Writing Assignment 7: Q+A Personality Profile

Ned Canty: Inside Opera Memphis

By James Markham

Memphis was never easy for transport. The pandemic shut down most of the venues, but Ned Canty refused to let opera just disappear for the time being. The Opera Memphis van was loaded with equipment, costume designs, and filled to near capacity. The van already was used to move items, but with no long-term venue, the van was seeing overtime. The smell of set pieces, costumes, and décor left a rather unpleasant smell to the van almost like that of a barnyard.

Everything was organized and stacked perfectly in the van, but Ned couldn’t fit in the last pieces of the set into the van. The trailer was going to be needed today, but it was still being worked on. The trailer was a newer addition to the company, but the names of those who founded and sponsored the fine art of opera were being inscribed onto the side of the trailer at that time. After a push and shove, the final piece got into the van, but this was just an ordinary day for Ned Canty.

Ned Canty has spent his entire life dedicated to the art of opera and has ensured that his company, Opera Memphis, did not falter during the pandemic.

James Markham: How did you end up in Opera?

Ned Canty: I was originally an assistant to a director working at Hartford Stage in Connecticut. I was understudying every male role and doing all the work he asked for me. I was paid only around $150 a week, but I was given housing and a place to live. The director also worked on opera, and he asked me if I wanted to join him for opera this summer. I told him that I didn’t know anything about reading music, speaking Italian, and my experiences with opera weren’t good. The director told me that it paid three times what I was getting paid now and I was sold. I found myself invested in the arts.

JM: Opera Memphis is a staple in the fine arts of music, how did you end up leading it?

NC: After my first summer with opera, I kept getting jobs in that industry and for a number of reasons, I wasn’t getting jobs in the theatre world anymore. I started to freelance and direct shows around the country. Eventually, I wanted to get into the administrative position and found myself leading Opera Memphis in 2011.

JM: You have been in the industry for almost 30 years, are there any productions that stick out to you?

NC: Ooh, that’s one of those questions like “Who is your favorite child?” There are really a couple of ones that really stick out. The Italian Girl in Algiers is one that I’ve done with many different people in different costumes with different pieces. It’s a really fun piece. The production of The Mikado that we did here and a bunch of other cities was really special. The most important piece I have ever worked on is The Falling and the Rising.

JM: Speaking of The Falling and the Rising, that was a massive accomplishment by Opera Memphis and was something that you were selected very carefully for. What was the development of that show like?

NC: The Falling and the Rising was something we did a few years back and did in a few different cities since then. It involves a military chorus based upon oral history and inspired by different veterans and active military. It was a really powerful piece of great opera, but the privilege of working with these military choruses and hearing the unique stories they incorporate into the show.

After the show in 2019, the production went to Seattle and Montana and each telling of it was unique and had different pieces added into it. Certain cities added their own parts and reused our parts. It is one of the few productions that just ticked every checkmark to what I think is great opera.

JM: With how large Opera Memphis is, there must be some projects that go unrealized or get pushed aside for later. Are there any that you wanted to do, but haven’t had the chance?

NC: For good or for ill, with my kind of personality, no project has fallen through. It just becomes a matter of “when will we get to do it.” I have plenty of dream projects that I would like to see happen, specifically centric to Memphis. One of which is inspired by Orpheus and the Underworld, a show that I directed 25 years ago. When we worked on it, I had it set in the Jazz Age in Los Angeles. The dream project would be setting the music to a hot jazz style. Memphis would be a good place for it, but it is the kind of project that would take so much of my time. I have written dialogue for it in English, but the issue is that the words must match the music. If the board ever comes to their senses and fires me, the first thing I’ll do in my time off is work on that.

JM: So, no projects have fallen through at all?

NC: I think that if you are going to work in the arts, there’s a constant need for positivity and pushing for your dreams. There aren’t very many things that I believe I have given up on, just ones that have taken longer than I would like. If you are going to commit yourself to a life in the arts and you don’t have that kind of positivity, you’ll be.

JM: Are there any major challenges that Opera Memphis is currently facing?

NC: Almost everybody in the live arts will tell you that attendance is down and that average attendance across the country for live art (theatre, ballet, opera, symphony) is down 20 to 30 percent and that I think we are still mentally in a place where it makes sense to stay home. I think some people find excuses to get home and take off their shoes and not put them back on again and I get that. The pandemic really played into that, and the pandemic showed people could stay home and not get bored. The optimist in me knows the value of what we do. The live arts scratch and itch as human beings that can only be itched with other living people.

JM: On a lighter note, most directors and producers in the live arts have their own traditions and rituals they do before a show. Do you have any?

NC: This tradition was in the Wellness section of the New York Times recently, but I have a tradition that started around twenty years ago. My wife buys me a pair of boxer shorts for every production that we have and if I’m away, she’ll put them in my bag, and I’ll open them and wear them to the show. As I got older and grew a little more outwards, my wife has a local costume designer who reaches out and makes them for me.

JM: Memphis is an incredibly diverse city, and we live in a time where underrepresented groups are being given a platform to represent themselves. Are there any communities that you feel like could use that representation?

NC: There is a need and desire for it, but I wish more people would be demanding it. The challenge I did not expect when I took this job was what it meant to lead a historically white institution for a primarily European art form in a majority minority city. There is a special obligation that we have to the city and engage in what I internally call “Artistic Reparations.”

If you look historically in Memphis, there has been organizations in Memphis that gained unfair advantages because of Jim Crow laws and segregation and that drastically happened in the fine art community. When we launched The McCleave Project, we had to ask ourselves: how do we change the perceived notion that Opera is only for the white community? It is easy to point out all the reasons why it is thought about that way, but we want to ensure the money we are using is beneficial to the city. The goal isn’t to make people love opera, but we want to do everything we can to know people are invited and welcomed in opera.