Spotlight on Ellen Rissinger
Part of the series, Life of the Opera Pianist
General Information
Education
M.M. in Accompanying from University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music
B.F.A. in Piano Performance from Carnegie Mellon University
Current opera house and position(s)
Special Faculty-Opera Coach at Carnegie Mellon University
Founder/Editor, The Diction Police
Co-Host, So Lit Song Lit Podcast
Other or former affiliations
Music Staff: Semperoper Dresden, Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Düsseldorf)
Vocal Coach: Wolf Trap Opera, Temple University Opera Workshop, Pittsburgh Opera
Rehearsal Pianist: Bregenz Festspiel, Kentucky Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia
Connect
The Diction Police Website
The Diction Police on Facebook
Cincinnati Song Initiative Podcast
11 Questions
Many people do not know the many roles and responsibilities a répétiteur has in the opera house. How did you explain your job to non-musicians, or even other musicians?
My answer to that is always: I play the piano for opera singers and help them learn their roles and foreign languages.
What did you find to be one of the most challenging aspects of your job?
Not letting myself get overworked! Honestly, coaches in general love what we do so much that often we are happy to add a few minutes to a coaching to finish up details, to help singers find new repertoire, or to help someone who needs extra time, and all that extra work adds up. It’s tough to say no, but I’ve learned that I also need a break once in a while.
Do you have a favorite part of the preparation (rehearsal or learning an opera) process? If so, what is it and why?
Pretty much whatever I’m doing at the moment is my “favorite” thing, but I adore getting to sing in any capacity, and have even gotten to sing full roles with orchestra for rehearsals when someone in the cast has been ill!!
What is your favorite opera?
My desert island opera is Falstaff, but anything I’m playing at the time is “one of my favorites”! Except Don Pasquale, for some reason that opera just doesn’t excite me at all…
What is your favorite opera score to play and why?
Hard to say—I’ve done a lot of Figaros in my life, and I love playing that, but probably my real favorite to play is Rigoletto just because of all the nuances and the tricks I’ve developed to make it play easily for me.
What are some adjectives that describe the skills one needs to be a good répétiteur?
Patient, encouraging, tenacious, collaborative.
As a répétiteur, we are expected to prepare music quickly (sometimes having to sightread or transpose or play music from the orchestra full score), manage multiple opera productions at the same time, play rehearsals for last minute cast changes, conduct last minute rehearsals or performances and sometimes even sing roles in these rehearsals or performances. Do you have any advice on how to deal with the excitement of the job?
Two things:
Guided Meditation—there’s something about preparing yourself by imagining a stressful situation while focusing on your breath that really keeps my nerves under control. Also, if something goes wrong one day, rather than obsessing over it, you can use Guided Meditation afterward to walk through that situation again and imagine how you would do it better.
Start and end every day with a return to the basics so that you are always building on the right foundation. If you had a particularly stressful day, don’t go to bed with that stress still in your body, come back to a ritual that will release that energy so that the next day you can start fresh. Whether this is a yoga flow or sitting at the keyboard playing scales to work out the tension, find what works for you that helps you improve incrementally every day.
We also wear many hats as a répétiteur. We are often asked to assist conductors by taking notes, provide backstage conducting for performances, prompt the singers, conduct staging rehearsals, accompany chorus rehearsals, manage sound effects or major musical cues for performances, perform a keyboard instrument (or two) in the orchestra pit and give notes to singers about language and diction. Did you have a favorite aspect of the career? Did you branch out in other directions related to our field?
I am a language coach—I love languages and have grown very passionate about the study of lyric diction and how that can make a singer’s life easier. To that end, I founded The Diction Police, a full-service website on lyric diction, dedicated to bringing the sounds of native speakers in the opera world to everyone. We have also published Interactive Handbooks on Diction for Singers to help singers learn diction in a more interactive, fun way.
What was your first experience as a répétiteur? And your most recent experience as a répétiteur?
My first show outside of school productions was a Giulio Cesare for the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh. Since I’m now in academia, I’m working on Così fan tutte for a production that will open next semester—my last official production in Dresden was Les Huguenots.
How do you manage playing an opera (or opera aria) for the nth time?
It’s always new! I’ve played 10 productions of Figaro and every time I find something new in the text from the way a singer brings the character to life or from something the conductor wants, so there’s never any time that it doesn’t feel like I’m learning it all over again!
Do you have any advice for pianists interested in a career at an opera house?
Learn your craft and don’t skip the steps! We have to play the piano well enough to not think about playing the piano, we need to know diction and languages well enough to hear and correct others, and we need to keep our focus on the conductor. Each of these skills take enormous concentration individually and putting them together doesn’t happen overnight. It takes a lot of time to build them and some days will be better than others—don’t be in a rush, just keep doing the homework and it will all add up over time.
Do you have any advice for singers on how to best utilize their time/resources with a vocal coach?
Do everything you feel comfortable doing alone on your own time—things like learning pitches and rhythms are basic skills a singer should have, so as not to waste their money paying for someone to teach those things. If you are not comfortable with the language, invest in a language coaching first rather than a musical coaching, and be super solid on the language before trying to put it with music—it will be easier to learn correctly than it will be to fix mistakes later! If the music is challenging and you need help with notes and rhythms, specifically say you want a coaching for that and that you would like to record it, and then use that recording so that the next time you feel solid—or ask your coach to make a practice track for you. We’ve all gotten used to making these throughout the pandemic, and it can save you some serious time and money by having it on repeat.
Any additional memories, thoughts or comments?
I started my career in the US, then moved to Germany for 16 years, and then moved back to the US. The move to Germany was like starting over because I didn’t know anyone there and it was completely different system. There’s nothing like being dropped down into a foreign country where you don’t yet speak the language well to make you figure out who you are and what you are capable of! And working in repertoire houses means that on any given day, I could have been playing 3-4 different operas/styles/languages, which really gives a feeling of accomplishment. I have many friends throughout Germany that I still keep in touch with on a regular basis.
Moving back was a little different—I had worked for several European summer programs run through American universities over the years, and with The Diction Police my name was still around in the US; with these contacts and recognition, I was able to come back and freelance until the pandemic started. Once that happened, I lost everything—I gave up my apartment in Philadelphia and moved to my hometown to save money, while my coach friends in Germany were all still being paid. It was a very rough time, but I knew that things would work out eventually, and if I hadn’t been near my family during that time, I would have been even more upset. I worked for Wolf Trap online, and Temple University asked me to coach their Opera Workshop online, but when I was offered the position at Carnegie Mellon, I knew that was the right path for me—I’m loving being in academia, it’s a big change from opera houses, but I have great colleagues (some of whom are diction geeks too!) and I love knowing that I’m influencing the next generation in such a hands-on way. I even have a few students who did summer immersion courses in German, so we communicate exclusively in German!
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