Nahant chanteuse returns home for performance

NAHANT – She just returned from the stage at the famed Volksoper in Vienna. In May, she will portray the “Divas of the 1940s” at the Rockport Music Festival and then in Washington, D.C. Then she heads to France and a residency in Germany. But her next performance is in a church in Nahant – her adopted hometown.”I lived in Vienna for 11 years and it’s quite a change,” Ute Gfrerer said. “The nature and the sea; it’s incredible?and I just love the openness. For me, Nahant is coming home to a place where I can recharge also – it’s kind of perfect.”Gfrerer will perform a program entitled Songs of Loss and Hope in which she will sing in five languages – Norwegian, English, French, German and Italian – to benefit and kick off the 2011 season of the Ellingwood Chapel Concert Series.The nice thing is the way that people get involved,” said Concert Series organizer Jim Walsh. In addition to Gfrerer, who is donating her talents for the series, local contractor Wayne Wilson built the stage and Greg Keane, who owns a moving company, transports the pianos throughout town, Walsh explained. “Lots of people pitch in in lots of ways, financially, in-kind, and with their talents.”Especially in Gfrerer’s case, the talent is prodigious.Gfrerer joked that she prided herself on “never having to wait tables” in her career as a performer. She left her native Austria to study in Los Angeles at age 18 and began performing at age 23 in the opera houses in Germany and Austria.As a soubrette or “light soprano” she said that she excelled in the “girly-girl” roles as she described them, the funny characters – maids, saucy nurses, etc. – such as Adele in “Die Fledermaus.” But while vivacious onstage (and offstage), Gfrerer said she actually got depressed playing such one-dimensional roles.”I quit my opera job and everybody said I was nuts. My director said ‘why are you always thinking the grass is greener somewhere else?'” Gfrerer said. “I’ve never regretted it. I’m not famous, but I’m known in that particular world and it’s great to be independent.”Gfrerer said, laughing, that you’re actually more appreciated as a guest performer rather than a member of the company. “It’s better pay, it’s better roles and you get to choose the roles.” And she insists she’s no diva – yes, that cliché can be true, she admitted.”I don’t miss that about Vienna,” she said, explaining that the opera world is a very distinct, but unstable, pyramid-shaped hierarchy. “I made a choice – do I want to be a hated diva or do I want to feel better about myself?” She chose the latter.So now she’s content to perform as a guest singer at the opera houses of Europe and the United States and a doting mother in the tiny town of Nahant. And while the two worlds seem distinct, they are oddly complementary.She describes the oceanfront property where she lives with her husband and five-year-old daughter as “like a castle” and jokes that it’s “very Wagnerian.” And the house’s wood paneling and stained-glass windows nicely display her daughter’s brightly colored toys and crafts.And being a freelance singer has enabled her to be selective about her performances.Gfrerer has recently made a name for herself performing the music of Kurt Weill. Gfrerer said that he appeals to her because he was such a versatile musician – he lived in France and wrote in the “chansons” style, he came to New York and became known for such jazz standards as “Mack the Knife.””It’s so satisfying because he wrote in so many different styles so it never gets boring,” Gfrerer said. “Acting wise it’s challenging as well.”In fact, Gfrerer’s next project uses songs and dialogue to portray the life of Lotte Lenya – Weill’s muse and wife – as well as the lives of Judy Garland, Edith Piaf and Marlene Dietrich at Rockport Music, where she will give the first cabaret performance in the new Shalin Liu Performance Center, and then Washington, D.C.”It’s a combination of educating and entertaining people,” Gfrerer said. “It’s me onstage, but