Jamie Allbritten to step down from the Piedmont Opera podium

After decades leading Piedmont Opera, Artistic Director Jamie Allbritten plans to step down from the podium. Allbritten is well-known in artistic circles for his supreme musicianship, encyclopedic knowledge of opera and his gifts as an educator. But he considers himself a lifelong student who appreciates the many lessons learned collaborating with great artists.

"I never like to say, 'No, just do it this way,'" says Allbritten. "I want to compel you to see what I see, so that we're all telling the same story. And when a singer disagrees with me, if they can let me know why, I'm the first to say, 'All right, let's do it your way for a while and see what happens.' And it usually ends up being an amalgam of both. And that's cool. That's what keeps me growing too."

And he says that personal growth through collaboration has extended to all aspects of opera production: in the orchestra pit, on the stage and backstage.

"What I've learned from Norman Coates, our lighting designer, I could write a book about that," says Allbritten. "Much of the success of Piedmont Opera's productions I put right at Norman Coates' feet. He can sculpt a stage like nobody I've ever seen."

Allbritten has similar praise for costume designer Kathy Grillo, and the great storytelling she brings to life through clothing, and for stage director Steven LaCosse. Their friendship dates back to grad school at Indiana University, and low-budget productions like Aaron Copland’s opera The Tender Land, with nothing but a rocking chair, a platform and a 6-foot stretch of fence for props.

"And he made that such a dramatic thing, a flawed piece like that he brought to life so brilliantly," he says. "And I went home that night and my friends that I was living with at the time said, 'Well, that was a night in the Opera House.' And I said, 'What?' And it was a combination of the honesty of a bunch of undergrad and graduate students taking advantage of a moment, and Steve helping us all to find those moments. And it never left my memory."

Jamie Allbritten has conducted some 150 Piedmont Opera performances and the reviews speak for themselves: “... a triumph for regional opera,” from Voix des Arts. And from Classical Voice of NC: “Superb solo voices … outstanding orchestral support … a winner!”

When asked to describe his own role in bringing about high-quality performances, Allbritten says only that he’s grateful to audiences who find the work compelling. For him, it’s all about the process.

"The thing that attracts me to artists, that makes me want to bring them to Winston-Salem, to work with the opera company, to work with me, is that we all have that kind of, 'Yeah, this is a little month in our life that we have to touch the hem of greatness and bring something to life,'" he says.

Allbritten and his team are known for doing so in innovative ways. Like staging Giuseppe Verdi’s behemoth production of Aida in concert, where lavish sets and costumes are replaced by just the orchestra and singers on stage, along with — in the case of Piedmont Opera’s production — projected images and lots of creative lighting.

Allbritten says the initial reception by the opera board to his pitch was less than enthusiastic.

"And they didn't know what to expect," he says. "And they were all kind of looking around, kind of nervous before the show happened. And up on the 10th floor afterwards, they were all bursting the buttons on their vest because it was good. And everybody was so proud. And I was too. I knew I could — I don't know why, I knew I could do it — but I knew I could do it."

Other favorite moments from his two decades on the podium include their concert production of Puccini’s Turandot, and Verdi’s Un ballo in Maschera. Also high on that list is the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera The Crucible with then 96-year-old North Carolinian composer Robert Ward in the audience.

"And his biographer pulling me aside at the end of the night and saying, 'Bob loved this show, he could barely sit still in his seat,'" he says. "He kept turning to me and saying, 'It's so real. It's so real.' And at the end of the night, I walked off stage, after the bows were over, and without missing a beat, he looked up at me with a little twinkle in his eye and said, 'So Jamie, what's next?' And I said, 'Actually, the one that I'm curious about Abelard and Heloise.' And without missing a beat, he picked up his index finger and pointed it to me and said, 'That's the one.'"

Jamie Allbritten’s last performances as artistic director of Piedmont Opera will take place in March of 2025 with Man of La Mancha. But his plate will remain full with the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute production of Die Fledermaus in February, summer teaching at the Vocal Arts Festival in Colorado and more.