Opera singer and alum Michael Chioldi talks ‘Falstaff,’ life as a performer and how WVU put him on the path to success

World-renowned opera baritone and WVU School of Music alumnus Michael Chioldi was recently back among the Appalachian Mountains for a run of Giuseppe Verdi’s “Falstaff” at the Pittsburgh Opera. 

For the Avonmore, Pennsylvania, native, it was like a homecoming. Family members, friends from high school and college, WVU fans and even WVU faculty came to see him perform as the title character. 

Chioldi graduated from WVU in 1991 with a  bachelor’s degree in Music Education, and then went on to earn a  master’s degree in Music, with an emphasis in performance, from Yale. In the decades since, he has performed at nearly every major America opera house and on stages across the U.S., South America, Europe and Asia. 

He has performed with symphony orchestras around North America and Europe, and he has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors.

When he isn’t performing, Chioldi teaches masterclasses for students at universities around the country and teaches professionals at his small private studio in New York City. 

Q: Why did you choose to study Music Education at WVU?

Chioldi: I wasn’t sure I going to be a singer. I knew I was talented and I really liked to sing, but I wasn’t sure it could be my career. It wasn’t until my junior year at WVU that I thought, “Maybe I could really do this.” Before WVU, I had sung in the church and school choirs, but I hadn’t taken voice lessons. 

Dr. Bill Taylor was the coordinator of voice and opera at the time, and he’s the one who told me and my parents I could have a career in singing. I really owe a lot to him and to WVU because of that.

Q: Do you have a favorite WVU memory?

Chioldi: Well, I got really into the football games, as you do at WVU, so I ended up renting an apartment that overlooked the stadium, and I used to have tailgate parties all the time. I know the fight song so well that I would get other people singing it at the games. I was actually singing the fight song the other day to some alums and professors, and they didn’t even know it. I was like, “How do you not know that?” So, I have a lot of WVU pride.

I had a lot of great friends there, and the social aspect of the school was helpful for me. It made me want to stay on campus and do more with the university.

I’ve been back several times to do masterclasses with students, and I did an artist-in-residency there about five or six years ago. 

Q: How do you think WVU prepared you for a career in the performing arts?

Chioldi: Dr. Taylor was very good for me, and I developed a great groundwork for my technique. Plus, I got to sing in many performances while I was at WVU, including a choir tour that was a lot of fun. 

In general, my teachers at WVU were smart and just wanted the best for me. They guided me well, and if I was having any issues, they addressed it in a kind and supportive way.

Dr. Taylor was incredibly invested in my future, but as much as he wanted me to stay at WVU for my master’s, he helped make sure I could go anywhere I wanted. He had all these connections from being high up in the National Association of Teachers of Singing. He actually taped a couple of my lessons on cassette tapes and sent them to his colleagues. So, I got into Arizona University, the Ohio State University and Florida State University before I had even started looking at conservatories like Juilliard, Manhattan School of Music or Yale. 

He wanted me to get the best education I could possibly get, and he was so selfless about it. I’m not sure that would have happened at any other university. 

Q: Why choose to pursue opera?

Chioldi: Growing up, my brother was a classical pianist, my sister also took lessons and my grandfather was Italian, so there was always classical music in my ear. I fell in love with it. 

But, if I’m being honest, I really wanted to be an actor when I was in high school. I fell in love with the stories. 

When I got to WVU and pursued singing, I wasn’t sure if I was going to do musical theatre or opera, and my voice took me in one direction as opposed to the other. I had more of a classical sound, and doors were opening for me in that genre, so I followed that path. 

Q: Was there a specific moment when you really felt like singing opera could be your career? 

Chioldi: I started to realize that this might be a viable option for me when I got into Yale University. I started to feel more sure about it when I got into some of the high-profile young artist programs like the Santa Fe Opera’s Apprentice for Singers program and Merola Opera Program in San Francisco, which are two of the best in the nation. 

I think I really felt it when I was at the Houston Grand Opera, singing with major stars of the operatic world and holding my own. I knew then that I had a future and that I was very fortunate. 

My first big job out of Houston was as the title character in the “Barber of Seville” with the Washington National Opera. Then I made my New York Metropolitan Opera debut shortly after that as Fléville in “Andrea Chénier” with Luciano Pavarotti. I was only 25, and it was an amazing experience for me. 

It’s been a wonderful career and still continues to be 30 years later. 

Q: What is it like to be a full-time, working performer?

Chioldi: This career doesn’t keep traditional hours and schedules. I usually try to take some time off in June every year, but things don’t always work out that way. So, I’m finally on a break right now after about a year and a half of performing. 

For years, a lot of my time off was spent preparing for the next gig or the gig after that, so I was always working, working, working. When I was home in New York City, I was usually at the Metropolitan Opera and teaching, plus working on my next gig. 

When you’re performing big roles, your time off is really important, and you can’t be very social. You have to make sure your quiet time is quiet time, because your voice is your instrument and you have to preserve it. 

It’s not a traditional job. It’s a lot of work and dedication and a lot of time away from home, which is something no one tells you about. 

When I first started out, I would do homestays with people, usually people who gave money to the opera. As I worked in the business longer, it became important for my sanity and well-being to pick a place to stay where I felt comfortable but that wouldn’t put a strain on me financially. If I’m going to be somewhere for six weeks or three months, I like to bring some things from home, like photos, and set up times to talk to my partner and my family. 

Q: When you have a career that takes you away from home for long periods of time, how do you balance your professional and personal lives?

Chioldi: I think that’s the very hardest thing to do, but you do become more accustomed to it the longer you work as a performer.

Like other jobs where you’re away for long periods of time, you have to be really open with your partner. Communication is key. It’s also helpful if your partner is also someone who works in the arts or has long hours themselves or is always on call. 

I do a lot of check-ins with my loved ones, even if  it’s just little phone calls here and there. Having a set time to talk to or see your loved ones makes a big difference. 

My husband and I have a three-week rule: When I’m away for longer than three weeks, either I’ll go to him in New York City or he’ll come to see me. 

As you become more successful, you’re able to pick and choose your jobs a little more carefully and cater to what you want in your life. And being away gets a little easier. It’s still hard to leave—it’s always hard to leave—but it does get a little bit easier. 

It helps when I have chances to perform at home in New York or in Pittsburgh, where I can see friends and family who still live in the area.

Q: What have been some of your favorite roles?

Chioldi: When I was younger, I got to play all these comedic roles like Papageno in “The Magic Flute” and the Barber of Seville and Count Almaviva in “Le nozze di Figaro,” and that was a lot of fun. Then there were these roles that I would look at and think, “If I could get one of those, that would be amazing.” And now I’m fortunate to be doing those roles—kings and freedom fighters and villains.

I got to play Gerard in “Andrea Chenier” in Barcelona, Spain. Gerard has this huge arc in the show, which is amazing. He goes from servant to freedom fighter, but he has these moments of selfishness that make him a villain in the hero’s story.

I love to play villains because the characters are so complex. Comedy is hard, and being successful at a comedic role is probably harder than playing a villain, but being the bad guy was kind of like therapy. I could work out my issues through the character on stage. 

But those first couple years when I was doing really mean characters like Iago in “Othello” and Scarpia in “Tosca,” I would bring a lot that home with me. I found myself really wound up, and it took a while for me to come down from rehearsal.  

In Hollywood, there are all these actors who will stay in character even when the camera isn’t rolling. That's what I found myself doing a little bit, and it was not good. It was intense and causing a lot of stress for me. 

I had to learn to leave it at the stage door, because it was bleeding into my personal life. 

Q: What are some of the techniques or skills you have developed to create that separation between the characters you play and the person you are when you walk out the theatre door?

Chioldi: There are certainly some breathing techniques, and physical movements to help get me into a different headspace. I love tennis, so playing tennis—with other people or just hitting a ball thrown by a machine—helps, or going for a run. I also love the water, so going anywhere with a beach or just being out in nature really helps.

Being social can also help. So, like, forcing myself to go do something right after rehearsal with friends or colleagues and not talking about the show, or opera at all, helps me dissociate from the character entirely. 

Basically, doing things with exercise and breath, but also surrounding myself with beauty and being with people who make me laugh. 

Q: Tell us about the recent production of “Falstaff” in Pittsburgh.

Chioldi: It was my second production with Pittsburgh Opera. A few years ago, I did Papa Germont in “La Traviata,” which is probably Verdi’s most performed opera. I had huge success with that.

Christopher Hahn runs the opera company in Pittsburgh and was head of the Merola Program in San Francisco when I was in it. When he started casting for “Falstaff,” since it was his last production as the general director of the company, he chose a lot of people from the area and who he had a personal connection with.

It was so much fun to come back and play the role of Falstaff. It’s an amazing opera, and it was great to do a comedy again, because I do so many villains these days.

Verdi is my favorite opera composer. He has written some of the best baritone roles ever. Oftentimes, the title characters are either sopranos or tenors, and in Verdi, there are at least five leads that I can think of that are baritones. 

This production was hugely successful. The houses were full, people were laughing and there were standing ovations. We had one Kids Day and they loved it! They totally understood everything. There’s one moment where I'm counting as the bells are chiming to midnight. And when I got to 6-7, I did the 6-7 hand motions and the kids cracked up. It was so funny.

Q: You’ve been in “Falstaff” before, but as the character Ford. As you prepared to play the title character this time, was there anything you borrowed from the portrayals of Falstaff you’ve seen before?

Chioldi: Ford is a great role, and I probably did over 100 performances of that character across the world. He’s sort of the serious guy in the opera, so it’s a blast to play the comedic guy this time. 

Having worked with some really great Falstaffs before as Ford, I was inspired by a certain turn of phrase or a timing choice or an interaction, like with Mistress Quickly for example.

There’s one moment with Mistress Quickly where she bows to him and “shows off her goods” and if you play it the right way, the audience just loves it. As Michael-the-actor, I’m not sure I would have gone that far in that moment because it feels so over the top, but having seen other Falstaffs really go there with her, and seeing the reaction to it, I’ve seen that it can work. You need to have an actress you’re very comfortable with, though, and I was lucky to be with Marianne Cornetti, who I’ve worked with many times since the “Barber of Seville” in 1995.  

Of course, even if you draw inspiration from other performances, you try to make it your own. The most important thing is telling a great story. No matter how your voice sounds on a given night or what the audience thinks of your voice, if you tell a really good story, you’ve done your job. 

Q: How do you bridge the gap between a performance style that is sometimes hard for people to understand and the story it is trying to convey?

Chioldi: Richard Strauss has this line in “Capriccio”: “Prima la Musica doppo la parola ... no, Prima la parola doppo la musica,” which translates to “First the music then the text … no, first the text then the music.” So, this battle has been going on for centuries. 

Countries used to do operas in the language of their country, but now we do the opera in the language it was written. 

When the music meets the text in the right way, it all becomes cohesive and understandable. I think the most successful performers, even in musical theatre, tell the story in the way they stress the words and the way they bring out the text, even if they sometimes sacrifice a little bit of the musical line. 

If someone’s focusing too much on one thing or another, or it’s too technical, you lose the thread and the storytelling goes out the door.

We have supertitles now [a projection of the opera’s translated libretto on a display above the stage], which are very helpful, and it’s helpful as a performer if you speak multiple languages. 

The greatest artists in my business, though, convey the story without the audience needing the supertitles. 

Q: Opera has historically been a rich man’s form of entertainment. Do think it has a broader appeal in modern times?

Chioldi: I’ve spent my whole career trying to demystify opera. I grew up sort of poor, but I fell in love with it. I think it’s an important art form and it adds to the fabric of society, because it’s a place where people can go, no matter their differences, to forget about their woes. 

Opera was originally written for the aristocracy. You either wrote for the King or the Pope, so to speak. I think Shakespeare is when theatre started becoming as much for the common people as for the nobility. And that bled over into Europe as well.

Now, in Europe, opera is government funded so you can buy a ticket for, like, 25 euros. Going to the opera is like going to the movies here in the U.S. You go to dinner, then to the opera, or to the opera, then out for drinks. 

Even here in America, opera companies are trying to make it more accessible. They’ll do specials, like friends and family discounts or snack-box deals or discounted rush tickets half an hour before curtain. And you don’t have to wear a tux—you can dress anyway you want to, which I think is great. 

Q: Do you have any advice for current music students or people who want to be working performers?

Chioldi: The best advice I can give to kids and young professionals is to be nice to everyone. What we do is emotionally raw, and it can bring out a lot of things in people, and you never know what people are going through. So, you have to be thoughtful in your interactions. 

Sometimes when you’re in school, it’s very competitive and dog-eat-dog, because people are vying for the same roles. While you should focus on yourself and keep your eye on the prize, you should still be a supportive colleague and support other artists the best you can. Don’t let envy get in the way of being a great performer.

Plus, you never know who is going to end up in a position to help you in your career down the line. If you’re in a business for over 30 years like I am, you keep running into people over and over again. 

As for being a working performer, say yes to everything. Don’t be picky, especially in the beginning. Just show up and do the job, no matter what. 

Work gets work, so say yes, because someone’s going to see you or talk about you, and that gets you more work. 

Basically, be a good person, be a great colleague, show up and say yes.