Boy soprano Michael Kepler Meo coming to L.A. Opera

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Michael Kepler Meo may be living the life. He’s only 12, but the young opera singer has traveled across the county -- and beyond -- to perform. While most kids his age are plopped in desks or wandering the halls of a middle school, he’s in rehearsal. He’s immersing himself in a character, singing his lines in a soprano voice, practicing for his big performance. (He appears next weekend in L.A. Opera’s ‘The Turn of the Screw.’)

It can seem glamorous, maybe. It also requires a lot of hard work. His voice is what muscles are to a bodybuilder, Michael said. He begins his day with a warm drink at breakfast to help warm up his vocal cords. He has three hours of rehearsals each day. Then it’s on to his studies with his mother. (In his spare time, he said, he likes to read -- he’s really into fantasy.)

His career has taken him from his hometown of Portland, Ore., to Houston, St. Louis and elsewhere. He has learned along the way that making friends and keeping in touch with them is a must. “It’s really good to make friends; it has really paid off,” Michael said.

So, how do these friendships happen?

“You live your normal life and wait until someone nice, or someone your age, comes along -- and you become friends with them,” he said -- simple as that!

His work is an ambitious extension of his antics as an attention-seeking youngster. It’s “just on a greater scale,” he said, “from the living room to the stage.” For more on the boy soprano, click here.

-- Rick Rojas