Tenor Michael Schade pokes his head out of the front door of his sturdy Oakville brick home and says, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 have a thing to wear.鈥
He鈥檚 not kidding. The Canadian opera singer, who is a 鈥渞ock star鈥 in Europe, has just dropped 30 pounds in a diet over the Christmas holidays.
The weight loss is just one sign of the changes about to come.
Schade is a hockey fan, father to eight children in a yours-mine-and-ours union with Dee McKee, bon vivant and lover of good food and conversation, a former choir boy, stalwart friend, an almost-doctor and a man pondering his legacy.
鈥淚 want to give back and help,鈥 says Schade, who raised 100,000 euros last year for former U.S. president Bill Clinton鈥檚 Health Access Initiative. He has also raised money for cancer research (his mother is a leukemia survivor) and is looking for ways to help return the recital to local prominence.
鈥淚 have a passion for helping young people at the level of the Canadian Opera Company鈥檚 Ensemble Studio: young professionals who need a break at the right time to get them going,鈥 he says.
Schade acknowledges the wonderful breaks in his career, including the support of his family, winning early prizes, conductors and symphonies giving him a chance, welcoming European audiences that flock to hear him sing and a standout reputation at home.
As he prepares to star in the production of Mozart鈥檚 La clemenza di Tito, which opens Feb. 3, Schade, who just turned 48, is aware of the passage of time.
鈥淚鈥檝e gone from playing a prince to a king,鈥 says Schade of his role as an emperor who forgives, rather than punishes, those who betray him.
鈥淚 am having a physical and personal renewal,鈥 says Schade, pointing to the stationary bike and weights he uses when the family sits down to watch hockey games.
A rabid Leaf fan, he is scheduled to sing 鈥淥 Canada鈥 at a 海角社区官网home game against the Buffalo Sabres on Feb. 21 and will bring his own jersey. Sporting a new moustache for his role as Tito, Schade says he think he looks like Leaf forward Mike Brown.
In a recent interview, he gloated about a recent Leaf win over the Sabres, although he didn鈥檛 see the game because he was watching .
鈥淚t was such a high. Ben was terrific,鈥 says Schade, driving home from the grocery store after seeing 6-year-old Stella make an announcement at her school assembly. The world doesn鈥檛 stop just because he has a rehearsal that night and an opening on the weekend.
鈥淛ust parent stuff,鈥 says Schade, who gets the kids up in the morning and prepares a hot lunch for them.
鈥淚 do more by 9 a.m. than most people do in a day,鈥 says Schade.
Schade says he was able to achieve the weight loss because he was home while performing in two COC operas back to back (Die Fledermaus and La clemenza di Tito). It calms him to be with family in his own house and not on the road, where he spends a lot of time aching to be with them.
McKee travels with him if possible and they have a second home in Vienna.
鈥淗e鈥檚 a great artist,鈥 says conductor Howard Dyck, who adds, 鈥淗e is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, Mozart tenor of our time.鈥
Walking down the street in Vienna with Schade is a lesson in hero worship, says Dyck. 鈥淗e is constantly being stopped by people. The guy is a rock star in Vienna; in a restaurant, talk about getting the best table in the place.鈥
Dyck hired the 鈥渨ide-eyed鈥 Schade back in the 1980s to sing with the Grand Philharmonic Choir. Schade, who was still a student at the University of Western Ontario where he studied sciences, heard the other tenor sing and asked Dyck, 鈥淒o you think I am ever going to be able to do that?鈥
Dyck鈥檚 answer, 鈥淪ooner than you think.鈥
When Schade won a $3,000 performance prize against music majors, he switched his loyalties from medicine to music and went on to study at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
Schade鈥檚 parents, German immigrants Liesel and Hans, were members of the Mendelssohn Choir that performed the Messiah yearly with the . One year, they asked TSO artistic administrator Loie Fallis to listen to him sing.
鈥淚 cast him immediately,鈥 says Fallis, noting Schade was 23 when he made his TSO debut in Handel鈥檚 Messiah. 鈥淚 remember goose bumps.鈥
Since then, he has been a regular with the TSO, performing more than 30 times over the years, reports Fallis. Many of those times he shared the stage with Canadian baritone and friend Russell Braun, who lives nearby in Georgetown with his family.
As busy as he is, Schade makes time for friends, even those from his childhood at St. Michael鈥檚 Choir School. Michael Winiker, a financial portfolio manager who first met Schade in Grade 6, says they still get together with their families.
鈥淭here were so many Michaels in our class that we all had a different name,鈥 laughs Winiker. 鈥淗e was Shady and I was Henry, after Henry Winkler (the Fonz).鈥
Together with other classmates, they formed an a cappella group fashioned after The Nylons. They called themselves The Odd Socks and even played a couple of gigs.
Ultimately Schade pulled the plug. He says, 鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 spend my life going doo wop. The text was so insanely shallow.鈥
As McKee gasps, he asserts, 鈥淭here is more to life than dumb-ass entertainment.鈥
But he鈥檚 not a snob, enjoying people from all walks of life even if they can鈥檛 tell a tenor from a ten spot. Oakville restaurateur Julia Hanna remembers Schade and his daughter Sophie, now 16, coming into one of her restaurants when the girl was a toddler.
Hanna thought, 鈥淗e just fills the room. He鈥檚 such a nice guy and he鈥檚 always going to the Met, La Scala. What does he do, build sets or something?鈥
The next time he dined there, Schade brought her some CDs and said, 鈥淭his is what I do.鈥 After that, says Hanna, 鈥淲e became good friends.鈥
She saw Schade performing in The Magic Flute at New York鈥檚 Metropolitan Opera as his guest 鈥 a scene she says was out of the movie Moonstruck she was so awed.
鈥淚 was transformed. Oh my God, that is a special place.鈥
Hanna sums up the Schade effect, 鈥淗e is a human being with a passionate talent. People relate to him.鈥
As Schade mulls over his looming 鈥渃ontribution to the arts, arts management and companies in general,鈥 he allows his mind to wander into the distant future.
鈥淒own the road, I can see myself running a company at some point.鈥
But right now, the role of Tito beckons.
Correction: This article was edited from a previous version that misspelled Julia Hanna鈥檚 surname. As well, the article mistakenly said Michael Schade is scheduled to sing at Air Canada Centre on Feb. 22.
RELATED
La clemenza di Tito is at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts Feb. 3 to 22.
To join the conversation set a first and last name in your user profile.
Sign in or register for free to join the Conversation