By Rachel Muir
Thomas Richards hopes to sell his soul to the devil.
On stage, that is.
The dream role for Mr. Richards is Kaspar, a rogue who’s made a demonic pact in the opera Der Freischütz.
With his deep voice, Mr. Richards says it’s the kind of part he can expect to play a lot. “Singers in my vocal range, bass-baritone, are opera’s villains,” he says.
Although he just graduated from GW last spring, Mr. Richards has already sung opera professionally—with the Washington National Opera in its 2009 production of Wagner’s Götterdämmerung. He had tried out just for the audition experience and was “surprised and flattered” to make the cut. Singing in a world-class chorus in front of audience of thousands was pretty incredible, he says.
A native of Minnesota, Mr. Richards originally chose GW for its political science prowess. And while he says the university’s political science coursework “did not disappoint,” his sophomore year he decided to add music as a second major.
“When I first went to GW I wasn’t sure if I would even minor in music, but the music faculty provided me with enthusiastic support,” says Mr. Richards, who was awarded GW’s George Steiner Scholarship in Music three years in a row.
Completing a double major in music and political science was demanding, he says. Most semesters Mr. Richards took the maximum course load and he took classes over three summers. The hard work and multitasking paid off: He graduated Phi Beta Kappa last spring.
Mr. Richards started singing as a teenager in his church’s production of Oklahoma and only began to work on opera in earnest his sophomore year at GW. He starred in several Department of Music productions and also sang in GW Vibes, the university’s co-ed a cappella group.
Mr. Richards’ operatic skills got a boost from a junior year study abroad experience in Vienna, where he sang and also saw dozens of performances at the world-famous Vienna Opera House. He later participated in a six-week summer program in Austria through the American Institute of Musical Studies.
He says the hardest thing about singing opera is memorizing and maintaining proper pronunciation in multiple languages. Professional opera singers typically need to be able to sing fluently in Italian, German and French. Maintaining good vocal health—“not to over sing and wear out your voice” is also critical, especially since young voices are particularly vulnerable to damage.
Earlier this month, Mr. Richards headed to Ohio for graduate school. Although he was accepted at Juilliard and Yale, he opted for the University of Cincinnati. He was especially drawn to the school by a professor who specializes in teaching bass-baritones.
But he says his political science education was definitely not for nothing. “I am still a huge political geek,” says Mr. Richards, who loves to read newspapers and listen to the news on the radio. “I’ll talk politics with anyone.”