Casella joined him, and was in demand both at Bremen and elsewhere as a guest artist, but both singers knew they wanted to return to this country.Īmbitious singers who don't take the European route usually opt for New York, and Casella and Nim both took a good-sized bite out of the Big Apple. For a time during the mid-80s, Nim was a regular company member at the Bremen Opera, where he sang baritone and heroic baritone roles (including Jochanaon in Strauss' "Salome"), and made guest appearances in Geneva, Basel and Lucerne. Others, including mezzo-soprano Margaret Russell, have stayed in Germany for the long term and raised their families there.įor Nim and Casella, this wasn't an option. Some Seattle singers who found success in Germany, including basso Norman Smith and tenor Melvyn Poll, have returned to careers in their home country. Living in Germany, where most expatriate American singers end up, can have its advantages, but for singers who become parents, it also means raising children in a foreign country. Making a career in the world of opera is a treacherous business for a singer, who often has to follow available jobs to audition in Europe (a market that has increasingly closed off in the wake of greater competition and less government support for opera). They'll be joined by violinist Wilhelmas Cepinskis, who has recently made his Carnegie Hall debut, and by pianist William Thomas Smiddy, who studied with both Horowitz and Rubinstein. in Sacred Heart Church of Bellevue (9460 NE 14th) tickets are $14 and $16, at 20 or 20.Ĭasella and Nim (whose voice has now developed into a heldentenor, or heroic tenor) will present arias and duets from opera to Broadway, with members of the Tacoma Opera Chorus and theĬhoirs of Holy Family and Sacred Heart churches. in Holy Rosary Church of West Seattle (4142 42nd Ave. The couple will appear in two more local concerts, following this past Friday's opener in the Auburn Performing Arts Center: tonight at 7:30 p.m.
Instead, after venturing far and wide, winning competitions, performing at Carnegie Hall and the New York City Opera, Casella and Nim are doing their own version of "You Can Come Home Again" right here in the Pacific Northwest.
The rest of the story doesn't turn out like "La Boheme" or any of the other romantic - but tragic - plots that populate the opera world. A year and a half later, the pair were married, and went off for San Francisco, where they both were stars of the prestigious Merola Opera Program in 1977.
Puccini couldn't have done it any better. Lovely blonde lyric soprano meets handsome young baritone. That's how it happened for Pamela Casella and Craig Heath Nim, two young singers who were at a post-opera party at the home of former University of Washington faculty stage director Ralph Rosinbum. Just like "Some Enchanted Evening," when you may meet a stranger across a crowded room.
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