A Singer Who Defies Categorization, Elizabeth DeShong Takes on a New Challenge

Nevertheless, it was an auspicious debut for the opera singer—the first of many solos, of many iconic roles. A regular on stages in North America and Europe, DeShong is gearing up to debut a new one this September, in the world premiere of the opera Antony and Cleopatra.

But for DeShong, finding a niche in the opera world wasn’t always clear-cut. Born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and raised in nearby Selinsgrove, DeShong has been singing for as long as she can remember.

Her parents both sang and played piano. Her father, a retired minister in the United Methodist Church, even was a deft hand with the saxophone. Singing seemed normal. It was what happened at church and at home.

But opera wasn’t really on DeShong’s radar growing up. Through her parents, she was exposed more to the American musical theater tradition, with stars like Bernadette Peters and Bette Midler.

At first, DeShong thought maybe her skill on the piano would lead to a career: She liked to accompany the school choir on the keyboard. But the prospect of having to perform piano solos left her cold.

“I just didn't like solo piano recitals. They made me tremendously nervous,” she says. “So, when it came time to audition for colleges, I chose singing because it didn’t create that same kind of anxiety. I got more energy from it, whereas I felt drained after piano performances if they weren't collaborative.”

One opportunity led to another. DeShong graduated early from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, then immediately left for the Curtis Institute of Music. From there, it was straight to a young artist program in Chicago.

“I just kept going, going. I never went to a high school graduation. I never went to a college graduation,” she says.

But the uniquely flexible nature of her voice proved to be a stumbling block when it came to making the leap onto the main stage. “When I was just finishing up my time at Lyric Opera of Chicago, I was one of the later singers to find management,” she explains.

DeShong describes her voice as “a different beast:” an instrument that can soar to the high Cs of a mezzo-soprano but also descend into the lower range and colors of a contralto. “My most specific label would probably be dramatic coloratura contralto,” DeShong says, “but that reads kinda long on a resume.”

It was also initially a difficult sell for agents, who were more comfortable with singers who fit cleanly in one category or the other: either mezzo-soprano or contralto. “I think, in the early stages, they didn't know what box to put me in.”

DeShong also feared being pushed into performing material she wasn’t ready for. With her flexible voice, she could sense the pressure to take on heavy material that might strain her vocal cords—or to play the pantheon of Rossini heroines, lead roles that were highly visible and therefore highly profitable.

“I made it very clear early on in my career that I wouldn't be pushed into repertoire that was too heavy, too soon,” DeShong remembers. “And luckily I had people who taught me to value my artistry above valuing money and above valuing fame.”

Today, she’s grateful for that mentorship: She says her voice is as healthy as it has ever been. Pandemic-related theater shutdowns briefly slowed her fast-paced career—“I haven't been at home that long since I’ve been in my marriage”—but during that time, she welcomed a new addition to her family: a baby boy.

“People always say you never experience a love so strong until you've had a child,” she says. “And I would say that that's true. My heart opened in a way that I didn't know was possible.”

In a funny way, DeShong adds, becoming a parent has also made her a better artist. “Any nerves I had prior to becoming a parent—when it came to performance—have basically evaporated.” Her son, she says, “is so much now my priority that it takes the weight out of thinking of yourself as only an artist.”

When she steps into the spotlight now, she feels more confident than ever. “I know that I can walk off the stage and my number-one thing is not the review that's coming out the next day. It's just what I'm going to feed my son for dinner or what song we're going to sing before bedtime. There's such a tremendous relief to that.”

DeShong’s latest challenge is originating the role of Octavia in the world premiere of Antony and Cleopatra, a new opera from preeminent American composer John Adams.

Her character is a tragic one. The brother of Roman leader Caesar and wife to his enemy Mark Antony, Octavia finds herself trapped between dueling loyalties, even as her husband carries on a torrid affair with the pharaoh Cleopatra.

In a new interview, DeShong shares what her preparation process is like and why she thinks Antony and Cleopatra is an opera for everyone.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

SAN FRANCISCO OPERA: You're working on a new role for Antony and Cleopatra, and I wonder: You can't listen to a CD to prepare. There’s no one else who has sung it. How do you start to even just climb that hill?

ELIZABETH DESHONG: I teach myself all of my roles. Just before this, I prepared a role that there's no recordings of: Mercadante’s Il Proscritto with Opera Rara. And so that too had nothing I could really reference.

So I did it just like I do every role because I don't listen to recordings when I prepare roles. I just sit down at the piano. I read the text. I familiarize myself with the music that will support me: the orchestra part, the piano reduction. And then I learn my part.

My piano background really helps, especially in music that is as rhythmically and tonally challenging as John Adams’. I’m really grateful for having that toolbox to utilize. But it's really just like any other prep that I do.

SAN FRANCISCO OPERA: John Adams' music—it’s tough. What are the challenges of working with somebody who's a living composer?

DESHONG: I've worked with John before. We did The Gospel According to the Other Mary in Rome together. I sang Martha in that piece, and we're going to do some other things in the future.

So I'm familiar with his language and I find him to be a tremendously accessible collaborator. It’s really enjoyable to be able to have a living reference when you're putting something together.

And he's very amenable to making sure that voices are comfortable. And if modifications have to be made, he's very willing to do that. He's very flexible.

He writes tricky music. There's no denying that. The meter changes can be tricky, just to remember how many beats are between your lines sometimes. But the interesting thing that I have always found with his music is that when you learn it, it's in there. It is locked in. It makes so much sense where your line is heading, what story you are telling, the emotions churning underneath you. It's really effective.

SAN FRANCISCO OPERA: When you talk about those churning emotions, what are you detecting in Octavia's music?

DESHONG: Octavia's interesting. She was the Roman ideal of a woman. And she was considered beautiful, wise, and obedient. Those were qualities that were valued.

She's the opposite of Cleopatra. Cleopatra was sexual and passionate whereas Octavia was more practical. So she's there to balance out Mark Anthony's options. She was used to ease the tensions between Cesar and Mark Antony.

In her music, you sense her wisdom. You sense her sensitivity. You get that she loves. She loves her brother and she loves her new husband. And she's really torn between the two of them and where her duty should lie. It's hard for her, but there's such sincerity in what John has written for Octavia.

It’s thoughtful. She has a lot of moments that really pull back. So amidst all the chaos of the angry men—the feuds between them and this drive that sits underneath their music, the fury that Caesar has—she's inward. She's thoughtful.

She completely sends a new color into all of these musical scenes. It’s wise, it's settled, and it's intimate. And it's jarring when it comes out of this masculine world of war and discord and lust and distrust.

She just adds this unique voice of reason musically and dramatically. And it's exciting. It's exciting to find her within that musical landscape.

SAN FRANCISCO OPERA: It's exciting to hear you talk about it too, because so often you can very easily brush aside Octavia as the third wheel, the pawn, even the Stepford wife to Cleopatra’s more liberated, empowered figure. But you're talking about her in the terms of wisdom and strength. Did you always have this view on this character, this perspective on this character?

DESHONG: I have to weigh what you read in the Shakespeare and what you read about in other portrayals. Because different people have chosen to portray her, some as very cold or very dispassionate.

There can be this sense that: Of course, Mark Anthony didn't want that cold, emotionless, practical woman that was forced upon him. But that's actually not the woman that you read and not the woman especially that John has musically depicted.

I like that he portrays her—at least as I read it and as I have sensed it musically—as a worthy choice. She is worthy of the best of men. So it's good to see. John has done a really great job of portraying that she's been treated poorly, that she deserves better, that Mark Anthony has betrayed her.

She knows about his dalliances. She's not stupid. But she still sticks with her love and her loyalty, and she's strong within that. I think that she's probably the most reasonable person on the stage.

SAN FRANCISCO OPERA: It's also refreshing to hear that the two main principal female characters are not pitted against each other as diametric opposites.

DESHONG: That's the thing. It's much stronger if they're both worthy.

SAN FRANCISCO OPERA: Why does a story like Anthony and Cleopatra need to be told again today? What are we adding to the conversation by retelling this ancient romance?

DESHONG: That's a good question. Stories of betrayal, stories of lust, stories of war, stories of social imbalance—I think that they're all human. There are things that we feel, and we like to go to the theater to see those feelings amplified but also be at arm's length sometimes.

I think that retelling a story in John's emotional language and musical language gives us a chance to approach those feelings anew and take something different from it than we've taken from it in the past. I mean, humans make art because we like to see ourselves reflected.

SAN FRANCISCO OPERA: If you were to tell audiences here what they could look forward to or why they should check out this new opera—this unknown quantity—what would you say?

DESHONG: I would say that this is the perfect opportunity for someone who actually hasn't been to opera. It's a completely fresh experience. So someone who is new knows exactly as much as the person who's gone to a hundred operas.

You are on equal footing. They don't know more than you. They can't talk about it with anymore clarity than you can. You are all first-timers. So it's the best time to come see an opera. I think that's exciting. I personally would rather see this opera than the one that's been performed thousands of times at every house. This is what I would want to see.

SAN FRANCISCO OPERA: That's a lovely idea to end on. It's such a democratic notion that everyone comes as first-timers.

DESHONG: They do. They do. No one is at a disadvantage.

Follow opera singer Elizabeth DeShong on social media or see her live in the world premiere of Antony and Cleopatra, opening September 10, 2022.