MORGAN HILL — Not many 12-year-old boys sing opera
professionally. Morgan Hill’s Daniel Huffman does.
MORGAN HILL — Not many 12-year-old boys sing opera professionally. Morgan Hill’s Daniel Huffman does.
He sang four out of eight weekly performances of Baz Luhrmann’s recent San Francisco production of Giacomo Puccini’s “La Boheme,” sharing the part with another boy. He is now rehearsing for the Opera San José production of “II Trovatore,” opening this month.
But underneath it all, Daniel is just like other kids his age.
“He’s a kid,” Randy Huffman, Daniel’s father said. “He’s a lot of fun but he grew up quickly.”
Daniel was an only child during his first four years and Randy credits this time, spent mostly in the company of adults, as the foundation of his ability to hold his own in a roomful of adults.
Opera singers tend to be people with a lot of presence – on or off the stage. Daniel sees them as regular folks.
“They are really nice,” he said. “They have a lot of fun.”
In the San Francisco performance of “La Boheme” – updated by Luhrmann from 1896 Victorian to the leather-jacketed, bebopping 1950s – Daniel was a member of the children’s chorus in Act II.
“We are on the street, singing,” Daniel said. “A friend of mine and I (in the opera) are delinquents. We sneak out of the house, walk around and I get to steal fruit from the cart.”
Updating “La Boheme’s” story of artists in a Paris garret was taken a step further in the 1996 rock opera “Rent.” Same story, different tunes.
Daniel thinks singing in the opera is neat.
“It was so much fun working with a famous person (Luhrmann),” he said. “Baz is just a fun guy and very creative. The cast members are fun too and will give us a load of candy. We actually went trick or treating there.”
Luhrmann wasn’t the only famous personage around Daniel’s “La Boheme.” There was so much publicity about the fresh, updated production that opening night was “celebrity city.” Nicole Kidman, Kevin Spacey and Andy Garcia, among others, were in the audience. When the production moved on to New York – without Daniel – stars at the opening performance at the Broadway Theater rivaled the Oscars, according to reports.
“There’s so much stuff going on,” Daniel said. “It’s fun to be in it, and it’s funny. Also, it’s amazing how it’s done. I just went to a performance by myself to see how the actions go along with music. And the supertitles are in a decent location.” “Boheme” was performed at the Curran Theater, a smaller venue than the San Francisco Opera House.
In operas sung in a foreign language – in this case Italian – the company often takes pity on its monolingual American audience and displays supertitles in English. These work just as subtitles do in foreign movies, except they are on a screen over the action, not under as in the movies.
At 12, Daniel is one of the older children in the chorus. Most of the others are aged 8 to 10, he said.
The children are rehearsed differently from adult singers.
“We usually have a children’s director,” Daniel said. “He would teach us our parts and, after we know our parts, we start practicing with the chorus. This takes about one and a half to two weeks.”
Daniel has studied voice since he was 5. “He also sings in church with a lot of background music,” Randy said.
“And I play the drums – and piano,” Daniel said. Besides classical opera and church music, he said he also likes to sing “fun music.”
His first teacher, Dauri Shippey, a graduate of the Juilliard School of music in New York City, referred him to the opera before moving out of state. Daniel’s current teacher was a Shippey student and sends him tapes to rehearse from.
Driving to San Francisco or even San José four days a week, rehearsing and performing, can cut into school time but the Huffman family has solved the problem in a modern way. Until this year Daniel was home schooled.
“For the past year we worked with Pioneer Family Academy, doing lectures on Tuesdays and Thursdays. “Then I have homework,” he said.
Besides home schooling, children in the opera chorus have several other ways of dealing with education. Classes are actually offered at the opera, Daniel said, and some kids have their own private tutors.
“Three are from New York,” he said, “and others to their regular schools or go at the opera.”
What will he do when that dreaded day arrives when his voice begins to break?
He has thought of that moment, as do all young boy singers, but doesn’t seem terribly bothered by the phenomenon.
“I’ll just sit it out for a while until my voice settles down and then sing a different part – probably alto,” he said.
“La Boheme” is Daniel’s third professional opera. He sang Boheme two years ago with Opera San José and Madame Butterfly, also by Puccini, for the same company last year.
Randy said that Irene Dalis, director of the OSJ and a former opera singer herself, exclaimed “I love my Daniel; I want him in all my operas.”
The feeling is mutual. “Irene is fun,” Daniel said.
True to her word, she invited him to be part of the new production of “II Trovatore,” by Giuseppe Verdi, with rehearsals starting in January. Randy was not sure how this would work since his church, the Foxworthy Baptist Church in San Jose, offered Daniel (and others) a mission to India that would conflict with the first week of rehearsals.
“We’re not sure what we will do yet,” Randy said in November. He thinks that the Opera San José company might allow Daniel to join rehearsals a bit late.
It turned out that the family decided not to go to India.
“India is going to have to wait,” Randy said. “With a brand new baby, it wouldn’t do for me to go.” The church is sending another group in the summer though the Huffmans, Randy said, will probably go in January 2004.
So, for now, Daniel is deep in rehearsals for “II Trovatore,” and looking forward to three weeks of performances in February.
“Right now he’s trying to balance school with his heavy opera schedule,” Randy said. “He’s like me – he’ll stay up until he’s finished.”
The Huffman family is a busy one, with five children besides Daniel – Carissa, 8, David, 5, Cera, 2, and new baby Cristin just born in October.
“The baby is really nice,” Daniel said, sounding very much a big brother. He is also fond of his dog, a cat “older than I am” and three ‘active’ goldfish.
The 12-year-old doesn’t know yet if he wants a career singing opera.
“I’ll have to see,” he said. “I’ll consider it and, of course my voice hasn’t started breaking yet. When it does I’ll have to get used to alto (lower) parts. But I definitely look forward to doing more operas.”
More information about Opera San José is at www.operasj.org and tickets for “II Trovatore”, Feb. 1 through 23, can be purchased on-line or by calling the box office at 437-4450, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
