Interview

Click here to see Angel Blue interview Anna Netrebko.

Why are tenors so erotic?

[I am overdue for a translation:]

Bunte, 44/2015
Interview: Claus Dreckmann
Why are tenors so erotic?

JONAS KAUFMANN talks about how it is to be an object of desire - and about his two biggest crises

For classical music fans he exerts an irresistible attraction: Jonas Kaufmann, 46. The smart appearance is paired with the star tenor with an exceptional voice. Recently he was awarded the ECHO Klassik - for the sixth time

Bunte reveals why he is sometimes gladly an "object of desire" and what makes the tenor voice so erotic. He who should doubt this can convince himself with his new CD "Nessun Dorma -The Puccini Album" ...

You sing Puccini, Verdi, Wagner, Strauss Johann, Strauss Richard, Schubert, Massenet, Mahler, Lehar ... How do you manage to meet expectations in such diverse composers at the highest level? 

If listeners find that I meet expectations in different styles and languages, then I am very pleased. I want to maintain this diversity as long as it's vocally possible for me, and I think that it is precisely this mixture of partly very different repertoire that keeps the voice flexible. Anyway, I've always found that a Wagnerian role benefits if I have previously sung Verdi or Puccini - and vice versa.

What music do you prefer: Puccini or Wagner? 

I do not want to miss either one. Both Wagner, as well as Puccini's music have a tremendous suction force, which one as listener can hardly escape. Both composers have set the sensual effect of their music, both have understood it masterfully to symphonically illustrate the inner life of their characters. Whereby Puccini’s works are certainly even "cinematic." Not for nothing are his operas often associated with film music. He painted pictures with music.

The eternal issue: How important is the appearance of a singer? 

The appearance of singers has become more important in the era of opera transmissions in the cinema and television and on DVD, it seems to me logical, and if singers therefore pay more attention to their figure, then that's just okay. But if first class singers are replaced by mediocre ones, because the former are less "telegenic", and if more emphasis is put on optical than on vocal or musical criteria, then the pain threshold is reached for me. And basically the criteria for optical credibility in the opera are so different from film. There might be a 15-year-old Butterfly or l7-year-old Salome who doubles for an experienced singer, but not live on stage.

Does it bother you as star tenor always to be an "object of desire"? Or is it a cliché from the past? 

It annoys me when it's all about my appearance and has nothing to do with my voice and performance. Not only on stage but also in concerts we want singers who are appreciated and sought after primarily because of our performance. If I am a singer and performer "object of desire," then I'll take that as a compliment.

What makes the eroticism of the tenor voice?

That has already been asked by philosophers like Ernst Bloch who has described the tenor as a "singing Erotikon". Does it have to do primarily with the fact that the romantic lovers were mostly written for tenor voice?  One would have to reply that many famous tenors optically were not exactly the Latin Lover type. So it must have primarily to do with the sound, especially with the sound development in the high notes.

Are there any boundaries for modern productions? Would you get out when something totally goes against the grain? 

The limit would be reached when music and text are in no way respected and the director only seeks to provoke a scandal, to get a lot of attention from the press. Then I would try to propose something constructive. Of course, there are situations where one is so annoyed that one would rather get out. But he who gets out, cannot change anything, let alone save it. So I'm always for first seeking dialogue with the director to see if you cannot find a common path.

Can you imagine ever living without the general public, the great applause? 

Most certainly! Twice I came to the place where I had to think: How would life be without the stage? That was during my novice crisis in Saarbrücken, where I was on the stage in a small part, and the voice went completely away, and in June 2012, as an infection was so persistent that I had to take two months off. In both cases, I said to myself: If I can’t sing any longer, then I’ll have to do something else.

You won again an ECHO Klassik. Can you still be happy about such prizes? 

But yes! Such awards are recognition of my work. Who would not be happy?

[Naturally he agrees with me.]

Interview with Simone Kermes

[Dr.B:  This interview came across my path, and I found it fascinating.  I hope you enjoy it.]

Simone Kermes: "Sing in such a way that the people cry"

By Katja Engler

The soprano sings the artful, emotive arias of the Baroque.  In November she guest performs in Hamburg.  Simone Kermes is not only a charismatic entertainer, but one of the few sopranos who venture into the technically difficult baroque repertoire, into arias that were once sung by castrati, one of the most virtuosic and most expensive singers in the world.  A conversation about a lifelong passion, her own research and the beauty of a simple melody. On November 4, she sings in the Pro-Arte concert in the Laeisz hall.

Hamburger Abendblatt: The bravura arias, breakneck coloratura and giant jumps of the baroque call for an extreme singer. How do you deal with the pressure of expectation in this genre?

Simone Kermes: If you are afraid or are nervous, it does not happen. I have a lot more notes to sing, than in romantic music. That's the extreme variations and cadences, there are indeed double the number of arias. To sing Baroque arias, is really hard. Few manage it. And the farther you go, the more people want. But as soon as it comes up at a concert, when the people feel what you are doing, there is a very special energy that enables you to do things that you otherwise do not always make. If you then get back that energy, you're very, very happy.

HA:  Are you still working with the musicologist Claudio Osele, who was also the artistic consultant  and significant other to Cecilia Bartoli?

Kermes: No. We have made two CDs, but it is always the time for disagreements ... I often notice in my life when it no longer fits. After this phase, I myself have researched in libraries, read a lot, worried about my notes. But once you make something, everyone notices ... However, I cannot sing from the old notes.  And it's a hell of a job to set them up for your own voice.

HA:  What are you currently working on?

Kermes: I just recorded a new album. Music by Claudio Monteverdi and Barbara Strozzi, so sensual, so deep! Brand new material with entirely new interpretations, entirely new arrangements.  I burn just for this, and I am always working. The musical tells the story of a woman's life, from birth until death. It is pure, timeless, and the lyrics are amazing! Sometimes I find only lines, so beautiful, so touching! The composers in the time of Monteverdi were the pioneers for future generations. Then came the Baroque, then Rossini, who is only a poor copy of it.

HA:  Why do so few dare to try what you sing?

Kermes: Because they do not have the technique. The castrati then studied seven, eight years. Everything they needed technically. Nowadays there is hardly a good education, the students sing the wrong thing, do not know what their voice needs ... My teacher was one that showed me technically how to do it.

HA:  Some singers of earlier centuries have left writings. Do you study those sources?

Kermes. Yes. Every singer should read, for example, the Johann Friedrich Agricola, the singing school, which was written for the castrato Tosi.  Everything in there is as exactly true until today. Suddenly you understand this science and this incredible technique of the singer at the time, and I have studied this. He wrote what you may need with language, breathing, coloratura,  preparation ... Farinelli, for example, ate a sour herring before a concert ... you have to get to know your own voice so that it is natural and you can sing for a long time.

HA:  The arias that you put together dive into extremely emotional worlds. What do you love about it? What does your public  love in this time oriented to reason and efficiency?

Kermes: In baroque each beat has feelings. Not like in the Romantic period. Because it makes a click, then comes the change, and a totally different effect. Everything is in it! If you master the style, you can do anything, because everything builds on that. But it started earlier. The music of Dürer's time [1471 –  1528] was already so modern, so timeless! And the composer Barbara Strozzi must have been incredible. For the castrato the most beautiful arias were written. But Strozzi is simple, not just virtuosic. You do not always have to make a circus. I can also sing the slow, sad songs and make people cry.

HA:  What does singing so very deep inside mean to you?

Kermes: I wanted as a child for people to see me. And they saw me, because I sang. My father died early, I had a lot to do with the death in my family, who all no longer live. Through singing I was suddenly there! That's the reason: To lift oneself up with something that is beautiful and harmonious ...

HA:  Is the extreme ascending and descending of the notes not something like aspiring to heaven, like the clouds in the baroque church dome?

Kermes: I feel the same way. The quiet pieces I want to look deep inside myself. If anything comes up, it touches people in the moment where I go up.  As with Handel's aria "Lascia ch'io pianga", "Let me have the freedom to weep over my fate". I sing this often as an encore. And my own life has brought me new depth with this song. I love this piece, it's mine. This simple melody that touches so deeply and so beautifully that people go home feeling kissed by beauty.

Interview with Jonas Kaufmann

Kleine Zeitung, July 26, 2015  [My usual translation.  I apologize that there is no link.]

Luigi HEINRICH

He is one of the big stars of this year's Salzburg Festival. On August 4, Janas Kaufmann will premiere as Florestan in "Fidelio".

For fans in September there will be a special gift, namely the new CD "Nessun dorma - The Puccini Album" - recorded in Rome. You sang this repertoire recently at La Scala Milan. This was sort of a special appearance? 

Jonas Kaufmann: I had promised to sing "Cavalleria Rusticana" and "Pagliacci" at La Scala. But my schedule is too full. I had to cancel. This concert was a sort of reparation.

"Fidelio" Beethoven's truth -- Jonas Kaufmann Interview

Die Presse, 26.05.2015
Wilhelm Sinkovicz

"Fidelio" Beethoven's truth

To discuss the challenge of a work such as "Fidelio" and how to do it justice, were Jonas Kaufmann (Florestan) [and Claus Guth (Director)] in discussion.

What is your experience with the role of Florestan? What makes the role difficult, uncomfortable, awkward?

Jonas Kaufmann: The role is short, but because of the great scene in the second act it is one of the most challenging roles in my Fach.  In the delicate final section many tenors have sung badly [?]. That is why I was rather cautious, when Helmut Rilling offered it to me for a series of concert performances at the Rheingau Music Festival, in the Stuttgart Liederhalle and the Beethoven Festival in Bonn. But to my great joy my voice in the thorny places did not close, but went on more and more. That is now already 13 years ago.

Beethoven is widely recognized as a composer who has written quite instrumentally for voices.

"He understood nothing about voices," is often said tersely. However, who could argue that an emotionally extreme situation can just be sung easily?  Florestan's vision of the guardian angel - "To freedom, to freedom, to the heavenly kingdom" - and the ever-higher spiraling phrases "Et vitam venturi" the choir sopranos in the "Missa solemnis" have in my opinion one thing in common: Here is the means of "despair through unsingableness" part of the concept.  Not to mention the great aria of Leonore in the original version:  This is the most difficult dramatic coloratura! The changes that Beethoven made to this aria were clearly due to theater practice.

The discrepancy between the fact that here is represented a long-standing imprisoned man who, however, has to deal with a very exhausting aria at the beginning of the second act - how does one deal with it?

It's like all extreme situations on stage: You have to be in full command of your vocal and musical means to make these situations and characters work. Florestan "Gott! ! Welch Dunkel hier "is just not realism, but opera reality: Not the physical decay should be heard here, but the state of mind of the desperate, his ecstatic vision of salvation and liberation. Likewise, the first sound of this scene, the coming out of nowhere, ever more urgent and expectant of the outcry "Gott!" of the tormented soul - requires not just a naturalistic, but a musical outcry, that requires the most technical control of the voice.  I do not know how many times I worked on this crescendo. Anyway, it took a long time until it sounded as I imagined it. Only the audience with such phrases should not think: "Wow, how he can do that!" But always feel with the depicted person.  And that is the great challenge in our profession:  slip fully into a character and yet always have control over what you do as a singer and performer. Karajan called it "controlled ecstasy".

How do you divide your tasks throughout the year - are there roles that you sing to relax the voice between the more dramatic ones?

Basically, I make sure that I create my repertoire in as versatile a way as possible: opera and song, Wagner and Verdi, Massenet and Strauss, dramatic and less dramatic. That keeps me flexible in every respect, linguistically, stylistically, musically and vocally. Even within my concerts I look for a good mix. For example, in my tour with the tenor hits by Richard Tauber and Joseph Schmidt: Instead of the whole "Puccini Lehár" of " Dein ist mein ganzes Herz " to " Freunde, das Leben ist lebenswert " to smash one after the other, I have sung pieces between that require very intimate, tender and soft sounds,  such as " Schatz, ich bitt dich, komm heut’ Nacht " or " Frag nicht, warum ich gehe."  You cannot belt these out into the audience, and that's why I used a microphone for these chanson-like evergreens.  This does not necessarily mean that the quiet parts are lighter than the "Puccini Lehár". Easy Listening, yes - but not necessarily Easy Singing! But the mixture of different pieces keeps the voice supple, I am convinced.

[I have translated only the part of the interview with Jonas.]

One hundred percent Diva

"To the one hundred percent Diva"
[Translated from Berner Zeitung.  I have switched all my Google Alerts to German and am getting much better results.]


By Carolina Bohren. Updated on 30.09.2014

Mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli has sung lost libretti from the Tsarist empire. While talking in Salzburg, the Swiss by choice woman explains how she even rode on an icebreaker.

Under the empresses: Mezzo-soprano and director Cecilia Bartoli (48) [She is called Intendantin, which is the title of the person in charge of a theater or festival. She is usually called the music director, but we all know better.]

On the floor of the Mozarteum in Salzburg there is music to be heard. A door opens, and a good-humored Cecilia Bartoli sticks out her head. The Italian appears in an elegant blue pinstripe suit, discreetly made up and with matching sunglasses.  During the interview Bartoli is full of energy, often bursting into a hearty laugh, and shows the enthusiasm with which she pursues her projects.

Ms. Bartoli, what brought you to Russia?

Cecilia Bartoli: Many Italian composers of the Baroque period were immigrants, just like me. When I saw that many of them went to Russia, I was wondering: If the historical beginnings of Russian opera are recognized to be around 1830, then what are these, these madmen, already doing there in the 18th century?

What have you found?

They were invited by the empresses to the palace where they then wrote each year an opera for her birthday. When I found these fantastic scores, it was clear that I had to do a project.

How should we imagine that: Cecilia Bartoli goes to Russia and finds important documents in the archives of the Marinsky Theatre?

It was not so easy. The archive had transferred a kind of exclusive right for restoration work on the library of Washington. [Library of Congress?] This made it impossible for a long time to sift through the material at all.

Sounds like trouble.

Yes, I had to go to St. Petersburg several times before I got access to the archive. Twice I even traveled with the icebreaker from Lübeck by water.

The icebreaker?

Yes, I do not fly very much. And honestly, that was a fantastic experience! When we moved the boat across the sea and the ice broke (gesturing wildly with her arms, to simulate the breaking up of the ice layer), so that was an adventure. I arrived in St. Petersburg as the earlier explorers had.

What has most surprised you in your work in the archive?

To study the music of Italian composers and to discover that many arias are in a serious, nostalgic, dramatic timbre.

Why is that unusual?

In Italy there was not this kind of music. When one thinks of the Neapolitan Baroque music, there are often the great coloratura arias with songs like fireworks. In the compositions of the Marinsky archive, however, beautiful, slow arias dominate. You already encounter the Russian spirit, although they were written by Italians.

Wouldn't it have been obvious in view of this Russian influence, to record the CD with a Russian orchestra instead of conductor Diego Fasolis and I Barocchisti?

On the one hand what you say is true. It is also true that the musicians who have played at the court of the Tsar, were also Italians. I would like to work with Russian musicians, and there isn't just enough material for another CD, but for at least one hundred (laughs). But for Maestro Diego Fasolis and his orchestra I feel very great respect, that's why I wanted them.

What impression do you get of the Empresses Anna [1730-40], Elizabeth [1741-62] and Catherine [1762-96]?

The fact that they thought very avant-garde, and with their efforts to cultural exchange they did much for music and its new forms. 

Also Tsarina Catherine the Great has written several libretti. What do you think of her work?

Perhaps you could make an attachment in the booklet (laughs). No, poor one. She has also written a beautiful march.  I didn't feel the need to put it on the CD, but I take my hat off to her!  Nowadays there are not many politicians who would be able to do so. Let's ask Angela Merkel if she will write a march for us (get a fit of laughter).

Will we now get from you a libretto to read?

No, such a thing will not happen.

On the album "St.Petersburg" you are singing for the first time two arias in Russian. Torture, isn't it?

Let's put it this way: The language is very beautiful, but it is very difficult because there are sounds that we do not know in Italian. So I had to learn a lot by imitation. Luckily, my teacher said then that at least there is still hope for me.

With your name often appears attributes such as "Superstar" or "opera diva". Do you like this fame?

I think if you can take the glory and use it in service of special cultural projects, then it is something very beautiful. For example, the Whitsun Festival here in Salzburg, where I will present projects, invite artists, can contribute to the artistic exchange.

And the Diva?

You simply have to want to believe it or not. I often say: You're a Diva? I have no time for that (laughs). I have no time, and it is not my character. So if to be such a diva means to make beautiful projects: Yes, I'm a diva one hundred percent (takes pleasurably a chocolate chip cookie).

Keyword Salzburg Whitsun Festival: Is your dual role as an opera singer and director not problematic?

Before me the artistic director of the Salzburg Whitsun Festival was a conductor. They organized the festival and the orchestras. So they used their instrument. Basically, I 'm doing the same thing, only that I sing rather than conduct. The great difficulty lies not in this dual role, but in the organization itself.

What do you mean?

I now have a responsibility that I have previously not perceived so. I am aware now of things which I used to not even have imagined that they existed.

Like what?

There are artists who need to be housed in completely white spaces so that they can relax. It's nice to be able to discover all these new things.

As director: How important is for you faithfulness to the original?

The music of a composer must be presented in its meaning [?]. From there we should get our inspiration. Of course every artist has the opportunity to develop their own interpretations of this music, but always with great respect for the score. The audience can love an artist or not. But we must always create new visions of the music of a composer. Basically singers with their voices make the colors of the music become visible. [I hope I got this right. I think this too.]

What opera role do you really want yet to embody?

(Thinks long) It is very difficult to answer this question. For one, I am of the star sign Gemini. That is, one twin wants one thing and the other something else. To find a role that corresponds to both is already difficult. (laughs). Then there is also the fact that I am a chameleon in character. Today I say to you, I would like to do Carmen, but maybe tomorrow I'd rather play an old woman.

After half an hour, Bartoli's manager interrupts the conversation. In parting the adopted Swiss woman says a choice bit of Zurich German, "Uf Widerluege" with a broad Italian accent. "Swiss German is almost as difficult as Russian," she grins. 

[Once in a while I understand a word or two of Schwiezerdeutsch.  I think it is the laughing Bartoli that I wished I could meet.

Is there any information about the singers?  So many questions.  This may turn out to be the greatest of her discoveries.

If you prebuy on iTunes, you can get 4 tracks immediately.  They are wonderful.] 

For Charlotte

[This is the interview from chrismon.de Charlotte mentioned in her comment.  Evangelisch means protestant.]

"You have to do everything with passion - singing and cooking Minestrone"

When Cecilia Bartoli sings, you sometimes have the feeling that God is with her - in his female form. Cecilia Bartoli, who was born in Rome in 1966, is one of the most famous opera singers of the world. She sings roles for mezzo-soprano, particularly in Mozart and Handel operas, and has lately preferred lesser-known works from the 18th Century. Recently she released her CD "Mission" with songs by the baroque composer Agostino Steffani. With these songs she is giving at the beginning of June five concerts in Germany. Cecilia Bartoli lives in Switzerland.

In which moments do you feel alive? 
Music is full of feelings. I need to experience those feelings in order to inform the public. However, not too intensely, then the voice suffers, I need a certain distance. A wonderful discovery was Agostino Steffani, a composer and a Catholic theologian of the 17th and 18th Centuries. His music puts me in a delirious state. It is spiritual, but it also has something dark. When I sing his works, it is as if I were flying.  For moments one of Steffani's songs free one from the pain that sometimes depresses one.  Such music sometimes you need in order to live.

What can adults learn from children?
Through them you can learn what is important. The older I get the stronger my need to express myself is reduced to the essentials. I need actually only a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Why still a car? Also an iPod? Another television? Actually I do not need all that. This of course contradicts the stereotype:  A diva has to need on her travels five cases and one to two chauffeurs. But what is much more important are good relationships with other people, and children also teach you this.

Which God do you believe in? 
I believe in a God who created Mozart, Caravaggio, Handel and Vivaldi! God has sent us these artists to make life more bearable. When I sing, I sometimes have the feeling that God is with me in his female form. God is for me both: man and woman, Papa and Mama - Pama so to speak. Occasionally, I pray, and then mostly for the people I love.  But only occasionally. Among Catholics a prayer is indeed spoken for every little thing. I do not want this. If I really mean to disturb God, then it shall be for something important.

What does home mean to you?
I travel a lot and am rarely home. My homeland is therefore the people I love, whom I trust - and the people who love me. I can take on the world, even in the most terrible places everywhere. When I am with them, I'm at home, they are my home.

Does life have a meaning? 
Yes ! I come from a very humble family: My parents were both opera singers, but my grandparents were farmers.  Every summer I went to them. One of my grandmothers had in her garden wonderful, fantastic beans. Out of them she cooked the best minestrone that I have ever eaten in my life. This grandmother accompanied me when I sang for the first time at the Metropolitan Opera. After the concert we went to a dinner which a sponsor had organized, where delicacies were presented.   Back in Italy my grandmother was uncomfortable to cook her minestrone for me, she said: "In New York I understood how you live now." I answered her, "My dear, what are you saying? Your beans and your minestrone are a thousand times dearer to me than such a dinner. When I visit you, and you give me no minestrone - that would be terrible." Good ingredients are important, simple ingredients, but the most important is the passion! You have to try to seize the day with passion:   sing with passion, cook, be connected to other people.

Do you fear death? 
No! Far more terrible is a dull life without feelings. I do not know if I'm brave, but I love the idea of being brave and reaching out without fear to other people. Simply to take another's hand and to go a small way with him and to open myself to him.

What dream do you still want necessarily to fulfill? 
Every day to be ready to learn and grow. But never to be too tired, that's my dream! Sometimes I sing something - for example by Mozart - that I know inside and out. But then I work together with a new conductor, and he says to me: "Cecilia, you could sing this a little bit differently, what do you think?" And I think: Yes, of course! I want to preserve my ability to be amazed.

[This is also for me.  She is still the only famous person I ever wanted to meet.  I no longer wonder why this would be.]

Cecilia Bartoli: "My religion is my work"

[An interview from Crescendo.]

Cecilia Bartoli receives for the eleventh time an Echo Klassik award. A conversation about her career, the church and the importance of such awards.

Ms. Bartoli, again you will also be awarded a 2013 ECHO Klassik ... for the eleventh time! 
Yes! For my recording "Mission" with the music of Agostino Steffani, for which Donna Leon wrote her novel "Heavenly Jewels." I am very happy because this project was very close to my heart. Steffani's music has for me transcendental elements, love, hate, death, life, everything is possible, everything is incredibly exciting.

So exciting that you are now following it up with a second Steffani CD with his "Stabat Mater" and other sacred works. 
Steffani's "Stabat Mater" was his last work, he composed it shortly before his death in February 1728. At that time he lived totally impoverished in Frankfurt, where he died ... ...

After a dazzling life as a diplomat, a spy in the service of the Vatican, as evangelizing clergyman, abbot and bishop, as genius composer who was musically "plagiarized" even by Handel. But in the end were left only two boxes of documents that are so far hoarded by the Vatican. 
Yes. For me it was interesting to show that he was a very important composer. I wanted to explore it and present it to the public, sung always alongside the Stabat Mater by Pergolesi, by A. Scarlatti, Caldara ...

Did you ever come close to the boxes? 
We did not have to, yes. We had other sources, such as the Fitzwilliam manuscript, which is located in Cambridge.

I ask, because one knows that another concert with you did not happen in the Vatican based on the fact that you refused to publicly take a position on the subject of abortion ... 
Yes, that was strange. An opinion is something absolutely private. But I believe that the new pope is  somewhat more tolerant.  Somewhat more optimistic and more creative. And if the Vatican does not need my recording, yet the music market will: they certainly need Steffani's church music.

Are you a believer? 
Let's put it this way: When I hear the music of Mozart, Bach's or Monteverdi's or Steffani's, then I believe. My religion is my work. [Many musicians feel this. ]

What did your parents do wrong? Ultimately, you grew up in Rome, near the Vatican. 
(Laughs ) Yes, and I could look into some windows. In Rome there are more churches than houses. And then you can imagine what attitude one adopts opposite this. On the other hand, I am impressed by the Vatican. It is the strictest political order I know. Look: We have in Italy so many parties, so many political conflicts, so many radical changes. But the Vatican has survived centuries. This is really amazing.

And there are really a lot of opera materials there! 
And such great ones!

Back to Stabat Mater: why has this anonymous medieval poem that sings of the sufferings of the Mother of God for her crucified Son inspired so many composers? From Josquin and Palestrina, past Vivaldi finally to Wolfgang Rihm [1952-]. 
It is perhaps the pain, the suffering of Mary, that has so attracted and emotionally moved composers. Stabat mater dolorosa is yes (Latin) for "The mother stands full of pain." What could be nicer than to create music for a text that already affects you when you read it?

Steffani setting was 1727, the same year as Vivaldi's Stabat Mater and four years after Scarlatti and nine years before the famous Stabat Mater by Pergolesi. Is this a coincidence? 
1727 Stabat Mater had been reinstated in the service, yes. For what reason it was banned from the liturgy in the 16th Century for over two centuries, I do not know. [At the Council of Trent counter-reformation a very large number of sequences, the type of poem of the Stabat Mater, were banned.]   Of course in musical style there are major differences between the works. Steffani described his Stabat Mater as his masterpiece. Yes, it is. Steffani gives the choir a very large space, and integrates the voices. It is a polyphonic structured, magnificent work. Steffani is here quite different from Pergolesi who set the poem to music that is operatic, arias and so on. On the CD we present other sacred works by Steffani.

What? 
The cantata for soprano solo "Non plus me ligate", which is cheerful, a different mood than the Stabat Mater. Also two four-part choral pieces, "Beatus vir" and "Triduanas a Domino", which Steffani composed for St. Cecilia's on 22 November; as well as the spiritual concerto "Laudate Pueri" and the five-part "sperate in Deo". All these works we present for the first time on CD as a premiere. Fabulous young singers such as Nuria Rial, Franco Fagioli or Julian Prégardien and others are also there. Steffani was very young when he composed this music, 1667-1688, when he was employed at the Catholic court in Munich. Later he was sent to the Protestant north of Germany to convert the people there to the Catholic faith. If it was the Vatican who sent him we do not know.

Back to your ECHO Klassik. What do awards actually mean to you? 
You mean a recognition of my work, which not only very much satisfies me but also the people who come to my concerts and buy my CDs. This work is so important for my soul. When I touch people with my music, then I feel fulfilled. It gives me strength to continue to explore new things. You see the day differently when you dedicate yourself to a new composer, a new work.

Do you even know how many awards you have won and where you store them? 
(Laughter) Oh, they're scattered all over my house. I think I would not find them all right away. Because I have not ordered them in a cabinet, so I cannot watch them all day and admire. So I need them not to get dusty. And some trophies are also quite heavy.

For Max Reger order meant "contamination of the button hole" ... 
(Laughs) You see my jacket has only one button ... In fact, in Italy there are some that look like a cleaned up Christmas tree, who walk around with a breast swollen with pride, and no one knows what is all this order, and no one cares there. This is really funny.

1994 you got your first Echo Klassik for a CD with songs by Beethoven, Schubert, Mozart. What has happened since then? 
Since then, of course, a lot has changed: the transition from vinyl disc to the CD about in the mid-eighties, for example, has produced many CDs - not always of the highest quality. Today we have almost an overdose of CDs.

But you have always managed to "reinvent" yourself, are among the few stars who are not comfortable to always use the same repertoire, but gain attention with your recordings even after twenty years. 
I was always searching ... And still am ...

Your repertoire ranges from Handel, Vivaldi to Rossini, to Bellini, Pergolesi, Puccini, Donizetti, to Halévy, Mozart, Gluck, Haydn included. 
The contrasting repertoire revived my spirit, lit me afire. Currently I have developed a musical vision for Bellini's "Norma", they try from the context of their time to understand about 1831 - with the instruments of the time, the other vocalization. It makes a difference whether the introduction to Norma's famous cavatina "Casta diva" is played with a wooden flute or a modern instrument made of metal, and if I approach the whole thing like a prayer in the piano, pianissimo or as a show in front of a giant room with four thousand people.

Where does a musician find the true recognition? Is applause a parameter?
Yes and no. You can sometimes get a lot of applause very fast because you put on a good show, a favorite aria of the audience. The most beautiful is the silence when you literally can hear a pin drop on the floor in a room with two thousand people. Then I feel like I have with my singing pierced into the souls of men.

"What pleased me most," wrote Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart about a performance of The Magic Flute, "was the silent applause." 
Yes, that 's it! If it comes from within.

And one last quote again from Reger: "The more they attack my title, the more my simple name grows. It will remain nothing but: Max Reger" ... 
Yes, a composer says that. And what should an artist say? I can only say that I hope that at the end of my life my name is still written correctly.

Interview with Giovanni Antonini

[I found this interesting interview here in the Aargauer Zeitung.  It corresponds to the opening of Alcina at the Zurich Opera.]

The Milanese Giovanni Antonini became world famous as a flutist and conductor of the Baroque ensemble "Il giardino armonico".  Today he conducts operas in Salzburg and Zurich.  In this interview he talks about divas and his native Italy. by Christian Berzins

Only a few days after the interview at the Opera House Zurich it becomes clear why Giovanni Antonini said three times in the music room in an hour, "There is no right or wrong, it remains a matter of taste." Though convinced that he is doing the "right thing", the Milanese knows that it is not without controversy.

He can live with that because his style of conducting is well received by both opera star Cecilia Bartoli, with whom he works a lot, as well as the Basel Chamber Orchestra, with whom he plays a Beethoven cycle.  And last but not least by most critics.  In the interview he talks enthusiastically about Bartoli, sighingly over his native Italy, and positively about Alexander Pereira's chances in Milan.

Giovanni Antonini, in 2009 you performed Handel's "Alcina" with the German Anja Harteros in Milan, and in ten days with the Italian Cecilia Bartoli in Zurich. What will be different about this for you?

Giovanni Antonini: An opera performance always depends on the artist.  Here in Zurich are both the production as well as the singer quite different. My view of this music, however, remains more or less the same.  Anja Harteros and Cecilia Bartoli are worlds apart.  I've been working a lot lately with Bartoli, in this work one realizes a development, the way to a common language.

Both singers are divas. Is that difficult for the conductor?

To only be a diva is not enough for an opera by Handel. Whether one likes one or the other singer better is one thing.  But Bartoli has studied this musical language for many years, has her own unique way of singing this music.  Thus, this Zurich production is much more interesting for me.  Although the work was beautiful with the Scala orchestra, I met in Zurich an orchestra that is used to playing Baroque operas.  Here the orchestra is playing on gut strings, with baroque bows and baroque brass instruments.  We start on another level!  As with the singers: It's not about good or bad but to understand the language of music.

Who is this singer, this diva?

Cecilia Bartoli embodies a rare combination of skills. Two tones from Bartoli - and you know who sings. It is the mix of technique, originality, uniqueness of her voice - and she has a musical instinct:  If something does not work, then she notices it.  Bartoli is a typical Italian woman, she can formally smell situations.  She manages to sing so that everyone in the audience thinks she'll do it for him alone. She has many admirers, but kindles at the same time discussions about her person.  This is quite normal .

A few evenings after Bartoli, Agneta Eichenholz sings.  Do you change your conducting?

Quite. The conductor and his orchestra have to breathe with the singers . And at a Einspringerin or understudy I need to understand their breathing. But the times are now situations that exist in the theater. It exerts an opera over many weeks, and on opening night you have to re-adjust to the situation. Suddenly something happened : A change of pace , a forgotten word , something falls down ! Since the conductor must be ready. There are singers who are completely detached from the orchestra : "Follow me , I am the diva."  The Bartoli is the opposite: She's a diva who practices, experiments, and discusses a lot with the conductor.

You quite often work with singers.   Do you love them?

I love singers who want to work together to evolve and have a vision of their role.  I do not like simply to accompany a singer.  But I respect every singer because singing is something quite different to master from an instrument like a violin.  A singer is naked on stage.  How badly we sometimes judge the voices and hit the people!  While talking about voices we have to be careful not to destroy the people.

You have not only conducted Handel with Cecilia Bartoli, but Vincenzo Bellini's "Norma", a major work of the 19th Century.  And now you present a Beethoven cycle with the Basel Chamber Orchestra.  Is this a normal step for the baroque specialist Antonini?

Each was an adventure.  There are standards on how to conduct Bellini's music.  But this tradition, I do not know, so we said:  let's see what is really in this score, we let go of everything that Maria Callas had shown us!  My musical roots are in the 18th Century, I drew this Bellini closer to Mozart than to Verdi.  So I went also at the Beethoven symphonies .

Handel, Beethoven, Bellini - now follow Verdi and Puccini?

I'm not sure if the world of opera should be my center.  My nature corresponds to the more symphonic and my flute playing with chamber orchestra.  There are ideas, projects, but better not to make any greater steps than the leg allows, as we Italians say. The 18th Century remains my world.  I have conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and other world-famous orchestras , but when I conduct Il Giardino Armonico, the Basel Chamber Orchestra, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg or a comparable orchestra, I meet a familiar community that is trusts me and is congenial.  Also here in Zurich it seems to me that it's on the musical and human plateau.

You, the Milanese, since 2009 have directed no more operas in Milan or anywhere else in Italy, the "Land of Music," but trade it for headlines in Salzburg.  Is not that strange ?

Italy is now a very strange land (hesitates).  I told you how I want to work - the emphasis is on "work".  That's no longer possible in Italy today.

There are so many great Italian musicians! Do men gather together for anything to happen in Italy? Why is there no Baroque Festival in Florence in the historical halls - where the opera had its origins?

The politics has not yet understood that the cultural offering can make a major contribution to the economic development of a country.  Salzburg is for example a small town, but the international success of the festival is a benefit for the whole of Austria, culturally and economically. In Italy there are many talented, creative people with great ideas, who call festivals to life.  But they are not supported, which makes it impossible for them to plan long term.  Sitting together is not an Italian strength. The sense of the Country or the sense of community can be seen, despite unification in the 19 Century less and less. We let Pompeii disintegrate, we do not care. It has so many other works of art ... Soon one has some less ( sighs) ... Nevertheless, I love this country .

At La Scala there is now the ex - "Zuricher", the Austrian Alexander Pereira. Will this go well?

I think so, he knows the Italians.  Pereira will understand the system.  In Milan a lot is expected from him, but also there is a lot of confidence in him.

Giovanni Antonini was born in 1965 in Milan.  While still a student the flutist founded the specialist ensemble Il Giardino Armonico, with whom he performed all over the world and he leads alone since 1989.  The encounter with Cecilia Bartoli was 2000 when the famous Vivaldi album came out. He has conducted, among others, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. His recording of the complete Beethoven symphonies with the Basel Chamber Orchestra is nearing completion. Giovanni Antonini conducts at the Zurich Opera House on 26 January Handel's "Alcina".

[Dr B.  I like very much at the beginning where the question of right and wrong is discussed.  He says it's a matter of taste.  Whether or not something is correct means nothing to me.  All I care about is does it live in the soul of the artist?  In Antonini's case that seems to be true.]

 

Netrebko in Russian

You have to read really fast. The only word I understand is Vodka.  You can wonder along with me why there is a clip of Diana Damrau in the middle.  The pictures of Anna with her mother are San Francisco--outside the war memorial, in north beach.

The Russian perspective on Anna's life is very curious and revealed only in the studio comments by the interviewer.  They would think nothing of the idea that she would give up her career for the sake of Erwin, would in fact think that was correct, while we could not help but be appalled by the idea.  An appropriate evaluation of the situation would deem that Erwin should abandon his career for her.  Oh well.  The point is moot.

The interviewer hopes for her that someday she will get married.  We're not sure we do.  She seems to be doing fine.  This is the interview where she explains that since they were not married, she gets to keep all her stuff.

Like Bonnie and Clyde

Translated from Max Joseph, Magazine of the Bavarian State Opera
Interview: Thomas Voigt

Anja Harteros and Jonas Kaufmann are known worldwide as the perfect couple on stage. Thomas Voigt met the soprano and tenor before the new production of Giuseppe Verdi's La forza del destino. A dialogue on fate, partnership on stage and the eroticism of singing.

"Like Bonnie and Clyde"

MAX JOSEPH Immediately an acid test:  how would you describe in a few sentences the plot of Verdi's La forza del destino?

ANJA Harteros   In the beginning there's a corpse.

JONAS KAUFMANN A situation almost like in Don Giovanni.

AH  Yeah, both times the dad dies.

JK  who does not want his daughter getting involved with "someone like that."

AH But unlike Don Giovanni the old Marchese doesn't stand against the rapist of his daughter, but has surprised his Leonora when she wants to elope with a half-breed.

JK This man's name is Alvaro. And that the old man dies this time is not murder, but an accident. Or at least that's how it stands in the text. Alvaro drops his weapon, and upon impact it triggers a shot that hits the Marquese.

AH But Leonora's brother Carlos believes that both have the old man on their conscience.

JK This is why they are on the run from here on. As fate would have it, Carlos and Alvaro become thickest friends in the tumult of war, of course, without recognizing it. That the whole thing does not proceed well, you can imagine.

MJ  Are Il trovatore and La forza del destino not siblings? Both pieces play in Spain, both times is the protagonist named Leonora, both times it was a tragic family history from which there is no escape.

JK That's why I think it's good that we do here in Munich both operas within a short time. In November is the revival of Trovatore, and right after that we continue with the rehearsals for Forza.

MJ   Is La forza del destino a step backwards in Verdi's artistic development?

AH   Maybe dramatically due to significant length compared to Trovatore, but not musically.  Because there are such treasures in the arias as well as in the ensembles.

JK Since the beginning of the Verdi year, I am always busy with the big "Destiny aria" of Alvaro. This is one of the most challenging and most amazing scenes Verdi wrote for tenor, and I find that musically in Verdi's work it faces very strongly forward, namely in the direction of Don Carlo and Aida.

MJ What is fate for you? Is everything predetermined? What makes someone what he is?

JK Of course there is such a thing as powers and forces which no one can overcome. We all know the so-called misfortunes. But if someone believes in something like fate, he does not believe in himself. This is why I think much more of the saying "take your fate into your own hands."

AH Are you talking of career?

JK Not only! But if we want to discuss it on the example of career:  This is made up of many components together, and that includes luck [Glück]. If an artist believes in destiny and says: "I can't influence anything, it is everything that happens to me, already planned by the hand of God," to my mind he eludes responsibility.  I do think that there is something like fate there, but there are just as often situations that you simply must make active use of, the much-cited "opportunities".

AH This says the tenor, who is now on a total flight of fancy. [or maybe flying high] The love of God has given you a great voice, you look great, are sought after - no, you of course have worked everything out yourself, clear!

JK (laughs out loud) [I'm laughing, too.]

AH   Of course, you had also to work, but most still have to work much harder to create only half of this, if at all.  So, fate, many are beginning yes to believe in fate, after something bad happens, prolonged illness, loss of a loved one or something similar.  And in such situations, everyone wonders: Why does this happen to me, what have I done to deserve this?

JK  Here faith and superstition strongly come into play. Distress teaches us to pray, they say, and that always reinforces so-called strokes of fate.  In some parts of the world, the term "destiny" is so loaded that one may not call it by name.  For example in Italy you still may not pronounce the whole name of Verdi's opera. Only "La forza del" is said, and one may not hold "destino" in the mouth because that alone could bring bad luck.   But for me fate is not just something negative. The word also includes unexpected good luck.

AH I used to think just like you, but now I am convinced that we do not have much in our hands.

JK I think our views are not so far apart. Believe in Divine Providence in honor, but it must not lead to a fatalism, according to the motto:  Everything is predetermined, I cannot do anything anyway. So unreflective self-service to destiny as an excuse for inaction - that I cannot accept.

AH Drive is okay. But even that is a kind of talent that is given to some more than others.

MJ Since we are in the talent discussion. Is talent really 100 percent a gift of nature?

AH Yes, definitely!

JK   I do think that it is a combination. There are certainly many people who are gifted by nature much more for our profession than we are - only they have never had contact with classical music, let alone had the chance to be something in this profession. To come back to the initial question: To be what one is, is a combination of gifts of nature and the circumstances in which one grows up.  Related to our work: You may have received from the dear God the most beautiful instrument, but it helps nothing if you do not learn to make music.

AH You can achieve a lot with hard work, but you cannot purchase a lack of talent through hard work. You're either gifted or not.

MJ An example of the positive concept of fate:   you both have found yourselves artistically.

AH Well, now I feel all warm in my heart. (laughs)

MJ Where did you meet?

JK We had our joint debut in Frankfurt, in Cosi fan tutte. [This was mispelled in the original. I'm not translating the mistakes in the text.]

AH And you were terrible! Totally arrogant!  But you sang well. - No, Jonas has had great success. As his career took off, every pose fell away.  Because he had arrived where he belongs.

MJ The next joint opera was the staging of Lohengrin in Munich. You were one in heart and soul. At least when singing.

JK I think we felt in the same moment: It can be like this if you inspire each other and it will together increase more and more.  If you have Anja Harteros next to you, who can implement everything technically, then you can sometimes risk the wonderful piano phrases in the Don Carlo duets as quietly and intimately as it is possible to sing them. And if someone feels the same joy in such subtleties, then that is something out of the ordinary, and that rubs off on the audience.

AH   The Joy, the delightful knowing [das Gönnen-Können] - and the trust! With Jonas I always have the feeling that he never crosses his boots [?] but is always there for me. And such a thing is rare in our profession.  More disillusioning is when in rehearsal one reaches a state of tension, for example in the 2 Act of Don Carlo, and it reaches the moment where it really crackles - and then the director goes in and says, "More to the left!"   This is the quintessential Interruptus.

JK I think our instinct for emotional tension is very similar, so we create in such key scenes as the 2nd Act of Don Carlo, these images that are not only from the director. And if someone is opposed to that kind of emotion and he works strongly against it, then you have a partner next to you who understands. A shared problem is a problem halved. Thank God we are both in the fortunate position that we can positively affect our working conditions. We can to get back to the topic, make our destiny entirely ourselves and actively contribute to our luck.  And the good directors also understand that this is also a key to success.

MJ In La forza del destino you have unfortunately not as much to do with each other:  only a brief duet before the accident and then again at the final trio, when Leonora is already dying.

JK Between, we are on the run. That is with us as with Bonnie and Clyde:  If you see us together, we have also been caught. And by all love for Anja: In this opera the baritone partner is much more important for me.  In Munich, I am fortunate to have one of the greatest baritones of our time on my side: Ludovic Tézier.

AH I am very excited about this new production, my first work with Martin Kušej. I already have a bit of the jitters. I have seen his Don Giovanni in Salzburg, and he obviously loves to bring out the singer physically, and frankly, that's not my thing.

JK I did with Martin Kušej Fidelio fifteen years ago in Stuttgart, then still Jaquino, and I was impressed by how he again and again convinced us of things that were not plausible at first glance. Then I saw some of his productions, I found his production of Franz Schreker's The Search especially strong.

MJ Back to singing: To what extent is sensuality part of the musical harmony?

AH   Good singing is erotic, and not just the love duets! Jonas is a highly erotic type, which is wonderful for a partnership on stage. And if he feels a little bit what goes on with me, I would find that very great.

JK (with the voice of Horst Schlämmer) We talk later, darling!

AH At a joint Don Giovanni in New York René Pape said to me, "You have such a sexy voice ," I noticed this because it made me feel so good, and so I will gladly pass it forward.

JK Previously it has been called the "body connection" that you just sing from the gut, if not from deeper regions. Both technically and emotionally.  Spirit, soul and body are connected when singing such as one maybe only knows from intense erotic experiences. Therefore, singing indeed requires a certain amount of exhibitionism. Because such experiences are normally more often enjoyed by couples and not in front of millions of viewers.

AH That's right. But it can also be a very internalized thing, I also like to sing with you without an audience.

JK I would say something to the so-called Regie theater. I have witnessed colleagues who have fought against a director's concept, without proposing an alternative. And I think: With a mere refusal you don't get any further. But only by proposing something different. You should also let yourself be creative, and in most cases it works. Also, by doing this you can very well take your fate into your own hands.

[This interview especially pleases me because Anja and Jonas are in it together.  They are the people who are bringing the full operagastic (apologies to Operagasm) experience for me lately--Lohengrin, Il Trovatore, Don Carlo and soon to be Forza.  I enjoy that they argue.  I enjoy that Jonas must have the last word.  I enjoy how they interact with one another.  I enjoy that they discuss how singing, especially opera singing, is erotic.]