As a rising opera star, when is it a good time to have a child?
"Is there ever a good time?" asks soprano Talise Trevigne. "I think anytime is a good time."
Trevigne, 31, knows what she's talking about. She's the proud single mother of a 3-year-old son, Samuel.
Since Samuel's birth, Trevigne has managed to pull off the high-wire act of maintaining an opera career that now spans three continents while raising her child on one continent.
"I am asked a lot how I juggle motherhood and career, especially by women in the business," Trevigne said from her apartment and home base in New York City.
When she's not shuttling her son to preschool every morning, she's apt to be performing in such far-flung places as Ireland, Australia – and even Sacramento.
Trevigne will perform Richard Strauss' "Four Last Songs" with the Sacramento Philharmonic on Saturday at the Community Center Theater. That program will include the orchestra performing Edward Elgar's "Enigma Variations" and an excerpt from Miklos Rozsa's choral suite from the film "Ben-Hur."
While here, Trevigne will be parenting from a distance.
"I'm really fortunate in that I have a lot of support," she said. Trevigne combines the services of a part-time nanny and her mother to cover child care.
"I'm fortunate that Samuel is definitely part of a village that has all these people that pull together and help me."
After her Philharmonic performance, Trevigne will sing in Liza Lim's new opera "The Navigator" in Australia, and she is cast this fall as Gilda in a Dublin Opera Festival production of Giuseppi Verdi's "Rigoletto."
So far, juggling career and single motherhood has gone smoothly. But it didn't start out that way.
Four years ago, when Trevigne found out she was pregnant, the first thought that raced through her mind was that motherhood would end her budding career. At the time, she was married, and she and her husband weren't planning to start a family.
"I remember getting the call and just sitting there holding my mobile phone thinking, 'Now I have to call my manager and my mother.' "
One of her biggest fears was that it would take a lot of hard work to get back into the opera field after having a baby. So she kept working. Trevigne performed throughout her pregnancy. A week before Samuel was born, she was doing a recital of Robert Schumann's music in New York's Trinity Church. A month after giving birth, Trevigne was on a plane to Morocco, with son in tow, for the filming of the Judith Weir opera "Armida."
Several months after giving birth, Trevigne began working more than she had done previously – and with sharper focus.
A typical day for Trevigne starts at 6:30 a.m. when Samuel wakes up. Trevinge drops him off at a Montessori school by 9:30 a.m. After that, Trevigne spends time at the gym keeping her body fit, a pursuit that has become vital for today's aspiring opera singer.
She later meets with her manager before heading off to a rehearsal or a vocal practice. By 4 p.m., she is back home with her son. The chance for downtime does not come until her son is in bed at 8:30 p.m.
"Motherhood has put me on a better schedule, and it's made me incredibly organized," she said. "It's also made me more responsible and diligent, and it's made me work harder.
"I want to teach my son by example. I want him to see that if there is something you want, and you work hard for it, you can attain it."
One of the things Trevigne is giving her son is her musicality. At 3, Samuel is already singing passages of music back to her, on key, she said proudly.
Trevigne's musical education did not begin in earnest until her freshman year at Los Altos High School. It was there that she was first coached by choral director Mark Shaull, a highly regarded music teacher. (Schaull won an Educator of the Year Award from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1989.)
"She was a very excited singer but not all that focused with her discipline," said Shaull. "But as we worked, and she and I had more of a glimmer of her voice, it was clear she had a very unique talent.
"Her voice is extraordinarily and beautifully colored. It's the kind of soprano that you can listen to all night."
Until then, her great interests were cheerleading and ballet. "Mark plucked me away from cheerleading and all the things I was doing," Trevigne said, "and said, 'You really need to be singing.' "
During Trevigne's senior year, Shaull introduced her to her first voice teacher: Page Swift, a longtime San Francisco Opera chorus member and noted South Bay teacher.
"I had two lessons with her, and she said, 'I think you should audition for Juilliard.' "
The suggestion was shocking for Trevigne. At 17, she had never even sung seriously for her mother.
Ultimately, Trevigne chose to audition at the Manhattan School of Music, where she was offered a scholarship. There she studied under esteemed soprano Adele Addison.
"I learned how to sing there – from scratch," said Trevigne. "Addison was my mentor; she helped to establish the fundamentals of who I am today as an artist. She made me a complete musician, not just a singer."
The approach of a singer with the big musical picture is one that Trevigne will employ when she performs Strauss' "Four Last Songs."
"I call it big-girl-grown-up music," said Trevigne.
Strauss wrote the four songs for soprano and orchestra. He died in 1949, a few months before the premiere in 1950. The work is a deeply rendered tale of a person's journey through life's four seasons on to death.
"As I get older and gain a little more life experience, there are many different layers and colors I've gleaned from the text that I didn't necessarily see before," Trevigne said.
THE SACRAMENTO PHILHARMONIC WITH TALISE TREVIGNE
WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday
WHERE: Community Center Theater, 1301 L St.
TICKETS: $15-$75 (student tickets half price)
INFORMATION: (916) 264-5181 or www.sacphil.org
Call arts critic Edward Ortiz, (916) 321-1071.
