His love for opera bloomed in Tulsa. Now Chris Mosz is making his homecoming.

The old show business mantra of “The show must go on” is more than just a clever saying to Tulsa native Chris Mosz.

Last year Mosz was starring as Tonio in a production of Donizetti’s comic opera “The Daughter of the Regiment” for Opera Santa Barbara, opposite Jana McIntyre in the title role.

“We play these two young people falling in love for the first time,” said Mosz, who is in town to star in Tulsa Opera’s weekend production of “The Pirates of Penzance.”

“In the Act One duet, we had this very long rope that we took turns wrapping around the other person, then spinning them free,” he said. “At one point, Jana moved in to kiss me, and I was to hop bashfully backward.”

Unfortunately the rope had become coiled up behind Mosz’s feet, causing him to trip and fall, and resulting in a fracture to his left arm just above the wrist.

“I knew I had broken my arm when I reached down with my left hand for the rope and it didn’t work right,” he said

Mosz managed to finish the duet, which concluded with McIntyre leaping joyfully into his arms — “I caught her with one arm,” he said with a laugh — and dashing off stage for a quick costume change to prepare for his next scene. It happened to be the aria “Ah! Mes Amis,” considered one of the most challenging in the entire opera repertoire.

The aria requires a tenor to hit eight high C’s in the course of the piece, with some singers adding an extra C that’s not in the original score. 

“It’s one of those arias that often gets an encore, and this production planned for that,” Mosz said. “So right after breaking my arm, I’m singing this incredible aria twice.”

A large contingent of Mosz’s family had come to Santa Barbara to witness his performance, including an aunt who works as a nurse. Mosz said he mentioned that fact during the show’s intermission, as his arm was being iced and bandaged.

“Someone asked if I wanted her to come backstage and check things out, but I said ‘no, just let her enjoy the show,’” he said. “I wanted my family to enjoy the night and not get caught up in my situation.”

Mosz would go on to complete that performance and return a couple of days later to perform again — with his costumes altered to accommodate his now properly splinted arm. 

Opera Magazine’s review of the show praised Mosz highly for both his perseverance and his singing, noting the performance showed “that, with the right singers, local opera can indeed seem grand.”

Now, Mosz will bring those characteristics to the role of Frederic in “The Pirates of Penzance,” presented Friday and Saturday at the University of Tulsa’s Lorton Performance Center. 

“The Pirates of Penzance” is one of the classic comic operas created by the British team of composer Arthur Sullivan and lyricist-playwright William S. Gilbert. 

It’s the story of Frederic, who has spent much of his life as an apprentice to a band of remarkably friendly pirates. He falls in love with Mabel, the daughter of a “very modern major-general,” but the couple’s future happiness is threatened by an accident of birth — and Frederic may have to remain a pirate apprentice for the rest of his life.

In addition to Mosz, the cast includes Meghan Picerno as Mabel, Jason Zacher as the Pirate King, Tesia Kwarteng as Ruth, Robert Mellon as Major-General Stanley and Sergio Martinez as the Sergeant of Police. 

The production is directed and choreographed by Eve Summer. Cathy Venable will conduct the Tulsa Opera Orchestra and Tulsa Opera chorus, prepared by Lyndon Meyer. 

“The Pirates of Penzance” is Mosz’s first starring role for Tulsa Opera, but he has been involved in the company in a variety of ways since his adolescence. 

Opera was always a part of his growing up in Tulsa. His paternal grandparents had been opera singers in their native Hungary, and Mosz recalled that opera and classical music were ever-present in the family home.

“I always knew I wanted to sing, and that I wanted to perform,” Mosz said. “The choir director when I attended primary school at Holland Hall encouraged me to join the Tulsa Boy Singers, which I did when I was 11.” 

He had been in the group for a short time when Carol Crawford, who was the artistic director for Tulsa Opera, came to a rehearsal and asked if any of the kids wanted to join Tulsa Youth Opera. 

“I was one of those who raised a hand,” he said. 

That gesture led to Mosz appearing in the company’s 2005 production of “Pagliacci,” and the next year serving as the understudy to the title role in Tulsa Opera’s world premiere production of “The Little Prince.” He regularly performed as part of the chorus in Tulsa Opera productions during his school years. 

He studied at Oklahoma City University, but regularly returned to Tulsa. He made his professional debut with Tulsa Opera in 2016, as the Young Collector in Andre Previn’s “A Streetcar Named Desire,” and later in the 2019 production of “Don Giovanni.” He also earned praise for his performances with such companies as Colorado’s Central City Opera.

Mosz moved to England in 2019 to study at the Royal College of Music in London, which was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“I was given the option of staying in England, or returning home,” he said. “Like everyone else, I figured it would just be for a few weeks.”

Instead, Mosz was in Tulsa for close to a year, which gave him the opportunity to work as one of Tulsa Opera’s Filstrup Resident Artists as well as being cast in the company’s unique baseball-themed production of “Rigoletto” at ONEOK Field, billed as the first public performance of an opera since the pandemic’s start.

“That was really a lot of fun,” he recalled. “It was also the first time I ever sang an opera role while wearing a microphone taped to my face.”

Mosz would later return to London, graduating from the Royal College of Music with full honors in 2022. Since then, he has worked with Ireland’s Wexford Festival Opera and the Vienna Opera Academy before returning to the U.S. to continue his career.

The role of Frederic is one that is quite familiar to Mosz.

“This will be the fourth time I’ve done ‘The Pirates of Penzance,’ and the third time I’ve played Frederic,” he said. “What I love about Frederic, and about Gilbert & Sullivan characters in general, is that they give you an amalgamation of traits. Frederic is the heartthrob of the show, but he’s also naive and comic, and that’s so much fun to play.”

Returning to a familiar character, Mosz said, is not so much about bringing elements of past performances to a role as it is creating an entirely new experience.

“It’s all about what happens on stage,” he said. “And that all depends on the collaboration among the cast and director, to bring the energy the work needs, and to find new ways of looking at things.”

Summer has helped Mosz figure out new ways to approach the role that feel “organic and natural,” he added. 

“You keep trying different ways of delivering a line that might help you discover new things,” Mosz said. “That’s one reason why I love this show — it’s just so much fun to play with these characters and help them come to life on stage.”

James Watts is a freelance contributor to the Tulsa Flyer.

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