Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.life From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Many dramatic faces make Tom Fox popular villain Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 14:51:51 EST Message-ID: \SE E;LIFE \HD Many dramatic faces make Tom Fox popular villain \BY Octavio Roca \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES His own blue-green eyes twinkling, Tom Fox explains how he plans to be the best friend a green-eyed monster ever had. Making his Washington Opera debut as Iago in the company's new production of Verdi's "Otello," the American baritone says the villain who fans the flames of Otello's jealousy is "not evil at all" - certainly not from where he stands. "It's fun to play Iago," says Mr. Fox. "He looks at everyone else on that stage, he stands above them. And he just can't believe how stupid these people are - all these people in the play I mean. That is his psyche: He goes through life wanting his due, wanting power, wanting everything life has never given him that he probably deserves. "His picture of life is so warped that it makes sense." Mr. Fox, 43, is a chameleon of an actor who has specialized in playing bad guys: "That's where my voice puts me, let's face it." And he's enjoying his current immersion in evildoing. After finishing his run at the Kennedy Center Opera House as the top villain of Italian opera, Mr. Fox turns nastier still in German: He makes his Metropolitan Opera debut later this season as the Nibelung dwarf Alberich in Wagner's "Ring." Both characters are frustrated to the point of monumental destructiveness by the time the action unfolds, but Mr. Fox sees them as radically different. "Alberich is definitely not evil to begin with. He's someone who's had a gross injustice done to him. I know that he's often played as an evil troll," he laughs, "but that's hard for me" - Mr. Fox stands well over 6 feet. "I see Alberich more as a mirror image of Wotan," he says. As he gestures with his long hands and offers a broad smile, Mr. Fox manages to make down-to-earth sense while musing on opera's most complex roles. He credits his wife, Ilka Doubek, a dancer and choreographer he met when both were working in Europe, with sharpening his characterizations. "She has very good dramatic instincts," he says, "and she helps me see through to the emotional truth in the text." * * * Edward Purrington, administrative director of the Washington Opera, remembers Tom Fox's eye-opening quality on stage from the beginning, so he is particularly proud of Mr. Fox's company debut as Iago. "In my earliest years as general director of the Tulsa Opera," says Mr. Purrington, "I made a point each summer to look in on the Cincinnati Opera, seeking new productions we might share as well as outstanding new talent. One young artist who impressed me not only with his burnished voice but with his striking presence was Tom Fox." Mr. Purrington gave the young singer one of his first jobs outside his Cincinnati training ground - Baron Douphol in "La Traviata." Since then, Mr. Fox's career took off in Europe. He joined the Frankfurt Opera in 1981, a company he called home through the 1980s. There he portrayed roles as diverse as Orest in Strauss' "Elektra" and Mozart's Don Giovanni, with a little Beethoven, Bizet, Verdi amd Wagner thrown in. He returned to his native continent for a reprise of Orest in the Canadian Opera, where he more recently sang Strauss' Jokaanan. He made his British debut with the adventurous Welsh National Opera as Escamillo in "Carmen" in 1985. Nor is he a stranger to either Iago or Alberich. Iago was the role of his Teatro Colon debut in Buenos Aires in 1986; his debut with the Nice Opera was as Alberich, in 1988. He has since played Wagner's destructive dwarf at both the Chatelet and the Theatre du Champs Elysees in Paris before being spotted by James Levine for his "Ring" at the Met. Two years ago, Mr. Fox tried out his Amonasro in "Aida" in Pittsburgh - the same role with which he triumphed in Sicily last summer - and Mr. Purrington heard him again, this time with an eye to bringing him to the Washington Opera. The company's Martin Feinstein and Roman Terleckyj followed Mr. Purrington's lead and heard Mr. Fox as Wagner's Dutchman and Tchaikovsky's Onegin, and the Washington Opera found its new Iago to star opposite the international pair of Stefka Evstatieva as Desdemona and Ermanno Mauro as the unhapppy Moor. "When casting Iago, we determined that Tom had the right combination of villainy and voice to complete the triangle of principals for 'Otello,' " Mr. Purrington says. * * * Audience reaction to Mr. Fox's Iago was loud and enthusiastic on opening night Saturday. The adaptable baritone, whose Amonasro in Palermo was a study in concentration and economy of movement, turned rather more physical in Washington for this other Verdian creation. "American opera has to be acted on a different scale," says Mr. Fox, "a different level than Europeran opera. I grew up in the American system, but I learned to adapt to both. In Europe, the audience is so atuned to the words that they really don't want to see all that jumping all over the stage. You've got to really concentrate the action - whereas the audience here is more visually oriented. "Nobody has any idea what you're singing," he admits regretfully, "so you have to help visualize the text for the audience." Although he has given up on the feasibility of opera in English ("It's just not going to happen"), Mr. Fox is ambivalent about the use of surtitles, which he concedes help the audience to follow the plot. "My prejudice against them is as an actor," he says. "When I have a specific view of the role, the literal meaning in the translated titles often just does not get that view across." * * * Mr. Fox praises the organization of German opera companies, and the anything-but-organized passion of the Italian companies. "Let's face it, Italy is not as carefully organized as Germany when it comes to opera. But when you're working in Italy in an Italian opera, doing their thing, you can't help seeing they have a way of knowing how to do it, a respect for the piece. There's an emotional swing going on all the time. The results are much more emotional than anywhere else. In Germany we try to achieve more intellectual results." Despite his considerable accomplishment in the Italian repertory, and despite the eminent suitability of his warm and rich voice for those roles, Mr. Fox's heart seems to belong to German music. The line is seldom crossed by either Germans or Italians, but this American could follow in the footsteps of his compatriot Cheryl Studer in becoming a master of both styles: Italian singing may keep him from barking out his Wagner, as German baritones tend to do; singing Wagner may make his Italian singing more concentrated emotionally, less overtly histrionic. "The two repertories tap different parts of my being," Mr. Fox says. "It's very healthy for me to sing Wagner," he adds. "I think a lot of times they just cast people in these roles who tend to bark, so the roles become that. I just try to sing, that's all." ****BOX TOM FOX Baritone BORN: Cincinnati, Ohio MARITAL STATUS: Married to the choreographer Ilka Doubek AGE: 43 SCHOOL: Cincinnati Opera College, Conservatory of Music RESUME: Now starring in Washington Opera debut as Iago in Verdi's "Otello" in the Kennedy Center Opera House; member of Frankfurt Opera since 1981, with roles ranging from Mozart's Figaro to Wagner's Klingsor. Recent gigs include Ryuji in Henze's "Das Veretene Meer" in San Francisco, Amonasro in Verdi's "Aida" in Palermo, Scarpia in Puccini's "Tosca" in Chicago and Gessler in Rossini's "William Tell" in Nice. NEXT PROJECT: Metropolitan Opera debut this season as the nasty dwarf Alberich in Wagner's "Ring of the Nibelungs," a role already essayed at both the Chatelet and the Champs Elysees in Paris as well as at the San Francisco Opera. ON HIS CURRENT ROLE: "It's fun to play Iago. His picture of life is so warped that it makes sense." This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. 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