Tomer Zvulun, Atlanta Opera’s Artistic Director Interview — Opera and Atlanta Champion, Both

Editor's Note:  Read the related story–

Atlanta Opera Presents LA BOHEME Review — Love in the Time of TB

“...I’ve come to realize that it is very important to me – bringing this art to this community. 

… I wasn’t always thinking like that.  I once had thought that coming to Atlanta might lead to something else. After five years on the job, and after The Atlanta Opera’s Board sent me to Harvard Business School to learn about the management side of things, I saw that giving the gift of opera to the community was my purpose and just what this purpose could potentially do…”  

So shared Tomer Zvulun, General and Artistic Director of The Atlanta Opera on the day before he began rehearsals on the company’s next production, Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  It was scarcely 12 hours since the final curtain fell for La Boheme, a work he reprised as production director.  And it was less than a day before opera lovers everywhere could get to see La Boheme via a free livestream, when it joins the growing library of world-class opera productions the company has fully staged and then streamed since the pandemic.

Zvulun had zero complaints about the lack of break between the projects.  Quite the reverse– here was a man hungry for the next challenge. Picture This Post (PTP) met with Tomer Zvulun (TZ) during this brief gap between productions.  

We learned that Tomer Zvulun’s journey to this coffee house meeting may have begun on E.T.’s flying bicycle…

(PTP) What sparked your interest in opera?

(TZ) I grew up on movies – Hitchcock, Fellini, Bergman and especially Spielberg.  I had an uncle who made films, an animator, and I wanted to make films too – since I was twelve.   But –my father said “No”. Part of me also wanted to go to art school and to become an artist. 

In Israel where I grew up, you are required to go into the army and during my time in the army I was a medic.  When I was finished with my service I was on my way to medical school.  I had to support myself in medical school and that’s why I started working in the Tel Aviv Opera.  It was everything I had watched in the movies and heard in these movies’ amazing soundtracks.  Spielberg’s movies– Indiana Jones, Schindler’s List, Jaws, Saving Private Ryan and E.T..had music as part of it.  Composer John Williams had great writing. So, when I went to the opera and saw this on stage and heard it on stage, it just blew my mind. 

 I annoyed my father; I studied theater. 

How has your interest in bringing technology to opera been realized in this season of The Atlanta Opera and what you are planning for the next season/s? 

Projections and LED technology are never a replacement for scenery and costumes on stage. You still must have scenery with levels– stairs and walls -- that the people are set in.  It’s not all projections in an entirely virtual world.  But these tech aspects do give us new tools. They allow us to use images, colors and lights in ways that have never been seen before.  In La Boheme, for example, we had a backdrop of Parisian streets – In this production it is a blend of set pieces and photography. Now, I can have a photograph like this and render a video snow on it. Technology can make the sun rise and add a blast of light that creates silhouettes.

In the upcoming production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, we are re-creating a Globe Theater set– something you could have experienced centuries ago– but here too we can use technology to transform its colors, light and images.  

The future for The Atlanta Opera starts with the singing.  We are actually already planning our 2026 season. Part of it is building from our experience of hearing the voices in the performance hall.  Gabriella Reyes’ performance in La Boheme  was magnificent.  We are trying to book her as much as possible.  We will build productions around her voice and others that similarly are now on the cusp of greatness.  When you find talents like hers, you hear it in the performance hall and you need to build upon it.  

How have you and the company been shaped by your Atlanta surrounds?

I believe that a community needs to see someone who is devoted to their community– a servant leader.  So often I see that people come to a city to serve their career instead of the community– much as I once did. After five years on the job, I was able to see what I could do in the city of Atlanta and for the people of Atlanta. 

Atlanta became my home and where I found my real mission in life– to be that servant leader.

When I first came here the company was ranked as the 35th opera company in America; today it is in the Top Ten.  The top singers in the world are now drawn to The Atlanta Opera.  Through our streaming, they are heard around the world.

Editor's Note: Visit this growing library of Atlanta Opera performances- that you can stream at any time for FREE!

Atlanta is a hub– just a few hours from Birmingham, Chattanooga, and other cities in the Southeast.  We have one of the largest international airports and direct flights to our city from all over the country and the world. Our audience comes from as far away as the United Kingdom or California– from all over.  We know, for example, that 36% of our audience for Madama Butterfly came from out of town. Our vision is for The Atlantic Opera to be the opera destination in the South.  We know that fans of Wagner’s The Ring Cycle will similarly be drawn to Atlanta to see it and then they will also see what a beautiful city Atlanta is.

It’s both that as a major international city Atlanta needs an opera company, as leaders in the city know, and also that The Atlanta Opera benefits from being in such an international city.

I think of Atlanta as a city in a park– surrounded by trees, hiking trails and nature. Atlanta is also a culinary Mecca with a spectacular art scene.  My kids were born into this rich and diverse international city where people come from all over to pursue the American Dream.  UPS, Delta Airlines, Home Depot, Coca-Cola are part of our city and they attract families with passion for the arts in general.  

It is our goal as a company to connect with the community at all levels and to serve the city of Atlanta in an authentic way.  

We also want to nurture the creative forces in Atlanta – librettists and composers, etc. – who are under-recognized.  Our incubator work with Morehouse College on the 96- Hour Opera Project is an example.  Last year’s theme was unsung heroes in Atlanta’s history.  Short stories on this theme were created and five composer/librettist teams were chosen to create 10-minute operas to compete for a commission and cash prizes.

We then develop the winning opera over two years.  This year the full production of Lake Lanier is Flooding–the winner from two years ago–will be presented.  Next year it will be Steele Roots, an opera about Carrie Steele Logan, a famous Atlantan who opened the first orphanage in Atlanta for Black street-children after the Civil War. 

"We are here first to serve the people of Atlanta and the Southeast region, then the world. Opera, as an art, gives us a path to do this through the uniquely compelling power of the human voice, coupled with the influence of stories and music that is filtered through the visual aspects of theater.

The only boundaries are those we place on ourselves. And the Atlanta Opera is here to break boundaries."

Editor's Notes:  Read the related story–

Atlanta Opera Presents LA BOHEME Review — Love in the Time of TB

Visit the growing library of Atlanta Opera performances- that you can stream at any time for FREE!

For more information visit the Atlanta Opera and Tomer Zvulun websites.

All images courtesy of The Atlanta Opera.

This story has been added to the Picture This Post roundup article on OPERAS WE LOVE.
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