www.fresnobee.com/2012/02/23/2733635/little-jackie-evancho-brings-her.html#storylink=cpy
Jackie Evancho brings her big opera voice to FresnoBy Donald Munro - The Fresno Bee
Thursday, Feb. 23, 2012 | 01:00 PM
Jackie Evancho is on the phone from her home in Pittsburgh, and though she doesn’t sing a word, I have a reaction that is similar to millions of music fans who hear her voice for the first time:
It’s hard to believe she’s so young.
The 11-year-old is talking about her selective travel schedule, which handlers of the singer — who vaulted to fame with an appearance on “America’s Got Talent” and went on to record the top-selling album “Dream With Me” — purposely keep light so she can have a semblance of a home routine. She’s been on tour recently in short bursts, hitting a few cities in a row, including Sunday’s performance in Fresno at Saroyan Theatre, and then having several weeks off.
“You leave and you’re there for three days,” she says in the clear tones so familiar to her listeners. “The most that I’ve been gone is a week or so. These trips have been very short.”
What’s remarkable is her poise, her syntax, her measured way of taking a thought and expressing it in a cogent and grown-up way. If it weren’t for the high, sweet timbre of her voice, I’d swear I was talking to a 16- or 17-year-old.
Does she get nervous before a performance?
“All the time,” she says. “Sometimes it’s a lot. Sometimes it’s a lot less.”
Yet moments later in the interview, she makes it abundantly clear that she’s still a little girl, too.
I ask what she does for fun.
“I like to draw and play with my friends and my pets, and play with my brothers,” she tells me. “I love playing outside.”
One of the requests in her contract with Fresno Grand Opera, which is presenting Sunday’s concert, is to provide colored pencils in her dressing room.
It’s that youth and innocence, combined with her prettiness and ethereal voice — the word “heavenly” gets used a lot to describe the way she sings — that seems to strike the biggest chord with her fans.
“She is the closest to a heavenly angel I have ever seen or heard,” says Gil Rodriguez of Fresno, one of more than 150 readers hoping to win tickets to Sunday’s concert, the largest response The Bee has ever had in a ticket giveaway for a classical event. “I believe this is God’s way — one way — of letting the world know there is hope for us all.”
Many first heard Evancho sing on “America’s Got Talent” in 2010. Still more were drawn to her after viewing her top-rated PBS special in 2011. Billboard magazine named her the top Classical Albums Artists for 2011.
Ronald D. Eichman, general director of Fresno Grand Opera, noticed all the interest. “It’s been something we’ve been really closely tracking for a couple of years,” he says.
Eichman and the opera’s associate general director, Thi Nguyen, have cultivated a number of important contacts in the music industry in recent years, the result of hosting such superstars as Andrea Bocelli and Juan Diego Flórez. One of those contacts is the producer and impresario David Foster, who worked with Evancho on her album.
"We elected to put her in Fresno first, second at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco," Eichman says with a laugh. "Behind the scenes, we're continuing to demonstrate what Fresno Grand Opera can do."
Evancho's program at Sunday's concert will include such songs as "All I Ask of You," "O Mio Babbino Caro" and "The Lord's Prayer." She'll share the program with the young tenor Josh Page.
Even though her handlers have been taking care not to overtax her with too rigorous of a concert schedule, there's been controversy from the start over whether Evancho is being pushed too hard. That's often the case with child performers. One of the cautionary examples often given is that of the Welsh singer Charlotte Church, who exploded on the classical scene at age 11 after appearing on a British TV show and later switched to a career in pop music.
"I worry that she will damage her future singing voice and career by over-singing in this vocally demanding adult manner while she is so young," says Jean Lane of Fresno, another entrant in The Bee's ticket giveaway. "Extremely careful managing of her in all respects is of great importance. I want to hear her voice for many years to come."
Foster has said there's no cause for concern. In a 2011 interview with The Bee's Rick Bentley, he discussed working with Evancho on the album "Dream With Me."
"After working with her two weeks, I may have discovered something about her," Foster said. "She is 100% an opera singer, without a shadow of a doubt. She is not Charlotte Church ... She is a real opera singer, and it's scary the depth of her knowledge and how deep she runs at 10 years old. It's just phenomenal."
Melissa Wolfmann, who teaches opera at Fresno City College, cautions that anyone as young as Evancho shouldn't be considered an opera singer, however. Instead, she calls her a "child performer" who is engaging in the pop-culture trend of singing an operatic repertoire.
There's nothing wrong with that, Wolfmann says, if Evancho gets good vocal training. As her voice matures, she can decide what she wants to do with her obvious vocal talent -- whether to sing opera, musical theater or perhaps cross over to popular music. (Or perhaps go into acting: Evancho is set to appear in the upcoming Robert Redford film "The Company You Keep.")
Why does Wolfmann think Evancho is so popular?
"Her youth," she says. "She does have a very beautiful sound. And she's a beautiful little girl in beautiful little dresses. She's cute and bubbly, and I think Americans like to eat that up. It's enjoyable. As long as it's healthy for her, and she seems to love it, I think it's fine. As far as audiences go, I think they should welcome her and embrace her performance."
Debates about the demands on her voice and her vocal future aside, Eichman says Evancho has already mastered one critical part of show business: She oozes stage presence.
"She's so intelligent musically, and she understands what it takes to deliver when the spotlight comes on," Eichman says. "Those are the intangibles that set her up for what could be an extraordinary artist."
And regardless of what Evancho's path will be in the future, one thing is for sure, he says: "It's rare that we have an opportunity to hear her sing at this stage. She's only going to be 11 once."
That's certainly the case.
For Evancho, the short phone interview is capped by a question about her beloved dogs. She has four: Maggie, Dewey, Boo and Zoey -- and, yes, they love to play outside, too.
For the record, she's excited to come to Fresno. Maggie, a Pomeranian, is, too.
"Maggie is the travel dog, so she comes," Evancho says. "That makes me happy."
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