Instructor Profile - Bob Chapman
Bob Chapman
Bob Chapman - by Barbara McLean. March 2018
We are delighted to feature a charming, interesting, accomplished OLLI instructor, Bob Chapman, a teacher and performer whose life has led him down many professional paths. An operatic bass-baritone, Bob has since 2009 taught OLLI classes about opera at both Duke and NC State. He’s also the host of radio station WCPE’S Opera House program on Thursday nights (89.7 FM). With an extensive background in opera performance, music librarianship, and European languages, Bob draws upon 40 years’ experience as an opera singer, 10 years as a classical music librarian, and 7 years living in Europe— where he honed his skills in several languages.
In his OLLI opera classes, Bob provides an essay that includes background and a synopsis of the week’s opera, most of which is shown in class on DVD. “I introduce each major character and event. It’s a challenge to squeeze 90 minutes out of a three-hour opera, but we manage,” he explains. Bob brags about the commitment and careful attention he finds in OLLI students, who “come to class because they really want to learn.”
Bob and wife Mary Lovelock (known to family and friends as the Chaplocks) live in an 1888 bungalow in Raleigh’s Historic Oakwood neighborhood with their beloved Miss Molly, a 9-year-old Labrador retriever. They moved to The Triangle in 2005 from Connecticut, where Bob had been a Hartford Whalers season ticket-holder!
The Chaplocks are avid Vintage Dancers, a genre coined to describe the social dances from the mid-Victorian through the Ragtime eras (1860- 1920). Wearing authentic reproduction attire, they focus on fun and friendship rather the competition usually found in ballroom dancing. In Europe they’ve danced at balls in Paris, Prague and Vienna, and—closer to home—in the mansions of Newport, on board the RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, and in Cincinnati.
Growing up in Vero Beach, Florida, and raised on Country & Western and Rock ‘n’ Roll music, Bob had never seen an opera or even heard one until he went to Indian River Junior College in nearby Ft. Pierce. There, just by happenstance, Professor Laura Whipple heard Bob singing folk songs at a hootenanny. Recognizing his talent, she helped him find a voice teacher. Later, Professor Whipple took a group of students to the Bach Festival at Rollins College to hear the St. Matthew Passion.
It was a life-changing event for Bob, who was stunned by the beauty and power of Metropolitan Opera bass Ara Berberian, who sang the role of Christ. “There were no microphones. Just this beautiful dark, velvety voice filling the Chapel. This was so wonderfully, magnificently different…and I said to myself, ‘I would like to be able to do that someday.’” And so he did! In addition to opera, Bob has also performed in musicals and operettas, art songs, sacred music, and chamber music.
In 1966, Bob dropped out of college to begin a three-year hitch in the U.S. Army, serving in France and Germany. Following discharge in 1969, he spent the next five years as a civilian in Frankfurt. “Those years were really the beginning of my life,” he told me. “I began to became the person I wanted to be.”
Bob continued to perfect his German, studied voice, and performed with the Frankfurt Opera. He also worked as a reporter and copy editor for The Overseas Weekly newspaper, taught English as a second language, and was a translator for a company doing business in Asia.
Returning to the USA in 1974, Bob settled on Hartford, Connecticut, as home, where he found work as a technical writer in the Information Technology department of a major insurance company, while continuing to sing with regional opera companies.
It was in Hartford that Bob finally completed his interrupted college education. At age 46 he belatedly earned a B.A. in History (1991) at Trinity College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Bob went on to earn an M.S. in Library Science (2003) at Boston’s Simmons College and an M.A. in American Studies (2005) at Trinity.
“Hartford is also where I met my wife, who was signed up with me to make coffee one Sunday at the Unitarian Meeting House.” Married 37 years, Bob and Mary are enthusiastic participants in the Raleigh community. Bob’s love of research keeps him involved and interested in a variety of subjects.
OLLI students who love opera as well as those who have never been exposed to it, but hear of Bob’s interesting, creative approach to teaching, flock to his classes. OLLI is so fortunate to be able to boast that this energetic, enthusiastic, delightful teacher is one of our own.
We are delighted to feature a charming, interesting, accomplished OLLI instructor, Bob Chapman, a teacher and performer whose life has led him down many professional paths. An operatic bass-baritone, Bob has since 2009 taught OLLI classes about opera at both Duke and NC State. He’s also the host of radio station WCPE’S Opera House program on Thursday nights (89.7 FM). With an extensive background in opera performance, music librarianship, and European languages, Bob draws upon 40 years’ experience as an opera singer, 10 years as a classical music librarian, and 7 years living in Europe— where he honed his skills in several languages.
In his OLLI opera classes, Bob provides an essay that includes background and a synopsis of the week’s opera, most of which is shown in class on DVD. “I introduce each major character and event. It’s a challenge to squeeze 90 minutes out of a three-hour opera, but we manage,” he explains. Bob brags about the commitment and careful attention he finds in OLLI students, who “come to class because they really want to learn.”
Bob and wife Mary Lovelock (known to family and friends as the Chaplocks) live in an 1888 bungalow in Raleigh’s Historic Oakwood neighborhood with their beloved Miss Molly, a 9-year-old Labrador retriever. They moved to The Triangle in 2005 from Connecticut, where Bob had been a Hartford Whalers season ticket-holder!
The Chaplocks are avid Vintage Dancers, a genre coined to describe the social dances from the mid-Victorian through the Ragtime eras (1860- 1920). Wearing authentic reproduction attire, they focus on fun and friendship rather the competition usually found in ballroom dancing. In Europe they’ve danced at balls in Paris, Prague and Vienna, and—closer to home—in the mansions of Newport, on board the RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, and in Cincinnati.
Growing up in Vero Beach, Florida, and raised on Country & Western and Rock ‘n’ Roll music, Bob had never seen an opera or even heard one until he went to Indian River Junior College in nearby Ft. Pierce. There, just by happenstance, Professor Laura Whipple heard Bob singing folk songs at a hootenanny. Recognizing his talent, she helped him find a voice teacher. Later, Professor Whipple took a group of students to the Bach Festival at Rollins College to hear the St. Matthew Passion.
It was a life-changing event for Bob, who was stunned by the beauty and power of Metropolitan Opera bass Ara Berberian, who sang the role of Christ. “There were no microphones. Just this beautiful dark, velvety voice filling the Chapel. This was so wonderfully, magnificently different…and I said to myself, ‘I would like to be able to do that someday.’” And so he did! In addition to opera, Bob has also performed in musicals and operettas, art songs, sacred music, and chamber music.
In 1966, Bob dropped out of college to begin a three-year hitch in the U.S. Army, serving in France and Germany. Following discharge in 1969, he spent the next five years as a civilian in Frankfurt. “Those years were really the beginning of my life,” he told me. “I began to became the person I wanted to be.”
Bob continued to perfect his German, studied voice, and performed with the Frankfurt Opera. He also worked as a reporter and copy editor for The Overseas Weekly newspaper, taught English as a second language, and was a translator for a company doing business in Asia.
Returning to the USA in 1974, Bob settled on Hartford, Connecticut, as home, where he found work as a technical writer in the Information Technology department of a major insurance company, while continuing to sing with regional opera companies.
It was in Hartford that Bob finally completed his interrupted college education. At age 46 he belatedly earned a B.A. in History (1991) at Trinity College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Bob went on to earn an M.S. in Library Science (2003) at Boston’s Simmons College and an M.A. in American Studies (2005) at Trinity.
“Hartford is also where I met my wife, who was signed up with me to make coffee one Sunday at the Unitarian Meeting House.” Married 37 years, Bob and Mary are enthusiastic participants in the Raleigh community. Bob’s love of research keeps him involved and interested in a variety of subjects.
OLLI students who love opera as well as those who have never been exposed to it, but hear of Bob’s interesting, creative approach to teaching, flock to his classes. OLLI is so fortunate to be able to boast that this energetic, enthusiastic, delightful teacher is one of our own.
Editor's Note : If you would like to show appreciation to the profiled instructor, you can email to instructor-profile@olliatduke.org