{"id":7235,"date":"2011-02-25T08:42:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-25T13:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/news\/article.php?ArticleID=7235"},"modified":"2011-02-25T08:42:00","modified_gmt":"2011-02-25T13:42:00","slug":"7235_alumnus-christopher-mattaliano-delivers-sacher-lecture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/2011\/02\/25\/7235_alumnus-christopher-mattaliano-delivers-sacher-lecture\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumnus Christopher Mattaliano Delivers Sacher Lecture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Speaking to a large, attentive audience of Montclair State University students, faculty, and staff, noted opera stage director, educator, and current general director of the Portland Opera<\/a>, Christopher Mattaliano \u201979, spoke about his career, and shared stories and advice at the Jack Sacher Memorial Alumni Lecture held in the Jed Leshowitz Recital Hall on February 23.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A former student of the late Professor Sacher, Mattaliano related the story of his life from his central New Jersey roots through his student days as a theatre arts major to his present position at the Portland Opera. He told how each step in his career could be traced back to his days at Montclair State, and to what he learned and the connections he made through his former professor.<\/p>\n

\u201cDr. Sacher was very much the one who got me focused as a student\u2026.He was the one who got me serious,\u201d acknowledged Mattaliano. \u201cHe never said it to me but there was something about him that just inferred, \u2018Clean up your act and get serious about what you\u2019re doing. Life is short; college life is very short; so clean up your act, get focused, and get serious\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

That \u201cadvice\u201d obviously paid off for the budding director as he went on to be a success not only at the Portland Opera, but also as a stage director of operas around the world, and as an educator at institutions such as the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, and Yale University, Mannes College of Music. He has directed productions for the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, San Francisco Opera, the Canadian Opera Company, and L\u2019Opera de Montreal, among many others, and his work has been performed at L\u2019Opera de Nice and the Norwegian National Opera.<\/p>\n

Judging by the many questions from the floor, Mattaliano\u2019s talk clearly resonated with the audience\u2014many of whom were aspiring singers. In response to an inquiry about what he looks for in a singer at an audition, Mattaliano responded: \u201cI look for someone to tell me a story when they sing\u2014your job as a singer is to communicate\u2026The singer who connects and tells a story\u2014that\u2019s the singer that pops out for me. That\u2019s the singer I sit up and listen to because they reveal the music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mattaliano also stressed the value of making the most of educational opportunities. \u201cThe best training in the world exists right here in this country,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd as music students, I encourage you to really embrace that.\u201d <\/p>\n

There were also words of caution about trying to follow the advice of too many people. In order to avoid being pulled in too many directions, the director recommended that singers listen to only one or two trusted teachers or advisors and to do what feels right to them. <\/p>\n

\u201c[Opera is] the one art form [in which] everyone has a real strong opinion about what you should and should not be singing, what roles you should be studying, what you should do to adjust your technique,\u201d he cautioned, then added with a chuckle, \u201cThere\u2019s no other profession where everyone<\/em> is such an expert as there is in opera!\u201d<\/p>\n

Sponsored by the John J. Cali School of Music and named for the beloved professor and former chair of what was then the Department of Music, the Jack Sacher Memorial Alumni Lecture series was established to honor Jack Sacher and a Montclair State University graduate who has established a distinguished career in music. The series gives current students a chance to learn about different arts professions and to see where their Montclair State education could take them.<\/p>\n

For Christopher Mattaliano\u2019s full bio, go to General Director<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speaking to a large, attentive audience of Montclair State University students, faculty, and staff, noted opera stage director, educator, and current general director of the Portland Opera, Christopher Mattaliano \u201979, spoke about his career, and shared stories and advice at the Jack Sacher Memorial Alumni Lecture held in the Jed Leshowitz Recital Hall on February […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":107235,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/john-j-cali-school-of-music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}