‘Drag Race’ Star to Play Historical Role at Colorado Opera

The Duchess of Crackenthorpe in Daughter of the Regiment is a grande dame, an exorbitantly wealthy woman whose son is expected to marry the opera’s heroine, Marie.

Historically, the role has been a spoken word, and a number of celebrities and notable figures have graced opera stages around the world as the diva duchess, including Golden Girls actress Bea Arthur, a legend of stage and screen. Kathleen Turnerand the late US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, an avid opera fan who received thunderous applause after delivering her lines in Washington National Opera production at the Kennedy Center in 2016..

In Opera Colorado’s first performance of Donizetti’s comedic opera, the powerfully vocal drag star takes on the Duchess of Crackenthorpe.

Monet X ChangeWHO amazed the judges with her singing during an appearance on RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars, she appears as the Duchess on Denver Opera House Ellie Caulkins, November 9–17.. The classically trained singer is thrilled to be performing with opera companies across the United States recently. It’s a long-time dream she once said goodbye to after she was “bitten by the drag bug.” Now that she has her feet firmly planted in both worlds, Monet has found a cross between opera and drag. She also believes that using some of these similarities could attract new and younger audiences to this centuries-old art form.

“Opera, we wear a little more blush,” said Monet, who was one of two queens to win the fourth season of Drag Race: All Stars.. “To be a successful drag queen and a successful opera singer, you must be very aware of your talents and should never take no for an answer.” Many of the skills I learned as queen will also be useful in opera.”

Monet’s performances at Opera Colorado are a reprisal for her role. She made her debut in this role in 2023 at the Minnesota Opera – this was an important milestone in the career of the artist, who calls opera one of her first creative interests. And as with her Minnesota performances, the Duchess of Crackenthorpe’s latest interpretation of Monét X Change will feature a singer performing a chosen aria in her Colorado performances.

Ryan Taylor, president and general manager of the Minnesota Opera, saw Monet perform a Bellini aria on “RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars” and said it seemed to spark interest in the opera among the general public.

“We are always grateful when artists with a wide audience advocate for this art form widely and joyfully,” Taylor said.

Then, when the Minnesota Opera team was looking for “an established actor with tremendous comedic talent and an interest in performing in the opera house,” Monet came to mind.

Monet was stunned by the reaction to her Bellini aria and “how much of the opera community said, ‘Wow, this queen has chops,'” she said. Then she received an email from Taylor asking if she would ever be interested in performing with an opera company.

“I thought: Yes! And here we are. The rest is her history,” she said.

Monet was also shocked by the thought of being in the company of the people playing the role of the prior of the Duchess of Crackenthorpe: “In the multiverse of operatic madness, there is a role in which Ruth Bader Ginsburg and I played the same thing. . It’s kind of wild. I think it’s cool.”

It turns out that lip syncing is telling stories in a foreign language.

After graduating from college, the drag star participated in the opera’s young artist program, but an invitation to the Minnesota Opera marked her operatic debut on the main stage. And since she can sing, the Minnesota Opera team thought it would be a shame not to take advantage of that by adding an aria for the Duchess to sing. In fact, there is a tradition in comedy operas that gives characters creative license to sing repertoire outside of that opera’s score. The chosen composition works best when it is thematically connected, and in Colorado Opera’s production Monet will perform the aria “Vendetta” from The Marriage of Figaro.

Opera Colorado General Director and Artistic Director Greg Carpenter said the show’s artistic team came together and settled on “Vendetta” to heighten the drama and tension between the Duchess of Crackenthorpe and the Marchioness of Berkenfield. The two characters are often in conflict, and “‘Vendetta’ is about getting revenge on someone, and I felt like that was perfect for Monáe’s voice and her voice category,” Carpenter said.

Monet likes that the aria reflects “her heroine’s vengeful streak, which arises from the fact that the Marquise lies to me.”

“It’s coupled with the distress and eccentricity of this opera, and so the fact that I’m playing this rich woman who gets annoyed by people, honestly, that’s what sold me on the whole role,” she said.

Monet credits opera with giving her skills that have been invaluable in her career. The artist has a higher education in opera performance. Westminster Choir Collegewhich is located on the campus of Rider University in New Jersey. While in school, she took a class called “The Singing Actor,” in which she and her classmates performed an exercise in which they lip-synced to a recording of one of their favorite operas. The goal was to learn how to embody the feelings and intentions of the music without saying a single note out loud.

“I had to learn to tell stories in a foreign language, not to sing, but to lip sync. It’s a connection because I believe lip-syncing is an art form that queens cultivate and perfect,” she said.

Perhaps opera is accessible to everyone, not just the old and rich.

Although Monet’s love of opera dates back to her school days in New York, she credits her choir director with introducing her to the classics and “educating us about the beauty of classical music” Monet initially thought that this genre was not for her, but she fell head over heels in love.

“What I found in classical music was that I appreciated, for lack of a better word, the structural integrity of the music, right? Love seeing how all these pieces come together and work together to create this sonic wall of beauty,” she said. “You have this spiritual moment and you don’t realize that literally the music is causing it.”

However, she also thinks the opera world could do with shaking things up a little more. She even dreamed up a queen-versus-queen version of Mozart’s The Magic Flute with drag queens as the Queen of the Night and the Sun Priest.

“I think this could be a really fun production that will expose young people to the beauty of opera,” Monet said. “Show people that opera can be cool not only because the music is cool, but the production can be cool too“

There was some intentionality in promoting the idea that opera was mainly for “people with money or rich old white people,” Monet said, adding that it did a disservice to the art form and the potential opera lovers who came to it faith. this opera is not for them.

Opera Colorado’s Carpenter agrees. He hopes Monet will attract new audiences to the production of Daughter of the Regiment and believes that attracting more people to the opera house is something many artistic directors are thinking about.

“I think the industry, and I definitely put myself in the same category, we need to recognize opera as a form of entertainment,” Carpenter said. “Because in the world we now live in, our competitors are not only the symphony, ballet, theater, music, Broadway, etc. Our competitors now sit at home, watch Netflix and go out to dinner.”

Carpenter said it’s also important to help people see opera as a living, breathing and evolving art formwhich may include programming new operatic works, highlighting some timeless themes in older works, or updating classics. Monet, who will return to Denver for one-man show In the new year, he said, people just want to consume good art, be it theatre, dance, music, Netflix shows or opera.

“Yes, (opera) is a little more formal. Yes, it sounds a little different. But I just think there’s so much beauty there,” she said. “And when you go see a good production, it’s just good art.”

Article type: News

Based on facts observed and verified directly by the reporter or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.