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AND HEARD ARTIST INTERVIEW
Melanie Eskenazi talks to the baritone
Markus Werba:
about his career and his role in the Royal Opera’s ‘La
Calisto’ which opens this week (ME)
Markus Werba as Mercurio - Picture © Bill Cooper
David Alden describes ‘La Calisto’ as a ‘riotous sex-comedy
production of a riotous sex-comedy’ and as Mercurio in the opera,
clad in a striking metallic suit, Markus Werba had to agree – ‘It’s
really the only way you can do this sort of thing, it’s crazy but
everything has musical relevance too – the director has some wild
ideas but the wildness really makes sense in dramatic and musical
terms!’ Werba will be reprising his role in London after the
production’s rapturous reception in Munich, where it was so popular
that it was revived not long after its first run – unusual for a
relatively obscure piece, and most of the original cast will also
feature in the London version, most notably the soprano Sally
Matthews in the leading rôle.
I spoke to Markus Werba about his own international career, and was
surprised to find how many major roles he has succeeded in at so
relatively young an age – at only 34, he already feels that Papageno,
one of his signature parts, is almost behind him; he will sing it in
Los Angeles in 2009, under James Conlon and with Matthias Goerne as
the Speaker, and for what may be the last time in 2010. For him,
‘Zauberflöte’ presents so many challenges in production that he
feels that only one or two directors have ‘made sense’ of it. He is
of course fresh from his Salzburg triumph in the part, described by
the NY ‘Sun’ as ‘A winning Papageno in every way… (his singing)
lyrical, unforced and smooth.’
Markus made his operatic debut in Vienna at the age of 21 as Don
Giovanni, and he had a notable success with his ROH debut in the
2008 ‘Ariadne auf Naxos,’ replacing Christopher Maltman as
Harlequin, and eliciting warm praise from our own Mark Berry, not
one usually given to effusiveness – Mark was especially impressed
with his ‘Lieder singer’s attention to verbal and musical detail’
and went so far as to say that ‘He and (Thomas) Allen outshone the
rest of the cast.’ High praise indeed, and a reminder of the
reaction of the many critics who were bowled over by his first
Salzburg Papageno under Muti in 2005.
Markus Werba comes from a very musical background – from Carinthia
in South Austria, a part of the country steeped in the choral
tradition; his family is rich in singers and players, most notably
his great-uncle, the renowned accompanist Erik Werba, whose advice
was instrumental in setting the young Markus on the road to a
singing career. He was a finalist in the 2003 Cardiff Singer of the
World, with a fine showing in the Song Prize competition, and he has
won many first prizes in Japan, Italy and Austria. With two Wigmore
recitals already under his belt and another scheduled for next year,
he makes his Edinburgh Festival recital debut next season, and more
imminently his Rosenblatt Recital debut at St John’s Smith Square on
December 3rd, with an enticing programme of Schubert,
Brahms, Mozart, Thomas, Gounod and Korngold.
Markus has also established himself as one of William Christie’s
favourite collaborators, having sung Guglielmo under him at Lyon in
2006 and the Count in 2007, as well as taking part in a notable –
and subsequently recorded – ‘Die Schoepfung’ at the Aix en Provence
Festival. His career has taken him to most of the world’s great
opera houses, but he admits to a special affection for Covent Garden
– ‘It’s an incredible place, there is nowhere else with quite this
same feeling – I love the auditorium, with its feeling of being a
little theatre inside a big one, the acoustic is unique, and
everyone here is so wonderful to work with.’
Coming back to ‘La Calisto,’ it’s clear that the singers have been
enjoying it as much as the director hopes the audience will - ‘ It’s
a crazy, crazy story which you can’t do in a romantic style – I
don’t know how it will go down here, maybe it will be ‘too much,’ it
was a huge success in Munich but there is a difference in mentality
of course…’ As we all know, a little bit of sensation does a
production no harm at all in London! Markus Werba’s role in the
piece is a fairly small one compared to the leading parts he has
been taking on elsewhere in Europe, but it should introduce London
audiences to one of the most charismatic and cultivated baritones
around – in the near future he will be expanding his repertoire to
Pelléas, Posa and, in my opinion most interestingly, Billy Budd, a
rôle for which both his voice and person seem exceptionally well
suited.
Melanie Eskenazi
‘La Calisto’
opens at Covent Garden on Tuesday September 23rd, with
further performances on 25th, 27th (12 noon
matinee) October 1st, 3rd and 10th.
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