Valerian Ruminski is the booming voice behind Buffalo's Nickel City Opera
Valerian Ruminski is the kind of rough, rakish guy who can call you “baby” and get away with it. And he does not care how his voice booms.
Out in public, having a cup of coffee, the Buffalo-born bass begins demonstrating in his big, deep voice the proper way for singers to sing vowels. “Ha, ha, ha,” he sings. A passing postal carrier looks around in alarm.
“He, he, he,” Ruminski sings. This is the kind of bravura that landed him on stage at the Metropolitan Opera. “I got to kiss Anna Netrebko on the cheek for six nights. So that was nice,” smiles Ruminski, who was featured with the sexy Russian diva in Bellini’s “I Puritani.”
His prodigious pipes are also proving to be a good thing for Buffalo.
Ruminski has long dreamed of founding an opera company in his hometown, called Nickel City Opera. Now, it is finally coming true. This weekend, the ensemble is collaborating with Ottawa Pocket Opera, a Canadian troupe, to present Rossini’s virtuosic “The Barber of Seville.”
There is something attractively nervy about the idea of Buffalo getting an opera company at the precise time when other cities are losing theirs. Ruminski rattles off the troupes that have folded because of the economy: the Baltimore Opera, Pacific Opera, the Orlando Opera.
But he has hope. “They weren’t frugal,” he says. “They were operating beyond their means.”
He is striving not to make those mistakes. Earlier, when he tried to get Nickel City Opera up and running, he got bogged down trying to raise money for the grandiose venture.
“I did not realize that angels were not going to fly in on big white wings,” he says.
Subsequently, he applied what he calls the “Seinfeld principle.” “If something doesn’t work, do the opposite.” He explains: “The opposite approach is, forget everything but the production. Just do the production.”
So he did.
Luck, he admits, was with him. After telling The Buffalo News in 2007 about his dreams to start a company and the challenges involved, he got a call from the Riviera Theatre, proposing a collaboration. The historic North Tonawanda venue had received a $1 million state grant, and was being returned to its former elegance.
“Now it’s a jewel,” Ruminski says.
“I went in for a meeting. They said, ‘We want to do live opera here. We believe in live opera.’ They had already been showing broadcasts of operas. And they wanted to work with me.”
‘Barber’ on a budget
An old saying, quoted recently in the Wall Street Journal, describes opera as “the most expensive human endeavor, with the possible exception of war.” But Ruminski has the connections to make his nonprofit venture happen.
As a singer himself, he knows his way around the business, including how to get quality singers at a discount. June, he explains, is down time for opera singers, as well as stage hands and tech workers.
For the part of Figaro, he was able to book John Packard, who starred in the premier of Jake Heggie’s opera “Dead Man Walking” at the San Francisco Opera. Tenor Benjamin Brecher of the New York City Opera has sung the role of the lovestruck Count Almaviva over 100 times.
Building a show
Ruminski will sing Don Basilio, a part he sang at Artpark with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in 2005. The sets are from the Syracuse Opera. And though in the future he plans on offering operas in their original languages, “The Barber of Seville” will be mostly in English, making surtitles unnecessary.
Some shoestring companies, including Ottawa Pocket Opera, perform operas with only piano accompaniment. But Ruminski will be bringing in the Eastern Festival Symphony Orchestra from SUNY Westchester, where he is an adjunct professor of voice. He says the young orchestra plays at a high level.
“I certainly would like to use members of the BPO in the future, but for now, I didn’t have the budget,” he says.
Ruminski does most of the administrative work himself.
“He was just at Borders handing out fliers,” marvels Eileen Breen, his New York-based public relations rep. “How many people would do that?”
Andrea Pope, the head of OperaBuffs, a group of Buffalo opera fans, observes that the personal touch goes a long way.
“The thing that I think is so good is he’s investing so much of himself in it. Physically, I mean,” she laughs. “He has been calling people, sending e-mails. Everyone says, ‘I got a call from Valerian Ruminski!’
“I think it’s great that Buffalo would have its own opera company. Erie, Pa., has its own company. Binghamton does, too. Buffalo should have its own opera company.”
Ruminski, statistics at his fingertips, says Buffalo is the third-largest American city without a professional opera company. “Only Las Vegas and Oklahoma City are bigger.”
Buffalo has seen recent small-scale efforts, including Buffalo Opera Unlimited, led by Tim Kennedy, and the religious-themed Opera Sacra. But since 1997, when the Greater Buffalo Opera Company folded after a blowout staging of Wagner’s “The Flying Dutchman,” our town has had no full-scale opera troupe.
Getting one would be good for Buffalo, Ruminski booms.
“It’s a growth business,” he asserts. “We go from two to four employees. We rent costumes. It’s a proven fact that the arts bring in revenue. The Bills are not making money for the city.”
“I only need to appeal to 2,000 people,” he says. “The tickets are selling.”
Building momentum
Other pieces, too, are falling into place. Canisius High School, Ruminski’s alma mater, has been supportive, and a local foundation came forward, unsolicited, with $2,000. Ruminski has arranged with UB to put up singers in the dorms there.
Outreach has also begun. Nickel City Opera is working with the Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts to select students to study and see “The Barber of Seville.”
“Next June, we envision two different shows,” Ruminski says. “This is the first rung on the ladder.
“It’ll be bootstraps, but it’s going to be good.”
Opera Preview
“The Barber of Seville”
Performances at the Riviera Theater at 8 p.m. Friday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $20 to $50. Call 692-2413.
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