RUSSIAN PRINCE

Opera News. March 2003


Dmitri Hvorostovsky began his international career with a headline-making win at the 1989 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, in which the twenty-seven-year-old Siberian took top honors in a group of finalists that included Bryn Terfel and Monica Groop. Now in his vocal prime, Hvorostovsky is making a long-term commitment to the repertory he calls his "dream": the great Verdi baritone roles. In October 2001, shortly after his thirty-ninth birthday, Hvorostovsky gave his first American performances as Rigoletto in Frank Corsaro's eyebrow-raising production for Houston Grand Opera, which presented the jester as a maddened, highly sexual "Italian Rasputin" viewing his life story in flashback. But Hvorostovsky's intelligent, elegantly phrased performance, by his own admission "a work in progress," boded well for future outings in the Mantuan court. He talked to OPERA NEWS early in the HGO Rigoletto run, shortly before returning to New York for Met performances of Don Carlo and War and Peace.

OPERA NEWS: For a Russian artist, you've made your international reputation singing surprisingly few Russian roles.

DMITRI HVOROSTOVSKY: The Russian repertory -- I cannot afford to sing much of that. I am offered these operas, but they are not for me. For instance, I would never do Prince Igor. I tried [Gryaznoy in] The Tsar's Bride of Rimsky-Korsakov [at San Francisco Opera in 2000], but I would never, never do it again. Never. You need a roaring bass-baritone for this, a gggggrrrrrrr....

ON: A bark?

DH: Yes. A bark. It's a pity. But the only Russian roles I can afford to do vocally are Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin -- I have been doing this since I was twenty-two or twenty-three, and it is still a good role for me, at almost forty years of age -- and Yeletsky [in Queen of Spades]. Possibly, for later, The Demon. This opera by Rubinstein attracts me very much. But it's a killing part as well.

ON: How about Prince Andrei in War and Peace?

DH: Ha! Yes! Prince Andrei. The Metropolitan Opera will give me my first chance with this role. You know, he is so high. The tessitura is written incredibly high. I shall see how I cope with this. It doesn't frighten me. I call myself a "high-note friendly" baritone. It is an interesting role, and he has some good tunes, especially as compared to the other characters in this opera.

ON: You haven't sung War and Peace before, but have you seen much of the opera?

DH: No. I appreciate Prokofiev's symphonies and ballet music more than his operas, in any case. But the book of Tolstoy is, of course, our classic in Russia. Do you know that almost half of this book is written in French? Not easy when you are a student! But this book stays in our school programs; all of us were obliged to read the novel when we were thirteeen, fourteen years old. I am grateful for this now. I would not like to be reading this book for the first time while I am learning this music.

ON: Pierre Bezukhov is much more of a presence in the book than in the opera. The opera shifts more sympathy toward Andrei, doesn't it?

DH: Yes, yes. Pierre has less in the opera than you might think. In the book, there is more of his unhappiness. Natasha and Andrei's story stays very strong in the opera. But in general, the opera stays very close to the original text of Tolstoy. The orchestration of War and Peace is incredibly sharp-minded -- you can recognize a lot of sarcastic jokes in the music. I actually like the piano part in the rehearsal score, which to me sounds more beautiful than what is there in the orchestra. [Laughs.] But I shall see. Maybe I'm going to fall in love with this piece when I get into the rehearsal hall in New York. But the first days, the very beginning of the learning process, were very hard. I struggled a lot trying to push myself further down into the text, trying to memorize it.

ON: With a brand-new role, such as Andrei, how do you begin the rehearsal process? You arrive at rehearsals with the music learned, but do you go in knowing that there are particular aspects of the character you wish to focus on?

DH: Usually, you can build [your] conception of the character along with learning the music and the text. As you learn more of what the composer has written, you learn what it is about this character you must give to the audience.

ON: What is it about Andrei that you feel is most important to get across?

DH: I hope it is not patriotism. Particularly in the time of Prokofiev -- as you know this was written during the Second World War -- this element was there. Today it does not sound very natural. It seems more like propaganda. But because of Prokofiev's brilliant brains, what Andrei says sounds almost natural. I don't know how this part of the character will work. I will concentrate more on the relationship with Anya [Anna Netrebko, the Met's Natasha], the love affair between Natasha and Andrei. Natasha is the character who is at the center of the opera. There are a lot of loose episodes in this opera that her story holds together.

ON: When did you start preparing Rigoletto? I know that you did "Cortigiani" in recital as long ago as 1994.

DH: I started preparing [to sing Rigoletto] long, long, long ago -- long before this engagement here inn Houston was even thought of.

ON: How did you start to work on it?

DH: First of all, my normal procedure when I get an engagement is to study with a coach, with piano. Memorize the role. But it didn't happen this way with the role of Rigoletto, which I knew before I had even begun to train my voice to sing it. This was one of my favorite roles, favorite operas, musically -- and still is. I've been dreaming of this part since I was nineteen, twenty years old -- as soon as I began to sing more or less professionally. And it is very interesting that my opera debut [in 1985, in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia] happened in Rigoletto, as Marullo.

ON: So when you sang Marullo, did you ever think ...

DH: Oh, I've always been dreaming about it. I've been suffering from this dream, thinking, "Oh, my God, my voice is too young, it hasn't matured enough yet. I have to wait. How much longer can I wait?" So it took almost twenty years for me to make my oldest dream come true.

ON: You did the role first in December 2000 at the Novaya Opera in Moscow.

DH: That was my first try. It was directed by the Finnish stage director Ralph La°ngbacka, who worked very much in the classical tradition. He worked very, very well with me. I sang a couple of performances in Moscow in this production, in the Novaya Opera. This theater is small [700 seats] but acoustically very unpleasant. It is very dry, which kills all the advantage of singing in a theater this size. Then I participated in the same production in the Savonlinna Festival in Finland. The house was three, four, five times bigger, I guess, than the one in Moscow. It's huge, but acoustically it is beautiful. Very natural -- a real medieval castle in the middle of the lakes.

ON: It was your idea to have Frank Corsaro direct the Houston Grand Opera production. You had worked with him before this in a Eugene Onegin concert in New York and as Valentin in Faust for Lyric Opera of Chicago. What was it you liked about collaborating with him?

DH: He has a creative mind -- he throws out the ideas at you like fireworks, like a fountain. He has a brilliant spirit, as well as a brilliant mind. I know the way he works. I called [Corsaro] up when I realized that Houston Grand Opera was going to be proposing [another director], and I disagreed with this idea. The director they were considering was very, very talented but too young, I thought. I felt that I needed a director who was more experienced, who would impart his professionalism and his wealth of ideas to me and to the production. Frank Corsaro and I have been friends for some time, and we have talked endlessly about doing something together. When I realized that he was free for this, I thought it was a perfect opportunity.

ON: He didn't make you do a traditional-looking Rigoletto. Was that something you wanted from the beginning -- no hump?

DH: Oh, please. I still have a crunch [sic] here because of the shoulder. [Demonstrates.] Instead of a padded hump in Houston, I had to raise the shoulder and then sing with this very awkward, very uncomfortable position. I can tell you, it is not very pleasant. My muscles ache. It is murder.

ON: Did you do the same in Moscow?

DH: No. In that production, it was normal, traditional "il gobbo" -- the hunchback.

ON: The beginning of the Corsaro production was interesting, structuring the story as a flashback and directing part of "Pare siamo!" to a child playing the young Gilda. Did Corsaro give you all that as part of his concept, or did that develop in rehearsal?

DH: As I remember it, a couple of months before rehearsals [began], Frank and I had a conversation about this. Obviously, the director prepares as far in advance as we [singers] do, and [Corsaro] explained his ideas to me about having Rigoletto being a sexual power within the Duke's court. Also, he sees Rigoletto as being a Gypsy, with his family and Giovanna being a sort of separate Gypsy world. This doesn't necessarily connect with the Duke's court -- you could ask why the Duke would hire a Gypsy man for his court, but I don't think it is that hard to explain. The Gypsies are famous for travelling all the time, never having houses. This explains why Rigoletto travels all the time with his daughter. Corsaro also wanted me to look different in terms of costume and, obviously, in terms of my own hair. He didn't want the traditional look, he wanted Rigoletto to look more like me. Normally I'd think of wearing my hair a little shorter, but he told me to keep it long.

ON: Rigoletto looked like you and sounded like you, too. You sounded comfortable vocally and dramatically.

DH: Hmm. I'm getting to there. I'm only beginning this part, and I am trying to make it as comfortable as possible for the sake of the future. I want to do this part for many years, in more than one production. Not too much, maybe one production per year. But I really need to get comfortable, to train, to adjust to this part technically. Especially with the "Cortigiani" and the big duet ending with the "Sì, vendetta" -- this is killing singing. With most baritones, you hear the strain with this, particularly when it comes down to piano in the "Piangi, piangi." Most baritones are suffering here, either shouting their way out of it or singing flat. What I can bring to this with my technique, particularly in the "Piangi, piangi," are these pianissimo elements that are required and make him a more complete character musically. I can do that part of it easily.

ON: I was intrigued by your approach, which sounded very elegant vocally. It reminded me of the ...

DH: The old school.

ON: The heavier voices are what we've grown used to hearing since World War II. You sounded more like the lighter baritones, who made the music really move.

DH: I listen to [Giuseppe] de Luca, to [Mattia] Battistini, who has been called the king of the baritones, and who actually had a real tenor-like quality to his voice. Obviously it projected, but on recordings [his voice] sounds light. Technically, my voice belongs more to this breed, the lyric baritones. That's the natural sound I was given, no matter what my temperament is. I believe that the role of Rigoletto was written for this type of voice. Even regarding the tessitura -- a lot of Rigoletto lies very high, and Verdi marks a lot of the score pianissimo and piano. It has hardly been performed this way since, as you said, the Second World War.

ON: How did your technique evolve in the direction of bel canto? Was this something you learned when you were first studying in Russia?

DH: From my youth, I listened to old records and [bought] all the old, rare records from shops, when I could find them, and from other private collectors. It was always my hobby, as well as a source of study for me -- de Luca, Battistini, Bastianini, Gobbi.

ON: Pavel Lisitsian must be in there, too.

DH: Yes, indeed. You know, I know him. We are friends. He is celebrating his ninetieth birthday this year, and he invited me to sing there, but I don't think I can make it. But he went to my first Rigoletto in Moscow. He is an incredibly warm, intelligent person. Very warm, an enormous heart. I remember that the first time he came to see me, a long time ago when I was appearing in concert with a program of Russian folk songs, he went to my dressing room and as a compliment, he rubbed my neck and kissed me. I don't remember if he even said "Congratulations." What I remember is the gesture -- so graceful and so generous. I could have died afterwards, died smiling, because he is an idol of mine. By his style, by his nature and way of
performing, Lisitsian has always been isolated in comparison to other singers of his generation in his own country. At his time in history, the Soviet vocal school did not do much good. But he was always a singer apart, by himself -- very distinctive, in the best way. He sings the scene with Violetta and the aria of Papa Germont, taking full phrases in one breath. And he has not got a big sound, but he has the technical ability and control like nobody else. Incredible, clear vocal cords. He is a magician -- one of the best examples for any baritone, for any singer.

ON: How does Rigoletto compare with other Verdi baritone roles that you have sung or are planning to sing?

DH: Easy answer. It is the hardest. It is the longest, the hardest, the most dramatic, but musically you must be in control here [points to his forehead] or else pffffffffffffffffffft. Take "Cortigiani" for an example -- insane emotions, but musically the structure needs to be maintained, or it is crude. I think after I have sung Rigoletto a few times, I could sing anything.

ON: How does he compare with Posa in Don Carlo?

DH: Don Carlo is easy. Much easier, I should say. It's all lyric. It's nothing compared to this one. But what I like most about
Rigoletto, apart from the music, which is beautiful, is that it gives such an enormous opportunity to act. You have to be an actor in this role. But what I have heard from the older generation of baritones is that even if you are a lousy singer and a lousy actor, Rigoletto can still help you, because it is written so wisely. Such a complete man.

There is so much in him that I don't know if I can find it all. This is why I always try to improvise a little within the action, and this is [supported] by Frank Corsaro, who hates when the staging is set in a rigid, stiff way and is repeated 100 percent at every performance. He likes me to improvise, and I do. I change a lot of things in performance but keep the basic ideas that we have worked out in rehearsal. It is so interesting, I am so excited at every performance, really. You have caught me at the peak of my excitement and in my career.

ON: Doing recitals is one of your passions. Do you plan to keep up a full calendar of those this season?

DH: Most of my attention right now is being paid to the operas, to the new roles I have here in Houston and then in the winter in New York, with War and Peace. It's been a little while since I have done a recital, and already I miss it so much. I have a wonderful program, which I am going to do in Carnegie Hall in December [2001] -- Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff. This is a sort of return for me to the type of recital I did ten, twelve years ago, but I have refreshed it, I hope, with some new songs. It is interesting to me to go back to these songs now. I don't [set out] to make these songs sound different, but I have a different approach now, whether because of my age and my understanding [points to his forehead], or what has happened to me vocally because of the different roles I have sung since I last did this program, I cannot tell. But I like this program so much. It is like breathing for me.

I also have another ace in my pocket, which is the Shostakovich Michelangelo cycle. These are very beautiful [songs], but this is a new language for me musically. I have sung Shostakovich before, but these songs are especially modern in style. So far. I have done several recitals with this program. The last was in Schwarzenberg, a very distinguished festival up in the mountains of Austria. I sang the Shostakovich in combination with the Mahler Kindertotenlieder. It was probably so far my best performance. I was particularly happy about the Mahler with piano.

ON: Do you miss the orchestra?

DH: No, no. I prefer it with piano, as well as the Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen. Somehow I like it better. For me, the orchestra does not work the same way. Of course, the orchestration is something very accomplished, very powerful. But the piano is more powerful for me, because it is simpler. This for me is more liberating.

ON: You are eager to do more Wolf songs in recital, I understand.

DH: [Laughs.] Wolf is in the future! I haven't touched it yet. But I am quite determined -- this is one of my goals. But the Mörike cycle is so beautiful, how can I resist it for much longer? I started to like this as soon as I got the Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Sviatoslav Richter edition, taped in live performance. It's quite well known, this recording. Such a fantastic piece, fantastic performance.

ON: What about Schubert? Your programs haven't featured very much of his music. Doesn't he appeal to you?

DH: He appeals to me, but it is too late! I should have begun with him sooner, earlier in my career. I missed this opportunity, and I guess it's too late. I cannot compete with the real German-speaking recitalists like Tom Hampson. This music, Schubert's music, is his best style. He knows it better than anyone, and I would rather listen to him sing it than listen to me sing it. I should do something that will belong more to me. I have always liked Wolf, as I say, but I have never had enough courage to start doing it. Mahler has been always mine, it has always felt very close to me -- his personality, his music, everything. But Wolf ... if I do it, it's going to be another peak of my career.

It won't happen next season, because I need another two, three years to fulfill my Verdian roles. I have several operas and new roles coming up. After War and Peace at the Metropolitan, I am going back to London for my first Trovatore. But next season, I will be doing Ballo in Chicago. Then in the same [season as] I Masnadieri, which thank God I have done before, I am doing Luisa Miller at Covent Garden. And here [in Houston] we are talking about other Verdi roles. Simon Boccanegra, maybe Ernani. Ernani belongs more to the early Verdi, bel canto style, which is more suitable for my voice now. But Simon Boccanegra I will definitely do some day not too far from now. A wonderful part, but I can wait for it.

ON: What about Iago?

DH: Ah, Iago. Yeah. You know the famous Georg Solti, for whom I auditioned about twelve years ago? It was practically the day after my career began, and I was auditioning for Georg Solti! Brrrrrrr! I went to his house in London, and before I even sang, Solti said, "I am doing Otello, and I would like you as Iago." And I answered -- and remember I could hardly speak in English at this time, but I struggled to express myself with respect for him -- "Maestro, please wait for me! I am not Iago, I am too young!" Then I sang, and after he listened to me, Solti said, "You are correct. Not Iago yet. But I will wait. We can do this together in ten years' time." But as you know, unfortunately he died. And I never sang Iago with him. But for this audition, I had brought with me a coach, a piano player, and she had a mini-gown on. And the whole time he was listening to me, Solti couldn't get rid of the pianist's legs! [Demonstrates Solti's eyes travelling upwards.] My fault, of course, because I had called this girl up to accompany me, and I had already been told that Solti was a big man for the ladies, with big mink coats given to his latest passion! So for me, this day was one of those unfortunate auditions. [Laughs.]

ON: You're a British resident now. Do you miss Russia at all?

DH: I go there very often. Lately I have been recording there, with Delos and [conductor] Constantine Orbelian.

ON: The new recording [Passione di Napoli] is terrific.

DH: You have heard this? This was my first try for them. A crazy idea, yes, a Siberian doing these Neapolitan songs? Delos is doing a lot with new Russian singers now -- mezzo Marina Domashenko, and another soprano, new one -- what's her name? Ah! [Bangs forehead in frustration] Sclerosis! Spinto soprano.

ON: Olga Guryakova?

DH: Guryakova! Yes, bravo! I should be more updated on these young Russian singers. I am becoming so ignorant. Ah, never mind. But so far, I have done a Verdian album with Delos [forthcoming], Mario Bernardi conducting.

I recorded some old-style Russian romances with Orbelian and this orchestra as well, and next November, after I go back to London, I will be in Moscow recording Russian songs of the period of the Second World War. Soviet songs. These don't belong to classical music any more -- these are like the pop songs of the '40s in Russia.

ON: Will this be like a crossover disc for you?

DH: I wouldn't call it crossover -- it's the wrong direction, I'm afraid! But for me, it will be a different way of singing. The parlando style would be the closest way of describing this. But some of the songs are very melodic, so perhaps there is room for a little classical style. I'm not doing these songs because I am becoming purely patriotic or anything like that. It is a tribute to people like my grandparents, to my grandma who used to sing these songs when I was young. I grew up with her. When I went to pick those songs, it took me only a few hours. I didn't have to study, study, study a whole lot of albums or scores. It was fast work to find thirty or so of these songs I knew and liked and remembered. They are wonderful tunes. It's interesting -- when I started to select and pick the keys for my voice, they sent me scores, and I opened them, and all were written in minor [keys]. None of them were written in major.

ON: Why is that, do you suppose?

DH: Well, these are all about human sorrow. What was going on during the war was not happy.

ON: You had a huge success with La Favorita at Opera Orchestra of New York last year. Do you have plans to do any more bel canto operas?

DH: I should keep up with this music, but what turns me off are the lousy stories -- the naïveté in each of them. I have done a few productions of Bellini's I Puritani. Gorgeous music, but I couldn't stand to sing this stupid story any more. So I quit. Favorita, actually, I sang once before, in Buenos Aires, at the Teatro Colón. Gloria Scalchi, the Italian mezzo, was Leonora and Ramón Vargas was Fernando. Fantastic! I think he should keep up with this repertoire. He is wonderful in it.

ON: He recorded La Favorita with Vesselina Kasarova.

DH: Was it in Italian or French? It sounds better in Italian, for sure.

ON: It sounded great in Italian at Carnegie Hall last year.

DH: Well, what they did, because [Eve Queler] didn't want to be so much compromised, was to choose a French edition and translate that into Italian. Which was lousy, lousy -- regarding the words, I mean. This translation from French into Italian was not good. Ridiculous. It would have been better to do the Italian version, for Christ's sake! But never mind. But I am very pleased, anyway, because without Eve, I would not have done this role in America. None of the opera houses here are interested.

ON: You started your international career at the top, with a big win in the [1989] Cardiff Singer of the World competition. You won that and had the talent to make a career afterwards. But there are a lot of singers who do very well in competitions and then just aren't very interesting performers.

DH: Or the opposite!

ON: Exactly! People who don't respond well to competition pressure, but put them on a stage as a character, and they are wonderful.

DH: The whole process of auditioning is miserable. I was so lucky. I didn't do too many of these auditions, but I remember being so miserable. And competitions are even worse than auditions. I watch very carefully now the young singers coming up. I used to be the youngest singer in any production, in every group of colleagues, and now, no more! In the theaters in the U.S., particularly, you have understudies covering you, who are young artists from the programs these companies have. Sometimes they ask for master classes or lessons, which I have never [given] before in my life. But it is interesting to watch how they are developing their careers, their voices, while they are dreaming. Maybe they don't have enough ability to make those dreams come true yet. But those dreams will come if you work and you are smart. Which is not easy -- it's easier some days to just dream!