Indianapolis Opera Ensemble tenor, Jon Jurgens started cycling in 2001, before he was a singer of any sort (Jon is a latecomer to the world of opera and didn’t start singing at all, not even in choir, until he was almost 20 years old). Today singing and physical fitness are tied together in his life. The discipline that it requires to train for a long-distance bike ride carries into his practicing. Singing is a workout and being in good shape, physically, benefits Jon’s opera career as well as his physical health.

The last role that Jon sang was Ruggero from La Rondine. “That role is a marathon. Very physical. You need to be in shape for it,” Jon says. “Learning to manage a large operatic role is very similar to training for a long ride. Pacing yourself, for example. You don’t sing the entire role. You sing it in small sections. If I’m training for a 100-mile ride, I don’t just get on the bike and ride 100 miles. You break it down into small increments first. For example, if you give it all in the first 60 miles of a ride, you have nothing left for the last 40 miles. Similarly, the final aria in La Rondine is exhausting. If you give it all in Act II, you don’t have anything left for the final aria. ”

Jon’s interest in cycling started when he found an old road bike in a friend’s basement. His friend hadn’t cycled in years and Jon’s enthusiasm got them both biking again. The first ride they took together was 25 miles. Today Jon is training to do a double-century ride, with a goal of doing a 200 miles in just one day. His singing career is rather active right now as well – for the first five months of 2012, he will be Indianapolis Opera’s resident tenor. Immediately after that, he’ll travel to Des Moines, Iowa to be a part of the Des Moines Metro Opera young artist program. Being busy as a singer is both a blessing and a curse – it’s great to have consistent work, but that means that he’s too busy to do traditional cycling training programs or sign up for group races. Jon imagines that his double century ride will probably be solo, something he organizes when he has time between gigs; he’s looking forward to it.

So how will Jon train while he’s here in Indiana, busy taking the IO touring children’s opera all over the state? Jon laughs at this. First of all, it’s winter here. Secondly, Indiana is flat. He’ll cross-train indoors, he says. Runners make good cyclists, so he’ll hit the treadmill and then immediately get onto an exercise bike. He also owns a stationary training bike that he’s got set up in his house and he’s considering starting p90x, a regimented workout program, to strengthen his core. Even though cycling seems like a leg- centric exercise, core strength is essential and improves your riding ability. He’s going to get the rest of the Ensemble into it, too. So watch out! It’s not over till our fit ladies (and men) sing!

The more I learn about opera, and become immersed in this world, the more I realize opera is everywhere. You may think you don’t know anything about this art form, that you don’t like opera, that it’s stuffy and boring and for gray haired old ladies – but several Hollywood directors would disagree with you. If Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese and Elvis think opera is cool, I can get on board too.

1. The Habanera from Bizet’s Carmen

Carmen is one of the most performed operas in North America and the Habanera has been performed and recreated in everything from Disney cartoons to Walmart commercials.

The original: Maria Calla sings the Habanera

Movies you’ve heard it in: Trainspotting, Pixar’s UP, Hudsucker Proxy

2. Ride of the Valkyries from Wagner’s Ring Cycle

Ride of the Valkyries is perhaps Richard Wagner’s most famous piece (that’s VAG-ner, not WAG-ner). It was composed as part of four epic operas called Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung, or more often Wagner’s Ring Cycle) which took twenty-six years to write. And by epic, I mean EPIC: the four operas, generally performed over four nights, have a total playing time of about 15 hours.

Opera misconception: Many people believe the Ring Cycle inspired J.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. While the two were inspired by the same Old Norse mythologies, Tolkien has once said, “Both rings are round, and there the resemblance ceases.”

The original: Ride of the Valkyries

Movies you’ve heard it in: Apocalypse Now, The Blues Brothers, Full Metal Jacket, What’s Opera, Doc?

3. Barcarolle from Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann

The Tales of Hoffmann, written by Jacques Offenbach, is based on the short storied of writer E.T.A. Hoffmann and the Barcarolle is the most famous aria in the opera.

Fun Fact: Barcarolle provided the tune for Elvis’s Tonight Is So Right For Love in G.I. Blues.

The Original: Barcarolle

Movies you’ve heard it in: Life is Beautiful, Titanic

4. Flower Duet in Delibes’ Lakme

Lakme duet is always used to evoke beauty and tranquility, although sometimes overlayed as a foil for violence like in Tomb Raider. Listen closely while you are watching TV and youll hear it helping sell you some of your favorite products. Its ubiquitous presence in films and popular music since the mid-1980s was inaugurated by its usage in the 1983 horror film The Hunger.

The original: The Flower Duet

Movies you’ve heard it in: Meet the Parents, The American President, Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life, The Hunger

5. Sull’aria from Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro

The Marriage of Figaro, an opera buffa (comic opera) – not to be confused with The Barber of Seville and the aria Largo al factotum – was originally banned in Vienna because of it’s satire of the aristocracy, but later became one of Mozart’s most successful works.

The original: Cecilia Bartoli and Renee Fleming

Movies you’ve heard it in: The Shawshank Redemption

Join us in March for Opera Goes to the Movies as movies and opera meld.

“It’s not over till the fat lady sings!” Right?

This is what most people think of when called upon to envision opera. After the fur coats and cummerbunds, visions of horned-helmeted, buxom sopranos are right up there.

But young opera singers today are challenging that perception. The new phrase: “It’s not over till the FIT lady sings!”

Opera singers are required to be some of the most physically fit people in theater. In addition to needing dance training, stage movement and combat training, singers must be ready to climb up, down and over sets that are increasingly large, complex and imaginative. Check out the set the singers had to navigate during the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Das Rheingold.

Sometimes, they must manage costumes that are extremely heavy and unwieldy or wear costumes made of heavy, hot fabrics, such as these chefs from the Met’s production of Hansel and Gretel.

Dresses can weigh up to 20 lbs. Capes can be 10 feet long! Check out massive dress Angela Brown wore Indianapolis Opera’s production of Ariadne auf Naxos – imagine having that on for three or four hours!

In some cases, singers are even rigged to wiring so they can fly across the stage. This requires an immense amount of coordination!

In addition, modern opera singers have more diverse exposure to audiences. Singers nowadays can be featured in magazine, blogs, on a company’s website, in a newspaper or on TV. The Met Live in HD series has more fans than ever coming to see the opera for an up close and personal experience. You no longer need opera glasses to see an opera singer at work – they are 20-feet tall, live on the big screen. That means every part of their physique is visible and under scrutiny by audiences that are used to seeing movie stars on screen.

All this means that singers need to be increasingly agile, strong and physically fit. A fitness routine not only helps singers be prepared for a long rehearsal period, heavy costumes or tricky set design – it provides daily discipline that helps them to succeed in the art form.

As many people are working to fulfill their New Year’s resolution to be get into shape, we will share with you what it takes to be opera-singer fit.

To start off, meet our Indianapolis Opera Ensemble artists. This group of young artists have recently graduated from their respective master’s programs and will be training with IO January through May. Join us this Saturday, January 14^th at the Basile Opera Center to see them in action in this season’s children’s opera Jack and the Beanstalk. The performance is free and open to the public and starts at 11:00 am. Full details can be found here.

Meet soprano Angela Gribble, a vegetarian who enjoys yoga and exercising on the elliptical.

Mezzo Davia Bandy, weight trains and uses Jillian Michael’s workout videos when on the road for auditions and gigs.

Tenor Jon Jurgens, extreme cyclist (he’s training to do a double century ride, which is cyclist jargon for 200 miles!).

Last, but not least, baritone Elliot Brown, who is training for a half-marathon this May.

In the next 3 weeks, you’ll learn a little bit about each of our singers, their take on physical fitness and what they do to stay in shape. Get some inspiration from our dedicated young artists and let it help you to stick to your New Year’s resolution to hit the gym!