(Photo credit: Matt Madison Clark)

Evan LeRoy Johnson is an American tenor who received the Barbara and Stanley Richman Memorial Award from the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, where he was a Gerdine Young Artist. He has performed widely in his home country and has made acclaimed debuts for numerous European opera houses, including Bayerische, Oper Frankfurt, Opernhaus Zürich and Norwegian National Opera. His leading roles include Bizet’s Don José and Puccini’s Rodolfo and Pinkerton. He recently performed to critical acclaim at the BBC Proms broadcast production of “Carmen”.

OperaWire caught up with Evan in London.

OperaWire: Congratulations on your recent Glyndebourne season in “Carmen”. How was the experience for you and how did the BBC proms recording of your performance go?

Evan LeRoy Johnson: Interesting that you asked about those two experiences because in a way I see them as almost polar opposites. Glyndebourne, the thing I love about Glyndebourne is the intimacy, in that it is only, I think, 1,200 seats. And so just what you can play vocally and dramatically in a space like that is very different from what works in Royal Albert Hall, which is around 5,500 capacity. It’s a massive space. Both really special and unique spaces, but radically different experiences, I would say. The thing I love about Glyndebourne is that it’s just, it’s not only the music… It’s also the artists they choose for their shows. Glyndebourne has provided some wonderful opportunities for young singers, myself included!  And that, mixed with the theatre and just the ambiance of being in the countryside.

I’m a country boy. I grew up in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by farms in Minnesota. So just being able to perform in a place that I’m looking out of my dressing room and there’s green hills and sheep….and I somehow feel more at home performing there than a lot of places where you’re in a big city here like London, and it’s just a lot of, a lot of noises, and a lot of…. I don’t want to say distractions…. but just a lot of  stuff going on. So, for me I really enjoyed being able to do my craft in a place that also fits who I am off of the stage.

But the Proms was like, quite an experience. It was most definitely the largest audience I have sung for! While Royal Albert Hall and Glyndebourne are on different ends of the spectrum in terms of size and intimacy, the bubble of dramatic storytelling still felt concentrated on the stage of such a large hall as it did in a smaller theatre.

OW: Tell me about your musical education. I believe you’re currently at the Bavarian State Ensemble?

ELJ: I did my graduate degree at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. I did four years there, and yeah, I’m currently living in Germany. I also did four years of college at the University of Kentucky, GO CATS!. It’s interesting, like any country it has a lot of positive things and a lot of things that I still am trying to find my way in. I was only a member for two years and I have returned to my guesting career this year. It was such an important stage in my development as an artist to spend time as a permanent member at a house. As a solo artist you are often not around a place long enough to see and experience the multiple layers that go into making a large company like Bayerische Staatsoper run. Through experience and repetition, it also taught me new ways of approaching my performing. In particular, learning how to manage and succeed in a Wiederaufnahme was crucial. At first it was so stressful to imagine mounting an entire production in four or five rehearsals, well, it still is, but I can manage it much better! My favourite part about Germany, I must say, as shallow as it is, are the Alps. They’re only about two hours away, and I’ve done, I don’t know how many summits, maybe 40 or so mountains in the last three years that I’ve been there, and so anytime I get a few days and it’s good weather, I’m out there hiking in the hills and on the mountains and it’s absolutely spectacular.

OW: So how did you end up in Bavaria?

ELJ: So I had done actually several guest contracts there. I had sung Cassio in a new production of “Otello” with Jonas Kaufmann, Anja Harteros and Gerald Finlay, with Kirill Petrenko. That was my debut at the Bavarian State Opera. Then about a year later I did Narraboth in “Salome”. And then I came back for several reiterations of those two operas. And during COVID, I got an offer to join the ensemble. In addition to singing at such a great house, one would also receive a reliable pay check. If I can be a little more polite to the Staatsoper! It would have been nice if I had started a little bit earlier of course, but the idea of just being centered somewhere and being connected with that opera house was very intriguing.

OW: Talk to me about your repertoire, which I consider to be quite diverse. I hear you as more of, probably a spinto tenor, I know fach can be a controversial thing, but where do you see yourself?

ELJ: I see myself as able to go in several directions, depending on how I build my repertoire and the choices that I make in the next five to ten years. I would love to be a spinto, a Lirico spinto. I have my eyes set on Verdi, just because it’s absolutely some of the best music ever written and it just somehow excites me; I think Italian music, in particular, comes from the heart and the soul. And German music to me is often, at times, the HEAD and the soul, but it lacks this warmth and this kind of just over-expression and this explosive…. I don’t know…. warmth is the word that keeps coming to my mind. And I think that’s the thing that grabbed me very early on and brought me into opera, was Puccini. Some of those roles by Verdi and Puccini are definitely very dear to me, along with “Cavalleria Rusticana”, “Pagliacci”, some of these, Verismo roles, just I love those so much.

OW: Yes, I know you’ve sung and performed Rodolfo and Pinkerton. Would you like to have a go at “Turandot”?

ELJ: Oh! Kalaf someday for sure, absolutely. I would love to take a shot at that in probably 10 years I would say. To go a little bit backwards when you’re asking how I see myself right now? I call myself a full lyric with some spinto qualities. In regards to my direction, I think I’ve been pushed to heavier repertoire very early on, and sang Don Jose at 23/24-years-old, which is incredibly heavy.

OW: Do you think that has had any sort of detrimental effect on your voice at all, that you were perhaps pushed into heavier roles, earlier on?

ELJ: I think in my case, I have the luxury of being a big guy. So in a lot of those scenarios maybe the voice isn’t ready for that, but I can make it work because I can kind of use my muscles, I can use my size to sell it. I think long term, if I had continued to sing Don José more and more, you know, several times a year, as a standard part of my repertoire going into my, you know, late 20s and 30s…….I think by now, had I started doing, I mean, Cavaradossi, these kind of things…. I would see less of the lyricism, less of the clarity in my voice.

I’ve had several people in my life though, particularly my teacher, Neil Shicoff, that have said, “Hey! slow down. Don’t do that. You’ve got time. Develop. Take your time. Learn through some of these lighter roles. Get the voice in you. Get it together. And then later on, you will have your chance. You will get there”.

And I really listened to that.

I mean, it was hard to hear, especially when you get some of these really juicy offers and you’re like:
“Oh, I’ve wanted to sing this forever. Yes, yes!” Everything is saying “I want to do this!”.

It’s been hard to say: “Not yet”. Feeling like those opportunities might go by or that, you know, maybe people will change their minds.

But I think, having come back to Don José six years later, something like that, this time, it was really eye-opening to see that what I’ve done in the meantime has allowed me to really sing the role how I think it should be, and in a way that not only has the elements of dramatic and lyric, but is also like, I was able to sing ten shows in two weeks and I still had voice. It wasn’t an over-extension of my capabilities. And I think I want to remind myself of that so I can have the opportunity to have a career for as long as I can.

OW: I didn’t realize that one of your teachers had been Neil Schicoff. He’s a very fine tenor. Do you still study with him?

ELJ: Yes. we meet up about two to three times a year for usually two or three lessons in a row. Typically, we have worked together in Frankfurt and once we worked while I was at Glyndebourne though this year we were not at the festival at the same time.

His French repertoire, I don’t know if you’ve ever come across his Romeo. I’m preparing it now for my next role, my debut in that and I think his might be one of my favourites. I love Carreras but Neil has some online….It is from a 1982 Paris production with Barbara Hendricks as Juliet, so I think he was in his early 30’s like me! It’s been great working with him because he was one of my inspirations; his Hoffmann, his Lensky……

I discovered him a little bit before going to Curtis and then had the opportunity and made some connections and said: “Hey, can I work with him?” And my first lesson with him, I sang Lensky. And he got right to work. He got right to work and said: “All right, I’m going to help you”.

And it’s been quite a journey with him. He’s tough on me, but I think he’s also been that person that will tell me exactly what he thinks, and his ears are fantastic.

OW: You mentioned him as being an inspiration. Who else served as an inspiration for you and when did you decide that opera was the path for you?

ELJ: I had a really interesting upbringing. Like I said, I grew up really in the country on a gravel road, you know, I think a 12-minute drive from the nearest town. I was actually homeschooled, so I spent all of my time basically in the woods, learning at home. I have three siblings, and we all played piano. We were all part of a choir. My mother conducted some homeschool choirs. I was a pianist. Actually, like I said, we all played piano. I was also an organist.

We also all played brass instruments at one point or another. I was a trumpet player. So, we had a family brass ensemble. So, there was a lot of music going on. My mother was very passionate about classical music. I think she always kind of dreamed about being a classical musician.

I must say many of my siblings are very, very musically gifted as well. Specifically, my sister is still in the business. She is the Principal Coach and Chorus Director at Minnesota Opera, and we’re actually doing a recital in November together, and we’ve done some Dichterliebe and a couple of other recitals together, and that’s just a really special thing to be able to share the stage with, especially someone you’ve grown up with, that you have this trust.

I also grew up going to Minnesota opera that had these…I think they still do it…the final dress rehearsal where they’ll invite school kids. So, they’ll just have buses in, coming in, all the kids. So, I grew up going to the opera from about age seven. And I must say, very early on, I wasn’t very interested. I would always fall asleep. I would say that the memory that I have where I decided, this is amazing…I want this…I get this…was Pavarotti, his recording of “La bohème” with Freni and von Karajan leading the Berlin Philharmoniker was probably the first recording that I just absolutely devoured and memorized the whole thing.

And then Corelli was my second, the second tenor I found, and I was like: “What is this?! What is this voice?” I listen to him still and I’m: “It’s so amazing! I can’t handle it!” (Laughs)

The thing that got me about Corelli is just that it sounds like a lion, I think. Just this kind of animal. Especially at the top, it just has this….it’s like a roar, almost, that I think I am going to search my whole life to try and get close to that.

And Pavarotti, for me, the way he handled his voice; he had such craft and such, you could tell it was his, that he MADE that. But also…I think there’s something…he didn’t read music very well, and there was just something so special about his connection to the music. He wasn’t really from a musical family, but he did all the right steps to get there. It just seems…I can hear it in his voice…that he figured it out on his own. It has always jumped out to me so strongly how he uses his voice with precise movements and killer accuracy. And I think I heard that very early…I just…I just have these memories of walking around in the woods thinking: “I think I can figure it out too. I think so. I hear what he’s doing. I think I can do it”

OW: So, Romeo and Juliette next for you in Minnesota. When are you next in the UK?

ELJ: No plans yet, I’m interested to see how my Proms performance a couple of days ago will stir up any interest in the London area. I think it went well. I was really proud of myself. You know nerves are a scary thing. That feeling of going out on stage, on a stage you’ve never been on, doing a debut in a city, you know, wanting it to go so well, having all these expectations for yourself. And the thing that I walked off stage feeling the most proud of, whether every note was perfect or not, was that I was able to be in that sort of high pressure scenario and still have the focus that I had for it and not have the fear and the anxiety, which is, you know, something that I think every performer deals with at some point in their career. I mean, we look like we’re confident, we look like we’re strong on stage, but inside there’s sometimes a storm inside of, can I do this? Am I good enough? What if it goes wrong? What if I forget something? And for me, the battles and victories I fight are usually internal.

Actually, it’s interesting what it has taught me; I think I’ve developed a better mindset about those scenarios in that for me this is kind of feeling unsafe; feeling like you know it’s telling my body and my mind: “Oh! there’s so many people watching!” I’m somehow in some sort of danger, you know? I would say that just like the anxiety, that fear. And the thing that has helped me work through a lot of that stuff, that fear on stage, is being in scenarios in the mountains and being in scenarios that are actually much more realistically dangerous where things could go wrong. And in those scenarios, I do not miss a beat, and I know exactly what to do and I do it and I’m fine. And it goes well. And I’ve had fortunate experiences where I haven’t been injured, and that it’s gone well in the mountains.

But every time I start feeling a little, you know, worried about: “What if this B-flat is not what I want, or what if I forget my words”? I go: “Well, you know, I was 15 feet between a moose and her baby. And I got out of the way in time, and I did not get crushed. And so, I’m not in front of a moose!”

I’ve done some like winter stuff in the Alps and a little bit of exposed hiking, you know, just by myself, in some scenarios, some bouldering like off the trail. I take a 70-pound pack sometimes, like it’s very heavy to do bouldering and going over ridges and dropping 3,000 feet sometimes at a time. It’s very challenging and dangerous. The feelings of fear that I experience in the wilderness, in tough circumstances, and how I overcome those fears are directly applicable to my career on stage even though the scenarios are so different.

I just say: “No, just keep going. Just tell the story, just keep going.”. And every time I’ve done that, the rest of the performance has gone great. I stay in the moment, I stay along the path, and I don’t have that freeze moment. And I learned that in the mountains.

OW: So look, you have “Romeo and Juliette”, “Onegin”, what else is on the horizon for you?

ELJ: So, I had an offer for Cavaradossi about six months ago. I ended up taking another opportunity that was a little bit better fitted to me and everything, and as I was looking at it, I wasn’t quite ready. It’s interesting as you sing a role, even as you start the rehearsal process to the end of a run, I do slight improvements for each show, and I learn how to navigate that particular role. And a lot of times it’s also what fach, you know, it’s slightly different. I’m going to adjust my voice differently for Rodolfo than for Jose. I would love to add Cavaradossi to my repertoire, I think, in the next little bit. I think that’s a big one. That’s the one that I’ve wanted to sing for eons at the moment. It was my favourite opera I would say from very early on and that’s still, I think, way up there.

I am returning to some lyric roles such as Lensky and Rodolfo this season as well as a new role: Giasone in “Medea” by Cherubini! In the coming years I do hope to add Cavaradossi to my repertoire as well though. It has been interesting to sing a larger role like Jose than much of my lyric repertoire to see how the voice grew, matured, and adjusted throughout the rehearsals and performance period and by the end I had new interest in applying what I have learned to larger roles of Puccini for the future.