Elīna Garanča has sung in Verdi's Requiem at La Scala and in recital, but never performed in an opera. There was a planned Don Giovanni which she pulled out of when she became pregnant, and an opera was set up with Riccardo Muti which was then cancelled. This season she arrives for the Milan Expo season with three different engagaments: the Requiem with Riccardo Chailly, Mario Martone's production of Cavalleria rusticana, and Emma Dante's much disputed Carmen. Though it was subjected to boos and fischi Garanča, surprisingly, didn't watch a video of the production before agreeing to the engagement.
I haven't seen it, but it doesn't worry me. I don't want to over prepare myself and I'm curious to discuss with the director what her thinking was behind this version.
She was talking with Francesca Gamberini in the Corriere della Sera‘s Style magazine, who asked her about playing Carmen.
I'm an actress and my job is to find the key to playing the role without resorting to the usual clichés. Carmen is a prototype of a woman, but it's necessary to find your own way of playing her. In many portrayals her femininity is forgotten, especially when busty singers start putting their hands on their hips and wriggle around believing that they are being a kind of sex bomb.
The Latvian mezzo is the mother of two children:
Children, even the tiniest like my daughter Catherine Louise, must learn to be tidy, to put away their toys, and keep things clean. But they must also be left free to experience life: if they burn themselves with a candle it does no real harm, but it does teach a lesson.
Garanča applies the same severity to herself:
I have high standards, and hate not living up to them and wasting time. Being a mother has intensified this aspect of my character; there is nothing more important than the time spent with my children, so I weigh up carefully any decisions.
And decisions for the future include…?
Amneris in Verdi's Aida. For a mezzo-soprano it is the most rounded part to play. It's my Everest and in six or seven years time, before ending my career, I will play her. I'm sure of that.
Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.
His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.
This is the major problem of the opera right now. Most of the artists think that they can and they have to sing everything. Garanca never convinced me that she’s a mezzo…not even a lyric one, light, leggero or whatever we would like to call it. A light soprano without high notes doesn’t equal a mezzo; not even a third rate one. It’s all about color, a powerful middle range and lows….things that her voice doesn’t posses. Then why bother singing Amneris or Santuzza, roles that even the great dramatic mezzosopranos like Ebbe Stignani or Elena Nicolai found them difficult? A light voice, without harmonics that has nothing to do with Verdi Dramatic or verisimo sounds so cheap in these roles. What Everest? To reach the top of the mountain you have to get to its root….or she is so far from that. Is she gonna’ be helped by the new trend, the sound enhancement in the major opera houses? Opera is slowly becoming musical…Chamber music singers like Elina Garanca are now doing the dramatic parts….not enough voice? No problem, there is the microphone! Same happened at the Met with Netrebko’s Macbeth, Gheorghiu as Tosca at ROH or J. Kauffman with so many occasions. Instead of promoting the good voices, they promote good-looking stars with no voice nor intelligence to sing, such as Olga Peretyatko, Nino Machaidze or Elina Garanca. The result? Most of the theatres will be closed in the next decade. People won’t come to pay for musicals or mediocrity type performances more than once. I’ve almost given up, personally. I can stay home and listen to a real Amneris on recording such as Oralia Dominguez for free…and they can play their Garanca with microphone at La Scala as much as they want. I don’t want to assist anymore to the opera’s funeral.
What a load of pompous nonsense.