By ARIANA WYATT

Above: Renata Scotto singing the title role in a 1983 Metropolitan Opera production of Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur. (Photo courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera) Below: Renata Scotto probes the dramatic potential of a scene from Lucia di Lammermoor with soprano Brenda Rae. (Photo by Peter Schaaf)

Great performers inspire us as students. I continue to experience awe as an audience member at the Metropolitan Opera. Of course, it is all the more exhilarating to meet these singers personally and to see how they work. During the month of February the members of the Juilliard Opera Center had the rare opportunity to work with legendary soprano Renata Scotto. Ms. Scotto burst onto the international scene in 1957 when she stepped in at the last minute for Maria Callas as Amina in La Sonnambula at La Scala. During her 40-year career, Ms. Scotto performed more than 45 different roles by 18 composers. She is best known for her Violetta in La Traviata, Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly, Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor, and Adina in L'Elisir d'Amore. Recently, Ms. Scotto has taken on the role of director, to great success. Just prior to her residency at Juilliard, she directed La Sonnambula at Florida Grand Opera.

During her Juilliard residency Ms. Scotto worked with the J.O.C. singers on duets from bel canto operas, culminating in a public master class on four scenes. I worked on a duet from Lucia di Lammermoor with tenor Jeffrey Behrens. We first prepared the duets with J.O.C. faculty members Diane Richardson and Corradina Caporello before presenting them to Ms. Scotto. I was both thrilled and terrified to be singing Lucia for such a legendary interpreter of the role. During our first coaching with Ms. Scotto we worked mainly on stylistic elements—phrasing, nuances of tempo—and language. Ms. Scotto finds a great deal of her inspiration in the text. The importance of paying attention to the text was something she stressed with everyone. As our scene was to be presented in the public master class, Ms. Scotto staged our duet during our second coaching. Alas, we had a mere half-hour to stage our 20-minute scene, and therefore ended up with only a sketch that Ms. Scotto planned to flesh out during the open class. It would have been wonderful to have spent more time working on the duet dramatically.

The master class took place on March 1 in Paul Hall. Ms. Scotto chose the four scenes to be presented in the two-hour class. Jeffrey Behrens and I presented our scene from Lucia di Lammermoor first, with Ho Jeong Jeong playing piano. This love duet from Act 1 is quite long, and Ms. Scotto chose to work on it in two sections. She helped us improve our staging, mostly through demonstration; of course, this pleased the audience, as Ms. Scotto is so convincing onstage. She did not ignore our singing, however, and was sure to point out any imperfection in pitch or phrasing. Following our scene, Brenda Rae and Museop Kim continued with another duet from Lucia di Lammermoor, this one between Lucia and her brother Enrico. Following a lovely rendition by Rae and Kim, Ms. Scotto helped the two singers delve deeper into their characters. Enrico is a true villain in the opera, particularly so in this scene, and Mr. Kim leaned into Enrico's evil side with Ms. Scotto's encouragement. Enrico forces Lucia to the floor, asserting his power over her—and Ms. Scotto demonstrated both sides of this power struggle to great effect. For Lucia, Ms. Scotto encouraged Ms. Rae to be more generous in her expression of emotion. She said, "You must have passion, my dear." I could not agree more.

At this point, the class shifted to comic opera. Although dramatic singing is, of course, very demanding, bringing off comedic opera effectively can be vastly more challenging. Ms. Scotto seemed equally at ease in both. In a charming scene from Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri, Isabella (played by mezzo-soprano Ronnita Miller) becomes irritated with her traveling companion Taddeo (baritone David McFerrin) and his constant jealousy. One of the most crucial elements of comic acting is staying in the moment, as each performance must feel like the first time. Ms. Scotto gave both Miller and McFerrin various small tasks that they could play with differently each time: for example, Ms. Miller was given a large shawl, and Ms. Scotto expertly demonstrated how to play with it coquettishly.

The final scene of the afternoon was from La Cenerentola, Rossini's version of the Cinderella tale. Cenerentola (Isabel Leonard) meets Prince Ramiro (Timothy Fallon) for the first time, and they fall in love at first sight. Perfectly cast, Leonard and Fallon gave a captivating performance that delighted Ms. Scotto and the audience. Having limited time left, Ms. Scotto chose to concentrate on the entrance and exit of Cenerentola. She helped Ms. Leonard add even more subtlety to her character, concluding with a heated glance as she left her prince charming.

My colleagues and I greatly enjoyed working with such an experienced and remarkable artist. We would be fortunate indeed to have her return, as she has so much to offer.

Ariana Wyatt is an artist diploma candidate in the Juilliard Opera Center.