WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) - The timing couldn’t have been better for Jason Berger to become a viral sensation.
It was two weeks ago when the operatic tenor (and part-time barista) was filmed by a customer singing in a downtown Wilmington Starbucks - a video that has garnered 52,000 views on Facebook alone and spawned an avalanche of media coverage.
But what all those viewers didn’t know was that the day of the filming was actually Berger’s last day working at the coffee shop as he changes his focus toward his true love: opera.
“I went out on a high note, if you will,” cracks Berger, 28, of Wilmington.
FROM STARBUCKS TO OPERADELAWARE
The classically-trained singer had already been accepted into OperaDelaware’sYoung Artist Program, which was first launched last year.
And as part of the two-month training session, he will immerse himself in opera with seven other rising artists for professional coaching, master classes and even a few performances, including a few shows open to the public later this month.
“I just hope the audience isn’t disappointed because I’m not getting them coffee,” Berger says, “but these shows are going to be very exciting.”
If you were tickled by seeing Berger sing Eduardo di Capua’s “’O Sole Mio” via the viral video on your cell phone, you might want to buy a ticket to hear his incredible soaring voice in person.
The Young Artist Program, which is actually filled with highly trained post-master’s degree singers, will perform as part of “Young Artists: Make a Scene” at the Black Box Theater at OperaDelaware Studios (4 S. Poplar St., Wilmington) on Friday, March 20 and Saturday, March 21.
THE MOMENT HE WENT VIRAL
The viral moment came when Kaylan Wetzel took out her phone and started recording when her husband Gianluca Spinola, originally from Italy, was being serenaded by Berger.
The pair had been in the shop before and when Berger first heard Spinola’s Italian accent, Berger began speaking in Italian and told him he was an opera singer. That was the first time he sang for them.
Wetzel, who studied musical theater and recently performed in “Cabaret” at The Candlelight Theatre in Arden, is still surprised about the reaction to the video.
“I think it took off because he’s unassuming. There are amazing artists who really work at their craft that you wouldn’t expect to be working at Starbucks, but that’s pretty typical,” says Wetzel, of Wilmington. “There are people like that everywhere you go.”
Articles and stories about the video have appeared everywhere from The Baltimore Sun and Yahoo! News to NBC-10 WCAU-TV and NBC’s “Today.”
A HOMECOMING
Berger’s credentials extend far past his ability to make a vanilla latte or an iced white chocolate mocha.
Singing since the age of 5, he earned a bachelor’s degree in voice performance at Boston University and a master’s degree in voice performance at the University of Michigan. After that, he studied voice performance at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University and earned a graduate performance diploma.
That’s when he came back home to Wilmington in the fall of 2018 and applied for odd jobs to help pay the bills while looking for work in his field of study.
First was a job taking orders at Grotto Pizza on Pennsylvania Avenue in Wilmington - a job he still has. The second was as a barista at Starbucks, a job he left after he says his hours were reduced.
And to help keep his love affair with singing going, he joined the choir at Wilmington’s Westminster Presbyterian Church and is now a tenor soloist and section leader, performing during weekly services.
Berger has also performed as part of the chorus for a few OperaDelaware shows, including “Dead Man Walking” and “Trial By Jury,” which came prior to his selection for the Young Artist Program.
He echoes Wetzel’s words about artists doing whatever they can do to make ends meet. As they both know, the arts generally don’t pay very well and that’s on top of plenty of school debt for many.
In fact, when he moved back to Wilmington, he had to move in with his folks for a while before finally getting a place of his own that they help subsidize.
If that sounds like a tough move to make after all that schooling, you’d be right. After all, we’re talking about a guy who has performed as a soloist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
“To be honest, it felt kind of degrading to have to move back in with my parents,” he says. “I’m so thankful and privileged that my parents helped me do that, but you know, when you’re in your late 20s, you want to have the dignity of being able to support yourself.”
For her part, Berger’s mother Wendy was overjoyed after her son’s video became instantly popular. After years of supporting her son’s dream, it came at a perfect time.
“It’s overwhelming and very exciting. My heart is filled happiness because the only thing you want is for your kid to be able to follow their dream and succeed,” says Wendy Berger, who first saw the video on Delaware Online. “So if this can assist him in that journey in any way, it’s just the greatest thing imaginable.”
Berger’s entry into OperaDelaware’s Young Artist Program is a full circle moment for him because OperaDelaware is where he got his start as a 12-year-old.
That’s right. A wide-eyed pre-teen Berger was in the chorus of the Family Opera Theater production of “The Hobbit” in 2004.
“It was there where I got my first exposure to what operatic voices sound like,” says Berger, who fell in love with opera after seeing Puccini’s “La Bohème” while attending boarding school in Massachusetts. “I was mesmerized by the sound and would try to try to imitate the voices in the shower.”
‘IT’S NOT A GIMMICK’
Brendan Cooke, OperaDelaware general director, has been a bit of an unofficial adviser for Berger since he came back to town and was happy to see one of his incoming young artists make such an unconventional splash with the video.
In fact, Cooke isn’t sure a viral video would exist if that had been him. Highly-trained opera singers usually demur when asked to “sing something” out of the blue without a proper warm-up.
“He was a good sport and it was a good lesson for me. In this day and age, any time you have a mouthpiece, you have to take it,” Cooke says.
Luckily for Berger, he was in a good mood that day and Spinola had great energy, so Berger agreed to sing for them.
“I think it took off because of the novelty of it, but also because his talent is undeniable when he opens his mouth. It’s not a gimmick,” Cooke says. “I’m super-curious about how many people who saw him on Facebook will actually corner off a little piece of their life and actually hear what this guy does in his natural habitat.
“If we could get all the people who thinks it’s cool to see their barista singing like that to come and hear him in the right setting, I think people will be changed at a cellular level.”
While taking the singing request that morning was something he was happy to do, Berger sometimes feels more like Cooke.
“It’s like if I walked up to a painter and said, ’Paint me a masterful painting right now,’” Berger says. “We can do it, but we don’t feel like it does justice to our work.”
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The payoff this time was unbelievable and Berger still gets a jolt when he thinks about it: “It’s so exciting the prospect that maybe thousands of those people may have heard an operatic voice for the first time in their life.”
It’s especially delightful because he’s getting the attention for something that he loves - something that means more to him than just a vocation.
“I’m a student who grew up with learning disabilities. I’m also bisexual. And for me, the arts gave me a place where I could thrive,’ he says. “It gave me an avenue for success. I have no idea what in the world I would be doing now if I wasn’t singing. This really helped me grow into the person that I am.”
When Berger and his internet buzz takes the OperaDelaware stage later this month, chances are pretty strong that he’ll see the familiar faces of Wetzel and Spinola looking back at him.
They’re now tied in a unique way to the singer, who has reached out and thanked them.
“We’ll definitely go because I’m really happy for him,” says Wetzel, who works as a business coach. “I’m just so glad I filmed him because it’s getting him a lot of exposure - it literally became national news.”
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