Paul Cheak
It also pairs Benicia’s own bass-baritone, Paul Cheak, with soprano Lauren Woody, originally from Connecticut and now studying with San Francisco Opera Center Director Sheri Greenawald.
The two will be singing the vocal leads in “A German Requiem,” and it’s the first time the two have been paired in performance.
For Cheak, this represents not only his first opportunity to perform with the Vallejo Symphony, it’s also the chance to sing the Brahms composition again.
“I have sung this many, many years ago. I was in my mid 20s,” Cheak said. As he prepared for that performance, he realized, “I’m too young to sing this piece.”
Through the years, Cheak hoped to sing the composition again. It nearly happened once before, but his daughter’s graduation coincided and he turned it down.
Then came the chance to sing the requiem with the Vallejo Symphony. “This is a great opportunity,” he said.
At up to 80 minutes to perform, the requiem is one of Brahms’s longest compositions. But Cheak said some operas he has sung have gone much longer. The challenge in such a performance is keeping the energy at a high level, he said.
“I need to be on the cutting edge, when I’m singing and when I’m not singing,” he said. He said that as one of the soloists, he’s part of the entire presentation.
A Los Angeles native, Cheak has lived in Benicia 24 years. He has earned musical degrees at The Colorado College and San Diego State University, and has studied voice with Giorgio Tozzi.
Cheak has accumulated an impressive resume of performances during the past 40 years. His appearances include those with the San Diego Opera, Berkeley Opera, North Bay Opera and the Festival Opera of Walnut Creek.
He has been soloist in San Diego, Colorado Springs, Denver and Long Beach,and with the Kensington Symphony, Contra Costa Symphony, the New Millennium Strings, Soli Deo Gloria Concert Choir, San Diego Master Chorale, Colorado Springs Master Chorale, Contra Costa Chorale, Solano Choral Society and Vallejo Performing Arts.
Among his roles have been Mephistopheles in “Faust,” Grampa Moss in “The Tender Land,” the King of Egypt in “Aida” and the title roles in “Falstaff,” “Don Pasquale” and “Gianni Schicchi.”
“A German Requiem” has been described as initially inspired by the death of Brahms’s mother as well as the death of his benefactor, Robert Schumann.
But the lyrics, which incorporate various scriptural passages, seek as much to comfort the living as they do to mourn the deceased.
When Cheak first performed the requiem, he had just returned from Southeast Asia. “I knew the terror of death from experience,” he said. “I had no idea about the hope of death.”
But that is what Brahms has written into his music.
“This is a journey of life through faith to a portal on the other side of death, that it’s a portal to the beyond,” he said.
And the concept is as much science as it is faith, he said. “It’s the first law of physics,” he said. “You can’t get rid of energy.”
This will be the first time Cheak will work with Woody, and they’ll get their first practice together just days before Saturday’s concert.
Her talent was noticed when she was young. She played the viola for 10 years and sang in vocal competitions and in musical theater productions during that time.
During her music studies at the University of Connecticut, she discovered her love of opera.
She began training as a classical vocalist, earned a master of music degree, and debuted with the Hartford Festival Orchestra’s “Opera al Fresco” concert series.
She also is a graduate of the Bay Area Summer Opera Theater Institute, where she premiered as Lepido in the first United States performance of Handel’s opera “Silla.”
She was won the Career Bridges Grant Award in New York, and had sung leading roles in “The Magic Flute,” Haydn’s “La Vera Costanza,” and the title roles in Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Patience and Iolanthe.”
The requiem is about having hope, she said. “So many requiems are very dark, and this is so special and unique, because it gives you the hope that everyone needs.”
She hasn’t sung the solo for the requiem before, but she has sung in its chorus. “It is wonderful to have that kind of background, to sing the soprano solo.”
That part has challenges that are unlike the flourishes a singer may find in opera, she said. “You really have to think about every note, and have an intention behind every note you’re singing,” she said. Fortunately, “it fits my voice very nicely.”
She called the Vallejo Symphony “one of the most predominant orchestras, professional orchestras, in the Bay Area.”
She said Greenawald insisted she audition for the part, just to get a chance to perform with the Vallejo Symphony. “This is a really wonderful part of California and the Bay Area,” she said.
Although she and Cheak haven’t met, “I have read a lot of his reviews, and it sounds like is really quite the actor, not only a fantastic singer with color and tone to his voice.” she said.
That acting quality is “a necessary part of being a performer. He takes on the character. It’s not just a pretty voice. I’m looking forward to meeting him and working with him.”
Cheak said the same about Woody.
“I have friends who know her,” Cheak said. “I am really anxious to work with her.”
He has heard her voice through a short clip. “I’m greatly looking forward to it,” he said of their pre-concert practices.
He said he’s also looking forward to singing with the Vallejo Symphony. “From what I’ve seen, it’s top notch,” he said.
First of all, he likes how the orchestra is handled in its business side. “I am impressed with the level of efficiency and administrative skills. That will go a long way toward its survival.”
But he also acknowledged the organization’s artistic side, which he said is illustrated in its pairing of the Saturday concert’s two selections.
In contrast to the solemnly optimistic “Requiem,” Handel’s “Water Music” is a series of Boroque short pieces that weren’t assembled in its entirety until about 30 years after the composer’s death.
The series originally was intended for outdoor performance. In fact, it debuted on the River Thames, during a barge cruise party with the English King George I as host.
George I had a son who was ambitious to rule England, and Cheak said the king ordered the composition to remind the public that he was still king, “and to appease the people.”
The king asked Handel to choose party music for about 50 musicians, and was so delighted after hearing the assembled selections, he had the pieces repeated three times.
“It’s magnificent music,” Cheak said, explaining that Handel’s “Water Music” expresses the desire to amass power and wealth.
“The second half” – Brahms’s German requiem – “is looking beyond that to the things that are eternal. The pairing of the two are a perfect statement of the dichotomy of life, of what’s really important.
“People are so sure of their lives, they gather things, but when they die, the don’t know who’s going to get them,” he said. “The pairing of these two is genius.”
The Vallejo Symphony concert is at 7 p.m. at Hogan Auditorium, 850 Rosewood Ave., Vallejo. Tickets are $15 for students, $25 for those 60 and older and $35 for adults, and are available by calling 707-643-4441 or online through the Get Tickets link on the symphony’s website, www.vallejosymphony.org.
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