Q&A with Michelle Rofrano, Conductor of "The Turn of the Screw" (Part Two)

Acclaimed Sicilian-American opera conductor Michelle Rofrano, founder and artistic director of PROTESTRA, an orchestral ensemble of activist-minded musicians that bridges the divide between social justice advocacy and classical music, makes her Curtis debut this month, leading a stellar cast of talented young opera singers and musicians in Curtis Opera Theatre‘s The Turn of the Screw.

In part two of this Q&A series, the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship Mentee and music and artistic director of City Lyric Opera discusses Benjamin Britten’s chilling score, her musical background, and inspiring work with PROTESTRA, City Lyric Opera, and Girls Who Conduct. 

What elements of Britten’s score do you hope audiences will take with them from experiencing your interpretation of The Turn of the Screw?

Listen for the musical themes, the leitmotifs. Each character has different themes that return, specifically the ghosts. Quint has this A-flat major key signature, E-flat Mixolydian, technically. The theme comes in the celesta, so it’s this ringing, high-pitched sound. It’s very ominous. Miss Jessel’s theme sounds like a rising from the deep, appearing across the lake out of the mist, a polyrhythm that starts with the lower instruments—triplets and sixteenths—and they all build on each other, followed by a gong.

Listen for the ‘Malo’ song that Miles sings and The Turn of the Screw theme right after the prologue. These themes come back in such a way that builds the drama, so listening for them really makes the opera. The goal is to build the tension and suspense of this ghost story all the way to the end. I hope people walk away feeling like they just saw the best, scariest movie, but it’s an opera with all this beautiful music, so you’re also emotionally invested in the outcome.

Could you share a bit about your musical background and career for audiences who might not know of your work or have seen your conduct before?

Well, I grew up listening to a lot of opera. My maternal grandparents were Sicilian immigrants, and my grandfather was a big opera lover. When he was younger, he wanted to pursue a career in music, but having no money in Sicily during World War II, it wasn’t going to happen. So, he immigrated here and worked in textile factories his whole life, but he loved opera and would save up his money to buy tons of vinyl records full of opera stars and go to the Met. That was his fancy date night with my grandmother out every few months. I was the only grandkid who gravitated towards listening to his records with him.

My parents signed me up for piano lessons, but I never thought I would pursue music. I always thought I would be an English major. Then it came time to apply for colleges, and I thought, wait, if I’m not going to be a music major, then I will have to stop making music entirely, which sounds terrible. I then got the idea of conducting my senior year of high school because I loved playing in the orchestra and being in charge of things. While doing my research, in the U.S., no undergraduate degrees at conservatories offer conducting. You have to major in an instrument to get a master’s degree in conducting.

I started looking at schools where I could double major in English and piano. I’m from New Jersey and ended up going to the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University and took all the Victorian literature classes alongside piano lessons. I immediately emailed the conducting professor at the school and wrote, “I’m interested in conducting. Can I take piano in the orchestra? Can I take the conducting 101 that’s for upperclassmen now?” And so he gave me some lessons, and I took the class early. I also took some summer masterclasses and workshops and was bitten by the bug. Loved it.

I always enjoyed playing for singer friends and voice lessons when I was in undergrad. I ended up gravitating towards opera. In graduate school at Peabody, the degree offered is in orchestral conducting. Still, I went to the office and asked if there was an opportunity to conduct operas. They had me assist at the Baltimore Lyric Opera in a production of Madama Butterfly. From there, it was conducting friend’s projects and getting them together to conduct opera scenes or at small opera companies, and applying to everything I could to become an assistant opera conductor. I  got into the young artist program at The Glimmerglass Festival in 2018 and 2019, assisted the mainstage operas, and conducted the second stage operas. That was an operatic education for me. Since then, many opportunities I’ve had have come from that, so I feel very fortunate.

Could you tell us about your inspiring work with PROTESTRA, City Lyric Opera, and Girls Who Conduct?

PROTESTRA is a portmanteau of “protest” and “orchestra.” It formed as an ad hoc concert before becoming official in early 2017 after the federal Muslim immigration ban. There was a lot of ranting on Facebook by friends I knew about how unfair and xenophobic it was. Several of us started chatting and wondered if we could use our talents to speak to this issue and add a little positivity in the world to counteract the negativity. So, we got this concert together, #noban, and performed works based on the immigrant experience while fundraising for various refugee organizations. We found the concert really rewarding, and the people who organized it with me began discussing how we should make this a regular thing.

There are a lot of problems in the world. It’s nice to have an opportunity to respond to them because, oftentimes, classical music feels only like entertainment. Art has always been created frequently and intentionally in response to real-world issues. Look at many works, like The Marriage of Figaro, as a response to the times. Even if a work was not intentionally speaking out on an issue, composers and humans are influenced by their circumstances and the times in which they live. All this to say, art, music, politics, and current events are not separate because we are all affected by these things.

As performers, we have a unique platform. We have a literal platform that we get on that people pay money to sit there for hours and listen to what we have to say. So, how are we using that opportunity? What are we saying and putting out in the world? There is nothing wrong with going to a comedy and leaving more light-hearted than we did before we arrived. I’m not saying everything has to have a deep social activist meaning and challenge the status quo, but I think there’s a place for serious stuff that is political and delightful.

With PROTESTRA, we’ve had a variety of concerts that speak to ongoing issues like climate change and racial equity. This past summer, we had a concert against gun violence in response to the mass shootings in the spring. We performed works that were in memory of those who passed, spoke directly to gun violence, or were cathartic in a way, but hopefully were a reminder to the audience that all of this isn’t just a statistic; it’s real human lives every single time.

We always donate a portion of ticket proceeds to a charity we think is doing important work. We prioritize diverse composers and music from diverse eras. We’re small, but musicians and audiences have come away from these concerts feeling, wow, that was really beautiful, and I learned this thing, or I felt welcome in this orchestra, and it was nice to play in an orchestra with a diverse group of people. I’m so proud of that organization.

With City Lyric Opera, I’m the Music and Artist Director and was brought on board a couple of years ago. It’s a small opera company that has been around for six years. This is our seventh season. It happens to be all-women founded and led. The first production I worked on with an all-woman, non-binary creative team was with them. It’s extremely rare in the opera world and shouldn’t be. Women have great ideas, are super smart, and are great at leading. It should happen more often. We also focus on representation of a variety of works from a variety of eras and composers. We want to make sure that we have diverse casting, give opportunities to a variety of people, and make it a welcoming space for whoever works with us.

I’m very excited to be with City Lyric Opera. It’s a chance for me to work with a lot of women leaders and put on productions like our upcoming La Traviata in the spring of 2023 and look at the classics through a feminist lens, which I think they deserve. I don’t think we are inserting anything that’s not already there. Very proud of this company.

Girls Who Conduct was founded by my conductor friend Chaowen Ting, who does a lot of work within the classical conductor’s sphere, and modeled it after Girls Who Code. It started as an online initiative to bring on girls, high school or college age—they may not have conducting training, although some do—who are interested in conducting as musicians. It’s like Zoom classics on the basics of conducting, including score study, what a conductor is, and what you need to know about the different types of conducting (band, opera, orchestral, choir). It supports women and non-binary young musicians interested in pursuing this, encourages them, and creates a community they can come to for advice. It’s very important to give people opportunities.

Visit Michelle Rofrano‘s official website HERE.

CURTIS OPERA THEATRE: THE TURN OF THE SCREW

Britten’s Gothic Tale of Terror

November 18, 2022 | Friday at 7:30 p.m.

November 20, 2022 | Sunday at 2:30 p.m.

Philadelphia Film Center

Click HERE for more information.

Part three of this interview will appear in Curtis’s newsfeed on Friday, November 18, 2022.

Read part one of this interview series HERE.

Photos top to bottom: 1. Banner image by Shannon Cahill. 2. Classical Showcase, Spoleto Festival USA in 2019; photo by Leigh Webber. 3. Photo courtesy of PROTESTRA’s official Facebook page. 4. Photo courtesy of ADA Artist Management.