when I found my voice (and art)

I always was the "artistic"one.

Anything creative interest me but my 6th grade teacher (and first MALE teacher) Allen Cocrane-a tall very British sort of fellow from Canada was the first person who really set me on a path towards thinking as an artist.

He was followed immediately by Donna Tolstrup in 7th grade-a beautiful and flamboyant woman with a fabulous voice-she should have been in opera and lucky for me she understood the artistic temperament.

She taught art classes and was also in charge of music and the school chorus.

I could not sing-I had taken a few piano lessons so I knew a little about music but when I tried to sing horrible things happened none of them musical so Mrs Tollstrup didn't toss me out of the chorus she just told me to lip sync.

For a few years ART was my thing-I could do lots of things so long as they were not athletic but also so long as they were not music.

I had always been in plays and skits so as I matriculated on to Hgh School I gravitated to the Art and Drama department.

The summer after my freshman year the summer program did South Pacific-I did sets and costunes and hand painted tattoos onto sailors-art stuff.

The following year would offer some changes.

Don Gerdts, the drama teacher, did not like me.

He had his pets and his protégés-it was obvious he had a man crush of a red headed guy named Brian-he also shared my interests in tawdry, shadowy things-he would tak "around them".

He had a very nice wife and a couple of kids I never met.

He cast me in the Harpo Marks part in MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER, a sadistic but jovial Nazi guard in Stalag 17 and as a corrupt, business tycoon in Ayn Rand's The Night of January 16th-never a lead always a strong supporting role.

I don't remember what happened but Warren Marsh (PHD) who was the choral director and also who didn't much like me took a sabbatical-I think it was to finish the doctorate and an effetite and somewhat limp substitute named Beckman came on-why the didn't bring over Ken Westrick from the Junior High is beyond me HE liked me (sort of).

Remember I played a little piano so a girl I knew from Drama asked me to help her with an audition song for the CHORALEERS-the elite chamber singer/pop group at the school and of course I did but in the process discovered that I could sing-in a loud, large baritone voice that was mostly a caricature of a Broadway/Light Opera leading man....take THAT Don Gerdts!!!

As It happened I got into the group and the drama girl I was helping did not which made her fan club quite irritable with me (not my fault) so I was in for my Junior and senior years (Marsh came back for my senior year and what a huge difference he made quality wise).

All of a sudden I was a singer, My Mother managed to find a vocal teacher in a posh part of Whittier called FRIENDLY HILLS; Virginia Fabre had made some records and seemed to be an operatic diva from South America.

She over darkened my voice and gave it too much weight but whatever she did it was enough to win me an audition to the California Institute of the Arts-in the scholarship finals I came in 2nd a soprano named Diane Di Paolo was first and Hal James Pederson (best known as Schroeder in the L A cast of YOU'RE A GOOD MAN CHARLIE BROWN with Gary Burghoff who later starred in MASH) came in 3rd.

From the scholarship audition I met Isolde Cepparo-another nearly was diva, daughter in law of Maestro Cepparo (who I never met) and I guess an alumni of the L A Conservatory which joined with the Choinard Art School and Walt Disney's money to become CAL ARTS.

Isolde wanted to teach me-I had already been assigned a vocal teacher from the faculty Sandor Bory and ver eastern European bass/baritone who would have once again over-darkened my voice and for awhile I had lessons from Isaac Van Grove, former conductor of the Chicago Lyric Opera who would have made me into a heldentenor (or at least tried)-anyway Isolde didn't do a huge amount for my voice-she had her own drama, drug addicted children and a cheating dentist husband-I lost track of her in the 1970s-I heard she had moved to Santa Barbara.

My senior year at EL RANCHO (I did a strange hybrid concert of Hello Dolly my junior year in which I was Horace Vandergelder; Ginny Chitwood the school diva was Dolly Levi/Irene Malloy Tim Peters was Barnaby or Cornelius or both and Sandy Isham was Minnie Faye) I sang some part in the ELEGANCE quartet-it wasn't vey good and had been done in lieu of the actual staged production they wanted to do but which was cancelled for lack of funds.

Don Gerdts left and Squire Fridell arrived-an actual professional actor Squire was the best thing that ever happened to the school-he cast me as the father in COME BLOW YOUR HORN which finally allowed me to shine in a strong comedy lead, Marsh let me sing:Wolfram's Ode to the Evening Star from Tannhauser at the Christmas concert, I got the large scholarship to CAL ARTS

Squire would go on to be the TOYOTA man for many years on commercials, he did a detective sitcom with Tony Roberts at Universal (serendipity put me at Universal at the same time doing VIP Tours)-he did much for many students and taught commercial acting and auditioning and wrote THE book on the subject HERE.

He has since retired to the California Wine country where he has the Glen Lyon vineyard and his daughter carries on the acting tradition most recently in AVENUE Q on Broadway.

I had moved away from Pico Rivera first to Orange Count and then to the West Side by way of Hollywood-I had started taking voice lessons with LEE WINTNER-Lee and his wife Fran lived in the Silver Lake Sunset Junction part of Hollywood and he lifted weights and gave voice lessons-he had sung a lot in the 40s and even made a movie in the 50s-he was an avowed communist, socialist and a not very religious jew-he may have liked me at least for awhile.

I wanted to study with Martial Singher.the French baritone who was the originator of Athaniel in THAIIS and was teaching at the music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara-he had the most elegant vocal style and I felt our voices and personalities were compatible but alas money and time would prevent that alliance.

I first lived in a ground floor single on Franklin Ave near Chauenga in Hollywood (84.50 a month, utilities included) a murphy bed, an air shaft off the bathroom where the hippies upstairs would drop the drugs during raids and all the cockroaches and rodents you could ever want.

Eventually I had a job as the soloist at the famed TEMPLE BAPTIST CHURCH (the owned the L A PHILHARMONIC BUILDING) and I was offered a managers job at a Basking Robbins on Pico and Overland by Bernie Goodman (a student of Lee Wintner) and I was able to move to Beverly Wood near Robertson and Venice Blvd into a nice, clean one story quadraplex in an apartment that face Bagley Ave-it was one of my favorite places.

After my Westside life I moved to the San Fernando Valley-Burbank to be exact-in 1976 to take the VIP tour guide job at Universal and I would live within 5 miles of the spot until 2006 with a short sojurn in Europe.

By the early 70's I had sung in Opera and Musical Comedy and concerts/recitals; I was often asked to do Sharpless in Madam Butterfly and Papegeno in The Magic Flute.

I had met Frank Fetta and Gary Fisher at L A C C and done the Father in Hansel and Gretel with Joan Zajac.

I sang with the Santa Monica and Beverly Hills Opera and many more companies around L A and San Francisco.

I taught desugn for the theatre on the faculty of the L A CITY College OPERA THEATRE where we di the TALES of HOFFMANN, The west coar premier of BAYOU LEGEND and DIE FLEDERMAUS as well as opea scenes, concerts and talent competitios-we hosted the BURT REYNOLDS talent showcase for 2 years at ELACC.

I also designed the costumes for the west coat prmier of Peter Shaffers BLACK COMEDY at CSLA.

I am purposely leaving out my time with the Whittier Civic Light Opera about 1966 to 1974-I will cover that in another post.

It was during this time that one of my most famous Faux pas took place:

I had been asked to sing for an annual fine arts luncheon for some Hollywood Women's Association at the Wilshire Ebell Club near the Ambassador Hotel off Wilshire Blvd.

I was informed that Leonard Pennario, the son or nephew or some such of one of thw members would be "sharing the bill" and had offered to accompany me.

For some reason I was absolutely sure than Leonard Pennario was a cellist---don't ask me I don't know.

I suppose I could have said to the booking agent-I'm sorry is Mr Pennario a cellist?-but I didn't.

I was quite young and full of myself and not a little arrogant....after all I had 12 dinner jackets in as many colours and patent shoes to MATCH not to mention ruffled silf formal shirts to go with each and a choice of studs including opal and diamante-wardrobe at the end of it-is EVERYTHING.

I had told the agent I would let her know what I would like him to play and when I called back and asked for  THE SWAN by Saint Saens she sounded confused but asked for the key and agreed she would pass on the information.

On the day I arrived at my usual 15 minutes early in order to case the joint as it were-with 2 choices of costume-it was too early in the day for black and not cheesy enough for gold sequins so I had maroon or blue (with matching everything-sapphires for the blue shirt and opals for the other).

Mr Pennario who was far older than I expected (maybe late 40s in those days) arrived and was quite pleasant-I found he was a native California such as myself and we knew some folks in common like Zubin and Mehli Mehta -the son and father conductors.

I had planned some Italian Art Songs and some Du Parc to be followed by the Saint Saens with my pianist and the cello.

At some point he said something about the stage and the piano-I was warming up in a dressing room and adjusting my blusher and my accompanist was onstage trying out the keyboard when all of a sudden he came flying into the dressing room and said you need to go talk to this Pennario guy.

I didn't ask questions (something I would learn shortly after this episode) I just strode onto the stage and inquired of Leonard Pennario what seemed to be the problem?

"Well it seems we have two pianists and no cellist"

I was a bit taken aback and said I thought you were playing the cello to which he responded, NO, I am Leonard Pennario to which I responded "You can't be Leonard Pennario if you don't play the cello."

Years later long after the last sweet butter and cucumber sandwich was but a sad memory this episode would be a "funny" part of my youth.

It speaks a lot to just how insufferable I was in those years that I didn't simply melt into the floor and take up go go dancing.

If youre interested look up Mt Pennarios bio on Wiki---its pretty amazing.

I had another run in with celebrity about that time which I refer to as the battle of the divas:

I was singing the mean brother in Lucia Di Lammermoor for the Santa Monica Opera-conducted by Mario Lanza-not the MGM musical star tenor-this one was a short thin white haired man that conducted the orchestra and sang ALL the parts especially the high notes if the singer did not.

They had cast a fairly well know actress named Sally Janes (she played in many sitcoms like the Beverly Hillbillies but may be bast know for playing a sex therapist in the show MARY HARTMAN,MARY HARTMAN).

Sally was very modelesque and buxom, a platinum blonde and claimed to be a colouratura soprano.

She chirped in the soprano range and could mostly hit the coloratura notes beyond that any discussion of being an opera singer should be left to others.

I have no idea who else was in the cast-BUT I took one look at the wardrobe and announced I would be wearing my own costumes AND WIGS (I had neither at that moment).

At some point the Santa Monica Opera production had been put together using mostly cardboard sets and easter egg colour costumes-the opera takes place on the cold and windy moors of Scotalnd and its a tragedy.

This production was a tragedy but not for the right reasons.

Sally piped up that SHE would also be using her own wardrobe and we should "coordinate.

We actually got along quite well-like me she was far more concerned with IMAGE than the actual opera and I reminded her that decollate was der riguer in this period which made her elated.

When we finally got to the costume parade before dress rehearsal I discovered that she was wearing a stunning low cut red velvet gown and a long almost white, platinum fall (and rubies).

I had managed a beautiful deep midnight blue velvet jerkin with jet trims a white ruff and silk slashes in the sleeved and a Franco Correlli style wig that was almost black-tights boots and serious makeup-it had NOTHING to do with Scotland but I had decided that the brother did his shopping in Paris so what the hell....backstory is everything.

I sparkled seductively into the spotlight and I hear Sally HISS with annoyance so I quickly flew to her side and assured he that the RED dress foresaw the upcoming mad scene after she kills her new hubbie and was stunning and against a dark background she would glow like a torch in our duet where I force her (during some very competitive singing)to sign the contrat de mariage.

It took some serious talking but she was finally in line and assured me she would "GAUDY UP" he bodice to compete with mine.

On the performance say I convined the erstwhile "director" that the dark background was far to far upstage and that we lost the intimate feeling of the contact scene-he should use the alternate "in one drop"-it actually was very easy and he instantly agreed.

I sang my big Act One aria in My gigantic flowing Navy Blue cape (not a tartan in sight anywhere) and lurked backstage waiting for the BIG MOMENT.

At last the curtain rose to me onstage with a parchment contract full of fluttering ribbons and seals in my stunning dark blue costume glittering with black jets and sequins-the effect was magical-the audience actual gave a little audible gasp and a smattering of applause.

Sally Janes enters from Stage right in her red velvet gown against a HUGE red velvet curtain giving the eerie effect that hers was a floating disembodied head.

I could see her fuming from the other side of the stage and when she finally arrived to "greet" me she said one would (actually, growled one word is more accurate): BITCH!

In the annals of Operatic lore there have been many diva wars-Franco Corelli bit Birgit Nielsen for holding a high C too long in Turandot-that caused Birgit to write Rudy Bing that she "can't play Philadelphia-have hydrophobia".

Buckets have been nailed to floors, itching powder in Kimonos (and jock straps) live rats in bird cage props-just a host of hysterically funny little gags but never has one Baritone socked it to one Soprano (Coloratura) with such calculated disdain.

Luckily for me my remaining performance were with Lorraine Kamins who was a friend of mine and a fine singer-I designed her nightgown for the opera which she later wore in Traviata as well-it had a removable blood stained panel down the front.

I just think of everything!