Issue date: 10/30/07 Section: Aggielife

Media Credit: File - The Battalion [Click to enlarge]

Tyley Ross, co-founder and one of the lead singers of East Village Opera Company, talked to The Battalion about the formation of the group, his love of music and the group's College Station performance.

The Battalion: How did you come up with the idea for the group?
Tyley Ross: (Peter Kiesewalter and I) were introduced by the director of a film who wanted us to collaborate on some Italian songs. I chose a couple dozen Italian songs, and we played around with them. It was so much fun. Our starting point was how might these composers perform these songs if they were around today. We probably think of [opera composers] as being gray-haired, stuffy old dudes - but they were young and that was the popular music of the time… We just like reinvigorating this music with the youthful energy that we like to bring to it.

BATT: When did the group start performing?
TR: We played a gig at a place called Joe's Pub - it was meant to be only one show. There was such an enthusiastic response that we were asked back to Joe's Pub again. We were back two weeks later. After that, we started playing once a month. And within that first year, we had signed with our first record. Now we're recording our third record.

BATT: Why combine rock and opera?
TR: On our first record, we started at the point of how [the composers] might treat these songs if they were around today. We didn't feel initially that this was going to be a band -- we felt free to experiment with a lot of different songs. I think [rock and opera] come sort of from the same place. They're both grand, they're both over the top, they're both powerful. Once we heard it, we didn't think twice about it.

BATT: How do you choose the songs you will perform?
TR: Basically, we choose the songs that we love - the songs that move us. Because these songs that happen to move us happen to be the songs that move thousands of people, we end up playing many of the classics of opera. People who aren't even opera fans have heard this material. These songs are everywhere - I think people don't realize how ubiquitous these songs are.

BATT: What is your musical background?
TR: I came out of the womb singing. I didn't take myself seriously as a singer, and I actually trained as an actor. In my teens, I started singing in rock bands. I think some of [my previous] classical training helped preserve my voice through all the abuse I was putting it through with rock 'n' roll. A few years later, acting and singing all came together and I spent a decade or so doing musical theater.

BATT: Did you actually have to learn Italian to sing these songs?
TR: At first, I was just doing it phonetically. On the first record, I was basically just doing a bad impression of Italian. [For the second record], I had a really good dialect coach. I know what it is I'm saying at any given point, but I don't actually speak it. I do speak French, though.

BATT: What is your favorite piece that you perform?
TR: Nessun Dorma. It's just an unbelievable piece of music. It's a thrill to sing that song, and Peter's arrangement of it is really extraordinary too.

BATT: Is there anything special people should know about your College Station show?
TR: It's our first show of our Southwest Tour - then we're heading off to Europe. Also, we're in the middle of recording our third record, so there are a few songs from our third record that we're going to be playing that haven't been heard before.

-Interview by Kimberly Huebner

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