Tenor John Mac Master ready to raise the voices of Âé¶čAV students
(Article by Richard Burnett, Montreal Gazette)
One of the finest operatic singers of his generation, tenor John Mac Master began his storied showbiz career in Montreal and the West Island singing in 1970s rock ânâ roll bar bands.
âMy longest-lasting band was called Jade, and we played Top 40 hits like Taking Care of Business and December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night),â says Mac Master, who was the bandâs charismatic, long-haired lead singer. âWe played bars like the John Bull Pub downtown and roadhouses on the lakeshore.â
It would be another couple decades before Mac Master â who earned a bachelorâs degree in theology from Loyola College (now Concordia University) and a licentiate in music (vocal performance) from Âé¶čAV â would get his big break. But he went on to conquer the opera world, performing with New Yorkâs Metropolitan Opera, the London Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Volksoper and OpĂ©ra national de Paris. He even played Ubaldo Piangi in The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway.
After an illustrious international career, the Moncton-born Mac Master, whose family moved to Laval when he was 12, returns to Montreal to teach classical vocal lessons at Âé¶čAVâs Schulich School of Music. Classes begin Friday, Sept. 2 in the Strathcona Music Building, where he himself studied from 1979 to 1981.
Today, the QS World University Rankings names the Schulich School of Music the top Canadian school in the performing arts category. Schulich has more than 850 students, and its 2016-2017 concert season features over 600 performances, including three fully staged Opera Âé¶čAV productions, complete with orchestra.
âÂé¶čAV got me on my way,â Mac Master recalls. âI was not a star â not by a long shot. I did not come gliding through here. There were lots of other students who were further along than me at that point. I was so green. It took me a long time to figure out what was going on. Big voices take longer to train â you grow into them.â
After Âé¶čAV, Mac Master landed a five-year stint as a professional chorister for the Canadian Opera Company. He then worked for a decade as a cantor in a Catholic church in New York, where he found voice teacher William Riley. Under Rileyâs tutelage, Mac Master flourished into a great dramatic tenor.
âThe key thing is building your instrument,â he says. âThatâs what (teachers are) all about when you find a young singer. Weâre teaching them to use what they have, but also build those muscles, like any kind of athletic activity. For the dramatic singer, you think, âThis could be a big voice one day.â Thatâs when theyâre 35, 40, 45 years old, and here they are 18 years old coming into university. So these big voices arenât ready yet.
âAs someone once told me, âYou have to stay alive until youâre 35.â You got to keep making money doing something, because itâs only going to come together in your 30s, and thatâs what happened for me. Being a cantor was a big deal, because I was singing all the time. I was making a living, singing 15 services a week.â
âI have made my living singing as a rock musician, a cantor or an operatic tenor,â says John Mac Master. âI did not have an easy path to my performing career, but I have earned my keep for 40 years, and thatâs a great blessing."
âI have made my living singing as a rock musician, a cantor or an operatic tenor,â says John Mac Master. âI did not have an easy path to my performing career, but I have earned my keep for 40 years, and thatâs a great blessing.
When Mac Master began auditioning again, he landed the role of Piangi in Andrew Lloyd Webberâs The Phantom of the Opera in Toronto in 1995. He reprised the role on Broadway at the Majestic Theatre, where the musical still runs.
âI was surprised how small and dingy the (Majestic) dressing rooms were,â Mac Master says. âBut Broadway is exciting because â like singing at the Met â itâs the top of the business in that genre.â
Mac Master made his operatic debut in 1997 with the San Francisco Opera as Aegisth in Elektra, but his breakout role (after several important European debuts) was in Pagliacci at Glimmerglass Opera near Cooperstown, N.Y., in 2002. The New York Times raved: âAs provocative as the staging was, the real news there was John Mac Masterâs portrayal of Canio. A Canadian tenor with a huge, powerful voice, he summoned every bit of the pathos and violence that the role demands.â
âThat review brought me to the attention of many opera companies who would hire me thereafter,â Mac Master says. âIt was an incredible turning point, and it would also be the role in which I would make my debut at the Met in 2005.
âYou know, when I moved to New York, I was going to the Met in standing room every night; I was watching Pavarotti or Domingo, all the greats. The idea that I would go from standing room to being on that stage â do you know how rare that is? I have been very blessed and very lucky, but I have worked like a dog.â
Mac Master, who is married and a father, says travelling the globe from gig to gig is hard work, though some cities can be especially fun. âI performed in Rosenkavalier at the OpĂ©ra national de Paris for three months (in 2002). Incredible production values, the most beautiful sets Iâd ever worked on. The French know how to eat and how to manage opera companies. The wine ainât bad either!â
Despite the general camaraderie among casts, Mac Master acknowledges he has dealt with big egos and diva behaviour.
âWhen you understand that bad behaviour comes out of nerves and insecurity, it helps you to not take offence,â he explains. âPeople are much more professional today than they were 40 years ago, because there are more singers in the business, and more pressure because there is less money. The opera world is also much more tight-knit since Facebook, since you know what everybody is doing each day, on productions around the world.â
While each cast becomes a surrogate family of sorts, Mac Master says one of his biggest thrills was when his parents flew to Vienna to see him perform in 1999.
âMy father came in after intermission at the Volksoper, sat down and said in English, âHeâs my son!â Turns out the guys down the line were from St. Catharines, Ontario! My parents were proud.â
Mac Masterâs strong work ethic continues to shape his career. In addition to becoming an assistant professor at Âé¶čAV, he remains a working musician: he will perform with maestro Boris Brott and the Âé¶čAV Chamber Orchestra (not associated with the university) in 2017, and with the OpĂ©ra de MontrĂ©al in 2018.
âI have made my living singing as a rock musician, a cantor or an operatic tenor,â says Mac Master. âI did not have an easy path to my performing career, but I have earned my keep for 40 years, and thatâs a great blessing. Lots of people want it and never get that opportunity.
âOne of the things I believe I have brought to my performances was empathy for a Grimes, Florestan, Canio or Otello, and I bring that to my teaching, too. I always had a fine voice, but it was a long journey to learn how to use it. So I have a lot of empathy and patience in guiding students on their journey.â