Would Kristin Chenoweth have become a major opera star?

Maybe this post is directed more at posters who are more au fait with opera as well as musical theater... but I was watching footage of Kathleen Battle - specifically the documentary that was made when she and Wynton Marseilles collaborated on the baroque recording in the 1980s - and noticed a similarity between her girlish personality and frankly, her girlish voice, and Kristin Chenoweth's same vocal tone. It made me wonder if Chenoweth had not decided to pursue theater and Broadway as a career, would she have carried on as a soprano in the opera world? Would she have pursued roles such as Despina, Adina, Susanna etc? And for that matter, would Kelli O'Hara have been guaranteed an operatic career had she gone that route in the late '90s instead of pursuing musicals? Thoughts?

Updated On: 2/17/23 at 10:58 PM

I don't know. She seems suited to Mozart and Handel but I can't see her doing the trouser roles or a lot of the lyric and bel canto stuff the Met likes to program. I think she could have shined in certain roles when she was younger but might have hit a wall much sooner after aging out of the ingenue roles. I think she would have ended up doing concerts and other projects anyway.

Yeah, I think most people understand that. What you don’t seem to understand is that Chenoweth IS a trained opera singer who certainly could have had a career in opera. She trained at Oklahoma City University under the same teacher as Kelli O’Hara (who starred in the OPERA, “The Hours” which will be aired on PBS next month). Perhaps she chose musical theatre to better showcase more of her talents, specifically acting. She’s been able to do musicals, plays, TV and movies. Had she focused on a career in opera, she wouldn’t have been taken seriously as an actor and been able to do anything but sing on stages.

Even Kelli O’Hara - I could be wrong but I get a sense that the singing standards in that world are so high and so precise that people like Kelli, Audra, Chenoweth could not compete the same way they can on a Broadway stage. They might be trained, they might even be good but that’s not quite the same thing as what they can do on Broadway (ie be among the best).

Updated On: 2/18/23 at 05:17 AM

VintageSnarker summed up my thoughts on Chenoweth in the opera world - and I would add another big hindrance to her would be the absence of amplification. Battle’s detractors constantly went on about her being inaudible at the Met (Sumi Jo, who has a similar Cheno-y girlishness, has received a lot of this criticism as well) and Chenoweth’s voice sub-stratosphere is not particularly resonant. She would have maybe done some soubrette roles — the -inas and -ettas — but, as VintageSnarker said, she’d either age out of them or attempt to push beyond her fach into more dramatic coloratura rep and probably do some damage. The Der Holle Rache she did on her ill-fated TV show is fun as a party trick/lark, but operetta is ideal for her — Bernstein’s Glitter and Be Gay rather than its antecedent Gounod’s Jewel Song.

O’Hara I do think has more of the goods, and acquitted herself beautifully in The Hours — most critics agreed she and DiDonato walked away with the night, and to bring up someone else mentioned in this thread, I personally wound up wishing Audra had done the Fleming role (even though Clarissa was written for Fleming, making her even more disappointing to me, but I digress). Audra’s “Vieni, t’affretta” from Verdi’s Macbeth in Master Class is really searing, especially given the task of performing Lady Macbeth with vocal precision while also conveying the fear and frustration of being coached/harangued through the aria by Caldwell’s Callas. Not bad for a 25-year-old. Of the names mentioned in this thread, I’d say Audra vocally had most of what it took to go all the way, but has made pretty clear in interviews that trying to fit into the classical world at Juilliard often made her pretty miserable and anxious, so I’ll just have to dream about what she might have made of Eboli in Don Carlo.

By definition, the chance of anyone in any artistic field becoming a “star,” let a alone a “major” one, is close to zero. Tens of thousands of talented operatic aspirants who’ve studied at major music schools have never achieved such a lofty rank. The Met hired O’Hara to sell tickets to the locals who’ve heard of her. Let me know when she is hired by any other important house.

”Glitter and Be Gay”? Here’s Barbara Cook, who had no illusions about being an opera singer. Chenoweth ain’t in the same league.

Kristin would be well-suited for certain soubrette roles in opera. As for a leading role, I doubt it - her voice is rather small and not extremely powerful.

This makes me think she’d have made a better Despina (Cosi Fan Tutte) than O’Hara.