On Saturday, May 14, Alfred Savia stands backstage at the Victory Theater in downtown Evansville
to conduct the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra one more time.
Savia was Music Director for the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra (EPO) for 31 years, retiring in 2019. He was unable to play his final concert in 2020 due to the pandemic. But tonight, he finally gets to conduct his farewell show.
The orchestra is assembled, the crowd is waiting and he’s about to conduct a massive, challenging opera — "Turandot" by Giacomo Puccini.
As he waits in the dimly lit area to the side of the orchestra for his moment to walk onto the stage. All he's thinking about are the first notes of the opera.
“I'm hearing the sound of the opening measures, the opera in my head," he said. “What's the quality of sound? What's the downbeat going to be like? How am I going to deliver it, make sure the orchestra plays together? …Because as a conductor, you've got a job to do.”
Savia fell in love with this opera early in his career —the challenge of it. He's always wanted to conduct it.
“And you know, you're there, representing the composer who is usually not no longer there and you’re trying to give the best performance.”
Then, he's introduced formally by EPO Executive Director Kim Bredemeier. With the opening notes in his mind Savia takes the stage and bows. He raises his baton and plunges into Act 1 of "Turandot."
As a conductor his motions are frenetic, savage even. This is to match the "severe" and raucous first measure.
He said he has to “show the tempo, show the mood, show the show the dynamic, everything about that, but not only in your stick in your whole being," he said. "So you, you you sort of have to carry come out carrying and embodying what, what that sound is."
To learn the opera , Savia first learned the vocal lines which are in Italian (his second language) and are kind of bloody, not at all romantic like most operas, at least to start.
“There's a lot of this whole playing around with, with how people are going to be tortured, and that sort of thing,” he said with a chuckle.
And he isn’t just conducting the EPO. There’s also the Evansville Philharmonic Chorus, members of the Honors Choir, the Children's Choir and the cast of opera singers performing behind him.
“It took me months to just get to the point that I had the semblance of having the score in my head, and then just pulling all those large forces together, it's, it's one of it's certainly the largest choral force that I've ever conducted in an opera,” Savia said.
Conducting this opera allowed him to guide the orchestra and chorales through powerful meaures at the ends of the acts, and also some very well-known melodies, like the Nessun Dorma one of the most famous arias of all time. “I enjoy conducting that because it's like, that's the for the audience. Everybody's heard Nessun Dorma. But that's where it comes in the opera," Savia said.
After three seemingly flawless acts Savia brought the opera to a close. And with a big smile he takes his bow with the entire cast before a standing ovation.
Backstage, he greets the musicians and gives his wife and violinist Kathryn (Kittie) a hug. It’s her last show with the orchestra also.
“I feel great," he said shortly after the opera ended. "It's a big relief and it's like we finally did it. No, it was it was wonderful. Just my first time to do Turandot and great to be back with everyone just had a great time and now I'm gonna go party.”
Alfred and Kathryn are selling their home in Evansville and moving to Indianapolis. He’ll start working on projects for his new position as Artistic Advisor and Principal Guest Conductor of the Indianapolis Opera. Kathryn is already taking on new violin students and is signed on to some orchestra shows up there.
Savia is proud of his time and accomplishment in Evansville. “But I felt like the time had come it was time for me it was time for the organization to move on. Not to retire but to move on,” Savia said. “It was time for me to literally pass the baton for someone else to someone else.”
That person is Roger Kalia, who took over after Savia.
“I feel that the the orchestra has grown since I've been here in many ways," Savia said. "And certainly in terms of the scope of performances. We never did a messiah before. We never played a nutcracker before.”
“Also, it's been wonderful to be a part of the community and to raise children here,” he said. “It really clicked here and that was very fortunate that we were able to have that happen and Evansville will always be a very large part of our life.”