UW opera director debuts on stage and in the classroom

Farlow recognized his calling early: “It mesmerized me to see how the notes on the page translated to the actor’s actions.”

William Farlow coaches a UW–Madison opera student. He is teaching undergraduate and graduate students in a School of Music workshop.

It was a century ago that pioneer American psychologist William James urged his readers to live fully in the now. William Farlow, newly arrived artistic director of the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Opera, recommends opera as a means of capturing that elusive present moment.

Opera’s interdisciplinary use of vocal and orchestral music, drama and often dance put it in prime position to bring the moment as live as it possibly can be, he says.

Farlow recognized his calling early. “By the time I was 15 I was playing violin with the university orchestra in my hometown” of El Paso, Texas, he says. Part of his duties there included working in the orchestra pit during live productions. “I found myself fascinated by what was going on onstage,” he recalls. “It mesmerized me to see how the notes on the page translated to the actors’ actions.”

Eventually, Farlow moved out of the pit and into the wings, learning what he could by helping local directors, costumers, music directors, choreographers and anyone else who ventured into his orbit.

Today, his credentials include directing productions for the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Los Angeles Music Center Opera, Canadian Opera and Pittsburgh Opera. Since 1993 he has directed the Opera Theater at the University of Arkansas- Fayetteville, and also has taught at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, the Saint Louis Conservatory of Music and more.

“The opportunity to teach really drew me to Wisconsin,” Farlow says. He began this fall by teaching about 15 undergraduate and graduate students in the School of Music’s opera workshop.

Teaching affords Farlow such a professional high because it offers another venue for immediacy, he says.

“Working with singers is very one-on-one. In orchestral or acting classes, the emphasis often is on how well the individual does in some kind of ensemble. But in opera workshop, every student is a soloist.”

Farlow’s teachers, whether formal or incidental, provided him with a professional compass he uses to this day.

“I learned a great deal from the musicians I worked with in the pit in El Paso,” he says. “Later, at the University of Texas-Austin, I learned it was possible to demand professional quality from university opera.”

That standard has been in operatic play at Wisconsin for more than 30 years, under the legendary baton of the now-retired Karlos Moser. Indeed, UW–Madison’s Opera offers some rare characteristics that Farlow plans to exploit fully.

“There’s such strong community support here with the friends’ organization (Opera Props),” he says. He adds he is pleased The Opera enjoys an ongoing relationship with the UW–Madison Department of Theatre and Drama. The University Theatre and The Opera traditionally present a joint production in spring, and that will be the case again this year, although specifics haven’t been settled.

Meanwhile, Farlow debuts as stage director of The Opera Oct. 29 and 31 with a program of one-act operas conducted by fellow School of Music faculty member James Smith.

“I’ve been driving him crazy, not telling him what he’s going to be conducting,” Farlow says. “But it’s so important to wait until I can hear the singers. It’s what teaching is all about: Seeing what an individual voice needs at a particular moment in its development and then giving that voice as much opportunity as possible to present its strengths. That’s why I’m here, because my teachers gave me that opportunity. Now I hope I can pass that gift along to the next generation.”