Living Opera

345 Pages·2010·2.09 MB·English

by  Joshua Jampol

LIVING OPERA
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LIVING OPERA
Joshua Jampol
1
2010
1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jampol, Joshua.
Living opera / Joshua Jampol.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-19-538138-2
1.Opera—interviews. I. Title.
ML1700.J35 2010
782.1092’2—dc22 2009027687
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For Sophia,
who, so far, likes Rossini . . .
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Acknowledgments
You can’t—obviously—do a book like this alone, unless you make it up. I
didn’t. Many people helped it into life, including the interviewees, and I
thank them all.
The interviewees fi rst. It’s not easy corralling a group like this, nailing
them down to specifi c hours and precise places—even the media-savvy, the
well agented, those who adore exposure or simply like to talk.
I’d like to thank the International Herald Tribune’s Creative Solutions
team, led by Véronique Feldmann: Linda Healey, Reine-Marie Melvin,
Marnie Mitchell, Kathleen Gray, Perry Leopard, and Greig Stevens.
I also thank Pierrette Chastel, Opéra de Paris; Rita Grudzien, Royal Opera
House, Covent Garden; Ulrike Hessler and Suzanne Lutz, Bayerische Staats-
oper; Louise Pedersen, Royal Danish Opera; Aude de Jamblinne, EMI/Virgin
Classics; Véronique Le Guyader, Universal Music/Philips & Decca; Gabriele
Schiller, PR2 Agency, Cologne; and Florence Riou.
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Preface
The interview, especially when it enjoys the luxury of lingering, as these do,
will reveal a personality—call it the voice. The point of the interviews here
was to get to the voices of these twenty opera professionals and to get
them to disclose something about their work and why they do it the way
they do.
Hearing insiders explain it would, I thought, interest other opera outsid-
ers besides me. How Seiji Ozawa’s approach differs from William Christie’s;
or how Waltraud Meier’s style is distinct from Natalie Dessay’s. Remember-
ing things they said, we in the audience could watch for them the next time
they appear onstage, or match what they said with things we recalled from
previous performances. And thus, though still outsiders, move a bit more
toward greater understanding of opera.
I also wanted to give an international take on the subject and a vision
across generations, which is why the interviews take place in Europe’s top
houses with both younger and older professionals. Equally important, I’ve
kept the fl avor of the language of those who are not native English speakers
—a good two-thirds of this book’s cast.
But living opera is as much about communicating as it is about singing,
conducting, producing, and designing. Call it an audible subtext. It’s about
how people so often hidden behind makeup and masks speak about their
lives and livelihoods when those masks are off—or how they don’t, or can’t.