Interview with the Diva

On the occasion of the run of "Orlando Furioso" at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées the Diva received our foreign correspondent at her beautiful Parisian home and granted the Blog an exclusive interview.


Question:You are celebrating your 25th anniversary on stage this year. In what way have things changed in the opera world since the beginning of your career?

Answer:Its been changing gradually and when that happens one doesn’t notice as much. One thing that has been noticeable however is that while the music itself used to be the most important it is now how young and good looking you are that seems to be of utmost importance. This has happened because agents have decided to put young singers in the position of “Stars” even before they’ve had a chance to prove themselves or pay their “dues”. This isn’t fair to those young people because you can’t just skip the steps it takes to learn your craft, get experience and feel more and more comfortable in your skin onstage. Making money on these singers is the goal and not helping to create a real artist. This will ultimately be detrimental to all involved as the young singer may burn out emotionally, vocally or even come to believe all the hype and never even try to reach their potential and then the career is shortened. Everyone loses in the end.

Q.:In what way , according to you, is opera as an art form still relevant in the 21st century?

A.:Opera will always be relevant because there will always be those people who love it and want it. It speaks to the heart like nothing else can. True, the majority doesn’t understand or even want to, but for the ones who do, it’s eternal.

Q.:You are currently singing Alcina in Vivaldi’s Orlando Furioso in Paris and on tour in several European cities, a role you have sung many times in concert performances and on a memorable recording with J.-C. Spinosi. It occurred to me during the performance that Alcina who manipulates men and toys with them, like Circe who turns Ulysses’ companions into pigs, begins to lose her grip on things the moment she seriously falls in love, i.e. becomes “human”. How do you see the role of the sorceress in this piece?

A.: Alcina is on a journey that ultimately and surprisingly destroys her. She begins the opera seeing Love as a game. But when she falls in love for real, then she becomes its unrequited victim. She isn’t immune to the power of love or human emotion like she thought she was. It really surprises her in the end and she can’t accept her human like failings.

Q.:You have travelled a long way from the Rosinas and Angelinas of your earlier days to “grown up”-roles like Fricka in “Das Rheingold”, Countess Geschwitz in “Lulu” and upcoming Kostelnicka in “Jenufa” as well as Lady Macbeth! How do you make the transition?

A.:I sing whatever I sing with the voice that I have. There has been a vocal evolution through the years to be sure. My voice has taken on different colors and depths as well as personality, and if it isn’t exactly what it was as a young singer, that’s OK. It’s different and in some ways even better! The roles I have chosen to do through the years exemplify my voice as it is at that given moment. These roles also allow me to enjoy a depth of dramatic feeling and acting that maybe I just wasn’t capable of when I was younger. The transition itself has been rather effortless because I don’t pretend to sing any of these new roles as someone else might sing them but only as I am capable of singing them.

Q.:In recent years you seem to have become a favourite of German director Christof Loy’s. How did this “special relationship” come about and how would you describe working with him?

A.:I first met Christof Loy at my Paris apartment to talk over the role of “Geschwitz” in Berg’s LULU for his new production at Covent Garden. I immediately fell in love with his way of thinking, his joy for the project and ultimately his way of working. The feeling was mutual and after a wonderful MERRY WIDOW in Geneva, we are doing “Macbeth” together at Geneva again and Jenufa at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Q.:You teach masterclasses. How do you see your role, your responsibilty as teacher? In what way do you think young singers can learn from your experience, your career?

A.:Master classes are a passion of mine because I can see such an instant improvement in the well being and therefore the voice of the singer in just that 30 minute session! I don’t presume to teach technically in that amount of time, but I do believe its possible to zero in on the most important thing that could help that specific singer psychologically to open up their body and voice; I seem to be rather good at it so it’s encouraging for the future! I have 25 years of experience to give weight behind the things I say and I feel it’s a real duty to tell others what I’ve been through. That’s why the Q & A sessions at the end are so important.

Q.:Now for some more unpleasant aspects of the opera world; keywords: favouritism, sexism, ageism … Your experiences with any of these.

A.:Of course there is always a bit of all of this happening in the entertainment world, but to tell you he honest truth, I haven’t had terrible experiences that I can remember. The voice is a special animal! People do have their favorites and its not all just about the sound. It has to do with the total package and so I completely understand if I’m passed over for another Mezzo because I just wasn’t what they were looking for! It’s normal. There also comes a time in everyone’s career where you aren’t the new young thing anymore and there’s a new “flavor of the month”. If you’ve sung for 25 years, no matter how good you are, you are “old news” and you shouldn’t even try to compete with the “New”. Let them have their time and enjoy the time you’re in now!

Q.:What do you love most about your life and career right now?

A.:The changes and excitement that come with learning new, dramatic roles into which I can “sink my teeth”! The chance to work with interesting, insightful people, the fact of living in Europe. My family and friends and loved ones make it all worth it!

Q.:How do you deal with the moments when there is just “too much music to learn?”

A.:I get crazy and then just DO it! The only way to make yourself feel better is to do the work.

Q.:You have recently taken up residence in Paris. Do you have a special affinity to this city, to France?

A.:I began my career in France and it was the first country to open wide its arms and welcome me in as a young, unknown singer. I have always loved France and still do!

Q.:Are singers constantly concerned about their voice? Scarves wrapped around the throat, hats, cough drops?

A.: I’m not neurotic about it and made a decision early on not to let it rule me, but a singer must be smart and take care of oneself! You can’t do what normal people do because the instrument is inside the body, so it becomes a way of life to protect yourself.

Q.: Do you follow any rituals before the performance?

A.: Not a one. I’m not superstitious at all!

Les Liaisons Dangereuses or Alcina's Enchanted Island

Ludovico Ariosto’s epic poem "Orlando Furioso" is one of world literature’s most influential works, having inspired artists and writers through the centuries down to 20th century comics, sci-fi movies and post-modern pulp fiction. The fantastic plot with ogres, dragons, sea monsters, valiant knights, damsels in distress, a flying island and a trip to the moon proved a goldmine for opera composers, too. Handel alone based three of his operas on it. Vivaldi was up til recently known as a composer of, as Stravinsky maliciously put it, 300 times the same concerto...But it was only a question of time until the operas of this prolific musician would be excavated from the archives where they had gathered dust for 3 centuries. Jean-Christophe Spinosi is one of the protagonists of the Vivaldi revival, and ever since he recorded “Orlando Furioso” to worldwide critical acclaim there had been talk of staging it. The Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris assembled the protagonists of this memorable recording this past march in a very elegant if sombre production by Pierre Audi. The Baroque theatre loved to put on lavish spectacles with a lot of machinery. Nowadays mechanical tricks have given way to psychological insight. So the setting was not an enchanted island but rather the somewhat morbid atmosphere of an austere Venetian palace where the wandering lovers are kept in a kind of claustrophobic “huis clos” under the control of Alcina. The magician of undetermined age – she could be several centuries old like Emilia Marty in “The Makropoulos Case” – is entangled in several dangerous liaisons with men whom she keeps in thrall with magic potions and manipulates according to her own wiles. The dramaturgy of the opera creaks a bit in the hinges like rusty stage machinery, as Vivaldi unlike Handel who wisely split up the convoluted plot into two operas (“Orlando” & “Alcina”) mixes the Alcina & Ruggiero story with the errant Orlando’s quest for his lost love Angelica who in turn is in pursuit of her own lover Medoro… Whenever things come to a seemingly unsolvable head enter Orlando raving and ranting. Marie-Nicole Lemieux in the title-role stormed and raged frighteningly, with never a note of the fierce coloratura awry! - upsetting the carefully arranged furniture in Alcina’s palazzo for which misdemeanour the lady of the house locked him up in a dark room! This nuisance removed for the time being Alcina can turn her full attention to her newest acquisition, the charming young knight Ruggiero, betrothed to Bradamante (who follows him disguised in men’s clothing) whom he callously forgets as soon as he sets eyes on the enchantress. Philippe Jaroussky as Ruggiero was the ideal personification of (male) innocence in danger, singing his transcendentally beautiful aria “Sol da te, mio dolce amore” with angelic voice, enchanting the enchantress and the audience alike. Alcina turns from temptress into helpless victim of an overpowering passion, and from this moment , when she shows real emotion, she starts losing control and her magic edifice begins to show cracks. Jennifer Larmore gave a first class impersonation of the sorceress, running the gamut from triumphant ruler over her magic empire with her fierce entrance aria “Alza in quegl’occhi”, via woman in love, “Amorose da rai del sole”, to growing fear and despair over losing her love and power at the same time in a poignant rendering of “Così potessi anch’io”. In the third act when all the characters are locked up in a kind of Hogarthian Bedlam she regaled us with a madscene that was worthy of Phèdre, simmering with quiet rage and despair, a real Racinian tragédienne! It was only consistent with a rather pessimistic reading of this piece that the director here changed the conventional happy ending of opera seria and has Alcina swallow poison. Orlando, in a strait jacket, remains locked in his own madness, and the others are left “smothered in surmise”, the knowledge dawning on them that nothing can be as it was before they got into this haunted palace; there is no returning to square one…With such a formidable performance in the central (if not the title) role it was difficult for the remaining singers to make much of an impact. This is again partly the fault of the composer/librettist who gave the roles of the comprimarii hardly any scope to develop full-bodied characterizations. Veronica Cangemi was a clear-voiced, touching Angelica; Romina Basso embodied her lover Medoro, sweet of voice and demeanour, and Kristina Hammarström an energetic and muscular Bradamante, Ruggiero’s betrothed,( who incidentally appeared more masculine than her rather girlish beloved). Christian Senn stood out as the only “proper” male voice in the whole ensemble, with a warm baritone ,making the best of the rather ungrateful role of Astolfo, Alcina’s discarded lover and helpmate in her intrigues.

Ensemble Matheus’ performance in the pit was dynamic and animated, you sensed the musicians’ familiarity with the score as they breathed fresh life into every note. “Historically informed performance” has come a long way since the first tentative experiments in the 1960s and 70s by the “pioneers”. Nowadays you have period bands that can produce as plush a sound as any traditional orchestra without losing any of the precision and transparency needed for baroque music. Spinosi's interpretation has lost some of its rough edges over the years, but none of its vigour and freshness.

So four hours (including two intervals) went by like nothing, and I shall never understand why people always mutter about the l e n g t h of Baroque operas but sit through 5, 6 hours of Wagner uncomplainingly!

Lady Valencienne's Fan

Not really caring for schmaltzy Viennese operetta I had originally had no intention of going to Geneva for Die Lustige Witwe/ The Merry Widow/La Veuve Joyeuse, especially as JL was not even singing the lead. But a short while ago I received a calling from above a faithful poodle could not ignore, so booked a ticket in the cheapest category, a flight (not so cheap on short notice) and a hotel room (probably cheap by Swiss standards) and set out in anticipation of a nice New Year’s Eve entertainment. I dimly remembered having been there before, 15 years ago, “L’Italiana in Algeri” at the Grand Théâtre, a party at a lakeside villa and a pair of black trousers being lost in transit (a subject of chaff among my friends ever since…this time I “played safe” and wore a skirt…)
The Merry Widow I had so far known only in the shape of the old Lubitsch movie starring Jeannette MacDonald and Maurice Chevalier. Of the Loy production it can be said that it was sober and decidedly un- schmaltzy – for which I was grateful. The setting was (apparently) a hotel-lobby, thirties-style, modelled on the entrance hall of the Palais des Nations. My fellow-Berliner Annette Dasch was in keeping with this anti-glamour interpretation in being a rather square and homespun Hanna Glawari. But who says that this role must be played like a “diva”?! The Vilja-Lied was rendered simply and touchingly, avoiding the pitfalls of kitsch of this “Wunschkonzert” number . Why the poor woman had to sing this clad only in bra and slip however was a twist of the Regisseur I could not quite follow. I shivered in her place although it was pretty warm in my seat in the gods. Johannes Martin Kraenzle was a dashing Danilo, his warm baritone belying his assumed rakish attitude. I was touched to see the great José van Dam again in the role of Baron Zeta after so many years whom I had admired in many performances at the Deutsche Oper in the 1970s.
Glitz and glam which this piece can after all not do without was added by JL in the role of Valencienne, wife to Baron Zeta, in this Genevan (i.e. cosmopolitan) version “an American from NYC with artistic ambition”. She got the most gorgeous dresses (and dessous!) and her rendition of Foolish Heart from Weill’s One Touch of Venus was a real show-stopper. Her admirer Camille de Rossillon was the young Swiss tenor Bernard Richter, fresh of looks and voice, whom she follows into the chambre séparée (all the while protesting that she is “a respectable wife!”, but only a woman of super-human virtue would resist such an ardently sung invitation!), and the almost Puccini-esque duet “Komm in den kleinen Pavillon” was another highlight of the evening. The whole intrigue here revolves around a lost fan, but whereas a lost handkerchief in “Othello” triggers a tragedy, a fan can pass through many hands and return to its owner without any harm being done. Still one should not trifle with these seemingly insignificant utensils. A fan might get lost irretrievably (like a pair of trousers) with dire consequences. But I digress…After all an operetta must have a happy ending: Valencienne remains an exemplar wife –transgressing only in doing a cancan in dessous –, Hanna gets her Danilo, safely depositing her millions in a Swiss bank, and they all live happily ever after to the tune of “Lippen schweigen, ‘s flüstern Geigen…”
I saw older members of the audience swaying (“schunkeln”) to the popular tunes remembered from their youth (and probably humming along inwardly). One elderly lady said starry-eyed (in German): “Das war ja ein richtiges Wunschkonzert!”
And, yes, I, too, got my money’s worth – although you are really being ripped off in that country: 16 chf for the programme, 2 chf for the coatcheck – and you could also book a posh New Year’s Eve dinner at 185 chf p.p. “Caviar to the general!” I say with Hamlet. Give me a decent Swiss fondue and I am with you! So the faithful poodle returned to the hotel without having got so much as a dog biscuit or a bone to gnaw upon and went to bed hungry. I think I now know why I’ve always preferred cats – they are independent, individualistic, wayward, unpredictable - and they never obey orders!