“You should not play only tearful sacrificial roles”

Opera singer Albina Shagimuratova, one of the most famous and most virtuoso lyric-coloratura sopranos in the world, recorded the part of Lucia in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor for the first time in her career. A DVD recording of the performance at the New Stage of the Mariinsky Theater conducted by Valery Gergiev will be released on the Mariinsky label. However, the singer announced that she performed in this part for the last time. Albina Shagimuratova told Vladimir Dudinwhy it is as important to put a beautiful end in time as it is to open a new page, about preparations for the premiere of Bellini’s Norma and the need to balance tragic roles with comic ones.

– You have officially announced that you will perform the title part in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor for the last time. In Russian, and indeed in the world opera theater, such announcements are not a common practice. Is it true that you won’t sing it again?

– Yes its true. I have been singing it for a long time, fifteen years. Just like Lucia, in 2018 I announced that the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s The Magic Flute at the Salzburg Festival would be the last. I was very much asked to agree then to this Queen, since a new production was planned, a recording on DVD, so I agreed, but decided that this was the last time. Not a single singer wants to get stuck in some part, everyone wants to have an extensive repertoire. Renata Scotto also told me: “You can get stuck with the Queen of the Night, this game is one of the most dangerous.” She advised to try to leave her as soon as possible. The queen, of course, gives the singer a big springboard, with her you can easily get into any opera houses, because only a few sing this part well. And then, in order to be heard in Lucia and in other repertoire, you will have to prove your worth to everyone.

– But at least leave Lucia in concert programs?

– I am not sure. If you read the biographies of the great prima donnas, after forty they no longer sang Lucia. So I’ve already stuck with it. About Love Potion or Don Pascual, for example, I would not specifically announce that these will be my last Adina and Norina. And Lucia is the pinnacle of bel canto. This part is very revealing for a lyric-coloratura soprano, since it shows everything that the singer can do, and all her shortcomings. And I realized that everything that I could draw for myself in this game, I learned. If we compare my performances of Lucia – say, in 2014-2015, 2017-2019 – then before that they were only outlines. Although I sang it on almost all the leading stages. But now at the Mariinsky Theater, it seems to me, it sounded the way Donizetti wanted it to.

– What do you have in mind?

– Firstly, I personally gained great confidence in style, language, and this happened precisely on the stage of the Mariinsky. The role of Lucia is complicated by the fact that in addition to a large vocal margin of safety, vocal freedom, acting freedom is also needed – and it does not come right away, because at first you are too concerned about how not only to sing, but also to play a scene of madness. Secondly, Valery Gergiev decided to record this opera, having opened all the banknotes, and assembled a good composition. And today you will not find a single record of “Lucia di Lammermoor” with open bills. The maestro worked with the orchestra and singers, achieving such a sound that everything was sung, not shouted out, and sounded soft. By the way, now at La Scala they are preparing Lucia in a different version, where the scene of madness goes a step higher – in F major. I was invited, but I refused this production, because it is extremely high. Although Donizetti originally intended it that way. It was during the time of Maria Callas, and later Sutherland and Scotto, that the madness scene was lowered a tone down to E-flat major.

– And what’s next, in the sense of new parties? Heading towards Bellini’s “Norma”?

Yes, I still have it. It all depends on the capabilities and plans of the production department of the Mariinsky Theatre, who will be the director, what kind of production will be. I already know this game, “in the material”. I don’t know about the timing myself, I can’t say anything – maybe in six months, maybe in a year.

– Both Lucia and Norma are tragic characters, but how interested are you in comic images? Say, in the same bel canto operas. I remember how successfully you performed the Comtesse de Folleville in Rossini’s Journey to Reims at the Bolshoi Theatre.

– Very interesting, you can’t suffer on stage all the time. I have already sung, for example, Adina in L’elisir d’amore at the Vienna Opera. Adina, of course, is not Lucia in terms of complexity, the part is much easier, but an excellent acting beginning is needed there to manipulate Nemorino. It seems to me that in fact I have not yet fully revealed myself, not only for the audience of the Mariinsky Theater, but for everyone. After all, you still need to be able to play a comedy, not just sing bare notes. I would also love to sing Rosalind in Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, I never sang it. Of course, operetta is a completely different language, style. But the artist must be multifaceted, you should not stick to only one role and play only dramatic, tearful sacrificial roles. Today, in the 21st century, when there is so little joyful around, this is especially true.

— And what about your plans abroad?

I am currently preparing the very complex part of Argelia in Donizetti’s Exiled from Rome, which is planned to be recorded during a concert performance at Cadogan Hall in London in May, which has never been recorded before. And Imogen in Bellini’s The Pirate, at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

– A few years ago, the recording of Rossini’s Semiramide with your participation became the winner of the ICMA-2019 international classical music award. Have you closed the party of Semiramis yet?

– No. I would love to sing Semiramide in Russia too, if they find the rest of the cast. It’s a huge five-hour opera. You can still find mezzo-sopranos, but where can you find coloratura tenors and especially basses? And that recording of “Semiramide”, to be honest, was given to me with tears in my eyes. The conductor Sir Mark Elder found fault with me down to the smallest detail, down to the sixteenth note, so that I would do what Donizetti required, and he brought me up with this very much. At one lesson, he brought me to tears when he said: “And who else can I demand this from if you can’t do it ?! This part, as Rossini conceived it, can only be sung by you.”

– Well, this reproach will be better than any compliment – especially since few of the domestic opera singers are really interested in rarities.

– Opera rarities bring up both hearing and taste, I grow up on them. It’s a pity that I don’t sing baroque music – but somehow I still need to do a baroque concert.