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Whew. No wonder Don Giovanni had better be doing his push-ups.
Pedersen, who holds a master's degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, performed Elvira in only one previous production - in Tirana, Albania, in May 1996. She was part of an operatic gift package - including conductor, stage director, set designer and two other principal singers - from the Austrian government to the emerging democracy of Albania.
It was in Tirana that Pedersen began to absorb the complexities of Elvira, who seeks revenge after Giovanni abandons her, as he does every woman he seduces.
"When she goes in search of Don Giovanni, she's furious and would rip out his heart," says Pedersen, with Elvira- like vehemence. "But she would love him again if he says he loves her. She's not a codependent '90s girl. She thinks love drives everything, but she's also a very religious person. She's always surprised when she finds another woman with Don Giovanni and another horrible thing he has done. She is a little wacked."
Pedersen has thought about Elvira a great deal since she embodied the woman in Albania and studied the role for Cleveland.
"She has many more facets," says Pedersen. "Now things I can do with the recitatives [sung dialogue] are different, and with a different cast I can give more appropriate answers than I gave before."
Iowa native
A native of Sioux City, Iowa, Pedersen had no inkling she would be singing Mozart or any other operatic music while growing up. She played guitar and sang rock 'n' roll, but only after she entered Iowa State University did she realize that she had to be an opera singer.
Her first experiences in full operatic productions occurred at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied voice with George Vassos. Performances in operas by Mozart and Menotti led to other Cleveland gigs, including work with the Old Stone Singers and Fairmount Temple, productions with Lyric Opera Cleveland, and tour and residency programs with Cleveland Opera on Tour. In April 1992, she made her Cleveland Opera main stage debut in the small role of Mary in Douglas Moore's "The Ballad of Baby Doe."
Pedersen's career took a decisive turn when she traveled to Austria in the summer of 1995 to participate in a Mozart program run by tenor William Lewis. Pedersen performed several roles and sang for conductors and agents.
Determined to find work in Europe, she divided her time among Vienna, Linz and Frankfurt during the 1995-96 season, when she had a rich but frustrating lifestyle.
"I was auditioning like a madwoman," says Pedersen, "I had friends there. I lived out of a suitcase. All I heard was, 'You're very pretty, your voice is pretty, you're a soprano, but there are no jobs.' That was very hard."
Break in Bremen
Luckily, the Bremen Opera Theatre had heard about Pedersen and invited her to audition. The result was a two-year contract. Last season, Pedersen sang small roles in "Ariadne auf Naxos" (Naide), "Hansel und Gretel" (sand and dew fairies) and "Fiddler on the Roof' (Chava), as well as the principal role of Norina in "Don Pasquale." This season, she will portray Norina, Oscar ("A Masked Ball"), Amor ('Orfeo ed Eurydice") and Maria ("West Side Story," with the songs in English and the dialogue in German).
"Bremen is an incredible theater," she says. "Everyone is there to help. There are 900 seats. It has a great orchestra, great conductors. The standards are high."
Yet she has had to make compromises. Pedersen has been married for a year to Brad Roller ("my sweet angel husband"), president of Swigger Coil Systems in Rocky River, where they have a home. Monday, the day after "Don Giovanni" ends in Cleveland, Pedersen will fly back to Bremen, not to return until July. Roller will join her at least one weekend a month.
"I'd rather live in the same town with him," says Pedersen, who was soloist at Cleveland Opera Chorus concerts in 1996 and 1997 led by her mentor, David Gooding. "But being in charge of his own company, Brad knows what it's like to build up from nothing, build a career and love your job. [Being in Bremen] is pretty much a dream. It's a lot of hard work and scary and a lot of the time I'm lonely but I asked for it.
"If we put in the next three or four or five years and I have a bigger body of repertoire, maybe I can be in America more often. I love being home. I love this town. I love Cleveland. I love being with my husband and our puppy."
Their chocolate Labrador's name, by the way, is Leporello, as in Don Giovanni's valet. Take that, Giovanni.
Photo- C.H. Pete Copeland/Plain Dealer Publishing Company. All Rights Reserved.
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