This Friday, Soprano Ailyn Pérez will take her first bow on the Dallas Opera’s stage in the role of Zerlina opposite baritone Paulo Szot in Don Giovanni but it is by no means an introduction to the company. Her husband, tenor Stephen Costello, is making his fifth appearance on the Dallas stage next week as Lord Percy in Anna Bolena. Costello also appeared as Greenhorn in last season’s Moby-Dick debut opposite legendary tenor Ben Heppner. We spoke with Costello and Pérez about working with the Dallas Opera, their work on their current roles, and balancing the hectic schedule of international opera careers with a marriage.

FrontRow: Stephen, this will be your fifth Dallas Opera appearance. How has this long term relationship with this company come about?

Stephen Costello: Everyone kept telling me you need to sing for Jonathan Pell. I made my professional debut in Fort Worth in Boheme, and Jonathan came over to see that, and he hired me the next week for a production of The Merry Widow, which was actually my second production here in Dallas. I got a call the year before I was going to debut in Dallas from Jonathan asking if I knew Leicester in Maria Stuarda, and I said ‘no,’ and he said, ‘would you be willing to learn it.’ I said, ‘yeah, when do I have start,’ and he said, ‘in a week.’ And I said great, give me a week and I’ll learn the music. So I learned the music and my debut in Dallas a year early in Maria Stuarda. When I was here doing Maria Stuarda they hired me to do Roberto Devereux at the same, which was a year after The Merry Widow. So that was three productions, and then my fourth production was Moby-Dick. When they were casting it, Jonathan was talking to Jake [Heggie, Moby-Dick composer], “So do you have anybody in mind for the part of Ishmael. And Jake said, “Yeah, I was at the Met and I just heard this tenor Stephen Costello, do you know him.” And Jonathan said, “Yeah, I do know him.”

FR: Ailyn, was it intentionally that your Dallas debut is coming just when your husband is performing in an overlapping production?

Ailyn Pérez: I think it was a brilliant plan.

SC: I think the only reason she kept the engagement is because we are married.

AP: [laughs]: Obviously, you want to make a debut. I think the way it was proposed to me. Jonathan Pell, I had sung for him already about three different times, and for me it always felt like it was crash and burn. I tried hard, and I would burn longer.

SC: He’s an intimidating person that doesn’t hold back.

AP: So, I was like, if he is going to hire me, this is great news. And then, he said, and by the way it is role that the last time we did it we had a glamorous lyric soprano, so I hope you can think of it in that light. And then he said, ‘And another by the way, the period overlaps a little bit with Anna Bolena [in which Costello is performing], in case that might influence your decision.’ And I said, no, I’m really happy. So it worked out great. But I don’t think he particularly planned it just because of the overlap with us. I have been in Dallas, like with Moby-Dick, meeting Jonathan and meeting Graeme [Jenkins, the Dallas Opera’s musical director], and we have had great discussions about music, so now to put that in practice is really great.

FR: And you’ll be staring next to one of the hottest baritones right now, Paulo Szot. How is it working with him?

AP: I worked with him in Boston at the time he was auditioning for South Pacific, and he got the good news then. So that was three years ago, and yeah he’s still as warm and unaffected by all this great success. You leave colleagues and sometimes you meet them three years later again and you pick up where you left off. And then celebrate all those great things that have happened in our life, sometimes in matter of months.

FR: Stephen, last season you had the opportunity to work with a legendary singer, Ben Heppner. What was that experience like?

SC: Ben Heppner is an awesome guy. He is somebody I grew up knowing as a famous tenor singing all over the world. He came a week late because he had a prior engagement, so we were all like ‘What is Ben Heppner going to be like when he shows up.” We were all kind of intimidated by him, and when he showed up the first day we were all sitting there afraid of talking to Ben Heppner. We’re sitting there all quiet and all of a sudden we hear [hums tune to “Bad to the Bone”], and it’s his ringtone – a “Band to the Bone” ringtone. It turns out he is this big motorcycle guy, so the whole time we’re picturing him with this bandana on, riding with two peg legs on this motorcycle.

FR: Is the experience different coming back here and working on a role that is part of the repertoire and not a brand new character, like Greenhorn in Moby-Dick?

SC: I’ve never done this role before, so it is a new role for me. And the rehearsal time is a little shorter so there is a little more stress there. However, it is a style of music that I have done so it is easier to come together faster than say Moby-Dick was because everything was brand new. And it is a piece that some people know, so there is that stress factor there, that other people have done it.

FR: What about interpreting Zerlina, Ailyn, do you look to other performers’ interpretation of the role?

AP: It is not really a big page turn, but it feels like one. I’ve been a soprano fan, I mean, that’s how I got involved in opera. Obviously I was inspired by great artists, and there is so much influence. And now there is this whole new perspective that I have as far as going into the theater and creating the role. Yes, I look to other artists, but it is actually something he [Costello] said at the [Dallas Opeara’s] Insights [lecture]. He said what he liked about opera is that its you, it’s so personal, it’s your own instrument and you can’t be anybody else. I’m kind of now at a stage where I’ve been very influenced by other artists, but now it is like, wait a second, it’s my game now. It’s probably one of the first times I’ve felt that way, which is why I say it feels like a page turner, but it hasn’t turned yet.

FR: Opera careers are very time intensive and they take you all over the world. What is it like being married in such a career?

SC: It was hard when we first got married. We didn’t have any time off so we ended up being married five days after we came from Salzburg and two days before I had to leave for Berlin. It was a nightmare. It is getting easier to balance our schedule. There are long periods of time when we are gone, but there are times now where we are working together, like here, and we’ll be doing Faust in San Diego together, so we’ll be spending time there. And we’re doing Romeo and Juliette together in Philadelphia. But the times that we are not together, they seem to go really fast because you are so busy. You are in rehearsal everyday and you get one day off a week, and once that is over you are on to your next job, which means you usually stop home first or stop where ever the other person is. It works, but you just have to make it work.

AP: We’re also really fortunate to have our families and their style of who they are matches up really well with us. I know I can be in Philadelphia and be with the Costello’s, and he can be in Chattanooga and be with my family. It is challenging, we are really fortunate because we are cast-able together. And some of the time we have off I can see his big successes.

FR: Does it affect how you think about what roles you choose?

AP: At first, I did. Because I kept thinking, well maybe if I learned this one, we could sing together. And then you realize sometimes it is going to match up, but sometimes not.

SC: You don’t want people to think if you hire one you have to hire the other.

AP: It’s not a pressure thing, like, I won’t accept this role unless. . . That’s crazy. That’s how to get fired.

Photo: Ailyn Pérez, left, with Paulo Szot in the Dallas Opera’s production of Don Giovanni (Credit Karen Almond for the Dallas Opera)