CLASSICAL MUSIC : Modern Opera Can Be Vocal Stretch, Says ‘Wade’ Tenor

Considering the antipathy most of today’s singers have for contemporary opera, most would no doubt approve of a required warning label for every new opera score: “Singing this music may be hazardous to your vocal health.”

Tenor John Duykers, who has premiered a number of compelling roles in contemporary opera, including Mao Zedong in John Adams’ “Nixon in China,” agrees.

“Some of the stuff that has happened is pretty dangerous for a singer to do over a long period of time,” Duykers said. “It can damage your voice if you don’t know what you’re doing. I did Peter Maxwell Davies’ ‘Eight Songs for a Mad King’ many times, but I won’t sing that piece any more because it’s very damaging.”

Next week, Duykers will bring his newest role, Enoch Pratt in Carlisle Floyd’s “The Passion of Jonathan Wade,” to Civic Theatre in San Diego Opera’s production of the composer’s new version of his 1962 opera. Duykers explained that, although Floyd requires him to sing in the highest portion of his range, including the tricky section called the passagio , his arias are short and few. Unlike certain works of Maxwell Davies or German composer Hans Werner Henze, Floyd’s “Jonathan Wade” demands no harsh extended vocal techniques or extensive singing in the falsetto range, the vocal gymnastics that, according to Duykers, bring on long-term distress to the vocal muscles.

“Floyd has me singing in the passagio as well as high B’s and B-flats. But it is doable.”

Though Duykers has sung a variety of standard repertory from Mozart to Wagner, he is one of a select group of singers who has made contemporary opera a viable career option. But even he was doubtful that he could survive in this specialized arena.

“I didn’t start to sing as a tenor until about 10 years ago. I was a baritone at first, and my range did not settle until 10 years ago, which is when I decided to pursue a full-time opera career. At that point, I decided to reject my roots in contemporary music because I thought that, if I wanted to make a living as an opera singer, I couldn’t do it in contemporary opera.”

Duykers’ perception was soon disproved, and he found a ready market for his skills singing challenging new scores. He noted that, in the last 18 months, for example, he has been singing almost nothing but recent works in major houses. His impressive itinerary included the Los Angeles Music Center Opera’s revival of “Nixon in China” in September; Dominick Argento’s “The Voyage of Edgar Allen Poe” for Lyric Opera of Chicago in October, and “Jonathan Wade” for Houston Grand Opera in January and Greater Miami Opera in March.

Duykers acknowledged an early affinity to new music.

“I always had a great fascination with living composers. In fact, I married a composer, Janice Giteck. Our initial contact was through her music, a string quartet I heard and admired.”

Duykers is no longer married to Giteck, but their son, Max Duykers, continues the tradition as a composition major at Ohio’s Oberlin Conservatory.

Early in his career, Duykers acquired his stage legs in performance art, which influenced his approach to opera.

“I worked for many years with George Coats in the San Francisco Bay Area. That experience was my postgraduate training in theater. Not only did it develop a kind of acting technique, but it also taught me how to be a collaborator in a production. I have the courage to open my mouth (to the director) more often than most singers do.”

Pops renewal. The new location for this year’s San Diego Symphony Summer Pops series at Embarcadero Marina Park South has prompted a promising refurbishing of the orchestra’s summer programming.

Although the annual all-Gershwin program (July 31-Aug. 3) remains sacrosanct, the customary all-Tchaikovsky blast with obligatory “1812 Overture” cannon and fireworks has been shelved for the upcoming season. The all-Beethoven program (Sept. 6-7) will present two complete symphonies, the First and the Ninth, instead of the usual potpourri of snippets.

On June 26 and Aug. 14, tap dancers and ballet dancers will distract the jaded eyes of pops patrons, and a number of local instrumental soloists will augment the parade of guest artists in the series called “Sizzling Soloists.”

Coronado native Kevin Kenner, winner of the 1990 International Chopin Competition, will play the Grieg A Minor Piano Concerto (June 26-27) on the same program with symphony principal cello Xin-Hua Ma, who will solo in Dvorak’s B Minor Cello Concerto.

Violinist Frank Almond Jr., laureate of 1986 International Tchaikovsky Violin Competition, will play the familiar Mendelssohn E Minor Concerto (July 24-25) on the same program with the orchestra principal trumpet Calvin Price, who will solo in Alexander Arutiunian’s Trumpet Concerto.

American Ballet Theatre veteran dancer Cynthia Gregory will appear on an all-ballet program (Aug. 14-17), and tap dancer Karl Warkentien will interpret Morton Gould’s “Tap Dance” Concerto (June 26-27).

Familiar faces on the symphony podium include a pair of visits by guru of the Big Band sound Norman Leyden (July 10-14 and Aug. 7-11) and resident conductor of the San Diego Symphony’s Classical Hits series, Murry Sidlin (July 24-28 and Sept. 4-7). Detroit Symphony associate conductor Leslie Dunner, who made his local debut this season leading the Martin Luther King Jr. concert, returns for the Summer Pops Independence Day salute (July 3-6).

Among the special event single concerts are Jean-Pierre Rampal’s solo flute recital (Aug. 19), an appearance by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band (June 25), and a concert by Peter, Paul and Mary (Aug. 12).

Unusual this week. The University of San Diego Orchestra under music director Henry Kolar will offer Dvorak’s Eighth Symphony and the Novelette No. 4 for Strings by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor in USD’s Camino Theater at 8 p.m. Sunday. Coleridge-Taylor is a 19th-Century composer of African and English parentage whose little-known works have enjoyed a revival over the last decade. Kolar will also perform the violin solo in Borodin’s “Nocturne.” . . .

UC San Diego music professor Jann Pasler will present a preview screening of her film “Taksu: Music in the Life of Bali” in the Warren Lecture Hall at 7 p.m. Sunday. The film documents the music of the Ubud gamelan orchestra and the ways in which traditional Indonesian music-making integrates into the life of the community.