A secret center of the musical theater universe lies nearly 3,000 miles from Broadway in a modestly grand home in Toluca Lake. On a late summer day, the most striking feature in the house was the figure of a white French Standard Poodle. Visible through one of the windows flanking the front door, she sat so still she could have been mistaken for a statue, like the lion-dogs that guard the entrance to a Shinto shrine.
If musical theater had a canine sentinel, it might as well be a standard French poodle. But not. When the door opened, the dog, Belle, sniffed politely before trotting further into the house, her neon green painted nails glowing, to pause briefly next to her owner: Eric Vetro, perhaps the world's leading singing and singing teacher. bold names coach. stage and screen, including several of the stars in the upcoming film adaptation of “Wicked.”
Ariana Grande, who plays Galinda, has spoken often and at length about how long and rigorously she worked to raise her pitch and perfect her voice before auditioning for her dream role, and Vetro is the man who trained her.
Just as he trained Jonathan Bailey for his role as Fieyro. Just as he worked with Jeremy Allen White for his portrayal of Bruce Springsteen in the upcoming film “Deliver Me From Nowhere” and with Timothée Chalamet for “Willy Wonka” and the upcoming Bob Dylan biopic, “A Complete Unknown.” And Renée Zellweger for her Oscar-winning performance as Judy Garland in “Judy.” And Lea Michele for “Funny Girl”, Austin Butler for “Elvis”, Josh Gad for “The Book of Mormon” and “Frozen”, Emily Blunt for “Into the Woods” and “Mary Poppins Returns”, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling . for “La La Land” and Halle Bailey and Melissa McCarthy for “The Little Mermaid.”
The list goes on and on and continue. It also includes many equally well-known artists, such as John Legend, Shawn Mendes, Katy Perry and Pink. In fact, if a famous actor or singer refers to the work they have done with a vocal coach, there is a good chance they are talking about Vetro. Invariably in very complimentary terms.
“Although my range has always been high soprano,” Grande says via email, “Galinda requires a very different technique and has a very different sound than the one I use to sing my pop music. His voice is classical and operatic, and I had the honor of working on it every day along with Eric in preparation. [He] “I painted Belle's nails pink and green and put little pink ribbons in her hair to say goodbye before every audition or callback,” she adds. “Not only is he the best at what he does, but he is also truly the most thoughtful and kind man in the world.”
Dressed, that day, in a black Prada jacket and shoes, to match his short beard and meticulously groomed hair, Vetro, 68, is a dazzling figure, with a ready, dazzlingly white smile and the slender, expressive hands of a pianist This is how he became interested in music: he has been playing the piano since he was five years old. She majored in voice at New York University and worked in cabaret for many years, learning, she says, the valuable lesson of listening, both to a person's voice and their sound. can do, and also what ought do.
Voice coach Eric Vetro is teaching a lesson at his home this summer.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
“Many young girls can sing at the top of their lungs and become known for having a great voice. But that deceives them. You have to listen carefully and adapt, make them understand that some voices are prettier when they are not bigger.”
His work as a musician, teacher and advisor took him to Los Angeles, where, he says, “I continued meeting people and getting coaching jobs. If you give it 100 percent, you will get attention.”
At first, most of his clients were outside the entertainment industry: nurses, waiters, people who just wanted to sing better. He was then hired by Craig Zaden and Neil Marin to work on the 1999 remake of “Annie,” which spawned “Chicago,” “Hairspray” and “Hairspray Live.” He began working with Bette Midler during her Las Vegas residency, Hugh Jackman in “Boy From Oz” and Grande, who began working with Vetro when she was 23 years old. “Once you get going,” Vetro says, “it just builds up like a snowball. Now I don't work with 'normal' people at all.”
He now works on films, stage shows and musical tours, hired by directors, producers and music directors to work with artists with a variety of experience levels and demands: singers, like Grande, moving into musical acting roles; actors, like Blunt, in his first singing roles; touring artists and artists looking to grow their voice or achieve a specific sound.
For actors like Butler, White, Zellweger and Chalamet, who need to channel a familiar voice, the first step is to be aware of the voice they have.
“We start with voice lessons so they understand their own voice,” says Vetro. “Then we begin with the realm of another voice. It could be the pronunciation, where they breathe, or the accent. We began to vocalize in character. I asked Renee, 'What would Judy think of this exercise?'”
The goal is to capture the essence of the person, he says. “You don't want it to be an impersonation.”
Vetro says he only turned down one client: a well-known model who had been offered a role on Broadway. “He was very handsome, charming. And then he opened his mouth. I said, 'If this were a movie, maybe, but you singing on Broadway will never happen.' His girlfriend called me later to thank me.”
However, thanks to a recently published BBC Maestro series, “normal people” can receive the Vetro treatment. He's filming it on this particular summer day, when his house is filled not only with two pianos and several keyboards, but also with lights, cameras and sound equipment.
For about 30 minutes, he works with lifelong students, singer-songwriter Heidi Webster and singer-actor David Burnham. Burnham, who played Fiyero from “Wicked” on Broadway, began working with Vetro after he was cast in a show at a Universal Studios theme park. “Eric realigned my voice,” he says. “I have recordings of him giving lessons that I use before every Broadway show.”
Vetro with students Heidi Webster and David Burnham.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
“Lessons” include singing scales with your hands in the air, dropping on the high note, or leaning forward and being lifted by the ascension of notes.
“We're like athletes,” Burnham says. “Runners don't run without warming up.”
There are also many breathing exercises: the famous jaw-dropping “hee hee hee”, shaking your face, waving your arms and humming through a straw, sometimes into a glass of water.
“It's amazing what you can do with a straw,” says Jonathan Bailey via email. “I thought we took it up two notches when instead of using a cup of water we used champagne flutes, which I thought was the height of sophistication. “He always had a mischievous glint in his eye and we laughed and laughed and laughed.”
In preparation for “Wicked,” Bailey began working with Vetro, often via Zoom, while still filming “Fellow Travelers.”
“A real challenge for me was that I was filming in Canada and London and going back and forth. With 'Travel Companions', I worked 21-hour days in which I had to scream or, sometimes, smoke,” he says. “[Eric] He sees you at all different times of the day and at all different levels of excitability. It's amazing, you start in your home with him and you build such a kinship and friendship that he becomes a kind of spiritual guru.”
Vetro's love for his clients and his craft is palpable. The walls of his studio are papered with photographs of his students (and their various awards), and the affection with which he speaks about them seems limitless and completely sincere; radiates positive energy. You need it: Being the entertainment industry's go-to vocal coach is not a 9 to 5 job. Vetro works virtually 24 hours a day and often consults across multiple time zones. After filming the BBC article and doing this interview, he will work with a student in Australia at 5 and another in London at 11.
His friends tell him he needs to take a vacation once in a while, he says, but he has no interest. There is always, as they say, another inauguration, another show.
“I love it so much,” he says. “It doesn't feel like work. “I’d rather do this than anything else.”
