International operatic baritone Troy Cook on his profession, passion, and upcoming appearance at Florida Grand Opera

Troy Cook is surprisingly domestic for a jet-setting international operatic baritone with a packed performance schedule. When he’s not on stage, the garden and kitchen are his happy places. He and his partner, Rob Kent, share a beautiful Bucks County, Pennsylvania home where Cook is currently enjoying their new induction oven. He makes enchiladas and Thai food from scratch, and always cooks the roast or turkey at holidays. But the couple’s carefully curated and tended gardens are their pride and joy, and the place where Cook finds peace.

“As singers, we always have something going through our minds, a tune or something. My nickname growing up was Tunely or Tunes, because I was always humming something,” Cook says. “Weeding, pruning things back, deadheading, that sort of repetitive task gives me a break from myself. It’s one of the few things I find that can just turn that off and I can just be in the garden. It’s good work, it’s nice to be outside, and it’s really good for my mental health.”

He comes by his gardening affinity naturally. Cook’s mother was an avid, if self-taught, vegetable gardener, and as a child he helped her in the family plot. Later, as he pursued his singing career in New York City, Cook met Kent, a banker who volunteered at Riverside Park and eventually began working fulltime for the Riverside Park Fund. Kent’s love for ornamental gardening eventually became one of Cook’s passions, as well. It gives him a break from the intensity of an international opera career.

Cook will be in South Florida this month to prepare for his role as Giorgio Germont in Verdi’s La traviata, the opener for Florida Grand Opera’s 82nd season. He can’t remember the exact number of times he’s done the role, three or four, but Opera News called his debut “stirring” and a “standout.” Cook is excited to revisit it at FGO, where he was once a member of the renowned Studio Artist Program. He loves to dig in to developing a character and finding new ways to tell a story.

La traviata is the quintessential “hooker with a heart of gold” tale, albeit considerably more sophisticated than that moniker implies. It’s based on the life of Marie Duplessis, a celebrated courtesan of 19th century Paris and her love affair with the writer Alexandre Dumas, fils. After her death, Dumas wrote his famous novel-turned-play, La dame aux camélias (The Lady of the Camellias). It was a smashing success and inspired over thirty films, including Pretty Woman and Moulin Rouge, a musical by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg of Les Misérables fame, a ballet, and of course, Giuseppe Verdi’s romantic and popular opera. La traviata has consistently played in opera houses all over the world almost since its premiere. So why go to see it at Florida Grand Opera?

“You know, when you go see The Phantom (of the Opera), if you miss your staging three times, you’re fired. You have to be 100% beholden to the original staging, and I get that as a business model. If you go to see it and then see it five years later, you see the same show,” says Cook. “The FGO production of Traviata is going to be very different from the Metropolitan Opera production or the Des Moines Metro Opera production. If you see them all, you’re not seeing the same show. And that’s the beauty of opera. One reason you can go to see La traviata time and time again is because when you know the general story the interesting part becomes HOW the story is told.”

Cook’s role is Giorgio Germont, a wealthy landowner and the stern father of brash young lover Alfredo, who risks his family’s future to be with the courtesan Violetta Valéry. In one of the opera’s most wrenching scenes, Germont visits Violetta in her country home to demand she release Alfredo from her clutches. He quickly realizes that she is a kind, noble spirit who truly loves his son, and is willing to sacrifice everything for him. Germont then waits for Alfredo and begs him to return home and restore honor to the family name. He later follows his son to Paris and admonishes him for humiliating Violetta in public. In the end, he joins Alfredo at Violetta’s deathbed, deeply remorseful for his part in adding to the young couple’s suffering, yet painfully aware that he would never have allowed them to remain together even if Violetta had lived.

Act II of La traviata is Germont’s act and Cook’s big opportunity to unleash his glorious, robust baritone voice. First, there’s a dramatic scene with Violetta culminating in a gorgeous but devastating duet. “He tells Violetta, the real reason that I’m here is that my beautiful daughter has found out that her brother is dating basically a prostitute and she’s unwilling to go through with her marriage. So you’re not only ruining my son’s life, but my daughter’s life,” Cook explains. After she heartbrokenly agrees to abandon Alfredo, Germont faces his son and sings his big aria of the evening, “Di Provenza il mar, il sol” (you can get a preview on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8Elaw_JEAw&t=59s&ab_channel=CPRClassical

“I think one of the real clinchers to a successful Germont is that he is driven by his deep religious beliefs. It’s not just about money and family, it’s something more deeply rooted,” Cook says. “He calls on religion a lot. As a religious person, not just as a father, he thinks he’s truly doing the right thing. He’s saving his son and saving Violetta’s soul. The self-righteousness of Germont has to come through.”

Still, the Germont Cook will create for Florida Grand Opera won’t necessarily be the one he’s done previously. “I approach every new production with an open mind. Perhaps I haven’t worked with this same director or same exact cast members, sets and costumes before. I remember talking to Diana Soviero (international soprano and former head of the Florida Grand Opera Studio) about why I do this. What is it about this art that makes you tick? For me, I love rehearsing,” Cook says. “I love performing too. I like to show the audience what we’ve discovered. I think it’s really exciting. But the part that really feeds me and my soul is developing the psychology of this Germont with these people. I find that fascinating. I look forward to going to rehearsals to make those discoveries together and have those conversations.”

The excitement of discovery and world-building takes Cook back to his passion for gardening and landscape design. “The garden will start blooming in February with witch hazel and Lenten roses, and things that push up through the snow like snowdrops. Things are constantly in bloom. You come to our gardens here at different times of year and it looks completely different,” Cook says, and then grins. “It’s like going to different Traviatas with different opera companies. It’s exciting.”