MARINA REBEKA
Few roles can be more intimidating for a professional
debut than Verdi’s Violetta, but Marina Rebeka
welcomed the challenge. It came in 2007 in Erfurt,
Germany, followed by triumphant reprises in Vienna,
Hamburg, Florence, London, and Rebeka’s native Riga,
Latvia. This season the vivacious soprano’s portrayal
will introduce her to Lyric Opera. She already has
many American fans, thanks to her recent Donna Anna
in the HD transmission of the Met’s Don Giovanni.
Having trained in Latvia, Rebeka continued her
studies in Italy, “where I had three different teachers.
Each was a disaster – with one I was singing the Queen
of the Night, with another Tosca! It was a really
hard time in my life, which I’ll remember forever.
I was sitting in my apartment crying every day.
But then I started to record myself, slowly found
my technique, and then figured out my repertoire.”
Rebeka’s career took wing with Maometto Secondo at
Pesaro’s 2008 Rossini Opera Festival. She sang Anna,
a role “like double Violetta – three hours onstage, huge,
horribly difficult!” She has since repeated that success
at Carnegie Hall. Rebeka also took Salzburg by storm
in Rossini’s Moïse et Pharaon, conducted by one of her
major mentors, Riccardo Muti: “His musical rehearsals
are incredible – a master class in how involved a real
maestro must be with the production and the music.”
Engagements throughout Europe (besides the
aforementioned houses, she’s also a star of La Scala,
the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and the Zurich Opernhaus),
plus her first solo CD (a Mozart album, out this
summer), have left Rebeka with precious little free
time. She spends it with her husband, Ukrainian
tenor Dmytro Popov – a recent Covent Garden
Rodolfo – and their two-year-old daughter. At home
in Stuttgart “my husband is a great cook – I’m just
learning! I clean my apartment, put my things in
order, answer emails. I enjoy the zoo and I go to the
sauna, which I adore. I always have something to do!”
STEFANO SECCO
Many operatic divas and divos sing jazz wonderfully,
but how many are also fabulous jazz percussionists?
That distinction belongs to Stefano Secco, who
debuts at Lyric as Pinkerton in this season’s Madama
Butterfly. Check him out on YouTube, playing
up a storm at the Blue Note jazz club in Milan,
his hometown. He may be one of opera’s busiest
tenors, but he plays drums every chance he gets.
“
I don’t come from an especially musical family,”
Secco says, “but I grew up with every type of music.
In LPs and CDs I listened to, I was fascinated by
African rhythms.” Early on he discovered the artistry
of legends whom he still idolizes today (“I listen to John
Coltrane, Max Roach, Gene Krupa”). In high school
Secco played in a rock band and later earned a diploma
in percussion. Then came the fateful moment: “At a
party after a concert of dance music, I listened to ‘La
donna è mobile.’ I sang it and was able to do the high
B at the end, so I thought, ‘OK, I’ll try to be a singer!’”
He was on the right track vocally from the start,
with such greats as Leyla Gencer, Renata Scotto,
and Franco Corelli coaching him along the way. He
had a single year of study at a conservatory before
debuting in Falstaff at Sassari’s Teatro Verdi in 1998.
Over the past 15 years Secco has sung the gamut
of Italian and French lyric roles. When we talked he
was anticipating lots of Verdi (Macbeth at La Scala, a
new Ballo in Brussels, Nabucco in Verona), but he loves
Puccini as well, and he’s eagerly awaiting his return to
Butterfly in Lyric’s production. He’ll be singing opposite
Patricia Racette, whom he partnered as Pinkerton in
Florence, San Francisco, and Seattle. “She’s a very nice
colleague, and in each production she was able to play
the character a little differently. We searched together
for ways to make the opera new and fresh every time.”
KWANGCHUL YOUN
Korean bass Kwangchul Youn lives in Seoul, which
means spending countless hours on airplanes.
Still, the stress of an international operatic career
hasn’t interfered with his disposition. Speaking
from Munich between performances of Tristan und
Isolde, he was serene, warm, and thoughtful.
Although he boasts a varied repertoire, it’s Wagner
that has brought Youn particular renown – including
Gurnemanz in Parsifal, his Lyric debut role. He
first sang it at the Bayreuth Festival, subsequently
in Vienna, Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, and Turin.
“
Gurnemanz spends so much time onstage,” he
notes, “and he has such a great deal to say! The most
difficult thing is moving from the younger character to
someone much older – he ages at least 20 years. And
it’s really up to me, through his long narrative in Act
One, to make the whole story clear to the audience.”
Youn has performed for 16 seasons at Bayreuth,
where he debuted in Wagner. “It’s amazing to
be in that theater, the house that Wagner built.
The unique acoustics were initially a huge shock,
ROGE R P I NE S
e n t r a n c e s & E n c o r e s
Marina Rebeka
Violetta in La traviata
Michael poehn/Wiener Staatsoper
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