Real Characters: If You Think the Secondary Roles in Opera Are for Secondary Singers, Think Again. to Get Them Right, Those Comprimario Roles Demand Very Special Talents

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"THERE ARE NO SMALL ROLES--ONLY SMALL PERFORMERS." THIS snippet of theatrical wisdom is generally offered, along with a condescending little smile, by those performers who have very large roles indeed. The most irritating thing about that rather tired observation, of course, is that it's true--though "stars" seldom mention its equally true corollary: that there are large roles, and they are sometimes filled by very small performers. We have all attended a performance where the faithful servant or the aged retainer or the pert little servant girl upstages the park-and-bark tenor with the glorious voice. We have all seen performances come theatrically alive when singers lower down on the cast list make their entrances. We have all attended performances saved from mediocrity by the comprimario.

Which it at least classy sounding, as names go. Better than, say, "the guy who always gets the bit part," or "always a duenna, never a diva," or "the little people." The Italian term simply refers to those people who perform with the leads--though the men and women who consciously build careers by cornering the market on such roles tend more often to refer to themselves as "character singers."

Peter Blanchet is a forty-something tenor who has made his living as a singer since 1982. Personable, chatty, bright-eyed and sporting a trim goatee, he projects an almost theatrical vivacity even over coffee at a cafe near his home in Toronto's Cabbagetown. He's telling me that he'll never sing Rodolfo. That he'll never sing Don Jose. And that's just fine. Very early in his career, he says, "I thought that the best way to market myself was as a character singer. Partly …