For teen singer Andreas Dala, Vancouver Opera's Amahl and the Night Visitors is a family affair
Maestro Leslie Dala’s son is juggling high school and the holiday show’s lead
Andreas Dala with his father Leslie Dala, during rehearsals for Amahl and the Night Visitors.
Vancouver Opera presents Amahl and the Night Visitors starting December 12 at 7:30 pm
INTERVIEW MANY OPERATIC stars, and they’ll tell you they didn’t get into the art form until adulthood. Often, it’s just a matter of exposure: a lot of talented kids aren’t raised around opera, and it takes years for their voice to find its perfect outlet.
And then there’s Andreas Dala, who landed his first operatic appearance at five in a Banff Centre production of Lillian Alling, and now finds himself, at 14, singing the lead role in Vancouver Opera’s Amahl and the Night Visitors. In the streamed, family-oriented holiday show, originally written by American composer Gian Carlo Menotti as an NBC radio play in 1951, Dala plays the title character--a poor shepherd boy who’s visited by three kings one Christmas Eve.
Exposure to opera wasn’t a problem in Dala’s case. His father, Leslie, is music director of the Vancouver Bach Choir, and associate conductor and chorus director of Vancouver Opera. And there is definitely something about those Dala genes: Leslie’s brother Peter is a conductor in Edmonton.
Still, Andreas Dala has, from a surprisingly young age, found a voice of his own. Like his father and uncle, he started with piano; he still plays it, but it’s as “boy soprano” that he’s found his fit.
“Singing at the Bach Choir for a few years, I really started to fall in love with it at about six or seven,” says the articulate teen, who joined that chorus at five.
He didn’t just have his dad to offer support when he appeared in Vancouver Opera’s outsized production of Evita while still in elementary school. “I did it with my brother, so that definitely helped with the pressure,” he says of his sibling Christopher. “We got to throw an apple back and forth to each other and tease Evita, so that was fun.
“That was in the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, so seeing people to the back of the seats--that was really enjoyable.”
Now in Grade 9, the Kitsilano Secondary student already has an impressive resume. He’s appeared onstage in big VO shows like Dead Man Walking and Turandot. Career highlights include a duet in a gala concert with Vancouver opera star Simone Osbourne, and singing the boy soprano part in Elija at the Orpheum with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
Which brings us back to Amahl, his most demanding role yet. And not just because of the sheer quantity of time he spends on stage at the Chan Centre for this show (and on camera, in these pandemic times).
“It’s been really nice on this show, especially, to have my dad there,” says Dala, whose father is playing double duty, sitting at the grand piano for the production. (Chamber-orchestra plans went out the window due to pandemic public-health restrictions; Tina Chang takes the other keyboard for this two-piano version.) “I’m 14-and-a-half, and obviously my voice is changing. And if I had to worry about whether I had to lower a note I could just go up and ask him. So there’s no pressure at all, no tension between us.
“It’s just so much fun, and there’s a lot more we can do together.”
The younger Dala has added comfort with the music because he performed the same show in Kelowna last year, also with his father at the helm. Not that rehearsing it now, during COVID, is anything like that live production.
“We have to stay three metres from one another, and at the beginning of the rehearsal process, that was definitely strange,” says Dala. “In the fall when we started rehearsing, everyone had to wear masks. We weren’t even allowed to sing; we just carried around sticks that were two metres long and started walking around the stage. They had all these grids drawn out so you could measure yourself.” Director Sarah Jane Pelzer blocked it out that way so the distances could become natural for the performers, he explains. A striking curving cedar set by designer Patrick Rizotti helps to keep the cast separate as well.
It’s meant a lot of extra steps to the process, combined with juggling rehearsals and the challenges of online and in-person high-school courses. But Dala has enjoyed getting into his character--one that’s fiercely protective of his single mother. “He’s a very dreamy, optimistic, fun character that is always asking his mother if he can stay up longer so he can watch the stars and dream about them,” he explains. “He’s just a beautiful character to play, especially in times like now, with COVID--you get kind of sad when you can’t hug someone. You have to make the best of it.
“It’s the perfect piece for the holidays,” he adds, praising the music. “From the first eight minutes there's a small aria for Amahl, and he’s talking about a journey going begging from town to town, and the score is hopeful and makes you feel good about what’s going to happen.”
It’s another step in an already decade-long musical career for Dala. And a good sign that you may see even more of him as he grows beyond “boy soprano”. “If I do become a singer, I definitely think I would go into opera,” he says. “The stage and the vocals combined--it’s so much fun.”
More information and tickets here.
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