Interview: Reginald Smith, Jr. in SAN DIEGO OPERA'S COSI FAN TUTTE at San Diego Civic Center

"I'm just Reggie from Atlanta" baritone Reginald Smith, Jr. explained during our hour-long discussion on Zoom. That may be how he would like to view himself, but it's hardly how most others do since he's also a Grammy winning opera star who's performed at the Met.

Until high school, neither opera, much less the Met were in his plans. Then when 13 he saw an Atlanta Opera production of Tosca. "A classical voice was not new to me." But the spectacle of unamplified voices together with theatrical staging, an orchestra, and eye-catching scenery was a revelation. "I vividly remember the show going along, the tenor comes out, the soprano. But when Scarpia made his first big entrance, I thought Whoa, that's a different voice. It just went, boom, you know, like, like an arrow right into my heart. And I thought, what is this person?"

That person was African American baritone Donny Ray Albert. Reggie has since met Albert in person but remains in awe. "Even though he does not like for me to call him Mr. Albert, I can't bring myself to call him Donny Ray when I'm with him."

Mr. Albert's Scarpia changed Reggie's life. "I know it sounds crazy, but I didn't realize that there were African American people singing in opera." He was hooked and bought a recital recording of his new hero. "I still have it on my phone and listen to it all the time." He researched other singers, began voice lessons and listened to CDs a teacher had given him. He still knows the pieces bass-baritone Bryn Terfel sang on one of them.

Marian Anderson, Paul Robeson and Roland Hayes were additional inspirations. All had faced severe discrimination. In many cities they couldn't even enter an opera house much less join the cast. "I will say things have changed quite a bit. And it's wonderful to see progress, but more is needed."

After high school Reggie went on to the University of Kentucky to earn degrees in both choral music education and vocal performance. His first professional appearance came in the Messiah with the Lexington Philharmonic when he was 19. Soon after graduating, he won a place with the Houston Grand Opera Studio, and after completing the Studio's training, he was well on his way to the career he'd envisioned as a high school freshman.

Although usually described as a baritone, Reggie has sung bass roles. "I've been wonderfully blessed with a very large and interesting range. It's darker than most baritones, which throws people off. They say, oh, he can't sing that higher repertoire. Then when I do, they say, oh, he's a baritone. He won't be able to project down in the lower part of the voice."

But he does. He said, "It's more about how you can sustain the middle part of your voice." Then, with a laugh, "I am a professional vocalist, and If you can do the work, take the work, you know?"

Mr. Albert's Scarpia is one of opera's most sinister villains, and the experience may be why Reggie now admits to loving roles as the "bad guy," in total contrast to frequent sincere laughter and friendly exuberance in real life. His mother, who sang and directed a church choir says, "Why are you playing the bad guy? You always play a bad guy."

I've noticed that singers (actors too) delight in roles that go against their typecasting or personalities. Maybe it's a way to act out occasional darker impulses without fear of arrest or, worse yet, bad publicity. In Reggie's case, I'll go along with his own reasoning. He's attracted to the character's complexity and the opportunity to demonstrate his artistic range by making villains seem more human.

"I love taking Tonio in Pagliacci. I feel his emotional distress. He just wants to be with the lead, and she's so mean to him. Now that's a character I can get behind. But it is nice to play lighter characters because I really do strive to be a friendly person. I just play a lot of bad guys on stage."

His vicarious pleasure in villainy goes beyond opera. "You know, I'm a huge fan of animated Disney movies and without a doubt my favorite character is always a villain like Scar or Jafar." But a more typical fondness for Disney was exposed while he was in China to sing with Opera Hong Kong. On one of his days off he decided to go to Hong Kong Disney. Few others there that day could have expected to see a foreigner the size of an NFL lineman wearing a Micky Mouse hat and a wide grin. "I had the best time! I was the biggest person in the entire park and didn't even care. I was just having a blast! So that was a big perk of singing in Hong Kong. I got to go to Hong Kong Disney."

Most singers I talk with dislike the constant travel their career demands. Not this baritone. "I've been wonderfully blessed to travel a lot. It's both difficult and rewarding, but I'm a restless busybody by nature. So I love seeing and experiencing new things, finding new friends, looking up the top things to do in a city. I ask about the cool place to eat. In San Diego, once there's time, I'll go to the zoo and to the beach to see the cliffs. I love old churches and architectures."

But all singers dread cancellations forced by illness, and the pandemic has made him more cautious. Restless individual that he is, the drop in performance opportunities led to an unexpected opportunity. "March 2020 sort of hit all of us like a ton of bricks. After realizing this thing was going to stretch out longer than any of us expected, I thought. man I need to do something with my free time." So, back to UK for a master's degree. His enthusiastic fondness for his alma mater is evident. "I am a Wildcat. I bleed blue, baby!" The drudgery of study was a different matter.

"I really don't like school. But I thought I could do it in a year. They said, Reggie, that's insane. It's just too much. I said, well, let me try." He did it in a year, despite an unexpectedly high number of professional appearances he couldn't pass up. He believes the extraordinary effort was worth it, that what he learned will aid his career and be valuable if he wants to spend more time teaching at some point.

For his masters he specialized in the works of African American composers who wrote for languages other than English. "I had a lot of fun researching." And he sang some of the pieces he'd found during his performance in the prestigious BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition.

An invitation to that competition was just one of many career highlights. But he hesitates to say that one honor is more memorable than others. "My mother says it is difficult to shop for me because I don't have favorites." He did finally admit, "I have had wonderful proud moments." Those include singing Porgy and Bess at the Metropolitan Opera, Grammy and Emmy awards and a recital at the Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow. But returning for a performance with the Atlanta Opera meant even more. "I came out and they introduced me. They said we have a hometown person, and the audience erupted with applause. I mean, that brought me to tears."

Atlanta and family ties remain important, despite a travel schedule which takes up 80% of his time. "I grew up in a very musical family with jazz, gospel, R&B, and the blues." The Messiah was a yearly tradition, and close relatives added drums, piano, violin and saxophone to the musical stew. It isn't surprising that he sang in a church choir and in school choirs from second grade through college.

In addition to the well-known Così fan tutte and Rigoletto, this year Smith will be in two contemporary operas, as Uncle Paul in Terrence Blanchard's Fire Shut Up in My Bones and Castor in Castor and Patience by Gregory Spears. When it comes to attracting a younger generation of opera lovers he believes when an opera was written doesn't matter. "The thing that really speaks to people, especially in today's society, is the true human connection of what we do. Not everything has to be a new opera. People can latch on to the really powerful stories of Fellow Travelers, Fire Shut Up in My Bones and Malcolm X. But younger people can also identify with the stories of Puccini's Madame Butterfly or Xerxes by Handel. We have to find the honesty and human elements, and a compelling way to combine them with the power and the glory of the human voice. That's how you really attract people."

Smith doubts that the infamous attention-span problem need get in the way. "I saw both of the Avengers movies at two and a half hours each. Like Wagner operas. And you know what, not one person got up to use the restroom. If you can pique their interest and find what holds it, even kids pay attention."

Reginald Smith, Jr. is looking forward to singing the role of Don Alfonso in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte this weekend. "This is a fantastic cast of singers, and really brilliant people. And it is an honor to share the stage with them and grow with them." He finds the recitatives and switching from more dramatic roles to Mozart comedy challenging. "But you know, if you got to be anywhere in the wintertime, San Diego's not bad. I am excited just to be able to sing and to share because it's what I love to do, whether through education, a master class, recital, concert or opera. I love sharing even just a bit of who I am and my experiences and my love for music with others."

And later this year Reggie gets to share his love of Rigoletto, the opera that started it all, when he sings Count Monterone. I'm betting it won't be many more seasons before he'll have an opportunity to inspire future baritones as Scarpia, the villain who inspired him.

For ticket and time information visit San Diego Opera.