From Physician to Figaro: A Conversation On Change, Contemporary Opera, and Soul with Debra Lew Harder, Host of the Metropolitan Opera Radio
A lot comes to mind when thinking about opera. Vikings. Magnifying glasses, the diaphragmatic death of a tenor as they reach the top of their vocal range (C above middle C). But it’s also a lot more than that. It has a deep-rooted history and cultural weight that extends beyond the stage. In its early form, opera was an art form for the extraordinarily wealthy. Rich nobles commissioned and funded productions to present to their courts. These events were social gatherings with food, alcohol, courtly conversation, and yes, opera. In the late 1800s, however, opera became slightly more accessible as it moved out of the courts and into public opera houses. This accessibility has only increased as we’ve moved into the digital age.
Located on Broadway at Lincoln Square on the Upper West Side of Manhattan one can find the Metropolitan Opera House—a home for transformative music and stories that stick with you. Founded in 1883, The Metropolitan Opera was and continues to be the largest classical music organization in North America.
But what keeps people coming back to opera now—year after year—is not necessarily the grandiose sets or the intricate plot lines or an effortless ascent to that C above middle C—that’s just part of it. Rather, it’s the emotion that permeates every aspect of this art form. This passion is personified by individuals like Debra Lew Harder, the current host of the Metropolitan Opera Radio.
Harder became the Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast Host in September of 2021. A highly-revered role, she is just the fifth host in over 90 years. She currently hosts the Metropolitan Opera Saturday Matinee Radio Broadcasts and the twice-weekly broadcasts throughout the season on Met Opera Radio, a dedicated radio station that broadcasts live performances and recordings from the Metropolitan Opera.
Following a stint in medicine, Debra just couldn’t bear the thought of her professional life being void of music, especially after an entire childhood dedicated to music education.
“I imagined myself going through with it, giving up music. And I just felt like my soul wouldn’t be there,” said Harder.
It was obvious that she did not go through with it—giving up music—as she perched elegantly in a doorway that led into the Metropolitan Opera Belmont Room and parallel to the 49,000 Swarovski crystal chandelier before the interview.
But Harder’s career in music wasn’t necessarily expected. She had to make a decision—and a tough one at that.
“I was in my senior year of medical school, and all students go through this thing called a match. I matched in an ophthalmology program, which was a very coveted sort of spot to get,” said Harder. “And I imagined myself going through with it, and giving up music. And I just felt like my soul wouldn’t be there. And it was very devastating to me.”
She decided not to take that spot. And she angered a lot of people, including her mother.
“I practiced emergency room medicine for a while. I thought I could do both for a long time. But it became apparent that if I really wanted to pursue music in a serious way, I had to kind of make this switch completely.”
She added, “I think probably because I was so young that I just saw the possibility. Yeah. So I wasn’t really scared.”
Her impressive lack of fear attests to her sheer love for music; a love that surpasses self-doubt, potential unreliabilities, and the sigh of disappointed parents. She went on to study under pianist Earl Wild at Ohio State University, earning a Doctor of Musical Arts. She performed at notable venues including the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series and Wigmore Hall. Later, she moved to Philadelphia, focused on teaching at Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges before becoming a radio host for WRTI 90.1 (classical and jazz) until 2021, paving the way for her eventual role at the Met. Her role has many different parts, but ultimately, Harder acts as the link between the happenings onstage, and opera-feens (or newbies) who want in.
“I love the excitement of bringing live performances to people all around the world. I also love having the opportunity to interview artists. Year after year, when they keep coming back for different roles that they’re being interviewed for, they become sort of like friends,” said Harder, “Giving them a chance to express what’s going on in their lives and what’s going on with this role and their idea about the music—that’s so much fun.”
Harder’s background as a pianist comes through in the broadcasts and artist interviews. Her voice ebbs and flows with a warm, yet measured timbral quality; you’d be surprised that she is not the aria herself given her innate musicality. She noted that her piano performance background prepared her for being on the air in terms of nerves. She admitted that “there is nothing more daunting than playing a concerto with an orchestra.” Compared to that, being on the air is a relatively low-stress endeavor.
Harder’s deep love of music was rooted in family; she couldn’t help but have her rapidly growing passion burst through the tightly-packed soil for people to see—and hear. Her father was perhaps her strongest inspiration.
“He’s still alive at 94. My role model. He grew up in Korea, during the Japanese occupation. At that time, Koreans were not allowed to speak their language. But when my dad was young, another doctor who had gone to train in Italy fell in love with opera. He brought the first opera to Korea. This other doctor decided to put on Verdi’s La Traviata in Seoul. My dad was one of the first people to get in line for a ticket.”
During a time of oppressive political machinery, her father wasn’t able to speak his own language in his own country. But instead of submitting to fear, he saw the possibility of music and made that his language, his love and his.
Harder added “I think a love for music is just sort of in you, it’s just part of your character and nature and being able to appreciate it, to be moved by it and just have it transform your life. I think that’s maybe inherited, but also, your family can nurture that for sure. I definitely got that from my dad.”
While a love for music can be profound, sustaining it for audiences requires financial support, which is often a challenging feat in the arts.
For its most recent season, the Met had to withdraw $23 million from its endowment and cut the number of performances. According to a recent profile by the New York Times, contemporary opera by living composers is the future direction for the Met; they’ve been outselling the classics since it returned from the pandemic shutdown in 2021.
The Met has always premiered new operas featuring impressive composers like Puccini and Granados. But modern contemporary opera has been specifically getting a bad reputation because long-time audience members and critics are concerned that the classics will simply be forgotten.
And yes, there are some changes being made. Next season, for example, will not feature any early 19th-century bel canto operas (style of operatic singing that originated in Italian singing of polyphonic music) and will only include an abridged, English-language version of Mozart’s The Magic Flute for families. However, new opera is necessary in order for it to not die out completely. And classics can only become classics if given the opportunity to be put on at all. Kevin Puts’ The Hours and Terrenace Blanchard’s Fire Shut up in My Bones are living proof of this.
To have music transform your life is to have it change you. How can we expect something to change us if it does not ever change itself?
Harder remarked “My very first broadcast here at the Met three years ago was Fire Shut up in My Bones. It was the first opera ever to be presented that had been composed by black composer, Terence Blanchard. It was such a sensation. And same thing this season with Anthony Davis’ X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X. Those offers really bring in new audiences. People that have never stepped inside of an opera house just find these stories really compelling and interesting. Same thing with The Hours. I think it’s really exciting and very important.”
Harder noted “The bulk of the Met season is still the classics. You’re always gonna have a huge audience for things like Turandot which we just did on Sunday, it was sold out. I did an on-stage talkback after the show and thousands of people stayed. I saw people in the plaza asking for tickets. They were holding up their hands shouting “does anyone have a ticket!” which used to happen a lot and I hadn’t seen it happen as much lately. Some of the pieces that are just so beloved. They’re great masterpieces for a reason, right? Puccini always gets people’s hearts and emotions. Nobody else could write a melody like that. I don’t think that will ever go away.”
After the interview, Harder took me on a tour of the Met. The whole building, even the administrative offices, felt like backstage—buzzing with energy. We tried finding the wig room but didn’t have luck—but we did, however, sneak into a rehearsal of John Adams’ dramatic new opera-oratorio retelling of the Nativity, El Niño. Surrounded by more crystalline-Swarovski-explosions, gold, deliciously-deep velvet, and a thrilling new-music premiere, it was the perfect personification of what the Met is at its core.
It turns out the crystalline-Swarovski-explosions are cleaned every summer. Of course, chandeliers collect dust. But we don’t dismantle them; we clean them. Classic opera is not going anywhere—it’s just being dusted off a little.
Harder’s voice sings this message beautifully in every broadcast as she speaks to everyone at every level who is willing to listen—she wants you to be moved by the music. And who better to move you? After all, she has invited all the joyous, heart-breaking, wonderful music to transform her own life and inhabit her very soul.