News Media Interviews and Career Highlights

I Grew Up with Gospel Music
By Hana Kvalcakova, Region (Czech Republic) 

Verdi’s opera Rigoletto was performed at the Slezske Theater in Opava on January 27 and 29 with a uniquely international cast. The role of Gilda was sung by the American guest singer Jane Foster, who became acquainted with Opava last year through a conductor’s course for which she had been recommended. This was the first performance of this role on stage for the singer from Philadelphia, who currently performs in Germany and Switzerland.

Jane Foster finds the interpretation of Gilda fascinating because she sees it as a symbol of hope and innocence, a character who is experiencing the transition from being a girl to becoming a woman, as well as the emotional transition from ties to her father to love for the duke. In her opinion, the beauty of interpreting Gilda lies in the fact that the audience should not recognize the character’s development in the very first scene.  

The day before the performance, we asked about other dreams she has in relation to singing and about the musical environment in which she had grown up.

HK: What role would you still like to sing?

JF: I have already sung Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata and Mimi in La Bohème by Puccini. I would like to sing these roles again. 

HK: As an American, were you influenced by Negro spirituals?

JF: I was born in the South, in Georgia. Gospel music is very popular there and has a long tradition. I grew up in a religious family, we went to church where spirituals were an integral part.

HK: What difference is there between the European and American opera schools?

JF: Both schools work with the same repertoire, but there are significant differences in the vocal technique and acting. I work in a different way, but don’t ask me to go into detail.

A Singer with Structure 
By Dina Sivaro-McCaffery, South Philly Review 

Using faith and dedication as bedrocks, Jane Foster has built careers as an opera singer and an architect.

You could say that Jane Foster is quite a designing woman. She’s creative in more ways than one—she’s an accomplished opera singer and a noted architect. Once she discovered the stage, she always wanted to be on it. She knew it wouldn’t be easy, but she needed to follow her dream. At the same time, she wanted to express her creativity through architecture and was certain that would pay the bills.

“It’s challenging at times,” Foster admits, “to wear two hats, especially when I have to make a quick transition from one to another…But opera and architecture are actually quite similar,” explains Foster, who lives on East Passyunk Avenue. “Both are very creative, and both demand a lot of dedication.”

Growing up in Georgia, Foster says she didn’t hear a lot of opera in her house. It wasn’t until she was a student at Georgia Tech, when she volunteered to be an usher for an opera performance, that she became enthralled by the music.

“That’s when I knew that’s what I wanted to do,” she remembers. “I think that opera is the ultimate expression of singing. It’s just the height of what music and singing should be.”

When she is not singing or designing, Foster enjoys kicking back and spending time with her husband. She’s an avid reader. She even finds time for sewing, and has made some of her own costumes.

When she looks to the future, Foster says she just wants to keep singing “as much as I can…I think somehow the universe gives you what you need at the time you need it. I’m glad to be where I am.”