_{Artist of the Week} 19 Qs for Peter McGillivray

When was your first singing lesson (and with whom)?
Darryl Edwards and the late Lynn Blaser were the vocal coaches for the 1996 Ontario Youth Choir directed by Elmer Iseler. I had my first lessons with them and decided to move across the street to the music faculty to study with Lynn after finishing my history undergrad at the University of Toronto. She was instrumental in inspiring me to see just how far down the rabbit hole I could go with this music stuff.

Who/what inspired you to sing?
My late mother Kathleen, a tremendous pianist and soprano, and my father Angus, an enthusiastic and rich-voiced baritone, both imbued me with a love of vocal music and an appreciation for magic of language.

Drink of choice?
A double rye on the rocks. I might have said bourbon a few years ago but now opt for the more patriotic choice.

If you weren’t a singer, you’d be..?
As a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut. So it has been incredibly exciting to watch the Artemis mission around the moon this month. But I think if I hadn’t been side-tracked and distracted by music, I would probably be practicing law by now since that was the focus of my undergrad years.

Which opera role do you want to be singing right now?
Falstaff or Rigoletto.

What’s the strangest/funniest thing that has happened to you on stage?
Hard to pick one – when you specialize in comedies, a lot of “gifts from the gods of humour” tend to happen. My favourites are the moments that just can’t be duplicated on recordings when something happens that’s so ridiculous it shatters the fourth wall with the audience in a spontaneous moment of shared humanity. Fully splitting my trousers from front to back while downstage centre in full lunge as the Pirate King comes to mind. Overenthusiastic Figaro’s applying too much shaving cream. Precocious kids in the front row seats answering rhetorically sung questions. So many laughs shared.

What’s something most people don’t know about opera life?
It can be lonely on the road. And it doesn’t really get easier over time. One of the reasons I really appreciate working predominantly in Canada is that you get to work with a lot of friends and colleagues you already know and love and get to rekindle those connections that can sustain you for the weeks spent away from family and friends back home.

Tent or hotel?
Hammock.

Coffee or tea?
Coffee. For the caffeine, but also for the ritual that anchors your day.

What’s your favourite mind-calming practice?
Walking in the woods. My wife calls it a “Forest Bath,” and I tend to agree. Just as essential as a daily shower. I also love sailing during the warmer months. When all of your work takes place in windowless rehearsal rooms and dark theatres, it’s important to get outside and move every single day in all seasons.

What’s the best thing about being an opera artist?
Making a living singing and sharing some the best music and drama ever created. It’s as simple as that.

What book are you reading at the moment?
I’ve got two books on the go. The first is a translation of Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther in preparation for the COC’s production. I always enjoy going back to the source material when learning a role that’s new to me. And the other is The Hundred Days by Patrick O’Brian, the penultimate volume of his 20 book Aubrey/Maturin Master and Commander series. It’s been aptly described as Jane Austen on the high seas, and it’s helping me get in the mood for the impending sailing season in Toronto.

Do you enjoy cooking? If yes, what is your best dish?
My wife, Jen, enjoys the fancy dinner party cooking. I prefer to stick to the everyday fare. But my latest obsession is my new wood pellet smoker for our backyard. Chicken Wings, smoked fish, ribs and brisket… I’m learning a lot about what to do and also what not to do.

What is something most people don’t know about you?
I’m an amazing dancer.

What is one thing that you cannot live without?
Puzzles and games. I’ve always loved Crosswords and other language and numbers games. Mobile phones have probably enabled this obsession more than is, strictly speaking, healthy.

The music industry is tough, and filled with rejection. How do you cope? Does it get easier?
Coping with rejection is easier if you stay grounded in what’s really important in your life – family, friendships, food, rituals both sacred and secular, and the wider arts. The realization that there is so much more to you the individual than just your singing career is an important principle. You’ll be remembered for the mark you make with your life beyond your singing long after your career is over and done. It’s a job, and you have to treat it that way. It can feel like it’s personal, because it’s your own intimate voice and talent that is being reviewed, but it really is a business at the end of the day, and you can’t be sentimental about it.

What is happiness for you?
I’ll stay clear of anything metaphysical and say more practically that happiness for me is sitting around the room or a campfire after a delicious dinner with family and friends, sharing stories, jokes, songs and reminiscences.

Do your on stage experiences also feed into your personal life?
I would say it is more the personal experiences, the characters you meet in daily life, the stories you read, the films and theatrical works you watch find their way into my stage experiences in terms of the characterizations and physical presence I create for each role. I’ve taken a bit of clown training over the years that teaches you to take everything from the world around you, combine it with your own subconscious feelings to build a character that is honest, to itself at least. That has really helped me be successful with the over-the-top buffo roles I’ve come to specialize in portraying. Villains don’t see themselves as villains. They are the superheroes of their own movies.

What’s the most important lesson you learned from childhood?
I was extremely fortunate to grow up in a close family that tried their best to live the golden rule to love one another. Expressing ourselves through music is one of the most important ways that we do this as human beings, the cornerstone of the foundation of our society. Today, sharing your musical voice is an increasingly radical act of love. We’re seeing in real time what happens in the wider world when the love that binds our societies together breaks down and we start to see people we disagree with as “other” instead of someone worthy of our love. It is our critical duty as musicians and artists to put as much love out there in the universe as humanly possible with the short life we’ve been given. That’s our moonshot. That’s what I learned from my childhood.