A Diva’s Disc Jockey in Full Throat

For many Southern California opera lovers, Duff Murphy is the face of Saturday morning libretto. For 10 years, Murphy, 50, has voluntarily hosted KUSC’s extolled “The Opera Show With Duff Murphy.” An eminent domain lawyer by profession, Murphy, who hosted a weekly three-hour opera show on KPPC before his KUSC gig, brings the genre’s aria-laden dynastic tragedies and feverish romantic intrigues to worldwide fanatics and neophytes alike. He spoke about his love of all things operatic a safe distance from any Wagnerian songstresses.

How did you get involved with opera?

My parents gave me a transistor radio when I was about 9 years old, and I just always found classical music inherent in my blood. I’d leave my radio on to a classical music station on Sunday nights, and I’d fall asleep to classical music and then wake up in the middle of some opera with people singing in German, which was incomprehensible to me as a third- or fourth-grader.

Why does opera have such a hold on people?

For me it’s always been about the singers. There’s a larger-than-life aspect about these singers, and it’s a visceral reaction to the sound they make. For many of us passionate about opera, there’s that connection of the voice to something physical in our bodies, as crazy as it may sound. There have been famous opera singers who don’t have beautiful voices but have such a compelling instrument, they create a certain emotion in sound that somehow triggers an intense emotional reaction in the listener. Maria Callas is perhaps the greatest example of that.

Do you find it culturally offensive the huge amounts of monies given to popular musicians when classical musicians receive far less?

I don’t find the great buckets of money going to these musicians to be anything offensive, for the reason that they all end up broke anyhow. They’ve got this large industry feeding off them--I don’t want to portray them as victims because they’re certainly not--but at the end of the day they’re being exploited by an industry that needs fresh kill to keep going. The entertainment industry is just that: It’s an industry. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries the musicians and opera composers relied upon the benevolence of the lord of the manor or little fiefdoms to get commissions. In Germany Mad King Ludwig was a patron of Wagner and commissioned many of his great operas. It’s no different today; it’s just larger and more widely disbursed.

How does a 200-year-old opera seem fresh in the 21st century?

Opera is particularly adept at morphing to the new periods because they bring in directors of opera companies willing to take on the current rages of the moment and incorporate them. You’ll find many European and even some American productions with young, aggressive, forward-thinking directors who’ll bring in things totally different than the ways grandma and grandpa looked [at the opera], and which essentially will get booed by the audience for many minutes. Then the singers come out and you can’t really mess around with that very much. So they’ll bring great accolades to the singers and run the director out of town. That still happens and that’s what’s exciting about opera.

Do you have a favorite singer?

There are a handful of singers I’ll always go to, and Maria Callas is one of them. There’s a certain human tragic quality that clings to any role she interprets. There’s also a Czech soprano named Lucia Popp. Her performances move me.

How did you get your first opera job in radio?

When I finished college, I wanted to do something in radio, so I called up a radio station, and they said the only thing they have open is a Saturday afternoon opera program and would I be willing to do that? I’d had a class at USC from the director of the USC Opera Workshop and so I said, “Sure, why not?” My opera education literally came from my audience. When I opened the phone lines for requests, I’d put one on and then run to the library to find the next one. It was my being on air and having to hop around in the early days that gave me breadth and depth that have served me well.

Is opera an acquired taste?

Opera you come to a little later in life. As a 50-year-old, you’re not interested in who is the up-and-coming pop star who is under the age of 20; it just doesn’t make sense. I don’t want to say you get burned out on rock ‘n’ roll or popular music, but if you’re open and willing to listen to [opera], this is when it can happen. I’ve found many [peers] who thought I was a joke at 25 doing opera on the radio, when they’re 40 they all of a sudden find opera very appealing.

Is there any connection between opera and law?

People think trial lawyers like opera because of the theatrics of it. However, there’s absolutely no connection between my passions for the law and the opera. Though I must say there are a lot of judges and trial lawyers who do like opera.