KARL AND GREET HOSTETLER
FROM A COUPLE OF GOLDEN TICKETS IN THE UPPER BALCONY TO
SPONSORSHIP OF A NEW OPERA
Greet and Karl Hostetler’s love for vocal music has led them to support San Diego Opera’s new co-commission, El último sueño de Frida y Diego. Greet and Karl met in the Netherlands while singing in a choir 50 years ago. At that time, they never imagined they would still be singing and supporting opera together decades later.
Born in the Netherlands, Greet was an elementary school teacher who did choral singing in teachers college. Karl was born in Indiana and attended medical school in Cleveland. He briefly studied voice at the Cleveland Institute of Music, auditioned for the Cleveland Orchestra chorus and got in! He sang under Robert Shaw, Pierre Boulez, and Margaret Hillis, to mention a few.
Karl works at UCSD in antiviral drug discovery and was the founder or cofounder of four biotech companies. His parents were singers, and his brother is a blues singer and composer. While in the Netherlands for postdoctoral research, Karl wanted to continue singing and was admitted by the director of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw choir. Greet and Karl met at the Concertgebouw rehearsals and the spark and magic that led to a longtime marriage and mutual love for vocal music began! During their Concertgebouw years, the chorus recorded Mahler’s 8th Symphony with Deutsche Gramophone under Sir Colin Davis. They also sang J.S. Bach’s St Matthew Passion traditionally sung during Eastertime in the Netherlands.
After moving to California, they joined the Rancho Santa Fe Village Church choir and sang works such as the Fauré Requiem and Vivaldi’s Gloria. In 1980, someone offered Greet a pair of tickets for La Bohème. Surprised that Greet had accepted the invitation, Karl asked her if she liked opera. They laugh as they recall that Greet answered, “Yes, of course.” Karl replied, “I like opera too!” When they attended La Bohème, Pavarotti was singing the role of Rodolfo! They sat way back in the upper balcony. “Those were a couple of Golden tickets!” Karl recalls.
From that moment on, they became San Diego Opera subscribers, their seats gradually moving down like a descending scale, step by step until they sat in the first row. While Karl and Greet like the Verdi and Puccini opera classics, they are supporting El último sueño de Frida y Diego because they feel that commissioning a new work based on the lives of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera is a fantastic opportunity, supports important young composers and fosters new audience development. Seeing new operas and encouraging new works gives them hope for advancing the artform for future generations to enjoy.