| It’s difficult to describe the fascination and joy I experience each time I take on a new role or return to one which I’ve already performed often on stage. What happens is, the role becomes my favourite and this feeling contributes to the success of rehearsals. Even more so if I’m called upon to sing as Alice in Falstaff, a sublime, entertaining yet profound opera, in which I’ve had the privilege of singing since the start of my career. This is Verdi at his most perturbing, engaging in the melancholy laughter of someone who has reached old age and who understands life, showing compassion towards adult vanity, and tenderness towards the dreams and purity of youth. Singing as Alice is an incredible experience for an opera singer, since we are talking about mature and, I would say perfect, vocal composition. But interpreting Alice is even more inspiring and involves one of the greatest theatrical challenges: demonstrating how intelligence and shrewdness can be used to kill male vanity. In this new production, with stage direction by Damiano Michieletto, conducted by Maestro Daniele Gatti, I’m back at my beloved Semperoper Dresden, a theatre that always brings me intense, gratifying inspiration. |
