My most meaningful project is co-founding Opera in the Pines, which was born in the midst of a global pandemic when all three of our co-founders were asking themselves what was next? All of our singing work had been canceled, and there was no end in sight to the lockdown and social distancing. We started talking about what we could do that was friendly to a smaller audience if we were going to be facing this virus for years to come. We started wondering how we get scared people into theaters again and… what if we didn’t? What if we met them where they were at, in places where they already gather? This idea then expanded through and past the pandemic into wanting to show audiences corners of their home state of Maine that were never seen by arts audiences. And if they had occupied that space before, look at how Opera in the Pines transformed it into something completely different than its original purpose. To see how people can enjoy themselves no matter where they are in life, and however they show up, is what being a salt-of-the-earth New Englander means to me. What really matters is that everyone has gathered together, and isn’t being asked to dress or act a certain way to enjoy gorgeous music and acting.

What we do at Opera in the Pines is present alternative opera in unconventional spaces, committing ourselves to reinventing the opera experience. We have thus far presented two successful and sold-out seasons, with another coming this May. This company became my main(e) outlet for creating productions that I believe will be the way opera survives in smaller communities. Having grown up in a farm town in central Maine, I knew what smaller places wanted and what they wouldn’t show up for. All three of us come from different areas of the state, and we all bring those flavors together to discover what the next project should be. Our General Director, Lauren Yokabaskas, has a goal to perform in all of the 16 counties of our state in our first 10 years of operation. This type of mission speaks to me as someone from that small town, who loved the arts and would have loved to see more of it happen. Our Technical Director, Aaren Rivard, is also from the small town of South China, Maine and just recently returned from singing with Opera Theatre of St. Louis. His is another situation that shows the importance of an arts presence in all of Maine’s communities. We prioritize employing mostly (in some instances *entirely*) Mainers, bringing creative opportunities to local artists of all types. What we are doing is more than just putting on excellent shows, we are seeing where the need is and following where that takes us, in a state where everyone is so spread out and cannot necessarily get themselves to larger cities. All of this quickly became so much more meaningful to me than continuing to sing, and while I sometimes miss being on stage, I won’t miss the overwhelming anxiety it brought me. There is something to be said about listening to your body, and for years it was telling me that to love to sing is different than to love it as your career. However singing brought me the people who I love the most in this world, and a love for opera that I will never be able to shake. This wonderful, bombastic, heart wrenching, hilarious, and awe-inspiring-display-of-talent-art-form has me hooked, and I can’t wait for Opera in the Pines to be the reason more people get a chance to enjoy it.

I’m Sable, a proud Mainer, trained opera singer turned site-specific opera director, and ABBA superfan.

My recent transition from singing to directing happened first by way of necessity, and then became the most fulfilling artistic endeavor I’ve ever set upon. It was something I had always been interested in doing, but antiquated opinion said that singers could only be singers. I bravely asked the heads of opera departments if I could direct scenes and be their assistant director rather than sing in the show. For years I’ve sat in rehearsals of operas I was cast in thinking of how I would have liked to direct whatever we were working on, and catching myself admiring the work of the team behind the table. I’d naturally become friends with the director, the stage managers, etc. I longingly watched them work, and still loved to sing, but also knew I had this really strong desire to access my creativity in a different way. I looked to my friends in other genres of the performing arts and saw the opposite mindset… they could be anything. Actors, singers, dancers, directors, guitarists, painters… why the perception that a classical musician can only focus on one thing or they are considered unfocused? Luckily, around the time of the pandemic, this all seemed to change. And while there are certainly instances of successful multi-faceted careers in the industry pre-pandemic, it seems to be more common now. Probably because we all got a taste of having these “what ifs” being taken from us forever.