Luca Pisaroni (by Anna Picard), "Opera" (January 2014), part 3
All very sensible. But the bridges Pisaroni is referring to are purely vocal. On other topics, he's something of a fire-starter.
Pisaroni's conversation is spiked with references to what is and isn't 'typical Italian'. His Verdi bicentenary concert in Busseto with Hampson was 'such a nightmare that I would certainly not to go back'. On Antonio Pappano's success with the Accademia di Cecilia strive because Pappano is the music director and sponsorship comes in because he is such a charismatic figure, and they get better and better and become a wonderful orchestra because of that.'Opera, he says, is different: 'I promise you , if [Pappano] had a house like the Opera di Roma, he would say, "God, I can't wait to go back to London!".' He is scathing on the subject Of Italy's attitude to its cultural heritage: 'Italy is a mess. There is always money for new stadium. There is always money to waste. They don't care. They think opera is entertainment!' So what is opera , then? 'I think music and opera is the basis of forming human beings. You can have a fun night watching Le nozze di Figaro , but it's not stand-up comedy. It's something else. The fact that it's been around fore then 200 years means that it poses questions and gives us answers about who we are and where we're going as human beings. That's not just entertainment.'
Living in Vienna fits his personality, Pisaroni says, because ' I always felt very close to Schubert and I always had this passion for, as I call it, sad and troubled. I like the search. I like the fact that, you know, to the light there is always some shadow. When you look at pice of music in Italy, they say: "This is happy!". In Vienna, they say, Ah, this is happy but underneath you can hear..."It's always the opposite! Probably because I debuted in Salzburg when I was 26 and I formed my way of trying to approach things, to go a little bit deeper and to try and find something more than just the surface to a piece of music, Vienna is the perfect place for me to grow, musically.' Hence his continuing interest in Lider. Not just iconic song cycles but more arcane programmes such as his Wigmore Hall recital this month of Beethoven, Reichardt, Brahms and Liszt.
For a man who spends much of his life in disguise, he enjoys having nowhere to hide. 'You learn so much from sining Lieder. You learn how to use your body. You have such an immediate contact withe the audience and there is no costume, no lighting, it's you and them, and you try to explain to them in two and half minutes what the pice is about. It's a lot of work but it's really satisfying, really important work. that's why I'm more mitteleuropäisch than anything. In Italy, a singer sings only opera and some Verdi Requiem. show me Italian recitalist!' Anna Caterina Antonacci? 'She lives in Paris! ' Cecilia Bartoli? 'Bartoli is a rock star! There is nobody like Bartoli in the business. I adore Cecilia because she has passion about what she does that nobody else has. To come up with these programmes, it's not easy. I wish everybody had the passion she has about older repertoire, to research, to find the material- she 's a rock star, it's fact!' So would he like to develop, say, a recital of arias from 1730s Naples?
'I would love to! But nobody cares what a bass-baritone sings!' He shrugs. 'Opera is about soprano and tenors.'
Not all opera, of course. The great Verdi roles may, with caution and patience, lie on the horizon. (Pisaroni sings the role of Paolo Albiani on his father-in-law's recent recording of Simon Boccanegra.) And untill he decides he is ready to tackle Mozart's damned libertine, Pisaroni will continue the exploration of bel canto repertoire that that began with Maomettoo in David Alden's Santa Fe production of Maometto II and Enrico VIII in Anna Bolena. Henry is not a nice guy, I venture. 'Oh god! He's awful! But to play him is divine. It's so beautiful to be able to do something nasty, because in real life you'd never get away with it. And I love the fact that even in the evil, you can be so subtle. Donizetti wrote so many piani that I think it's actually much more scary when somebody says something with the smile or through the teeth , very quite.' and this is jist the start of his wife-kiliing career, ehen he was young and handsome, not the bloated monster in the Holbein portrait. 'I know. Can you imagine? The guy is so sick. But I love when nasy is not screamed but very elegant. Even in the worst role, like Maometto, even the worst monster has a human side. ' And with that, Pisaroni goes back to Figaro. The self-made man that he has made his own.
Pisaroni's conversation is spiked with references to what is and isn't 'typical Italian'. His Verdi bicentenary concert in Busseto with Hampson was 'such a nightmare that I would certainly not to go back'. On Antonio Pappano's success with the Accademia di Cecilia strive because Pappano is the music director and sponsorship comes in because he is such a charismatic figure, and they get better and better and become a wonderful orchestra because of that.'Opera, he says, is different: 'I promise you , if [Pappano] had a house like the Opera di Roma, he would say, "God, I can't wait to go back to London!".' He is scathing on the subject Of Italy's attitude to its cultural heritage: 'Italy is a mess. There is always money for new stadium. There is always money to waste. They don't care. They think opera is entertainment!' So what is opera , then? 'I think music and opera is the basis of forming human beings. You can have a fun night watching Le nozze di Figaro , but it's not stand-up comedy. It's something else. The fact that it's been around fore then 200 years means that it poses questions and gives us answers about who we are and where we're going as human beings. That's not just entertainment.'
Living in Vienna fits his personality, Pisaroni says, because ' I always felt very close to Schubert and I always had this passion for, as I call it, sad and troubled. I like the search. I like the fact that, you know, to the light there is always some shadow. When you look at pice of music in Italy, they say: "This is happy!". In Vienna, they say, Ah, this is happy but underneath you can hear..."It's always the opposite! Probably because I debuted in Salzburg when I was 26 and I formed my way of trying to approach things, to go a little bit deeper and to try and find something more than just the surface to a piece of music, Vienna is the perfect place for me to grow, musically.' Hence his continuing interest in Lider. Not just iconic song cycles but more arcane programmes such as his Wigmore Hall recital this month of Beethoven, Reichardt, Brahms and Liszt.
For a man who spends much of his life in disguise, he enjoys having nowhere to hide. 'You learn so much from sining Lieder. You learn how to use your body. You have such an immediate contact withe the audience and there is no costume, no lighting, it's you and them, and you try to explain to them in two and half minutes what the pice is about. It's a lot of work but it's really satisfying, really important work. that's why I'm more mitteleuropäisch than anything. In Italy, a singer sings only opera and some Verdi Requiem. show me Italian recitalist!' Anna Caterina Antonacci? 'She lives in Paris! ' Cecilia Bartoli? 'Bartoli is a rock star! There is nobody like Bartoli in the business. I adore Cecilia because she has passion about what she does that nobody else has. To come up with these programmes, it's not easy. I wish everybody had the passion she has about older repertoire, to research, to find the material- she 's a rock star, it's fact!' So would he like to develop, say, a recital of arias from 1730s Naples?
'I would love to! But nobody cares what a bass-baritone sings!' He shrugs. 'Opera is about soprano and tenors.'
Not all opera, of course. The great Verdi roles may, with caution and patience, lie on the horizon. (Pisaroni sings the role of Paolo Albiani on his father-in-law's recent recording of Simon Boccanegra.) And untill he decides he is ready to tackle Mozart's damned libertine, Pisaroni will continue the exploration of bel canto repertoire that that began with Maomettoo in David Alden's Santa Fe production of Maometto II and Enrico VIII in Anna Bolena. Henry is not a nice guy, I venture. 'Oh god! He's awful! But to play him is divine. It's so beautiful to be able to do something nasty, because in real life you'd never get away with it. And I love the fact that even in the evil, you can be so subtle. Donizetti wrote so many piani that I think it's actually much more scary when somebody says something with the smile or through the teeth , very quite.' and this is jist the start of his wife-kiliing career, ehen he was young and handsome, not the bloated monster in the Holbein portrait. 'I know. Can you imagine? The guy is so sick. But I love when nasy is not screamed but very elegant. Even in the worst role, like Maometto, even the worst monster has a human side. ' And with that, Pisaroni goes back to Figaro. The self-made man that he has made his own.