It is our great pleasure and honor that you are, in your busy schedule from October 11th to 16th, were part of the MOTO project “Opera: Past, Present, Perfect!” and worked on a master class with young opera singers participating in this project.
– The master class with young singers from Serbia is interesting for me because, after more than 35 years of working with singers and 22 years of active work as a conductor, I think I am in a situation where I can help young people to see their problems, to see what they lack, how they know the languages, style, repertoire and what their general music education is. I consider it very important, not only general music but also general education, whether they know other branches of art, history, languages, it all makes a singer and I think that knowing that, I can help them.
You started your international career as an accompanist.
– That’s right, I started my international career as an accompanist at the theater in Basel. It is very important that the conductor who works at the Opera goes through that ladder from the accompanist, through the conductor of stage music to the music assistant and then to the real conductor. Good accompanists are always in high demand and very important for a singer, because all the great roles, in general, all the roles that singers prepare with good accompanists help them get along better with conductors to prepare and study the role well. It meant a lot to me that as an accompanist I worked with is good pedagogues and good singers, I learned a lot from them and I think that it is a very serious and responsible job.
Which opera production did you conduct for the first time outside Serbia?
– It was Giuseppe Verdi’s Macbeth, a very interesting story. My boss at the time got sick and I got a call if I could come and jump in that evening for her and conduct. After that play, Macbeth, I got five more plays, and that’s how the story with my conducting career started, so Macbeth has a special place in my life and my conducting career.
You have many years of experience as a chief conductor and general music director.
– Yes, I have been the chief conductor for over twenty years, and for the last five years as the general music director. I was the boss in Bern for 9 years, the boss in Mexico City for 6 years, the fifth season is starting in Braunschweig – so over twenty years of boss experience. The responsibility is great, of course, there is great pleasure and joy when I can work with top artists, also as a chief conductor you are in a position to choose who you will work with and when you can hire constantly, and when as a guest.
Today, in your engagement in Braunschweig, you have the obligation to conduct symphonic works as well as operas.
– Yes, that specificity exists in Germany that one orchestra plays both opera and symphonic music, the same happens in Braunschweig. It is an A orchestra in terms of quality and status in Germany. We play opera and symphonic music equally, so I have to admit that I don’t share those two types of works of art, for me both are very important, one is in harmony with the other. When a symphony orchestra plays symphonic works, it must be at a high technical and artistic level, which helps in opera. On the other hand, in opera, he has to be flexible and follow the singers so that he can easily follow the soloists in symphonic works later.
How important is it for a conductor to play the piano?
– It is extremely important for a conductor to know well the instruments to play one instrument at a high academic level, because if you have great desires to improve as an instrumentalist, then you have great desires for an orchestra. As for the piano, I played the piano a lot when I was younger, it helped me read the scores. With years of experience and knowledge of literature and repertoire, I use the piano much less, but when I conduct complicated works, as was the case with the opera by the famous German composer Aribert Reiman two seasons ago, the piano helped me a lot because they are very complex rhythmic combinations and chords. Then, in the beginning, I use the piano instead of the orchestra to study the work, to see how it is composed, what the harmonies are and to be able to imagine how it would sound with the orchestra.
What is your advice to young artists?
– First of all, to be curious, not to be afraid of what they don’t know, to have to work hard, to improve. In the West, professionalism is highly valued, they have to read a lot, deal with other branches of art that are not directly important to them as music, but one complements the other, one artist must be versatile to know all branches of art to draw ideas. Painting is closely connected with music as well as literature, it is known that composers used librettos from the most famous writers and it is very important that they speak languages, that they search for new recordings…
Dodaj komentar