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From no car radio to European stages: A chat with Tacoma Opera general director Limuel Forgey

In October, Tacoma Opera will, for the first time since its founding in 1968, present Wagner’s Das Rheingold, also known as The Ring Trilogy. Tacoma Opera’s new general director, Limuel B. Forgey III, happens to be a Gig Harbor-ite, so Gig Harbor Now’s Carolyn Bick caught up with him to learn more about how he got into opera and what differentiates opera from other kinds of singing. 

Gig Harbor Now

How did you get into music and who were your inspirations?

Limuel B. Forgey III

That’s a really good question. When I was a young, young boy, my parents were extremely poor. I grew up in Kent and my mom and my dad had a car with no car radio on it. So, when I was eight years old, my mom would ask me to sing the popular songs on the radio, as we drove around.

That was my inspiration to start singing. I had some very key people along the way that guided me and encouraged me. And when I was in high school, I began singing in competitions. I won a state competition and then I won a later Nats [Nationals] competition twice.

I built a career and became an international opera singer, singing all over the world in some of the greatest opera houses around. My wife and I, we’re both in music, and so we raised our family on music.

We left Washington and [our home base] became California. We sang all over California and then in Europe and all over.

GHN

That is, first of all, super cool, and definitely a really good overview for all this stuff I was going to ask you anyway.

I was really curious as to how you went from singing in your parents’ car to no radio to opera singing, in specific, because opera is very different from other kinds of singing, right?

Forgey

I first started with musical theater. So, one of the first things I did as a teenager was connect to Carco Theatre in Renton. I was in the first cast of their first teen musical in the summer.

That got me really interested and excited, and sort of hooked in. I began singing musical theater and then my high school choir conductor encouraged me to go to a state competition. They only heard classical music and I, at that time, was 16 years old and I hadn’t really looked at any classical music before. So, he coached me, and I actually won. I won the Washington Music Educators Association Best Bass in the state of Washington when I was 16.

GHN

Wow! When you say when that first competition rolled around — that specific one — what did you sing?

Did you sing baritone or did you sing tenor? What’d you sing?

Forgey

I’m really a high baritone, but at that time, they enrolled me for the bass category. 

My my mom passed away last week.

GHN

Oh, I’m so sorry.

Forgey

Oh, no, it’s OK.

My mom was really instrumental in helping me find my musical voice. And I remember telling my mom the first time I ever sang in public that I was nervous. I was afraid.

And she told me to sing loud and sing as proud as I could. And she said, “If you can sing loud, they won’t laugh.”

And so that’s what I did: I went in there and I just went for it. And I sang as loud as I could, as boldly as I could. And she was right.

They really liked it, and I’ve been a loud singer ever since.

GHN

Well, that probably works pretty well for a high baritone. 

Forgey

Yeah, and so there was sort of a great fit for opera. I loved the drama, the story, and in opera — I was just a poor kid with no money and really no prospects. If I didn’t have music in my life, I really have no idea what I would be.

And [opera] opened up a whole new world for me. In fact, I was the first person in both sides of my family to graduate college. Now, I’m getting my doctorate at the University of Washington.

Music has taken me a long way and I can’t imagine my life without music. It’s just been one of the greatest joys I’ve had.

GHN

So there are a couple of things I want to ask, but one of the first things is — particularly ’cause this has been hitting in my brain ever since you started out with, “We were very poor.”

A lot of people, I think, have a look at the arts and so forth and think there’s no way you can ever make it.

So, how did you manage to do that? What would you encourage younger people who are potentially facing the same struggles as you did to do?

Forgey

Right. Well, the first thing is, I never got into my mind that there was another choice. It was never a hobby for me.

It was a driving factor in my life. I knew I had to be a singer and now I’m the general director of Tacoma Opera. So I encourage other people to sing, but I was really humble.

I worked hard. I looked at my craft and wanted to get better. I studied. I never really adopted this air of arrogance or an attitude.

I was always grateful. And when you’re grateful, and you really try, people emerge in your life around you that will help guide you and mentor you.

It’s really important, I think, in the field of music, that you connect with other people and that you understand the community. And really I succeeded because so many other people around me lifted up a hand above me and pulled me up. And that’s what I’m trying to do now at Tacoma Opera for younger singers and for local singers.

GHN

I’d love to, if it’s okay with you, ask — looking back on everything now — ask how your mom supported you throughout your musical career, if it’s OK for you to talk about.

Forgey

Yeah. Yeah. My mom really believed in me.

Telling your parents that you’re going to go to college, and you’re going to go in for music and voice is not something that, as a parent myself, makes you feel very comfortable. You want your kids to go in and become business people or doctors or lawyers or something that they can actually make a living on. But my mom, she never discouraged me and my folks.

My mom was a simple person from Eastern Washington. She grew up picking asparagus in Sunnyside. She grew up in a family that was dirt poor, who weren’t educated, who had children at the age of 14 — that’s the history of their family. And my mother still came to productions where I was singing the bass solo in Beethoven’s Ninth, or I was singing a Dvořák piece or I was singing in Madame Butterfly.

She still came, and she sat in the audience, and loved every minute of it. This kind of unwavering and total support, I think, is important. And sometimes it doesn’t happen with parents, right?

Sometimes it happens with friends or colleagues, but that’s key for young people, especially, to find the people that truly believe in them and support them and understand their dreams.

GHN

Thank you. This might sound like a silly question, but maybe not, because I don’t think most people understand: What’s the difference between singing opera and other forms of musical art, like chorus or singing in a band or something like that?

Forgey

That is a really super question. Most people aren’t even in tune enough to ask that question.

My wife and I talk about this all the time – singing — there are certain fundamentals of singing that are kind of across the genre, but one of the things that makes opera unique is we’re singing unamplified with a humongous orchestra.

For instance, when we do Das Rheingold in October, there’s going to be 55 orchestra people and my singers are going to have to make it to the back of the Pantages, which is 1,200 seats — two balconies of just their voices, no amplification. So the training is much different. You have to bring it forward.

It’s a brighter sound. It’s a more trained sound for acoustics and for drama and for that specialized kind of singing. I don’t believe that choral singers and opera singers really sing with the same technique all the time. They can, there’s a lot of crossover, but really the specialties are completely different.

GHN

And that’s a great segue, because my next question is: How do you train differently for opera than for other forms of singing?

Forgey

It’s a lifelong training. People my age, in their fifties, still have coaches, still have teachers. They take private lessons.

They really have to hone in on what kind of opera they’re singing. You can sing Puccini, but singing Puccini isn’t the same as singing Wagner or Rossini. So you have to understand the kind of voice you have, the quality of your voice.

You also have to have an ambition as to where you want to go. And then you train and train and train like an Olympic level athlete forever.

GHN

That’s another great segue. What you described kind of sounds like actors who are particularly suited for particular roles, because of their mannerisms or face or what have you. And at the same time, like poor Daniel Radcliffe, they have to really work to not be typecast and have to essentially break out of film and go onto stage to get some really meaningful roles.

And so I’m wondering how, given this, this emphasis on the kind of voice one has for opera, how do you avoid being cast in the same operas and the same kinds of operas over and over again?

Forgey

So that’s a unique thing about opera. You really don’t. You have a repertoire that you do over and over again. Now, new operas are emerging and a lot of people branch out into new opera. But for instance, I’ve sung some of my roles with different opera companies 11 times.

And it’s important because there are some singers that sing on Monday, one role, and on Tuesday, a completely different role. So you have this sort of repertoire that you dig back into and you explore. Now, what does change is, over time, you get older and your roles sort of have to evolve.

And one of the pitfalls a lot of singers have is they can’t really acknowledge that they’re getting older. Now you’re the father, you’re not the dashing tenor and that’s sort of a hard pill to swallow. But that’s the nature of a [lifetime] of singing, is you sing the same, what we call fach, the same kind of classification and role, but as you age, you also branch out into more character roles and more different kinds of presentations.

GHN

What was or is your fach? And second of all, when you change those roles, are those roles then adapted for the singer who happens to suit them, like their particular voice somehow?

Because, like I said, I personally think opera is quite different than other forms of singing. And a lot of different stuff goes into it, and so I just wanted to ask if it’s kind of like that, again, in line with acting.

Forgey

Are you a singer yourself? You sound like you have, you might be singing. Are you — do you sing?

GHN

To myself, yes.

Forgey

You seem like you have knowledge about music somehow.

GHN

I like music. I listen. I listen and I sing to myself. And then sometimes people walk in on me when I’m singing and they’re like, “Wow, you’ve got such a good voice!” And then I can’t sing anymore. [Laughs]

Forgey

[Laughs]

Not to get too technical, but a fach is not only how high or how low you sing, but it’s also sort of the quality of your voice. I sort of floated between what’s called a Heldenbaritone, or a Verdi baritone, and those are voices that are bigger, brighter. They have more brightness and sort of what we call “metal” to them.

My range is quite high for a baritone, so I specialize in real big, dramatic works, like Verdi or some Puccini or Wagner — those big roles. It also lets me sing some of the great literature, like the Dvořák and his Te Deum or the Carmina Burana by [Carl] Orff. Beethoven’s Ninth is perfect for me because it’s very high, very loud. What I’m really terrible at is singing things that have lots of fast movement. My voice isn’t flexible in that way, like some beautiful voices have.

So, if someone’s doing say the Messiah by Handel — I love the Messiah. I could make a lot of money if I could sing the Messiah, but I can’t. So my voice isn’t that fach.

That helps define where you’re moving in your career. Now, as I age, I’m still have the same general range and the same kind of color, but I might be moving more into the character singers. This happens more with tenors because baritones are always someone’s father or always the villain, never really the hero, right?

But tenors, they have a harder time because all of a sudden they’re not the love interest. They’re the uncle next door who’s drunk all the time or something like that.

GHN

I can hear exactly what you’re talking about. Yes. And what’s a character singer? Can you explain the difference between a character singer and maybe some other kinds of roles in opera?

Forgey

Someone whose primary function is to become something completely outrageous or push the boundary to be something else. So, somebody who is like an archetype, like the creepy old man next door or the drunk gardener who is funny, You become something completely unlike yourself and immerse yourself into a sort of archetype or a character.

GHN

Got it. Thank you.

Do you still sing, or are you focused right now in directing, and does that have anything to do with you pursuing your doctorate?

Forgey

Oh, that’s a really good question. When I became the general director of Tacoma Opera — and that doesn’t mean I direct, what it means is I oversee the entire company. I hire people that choose the operas. I work with the orchestra. I work with the city of Tacoma closely. So I’m sort of like the CEO of Tacoma opera.

And so what I do is I do what people did for me when I was younger: I look for ways to help and lift up the community through music. And one of the amazing things about Tacoma Opera that I discovered living in Gig Harbor is I would say about 30% of our patrons are from Gig Harbor. We have a huge patronage and a lot of our patrons are from Gig Harbor, and a lot of our financial support really comes from Gig Harbor.

The boundaries [of Tacoma Opera] aren’t really Tacoma. It stretches across that bridge and moves into University Place. It goes all through Tacoma and then out through Puyallup and beyond, but Gig Harbor is at the heart of Tacoma opera.

GHN

That’s really interesting. I didn’t know that. Thank you so much.

That actually makes a lot of sense. I’m certain that you might have at least have heard it, especially since you live in Gig Harbor, that a lot of the arts community here has really just desperately wanted an arts center that could host musical events as well as art shows and so forth.

Forgey

Oh, we need that here. It has to happen somehow.

We need a designated center, and I would love to provide some great opera here. That would be incredible. I think because our people want it, they desire it and they move outward and spend their money in Tacoma and spend their money elsewhere in Seattle.

But there’s a lot of revenue that could be had here for us. So I do think we need an arts center. Absolutely.

Arts are important. That’s why I think it’s going to be interesting: Tacoma Opera’s stretching our neck out this year and presenting Wagner’s Das Rheingold, which is the foot part of the Ring series, we have people now flying in from other parts of the United States just to see this production. Our tickets are five months away and we’re already almost half sold.

GHN

That’s amazing.

Forgey

It’s an important cultural event for Tacoma. It’s always belonged to Seattle and Seattle Opera. But since the inception of Tacoma Opera in 1968, it’s the first time that the Ring has ever happened in this area.

And when I announced it, I got pushback from folks who were connected with bigger opera companies in our area saying, “Why do you think you get to do the Ring? That’s Seattle’s opera.”

But that’s sort of been the idea, that Tacoma and our area down here, we’re just sort of little and need to stay little. And if you really want art and if you really want culture, you go to Seattle. I think that needs to change.

GHN

I’d love to know a little bit about whom you sang with and where you traveled in your career.

Forgey

Well, right before COVID, the last international trip I did was to Opera Romania. That was really kind of exciting. I flew to Europe and then took all a series of trains and explored the Carpathian mountains.

GHN

Oh, that’s so cool!

Fogey

It was really cool. I really was interested in the lore of Dracula’s castle, people, and all of [those] fascinating things. And the Romani people that still are thriving there.

And I first went to Bucharest and then took these sort of backwater trains to sing with Opera Romania. It was a fascinating and wonderful experience to see a part of Eastern Europe that had been crushed by the circumstances attached to being overseen by the Communist government now blossoming into their own people again and finding their own identity. The arts really are thriving there in a modern way.

It was super-exciting. So I sang [Puccinni’s] Gianni Schicchi there in 2019.

GHN

Oh, wow.

Forgey

Packed houses and young people coming to the opera — young people! It was full houses, exciting and wonderful. I also sang throughout Germany and Switzerland and did a stay in Tröszingen in Germany, which is near the Black Forest.

And then we went on to a tour into Switzerland, where we sang also. And that was very exciting. Of course, traveling, spending time in Paris, which is just marvelous.

But mostly my experience has been in the Germanic states or countries, and then also Romania.

GHN

That is so, so cool. Especially Romania, honestly, because I think very few people remember that it exists on a day-to-day basis.

Forgey

Oh, absolutely. I had a chance to go to Dracula’s castle. It was actually quite lovely.

GHN

Yeah, I’ll bet!

Forgey

It was like, “Oh, this is nice.”

GHN

Do you know whether they hold operas in larger places like that? Maybe not in Dracula’s castle, specifically, but like older castles, older places. I know the acoustics might not be exact for what is needed, but I wanted to ask.

Forgey

I think that’s a really great question. And the cool thing about opera is because there aren’t any electronics involved, it does lend itself to different kinds of spaces. And I think that’s one of the cool things about performing in the Pacific Northwest. We could perform at a place like the Pantages Theatre, and we do, but you can also go to a space that’s more intimate or outside or in a gallery of some kind. It’s very adaptable.

That’s a really important question. And because of the nature of opera, it can be performed in unique spaces and should be.

GHN

Thank you. And then lastly — and I am certain you always get this question — what are your favorite pieces and why?

Forgey

I love The Ring, because it’s my wife’s favorite. She loves it. And I love it, too, because it’s basically Lord of the Rings on stage.

It’s exciting and it’s got magic and it’s very grand and Gothic in its own way. But I’m a sentimental person, and I love a real story. I love stories that connect to sort of the human condition.

My favorite opera of all time is Madame Butterfly. It’s really about a mother who loves someone and is betrayed, but loves her child more than she loves herself. I relate to it and it’s so powerful. It’s real and true and powerful.

The other piece I love is Beethoven’s Ninth. In 2016, I lost my younger brother to glioblastoma. After his death, I was on stage and I had to sing a solo in Beethoven’s Ninth and it happened to be around my birthday. And I just sat on stage and I was at the front of this huge orchestra and they started playing that famous “Ode to Joy.”

And no matter how sorrowful I was and sort of the depths of my grief, I was lifted by the music. And I thought, “How lucky am I to be sitting here in front of a hundred people and they’re singing to the top of their lungs about joy. And so I love Beethoven’s Ninth for that.

GHN

That’s really lovely. Thank you so much for sharing those things with me.

I think that is all I wanted to ask, but is there anything you else that you’d want to add or say or anything like that?

Forgey

I really believe music can change us and it encourages us. And it’s so important in who we are as a community. So I just can’t thank you enough for taking the time to talk to me.

GHN

Oh, thanks! And very much likewise. I deeply appreciate it. It was really nice talking with you.

Tacoma Opera performs Das Rheingold on Oct. 3 and Oct. 5. More information and tickets can be found here.