Why Soprano Finds Requiem Verdi Interesting

The morning practice sessions were rugged. So was the voice that answered the phone.

“Right after rehearsal, my voice goes up, then it goes down, down, down,” explained Camellia Johnson, reached at her hotel room in Tampa, Fla., where she appeared recently with the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra. “A few minutes ago I was on the phone, and the person at the front desk said, ‘Yes, sir, may I help you?’ ”

Johnson, a soprano, joins Carl St.Clair’s Pacific Symphony and the Pacific Chorale tonight and Thursday for performances of Verdi’s Requiem at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa. Other soloists include mezzo-soprano Barbara Dever, tenor Stephen O’Mara and bass Brian Matthews.

Singers generally take a different approach to an opera and a Mass. Johnson, who appeared in the title role of Verdi’s “Aida” with Opera Pacific last season, said that won’t be the case with the composer’s Requiem.

“ ‘Aida’ and the Requiem are sort of alike,” Johnson explained. “There are places in the Requiem where you feel as if you are singing ‘Aida.’ In fact, I think of the Requiem as a mini-’Aida,’ a little Verdi opera. Very dramatic, the same sort of musical line. . . . My voice is suited for that legato line; that’s where I get all of my joy from.”

Johnson, who was born in Wilmington, Del., and grew up in Florida, now lives in New York. She attended the Manhattan School of Music for graduate studies, taught music theory at the Harlem School of the Arts and sang at church on Sundays.

Which was how she came to sing the Lord’s Prayer and “Somewhere” (from “West Side Story”) at the wedding of Marla Maples to Donald Trump in 1993, an experience she described as “fabulous, absolutely fabulous.”

“We got a room overnight at Trump Plaza; there was a fabulous reception where we met all the celebrities.”

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Now, of course, Johnson is something of a celebrity herself, if not a household name. The same year as the Maples-Trump nuptials, she was sole winner of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. Recent appearances have included the role of Aida in Mobile, Ala., and Atlanta. In Tampa, she sang Richard Strauss’ “Vier letzte Lieder” (Four Last Songs).

Besides a return “Aida” with the Michigan Opera Theatre in Detroit and another Requiem with Leonard Slatkin and the National Symphony in Washington, upcoming dates include “Vier letzte lieder” and Heitor Villa-Lobos’ “Forest of the Amazon” with the San Antonio Symphony as well as Barber’s “Knoxville: Summer of 1915” and Bernstein’s “Jeremiah” Symphony back in Tampa.

But look for Johnson to get more specialized, not less.

“I’d like to be doing more Verdi operas,” she said. “And Strauss operas too.”

* Soprano Camellia Johnson, mezzo-soprano Barbara Dever, tenor Stephen O’Mara and bass Brian Matthews join the Pacific Symphony and Pacific Chorale for performances of Verdi’s Requiem tonight and Thursday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. 8 p.m. $15-$46. (714) 755-5799.