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Interviews
Plácido Domingo: The Interview
The release of his new CD of Verdi baritone arias (also reviewed in this issue) is just the first installment in Domingo’s latest project, namely the recording of major baritone arias from each of Verdi’s 26 operas. In a sense, this will compliment his 2001 set of all of Verdi’s major tenor arias. On this initial release, which he describes as the “heart” of the project, he has included selections from some of the composer’s most popular works: Simon Boccanegra, Il Trovatore, La Traviata, Un Ballo in Maschera, Don Carlo, and La Forza del Destino. Some of these roles he’s already sung onstage, while his first Conte di Luna is coming up this November and December at the Berlin State Opera. He says he will likely add Count Anckarström/Renato and the Ernani Don Carlo to his roster of baritone roles in the future, though he’s not certain about Posa and the Forza Don Carlo. He mentions that he’s also received offers for Macbeth that he’s still considering. One of Verdi’s baritone roles that he says he will never perform is Iago (though he’ll still record the Credo as part of his newest project), pointing out that he sang Otello more than 225 times – an experience so intense that he’ll never attempt to portray the Moor’s great antagonist. He adds that Verdi is probably the composer who wrote equally well for the tenor and baritone voices (and basses, too), and recalls that while he was still singing the tenor repertoire, he often wished he could have sung some of the beautiful music Verdi wrote for the lower voice, as well. Stressing that he would never present himself now as a dramatic baritone, even though his voice has darkened, he says he simply tries to give everything he has to these new roles. He observes that there are few dramatic baritones actually singing Verdi’s music today, with this repertoire now dominated by the lighter, more lyrical voices. When asked by the interviewer about the apparent paucity of Verdi voices at the current time, Domingo says he has heard some young singers – through his Operalia competition as well as the Los Angeles and Washington National Operas’ Young Artist Programs and his Valencia Performance Center -- who show promise for this repertoire. In the past year, he’s heard three or four very good baritone voices, while one of the winners in the Operalia competition, Chinese soprano Guanqun Yu, has a “genuine Verdi color” in her voice, though she’s still very young.
When looking back to the beginning of his own career and comparing the state of opera then to its current condition, he says he sees the most significant change in the variety of works now being included in opera houses’ season schedules. In addition to the revival of the Baroque repertoire in recent decades, one also hears far more Slavic and Scandinavian operas today than 50 years ago. Another change he’s seen has been the expansion in the number of opera houses and festivals over the past half-century, which he views as both positive and yet somewhat detrimental. On one hand, the increase offers more performing opportunities to young singers, but it also means that some of these newcomers may be engaged by major houses before they’ve acquired the necessary capabilities for performing at this level. He also mentions the impact that computer technology has made on opera – again, not always beneficial. Through the presence of web sites and live streaming, singers’ mistakes are often more noticed than their successes. Perhaps not surprisingly, he notes as well the increased emphasis on dramatic credibility in performances, to include singers’ appearances. He says the new generation of singers pays more attention to physical fitness than his own generation, which Domingo describes as “a little lazy.” However, he observes that singers’ schedules, especially with the frequent travel, can make it more difficult to fit in workouts. He also stresses that there are some “exceptional” voices where it shouldn’t matter whether or not the individual is substantially overweight or otherwise doesn’t correspond to the prevailing visual conception of a character. “Voice is still the Number One in opera,” he asserts.
He attributes his own career longevity to several factors, among them the good fortune of having robust health. But he also took care to space his appearances so that he always had two or three days between performances, unlike some tenors who will have only one day between appearances or will even perform two days in succession. (He says he mentions only tenors, since this is the “most sensitive, unnatural” vocal category.) He also didn’t work with a repétiteur when he was studying a new role, but simply sat down at a piano and mentally went through the part by himself. In this manner, he spared his voice many hours over the course of the years, which may be a reason it has remained so fresh. When asked if he has any unfulfilled dreams, he is a little evasive, claiming that such dreams will remain unfulfilled if one talks about them. (I can’t tell if he’s actually serious about this, or only joking.) In any case, he says, one dream he definitely does not have is to someday sing the role of Wotan!
Yannick Nézet-Séguin: In Conversation
With the beginning of the 2013-14 season, the young Franco-Canadian conductor will become an Exclusive Artist with Dortmund’s Concert House. Earlier in his career, he appeared here with the Rotterdam and London Philharmonics, and says he appreciates the risk that Dortmund’s Intendant, Benedikt Stampe, took in 2008 in engaging him at a time when he was still relatively unknown. With his new three-year contract as an Exclusive Artist, he will not only have an opportunity to continue conducting a diverse selection of works ranging from operas to chamber music at a concert hall with very high artistic standards, but will also have a home base in Germany from which he will be able to travel to appearances in Berlin, Munich, Dresden, and Cologne. Included in Dortmund’s “Yannick Experience,” as the house’s YouTube advertising video terms it, will be a concert performance of Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer this month with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin in the title role. The uproar over the singer’s tattoos that led to Nikitin’s withdrawal from this role at the 2012 Bayreuth Festival has not affected Maestro Nézet-Séguin’s plans to work with him. The conductor describes Nikitin as an “incredibly good singer” with “tremendous stage presence and charisma,” and says that he wants to separate the person from the artist. He notes that the contract with Nikitin was signed prior to the incident at Bayreuth, and says that, as far as their artistic collaboration is concerned, this incident has no particular influence on the performance at Dortmund or the preceding ones in Rotterdam and at the Théâter des Champs-Elysées.
Although the promotional video on Dortmund’s web site shows him fencing with the baton, Nézet-Séguin says there is nothing violent about music to him. While he believes that music is powerful and engaging, and for this reason, a conductor must also be powerful and engaging, there are different ways in which a conductor can employ that power. He notes that one may be tempted to say that, in the past, there were extremely powerful conductors such as Toscanini, Furtwängler, and von Karajan who were almost tyrannical in their approach, while today’s maestri are “friendlier.” However, he finds such a conception to be a little simplistic, saying that while a conductor must still be in control, there are different ways of exercising that control. There are still some today who rely on force and intimidation, but he prefers to use the power of persuasion, which he describes as “really almost the power of seduction.” When he rehearses with a new orchestra, he has a clear idea of what he wants to achieve and what he expects from the musicians. But he finds that listening to the orchestra is also an essential part of conducting. As he explains it, each orchestra has its own history and tradition, its own sound. So when he begins work with a new ensemble, he initially does little speaking and lets the musicians play. Then he will indicate a certain treatment of the music and listens to how the musicians react. Do they respond immediately, or does it take a little longer? Is the response very strong, but perhaps even a bit too soon? He says that, on one hand, he must lead the orchestra, but on the other hand, he must also listen and find out what these musicians offer so that he can use their particular talents to achieve the results he wants. With this approach, the same piece of music can sound quite different depending upon which orchestra he’s conducting. He finds this is completely in order, observing that it represents something of his own that he’s developed based on his reading of the motifs paired with the orchestra’s special colors. Asked about variations in performance styles among orchestras from different countries, Nézet-Séguin says he’s observed some general patterns (though he’s concerned that his remarks may sound rather prejudiced). Musicians’ individual styles are often more prominent in French orchestras, whereas American orchestras strive for a single, precise sound and approach. He views it as his responsibility on the podium to take these special differences in orchestras’ tonal colors into consideration and to channel them in an appropriate way.
He also discusses the differences between live and studio recordings of operas, but says he believes in both types. With their completely different origins and work processes, the two offer very different musical results. In the studio, precise attention can be given to the smallest details, though the continuity and unity of the music will always be most important, regardless of recording conditions. Operas in particular require a unified line, he says, and it’s the responsibility of the conductor to sustain that line. He notes that there are also differences between live recordings of concert performances and those of staged opera productions. In the latter, the soloists must concentrate on acting as well as singing, and are sometimes so focused on the one that they seem to forget the other. As he sees it, operas don’t always need such a strong, emotional Personenführung, precisely for the reason just mentioned. In connection with recordings, he also doesn’t believe that the large number of audio and video performances currently available for many works means that no new recordings need to be made. The available recordings offer a good overview of interpretative approaches over time, and as such, represent a library or archive on which one can draw. He says that he had an extensive recording collection at home in Montreal when he was a teen, and learned a great deal by listening to various interpretations of the same works. For this reason, he feels there should be as many different recordings as possible of particular compositions.
His greatest role model as a conductor was Carlo Maria Giulini, whom he was able to follow for an entire year near the end of Giulini’s career. Although he wasn’t enrolled in one of the courses the Italian maestro offered, Nézet-Séguin had many private discussions with Giulini and his students during rehearsals. He describes these as a “nourishing learning process” both then and later, as some of what he absorbed then only really began to make sense years later in his own work with an orchestra. He came to know Giulini as a simple, down-to-earth man whose simplicity was precisely that which, in the best cases, enabled his students to raise their music to a new level.
He views the fast-paced nature of people’s lives today to be one of the greatest challenges to sparking an interest in opera among young people. They are accustomed to things often being fragmentary and of short duration, whereas attending an opera performance requires a willingness to concentrate on something over an extended time period. He believes that if young people can work through that initial obstacle, they often respond to opera enthusiastically. By attending a performance, they learn to let themselves be drawn into an experience for a greater length of time – which, he says, is already a great deal.
Angela Gheorghiu: Nachgefragt (Asked or inquired after)
This Fall, the noted soprano will be traveling to many European cities on her first concert tour, which has been arranged by Universal. She says she plans to sing selections from her “classical repertoire” that audiences will want to hear, along with some new material. The choice of duets will depend upon who her stage partners will be at specific events.
She’s pretty much in full diva mode here, though she only refers to herself in the third person once. Asked about how much influence she has over the offers she receives for opera or concert appearances, she responds that she always does what she likes, that she’s had close contacts (to include shared phone numbers) with opera house directors for many years, and it’s decided during her meetings with them what she will sing. She says she’s always suggested which roles she’d like to sing, and with which conductors and/or stage directors she’d like to work in performing those roles. It’s been similar with her CD recordings; she selected the repertoire, the conductor, orchestra, recording location, and any other singers. Nothing is released to the public without her consent. Throughout her career, her personality has determined her choice of roles, and if she found that something didn’t suit her – such as a production of Romeo et Juliette in Vienna – then she withdrew from the part. She asserts that she needs harmony; she doesn’t like to quarrel or scream at anyone. She says her managers have been friends as much as managers, and never demanded that she do “crazy things.” She adds that, although it may seem unusual, she’s actually said “no” more often than “yes” over the course of her career. She goes on to say that, because she started out at the top, after the sensational success of the London La Traviata with Sir Georg Solti, she’s always had to be especially cautious about which offers she accepts. She mentions that she completed her formal musical training at 18, and after that, no longer had a teacher or repétiteur with whom she worked. She learned every role or aria on her own, and says she considers it very important for a singer to be him- or herself, even when a particular decision turns out not to have been the right one.
In considering the parts she’s recently been singing – Mimi, Magda (La Rondine), Tosca, and Adriana Lecouvreur – she says she always returns to Mimi much in the same way she always goes home. This was the role in which she passed her final exams at the music university, her first complete professional role, and the role that was her first love in opera. This is a part she simply has in her blood, she explains. When the reviewer observes that her Tosca and Adriana are not the usual unapproachable divas, but more vulnerable women, Gheorghiu agrees, saying that she wanted to bring something personal and unmistakable to these characters, which so many other sopranos had performed before her. Technical mastery of the roles wasn’t enough; the emotional component had to be there.
Asked about future plans, she says she will probably add Puccini’s Manon Lescaut to her repertoire at some point, though this is a very taxing role. Coming up this autumn will also be a Lieder concert at La Scala with a program that’s likely to be similar to the one she presented several months ago in Los Angeles, with selections by Rameau, Fauré, and Rachmaninoff as well as a number of Romanian composers. She calls the work with her pianist, Jeff Cohen, “totally wonderful,” and says he is more of a duet partner than an accompanist. She’s also done some work with crossover music, recently recording the song, “Copacul,” in Romania. (She also mentions songs Vangelis wrote for her concert in Qatar, which she says was a tremendous success and which should soon appear in CD and DVD format.) She has also received an offer from Romania for a speaking role in a play, and adds that she’s always enjoyed speaking onstage – especially the “Phaedra” monologue in Adriana Lecouvreur, which she describes as “wonderful, but very, very demanding and so intensive.” In her most recent appearance as Adriana at Carnegie Hall, she says she felt as though she were almost going to faint at the conclusion of the monologue.
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