Bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch shows new sides of himself in Take This Waltz, at Chutzpah! PLUS
Ne.Sans Opera and Dance’s interdisciplinary work finds the operatic star exploring the music of Leonard Cohen
Photo by Victoria Bell
Chutzpah! PLUS, in partnership with Pacific Opera Victoria and Vancouver Opera, presents Take This Waltz, September 10 and 11 at 8 pm at the Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre
VANCOUVER BASS-BARITONE Daniel Okulitch has performed Don Giovanni from the Bolshoi to New York City Opera. He has sung in Baz Luhrmann's buzzed-about Broadway production of La bohème. And he’s tackled contemporary operas like Howard Shore's The Fly, Joey Talbot’s Everest, and Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking (playing its lead to wild acclaim at Vancouver Opera in 2017).
What Okulitch hasn’t done is apply his deep, resonant voice to the music of Leonard Cohen—something he’s about to pull off in the dance-infused Take This Waltz as part of Chutzpah! PLUS next week.
“There's a lot of this project that is taking me out of my comfort zone,” the affable Ottawa-born singer admits with a laugh.
The new Ne.Sans Opera and Dance production had it roots in a road trip that Okulitch and his partner, soprano Lara Secord-Haid, took during the pandemic.
“We were listening to a bunch of Leonard Cohen, and she said, ‘You know, you would sound really good singing this,’” he says.
With his usual world-touring schedule on hold, he had the time to start going through Cohen’s catalogue, planning a recital that would be accompanied by violin, cello, and accordion.
“We were listening to not just ‘What pieces do I love?’ But which ones would sound good with those instruments,” he says.
It was Vancouver Opera director Tom Wright who suggested Okulitch push the idea further by taking it to Ne.Sans’ artistic director Idan Cohen. The Israeli-born artist had recently staged a surreal, visually striking, and dance-infused rendition of Orfeo for the VO; he’s also worked on his own company’s Hourglass, staging dance around Leslie Dala playing Philip Glass’s complete Piano Études (debuting November 5 and 6 at the Chutzpah! Festival). Through those discussions, Take This Waltz grew into a fuller interdisciplinary vision, complete with costumes, production design, and contemporary dance by Ted Littlemore.
As far as the singing, Okulitch was clear on one thing: “This is not a tribute concert; we’re not a tribute band and I’m not trying to imitate Leonard Cohen—otherwise, why bother?” he says. “And I am miked, so I am not trying to make an operatic sound with it. Instead, I’m finding a way to sing it with my voice. Because I’m a low voice and so is Leonard Cohen, they fit really, really well.”
The bass-baritone settled on a mix of pieces, both well-known—think “Hallelujah” and “Take This Waltz”—and deeper cuts; Okulitch has been particularly taken with the poetry of “One of Us Cannot Be Wrong” and “Treaty”. The choreography and staging help shape the songs into a loose narrative arc.
Dancer Ted Littlemore and singer Daniel Okulitch in Take This Waltz. Photo by Victoria Bell
“The character in the piece is just someone who is dealing with regret and loss and wrestling with his own story,” he explains, stressing he’s not aiming to play Leonard Cohen.
As usual with the work of Idan Cohen, who has a background in both dance and opera direction, singer Okulitch and the musicians will be very much a part of the movement on stage, with Ted Littlemore embodying memories and stories from the songs.
And for Okulitch, being part of the contemporary dance onstage is another way he’s stepping out of his comfort zone.
“He [Idan Cohen] will be like, ‘Let’s improvise some dance here,’ and I’ll be like, ‘What?’” Okulitch says with a laugh. “I’m learning to feel uninhibited. I have not been asked to improvise movement before in my career.”
What he, Cohen, and Littlemore have ended up conjuring together is something that defies easy categorization. “Is it a dance-concert? No. Is it a musical concert? No. Is it a one-man show with a story? No. It’s not musical theatre. It’s not opera,” Okulitch says.
Of course, none of this means Okulitch is ready to leave opera behind. He’s preparing for a fall full of opera roles around North America again, most notably in the premiere of a major new work called Omar at L.A. Opera. Written by Rhiannon Giddens, it’s a powerful story of a real-life Senegalese scholar who was sold into slavery in 1807; Okulitch plays two different slave owners, both roles written for him.
For now, though, in Take This Waltz, he’s enjoying learning to move in new ways, and to explore the shades of his bass-baritone when it’s not projecting over an orchestra. And that will allow local opera fans to hear Okulitch in a new way too.
“It would not make sense to sing this full out,” he says. “But it’s still my voice.”
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