NEW YORK – For soprano Allen Perez, turning down the man she loves is part of her job these days. But accepting the marriage proposal in front of a live audience? That was once in a lifetime.
Perez is currently starring in the Metropolitan Opera as Tatiana, the shy country girl who is at first smitten with the arrogant title character in Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” – only to be promptly rejected.
Between performances, she was engaged in a happier romantic project, planning her wedding to the voice of Solomon Howard. Now that operas are back in action, it’s rare for two sought-after singers to be in the same place, but Perez said they hope to make it happen before September.
Howard suggested last September during the phone call after Puccini’s “Tosca” announcement in San Francisco Captured on video It made headlines. The pair have been together since before the pandemic and this was the first return of live shows in the US for both of them.
Perez insists she was surprised by the event.
Now, looking back, she said, he had arranged to receive my parents, sister, and cousin at the last show. “But I didn’t put them together.
“As soon as I stand up from my bow, I see Solomon get out of the line…The next thing I know is he raises his arm and silences the audience. I was panting, but I was listening. It was the first time I didn’t interrupt him.”
The crowd cheered after he got on his knee drowning out her response, but Perez said, “I just screamed! As loud as possible.”
This path from Tuscas marked a new stage not only in Perez’s personal life but also in her career. Moving outside her comfort zone, she explores roles that demand greater vocal heft than those in which they have been identified, such as Mimi in Puccini’s “La Boheme,” Violetta in Verdi’s “La Traviata” or the title character in Massenet’s Manon.” .
“I think I always knew a great lyrical reference would be my center,” she said. “But I really wanted to expand into another actor.”
She said at the age of 42, “Now is the time to do it. Otherwise, it would be a little too late. There is not enough time in any profession.”
That profession was indeed a wonderful profession. The daughter of Mexican immigrants was raised in Chicago, and studied opera at Indiana University and Philadelphia Academy of Vocal Arts She started her career after graduating in 2006.
“I’ve always found audio to be a beautiful and unique tool,” AVA audio coach Bill Schumann recalls. who was Perez’s teacher for many years. “She gives her voice in a loving way and shares it. It’s very addictive. I think all great singers have it.”
For a while she performed frequently with tenor Stephen Costello, a fellow AVA graduate she was married to for six years until they divorced. In 2012, she became the first Hispanic to win the Richard Tucker Award for Outstanding Young American Singers. Her Met debut came in 2015 as Liu in Puccini’s ‘Turandot’.
Tosca, with its demands for dramatic vocals on heavy orchestration, was certainly an “extension” but one critic agreed on its success.
“People have said, ‘Oh, that might be a bit early,’” recalls Gregory Henkel, art director at the San Francisco Opera. “But I was confident. I felt like he might be on the first side of the right.”
Tatiana, who also sings it for the first time, is, like Tosca, described by critic Zachary Wolff in The New York Times as “heavier vocals than the singing roles … for which she is best known at the Met.”
But, he added, “her urgency and commitment to the text helped make up for any lack of common sense.”
Puccini’s next new role she’s planning is the title character “Madama Butterfly,” and she also likes to sing “Suor Angelica,” which Schumann said would “be like wearing the perfect glove.”
Next season at the Met, she will reprise Alicia in Verdi’s Falstaff, and will debut another new role, Blanche, in Paulinck’s “Dialogues des Carmelites.” It’s a piece that has special meaning to her since it was created by Virginia Zinni, who taught her while in Indiana.
Joining the outlawed congregation of nuns during the French Revolution, Blanche struggles to overcome her fear of death during most operas before eventually joining her sisters in going to the guillotine.
“It’s really hard because how do you stay scared and anxious for two whole hours?” Perez said. “I really tend to wear the characters I draw. It affects me.”
But she is confident that she is mature enough to be able to separate her roles on stage from her personal feelings.
“I had a good 10 years figuring this out,” Perez said, “Okay, take a break from the character psyche. Get a life!”
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