Meet the Artist: Putting On The Suit with Ambrose Clark (Thévenard)
Ambrose Oisín Clark is a transgender classical singer (countertenor) with experience across the spectrum of classical and choral music. When not onstage, he is a self-published author and poet, a visual artist, and an avid reader of queer fantasy fiction. He says, “I like my coffee iced, my music loud, and my art earnest, honest, and vulnerable.”
In Julie, Monster, Ambrose plays Vincent Thévenard a young opera singer with connections to the royal court. Thévenard is the lover of the swashbuckling Sérannes, and about as out as a man could be in 1690s Paris.
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We asked Ambrose about his role and expectations for the show.
Is there a particular moment in Julie, Monster that speaks to you on a personal level?
Right before I was offered the role of Thévenard, I read a book where the main character comes into his identity as a trans man during rehearsals for his high school production of Romeo and Juliet, in which he was unexpectedly cast as Romeo. There’s this scene where he puts on his perfectly tailored costume for the first time. He looks in the mirror, and it’s the first time in his whole life that he’s really just been there with himself, in his body. I cried a great deal over that scene, and a few hours later, I was offered this role. I’ve been singing classically for 17 years, and I’ve been out as transgender for five of those, but this is the first time I’ve been cast in a male role. I’m going to put on the suit that has been made perfectly for me, and look in the mirror, and just be there with myself. And then I’m going to be there with our audiences and the rest of this incredible cast. So, to a wholly unutterable degree, this entire opera speaks to me personally.
Some say opera promotes rigid gender/sex roles; some say it’s inherently queer. What do you say?
I think it’s a whole lot of both! Like all Western art and culture, opera is deeply rooted in institutional biases like sexism, racism, ableism, and many of its creators believed (and still believe) very firmly in the idea of binary genders. But there is also a strong history of gender fluidity in and around opera! Look into the history of castrati for a tour of the breakdown of binary gender in the opera world, and follow that line to the repertoire of our modern mezzo-sopranos, who ricochet from corsets to trousers and back again. This stuff is genderqueer on a pretty intrinsic level, to such a degree that I can cite Kate Lindsey’s dual portrayal of Nicklausse (male) and the Muse (female) in the Metropolitan Opera’s 2009 production of Les Contes d’Hoffmann, as the quickening of my own gender transition. Long story short: two things can be true. Opera made me trans, and I doubt I’m alone in that—but we also have a lot of work to do to deprogram the gendered nature of vocal performance as a whole!
Looking ahead to rehearsals, does anything make you wonder, “How are they going to do that?”
The reveal of sets and costumes is always my favorite part of a production, and I’m extra excited for it with Julie! It’s going to be so interesting to see the contrasting musical styles blended through the visual aesthetic of the piece, and I’m so, so interested to see the whole vision of this incredible production team realized.
What are the opportunities and challenges of singing one work that encompasses several musical styles?
I’ve only ever worked as an opera singer, so I’m learning on my feet how to adapt to other musical styles, and it’s a really lovely challenge to the restrictive classical music education I received. It asks for shifting vocal techniques and diction choices, and it’s very interesting to find where the different styles live in my body.
Who’s your favorite “monster” in history?
Leaning into the ideas of socialized moral vilification presented in Julie, it’s a tie between Alan Turing, Hildegard von Bingen, and Leslie Feinberg. If we’re talking literal monstrosity, though, I do love a good werewolf.
Ambrose Clark, who played Thévenard