The Opera Glasses Podcast

Wallis Giunta: The Quintessential Creator

• Elizabeth Bowman • Season 2 • Episode 6

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Prepare to be captivated as the extraordinary Irish-Canadian mezzo-soprano Wallis Giunta graces our podcast. She makes her Carnegie Hall debut tonight singing Christian Muthspiel’s brand-new arrangement of Kurt Weill 's The Seven Deadly Sins. 

Wallis, a mother and a luminary on the international opera stage, dives deep into how she successfully balances her career and motherhood.  Transitioning from the personal to the professional, we turn our spotlight to the shifting tides within the opera industry. 

Don't miss this resonant episode which  echoes with advice, anecdotes, and the pure joy of opera.

All episodes of The Opera Glasses podcast are hosted by Opera Canada Editor-In-Chief, Elizabeth Bowman. Follow Opera Canada on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Visit OperaCanada.ca for all of your Canadian Opera news and reviews.

Elizabeth Bowman:

Hi, I'm Elizabeth Bowman and welcome to the Opera Glasses podcast. Today I have Irish-Canadian mezzo-soprano Giunta with me. She is a very old friend of mine. I've known her since we were both kids in Ottawa. She has gone on to have quite a remarkable career. I see her as the quintessential creator. She loves role creation, new works, commissions, staging things, everything. So I'm really excited to bring her on as a guest. Let's get to it! Wallis . Welcome to the Opera Glasses podcast. So glad we could finally make this happen. Me too, thank you?

Wallis Giunta:

Where are we talking to you from? I'm in Vienna. This is where I live at the moment, but I'm leaving in a few days to head back to the other side of the pond. I'll be in North America on Friday.

Elizabeth Bowman:

Right, you are coming to New York first, or what's the?

Wallis Giunta:

plan Houston first. I'm on a tour with an orchestra from Frankfurt called Ensemble Modern and I'll be first singing in Houston with the camera and then stopping in New York at Carnegie Hall, which is my first time singing there. I'm very excited. Great Backup vocals from my baby over here. She's joining us for the podcast and she may hop into my lap in a minute, but that's what all the cooing is. And she's coming to New York. Yes, she's coming with. She's five months old, so she goes where I go. And I did the same thing with my first baby, my son. He's three now, but it was really great for the first 18 months. He just came with me, or I guess, until he was uh, until he stopped being free to fly. No, when they turn two, you have to pay for them.

Elizabeth Bowman:

Is your son going to be coming on this next trip as well? No, it's too expensive man.

Wallis Giunta:

He's an adult ticket. He doesn't go anywhere anymore.

Elizabeth Bowman:

Right, you, uh, managed to balance a performing life while also being married to a performer. So, yes, let us know your secrets. What are the let's say top three things that you would recommend anyone considering a life and family in this situation?

Wallis Giunta:

Well, I think the first merits mention that, yes, it can work, and if you're wondering about how you can manage it, just trust that you can and you will find a way, because having a family, if that's something that you want in your life, is definitely possible and absolutely worth it. What works best for us is, well, now that we have two kids, and that's it for us. We're done. But it'll be, especially when my baby is so young, that we have to divide and conquer in a way. So right now, for example, I'm going to the States for three weeks and the baby comes with me and the toddler stays with my husband, and we wouldn't do that for like long stretches of time or you know most of the time, but we've made the decision that once in a while, like as long as it's in balance, we divide and conquer as opposed to dragging everybody everywhere. When my son was our only baby and he was younger, we would all go together, like my husband, if he wasn't working in another country or on a contract himself, he would come with me for my gigs and we'd stay together as a unit. But now it makes more sense, because our son is in kindergarten here in Vienna, for him to be a little bit less transient and to just bring the baby with me. So, yeah, allowing the family unit to be a little bit more flexible when the kids are still young, before they go to school, is, I think, a really good way to do it.

Wallis Giunta:

We're lucky in that I have a permanent position in Vienna as well as a decent amount of freelance work, so we have the stability of a salary for me and a home base for our family and, I would say, the luxury for me of being able to go to get my kicks doing freelance work as well, in balance. And my husband doesn't work as often as I do, so he's made a conscious choice to be more at home, like he had an opera last weekend, but he does mostly stay with the kids. So I would say that's also key for us that we don't both work full time. And if you were thinking of having a family in this industry, I would say, at least, even if one person doesn't pull back permanently as far as their workload, temporarily it would be helpful if one or the other was part-time. And we chose for my husband to take on that position because I have this full-time fest job and he was freelance only, so it was easier for him.

Elizabeth Bowman:

So tell me a little bit about Vienna, and I know there are many Canadians coming in and out of Vienna. Are you connecting with all the Canadian expat singers?

Wallis Giunta:

I am actually Well. Alex sang just last weekend here at the Teatro Andovine, my husband with Josh Lovell from Canada, another tenor. We often see Michael Schade and I've performed with him here as well. We did Di Do it in the NAS. Yeah, we see a lot of Canadians and we know of them when they're in town at one of the three companies as well. We keep our radars up for that. There's also a few that live here too and we see regularly Not just Canadians, just in general I'd say like half of Vienna are opera singers. So if you're in this industry and you live here, I can't even go to the park with my son without bumping into someone who either I know or have worked with or they know me through someone who I've worked with. It's really interesting, small world.

Elizabeth Bowman:

Yeah, it's a fantastic city. I've been there before and noted all the opportunities there must be for chamber music, collaboration and you know more more than opera. But so many string players, so many pianists.

Wallis Giunta:

So many whole orchestras there's like I don't know like at least 10, like world-class serious orchestras. It's kind of overwhelming.

Elizabeth Bowman:

How long have you been based there now?

Wallis Giunta:

About a year and a half, but of that I've been gone maybe six months working elsewhere, and I've also been on maternity leave for part of it. So we're getting our feet in, but we haven't, like I said, we haven't been here full time while we've lived here. So I feel like we're still kind of not 100% in the community. But it'll come.

Elizabeth Bowman:

Yeah, it's hard. I mean it's hard to move to any town.

Wallis Giunta:

And language barrier too, Like my, German's not bad, but Alex's is just learning. So you can't just necessarily go anywhere and hit the ground running. You know you have to sort of be more strategic with building community in that way. We're in a lovely neighborhood that's relatively central. I can bike to work in about 15 minutes. We have a grocery store just down the street. We have the kindergarten across the street. We have five different parks within 200 meters. It's kind of embarrassing the amenities.

Elizabeth Bowman:

So you're still cycling everywhere.

Wallis Giunta:

I mean, you can't not. It's amazing. It's so well set up the infrastructure for cyclists.

Elizabeth Bowman:

Do you have one of those bikes with the attachment with the kid thing behind?

Wallis Giunta:

Yeah Well, my husband has it mounted on his the seat on the back, but we want to get one of those ones with the bucket in the front where you just yes. Everyone has those there Exactly, so that's probably going to happen soon.

Elizabeth Bowman:

I'm having memories of our obviously for anyone watching or listening to the podcast I used to be Wallace's publicist for over a decade. Uh, and I'm having flashbacks to that feature we did in the cycling magazine Heels on Wheels. Was that? I don't know. I think that was it.

Wallis Giunta:

And when we did that, I was at the time, I think, working in Toronto or had just stopped working at a bike shop which I was at for years, and they sold those bucket bikes in Toronto because they imported all of the bikes from Europe. That's the type of store they are and I used to sell those to people in like bougie neighborhoods in Toronto and be like this is the future, man, what?

Wallis Giunta:

was the bike shop in Toronto, the curbside cycle in Toronto, yeah, but I mean they were so ahead of the game for North America. But they've been doing that here in Europe for 50 years.

Elizabeth Bowman:

They've got the infrastructure built in and now we're working backwards Trying to get it put in.

Wallis Giunta:

It's kind of hard to retrofit a North American city, Also for opera. You kind of have to retrofit culture into North American lives because it's not necessarily a given that people are going to get it.

Elizabeth Bowman:

So tell me, you were just in Canada. You were singing the title role in Carmen.

Wallis Giunta:

I was, yes, in Montreal. It was wonderful.

Elizabeth Bowman:

Tell me a little bit about that experience.

Wallis Giunta:

So I was working with the Orchestre Philharmonique des Chœurs de Mélomane, which is an organization in Montreal run by Francis Chouinard. They are quite remarkable. Actually, what they do but it's Francis's vision is for the orchestra to really connect with people people that wouldn't normally go to opera and to give people an opportunity also to perform in the orchestra and choir who wouldn't always be able to do that sort of thing as a full-time professional. So we had a fantastic cast. My Don José was my previous COC ensemble colleague, Adam Luther, and he was incredible. So that was really exciting. We did two semi-staged performances at the Maison Symphonique in Montreal. It gave us a lot of flexibility in how we performed. We were in front of the orchestra, we had props and some costumes and it was fully staged, just without a set.

Wallis Giunta:

And I really love the freedom in that format.

Elizabeth Bowman:

Yeah, that format is really prevailing lately, especially with budget constraints and that kind of thing. It allows people to really enjoy opera with lower production costs and therefore lower ticket costs. So there are definitely arguments for it.

Wallis Giunta:

Yeah, and I think it gives an immediacy too, because you're right there in the front of the stage and you're. There's nothing between you and the audience. It's kind of organic too. You know, if I, as the performer, feel like I want to connect with someone or I really need to go somewhere or do something, you're not locked in. You just it's like a concert with benefits, man.

Elizabeth Bowman:

I just asked chat GPT. What should I ask Wallis i on on on Junta on a Wallis podcast Giunta When interviewing Wallace Junta on your podcast podcast, consider asking her about her journey as an opera singer. How does it know?

Elizabeth Bowman:

I'm an opera singer her favorite roles or performances, challenges she's faced in the industry, her approach to interpreting different characters, advice for aspiring singers and any upcoming projects or collaborations, and her thoughts on the future of opera in the modern world. Wow, wallis, chat GPT has got you down. I didn't realize it would actually give me a real answer. Well, let's focus on one thing here, or maybe two of these things. What are some challenges you've?

Wallis Giunta:

faced? Yeah, there've been a few. I mean there's been sexual harassment and assault, so I guess I've been lucky that it hasn't been too life altering, like I would say more on the annoying and stressful end of the spectrum than like truly traumatic.

Elizabeth Bowman:

Do you think? Do you think it's getting better now that the #Me Too movement?

Wallis Giunta:

has. I do, I do. Yeah, I think what's changing? It's less. Unfortunately, I don't think it's so many. How do I say this? People who would historically have perpetuated the harassment and assault are becoming conscious of the fact that they're not allowed to do that anymore. But I don't necessarily see a huge seismic shift in the actual perspective and mentality from that same group. I still think that if they thought they could get away with it, they would, but they're not doing it because they don't want to face the consequences, as opposed to they genuinely have had a change of heart and whatnot. For the latter to happen, I guess we just need more time.

Elizabeth Bowman:

Do you think that the younger generation coming up, there's more hope for them?

Wallis Giunta:

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But we'll need a few generations, I think, before you don't have to worry about what someone might be thinking or intending. You know, I feel relatively safe now with colleagues that I don't have to keep an eye out for a stray hand or anything like I maybe did five to 10 years ago. But I do still think that, especially in the older generations in our industry right now, they don't appreciate the shift or think it was necessary. They think that it's a lot of people crying wolf and overdoing it, exaggerating things.

Elizabeth Bowman:

But it'll take time when we were growing up. We're a similar age I'm a little older but when we were growing up it certainly has changed dramatically. The perspective, right? I mean when I used to be a hostess at some restaurant when I was 20 or 19 or something like that Same yeah in Ottawa.

Elizabeth Bowman:

Yeah, also in Ottawa, and there was regular moments of inappropriate actions. Entitlement we go our direction, which was just expected, and now that's very much not okay, which is really refreshing. But, like you say, I mean people have grown up in this, or some people have had most of their lives with that expectation that that is playful or that is that is harmless all those things, and even when we were young and it was happening, it was incredibly uncomfortable.

Wallis Giunta:

So yeah, but it was, it was your job to deal with it and not not make a scene or or embarrass yourself by not being okay with it. And I guess what I'm saying about our industry now is, in reality, the people that hold the positions of power, the conductors, a lot of the male directors, intendants, that kind of thing are in the generation still of boomers plus, who grew up with it being okay to break into someone's physical comfort zone and or literally assault them. But it's less and less and, like you said, they're not doing it now because they know they can't.

Elizabeth Bowman:

But well, most of them yeah, and now that we have this younger generation growing up with the narrative that it's absolutely not okay, that will eventually shift as they take on leadership roles and forge a healthier path for our industry and also just for any other industry as well. Tell me about, okay. You've always been a creator in my mind, not necessarily forging a very traditional path in opera. I mean, you do have a fest contract right now and that's traditional in most career senses, but you've always been someone with wheels turning in your head about how to create projects, how to collaborate with certain people and organizations and things like that. Can you tell us a bit about projects you have going on in your head right now, or ones that you hope to do, or ones that might be in the works, or anything that we can?

Wallis Giunta:

get here. It's interesting that you mentioned the fest that I have as being on the more conventional side, and yes it is, but it's a kind of a specific situation and the reason I accepted it is because I started at the same time as the new artistic director here in Vienna at the Volkshofer, lotte de Bier, who is a stage director I've worked with in the past as a guest at various houses and she is a visionary and she is a creator, and when she offered me this job she said I want you to come and work here because I'm creating a team of people that will be able to work with me to create and make these visions come to life and build something different. And so this is only my second season and I admittedly have spent half of it on mat leave, but last year I was a part of her first season at the house, and when you have a regime change, you don't actually, as the new leader, you don't actually have full control over what happens in your first year, because a lot of it would have been planned before you started. But even in her first year we did a world premiere of a new opera by Moritz Egert and I had one of the lead roles in that, die letzte Verschwörung, dealing with conspiracy theories. So that was really exciting.

Wallis Giunta:

And now my first production back after the Baby, which I start rehearsing in a couple of weeks, is a premiere here in Austria of John Adams' the Gospel According to the Other, mary and I sing the title role in that. And next year I know we're creating another piece with our principal guest conductor, omer Meyer-Velber, a collaboration between a few different medium together and a couple like a mashup of a couple of different styles and genres of music. That so he's creating something quite original and I have a lead role in that. And so I'm in this fest, this particular one, because it's going to give me the chance to flex those muscles and be more creative and more involved. And then, outside of this job, I am actually working on a commission with a Canadian librettist, royce Fabric. Well, I don't want to say too much about it, but we are building something with the work of a group of composers actually, and when it comes to life, it's going to be very exciting.

Wallis Giunta:

I also have a CD that I've recorded, that I'm working on editing to release, and it deals with motherhood and was recorded while I've been pregnant. So that's coming whenever I can manage. It Got a little bit of time constraints right now with the new baby and all that, but in general, like you said, what gets me going in this job is new challenges, new directions and stretching myself, you know, really flexing my muscles as much as I can and not just sitting back and going. I'll sing another Mozart opera, I'll sing another Rossini, like yes, that, but I need, I really need to grow, I need to learn, and to do that you have to put yourself out of your comfort zone.

Elizabeth Bowman:

Yeah, you need to create, really create, like collaborate with the composer, the librettist, the whole thing. I see it in you.

Wallis Giunta:

Throughout your career, You've always been sort of ignited by the passion for creating, so yeah, and I do genuinely like new music, like yeah, even when it's really hard, I find it extremely gratifying, and the idea of bringing especially a new piece to life for the first time.

Elizabeth Bowman:

it's so exciting something they've heard over and, over and over again and it hasn't like sort of, you haven't marinated in in the harmonic fabric of the music. So to go in with the perspective, that is your job, to take this music and take it off the page and and have have your audience understand it and, ideally, enjoy it Yep.

Wallis Giunta:

Like what I'm doing next week and then the week after in the States is a a tour of Kurt Viles the seven deadly sins, which is my favorite piece of music ever. But even though that, had you know, it was written in 1933, so it's not that new. But I imagine that in the various places I sing it because this is a big tour we're doing over the course of the year, a bunch of different cities at least half of the audience in every place I go won't have heard it before because it's it's not done that often and if you're not super into vile and like looking up all his recordings, it's very, very easily done that you would have never heard this piece.

Wallis Giunta:

But my God, it's so incredible and I just love it. And I love how I've been able so far in my career to do it in different ways, like as a as a solo recital with piano, where I created a program using it as the center of the structure of the recital. I've done it as a concert work where it's just me and the vocal quartet and the orchestra. And I've done it as a fully staged operatic ballet as it was written more than once, and every time is something different and I like also to be involved in how it's presented, like when I did it one time in Spain, I staged it and that was just so cool. And then also I have done it with the Toronto Symphony in Canada with a wonderful team of Canadian artists and was quite instrumental in the staging and the kind of concept of that too. And yeah, I really love opportunities where I can be more than just a hired gun as far as a singer, where I can put a bit of my own creative stamp on it.

Elizabeth Bowman:

So yeah, you're right. You're right about that. Before I let you go, can you give aspiring singers guiding principles?

Wallis Giunta:

This is the good question from chat GPT. Yeah, yeah.

Wallis Giunta:

And I've said this before in interviews, but it's still the number one thing that I would say to young artists, or anyone really young or not so young who wants to make this career work for them. And it's as early as possible in your training to liberate yourself from the need to please your teachers, your coaches, those who guide you and mentor you. Of course you want to take on board what they're giving you because most of the time it's great advice that can be very helpful. But if your whole function during your training is just to take that advice and go thank you very much, yes, and then regurgitate what they have asked you to do and and just be um kind of automaton just doing what's what's right and what's expected, it's going to take you a while to figure out who you are as an artist and what this industry needs and wants and what this industry supports most.

Wallis Giunta:

Once you get to the professional world is real individual artists with something to say, and that goes. That also goes for as singers, finding our own literal voice, the sound that we use. If you are trained in a way to sound like a homogenous soprano or to just to sound pretty and nice, but the training that you receive kind of guides you away from your own unique sound, then that's going to hold you back in this career, because as much as we want great technique, you know beautiful sounding voices, the voices that we really keep coming back to and that we that stand the test of time, are the ones that are heartbreakingly original and definitive and that you can't forget.

Elizabeth Bowman:

Yeah, the audience seeks identity. We seek that.

Wallis Giunta:

So, in your training, even from the very first singing lesson, finding the balance between taking on board the training you receive and assimilating it and filtering it for what works and what doesn't work for you, that's a skill you have to learn as well. Yes, you know, do that process, be involved and immersed in that process, because you need it, you need to train, but don't let it hold you back from listening to your inner voice and finding your actual voice, both of those things that are the unique manifestation of who you are and what you have to say artistically.

Elizabeth Bowman:

Thanks for making the time to be on the podcast and I hope to see you when you are in New York.

Wallis Giunta:

Yeah, I'll be there in about a week.