It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s…a Man Hanging from a Chandelier
We’re at the end of Act 1 in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. After weaving a complex web of intercepted letters, hidden identities, and mischievous plans, our hero, Count Almaviva, is about to be arrested for mistreating Dr. Bartolo. As everyone works themselves into a frenzy, in the background, there’s a man calmly cleaning the chandelier. Suddenly, he’s swept up to the ceiling with no way down, and the scene explodes in chaos.
Amid the mayhem, you may find yourself wondering, who is this man swinging from this chandelier? Meet Alessandro Baldan, PhD, Laboratory Director of Research Tissue Support Services (RTSS) at Texas Children’s Hospital, who spends his days examining and cryopreserving tumoral tissue for cancer clinical trials—and his nights as a supernumerary at HGO.
Baldan is the Laboratory Director of Research Tissue
Support Services (RTSS) at Texas Children’s Hospital
“Being in an opera is like a dream,” says Baldan. “I'm part of something fantastic, something wonderful, something big. Every time there is the opportunity to be a super in an HGO show, I cross my fingers and say, I hope I don't have any conflicts.”
Born in Italy, Baldan has loved music from the time he was young, watching performers like Pavarotti on TV and learning to play the trumpet and the flute. Asked to share his favorite opera, he just can’t choose. “It's like picking between mommy and daddy,” he laughs.
From early on, Baldan’s other passion was science. As a young man he studied biology while pursuing music, but ultimately science won out. Still, music has remained an important part of his life, as has theater. After years of studying biomedicine in different parts of the world from Paris to London, Baldan moved to Houston 11 years ago and has loved being a part of the performing arts scene here. He first appeared as a super at HGO in La bohème and was thrilled to return for The Barber of Seville. Sometimes, he shares, these experiences have left him starstruck.
“You work with Grammy nominees, Grammy winners, internationally famous performers, directors, choreographers… You feel like, oh my gosh,” he says. “These people are fantastic, but they are also so humble. You really can relate to them. In this production, the director comes to me and talks to me like I am at his level. He makes me feel comfortable.”
As for the hanging-from-the-chandelier part, it isn’t easy. “It’s quite uncomfortable,” Baldan admits. “I’m mostly just sitting like a koala attached to this thing.” Strapped in for safety, he dangles above the action for what feels like quite a while as the scene plays out. He tries not to peer at the stage below or at the pit or the audience, because it’s disorienting. When he does, he says, “it looks like I’m on the top of Mount Everest.” Still, he loves it.
“I keep saying it's an amazing experience because it is,” says Baldan. “It's therapeutic to be at HGO doing something that I love, something that I know I cannot do professionally because I chose another career, but still, it gives me the opportunity to complete myself.”
Baldan manages his double life as a researcher and as a super by being open to learning. He says his coworkers don’t know how he is able to do it all. The answer, he says, is passion and energy.
“It's kind of a switch,” says Baldan, “I finish here at the Medical Center, then I go home, let the dogs out, eat something light, get changed, get in the car, drive to the opera house, park, and I go inside and I say, okay, let's have fun now.”
You don’t want to miss the shenanigans in this comedic masterpiece directed by Joan Font and Xevi Dorca, opening on Friday, April 24.