Fit Countertenor from Colorado Meets 18th Century Opera, Randall Scotting Carves a Singular Path
Countertenor Randall Scotting is carving out a path that is uniquely exciting in the opera world. Singing to sold-out crowds at Covent Garden’s Royal Opera House and working on a newly filmed production at Seattle Opera, he’s operating at a level that has positive momentum, yet grounded in his roots as a “Colorado boy”. Listen to our interview with him on the Classical Post Podcast. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or other platforms.
Below is a transcript of the conversation, edited for clarity.
Jonathan Eifert: I'm here with the brilliant countertenor Randall Scotting, who joins me on the show today.
Randall Scotting: Hi Jonathan. Thanks for having me.
JE: I'm looking forward to chatting, but first here are some fun questions. Red or white wine or neither?
RS: Always red and usually a Bordeaux.
JE: Mountains or beach?
RS: Mountains. I grew up in Colorado, so that's just natural. It feels very comfortable and like home to me. So whenever I can, I get out into the mountains.
JE: If someone were to play you in a movie, who would you want it to be?
RS: Maybe Chris Hemsworth. In terms of looks, I get Thor a lot. Maybe it's the long hair. But he'd have to work on his countertenor chops.
JE: What's your hidden talent if you have one?
RS: I play the bagpipes. I've been obsessed with them since I was about 10 years old. And now I only pull them out on late nights after a couple of drinks with friends.
JE: What's on your playlist right now?
RS: It's very baroque-heavy at the moment. I just finished a PhD in Italian opera from the 18th century a couple of years ago at the Royal College of Music in London. That is something that I'm just interested in at the moment, but also there's a lot of 17th century music. A lot since I just did this recording a few months ago of lute music with an amazing lutenist named Stephen Stubbs. We recorded that last November. It'll be coming out this fall and in research for all of that I delved into that world for the first time. It's Dowland, Henry Lawes, Purcell, and a lot of British folk tunes. It's amazing music. It's very sad and melancholy. And so you can't listen to it all day long, but there's a lot of that on my playlist at the moment now, too.
JE: So it's very serious art music. It's not like you're listening to Cardi B or something.
RS: I like that stuff. I like to put that on, especially like Sam Smith or Adele or those a little bit more mellow, but it's not usually my go-to. I'm classical through and through. Even when I'm relaxing, wanting to just chill, cook dinner, and put some music on in the background, it's usually going to be a violin concerto or something like that. I love classical music so much--that's just in me.
Colorado-Meets-the-Big-City
JE: Let's switch gears and talk about style. I'm always really interested to hear artists’ perspectives, particularly classical musicians on their inspiration off the stage and where those glorious moments that happen on stage come from. Obviously you could pinpoint different things. It's your musical training and your musicality. But I also think that there's this element of style in the larger sense of the word.
And that could be from art at-large, like painting and sculpture, for example. It could be interior design, it could be fashion, it could be food and fine cuisine. I'm thinking of style in that broad sense. So what inspires you?
RS: I took this sort of as fashion, and fashion icons can be a little bit difficult. I love it and I love style overall, especially in this broader aesthetic sense that you're talking about. I think it's really important to have things around you that you are inspired by and that comfort you in that way. But fashion specifically is difficult for me just because I have this large rugby-builder frame.
Finding clothes that are both stylish and also fit my rugby body can be a challenge. There's a designer named Ted Baker in London. The suits that I can buy from them, I can just take off the rack and they fit me perfectly. I love when something just fits very well, especially if I'm going out to sing a concert. You just feel amazing when there's a design element, which for me would be very sleek, just classic. But then the fit is super important. So I love Ted Baker for that. There's also a Marc Jacobs jacket that I am obsessed with. I've had it for five years. I'm just wearing it to death.
JE: Do you have any style icons from the aesthetic world at-large?
RS: I love design and I love style, but I don't hone in on specific names.
JE: What about periods like mid-century modern or minimalism?
RS: That changes for me. But right now I'm really loving a very modern, sleek design. I've just moved into an empty loft which has tons of possibilities. We're trying to make all these little decisions about how to outfit it, make all of these design and style choices. I'm really drawn to these clean lines, a simple, modern aesthetic.
But it has to have nature. I love being a Colorado boy. There's got to be a lot of light and a lot of wood. There might be cement and concrete involved, but I want there to be warm elements like wood and living things, like plants to bring some warmth into the space. That feels good to me.
JE: I agree. I definitely need live plants in the spaces that I'm working or living in. I definitely don't want plastic plants!
RS: I would love to have an apartment in Manhattan or wherever--a beautiful, modern, nice apartment, but then also be able to get away to the countryside and to nature. And, have a log cabin in Colorado where you can spend some time. I think it's really important to be close to nature. It just re-charges my batteries. Especially since that's where I grew up and I was around it so much. The outdoors and nature were a huge part of my childhood.
So even when I'm singing somewhere and I'm in Manhattan for a while, or in a big city--in San Francisco or London--after that I just find that I really need to get into nature again. I need the balance of the two types of environments to feel whole.
JE: What do you want your style to say about you?
RS: I hope that my style or my vibe would say that I'm authentic. I'm easy going. I'm unpretentious. So in some way, approachable. As a countertenor, I feel like I'm a bit of an anti-diva, so I hope my style would reflect that unpretentious confidence. I guess that's something that I want people to understand. I think everyone assumes when you say the word countertenor, there are certain connotations that people have with that. I've never felt that way. I didn't start singing when I was a boy. I started much later when I was in college singing countertenor.
Favorite Products: Cologne from Aqua di Parma, Skincare from The Ordinary, and Almond Toffee from Enstrom
JE: Let's talk about products. I'm always interested in hearing about new products. I definitely want to share that with the listeners of the podcast. So do you have anything in mind?
RS: Sure, a few things came to mind. In the Colorado town I grew up in, there's this amazing confectioner. They make an almond toffee and it's covered in dark chocolate. It's the most amazing thing. The company is called Enstrom. You can order it and it ships anywhere. Whenever I'm back in Colorado, I buy boxes of it just to take with me and I give it as gifts and bring it to parties. It's always a huge hit. I feel like more people should know about it.
And another product that comes to mind is this really great skincare line that I've found recently called The Ordinary. I just love their stuff. It's really good. It's very affordable compared to other products and they have the full gamut of items that you would want. There's a great caffeine under eye serum.
There’s one more product I recommend--an amazing cologne that I just love. I don't get to wear cologne very often because as a singer, it's rude to have these scents around other singers. People get really sensitive to it. So when I can wear it, I love to wear Aqua di Parma, but there's a particular kind called Aranci di Capri. I love it. And when I wear it, it's so good that random straight guys from the street will just walk past me, stop me, and ask what it is and where they can buy it.
Fitness as Meditation
JE: Let's switch gears and talk about wellness in the sense of your dream day and your happy place. We can also dive into more wellness practices if you want, but I definitely want to look at more of that macro perspective.
RS: In the grand sense, I guess, it would be something like a debut at the Met singing Julius Caesar for a sold-out audience and a standing ovation. That's the first part. And then, having an amazing dinner at Fiorello's across the street followed by a tray of brownies back home.
JE: What does your happy place look like?
RS: I don't know if it sounds cliché to say this, but honestly it's the gym. I love working out. About six or seven years ago, I started working out a lot. I was gaining a bit of weight because I was doing this PhD and I was sitting, researching, and typing at a desk all the time. I wasn't very active.
I went to sing and a friend of mine was also in the cast and I was complaining about having gained a few pounds. Hoping that he would be sympathetic and say, oh no, you look great. It's fine. You're fine. Instead his response was: “Oh, but I think you look like a cute little bear.”
I thought that's not something I'm ready to settle into. As soon as I got home from that trip, I booked a personal trainer. I lost 30 pounds in a few months and it's just been a really important thing in my life since then. I love feeling very healthy and feeling like I'm active.
But beyond that, it's mental comfort. Working out for me is like meditation. It's my time for myself. I just go and I shut out other things, and I can really focus. I'm working on my breathing and all of that while I'm exercising.
I feel so much calmer in my body and generally happier after I work out. I notice when I don't work out for a long period of time, I get a little bit out of sorts with just emotions and things like that. And it's just grounding and good for me to be in the gym. So that's a really happy place.
JE: I think that's such a profound answer especially for numerous reasons. Not many people think about going to the gym as living their best life, because of the work that it takes. But also I think it's interesting how you were motivated by someone lighting a fire under you and then you took that as real motivation, which I think is cool when people can be real like that.
RS: This is a guy that I had known for 10 years. At that point, we'd sung together in different productions. I was in a place to receive that sort of outside perspective. And it really did light something inside of me that has continued for seven years now. I work out a lot. I work out maybe six days a week, which is maybe extreme, but for me it's about comfort and feeling like I'm present in my body.
JE: Six days a week? How long are the gym sessions?
RS: I try to keep it to an hour. Anything past that is a little bit excessive for me, but I really focus and work hard for that hour. I have goals for myself and I'm there on a daily basis. It's really a lot like singing, too. I start with my vocal warmup when I'm singing every day--learning a new role or something. There are these challenges that are presented that you work on overcoming. You find the way to master that music that you're working on. And I treat bodybuilding--working out--the same way. There's little challenges that you encounter every day. I'm trying to get a little bit better, work a little bit more on flexibility, or my form in certain exercises. I find a lot of relation between the two things and I find it really helpful to think that way, to connect them.
JE: Do you still work out with a trainer or you're just your own trainer now?
RS: Intermittently, I do when I feel like I need it. I'm singing a production in California this summer where I will be at least partially, and possibly, fully nude on stage. I'm really thankful that I have that coming up because it's forcing me to set some real goals and get back into the gym in a regular way, which I haven't been able to do because gyms have been all shut down.
JE: Since you brought it up, how do you feel about nudity on stage? I know I've been to some productions with it. It's obviously done for artistic purposes, but what are your thoughts on that?
RS: I've done it before a couple of times. I'm pretty open to it. I'm comfortable in my body and we've been talking about working hard on it, so I don't mind being seen. But it has to be tasteful and it has to be artistic. Then I'm totally on board for it. And this opera is about a debaucherous Roman emperor who was incredibly sexual. And so it just makes sense that this would be a part of that. I'm looking forward to it. To prepare for that, I am now just starting to work with a trainer again. And there've been other times like this, too. Usually it's because I have to be on stage and I know I have to be at least shirtless, possibly more. That is a strong enough motivation to get me to book some time with the trainer.
Seattle Opera’s Filmed Production, Flight, Shot at the Museum of Fight
JE: Last part of the podcast: your career. I really wanted to dig in and talk more specifically about your projects. But before we do that, I want to hear what success means to you.
RS: It's such an elusive concept; isn't it for a lot of people? It takes a while to find for yourself what that actually means rather than what we're told it should be. For me, it's not having a million dollars or anything like that. It's just continuing to do interesting work; to continue to have projects that excite me; to work with good colleagues; to make interesting art that has real ideas behind it. And of course, I want to pay my bills and I want to feel some sense of comfort, but that's not what motivates me. Success is in a way about balance.
Moving through my career so far, I've found it really important to have relationships. And I've been with my partner for 21 years. He's been through all of this with me as well. That's super important to just have that--to not be so focused on achieving what externally looks like success. Singing these big roles at the Met or whatever it is, wouldn't mean a lot if I didn't have people around me that were loving and supporting. Giving some energy to that and making sure that there really is that balance--that everything moves forward together--is success.
JE: If you were to reflect on your life and you think about your greatest accomplishment professionally, does something come to mind?
RS: There's one very specific thing. Last season, just before the pandemic, I made a debut, a really important debut at the Royal Opera House in London. It’s one of those pinnacle houses that you want to work at from the time that you're young. And so I walked on as Apollo in Britten's Death in Venice, in a beautiful David McVicar production.
I was covering the roll and after the first night I found out that I was going to perform it. So I went on to do four out of five performances--and the BBC broadcast--I was just in heaven. It was amazing. It was like a real gift to me to be able to walk on that stage. As I described earlier with the Met, it was packed, sold-out audiences that loved the performance, and to just be there and receive that energy was incredible. I hope there are many more experiences like that.
JE: What do you have coming up?
RS: There's a couple of things actually that I can mention. We just finished creating a really interesting filmed opera at Seattle Opera.
It's called Flight, which is a contemporary opera by the British composer Jonathan Dove. It was first composed in 1998. So it's been around a while and it's been very popular. It's been performed all over the world, but this is the first major U.S. company performance. We had grand plans to present it on the stage. Then the pandemic came and everything morphed. I'm really thankful that Seattle--instead of just canceling it and waiting to see what happens like a lot of companies have done--decided to get creative and came up with this concept of doing a film.
There were four different cameras shooting from all different angles. It was recorded at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, which is just an incredible space with all these historic aircraft around us. The whole thing is about flight and I performed the part of a refugee, which is based on an actual guy who lived in Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris for 18 years.
It's a really powerful and interesting story. And it's presented in a really interesting way that I think people will be intrigued to see. People on both sides of the camera have brought a lot of really interesting ideas. That's something that's pretty great. I feel really fortunate to have been a part of it.
The other project on the horizon is a recording coming out. It's another sort of shift because of the pandemic. I was meant to do a recording with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, which is this amazing orchestra in London. It's all related to my PhD research. I found this music for castrato from the 18th century. The project has been a little bit postponed just because there's so many people involved. It's hard to come together in one place right now and realize it with a big orchestra.
When I realized it was going to be postponed, I pivoted and came up with the idea of doing a smaller, more intimate recording, which is the one I mentioned a little bit earlier. It’s lute music with Stephen Stubbs, who's this fantastic, very accomplished lutenist. I feel very fortunate to have been able to work with him on this. We just went out to L.A. last November and laid down this recording. It was only the two of us and the sound engineers. We knew it could go forward regardless of what was happening with COVID. It’s all 17th century--largely English, but there's some French and some Italian on it as well. It's Purcell, Dowland, and an unknown Venetian composer. It's just great, plus a lot of British folk tunes--some things that people might recognize and some lesser-known things. That's been really exciting and that'll be out probably in the fall of 2021.
JE: Let's wrap it up. Where can people find you online?
RS: My website, randallscotting.com. Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, all the usual places.
JE: Thank you so much for joining us on the show. I hope our listeners really enjoy getting to hear about your style, wellness, and career. I know I did. Thank you so much.
RS: Thank you. It's been a lot of fun. Nice chatting with you.
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