Opera Untamed: ‘Puccini to Dolly Parton’

Felicia Valenti wanted a platform to perform as a soprano, but something that wouldn’t intimidate audiences. She’s created Opera Untamed, a cross-genre music series. 

Singer, actor, and independent arts promoter Felicia Valenti believes opera shouldn’t require gowns or tuxes and that music is better when it doesn’t stay in its own lane. 

Valenti is a Hamilton-based soprano and founder of Opera Untamed, a genre-blending music series that aims to take the intimidation factor out of classical music and to create opportunities for local talent to perform. 

Through her production company Fifth Voice Productions, Valenti has presented three shows and plans another for the fall. They bring together blues, jazz, pop, rock, even drag and poetry, along with opera singers and classical musicians.

“Puccini to Dolly Parton – without anyone asking you to dress up or sit still,” read the promo for her June show No Small Feelings. 

Though she’s a trained opera singer, Valenti says even she finds it difficult to sit through an hours-long production. So she keeps the shows short – 60 minutes, no intermission. She promises energy, emotion, and zero pretense.  

The mix of genres keeps things interesting for the audience, but it’s also inspiring for artists, she says. 

“I've learned so much from the different types of singers and musicians that I've seen and come across. Different techniques and styles and things that you can borrow, and I just feel like it makes such a healthy environment creatively.”

People might not think opera or other forms of classical music are for them because they’ll have to dress up, or they don’t know the language, or they might be bored. 

Valenti tries to overcome that by introducing people to powerful works, what they mean, and how they fit into an opera. She makes a point of showcasing composers, especially women, that people may not have heard of before. 

Valenti, 37, is from Brampton and partially grew up in Italy. She studied classical vocal performance at York University. She pursued a career in music but shifted into acting and voiceover work after a few years. She didn’t sing for almost 10 years. 

She and her husband moved to the North End of Hamilton about five years ago and it was then that she began to retrain her voice. It took four years of intense work with her vocal teacher to get back to a professional level. 

Valenti was ready to sing but her time away didn’t serve her well. Even though she was an emerging artist, programs and competitions for young singers had a cutoff at age 32.  

“I just don't have any experience. I needed to start performing.”

She wanted to do that in Hamilton, but there aren’t many opportunities for classical voice performers. So she decided to build her own.

Valenti applied for a grant from the City Enrichment Fund, which helped her get the series off the ground. She was able to rent church space and hire performers. 

“The first show was called Spectral Songs and Vengeful Voices, and it was kind of angry, because at that point I was like, ‘Who are people to tell me I'm too old to perform? I can do my own thing.’”

She produced a sold-out show and started to meet people craving this type of art. A second show in December also sold out and drew a good crowd, despite an ice storm. 

The June show she funded on her own, paying six musicians and performing herself. The Bright Room is more affordable than the church venue and it works into Valenti’s goal to bring classical music into more spaces. 

Hamilton has been an easy place to meet other artists, says Valenti. It’s big, but also connected, and the local talent is deep. She says she’s also found that Hamilton artists want to work together and help one another. 

She’s connected with Erika Reiman, “a fantastic collaborative pianist” who is well connected in the city. 

And Valenti met blues guitarist and singer Nicole Christian at a Staples while they were both printing out posters. They got to talking and Christian was a performer at the most recent show. 

“She’s so good,” says Valenti, “but I feel like more people should know about her.”