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SEEN AND HEARD INTERVIEW
Joyce DiDonato
in London: The American
mezzo talks to
Margarida Mota-Bull (MMB)
Photograph © Sheila Rock, courtesy of Virgin Classics
Joyce DiDonato, is in London for two concerts at Wigmore
Hall: on Tuesday, 26th and on Thursday, 28th January
2010, both at 19.30. This interview was conducted before the concerts, on 12th
January 2010, in the Gerald Moore Room at the Wigmore Hall, in London.
MMB: How did you become interested or when did you decide you
wanted to be a musician and an opera singer? Did you have any influences in
your family?
JDD: I don’t know that I ever thought I could actually
be a professional musician. It was something that seemed like a very distant
dream, so I never dared put much hope in it. But music was always a part of
my life. My father was a church choir director and I grew up singing in all
the choirs and musicals in high school. It was such a wonderful escape for
me! I immediately loved the entire element of the music; the intellectual
side of it; the linguistic element, the emotional impact. So, I went to
college to become a music teacher, which was a sensible, very achievable
goal. I think it was during my third year in college that I began studying
voice because I thought I should learn how to teach singing and I started
figuring out the instrument of the body, which is quite a natural, organic
thing, which surprised me because when I heard opera singers then, I heard
something like “OOO...OOO” [she makes a howling sound] and I first thought:
what is that sound? I didn’t understand it. I mean sonically, I didn’t get
it. Instead, it was coming from the inside out and that really captured me.
I had always loved being on the stage; so, opera was kind of a very natural
evolution for me. But truthfully, it took me completely by surprise. It
really enthralled me that I found myself on an opera stage and enjoying it;
so, I decided: I was about 21 or 22, and I thought: I’m going to give this a
shot and see what happens.
MMB: I’m glad you did.
JDD: Thank you. It’s funny how things like that work
out!
MMB: I read an article on Opera News (the Diva edition), which
stated that you were once told by a judge at a song competition in London
that (and I quote) “you had nothing to offer as an artist”. He must be
eating his hat now if he has one! Anyway, it really seems like an outrageous
thing to say when one hears you sing at present.
JDD: I’m sure he doesn’t even remember it. I don’t
think it was as big a deal to him as it was to me at the time.
MMB: Yes, that's what I wanted to know: How did you feel then?
How did you overcome that kind of rejection?
JDD: I was devastated. I was sincerely devastated and that’s the
kind of thing that can really knock you down... as if you were a boxer and
somebody punches you in the gut, and you’re down for the count. I didn’t
have a great voice back then; I honestly didn’t know how to sing so well.
So, I was used to criticisms like the voice is a little shrill or it’s too
tight; or the German is a little “mish-mash” but I always believed that I
had something to say, that I could communicate well. So, this was
devastating to me and I thought: Well, I guess that’s it then! If I have
nothing to say I’d better find another career! And then, at about the same
time, I went back to my second year in the Houston programme. For various
circumstances a role had been taken away from me and given to somebody else;
I did a couple of auditions but I didn’t get any offers. It was all quite
disheartening. I was absolutely in a vortex at the time. It lasted a few
months and then I slowly pulled myself out of it; life started happening and
my career started going on. However, that statement was always there, like a
lightening bolt! But I’m the kind of person that after I get knocked down, I
will actually steel myself up and I will say, “OK, you don’t think I have
anything to say as an artist? I’m going to make sure that nobody can ever
say that about me again!” So, I got a little bit defiant and became a bit
intense on the stage. But actually what I think he was saying was: I arrived
on the scene, here at Wigmore Hall, a very polished, perfect sort of... I
won’t say plastic... but I was playing an opera singer, playing the
part of a recitalist and everything was perfectly in place. I was standing
with my hand on the piano “just so”, I was doing everything I had been told
to do and it probably arrived as quite mechanical. In the end, he was
probably right! In that moment what was coming across was something
seemingly superficial even though I didn’t feel superficial, I
thought I was doing everything you were supposed to do. I felt very strongly
about the music, I loved it, I loved singing, I had done a lot of work on
the poetry to say something, but at the time, at that age – I was 27, I
guess – I thought you had to behave in a certain way and present yourself
“as a diva”... that was my upbringing in the conservatory system and instead
I think what I learned was: while yes, there is certain stage deportment
which is expected, the most important element is to be myself. I have to be
myself! So, in the end, what was originally devastating actually was quite
liberating and it taught me exactly what I needed to learn; it gave me the
impetus, the real kick in the behind to be myself, which has been an amazing
thing. I can go on stage now... It’s much easier...Oh! God! It’s so much
easier than trying to act like the diva or something! So, devastation turned
into liberation, I guess. A long answer! Sorry!
MMB: No, no, it’s fine. I enjoyed listening to it. Now, I would
like to go through some of the composers you sing. Rossini! What does the
composer mean to you? Why did you choose arias that he wrote for Colbran for
your new CD? Do they suit your voice? And also the personal aspect: Rossini
wrote many of his operas for Colbran but their marriage was not a happy one.
After her death, he married Olympe Pélissier with whom he seemed to have had
a more harmonious life. How important do you think it is for an artist such
as Rossini and yourself to have a happy private life and a supportive,
harmonious relationship?
JDD: Oh! That’s a big question! Ah! Rossini has been
very good to me in my career and he’s been, I’d say, one of two composers
that I’ve been primarily associated with: Handel and Rossini. So, I answer
the question actually including Handel as well.
MMB: ..... I was going to ask you about Handel after.
JDD: Okay. I feel the same but slightly stronger about
Handel in this regard, in that they have taught me first of all how to be a
better singer, because you cannot sing that repertoire without having a
solid technique. Or perhaps you can sing it for a little while but it’s
going to break down quite quickly. It exposes without mercy any technical
weakness you have, it also requires in my opinion that you are able to do
everything: piano, forte, getting from piano to forte and back down to piano
seamlessly, that you can sing nearly... not quite two and a half octaves but
nearly two and a half octaves without any breaks or lumps. I consider Handel
as a bel canto composer, for me, in terms of what is required of the
singing. You have to be able to sing fast and clear, as well as to be able
to sing slow and legato, AND fast and legato. So, Rossini and Handel have
made me absolutely a better singer. They’ve challenged me in enormous ways
and I LOVE that. The other thing is that I think they’ve made me a better
artist. If you just look at the notes that they wrote and you simply sing
the notes, it’s quite easy that it comes out as pure vocalising, as simple
exercises for the voice, and it’s excruciating if you hear it sung
that way! I can’t take it for more than about fifteen seconds. So, it’s not
easy to find the expressive quality of the phrases; there’s a lot of
repetition in each of the composers, especially Handel. The text is
repeating all the time; you have a ten-minute aria and you have only four
phrases to say; so, you have to find the bone marrow, the layers underneath
the surface of the notes. So, by exploring that first with Handel, I think
it fed me a lot of information for this Colbran disc. There’s a lot of deep
music in this Rossini but it’s not necessarily obvious. I associate both
composers very closely in what their vocal and musical requirements are, but
also what their rewards are, because viscerally, to actually tear through a
two-octave scale up and down chromatically... you know... in Rossini you get
to the end and it’s like OOOOH! It’s quite thrilling! So, it’s really
athletic, singing these kinds of things and like any athlete you get a rush
of endorphins and it’s quite exhilarating if you get it right. But there’s a
lot of pedantic, pedagogical, boring technical work to get to that point but
that’s all right: you do the work and hopefully the reward is good.
Now, the next part of that question was about Colbran and Rossini. You know
I find it fascinating, strictly from a musical standpoint, to put their
relationship under the microscope. Obviously, he knew her very intimately
not only as a woman but as an artist, as a singer and you hear that. I mean
he gave her so much in these pieces; temperamentally he gave her such strong
characters... I mean, my gosh, in America we thought the feminist revolution
happened in the seventies! Hello! Armida? Semiramide? I mean, these are
strong women. That’s what I always like about Rossini: He gives you
such strong, wonderful women and, as a woman myself, it’s such a rush to
sing a character like Armida; it’s amazing. And yet, you also see the
tenderness that Rossini gave Colbran. For example, Desdemona, in Otello,
with the Willow Song, those are moments a composer gives a singer simply to
shine, not to impress with fireworks and pyrotechnics but to let the voice
just unfold through sorrow, through imploration. So, even though it was a
tempestuous relationship... how could it not be? You’ve got Rossini and this
fiery Spanish diva, with what must have been a huge personality! I think
people have different opinions about what makes up a personal life as an
artist. There’s one school of thought that says you’ve got to suffer
to be a real artist on the stage. I think suffering informs a lot about
dramatic and musical choices for the stage but... I love singing and I love
music but I also have a life, which I love as well. And at the end of my
days, when I can’t sing anymore, which will happen [she knocks on wood and
smiles] in a long time hopefully! I hope that at the end of the day I will
have had a very satisfying, happy life and, in fact, I work very hard to
make that a reality. I work very hard to keep balance and to keep joy in my
life. It’s not always easy! Oh God! It’s not always easy but it’s a
priority. It’s an absolute priority of mine... as long as I have access
to... I mean... I’ve had pain... I’ve had a lot of pain in my life so I have
access to those emotions. But I’m also happy if at the end of a performance
people come away and they feel uplifted and they feel joy. I don’t think
it’s a bad thing. I think as a matter of fact that in today’s world, it is a
great and NECESSARY thing!
MMB: It is a great thing. I absolutely agree with you. Talking
about your performances, I saw you in “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” as Rosina
this summer at the ROH when you broke your leg. I also saw your DVDs as Dona
Elvira in Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” and Handel’s “Hercules” as Dejanira. I
watched your concert some time ago at the Barbican when you were promoting
your CD of Handel’s “Arie di Furore”. Each time, it seemed as though the
roles were written especially for you, a quality I found also in your
recording of Handel’s “Alcina”. Is this intuitive because you like the music
so much and you love to sing? Or is it dramatic training? Or simply hard
work?
JDD: I’m not sure, to be honest, but it’s such a
lovely comment! Thank you! I think it’s several things: I respect
tremendously... well, I have a few friends who are composers and part of
this comes from the modern work that I did in Houston; so, I’ve seen first
hand the amount of work that it takes to compose, the passion that they
possess for their work... I mean, perhaps I romanticise it now... whereas,
you know, in Mozart’s day he needed to put chicken on the table... maybe
it’s less romantic than I would like it to be! But I sincerely respect what
they wrote. You know, I would say that ninety-eight times out of a hundred,
I get to work on masterpieces, real masterpieces; so, I tend not to
think that I know better than the composer. I think the composer did just
fine... [she smiles] on his own! So I work very hard to truly look at the
score and I try to carefully observe what’s been written, so perhaps that’s
part of it. Another element is that I think I’m careful about what I choose.
I don’t look at a list of standard roles for a lyric mezzo and say, “OK, so
I should sing x, y and z.” I look at the repertoire and I say, “Oh! Actually
that’s a good fit for my voice.” Donna Elvira, for example, if I look at the
history of singers who have sung this role (Te Kanawa, Schwarzkopf, etc) I
say “It can’t possibly be for me,” but if I really look at the score, I see
that it just might be possible. I know the tradition of Mi tradi
that Mozart wrote one version down a half a step, which makes a world of
difference for my voice, and temperamentally I certainly get this woman; I
understand her; I like her. Musically, vocally, if the conductor is
on my side, I think I can have a really good success with this. So I did it!
I also tend not to take on roles that if I could list for you... – I hope
this doesn’t sound arrogant – but if I could name you five other people
singing today that I would rather hear sing the role, I won’t do it. I’d
rather hear them even if I could sing it, even if I could get through it.
So, I try to take on things that I think resonate strongly with me, and
which I think I have something to say with it, that I identify with, either
musically or dramatically; and that excite me. There’s really no role yet
which I have performed that hasn’t excited me. I love to sing, as you said,
I love being given the chance to live with these characters who are so
amazing... I mean Cherubino, Dejanira, Donna Elvira, Alcina, they’re so
immensely different and they’re so extraordinary. I respect them as human
beings; I respect who they are; I get their sufferings; I get their
deficiencies; I get their frailties; I get their strengths, and I love them
all the more for it. It’s such a privilege to step into those shoes for a
couple of hours! I’m so lucky.
MMB: Looking at your repertoire you sing Rossini, Handel who
both have bel canto roots; you sing classics like Mozart and Haydn; you made
a recording of Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini but you also sing Strauss and
many modern composers for whom you created roles like for example Meg in
Mark Adamo’s Little Women. Could you comment on this particular
work?
JDD: Well, the first time I did
Little Women, I was still in the studio of the Houston Opera and, you
know, when you’re young and when you’re a student, you’re slightly arrogant
and you think, “Who is this man and how is he going to do Little Women?
Bla, bla, bla!” And we didn’t realise how good it was when we were in the
middle of it. It was difficult; it was very hard vocally for everybody. So
each of us were pushed to our limits a bit. We were getting the music quite
late so we didn’t have a lot of preparation time and we just couldn’t see
how it was going to be a worthwhile piece. Of course we knew! We
were so smart! And then we got in front of an audience for the first time,
it was an open dress rehearsal, and they started laughing. We heard actual
laughter coming from the theatre! It was supposed to be comical in spots,
but we weren’t getting it; we were all a bit sour on it and the audience was
really laughing and we thought: “Oh…whatever!” And so we continued and as we
got further along into the opera, from the stage, we started to hear people
crying and – you know the death of Amy is very poignant and the ending
quartet for the women is just beyond beautiful – and we were all just
absolutely blindsided by the reaction from the audience. So then, it came
back two years later and it was almost all the same cast and we were all, of
course, saying: “This is genius; don’t you know it’s great? We knew it right
from the beginning!” [She laughs, making fun of herself]. So, we did the
opera again! The beautiful thing is that we were a close group of friends in
the studio; we’d been training together for a number of years; we knew each
other quite well and, as I talked to other people who had done the opera as
well... we saw... well, that it really has this quality that brings you very
close, as a cast. You really feel like sisters and friends up on the stage
and I think the audience feels it as well. So, it was amazing to be part of
a historic American novel, an American story, and to present something that
was beautiful; that really touched people. It was surprising. But... I,
well... I REALLY wanted to be Jo.
MMB: I was going to ask you that. Did you really have a preference?
JDD: Oh! Yes! The original idea was for me to sing Jo and I got
taken off of it and they promptly “demoted” me to Meg. Oh, I hated the idea,
because I come from a big family; I’m sixth of seven children; I have five
sisters; I was a bit of a Tom-boy; it was supposed to be a big coloratura
role; it was the lead... and I thought: Oh! I AM Jo and then I got demoted
to Meg... I was devastated... and of course, in the end it ended up being
the right, the absolutely right role for me.
MMB: In your live performances, you always appear to give it
everything, with a generosity that I have not very often seen in other
operatic artists. Is this because you have hard times behind you until you
got to the top? Also I’ve seen your performances, read your interviews and
you never came across as a big “diva”, [she laughs] as a lot of your
colleagues (both female and male) are more often than not. Is that a
conscious thing that you don’t become a “diva” in the negative sense of the
word?
JDD: Extremely conscious and it’s slightly
reactionary... but no, it’s extremely conscious and it goes back to your
earlier question about the kind of life that I want to live. It’s a lot of
work – maybe I’m just lazy – but it’s a lot of work to uphold a persona off
stage as well as on. I tried that costume on for a while, believing that you
had to be a certain thing, and it just doesn’t fit me. AND it’s
exhausting work! It’s absolutely not for me. I felt like I had to take a
shower afterwards; I had to take off my stage “diva” make up. And you know?
My time on stage is precious and brilliant and people have paid a lot of
money to attend a performance, so I should give it everything because if I
don’t... Well, I mean if you paid £300 a seat and I only give you eighty
percent; you deserve twenty percent of your money back! That’s the way I
think about it. My time on stage is in character and everything is for the
audience. But then I think it’s only fair that I shouldn’t have to play a
role off-stage as well. It’s too tiring; and I can’t see the merit in it. I
don’t see how it can be rewarding. It can be rewarding for a while but it’s
artificially rewarding. For a little bit you get loads of flowers, you get
your picture on the newspaper... you know, whatever the rewards are... But I
prefer to experience this wonderful, wacky journey of being an opera singer
as myself. It’s just easier...so much less complicated!
MMB: Haydn: “Scena di Berenice” – you sang it at the Proms last
summer. It’s beautiful but you made it an unforgettable experience. What do
you feel about this piece of music?
JDD: Oh! I love it! It’s such a gift from Haydn. You
know Ch’io mi scordi di te, from Mozart? It’s very similar; it’s
the same kind of thing outside of the operatic repertoire. It’s written by a
composer who obviously loved singers and loved what the voice could do and
who gives you everything in that piece. Scena di Berenice is highly
dramatic. OK, maybe you don’t get any comedy, but you get real
declamatory, strong recitatives; you get aching pathos and lyricism and
beauty of melody, beauty of line, and then you get to sort of, you know, to
tear the roof off the place! Again, another very strong woman, fiery but
fragile and vulnerable at the same time... but she doesn’t let that defeat
her. And strictly speaking, just from a musical standpoint, I mean it’s
Haydn at his best. It’s everything that made Haydn great - that period of
real classicism, you know, there’s a purity about it, which is why it can
still speak to people today; there’s a purity in it, in the music... It’s
just so right. To sing it with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment...
it was just heaven!
MMB: You have been compared by some critics to Marilyn Horne
and Teresa Berganza; not because you imitate them but because you have an
amazing range and a depth in your acting which those singers were both
famous for. Do you agree with this comparison?
JDD: No. No, I mean, it astonishes me to have my name
put along side them, because for me, you know, they’re absolute icons. But
actually, I think, it’s more calling attention to the fact that we share
similar repertoire with a real attention and devotion to Rossini and Handel.
Marilyn Horne certainly put these composers back on the map almost
single-handedly. The fact that there’s an audience for this repertoire right
now is largely due to her and to Berganza. (I love being compared to such a
fabulous, Spanish lady.) They’re both fiercely brilliant women, strong women
so, I mean, it’s quite a compliment to be put on the same level but...
vocally, I think we are quite different characters.
MMB: Are there any composers that you think you cannot sing?
JDD: Puccini. Puccini.
MMB: Somehow I had a hunch that that was
what you were going to say.
JDD: Hum, yes! I wish I could! I also don’t see myself going into
Verdi. Again there are other people I’d rather hear sing that. Yeah! From
the big ones I think those are the two that should be left to other
people... sadly! Not that I wouldn’t want to!
MMB: What about Donizetti or Bellini? I don’t think I’ve ever
heard you sing those!
JDD: Actually, I did my first Romeo about two years
ago in Paris and loved it. I will do my first Adalgisa this summer in
Salzburg. I have also sung Elisabetta in Maria Stuarda a few years ago in
Geneva and I will take on the title role in a few seasons at the Met. So I
see more bel canto in my future. They’re... I mean Donizetti and Bellini are
the natural successors to Handel and Rossini.
MMB: You call yourself “Yankee Diva” in your blog and your
e-mail address! I think it’s a great name with humour and style but may I
ask why you chose it?
JDD: It sort of morphed into the something that it is
now [she laughs.]. It happened back in the days...
– I was married before – My husband was a big Yankees fan. Back then you
didn’t have multiple e-mail accounts; you had one! So, he took the “yankee”,
I took the “diva” and we put them together and it kind of worked out that
way. I suppose over time I’ve grown into it on my own. I didn’t actually set
out to identify myself as a “yankee diva”! I sort of went like: Oh! Yeah!
That actually really fits me. I like that. It’s catchy!
MMB: Do you have a role model? A singer that you look up to?
Either in the present or in the past.
JDD: You know, my answer to that is always Frederica
von Stade. She’s – and this is why I’m very flattered by some of the things
you said earlier – because what I find with her is that she is such a
generous performer. When I’m in the audience or I’m watching something with
her, what comes across to me is absolute generosity: she’s giving
everything to the public and not asking for a single thing back in return.
My personal taste for performers is not somebody who asks the public:
“Please tell me I’m great. That was good, right?” Somebody who is not a
needy performer. I don’t want to have to make a performer feel okay about
their performance; I want them to make me feel something and I
always felt that in relation to her. With Flicka, her priority is the music
and the emotion and sharing that; she's not holding any of it for herself.
And also, actually, the voice melts my heart; there’s humanity in that
voice; it’s not manufactured; it’s real! She is also the most generous human
being on the face of the planet. She’s an extraordinary, extraordinary lady
with a wicked sense of humour. I don’t think she takes herself so seriously.
So, it’s all those things that have always resonated with me.
MMB: What about your male colleagues, somebody you like to sing
with; that you think there is real chemistry on stage?
JDD: Hmm! Oh! I hate to single anybody out.....
MMB:...... You don’t have to answer if
you don’t want to.
JDD: Well, I will say that it is always something special to share
the stage with Larry Brownlee. I’ll never forget when he had his debut at
the MET and it was the second run of Barbers for me; I had done the
first run and in the second run, he was stepping into it and he had his
debut... Do you actually know Larry Brownlee?
MMB: Yes, Lawrence Brownlee, right?
JDD: Yes! Lawrence Brownlee. He is about this tall [she
indicates somebody quite short]; he’s black and he was a little pudgy
at the time and he’s not somebody that an agent would look at and say:
“You’re going to have a great career!”
MMB: But he has a lovely voice.
JDD: Oh my god! Doesn’t he just? And he’s an exceptional musician
and he’s the greatest guy on the face of the planet. He sang Cessa di
più resistere and blew the roof off the place. He stood there for five
minutes taking the applause and I had tears streaming down my face because
he’s somebody who had a lot (I mean a LOT!) of obstacles in front of him and
yet I never once ever heard him make an excuse for himself, or to begrudge
other people for making his road difficult; he’s always taken the high road.
He has such class and sincerity about him. The next performance was the day
after my mother had died and I had stayed on to sing that show and then went
home for the funeral and for a variety of reasons... it was terribly
difficult, but was the right choice in the end. Anyway, when I got to the
theatre, there was a bouquet of flowers from him and he said: “Tonight, I
dedicate my performance to your Mom.” And I just thought here’s somebody...
you know? He had loads of family and friends in from everywhere and there’s
a lot of pressure and attention on a debut at the Met – he had plenty of
other things on his mind. And yet here he was reaching out to me as a friend
and the support I felt from him that night and the joy of having watched and
been a part of his debut was very special. He’s very special! He’s an
incredibly special human being.
MMB: Here at Wigmore Hall you are singing a programme of songs
from a great variety of composers - organised under the topic “Over Three
Centuries of Italian Love Songs”. Could you please comment on some of the
less obvious choices? Like Beethoven for example!
JDD: It is very interesting because Beethoven was the
nucleus for this recital. John Gilhooly , the director of Wigmore Hall, said
to me: “You need to sing these songs!” But I didn’t know them, so, I looked
at them and I thought: Oh! Actually, they sound like Mozart! They’re so
Mozartian, it’s incredible! They’re just great! There are two in which he
uses the exact same text, yet sets it in two completely different ways: one
is a buffo aria and the other is larghetto and quite
sincere. So, I thought: How fabulous to take the same text and set it in two
different ways! I love that kind of stuff. So, I started with Beethoven and
then John also said: “Arie antiche! I’d like to hear you sing
those.” So I began thinking: How can I make a recital around this? What do I
do? Throw in some Debussy? I don’t know. So, I stayed in the Italian school
and started looking at a lot of music, I mean, a lot of music! I came across
these 20th century pieces that I didn’t know – I had never heard
about Francesco Santoliquido, for example – as well as a number of other
obscure pieces but... Well, come to think of it I remember some of these
people, these composers were fascists and got pushed out to the side quite
quickly, but years later, their music is still around. So as I searched I
realised: Oh, my gosh: there’s more than 3 centuries of music here... Bingo!
It is actually a perfect reflection of my career: I go from very early music
to the most contemporary. So, I thought that’s actually a real reflection on
who I am as an artist. I then looked for a thread to connect these pieces
through the centuries while demonstrating how the music had developed. I’m
always very frightened when I first bring out a recital because you’re
putting together an immense programme that’s never been heard before and you
don’t get a chance to test it out before you present it – I mean, I have to
present my programme months and months in advance – and before I have the
chance to put it all together, rehearse it, make sure it’s cohesive; it’s
decided. So, I get nervous and I think: Oh! I hope it works! Anyway, one of
the things for me with this programme is that I’ve done many challenging
recitals before: with American music, contemporary music, mad scenes, etc.
So, I thought, “this time I just want to sing melodies!” And I was able to
choose selections on a theme of love: either celebrating it, or scorning it,
or rejecting it or laughing at it. When you think of Italy, you think
amore... and I’ve ended up with a lot of really beautiful melodies. My
fear is that it will end up being too light of an evening but I figured...
you know, January, grey skies... let’s bring in some Mediterranean sun and
warm things up. I think it’s good for people just to be able to enjoy the
melodies.
MMB: You just said “too light an evening”. You’re not one of
those people that thinks opera singers should only sing opera?
JDD: I don’t know! Sometimes there’s a certain pressure for that.
MMB: I’m thinking about your CD of
Spanish music “¡Pasión!”, which is not really opera as such but it’s a
wonderful CD. Very lively, very fiery and very passionate as the name
indicates...
JDD: Thank you! There’s so much wonderful repertoire
out there. No, I don’t think that we only have to do opera. I think you look
at my CV and it’s obvious that I don’t like to be contained in a small box.
I have a big musical appetite; I have a big artistic appetite and I think
that having all those elements combined make me a better artist; it’s just
my temperament! It’s what works well for me. But this one, this recital, I
think it’s going to be kind of relaxed, you know, just sort of indulgent...
My fear is that it’s too much sugar but, you know, we need that! Like I said
it’s the winter; it’s the grey of winter and I just want people to come and
revel in the tunes and the melody.
MMB: Great. I’m looking forward to it
JDD: Oh! I hope you’ll enjoy it
MMB: I’m sure I will. There is yet to come something sung by you that I didn’t enjoy.
JDD: Oh! Thank you. That’s very kind.
Margarida Mota-Bull's operatic e-novel, Canto de Tenore is available Here