Could singing opera make you a better healthcare consultant? Q&A with Shane Magargal

When Nordic Senior Consultant Shane Magargal was 13, he heard the voice of Luciano Pavarotti on a compilation CD, and he knew he had found the great passion of his life. Maybe you’ve had a similar experience with your passion: picking up your first baseball as a child, learning to ride a bike, or the first time you felt the thrill of solving a big problem for a client.

As part of our series on consultant passion projects, we sat down with Senior Consultant Shane Magargal to discuss his journey with opera performance – and what we can all learn about vocal health, professional presentations, and the anxiety of meeting healthcare celebrities. 

Q: How did you get started performing opera?

Shane: I’ve always enjoyed singing. My father sang in our church choir, and as soon as I was old enough, I started singing there as well. It wasn’t until high school that I got my first chance to listen to opera, and like most teenagers do with music, I started singing along. It clicked that I could sing along with what I was hearing. 

(Shane, right, shown as the principal tenor role of Marco Palmieri in The Gondoliers, in 2010 at the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Buxton, UK)

I started studying music when I was 14 or 15. I had always liked musical theater but my singing tended towards the classical side, and opera was the perfect blend of musical theater, classical singing, and acting. I loved it, so I gave it a shot and pursued it in college, getting my undergraduate degree in voice performance with a minor in musical theater at Westminster Choir College.

Opera has been the driving passion of my life ever since. It has given me chances to do some great performances throughout the New York area, in England, and all over the place. It really has shaped the way my life has gone so far.

Q: Opera isn’t necessarily the typical musical choice for a preteen. What first drew you to the music?

Shane: I discovered opera by accident. I love musical theater and one summer I was watching Good Morning America. They had a big wedding in Times Square, and a British singer named Russell Watson sang a song during the ceremony named “Caruso.” The song combined pop verses with an operatic chorus, with a classical tenor voice.

I got a few of Watson's CDs, and I found a CD where he sang one song, but the rest were all opera singers, including the Three Tenors (Luciano Pavarotti, José Carreras, and Placido Domingo). It was the first time I heard Pavarotti’s voice, and it really spoke to me. I found his voice to be absolutely incredible, so I found as many of his CDs as possible and learned from him.

Q: What’s it like to study opera in school? I imagine it must be a combination of vocal lessons and history, foreign language, and other aspects.

Shane: Yes, so there are weekly voice lessons. I did an hour of voice lessons a week and weekly practice – around 7-10 hours a week working on my voice. There were also four hours of choir rehearsal a week, and you have many other performance and outside opportunities. I worked in church as a paid section leader.

As far as classwork, you learn the history of opera, song literature classes, German and Italian language courses, and diction classes that teach you the nuance of pronouncing words in German, French, and Italian. I can sound very convincing in each of those languages, even though I can’t necessarily speak them. And there are acting classes as well.

Shane performing The Addams Family in 2015 with the Sun Prairie Civic Theatre; Shane is shown as Gomez Addams

Q: What do you find most challenging about opera?

Shane: There is, of course, the foreign language quality. You spend a lot of time going over the lyrics and the libretto of the opera and making sure you understand everything you’re saying and responding to what is being said to you in a natural manner. But it’s also the demands on the voice. Being a young opera singer is very challenging. When you’re in undergrad, you’re not old enough to sing the big, grand opera that you want to sing. You’re developing through art songs, but the roles you may want to sing just don’t work at that age.

For me, it was poignant to realize that in the last few years, my voice has gone through some big changes that mean the pieces I used to sing aren’t quite right for me anymore. It’s hard because the voice, especially for classical singers, doesn’t hit its maturity until much later than school age. My voice won’t hit its physical peak of development until after 30, compared to when I graduated from grad school at 24.

Q: What kind of voice do you have?

Shane: My vocal coach and I believe that I have a spinto tenor voice – or a “heroic” voice. That means I can sing some of the most famous tenor music, which you often hear in commercials. It’s not quite the big German heldentenor – which can sing the big Wagner pieces – but I can sing a lot of the most famous pieces.

Q: What is your favorite opera?

Shane: My favorite opera to watch is “The Barber of Seville.” It’s very fun and funny. I could watch it just about any time. It’s not one that I am well-suited to sing – my favorite piece to sing, which is a cliché for opera singers, is “Nessun dorma,” an aria from the final act of Giacomo Puccini’s opera "Turandot." It’s the song that you hear in every talent show, and it’s also the last song that Lucino Pavarotti performed in public, at the Olympic Games in 2006.

Q: How do we keep our voices healthy as non-opera singers?

Shane: There are a couple of things you can do. If you have to speak for a long period of time, such as in a long set of conference calls, make sure you are speaking with a supported voice. That means making sure you have your breath under your voice.

There are also exercises you can do to find the right pitch for your voice. Everyone has an ideal range for pitch; for me, it’s higher because I’m a tenor. When I speak in that higher range, it’s less taxing, and I do the same thing when I’m acting on stage. It’s less stressful, I can go longer without any kind of fatigue, and I can project my voice more easily.

The other thing you can do is, if you have a voice-heavy day coming up, prepare at least two days ahead of time. Try to cut out caffeine and alcohol because they dehydrate the vocal chords. If you’re dehydrated, it’s a lot more stressful for them. And just be aware. Everyone can feel when their voice starts to get tired. If you look at the schedule for the Metropolitan Opera in New York or the Chicago Lyric Opera, they never do the same show two days in a row. They do shows on a rotational basis because the leads need time to recover.

Q: How do you think opera performance has benefitted you professionally, in terms of ability to present or lead conversations?

Shane: There have been a few benefits. I’ve done a lot of presentations and demos, and inevitably, sometimes things will go wrong. As an experienced stage performer, I have a lot of experience ad-libbing and improvising when things go wrong.

I’m also fortunate to have met a lot of big stars in the musical world, and you get to learn that these big celebrities are just everyday people. They put on their pants one leg at a time like everyone else. That helped me feel more comfortable meeting executives; I don’t shine a spotlight on them, I know that they’re still people, and when we discuss an issue onsite at a client, we’re all looking for the right solution. It reminds me that everyone is there to contribute.

Also, music is a very collaborative effort, and it helped me develop skills for teamwork. Every little role in an opera – even if they come on stage and sing two lines – has to come together for it to work.

Q: What would you tell newcomers about the best way to enjoy opera?

Shane: One of the first things to know is that not all operas are in the four-hour range. Many are 2.5 hours like a typical musical. For those who are new to opera, I recommend looking for stories that feel familiar. For instance, “La Boheme” is the story that inspired “Rent,” which many people know. “Madame Butterfly” has a musical equivalent in “Miss Saigon.”

Look for operas that are humorous or very classic and famous – they’re classic for a reason. The biggest thing is to give it a shot and go in with an open mind. You might have to read a projected translation, but trust in the stories. They’ve been around for hundreds of years for a reason.