MUSIC : Gallup to Show He Is Legit at Arts Center

For years, Michael Gallup sent Southland audiences into gales of laughter as he superbly sang Gilbert and Sullivan roles such as Pooh-Bah in “The Mikado” and Don Alhambra (the Grand Inquisitor) in “The Gondoliers.”

So it was with some surprise and trepidation that we learned Gallup had gone legit.

Although he had begun singing opera as early as 1971 with the Portland Opera, it wasn’t until the early ‘80s that local audiences first heard him sing opera and began to reevaluate his range and capabilities.

One thing that helped change people’s minds was his 1983 performances of the quack doctor Dulcamara in Donizetti’s comic opera “L’Elisir d’Amore” and his Scarpia in Puccini’s “Tosca,” both for the now-defunct Los Angeles Opera Theater, Gallup said in a recent interview.

“People said, ‘Oh, he can do that. His range is like this (spreading his hands wide). We thought it was like this (closing this hands together).’ ”

Since then he has been a regular with the Long Beach Opera and the Los Angeles Music Center Opera and currently can be seen as Leporello in Opera Pacific’s production of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” (Thursday and Saturday) at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

For all the shift in career emphasis, Gallup offers no apologies for his Gilbert and Sullivan years. “It was very helpful for me, a chance to do a lot of wonderful characters,” he said. “I don’t want to put that aside. I think it’s very valuable training. It kept me singing and kept me in the public eye.”

He still occasionally sings Pooh-Bah to warm up with because “it gives natural flow to the voice.”

At 44 (Gallup celebrated his birthday on Feb. 20), he feels that he is on schedule as far as his voice’s maturing is concerned. “My voice has taken a long time to get where it is now,” he said. “I’m a late bloomer. . . . But my voice keeps improving. I can do more with it.”

But Gallup said he had to go through a lot of “vocal decision-making” and a lot of struggle. “I had to ask myself, ‘What am I? What do I call myself? What category am I? In the last two or there years, I decided my voice type is bass-baritone.”

Some people say the type does not exist, that it’s a baritone’s way of trying to pretend that he’s also a bass.

“Well, I’m living proof that it does exist,” Gallup countered.

Born in Compton, Gallup started out as an actor, which may account for his dramatic accomplishments. But while in high school, he also discovered that he had a good voice and began singing in various opera and musical theater productions.

“The problem was, I would go for dramatic instincts and inflections in my singing without having a secure vocal technique,” he said. “I was a very limited baritone. I had no bottom, I had no top, the middle was pretty fuzzy. . . . But the acting ability was so good, you could gloss over what was happening vocally.”

Although he won opera auditions and competitions, he went from one voice teacher to another, seeking to improve.

“I did the normal search, seeking every teacher I could find,” he said. “One teacher would say, ‘You have to do this’; another would say, ‘You have to do that.’ It was always some strange technique. Basically, they were all contradictory . . .

“Singers are always searching for the one that works the best quickest. It doesn’t work that way. You have to try them out for a while, a month, three months, six months, to see how your voice responds. It’s very risky. You don’t have a clearing house of standards and practices for voice teachers.”

Because of the difficulty finding satisfactory instruction, Gallup never felt ready to tackle a career in New York or Europe. “I thought I could get in a lot of trouble if I went too early,” he said. “Now I feel ready.”

The big difference, he says, came from studying with basso Giorgio Tozzi. “He gave me scales on Italian vowels and arpeggios. I never had that before. It was very valuable.”

Now confident with his technical abilities, Gallup still finds it hard to launch a major career from Southern California.

“I find it frustrating,” he said. “I’ve been here for so long--doing so much good work--that people don’t really pay attention to what I’m doing. I would like to be accepted on a slightly higher level.”

Some impresarios have been trying to talk him into singing Wagner, but Gallup is in no hurry to pass through the entrance to that particular opera singer’s Valhalla.

“They tell me my voice is getting bigger and bigger all the time. I’m not sure. I’m just getting a handle on singing Italian really well. I see myself as a character bass.

“I would like to be known as basso buffo but only in the sense of realistic, honest, truthful, very-much sung portrayals of what we call buffo. I don’t want it to be clowning for clowning’s sake.

“Buffo isn’t always comic,” he added. “It can be very serious. The situation is what’s funny, not what you do especially. Let the situation bring out the comedy rather than doing a mug or going for a cheap shot.”

Michael Gallup will sing Leporello in Opera Pacific’s new production of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” at 8 p.m. on Thursday and Saturday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Stephen West will sing the title role, Susan Patterson will sing Donna Anna; Renee Fleming, Donna Elvira. The cast also will includes Bruce Ford as Don Ottavio, Maryanne Telese as Zerlina and Kevin Short as both Masetto and the Commendatore. Klaus Donath will conduct. John Pascoe is stage director. Tickets: $20 to $50. Information: (714) 979-7000.