“I will read books when the piano is not littered with scores”

The outstanding mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca sang the role of Amneris for the first time in her career: the debut of the Latvian singer in Verdi’s Aida took place on the stage of the Vienna Opera in a star cast with Anna Netrebko and Jonas Kaufman under the baton of maestro Nicola Luisotti. In the purest Russian Elina Garancha told Vladimir Dudin about love for the Vienna Opera, slowly building a career and an interest in psychological literature.

– You have not met Anna Netrebko on the stage of the Vienna Opera since your triumph with her in Donizetti’s Anna Boleyn, where you also acted as two rivals. In one of our interviews, you assumed that someday you would sing with her in “Aida”, and it finally happened.

– In this Vienna “Aida” the situation is somewhat different, because here is not just our duet, but a whole star quartet, in which, in addition to me and Anna, there are also Jonas Kaufmann and baritone Luca Salsi. Beautiful duets are not only between me and Anya, but also between her and Jonas. And this four of us reminded some of the legendary opera compositions of the last century, such as, for example, Mirella Freni, Agnes Baltsa, Jose Carreras, Nikolai Gyaurov.

“It took you so long to join the Amneris party in Hades. Is it for you, as for any mezzo-soprano, something like climbing Everest?

“I have a special story with Amneris. In 1998, in January, as a 21-year-old student, I first came to listen to “Aida” at the Vienna Opera in the gallery, then Dolora Zadzhik sang Amneris. I stood in the gallery and thought: “What a beauty all this is – and the theater, and the opera, and the party. May God give me someday to stand on this stage, at least in the choir or in small roles. And it turned out that 25 years later, also in January, at the Vienna Opera, I stand and sing Amneris. And even before that visit to Vienna, when they already told me that I had some kind of voice, most likely a mezzo-soprano, I began to look through the most important mezzos in the history of opera and fell in love with Amneris and the opera Aida. Then I told everyone that as a student I had two dreams – Rossini’s Cinderella, where, as you know, there are an awful lot of notes and all of them are special in Rossini’s coloratura parts, and Amneris in Aida. When I sing them, I can calmly end my career, because I will achieve all my goals, and there are no other similar expectations. It is with such a psychological background and state that I perform this part today. And I ask myself: “What’s next?” Of course, there are many proposals, just yesterday I was talking about the next season in the theater, but this will all be a bonus for me, because I have already fulfilled my childhood dream of singing this part.

Did you have enough rehearsals?

– We had very few rehearsals for this “Aida” – two and a half days. Four stage performances, then one rehearsal with the orchestra, and immediately the premiere. This production is almost forty years old, it can be called “poster”. I have six costumes in the play, which must be constantly changed. All of them are beautiful, silk, fluttering. There was no special information about directing, the soloists were given a lot of freedom, so we improvised a lot, each to the best of our professionalism and acting potential. All performers, thank God, have their own rich experience, their own “skeleton” of the role, which we used. I prepared this part for a long time, thought about it, so when we were working on the performance, I shared many of my ideas. But during the several days of preparation for the performance, as well as during the premiere screenings, many new, very interesting, lively reactions arose between us.

– Does the Vienna Opera continue to rely on stars at any cost?

— The Vienna Opera is not only a musical, but also a powerful cultural center with a huge history, baggage and potential for what they have already achieved and what they can still achieve. A huge repertoire has been accumulated here. So for many artists, both famous and just starting their careers, there are opportunities here to debut almost every day. When I started working here in the ensemble, the system was quite strict, young soloists went on stage to make their debut in parts, learning about it in two or three days. If you come across a very old production, then maybe in a week. The Vienna Opera is alive and strong because everyone who happens to be in it is a great professional, and thanks to the highest level of the choir and orchestra, a long tradition of staging both new performances and returning to productions of past years is preserved here, in which quality is not lost.

The world has changed a lot. Of course, it’s hard for me to take a look at everything, but it’s hard not to notice that modern directors want to see the stories of Carmen, Santuzza, Macbeth somehow differently, in order to “not like everyone else”, outdo each other, but in fact they don’t really understand what to do, and to tell the story is not very successful. Today, there is also a tendency to make some kind of photographic or “film performances”, where the singers are only required to arrive correctly, stand somewhere, walk around a bit and leave. Directors with actors either do not speak at all, or speak little about emotions and psychology, characters, relationships, dramaturgy of heroes from the first to the last acts, they think only about pictures. I really don’t like it, it seems very boring. I don’t have the patience to stand and remember why I have to walk around the table four times when I could have limited myself to one. At such moments, I think that if there is no sensible director, then is it not better to go and even debut in old productions that have been tested by time. Because spending five weeks until the director finds out who Carmen is and what Werther or Don Carlos is is very difficult and no longer interesting.

– This season turned out to be a season of your favorite parties, among which are Delilah, and even Carmen, which you have not performed for a long time. With what moods do you sing them today?

— Yes, we got really favorite parts. After all, I built a career without fuss, without chasing quantity, helping my voice grow. As I like to joke, one becomes a legend slowly, without incinerating oneself with a swift flame. I always thought not only about myself, but also about the audience, who wanted to show the different colors and possibilities of my voice. Intuition told me which party to take so that my career would be long. I slowly prepare the parts, let them mature in my voice. I understand perfectly well that during the season there should be not only opera projects, but also chamber ones, so that I myself would be interested. I could never move from one production of Don Carlos or Carmen to another, like an elevator up and down, I get bored. Now I do what I want, what succeeds and causes joy and interest in me and the public. And then we’ll see. It’s never too late to start recording new CDs. I get about fifty performances a year – this is the number that I can safely combine with family life. By the way, I am a lark, I get up at half past six, and at nine in the evening I already want to sleep, so sometimes I suffer a lot when I have evening performances, because at ten, half past ten, especially in big scenes, I just fall asleep. Besides, I am also a mother of two daughters.

– Coping with their upbringing?

– The eldest daughter is eleven and a half years old, she is a very sensitive child, entering a special period. And in my free time, I try to read books that would help me to be the best mother, to understand the psychology of children and adults, I remember what I was myself.

– Do you have time for fiction?

— The most recent book I read was How to Read People, which has some psychology, some CIA techniques and other interesting topics. I once laughed that if I hadn’t become a singer, maybe I would have gone into criminal psychology to understand why people act the way they do, why the most innocent soul suddenly turns out to be a murderer, how we try to show ourselves in a different light, and small gestures betray us insidiously. I always tell myself that I will read books when I no longer have to learn anything by heart, when the piano will not be littered with scores, when the children grow up and leave to study, and I will stay at home with my garden, cats, animals, I will sit in the sun with a glass of wine and read lots and lots of books.