Stockton Symphony Association

Good things come in all packages

Dec 10

Size actually does make a difference in the world of opera.

NaGuanda Nobles laughs good-naturedly about that reality. She's not letting it bother her.

"If I had a dollar for the number of times I've been asked, 'How does all of that sound come out of that little body?' I could retire early," the 5-foot soprano said with a cheerful laugh.

Audience members will get to raise their voices, too.

"Rich, elegant, honey," said Peter Jaffe, conductor of the 83-year-old symphony, describing Nobles' voice. "I just love to listen to her sing. She's got great high chops, too."

Nobles, 33, who discovered the universal appeal of music and the particular charms of opera only as a student at Florida State University, didn't realize most major soprano roles call for a different - and larger - body type.

So, her role model became Maria Callas (1923-77), the acclaimed American-born soprano of Greek ancestry known as "la divina."

"When (Callas) was with us, she sang pretty much everything," said Nobles, as she waited to pick up her 4-year-old daughter, Kaira, in Flower Mound, a suburb of Dallas. "When she was here, it wasn't the way you looked. It was just how you sang.

"Nowadays, it's different. I'm a petite person. I hope we can get back to that and take a chance on smaller or bigger people. Yes, I've had trouble with it. But we're coming away from the days when a soprano has to be 200 pounds. Although, if the cast is taller, they don't want a 5-foot soprano."

Nobles is excited about her Sunday appearance, because she'll reach for the heights while singing "O Holy Night," one of her favorite seasonal songs. "I just love it."

She'll also be featured on "Every Time I Feel the Spirit" and "Sweet Little Jesus Boy."

She's been pragmatic about her opera career, making her specialties two Giacomo Puccini roles for which her size of heart is more pertinent than her height: Liu is a slave girl in "Turandot," and Mimi, a seamstress in "La Boheme," is "so fragile and weak, it doesn't matter what her height is."

Nobles' mastery of the roles definitely impressed Sacramento Opera officials during 2007 West Coast auditions in San Jose, where she won the Irene Dalis competition (named for the Opera San Jose general director). They offered her the Mimi role "on the spot," and she performed it this year in Sacramento.

Nobles met Jaffe at the 2006 auditions, and he chose her to sing in the symphony's "Night at the Opera" concert in January 2007.

"I had an absolute gas with her," Jaffe said. "She basically grew up singing in churches and singing gospel. And that makes her so perfect for a holiday pops concert."

"We had a good working relationship," Nobles said. "I'm excited and honored."

Born in Tallahassee, Fla., Nobles attended Thomasville (Ga.) High School and returned to Tallahassee, where she majored in interior design at Florida State University.

Since she was a child, she'd sung in church.

"I started learning (music) in high school," she said. "But I really didn't understand how I could pursue a career in singing."

She joined Florida State's University Singers, with whom she experienced her musical epiphany during a 1992 tour of Thailand and Vietnam.

"I fought it," Nobles said, giggling. "I did not want to pursue music. That changed when I went to Vietnam. That's when I really became a firm believer that music is universal. No matter what piece or what language it was, they enjoyed it. That was my turnaround moment."

A severe case of strep throat was threatening to prevent her from singing in the tour's final show. Until, that is, she found out some people would be there especially to hear her. She sang anyway.

"That became a light-bulb moment," she said. "That was what did it for me. To do it with strep throat."

Having "felt the spirit," Nobles returned to Florida State and, during her last semester of graduate school, "decided to, OK, give opera a try."

She joined the Austin Lyric Opera in Texas - performing Papagena in Mozart's "The Magic Flute" allowed her to "experience the parameters and break out" - and has been going since, now balancing parenthood and a career.

Careful scheduling and a "very supportive and understanding" daughter and her husband of six years - Kirk, a jazz trumpet player - make that possible.

She still sings regularly in church but won't be doing any jazz shows with Kirk.

"I kind of play with it around the house," she said with a big laugh. "But I will not sing it in public."

Like Jaffe - whose three-concert pops series and ongoing student and community outreach programs are designed to develop a potential new audience - Nobles wants to help opera and classical music endure and flourish.

"We really do think it's important to keep interest in different segments of our audience," said Jaffe, 52, who's in his 15th year as conductor and values his "wonderful collaborations" with the 54-year-old Stockton Chorale. "With younger people, we hope there's a certain amount of crossover. But it's almost like offering two different product lines (classical and pops)."

He proudly pointed out Sunday's concert, which has sold out for a second straight year, will include three songs for Hanukkah, which begins Friday night.

When Nobles worked with a Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra youth program, she would "mingle with young professionals and encourage them to come into opera. Of course, with the economy, opera is suffering. We need to just continue to get the word out.

"It's a part of our culture. All they need is to be part of the experience. With me getting a late bloom - you know, just trying it on a whim - I could be one to look at. It's a wonderful culture to experience.

"We all have some scenarios in life that can be linked to opera."

Nobles is figuring out how to sing her way through a truly sizable one.

Contact Tony Sauro at (209) 546-8267 or tsauro@recordnet.com.