Photograph by Bo Huang
James Strecker: First of all, best wishes for your birthday of March 2. Since you’ll be fifty-two, I wonder how the Adrianne who will be singing with the Toronto Symphony on March 11, 12, 14 is different as a person and as an artist from the Adrianne of, say, twenty years ago.
Adrianne Pieczonka: I feel more and more like the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier! I first sang the role when I was about 33 and back then I couldn’t fully relate to Marie Therese’s concern about aging and mortality. Two decades later I do feel much more compassion with her! I am fit and healthy which is a blessing and I continue to try to stay active and in good shape. In many ways I am much happier now and definitely more settled in life in general.
JS: You’ll be singing Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss with the TSO and I wonder how the fact that this was the composer’s last composition and the fact that he died before its premiere, with Flagstad conducted by Furtwangler, influence your interpretation.
AP: I am privileged to have sung a great deal of Strauss during my career – mostly opera but I’ve also done a fair bit of lieder as well. The Four Last Songs hold a special place in my heart. They are iconic songs, loved by so many people. The poems are very beautiful and touching and it’s even more poignant to know that Strauss died before its premiere. The last song, “Im Abendrot” is probably my favourite and again it deals with dying and mortality. One senses Strauss also sensing his own imminent death perhaps.
JS: As a composer, what does Strauss demand of a soprano and what does he uniquely offer her?
AP: We know that Strauss wrote extremely well for the soprano voice. His wife Pauline was a soprano and his devotion and love for her was channeled into many of his greatest female roles. There are a few distinctions in his soprano writing: he writes often for the high coloratura voice as with Zerbinetta and Fiakermilli), the dramatic soprano of Elektra and Salome, but he writes most prolifically for the more lyric soprano voice with Marchallin, Arabella, Ariadne, Countess Madeleine and others. For these more lyric roles, which i have done a great deal, the soprano needs to be able to spin long lines of golden tones. There are often bits of conversational vocality here and there, but, as in the vocal line of the Four Last Songs, it is the beautifully spun legato lines which make the magic.
JS: Furtwangler in his Notebooks, like some other commentators, makes references to Strauss as –how do we put this?- a composer given to style over substance, as a man of some deficiency in expressing inner depth. You have sung a lot of Strauss, so could you give us your view of the composer and the man you hear in his music?
AP: I’m afraid I don’t agree with Herr Furtwangler’s comments. I find there is a deep humanity and tenderness in many of Strauss’ operas. Sometimes he gives over to frivolity or excess, but in his music I often get a sense of deep contentment and love.
JS: You’ll also be singing a selection of Wagner with the TSO and, as with Strauss, I’d love to know what unique challenges there are to his music for a soprano. For what reasons do you enjoy singing Wagner?
AP: I don’t think I can answer this question satisfactorily. Wagner’s genius -like Strauss’ and my other two ‘faves’ Verdi and Mozart- knows no bounds. His music, like the music of Strauss, seems to fit my voice and sensibility particularly well. I have done nearly all the Wagner heroines, bar Bruennhilde and Isolde, and I am excited to try Isolde’s ‘Liebestod’ with the TSO. It’s the first step toward potentially attempting the role in its entirety.
JS: You’re coming off a season of doing Senta in Wagner’s Der Fliegende Hollander at Covent Garden and it’s a role you’ve sung a number of times including Bayreuth. Please explain to us the effect of some of the opera houses in which you have sung on your performances of roles you did there.
AP: I’ll just speak about Bayreuth if I may. It’s a very special opera house, a special festival. I remember when I first set foot on the stage in 2006 for a rehearsal of Die Walkuere. I had goose bumps to stand there and look out into the auditorium.
The acoustics are unique in that the pit is covered, basically hidden from view when you are on stage or in the audience. Wagner designed this himself to ensure that the balance between the voices and the orchestra would be perfect. There is no other house like it in the world. The people that come to Bayreuth each summer are called ‘pilger’ – pilgrims. They often make the yearly pilgrimage to Bayreuth to hear the same operas over and over again. I think this would only be the case for the operas of Wagner. They evoke such devotion and obsession to many opera goers, me included.
JS: Louis Quilico once told me that “Mr. Verdi is very smart” and that the composer pretty much indicates everything the singer should do, so please tell us your thoughts on Verdi as a composer and a man of operatic theatre. Is doing Falstaff as much fun as it seems for the singers?
AP: Very briefly Verdi composes peerlessly for the voice in every range. The art of bel canto is dying out and the great Verdian interpreters are few and far between. There is nowhere to hide singing Verdi – prima la musica. The voice is exposed and first and foremost. You have to be technically very sound to sing Verdi. Falstaff is a hoot! I loved singing this role.
JS: Please tell us about your favorite experiences with directors in the theatre.
AP: Patrice Chereau for Elektra in Aix-en-Provence. His energy, drive, humour and charm were amazing. He was very ill when we were doing the production but he was so focused, even in the face of such terminal illness. Remarkable.
My other favourite director is German Willy Decker. We did many productions together in Germany such as Katja Kabanova, Pique Dame, Eugene Onegin. I just clicked with Willy on many levels. He was very anxious, worrying that that his concept was perhaps not good and this is common I find in great artists. They are not boastful or grand. They are self-scrutinizing and often very hard on themselves. I’ve enjoyed also working with Canadian Robert Carsen many times. I’ll do his production of Capriccio in Paris in January of 2016.
JS: One often reads about mistakes that younger opera singers make in pursuing their respective careers and, since you do master classes, I wonder what advice you would give to these singers so they might best realize their potential.
AP: There’s no magic bullet for success as an opera singer. Like every other profession, one must do the work! I find it common that young singers today want to jump right to ‘being a star’ instead of doing the many steps over the years to attain this goal. You need tons of discipline as a singer. Its like being an athlete and you must train, work hard every day. Rejection is part of the process. I often was rejected at auditions, but you must move past this and keep going forward.
JS: Please describe, say, three especially memorable experiences you have had in your musical career.
AP: Working with director Patrice Chereau, shortly before his death, as Chrysothemis in Elektra in Aix-en-Provence in the summer of 2013. Having private coaching sessions with Riccardo Muti in Vienna, with him at the piano, coaching me on the recitative for the role of Donna Anna. He was infinitely patient and kind. And singing at the Milennium Gala at Roy Thomson on New Year’s eve 1999. It was a thrilling night. It was the first time I sang ‘Vissi d’arte’ and it’s great to have the recording of that night and the audience’s wonderful response afterward.