Bass-baritone Gidon Saks
A Master Singer, with Class

During a rehearsal for Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin at Seattle Opera, bass- baritone Gidon Saks noticed that one courtier took his role more seriously than the others and told him so. The chorus member was Gabriel MacDonald, a voice student at Shoreline Community College. That is how Gidon Saks came to hold a different kind of court at Shoreline’s music building on the sunny afternoon of Monday, June 20, 2005, by generously donating his time and expertise to provide a master class for Shoreline voice students.

Mr. Saks was in Seattle to sing in three of the four operas of Der Ring des Nibelungen. For the first and third opera, he was Fafner (a giant, then a dragon), and in the final opera, he was the evil Hagen, half man/half dwarf. In person, there’s nothing remotely threatening about the charming, urbane (not to mention tall and handsome) fellow who kept the master class riveted for three hours. Blame it on the voice type; in opera, the darker the voice, the darker the character.

The students who sang for Mr. Saks were sopranos Letitia Page, Jessica Smith, Kate Krueger, and Kimberly Carter, tenor Daniel Simpson, and baritones Evan Thomas and Michael Bezruchka.

Much of Mr. Saks’ advice and comments would be difficult to translate for the layperson without first explaining the rudiments of vocal pedagogy; however, in context, illustrated by gestures and examples, even the uninitiated could understand, and more importantly hear the difference.

A few choice Saksisms:

• (re: projecting the voice): one must burrow the baby bunnies through the hole without hurting them;
• Sing out of your belly button;
• Don’t touch the sides of your space with your breath. Give the breath color and shape (for instance, an electric blue wire) then pull it down gently all the way to China;
• Project your voice like a chiffon scarf in the wind;
• Be on a bicycle, not a Mack truck;
• Everything in singing is vertical. Nothing is horizontal, except the way you sign your name on the contract;
• What we are all searching for in singing is the clear path. We want to avoid all roadblocks and gates that aren’t well greased enough to open automatically;
• Interface with your music in a clear and passionate way, as you would in a pop song. I see students cut 70 percent off their tone to sing Mozart. Riff, scat, whatever you need to do to free up your sound. Sing it like an anthem. But whatever you do, don’t be polite and suburban!

Mr. Saks made his points with tact and clarity, and was able to adapt his method to suit the voice type, the result of years of giving master classes. A vocal crisis five years back forced him to rethink his own technique. “This happens to a good many singers at mid-life who have always relied on youthful strength and natural ability,” he said. He was one of the fortunate ones. “Most do not come out the other side.” Although still much in demand as a performer, he has joined the voice faculty of Ghent Hochschule, located near his home base in Belgium. A vocal assistant substitutes when his career takes him out of town. Eventually Mr. Saks hopes to branch out into directing and costume design.