By Donald Munro
The Fresno Bee
Published 08/02/04 05:40:27

She's definitely Greek. Oh, is she ever Greek. That much is clear the moment Ioanna Sfekas-Karvelas squares her shoulders, loosens her hips and sings the opening lines of "Duru Duru," a song about a rebel soldier from Crete.

Though Sfekas-Karvelas is a dramatic soprano, when she sings the song it's as if she's channeling the soul of a big, boisterous, randy he-man. In the tradition of those flush with testosterone, the man is telling his sweetheart not to be too possessive. Lots of girls want me, he informs her. And, he continues, if perhaps you've heard around town that I just might care a little about you, don't let it go to your head.

When she sings, Sfekas-Karvelas' body seems to strut of its own accord. Her eyebrows, which arch so knowingly they're like little independent flirting entities, suggest lust and laughter. As she wags a finger at the audience, her voice seems almost husky with the rhythm of Greece.

"You see, he jiggles when he walks," Sfekas-Karvelas says of the song's narrator. "That's what this music is all about."

Yet the soprano, who is lecturing on a recent afternoon to a group of students at the California Opera Association's annual arts and education festival, says there's far more to the Greek musical tradition than dancing the souvlaki. She's made it her life's work, in a sense, to promote what might be called Greek classical music -- songs that marry the essence of Greek folk tradition to classical music and opera.

The Dionysian element, with its cheerful connotations of wine, dance and debauchery, has long been associated with Greece, she notes. But there's an Apollonian side -- a more cerebral element -- to the culture as well.

  "It's fine for the world to think of us as a vibrant people, but let's get serious," she says.

To that end, Sfekas-Karvelas, who's made the trek to Fresno from her home on the island of Lesvos, will offer a tribute to Greek composers in a Friday concert at St. George Greek Orthodox Church. One of her favorites is Manolis Kalomiris, and she'll sing the well-known composer's "The Magic Herbs" song cycle. William Yannuzzi, music director of the Baltimore Opera and a longtime collaborator with Sfekas-Karvelas, will play the piano.

The concert, preceded by a reception at 5 p.m. Friday at the Fresno Art Museum, is one of the highlights of the opera association's 15-day festival, which continues this week with concerts, lectures and a voice competition.

The festival concludes Sunday at San Joaquin Gardens with a staged performance of Puccini's "Gianni Schicchi," conducted by Italian conductor Emanuele Mazzola and directed by Michael Philip Davis, who has staged operas at the American Institute of Musical Studies international festival.

For Sfekas-Karvelas, who has a long history working with California Opera artistic director Edna Garabedian, the concert will be a chance to do one of her favorite things: connecting with people in the local Greek-American community and opening their eyes to the sophistication of Greek music. Though she's made a mark in a long career singing the traditional Western opera repertory -- and will perform a selection of standard arias in her concert -- her heart lies in the homeland of her grandparents.

"I won't do a concert that doesn't have something Greek in it," she says. "I feel I have a mission to do this."

For all her fervor for Greece, Sfekas-Karvelas wasn't actually born there. She grew up in Baltimore. But her Greek roots were deep. She was profoundly influenced by her grandparents, who had immigrated to America. She vacationed there since she was a teenager and eventually married a Greek musicologist.

In 1989 they settled in Greece permanently and she continued her opera career, which included recording the title role in the Kalomiris opera "The Mother's Ring" with the Sophia Philharmonic Orchestra, the first Greek opera ever recorded, she says.

In many ways her promotion of the music of the Greek national school has been trail-blazing. The song "Duru Duru," for example, a work by Konstantine Sfakianakis, remains unpublished. She found it in a trunk owned by the composer's widow. Back in 1983, Sfekas-Karvelas and Yannuzzi performed the song in a concert at Lincoln Center in New York.

Though she's quick to celebrate the diversity of Greek music, she's also careful not to leave the impression that there's anything substandard about the jovial, rhythmic songs so often associated with the culture. If anything, Greek classical music builds on those traditions, creating a distinctive sound, she says.

Yannuzzi likens it to the cultural stereotypes often associated with other artistic cultures such as Italy.

"As wonderful as it is, Italy is a lot more than pasta, pizza and the tarantella -- though those are all great things," he says.

For Sfekas-Karvelas, it's often a case of simply letting people know that Greece's musical repertory is more diverse than they might think.

"The problem is that when you're talking about composers, significant doesn't mean the same thing as well-known," she says.

For Garabedian -- who returned to Fresno after an international career as a singer to found the Fresno Grand Opera and serve as that company's former artistic director -- this fifth installment of California Opera's festival has been a time of growth. She extended the festival to 15 days from one week. She's brought in 75 guest artists, faculty members and aspiring vocalists.

Yet she strives for a small-scale approach to the festival, from personalized instruction for students on the practicalities of launching an opera career -- right down to what to wear for an audition -- to the cozy auditorium at San Joaquin Gardens.

The space is among the smallest Davis has ever worked with. He notes wryly that at one point in his staging of the one-act "Gianni Schicchi," he has to fit more than a dozen cast members on stage, "including the dead body."

Yet the intimate space will add to the performance, he says, noting that as Puccini's only comedy, "it's very funny."

Garabedian says it's been her goal over the years to build the festival slowly, concentrating on her most important theme: education. "I could have brought in singers from New York right away, but I wanted to build a company from the ground up," she says.

Education is also a priority for Sfekas-Karvelas, who started an opera studio on Lesvos and delights in interacting with young singers.

She's a big believer in physical conditioning -- in training the body along with the voice.

"Physical technique gives you a foundation," she says in an interview after her lecture. "You need strong abdominal muscles.

"Here, feel my stomach," she says, offering up her rock-solid abs. "I lift weights. I could lift you -- how much do you weigh?"

But most important, an opera singer has to convey a sense of character -- of feeling, of passion, of transformation.

She never stops projecting that beckoning sense of Greek openness -- the vaguely flirtatious sense of the rhythm of her culture.

Just consider, she says, what a deal the festival's Greek night will be. Not only will the audience get to hear great music, savory homemade delicacies will be available in abundance.

"Twenty dollars for all that food -- and me," she says with a smile. Her eyebrows vote yes, too.

Return to Karvelas