The soprano Erika Miklósa invited to the Opera for her thirty years on stage
At first, nothing predestined her to the stage. It is to competitive sport that she devoted herself, with success, by the way. Until the day when an accident suddenly put an end to his sports career. True trauma which she admits to still feeling the effects today. It was then only gradually and a little by chance that she turned to the world of music for which she had no particular attachments at the start. If not to have attended in his childhood a performance of The Magic Flute (which would later become his “favorite opera”). To see itself today projected at the front of the international scene. Thirty after his debut. It was in January 1991, at the Erkel Theater in Budapest, in the role of Papagena. She was then just twenty years old.
His career ? Singing occasionally at family celebrations, the young high school student was noticed by a singing teacher who introduced her to the Szeged Conservatory. Conservatory where she skipped the four years of training to leave after two years. In the meantime, she had appeared at a public hearing organized by the National Opera, singing the aria of the Queen of the night (the second) one and only song she knew. To her surprise, she was hired to become, at the age of nineteen, the youngest singer of the troupe (1). It is in the role of Papagena that she was going to debut, seeing herself at the same time offered a contract as a permanent singer on the stage of the Dread (Pesti Vigadó). At the invitation of the Hungarian singer Júlia Hamari, she performed the following year in Brussels in the Capulets and Montagues by Bellini (extracts).
From then on, an international career would begin which led her first to New York, then to Switzerland via Leipzig and Cologne. Before following, on the stock exchange, training in Philadelphia, then in Milan. To perform until 1999 in the permanent troupe of the Budapest Opera where she was given the most diverse roles, from Haydn to Humperdinck (Hansel and Gretel) through the Bat (Adèle) and The Magic Flute (Queen of the night). And in 2004 being offered a four-year contract by the MET in New York. Returning to the abandonment of her sports career, the Hungarian coloratura soprano likes to draw a comparison between the two genres: „Both intended for the public, in the company of teammates and demanding endurance to constantly try to improve. Assuming great sacrifices. Singing which, nevertheless, gives me an existence of a richness and variety that I could not have obtained elsewhere. ”
Without a doubt today one of the most prominent singers in the country. It is therefore not surprising that the Opera has devoted an evening to him to celebrate his thirty years of career. A so-called “gala” evening during which he was entrusted with the most famous arias that made him famous. Of Queen of the night, which has become its “showcase”, at theKidnapping at the Seraglio (Konstanze), via Donizetti (Don Pasquale, Lucia de Lamermoore) and Verdi (Rigoletto) without forgetting Johann Strauss (The bat) and French opera (Lakmé and Carmen). Surrounded for that by partners among the most famous on the stage of the Opera.
Gala ? Not really. I would rather say a series of one-to-one conversations with Szilveszter Okovács, director of the Opera, interspersed with arias. This gave the whole the impression of a puzzle, certainly not devoid of charm, but lacking a little unity. In addition, very well sung airs, certainly, but where it was not in all cases accompanied in an absolutely irreproachable way. And sometimes presented in a curious, somewhat confusing “mise-en-scene” (Carmen). In general, no matter what, presenting isolated arias, moreover accompanied on the piano, will never replace the charm of scenes taken “live”.
Beyond the “musical” part of the evening, what especially caught our attention is this discovery of a particularly endearing person, natural, smiling, even playful, not lacking in humor, even going so far at times. to self-mockery. Proof of great modesty and simplicity for the star she has become. In addition, absolutely charming. Filling us with sometimes funny anecdotes. Such as her debut at the Erkel Theater, where she had never set foot in her life, getting lost in the upper floors just as she had to prepare to take the stage. At the question „But you must have been really scared”, the answer : „No, because at least I didn’t have time to be nervous” ! The whole character is there!
An evening which gave us the opportunity to rediscover a singer whom we had already admired on stage, but revealing herself here in an intimate light, a bit like a friend. And having made us have a good time.
While waiting to find her on stage.
Pierre Waline
Photos: Valter Berecz
(1): an anecdote that the singer likes to evoke: a rather long tune of which she had only learned the first part. Luckily, it was precisely there, when she got to the middle of it, that she was interrupted to see her engagement announced… (The Queen of the Night, which she has fun calling today a “rock star”. ..)
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