Photo: Bruce Zinger
JAMES STRECKER: Please tell us about one or more projects that you have been working on or have recently completed. Why exactly do they matter to you and why should they matter to us?
MIREILLE ASSELIN: It’s been a wonderfully busy 2019 so far, with recitals in France and the UK, performing and recording Haydn’s Harmoniemesse with the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston and debuting a new role, Helen of Troy, in Gluck’s Paride ed Elena with Odyssey Opera. With that now behind me, I am very much looking forward to revisiting Angel Speaks with Opera Atelier and Tafelmusik this Thursday at the ROM. Angel Speaks has been a project unlike any other I’ve participated in – part recital, part dramatic cantata, part dance – and has involved me not only as a performer but also as a collaborator on the dramatic and musical elements of the new piece. It’s a fascinating, format-bending hour of musical theatre.
JS: How did doing these projects change you as a person and as a creator?
MA: I love to seek out projects that challenge me, or that are beyond the mainstream, and these projects all did that in a variety of ways. But with Angel Speaks, specifically, I had the opportunity of being brought in to the composition and development process of the piece in a way that was completely new and refreshing. Edwin Huizinga, the composer, had a really keen interest in tailoring his music to fit me and Jesse Blumberg (our baritone) as idiomatically as possible and I feel he has really achieved this! He started out by having us sing in a variety of ranges and colours and parts of our voices to explore how that all sounded, and then found some unique overlaps in Jesse and my voices that he used as inspiration moving forward. It opened up my eyes to a different way of developing new musical material, which I find very exciting, but I appreciate that it is also a luxury that isn’t often afforded to composers! We were very fortunate.
JS: What might others not understand or appreciate about the work you produce or do?
MA: This is a hard question to answer because I often am surprised and delighted by what audience members experience from a performance, and so I don’t presume to know what others may or may not understand or feel from my work. I often feel that great music and great art is more about the person receiving it than the person producing it. Someone who is grieving a loss, or who is exhausted from a long day, or someone who might be distracted by life or by the person rifling through their bag next to them, will all react differently to the very same thing. And so, I try to be as honest and straight forward with my singing as possible, as true to the composer’s intent as I can be, to remove as much of my own ego from the equation, and let the piece speak for itself.
JS: What are the most important parts of yourself that you put into your work?
MA: Quite simply, all of me. My voice, of course, which is an immensely personal and vulnerable thing to share (ask any singer!), but also every ounce of my own personality, soul, energy, and life experience.
JS: What are your biggest challenges as a creative person?
MA: My biggest challenge as a creator is to strike the balance between the two ideas I explored above: putting all of myself into something, while also removing my own self-importance from the product.
JS: Imagine that you are meeting two or three people, living or dead, whom you admire because of their work in your form of artistic expression. What would you say to them and what would they say to you?
MA: I would love to meet Edith Piaf! I’d probably tell her she’s incredible and that I love how she uses text and sings with such risk – and she’d probably tell me sing with more text and take more risks 😉
JS: Please describe at least one major turning point in your life that helped to make you who you are as a creative artist.
MA: I did a competition once (which shall remain nameless), which really destroyed my love of singing and confidence for a while. Unpacking that experience and building myself back up was incredibly difficult, but it made me a better singer, a stronger human, and more determined to carve out the kind of career that I want instead of following blindly down paths that aren’t meant for me.
JS: What are the hardest things for an outsider to understand about your life as a person in the arts?
MA: I think that most people outside of the arts think that my life must be so very different from theirs, but in reality, it isn’t. We all do our work as best as we can, try to pay the bills, find and nurture the relationships in our lives that bring us comfort and joy and community, and make our mark on the world in our small way. I think the hardest thing to relate to is how linked our work is to our sense of self. When I’m sick and can’t sing, it’s like my whole identity has been stripped from me for those few days! They really need to come out with a NyQuil gel cap that also treats existential angst. 🙂
JS: Please tell us what you haven’t attempted as yet that you would like to do in the arts? Why the delay so far?
MA: There are lots of projects I would love to take on, and new places I would love to perform, but there are only so many hours in a day! And one has to follow where your opportunities take you – I’m going to continue to follow my own personal breadcrumbs and see what the future brings.
JS: If you could re-live your life in the arts, how would you change it and why?
MA: I am always curious what life would be if I had followed one of the many different spokes that presented itself along the way, but I honestly wouldn’t change anything. There are certain things I wish I had learned or mastered sooner, or moments when I wish I had been more confident in myself, but even those things offered me valuable insights that I wouldn’t now want to live without.
JS: Let’s talk about the state of the arts in today’s society, including the forms in which you work. What specifically gives you hope and what specifically do you find depressing?
MA: I remember during the financial crisis of 2008 how many companies were folding, and how we all felt like this might just be The End. And then. it wasn’t. Companies re-emerged from the ashes, innovators reinvented themselves and the structures in which they operated, and artists did what they do best – they were creative! They were scrappy and resilient! I have great confidence in artists of all kinds. New audiences are finding our work as we adapt to new mediums and platforms, and great singing is still happening all over the world. Is it hard? Yes. Is it worth it? Still, yes.
JS: What exactly do you like about the work you create and/or do?
MA: My favourite part of the singing process is still the feeling of cracking open a brand-new score and discovering what’s inside. It’s like reading a treasure map – full of clues not only of the past world in which is was created, but also for the future when I will get to sing and share it with a room full of strangers. I get to be a historian, a linguist, a technician, a custodian of something greater than me. It’s wonderful to be a small part of a greater tradition.
JS: In your creative life thus far, what have been the most helpful comments you have heard about your work?
MA: Someone once told me that my singing makes the notes “leap off the page”, and I always loved that image. I strive to make all music do that – to transform notation into something living and vital and expressive.
JS: Finally, what do you yourself find to be the most intriguing and/or surprising things about you?
MA: Oh, I really don’t know…! In a lot of ways, I feel that I am a profoundly normal person in a very unusual job. I seek out balance in my life as much as I can – I love the open sky of the prairies where my husband grew up, I love the ocean where I grew up, I love camping, I love good food as much as I love mediocre comfort food, I love dogs, I love my people. I love crime shows and have been known to go to math tutoring for fun, I have worked as a copy editor and love the minutia of that kind of work.. I just try to do my best and be good to those I care about, because at the end of the day, that’s all that matter