Seattle Opera:
You had been simply named Seattle Opera’s Creative Ambassador for the 2024/25 season. How are you envisioning this function as you put together to step into it?
Kenneth Kellogg:
The very first thing this new function makes me consider is my elementary faculty trainer. As a teen, I might all the time see how a lot she liked music—it was infectious. It impacted me as a child, which led me on a path first to having fun with music, after which to music taking on my life.
I consider my function as Creative Ambassador as an extension of that. Music has been a blessing to my life in so some ways: it’s what I consider day and night time, it helps me present for my household, it’s taken me to worlds that I by no means thought potential. I simply hope I can exude the identical infectious spirit for music and artwork that my trainer did for me. Seattle Opera:
What do you hope to perform in your time as Creative Ambassador? What are your goals for the function?
Kenneth Kellogg:
I all the time joke that opera, as an artwork type, wants a PR individual. Each firm has their very own thought about what opera is, and everybody’s unfold internationally doing their very own factor. So the concept of what opera is is diluted, and we miss the massive image of what opera means and what it may be for our lives.
So I type of need to be that PR individual. Finally, it’s our job to point out individuals what makes opera particular, to introduce them to the fun it could possibly deliver. This is likely one of the issues I hope to have the ability to share with audiences in Seattle and around the globe.
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| Kenneth Kellogg as Malcolm X in X: The Life and Instances of Malcolm X. © Sunny Martini. |
Seattle Opera:
What are some ways in which opera can attain individuals who haven’t skilled the artwork type earlier than? Is there a approach into this custom, which some would possibly discover daunting?
Kenneth Kellogg:
It begins with how we speak about opera and what tales are being instructed. Most individuals who haven’t been to the opera earlier than come for the primary time both due to a private invitation from somebody who’s inside opera or as a result of they’re interested in a selected story that hasn’t been on the opera stage earlier than. And oftentimes the response I hear from these viewers members is “Wow, I didn’t know that that was what opera is like.” Getting over that hurdle is the hardest half. However I discover as soon as persons are there they usually’ve skilled one thing they will relate to, they typically need to come again.
Seattle Opera:
What are some steps that opera corporations can take to assist take away that hurdle?
Kenneth Kellogg:
For me, all of it comes right down to the storytelling. You need to let individuals know that opera is related to them, and present them why it’s related. Most of the responses I heard to X: The Life and Instances of Malcolm X needed to do with how significant it was for viewers members to see themselves or their tradition represented on stage. That speaks to the facility we now have as artists to painting issues that actually matter to individuals. Perhaps which means increasing the repertoire, possibly it means speaking in regards to the present repertoire in numerous methods. Both approach, we now have to make opera matter to individuals somewhat than anticipating individuals to do this work themselves. We’ve got to be imaginative. We’ve got to create issues that matter.
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| Kenneth Kellogg as The Father together with Briana Hunter as The Mom in Blue. © Philip Newton. |
Seattle Opera:
In what methods do you suppose Seattle Opera may very well be doing these issues higher?
Kenneth Kellogg:
The instances that I’ve been right here, I believe Seattle has performed a fantastic job at it. However one factor I see at each firm is that once they select to do a present that’s outdoors of their norm—and sometimes it’s a Black present—you’ll discover the additional effort the corporate places in to succeed in a broader viewers. That effort must be made for each present, not simply those which can be outdoors of our consolation zone.
Seattle Opera:
What do you envision for the long run for opera as an artwork type? The place would you prefer to see opera ten years from now?
Kenneth Kellogg:
Opera has the facility to be a very community-based artwork type—a spot the place individuals can see themselves represented in a larger-than-life area, really feel comfy, and really feel welcomed. After I visited with a few of the incarcerated individuals on the Monroe Correctional Advanced in February, and sang some excerpts from X, the overwhelming response I heard was “I’ve by no means seen a Black opera singer in right here earlier than.” One man instructed me he wished I had spoken extra about Malcolm X’s journey by way of Islam, as a result of he himself is a Sunni Muslim and needed to be taught extra about Malcolm X’s expertise.
Making opera matter on that degree, with each manufacturing we mount, will join us to the humanity of our neighborhood. And it’s potential even with essentially the most conventional productions.
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| Kenneth Kellogg as Fafner in Das Rheingold. © Philip Newton. |
Seattle Opera:
Talking of extra conventional repertoire, what stability do you suppose opera corporations ought to strike between presenting older, canonical works and works which can be being written now? And is there a approach for these two issues to not be seen as in opposition to at least one one other?
Kenneth Kellogg:
I believe it’s too simple to place new works on a pedestal as the brand new factor that’s going to avoid wasting the business. A brand new piece is a clear slate that you would be able to speak about in some ways as a result of it doesn’t have the expectation that comes with lots of of years of historical past. So, it may be simpler to get the artistic juices flowing when speaking about one thing new. However I believe we have to discover a technique to obtain that very same recent method to the canon. We want to consider current works in new methods and see them as recent and new.
Which means speaking about tales in relatable methods, with present terminology. It means speaking about present singers, not simply the good ones who lived prior to now. That’s how we bridge the hole between the present repertoire and new works: speak in regards to the canonic operas in new methods and don’t depart them caught in historical past.
Seattle Opera:
Does that additionally imply presenting these works in new methods on stage?
Kenneth Kellogg:
Maybe, however I don’t suppose there must be a radical change of context. After I say a manufacturing ought to be up to date, I imply we have to take note of the singers we forged, what the wigs seem like, what the costuming seems to be like, what the units seems to be like. La bohème doesn’t must be in area to be up to date. However there are methods you possibly can deliver the units, costumes, and the look of an opera according to what we’d put on immediately on the road, in a approach that makes the story extra recognizable to a contemporary viewers.
Finally, one of the vital questions an opera firm can ask itself is “why does this piece matter to my viewers? What’s happening in our neighborhood that this opera can communicate to?” Answering that query means being energetic in your neighborhood in order that what’s going on in individuals’s lives and how one can communicate to these points.
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| Kenneth Kellogg as Malcolm X in X: The Life and Instances of Malcolm X. © Philip Newton. |
Seattle Opera:
I’ve one final query for you: our audiences have seen you now in a number of roles, together with as Malcolm X, Fafner in Das Rheingold, and The Father in Blue. What would you like our audiences to find out about you past the stage?
Kenneth Kellogg:
I like life and I like connecting dots. I’m a really empathetic individual. I’m quiet, however observant, and I’m actually curious about connecting the dots of our lives. I’m an enormous believer that every thing has a function and every thing serves every thing else. There’s nothing in life that exists unto itself.
For me, artwork is the connective tissue of that each one. Artwork has the facility to attach the unseeable, and I attempt to deliver that zeal and perception in life to what I do as an artist.
Seattle Opera:
Is there artwork that resonates for you notably strongly outdoors of opera?
Kenneth Kellogg:
I’m a visible artist. I do quite a lot of portraits and drawing.
Seattle Opera:
Do you will have any favourite visible artists?
Kenneth Kellogg:
Kadir Nelson, who does portraits. He’s considered one of my favourite artists.
Seattle Opera:
Thanks, Kenneth. We sit up for attending to know you higher as our new Creative Ambassador!
