Music has always been an integral part of Amy Bouchard’s life. The award-winning mezzo-soprano made a name for herself at national singing competitions before becoming a full-time performer and music teacher. She’s a regular presence in Bay Area musical theatre, playing everything from Cinderella’s Mother in “Into the Woods” (Berkeley Playhouse) to Mrs. Anderssen in “A Little Night Music” (Lamplighters). So, when the time came to tell her own story, it was inevitable that she would sing it.
Her new solo show, “Amadeus Never Gives Me the Blues,” which debuts at The Marsh on May 2, is Bouchard’s memoir of her relationship with her chosen craft. It follows an early-20s Amy just when she’s beginning to gain recognition for her singing. As she pursues a career as an opera diva, she falls in love with a man who wants her to settle down. She’s forced to decide whether it’s worth sacrificing her lifelong dream for a “traditional family” existence. In search of answers, she seeks the counsel of her grandmother, who gave up her career as a jazz singer to marry a Navy pilot during World War II.
When Bouchard began writing the show six years ago, she wasn’t sure of the future of the performing arts industry, let alone her own career. What began as a pandemic lockdown experiment – inspired by online classes with The Marsh’s solo instructor David Ford – grew into a jukebox musical that took on a life of its own. Incidentally, her current life began to evolve as she wrote new drafts of the play.
“I started writing ‘Amadeus’ in 2020, and I finished writing it in 2023,” says Bouchard, whose in-development version of the show won the “Best Up and Coming” award at The Marsh’s 2022 International Solo Festival. “In the way that the universe works, I met my husband in 2022, just as I was writing the final scene. A lot of life kept me busy between then and now: we got married the following year and had a baby daughter. So, the timing feels like it was meant to be.”
The songs performed run the gamut from opera to Broadway, and the Great American Songbook, with Bouchard’s longtime collaborator Daniel Lockert accompanying her on piano. The selections are hardly what one would find topping today’s charts, but Bouchard says her song list was chosen for emotional resonance. Selections from Mozart’s “Così fan tutte” are included because they make Amy “feel like [she’s] flying,” and the Gershwins’ “The Man I Love” is used as a form of narration.
Although Bouchard insists that she does love the contemporary music that her students listen to, she’s also aware of how the songs in the show may come off as old-fashioned. She’s amused by actor Timothée Chalamet’s controversial recent comments that “no one cares” about classical music and art forms.
“All I can say is that he is very young!” says Bouchard. “I remember thinking that it was cool to have strong, declarative opinions to try to distinguish myself when I was that age. I don’t think an art form will become irrelevant so long as it communicates something essential about being human and being alive. The classical arts tend to need a bit more exposure time for someone to understand the ‘language’ of the art, so I do worry that younger generations just won’t have the attention span to take the time.”
That’s not the only thing that concerns her about the future of the arts. As a Bay Area resident, Bouchard is no stranger to the ever-growing gap between those who want to make art and those who can actually afford to do so. Like her grandmother and herself, she’s seen talented artists make difficult life choices.
As she explains, “I do think San Francisco still has amazing artists, but without the support and with so many artists moving out of the city and the Bay Area for cost-of-living reasons, it’s definitely not as artist-friendly as it used to be. It affects artist morale, too.”
It’s why she’s grateful for the support her own family gave her in her chosen career. It’s a lesson she’s trying to pay forward to the next generation.
“My husband and my parents will be coming to as many performances as they can, and my husband plans to bring our 22-month-old daughter to one of the shows, to stand in the back with her for at least for a few minutes, so that she can see her Mama on stage!”
“Amadeus Never Gives Me the Blues” will play Saturdays, May 2 to May 23, at The Marsh, 1062 Valencia St, San Francisco. Tickets are $25 to $100.