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Actor, opera singer highlight program theme of 'Creativity'

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By ANGELA ASSAF

cnlife@crescent-news.com

Defiance Public Library played host to New York City actor Craig Wichman, formerly of Ayersville, and his wife, opera singer Bernadette Fiorella, who addressed attentive crowds this week on consecutive evenings to highlight the summer reading program theme of "Creativity."

Fiorella explained the difference between a musical and an opera in "What's Opera Doc?" and provided slides from various performances of her 15-year career with the New York City Opera.

Dressed in black pants and white shirt with no props, Wichman provided the voice of Lincoln in a one-man piece, "That Reminds Me of a Story: A Portrait of Lincoln in His Own Words," the result of years of research stretching back to his childhood.

The son of Gerald and DiAnn Wichman, Wichman was involved in school theater productions throughout his youth. After graduating from Ayersville in 1976, he headed to New York and earned his degree in drama from New York University.

Last year he appeared in the short film, "The Devil You Know," as the devil. The movie periodically airs on DCTV. He is doing an independent film this fall. His stage experience includes numerous musical productions, which is where he first met his wife.

The two were cast as opposite leads in the "The Beggars Opera." Their romance blossomed from there.

Fiorella is originally from Brooklyn. Aside from her mother, who was an "opera lover," she is the only soul in her family with musical talent of note, the only exception being her grandfather, Bernard, after whom she was named. She began taking piano lessons at a tender age, but did not discover her singing talent until well into her college years.

"I was just biding my time in college the way a lot of young people did in the late '60s," she confides. "I took a music appreciation class and found that I loved to sing and pursued it. At that time, I was interested in singing anything but opera. I just fell into it."

When she was 38 she auditioned for the New York City Opera and was accepted. She has been performing with it ever since. She holds bachelor's and master's degrees in music from the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music.

The Wichmans make their home in the west side neighborhood of Chelsea in the Manhattan borough, about a 10-minute walk from the Empire State Building. Except for the fact they live in Manhattan, Wichman says their lifestyle is very much the same.

He also writes and produces for the nationally syndicated radio theater group, "Quicksilver." She became involved in recent years doing sound effects.

A couple years back they did an old-fashion radio recreation together that included local deejays for a children's group at the Defiance Public Library.

In celebration of Abe Lincoln's bicentennial birthday this year, Wichman's cousin, Sarah Marshal, who works in the library's children's department, called on the actor to give a performance of Lincoln. Fiorella offered to share her experience in the opera.

"The opera is not all fat ladies singing at the top of their lungs, not making any sense," Fiorella says, laughing.

"Operas are great stories that can be very moving and get people involved in just the same way as a movie or play. They have that same kind of appeal."

She says her favorite operas are those with stories that are touching on more than one level, like Puccini's "La Boheme" and "Tosca." "The music really tells the story and is so intertwined that you can't separate them. A lot of contemporary operas do not do that."

As part of her music training, Fiorella has studied French, German, Italian and Spanish and has sung opera in each one. She has also performed in Russian and Czech -- "I had to learn the music speaking the words phonetically."

The New York City Opera season runs six months out of the year. For 26 of those weeks, Fiorella is engaged in various aspects of production; 18-20 weeks are spent doing actual performances. On average, she logs six to seven hours a day, six days a week.

These days, there is more drama going on behind the scenes at the New York City Opera than there is on stage. She says due to financial trouble, the opera has curtailed its fall season. "The future is uncertain."

When Wichman was 9, his grandmother gave him the book, Stories about Abraham Lincoln to Read Aloud, sparking his lifelong admiration for the 16th president. He says he has read all the major biographies written about Lincoln and visited every historic location connected with him.

Wichman first performed the work 20 years ago as a charity benefit. He dusted it off again recently for a New York audience.

"Lincoln is the most written about man in history, next to Jesus Christ," he says.

Counter to idealized portrayals of Lincoln, Wichman says he spoke in a twangy, Midwest drawl, described by reporters of his time as "very high-pitched."

His style of dress was typically informal, sans vest, "with shirt tails up." The signature top hat was more practical than a fashion statement, notes Wichman. "He called it his 'office' and actually put letters and kept stuff in it."

Lincoln was clean shaven up until just before his presidency when he grew the long black beard that became iconic.

"Labor is holy; superior to capital," Lincoln once mused.

Before he entered public life he worked as a farmhand, goldsmith and flatboat man.

He is the only U.S. president to hold a patent.

Lincoln also tried his hand at soldiering and was a volunteer for 30 days, then was elected captain. "That gave him more satisfaction than winning any election," remarks Wichman.

"He was not like the Republicans of today. Whatever pigeonhole people try to put him in, he does not fit.

"He was not a conventional Christian. He was very deep, but also very questioning."

Lincoln did not like war and innately rejected the idea of men having property rights over other men, an opinion that made him a true maverick in his time, although he did own slaves at one point.

"No matter what you think of President Obama, I think Lincoln would have been incredibly proud and moved to see an African-American become president, when in his time they were in chains," relates Wichman.

He pointed out two connections with Lincoln to Defiance. Four Defiance men were assigned as bodyguards to the president as members of the Special Union Light Guard of Ohio.

Following his famous speech at Cooper Union, Wichman says Lincoln traveled by train from Toledo back to Springfield and likely would have passed through Defiance.