Professor Leaving an Aria He Loves

David Scott hunched over the edge of the orchestra pit and listened to the musicians tune their instruments, his body forming the letter C.

“All right, let’s not let this thing die,” he interrupted. “We can be here all night or we can do this thing properly. It’s up to you.”

The music started and stopped. “La Boheme,” the classic opera about an ill-fated Parisian seamstress, was on the verge of making him weep--and not because of its sheer perfection. Again the Cal State Northridge musicians played and the actors sang--until Scott picked up on a stray tempo.

“Let’s get a few notes right, please? I mean, we can stay until the flowers bloom if we have to.”

Later, more to himself than to anyone in particular, he remarked, “Well, that sounded like crapola, but there’s something magic about opening night. They’ll be fine.”

After 35 years of teaching, directing, conducting and haranguing hundreds of CSUN students during countless performances, Scott, 68, is winding down a career in the opera world and plans to retire from the program he nurtured into one of the finest in the western U.S.

But just as “La Boheme” ain’t over till Mimi draws her last tragic breath, so Scott’s work won’t be done till he completes his last production, which opens tonight at the Campus Theater.

An elfin man with a graying beard and a relentless pursuit of perfection, Scott has worked with dozens of Mimis and Rodolfos and lots of levels of talent, and has watched opera evolve from an art form of limited appreciation in this country to one of blossoming appeal.

Yet in all that time, he has observed one constant:

“You know things haven’t changed all that much since I started here in 1963,” he said. “Everybody still wants to sing at the Met.”

World-renowned soprano Carol Vaness has, and she is among Scott’s former students. In fact, seven of his students have qualified for the Metropolitan Opera Auditions, among the most difficult and prestigious of opera auditions. Others have sung with the Paris Opera, the Royal Opera at Covent Garden in London and La Scala in Milan.

Twice a year for about 30 years now, Scott has produced operas combining the work of undergraduates and graduate students in the school’s voice program. Their shows have almost always sold out.

Raised in Iowa, Scott majored in music at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. He later received his master’s and doctorate in music from Indiana University.

After declaring himself only an “adequate singer,” Scott began teaching at the University of Oklahoma, then the University of New Mexico, before settling in California at CSUN. At the same time, he began conducting and directing operas, out of necessity as much as out of love.

“There just wasn’t anyone else to do it,” Scott said.

“When I came to California, it was at a time when the [Cal State] system was expanding. I liked the master plan the school system had for education and I wanted to be in a place that was growing.”

“I came to California before the state got a reputation for being full of crazies,” he laughed.

Scott recalled that there were six collegiate opera programs in the early ‘60s, most of them in the eastern half of the country. Today, he said, there are four or five times that number. CSUN’s opera program today enrolls 75 students.

Scott said he used to tell his charges to go to Europe to find work after they graduated, because there were more opera jobs there. But now, regional houses have opened in Houston, Seattle and Los Angeles to provide more opportunities, and more competition.

“He has really done some impressive work,” said L.A. Opera’s general director, Peter Hemmings, who has worked with several of Scott’s students.

Scott is also popular with his students. “Dr. Scott is wonderful; he has a way of making the students want to do well,” said Gabriel Manro, 24, who plays Rodolfo in Scott’s latest incarnation of Puccini’s masterpiece.

“He’s tough,” Manro said. “We’ll miss him.”

Scott, who once thought of running a prestigious opera house, decided against it because the job entailed what he calls too much prima-donna potential.

“I wouldn’t like to deal with people who make millions of dollars and can fire me if I offer a suggestion,” he said. “Opera stars of a certain caliber, they are too hard to teach at that point and it’s more about persuasion than anything else.”

Scott said he doesn’t regret not becoming a performer himself because the life of an opera singer means living out of a suitcase and literally singing for your supper. He said he enjoys living in Northridge with his wife, Judith, and their black Pomeranian.

“It’s really a hard life because if you get sick, you don’t get paid.” Scott said. “Plus, I enjoy the whole process of putting together a production--watching other performers take a role and shape it into something beautiful. That’s what’s been the reward for me.”

And what does a man with knowledge of the nuances of tone, melody and harmony do after four decades in music?

“I do like the stock market,” Scott said.

He recently bought a red Mitsubishi convertible with some of his stock earnings. But Scott said he won’t be totally through with opera, singing and music. He and his wife plan to travel and do some recruiting for CSUN’s opera department.

“I’m ready to retire from everyday teaching, but I’m not ready to quit just yet.”