It’s been nearly 30 years since Priti Gandhi started her opera career here when she auditioned for the San Diego Opera Chorus, with the starry-eyed dream of one day making her way to New York’s Metropolitan Opera. Last week, her dream came true.
Gandhi, who transitioned from opera singing to opera administration 10 years ago, has joined the Metropolitan Opera as the associate director of the Met’s Laffont Competition. Every July, more than 1,500 young singers apply to compete in the competition and five winners are selected the following March.
Many of America’s top opera singers were winners of the contest, which marks its 70th anniversary next year. They include Martina Arroyo, Grace Bumbry, Frederica von Stade, Renée Fleming, Deborah Voigt, Ben Heppner, Lawrence Brownlee and Anthony Roth Constanzo.
Gandhi, a soprano, herself competed in the Met’s San Diego district auditions after she joined the San Diego Opera Chorus in 1994 and she remembers the experience fondly.
“Though I was so green in my knowledge of the world of opera — and just starting the journey into vocal technique — I received an encouragement award that very first year. I’ll never forget how that affected me,” Gandhi said last week. “I recall that I had entered a crazy repertoire list that year as well. This didn’t stop the judges at the time from seeing that I had an instrument to explore. That validation to ‘keep going’ gave me a new layer of confidence and courage to keep stepping out in to the outer opera world.”
“The chance to be a part of creating those opportunities for singers after all these years is a privilege I would never have imagined,” Gandhi said. “I’m truly excited to be a part of it. And if you’d ever told me that one day, I would have a chance to work for the Met? I’m pretty sure I’ll have this crazy smile on my face for months to come.”
Gandhi, performed internationally for nearly 20 years before she was hired in 2013 as the artistic administrator for San Diego Opera. Five years later, she moved to Minnesota Opera where she served as chief artistic officer, and for the past two years she was the artistic director at Portland Opera in Oregon.
Her efforts to hire young singers and serve as a Laffont Competition judge in past years introduced her to Melissa Wegner, the executive director of the Met’s Laffont Competition and the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.
Wegner said Gandhi’s “depth and breadth of her experience was a perfect fit” for the associate director job.
“I’ve known Priti as a colleague for years,” Wegner said. “I know she had a really unique knowledge of the way the company operated. She also has the experience as a singer, but also the acumen as an administrator. You need that balance of the ability to function as an executive but have the heart of an artist and be able to communicate feedback to singers. We’re so thrilled to have her.”
Gandhi said her new job will involve quite a bit of traveling to regional competitions, though her home base will be at the Met in New York City’s Lincoln Center. The first live singing rounds for the 2023-24 competition begin this month and will continue through January, with the semifinals and final rounds in March. Then the process begins all over again next July.
The San Diego District competition will take place all day Nov. 4 at the Baker-Baum Concert Hall in La Jolla. A donation of $20 is requested to support the Laffont Competition, which Wegner said is organized by an army of volunteers nationwide who raise more than $500,000 each year for the singers. For details on the local competition, visit moncsd.com.
Possibly some of this year’s Laffont winners will end up on the Metropolitan Opera stage one day. Wegner said that the competition allows Met staff to scout new opera talent and share their feedback with the Met’s artistic staff.
“We’re all talking about what is the right opportunity for the right singer at the right time,” she said. “Our voices are heard and valued here.”
Garrison Keillor photographed in 2018.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Solo shows headed this way
This month, Seattle actor-playwright Sara Porkalob is onstage at Diversionary Theatre performing her one-woman play with music “Dragon Mama,” which tells her mother’s life. But Porkalob is just one of many solo theater artists who will soon be presenting their shows on area stages — most of them about real historical figures. Here’s the rundown:
“Garrison Keillor Tonight”: The retired radio raconteur will offer stand-up comedy, sing-alongs, poetry and stories from Lake Wobegon, the fictional Minnesota town he created for his long-running “Prairie Home Companion” show on National Public Radio. 7:30 p.m. Sunday. California Center for the Arts, Escondido, 340 N. Escondido Blvd., Escondido. $25-$75. (800) 988-4253, artcenter.org/events/.
Steven Oberman in “Play On”: San Diego actor-playwright Steven Oberman will star in this solo play, subtitled “Life Lessons from Dreaming Big,” inspired by his own experience of pursuing his lifelong dream of becoming a professional playwright. The show will feature excerpts from his catalog of plays and anecdotes of theatrical experiences and his dream of one day making it on Broadway. 7:30 p.m. Oct. 7; 2 p.m. Oct. 8. Broadway Theater, 340 E. Broadway, Vista. $15. (760) 728-1002, broadwayvista.biz/order-tickets.html.
Steven Oberman in his one-man play “Blurred at the Edges.”
(Steven Oberman)
Doug Davis in “Room Service? Send up a Larger Room”: Davis has been playing film funnyman Groucho Marx onstage off and on for 35 years. His latest solo show, which Davis co-wrote with his Broadway Theater cofounder Randall Hickman, will feature comedy, songs and little-known facts. Runs Oct. 13-28. Showtimes, 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. Broadway Theater, 340 E. Broadway, Vista. $27. (760) 728-1002, broadwayvista.biz/order-tickets.html.
Randy Otto in “Defending Liberty”: This actor-speaker-playwright has performed onstage as British prime minister Winston Churchill for more than 40 years. In his fifth and latest solo play, Churchill strategizse over the growing threat of communism as Russia’s victories in World War II threaten democracy. An “Ask Winston” Q&A session will follow each performance. 7:30 p.m. Nov. 6; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Nov. 7. North Coast Repertory Theatre, 987 Lomas Santa Fe Drive, Solana Beach. $37-$42. (858), 481-1055, northcoastrep.org.
Randy Otto as Winston Churchill in “Defending Liberty” at North Coast Repertory Theatre.
(Courtesy or Randy Otto)
Max McLean in “C.S. Lewis Onstage: Further Up and Further In”: New York city actor, playwright and Christian theater producer McClean will present this 90-minute play where Lewis, the British author of “The Chronicles of Narnia” and “The Screwtape Letters,” talks about his faith and how it influenced his life and work. 8 p.m. Oct. 28. California Center for the Arts, Escondido, 340 N. Escondido Blvd., Escondido. $59-$99. (800) 988-4253, artcenter.org/events/.
Ronnie Marmo in “I”m Not a Comedian … I’m Lenny Bruce”: Marmo co-wrote this 2017 solo play with Jason M. Burns about the life and edeath of the controversial stand-up artist and free speech champion. The play contains explicit language, mature content and brief nudity. 7:30 p.m. Nov. 30-Dec. 2; 2 p.m. Dec. 2-3. North Coast Repertory Theatre, 987 Lomas Santa Fe Drive, Solana Beach. $344-$49. (858), 481-1055, northcoastrep.org.
Michelle Azar stars in “All Things Equal — The Life and Trials of Ruth Bader Ginsburg” playing at the Balba Theatre in San Diego in March 2023.
(Courtesy of Steven Le / Thee Photo Ninja)
Michelle Azar in “All Things Equal: The Life and Trials of Ruth Bader Ginsburg”: San Diego Theatres presents the national touring production of this new solo play by Tony-winning playwright Rupert Holmes that offers an intimate look at the life and work of the late Supreme Court justice. 7:30 p.m. March 23; 2 p.m. March 24. Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave., San Diego. $30 and up. sandiegotheatres.org/backstage-pass
pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com