Lakeport >> Playing football and singing opera have more in common than one might believe. At least, Roger Smith thinks so.
“The singing is very physical. It’s a lot more that way like football than people realize,” the local artist and singer said. “It takes a lot of endurance and strength to sing well.”
Smith has been performing opera for the better part of 30 years — and painting for much longer, since early childhood. But football was Smith’s first love. Though he belongs to a musical family — both his parents sang quite a lot — he rebelled against piano lessons when he was younger, opting instead for a grassy gridiron and the feel of a pigskin in his hands.
As a linebacker and offensive end on his high school football team, the sport was Smith’s first choice, before even singing or art. But it seemed life had different plans.
After failing to receive scholarships to play collegiate football — much to his and his coaches’ disappointment — Smith turned to art, which he’d been working at for most of his life. From third grade on, he had shown an interest in drawing, copying images out of cartoons and picture books, or sketching real life portraits, often ones of his mother playing the piano. So when he received an opportunity to attend the California College of Arts and Crafts, a prestigious art school, said Smith, he couldn’t turn it down.
Four years later — during which he painted portraits for Bay Area lawyers and politicians to help pay for his education — and Smith had a Bachelors of Fine Arts to his name. Later, he received a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Montana.
For years he explored art in its many forms, from watercolor to sculpture to acrylic, finally landing on oil painting, which is his primary medium today. Though he’s loved many different materials at one point or another, he prefers oils for their flexibility. “I can spend days, weeks, hours and hours on an oil painting. You can paint over it and make changes,” said Smith. “I have oil paintings I’ve worked on for decades. It’s very, very seldom it seems like, that a painting to me is complete.”
It wasn’t until later in life, after many oil portraits, that Smith discovered his talent for opera. Though his mother had instilled in Smith a love of the music during his formative years, he was about 50 years old when he realized his voice was too loud for the many choirs he had been singing in for most of his life. When he branched out to opera, he found a great comfort in it. “My mother had a lot of music in the house when I was growing up, it wasn’t just opera, but she had opera. I could have rebelled against it, but I didn’t,” Smith said. “I think I owe a lot to my mother in that regard, a great deal.”
His interest in singing stemmed from some other sources as well. Growing up, every Sunday Smith’s family drug him to church, where he performed in the local choir. Throughout the years he kept at it, eventually singing with the Recruit Choir in the Navy. Then, before immersing himself in opera, Smith gave musical theater a shot. It was an ideal transition into opera.
Opera has more than agreed with him. He’s scored principal roles with Capital Opera, Verismo Opera, the California Opera Association and Ina Chalis Opera. He also sang in the Sacramento Opera Chorus for ten years. Now, Smith performs in three or four operas each year. “I continued on with my artwork, but the singing became a real passion for me also,” he said.
Since turning to music, Smith had recorded and released three albums. One features classic opera and another consists of inspirational numbers. But the most interesting of the three is titled, “The Idaho Kid Rides Again.” The CD contains 24 tracks of “cowboy all-time favorites” and features a self-portrait as cover art.
Though it might seem out of place, an opera singer recording country tracks, it makes some sense when taking Smith’s history into consideration. An Idaho native — hence the Idaho Kid moniker — Smith has a long history with the great outdoors.
Born into a family of homesteaders, he spent a good deal of time on his grandfather’s ranch, tending to the land and the horses. As soon as school let out, Smith and his sisters headed for the farm, where they spent their summers. “Low and behold that’s a lot of the kind of music I heard growing up,” he said. “It got into my blood that way. They had an operatic style in the old days, and I wanted to bring that back.”
And long after childhood, Smith’s country roots remain intact. For years he worked as a logger, teaching log construction and building log homes. He’s lived a varied life indeed, but he’s always come back to his art, whether visual or musical.
“I love both. Sometimes people ask me, ‘which do you like the best?’ And I really cannot make up my mind,” Smith said. “It would be like saying, ‘I like this child over that child.’”
But for all his many creative inclinations, learning to play an instrument is one thing Smith hasn’t explored. Though piano lessons gave him the ability to read music well enough the sing opera, he is perfectly content without picking up a guitar or violin. “My voice is my instrument,” Smith said.
For more information on Smith and to view some of his artwork, visit www.rogersmithartandopera.com.
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
