. Very little causes me offense because, I mean, I look at things with open eyes. And I don't take my preconceived notions and judgments and prejudices and bring them into the opera house...
FADEL: Yeah.
MOORE: ...Or into any form of art because then you - that means you're not embracing it.
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UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: (Singing in non-English language).
MOORE: For a role like "Aida," of course, it's controversial because...
FADEL: Yeah.
MOORE: ...There are so many singers that are appropriate for "Aida," but they are not physically Black...
FADEL: Yeah.
MOORE: ...You know? And they've been painted over the years, you know, to be Black. And anyone should be able to go up in any brand of skin and be able to convince you that they're an Ethiopian princess, so the makeup is not necessary. If someone has wanted to do it, I've never frowned upon it as long as they haven't gone over the line of offense for most people. But if most people are offended, then drop it. You don't need to do it. Convince them with your acting, with your voice. That's our job.
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UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: (Singing in non-English language).
FADEL: The way you speak about opera is very accessible, too, because I think, sometimes, it can feel intimidating. I think, for a lot of people, they might think that it's not for them, that it's something that the elite watch or listen to. And hearing you describe a character as, you know, she's a dramatic chick or she's - you know, it's just different.
MOORE: Yes. You know, and it's a shame that that's different because it should have never gotten to the point to where it was this saditty-titty (ph), sort of snobby art form, you know? It's because of the form of music, because they consider it high art...
FADEL: Yeah.
MOORE: ...That they have a highfalutin attitude about it. And I'm just like, see - you're closing everybody off, you know, judging them for whether or not they have the mental capacity to accept what opera is. Now, if you don't, you know, present it as this high art, and just art for the sake of being art, people will gravitate toward it, you know, because we tell stories about people. That's - this is what we do. We are people performing as people. What's more human than that? That means everybody should be welcomed into it. Your mind will grow. Yes, it's high art, I guess. You know what I mean? But it's for everybody. Opera for all.
FADEL: Latonia Moore, thank you so much for your time. It was a real pleasure.
MOORE: Thank you. Same here.
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UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: (Singing in non-English language). Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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