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SEEN
AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL INTERVIEW
John Relyea:
one of the most exciting bass
baritones around today, talks
to Anne Ozorio about singing Nick
Shadow in the new Royal Opera House production of Stravinsky’s
The Rake’s Progress (AO)
As singers go, John Relyea is still
young, but he’s already near the top
of his profession. It’s no surprise. His is a voice so distinctive
that once heard, it’s not forgotten. He made his Metropolitan Opera
debut in 2000, and his Royal Opera House debut in summer 2002. He
started appearing at the Proms and at Edinburgh in 2001. In the
space of a few years he’s become a regular at the Metropolitan Opera
and has appeared in at the Vienna State Opera, the Paris Opera, the
Munich State Opera, San Francisco, Santa Fe and Seattle. He appears
frequently at Festivals like Lucerne, Salzburg, Tanglewood, Ravinia,
Blossom and Mostly Mozart Festivals and has been a regular at the
Proms. He’s worked with conductors like von Dohnanyi, Eschenbach,
Rattle, Haitink, Boulez, Sawallisch, Rattle, Maazel, Salonen, Davis
and Levine, amongst others. He has sung most standard bass baritone
roles such as Figaro,
John Relyea - Picture © Dario Acosta
He’s singing Nick Shadow in the new production of Stravinsky’s
The Rake’s Progress. This promises to be an interesting
as it’s a collaboration between the Royal Opera House and
Théâtre de La Monnaie,
Brussels, Opéra National de Lyon, San Francisco Opera and Teatro
Real, Madrid and will be conducted by Thomas Adès.
“I’m particularly drawn to that time in the 20th century
where you have the convergence of impressionism, expressionism and
even the echoes of Romanticism, fading away.
I’m interested in Bartòk, Zemlinsky and Stravinsky because that was
a time when different artistic movements were intersecting. In
The Rake’s Progress, Stravinsky is making hints back to
neo-classical and baroque forms, and there are even bits like
Hollywood soundtracks in this piece. He had a real passion for film
and the emergence of television. At the time he wrote this he was
immersed in American culture – you can hear it in the music”. The
Rake’s Progress was inspired by an exhibition of Hogarth’s etchings
held in New York in 1947. “I hear this in his music and I think of
all those abstract paintings of that time. Those visual ideas
appear in the music. I’m really drawn to Stravinsky’s geometrical
shapes. He has these rhythms and harmonies going in different
directions and levels you’re not really expecting. But then you get
involved and it does something to you,”
" In The Rake’s Progress, Nick Shadow is “the carrier of the
action. He’s always there when
Tom is sinking further into corruption. He’s a great character.
What I like about the part is the detail, and that the words are so
great to speak. The libretto is written by Auden. It’s so good it
could almost be done as a play even without music. The
characterization is so true. On the outside Nick is a gentleman but
on the inside he’s the Devil. There are lots of levels to him.
Comparing him to Méphistophélès in Gounod’s Faust, for
example, this rendition is so much more three dimensional. You have
a lot more sympathy for all the characters in the music, you don’t
want to see Tom fall victim to the curse, you feel his pain at
losing Anne and everything else. It’s such a great libretto. You
get sucked in by Nick who’s so seductive, so persuasive. He’s very
studied in creating temptation as he’s the Devil, after all, but on
different levels, he’s very clever.”
“I find villains in general to be great fun to do. I suppose you can
say that they are much more direct in the sense that they don’t have
the same sort of inner conflicts that you get with “normal”
characters and heroes. A lot of the bass repertoire is of course the
“patriach” type, kings, priests, sympathetic charismatic roles whose
inner worlds are developed from humanity and compassion. Villains
aims and goals are unwavering, most of the time and on a certain
level that’s easy, but I like the clarity of a villain’s mind and
the way they focus so firmly on objectives. It gives you a lie to
follow. It’s interesting how Stravinsky plays around with the
rhythms in the part. In romantic music, the music is always telling
you the mood. Not that Stravinsky doesn’t do that, but he has
sideways and more indirect of showing how the action unfolds. What
happens is that you are made to feel the drama illustrated
rhythmically rather than melodically. Preparing this role is
interesting because Nick is just so unlike normal people. But I
started with that great libretto. I’ve done a lot of Stravinsky
before, so I understand how he writes his music, and how it
develops”.
“Nick Shadow’s music is based on recitative, so you have to approach
it from a conversational angle almost first and foremost. Stravinsky
is very specific with his tempo markings because (In think he wants
“conversational” rhythms illustrated in the score. He’s specific
about the pitches too, but I think it’s the speech rhythms that are
more important than anything else in revealing Nick’s character. He
has these eloquent, long spoken passages which the other characters
don’t have nearly so much. Like recitative in an oratorio, it gives
him control. Nick is an enhanced version of most villains, he’s
believable and convincing because he’s well-rounded. He’s leading
others on all the time. There’s that suave eloquent side of him.
He’s intelligent but conceals his true, unchanging motives. He
could be a used car salesman, or a very clever politician !”
Relyea’s voice is magnificent, the resonant glories of the bass
allied with the agility of a baritone. It’s an interesting fach
whose possibilities are undervalued. What makes him so distinctive
is his musical intelligence, which grows from very deep roots. He
grew up in a musical home. His father was the Canadian baritone Gary
Relyea and his mother a singer and voice teacher. His parents
wisely let him come to opera in his own way. He played guitar in
rock bands and liked jazz. One day his father suggested that he try
singing and he found his vocation. “Shostakovich’s 14th
Symphony – what great music ! It is so wonderful to sing !” Relyea
is still fairly young, only in his late thirties, yet already he’s
outstandingly impressive. Don’t miss this Royal Opera House
Rake’s Progress. It runs only five days, from 7th to
18th July but it’s a major event that might be something
to talk about for years ahead.
Anne Ozorio
For tickets, please see
The Royal Opera House
web site
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