I Cantori di Carmel's Music Director Daniel Henriks Discusses "Opera Under the Stars"

Daniel Henriks is the music director forI Cantori di Carmel. A Juilliard graduate and child prodigy, music has always carried and shaped Henriks’ life. He’s performed all over the world as a soloist and conductor, but has chosen to settle in Carmel where he devotes his time to I Cantori. This weekend, he leads the group in an outdoor spring event, “Opera Under the Stars,” at the historic outdoor Forest Theater. He describes the musical offering:

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Daniel Henriks: Yeah so, we'll do a 'best of' opera scenes, excerpts, arias, choruses, overtures, orchestral overtures from, mostly Italian and French opera and, you know, we’re kind of restricting the program to put a focus on a certain genre of opera that everybody loves and everybody can have access to. And we're going to start out with a whole section from from Bizet’s opera “Carmen,” because it's just so popular and just so joyful and enticing. And then we're going to, we're going to go through some, Donizetti, Rossini, Verdi. Lots of Verdi.

Lisa Ledin: Performed by a duo. Is this a husband and wife team?

DH: It is, as a matter of fact—our soloists that we work with. The soprano and the tenor are actually a married couple, which is kind of funny because usually the soprano gets the tenor at the end of most operas, whereas the baritone gets killed and the alto is just the alto or the mezzo soprano. They usually don't get a partner at the end of the opera.

LL: Is this a departure for I Cantori? You've been there for a few years now. It seems to me you're making them very versatile.

DH: Yeah, this is my third year with I Cantori, and it is somewhat of a departure because most of the choral repertoire that we draw from is sacred European music from the baroque, classic and romanticperiod. And we wanted to do something that is different, challenging for the choir and also accessible to people who are not necessarily inclined to go to classical music concerts. But, you know, we want to have a fun evening at Forest Theater where you can bring a picnic and where you can enjoy this fabulous music in a kind of informal and fun setting, open air.

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LL: What's the ideal? I mean, is it as fun to conduct and shape this group as it is to be a performer?

DH: Well, I think it's not that much different. You just play a different instrument. When you conduct, you don't make a sound, but you help inspire and bring everything together. Ideally, you'll bring out the best in every performer and try to make them a coherent group. And you want to seduce everybody to put their heart and soul into the music and make it something special, communicate with the audience and have a unified vision of how every piece should be performed. That is very satisfying.

On the other hand, when you sing as a performer in a dramatic part and you are on stage acting and you're accompanied by a 70 to 80-piece orchestra in the pit, that's a little bit like, I imagine, big wave surfing, because you can't really work against the orchestra. You have to work with it and try to stay afloat…I think it's going to be a spectacular concert, and it's going to be a rare occasion to hear this kind of music. We have a fabulous big orchestra and we have wonderful soloists, and the chorus is really in shape and they're really excited. We also have a children's chorus that's going to perform with us for the first time and I hope that this will be well received in the area and will bring joy and inspiration to a lot of people with this.

LL: We need the music.

DH: We absolutely do. Yeah.

“Opera Under the Stars” takes place this weekend at the outdoor Forest Theater in Carmel. I Cantori di Carmel is one of KAZU’s Many underwriters.