Soprano Laura Soto-Bayomi will star in the leading role as Alice in City Lyric Opera’s rendition of “The Garden of Alice.”
Born, raised, and still living in Secaucus when she’s not performing, Soto-Bayomi recently caught up with the Hudson Reporter about her life and upcoming performances in New York City.
From skating to singing
Growing up, Soto-Bayomi said she was a figure skater. But that changed after an injury.
“I started skating at the rink in town here in Secaucus,” Soto-Bayomi said. “I did that for a long time. But in fifth grade, I hurt my ankle. And I ended taking voice and piano lessons and concentrating more on those hobbies. Basically, by the time, my ankle have healed around middle school, I really redirected my interests.”
Following that, Soto-Bayomi began taking vocal lessons with Jaime Ryder of Jaime’s Music in Bayonne. And she also started playing the piano. Through Ryder, she also enlisted the help of another vocal instructor in New York City. Both heard the classical tone in Soto-Bayomi’s voice and sought to enhance that.
”The teachers I had were classical and they heard that in my voice, and I had little to no experience with it,” she said. “I was just kind of open. My parents showed me all different kinds of music growing up.”
Soon enough her classical vocal talent became clear to Soto-Bayomi.
“It was like a parlor trick I could do,” she said. “And then it ends up becoming a huge way to express myself. I didn’t even know opera existed… The rest is history.”
Falling in love with opera
In high school, Soto-Bayomi knew she wanted to continue singing in operas full time. She decided she would pursue it in college.
“I fell in love with it,” she said. “Then it came time to apply to colleges.”
Soto-Bayomi first attended the New England Conservatory of Music where she earned her bachelor’s degree in music. Following that, she attended Bard College in upstate New York where she earned her master’s degree in Graduate Vocal Arts.
“It was opera, a little bit of new music, a little bit of classical music, but not a lot of musical theater,” she said, which was a change since musical theater had always been so close to her heart, growing up near New York City. However, she soon never missed and beat and fell in love with opera even more.
Fastforward a few years to 2020, when she was performing with Opera Colorado in Denver. When the COVID-19 pandemic, everything changed for the performing industry.
“It really shifted the way performers approach everything,” she said. “I was fortunate, they kept us on and they continued to pay us and house us, even though they had no idea when we would be singing again.”
Virtual performances prompted by virus
While Opera Colorado kept the team on board, performances across the spectrum shifted to virtual. She said some operas were quarantining five-person casts to film operas purely for virtual viewing, which was a departure from the norm. Regardless, she was able to finish her artist residency there.
“We were used to having things filmed, but not to that extent,” she said. “We were doing quarantine videos, performing out of our apartments. It was just so distanced. I felt like, when are we ever going to perform with people again? And then I got lucky.”
After six months of being home in Secaucus, Soto-Bayomi secured another opportunity for something with an in-person audience. She was set to perform in an opera in Albuquerque, New Mexico as part of a quarantined cast.
“We were in a ‘bubble’ for about three weeks,” she said. “The third week we performed in an amphitheater outdoors. That was a huge breath of fresh air to be performing for people again.”
And since then, Soto-Bayomi has continued to work, but this is her first show back in New York City since everything changed.
“I do regional performances, hopping around a lot, and this is one of the first performances I’m actually doing so close to home in a while, especially because of the pandemic,” she said.
Returning to ‘normal,’ and back in NYC
Soto-Bayomi is set to play the leading role of Alice in City Lyric Opera’s iteration of “The Garden of Alice.” Her part in the show is known as a soprano.
“You’d think of it as the umbrella over the higher-voice female,” she said, noting there were many subcategories of sopranos and the she was a lyric soprano.
Canadian composer Elizabeth Raum first presented Alice in 1984 as a svelte little concert piece that grew out of a concept for a children’s opera. She then transformed it into an adult opera with a Kafka-esque ending, in which a zany and quirky trip through Wonderland turns into a dark, violent, and treacherous one.
The opera, which originally premiered in 1985 by Raum, is based on Lewis Carrol’s classic “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” However, CLO takes it to the next level with their rendition, offering an interactive journey down the rabbit hole.
“The first time I was sent the score, I listened to it and it immediately had this flavor of ‘Alice in Wonderland,’” she said. “The more I got into it, it that Mad Hatter kind of zany, nonsense style. And it is really fun. It’s very similar to the classic plot of Alice going down the rabbit hole.”
Interactive and immersive experience
CLO’s 2022 staging of Alice served as the impetus for Raum to rescore the opera for a small chamber orchestra including: a sextet comprising piano, violin, cello, clarinet, bassoon, and a battery of percussion instruments. CLO’s interpretation of the landscape and characters of Wonderland is that of different virtual realities and identities that society drowns in on the Internet, social media, and more.
Inspired by similar immersive experiences such as the Sleep No More production and Van Gogh exhibit, CLO will offer audiences a chance to engage in Wonderland through a combination of live operatic performances, kaleidoscopic digital landscapes, and an array of costumes and props.
“There is an interactive component,” she said. “The audience will be able to come and go as they please and follow the rabbit on their phones down an interactive rabbit hole of Wonderland. That happens first, and then the performance afterwards at night.”
CLO’s production exists in two parts: the “Wonderland Exhibit,” and “The Garden of Alice” opera. The exhibit consists of pre-recorded materials and projections that make up the body that is Wonderland in the form of a digital installation.
The 90-minute opera follows Alice as she travels through the exhibit and discovers Wonderland and all its characters in her search for truth and herself. Capitalizing off of Blue Building’s unique multi-room layout, a white rabbit guides audience members through immersive architectural landscapes that highlights the opera, explores the characters’ stories, and introduces the ominous side of Wonderland.
Catch a performance from May 17 to 21
As of our interview with Soto-Bayomi, rehearsals hadn’t started yet, so she wasn’t sure what the staging would be like quite yet. But she was positive it would be a remarkable, out-of-this-world, interactive, and immersive experience.
“It’s been depicted as when she goes down the rabbit hole, there’s going to be this beautiful, wonderful garden of Wonderland,” she said. “And it turns out to be dark and sinister. We’re going to explore that a bit on the technological side, things like social media and false worlds.”
Without giving away any plot details, Soto-Bayomi said this was very true to the original story: “It takes a classic and makes you feel a lot of familiar things. And then it shows you there could be a little darkness in that comfort.”
According to Soto-Bayomi, there will be six performances over five days.
The show will run from May 17 to 21 at 7 p.m. with a 6 p.m. pre-show cocktail hour. On May 17, there will be two showings, with one at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Catch the performance at the Blue Building at 222 East 46th Street in New York City. For tickets, which are $35, go to citylyricopera.org.
“I am thrilled to be portraying a classic character,” she said. “It’s definitely a childhood dream… And I think one of the most wonderful things of being back singing and performing for people are those friendships and connections that we continue to make even though the world got turned on its head. And that’s kind of like Alice.”
For updates on this and other stories, check www.hudsonreporter.com and follow us on Twitter @hudson_reporter. Daniel Israel can be reached at disrael@hudsonreporter.com.
