The story is told of the time Luciano Pavarotti was rehearsing Schubert's "Ave Maria" in New York City's St. Patrick's Cathedral. Two carpenters on a nearby scaffold hammered away as the tenor sang; then one of them turned to the other and said: "That fat boy's got a great pair of pipes. He ought to go pro."
Michael Ballam laughs when he hears that story. Partly because he's one tenor who did, indeed, go pro. But more because he's a tenor who'd rather sing for a couple of carpenters than any other audience in the world.And over the next several weeks Ballam - who has performed with 70 opera companies in America and Europe - will be taking his music back to the grass roots; back to those nearby places with not-so-strange sounding names: Ogden, St. George, Brigham City, Idaho Falls, Provo. Ballam's "From Grand Opera to `Phantom of the Opera' " promises to be the musical event of the year in many regions he'll be visiting. (For a complete listing see page W-3.)
"I have a very strong feeling about bringing art to the people," Ballam says. "I don't believe Mozart belonged to the Vanderbilts. I've never been comfortable with elitism. When God enlightens a man like Mozart, he doesn't want the man to speak just to those people who feel they're a cut above."
Ballam, raised in River Heights, Utah, a town of200 in Cache County, comes by his populist sentiments honestly. And he tells a story to illustrate the point.
"Years ago a tenor came through Indiana when I was there," he says. "He sang in every little town from Fort Wayne to Muncie. He created some beautiful art in those tiny Midwestern towns. His name was Luciano Pavarotti. That was back before he was concerned about maintaining his heavyweight championship, back when he just wanted to give back to God the gift that had been given him."
And that, in fact, will be one of Ballam's goals for the upcoming tour: to give back the gift that's been given him. But he has something else in store as well. He wants to give back to the American people the gift that's been given to them: the gift of their nation's finest music.
"What I plan to do is trace musical theater down to the 20th century," Ballam says. "We tend to see ourselves as a stepchild in America because we don't have a Bach or Beethoven. But our musical tradition is very strong, something we can be proud of. We have some glorious operettas, for instance.
"For that reason I'll be doing songs written for grand voices. Many American musicals were written for voices with real technical facility, but we tend to forget that since Broadway has been something of a dancers medium since the '70s."
And what musicals can concertgoers expect?
"We'll do something from `Candide,' from `Phantom of the Opera.' "
Some Sondheim?
"Certainly. You can't help but do Sondheim."
In many ways this tour shows a Michael Ballam come full circle. When he was 17 he heard his first opera and thought he might not want to be Gene Kelly after all.
Now, after years of touring and singing with the world's greatest voices, he's returned to Utah to add - in the popular parlance - another point of light to the arts here.
There is one question, however. Does Ballam, with all his classical training and background, have the versatility to "pull off" a full evening of popular American music?
"Well," he says, "that will be for the audience to decide. I do know when I was asked to sing for the Pope I sang the spiritual `Ain't Got Time to Die.' When I looked up, he had tears in his eyes."
That should be enough to go on right there.
*****
(Schedule)
When and where
All seats for Michael Ballam's tour are general admission. Tickets are $7 and $4 (children 6-12). They are available at Deseret Book, ZCMI and various places in the towns on the itinerary.
The concerts, all at 8 p.m., will be on the following dates:
Oct. 14: Highland High School, Salt Lake City.
Oct. 17: Idaho Falls Civic Auditorium, Idaho Falls, Idaho.
Oct. 21: Timpview High School, Provo.
Nov. 7: Box Elder High School, Brigham City.
Nov. 11: Austad Theater, Weber State University, Ogden.
Nov. 21: Dixie Center Auditorium, St. George.
Nov. 23: Mesa High School, Mesa, Ariz.