We were lucky to catch up with Gabriel Preisser recently and have shared our conversation below.
Gabriel, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
When I was a resident artist at Minnesota Opera, I was truly fortunate to be cast as the role of Lt. Gordon in a brand-new opera entitled Silent Night with music by Kevin Puts and a libretto by Mark Campbell which retold the unbelievable true story of the WWI Christmas Truce in 1914. To say it was an honor to be a part of this production and to be a part of retelling this singular and tremendously powerful moment of humanity in history is an extreme understatement. The whole experience was beyond words really and I’ll never forget the goosebumps and excitement of opening night as we stepped into the trenches on the stage. It was a completely new level of adrenaline and rush that I had never felt before. It was a heightened sense of all emotion and realism that I had never experienced before on stage. And the beauty of it was the wonderful message of the work that we were sharing with the audience that when one truly knows their “enemy,” one no longer has the desire to fight. The work went on to win the Pulitzer Prize that year and was broadcast on PBS. I also performed in the production at Opera Philadelphia, Detroit Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Utah Opera, and Piedmont Opera. I am excited to bring this work to Orlando next season for the Florida premiere of the work and we at Opera Orlando have been partnering with the local VA for the past 8 years in preparation for this performance by performing at the VAs and providing free tickets to veterans. It is extremely gratifying to know that art can make a difference, and I have experienced that time and time again with this work.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I grew up in Apopka, FL and was singing from a young age at church, at school, at home. My Mom made us all take piano which at the time I know I complained about but now I feel very fortunate that she forced that on us. My elementary school even had a steel drum band that I played in which was lots of fun. I made my Disney World debut in the 5th grade playing Calypso and Under the Sea on the steel drums. I really peaked early. My high school teachers were the ones who really pointed me towards studying voice at the collegiate level either in music theater or opera. I auditioned for both programs at Florida State University and was accepted into both but ended up pursuing opera and I’m so happy that I did as it has allowed me to crossover and do both opera and music theater in addition to oratorio work, art song recitals, recording projects, etc… After Florida State University, I did my Masters in opera at the University of Houston. Houston is a such a vibrant arts town. It really opened up several doors for me and opportunities. From there, I did several young artist programs around the US from Kentucky Opera to Des Moines Metro Opera and finally Minnesota Opera where I caught a big break performing a main role in the Pulitzer Prize winning new opera Silent Night. That led to me getting a manager and landing guest artist, principal artist roles across the country from San Francisco to Boston. I also made a name for myself doing new works, new operas, and was hired to sing the role of Farmer Bean in Tobias Picker’s Fantastic Mr. Fox which went on to win the 2019 Grammy for Best Opera Recording. Meanwhile, in 2012 I had moved back to Orlando to make that homebase for myself and my wife and for us to start our family. She had been on road with me up to that time. I owed her a break. In Orlando, the opera company that had been around when I was kid unfortunately went bankrupt in 2008. There was a group of diehard opera fans who were really trying to get a professional company going again and they asked me to be involved. Before I knew it, I was General Director and CEO for the newly formed Opera Orlando which launched in 2016 and is now going on 9 very successful seasons growing from a $250,000 budget when we started to now a $2.5 million annual budget. Luckily, I am to still perform across the country and serve as the General Director for Opera Orlando. I count myself extremely lucky and love what I do both on stage and off.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Well, COVID-19 certainly challenged every industry in multiple ways. For us, it was a matter of how do we continue to engage with our audience when, at first, we couldn’t do live performances and then when we could do live performances, how do we make sure our cast and crew felt safe and how do we make sure our audience felt safe while also still connecting with us were staying home. So, we pivoted a lot at this time, and it stretched our creativity and patience for sure. Right when the shutdown happened, we launched a weekly online broadcast called The High Note which was actually presented from my home. We used this platform to keep our audience updated on our plans while interviewing and featuring past artists or future artists. We even did an online concert series via this outlet. By December of 2020, most Florida venues were back open so we partnered with Orlando Health to work on safety protocol measures for cast, crew, audience, everyone and miraculously, we were able to present the first indoor operatic production since the shutdown in Florida and by all accounts, the first in the US with Die Fledermaus at the Walt Disney Theater at Dr. Phillips Center. We pre-recorded the chorus members individually and they were projected on large screens on either side of the stage and then the orchestra was spread out, socially distanced on stage with a scrim in front of them, keeping them separate from the principal singers who all were living a protected, regularly tested bubble. It was quite the experience, but the production went off without a hitch and live audiences (who were also socially distanced) loved it and we recorded the production and streamed it online to great acclaim. By pivoting and coming back to live theater as quickly as we could I believe we were able to preserve our audience and we actually saw audience growth and donor, supporter growth during that time.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I have always felt that it is crucial to remember that Opera Orlando or any opera company for that matter is a non-profit and therefore should be serving the community in some way. We should always be community driven and that is one of our core values at Opera Orlando. Therefore, the repertoire that we select and the educational programs that we present should be reflective of the area and people that we serve. That is why we have presented such works as Carmen set in Haiti which was done in partnership with the Haitian Chamber of Commerce of Orlando, and we have presented Frida in partnership with the Hispanic Chamber of Metro Orlando. This season we will present Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha in partnership with the African American Chamber of Commerce of Orlando. These partnerships and community focus are paramount to our success and answer an ever-important question for any non-profit and arts group: who will miss you if you are gone. It is our goal to be an integral, needed, and beneficial part of our community’s cultural and economic fabric. We should be improving the quality of living in Orlando, we should be making a difference. This can no better be seen than with our recent presentation of Defiant Requiem which retold the true story of a group of Jewish prisoners presenting Verdi’s Requiem at the Terezin concentration camp. The performance raised $100,000 for the Holocaust Center of Orlando and brought our entire community together around a common cause for good. THAT is the goal.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.gabrielpreisser.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/operaorlando/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OperaOrlando
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/24776665/admin/feed/posts/
- Twitter: https://x.com/OperaOrlando
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@operaorlando2286
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/gpreisser
- Other: https://operaorlando.org/
https://www.facebook.com/gabrielpreisserpage