Singer Egils Siliņš will be on the stage of our opera on December 18 in the role of Germon in the Traviata performance, but on December 10 in the concert hall “Cēsis” and on December 11 in the Latgale embassy “GORS” songs of Mahler and Schubert will be sung, as well as the title role in Rachmaninov’s opera “Aleko”. But already Egils Siliņš is a guest of “Klasikas”.
Liene Jakovļeva: The road to both Cēsis and Rēzekne is in front of you. There will be no concert in Riga this time. We had a conversation at the end of the summer – I said that you have an anniversary this year and I asked you what you would do about it. You said nothing, I’ll run away. Shortly afterwards, information about the concerts appeared. Probably nowhere can it really escape in such a situation.
Egils Siliņš: Yes, I was tempted to escape – I was offered to sing Telramunda in two “Loengrīna” performances, there was a well-paid offer, but the concerts were already promised and I could not disappoint our audience and professionally very pleasant cooperation with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra and conductor Andris Pogs .
Is the idea to celebrate a birthday with “Aleko” yours?
The concert will be for us in two parts. The first will feature three songs by Schubert and three songs by Gustav Mahler with the orchestra. I will sing Mahler for the first time! These will be songs with Richter’s poetry – in total, if I’m not mistaken, he has written six songs with his poetry, but we will play three of them.
And really, Mahler hasn’t had to sing so far?
No, I didn’t have to, and it was a good discovery for me. I had once thought of another cycle that would have been interesting to perform, but I also like this option very much, and I think the orchestra is also interesting. One of these songs is only accompanied by wind instruments –
I laugh that the Orchestra “Riga” can safely invite me, because there is one song, for which Mahler himself has written only the winds.
Schubert will be “King of the Forest”, which is very effective, one of Schubert’s most colorful songs. And this expression, which is in this accompaniment – the yanking of a father and a son on a horse where a child talked about death – is also very linguistically vivid. I remember when I was reading this text as a child – even then literally tufts ran over my bones, because it is really very strongly written. There will also be a very rarely played song “Prometheus” in the concert, Andris Poga himself was surprised that Schubert has such a song. Yes, and another “Litany”.
And in the second part – “Aleko”.
“Aleko” is a job that I was literally employed at the very beginning of my studies.
The old gypsy aria was the very first aria I ever learned! As a vocalist, you have to start learning with some insurmountable difficulties – I remember my professor Antipov entrusting this role, and I remember very well that this was the very first aria.
I will sing Aleko in the concert. This opera is really worth hearing, because it is the passions, love, jealousy, contrasts, emotions that are in this half-hour long one-act opera … Rachmaninov wrote it in 17 days, when he was eighteen, nineteen years old. It was his diploma work for which he received a gold medal and highly praised words from Tchaikovsky. He has already tried to write other operas, but I always think that the passion in this opera then appears in his piano concerts, but not in other vocal works. Feels young in this composition – arias and duets are relatively short, but everything is said there.
This opera was staged in Latvia for the last time, if we believe in history, 50 years ago. This, of course, will be a concert performance.
I used to sing it quite a bit before – in 2006 with maestro Fedoseev in Moscow and then in the Playey Hall in Paris.
But I have an idea to include this opera in our opera repertoire next season. I will try not to spend a lot of money – we have the opera “Pajaci”, and on the basis of the scenery of this opera could be applied “Aleko”, and so we will get one excellent Russian piece.
However, we have few Russian operas in our repertoire, given the proximity of both the nature and mentality of our people to Russia, which I recently enjoyed well during a couple of days at the 10th International Vocal Competition in St. Petersburg, where I was invited to the jury.
Five hundred kilometers today is nothing at all! Being next to such a music metropolis, but with a full sense of the Iron Curtain – we still have very little cultural and musical exchange with this theater.
We are personally acquainted with Maestro Gergiev – he himself expressed a wish and a call that we should have an exchange of guest performances, but then there was a coward and the talks started at the level of negotiations. But it would be very valuable. I’m already laughing – at the same time I’m going to St. Petersburg to “shop” because our opera has a low voice. It’s not just in our opera, it’s all in the opera world.
Our troupe has only one mezzo-soprano and one bass. It is very risky to stay on such a wave. I was hoping to find more bass in St. Petersburg, but I didn’t succeed.
We managed to find mezzo-sopranoes – for our planned production of “Aida” in March. I addressed three singers to come to Riga, to listen to the big opera stage, and I think we will choose one of the three. Maybe two.
However, I would still like to stick to the potential production of “Aleko” you mentioned and ask who will sing Aleko…
We have excellent baritones in the opera – so that there is no conflict of interest, I will let our own soloists do it. I myself maybe once …
But in this concert study, which will be in Cēsis and Rēzekne, you will have colleagues next to you. Was their choice your finger, or was it chosen by the orchestra? There will be Liene Kinča, Mikhail Chulpayev and Edgar Osley.
The soloists were chosen by the orchestra and I am very pleased with that choice.
Rezekne “Gors” and Cēsis Concert Hall – these are definitely no strangers to singing. How have you felt there so far?
It seems that in recent years I have performed more in Cesis than in Riga. I was also born there nearby.
I am very impressed by the development that is taking place in Cēsis, especially the emphasis on culture. There would be three or four other places in Latvia that would be so vigorous and for which concert life and cultural life would be so important, as well as the renewal of the city – we would really be much richer.
Is Cesis Concert Hall a good place to sing?
I don’t want to upset me, but it’s not so good – if there’s an orchestra present, the volume of the room is still too small to say it’s good and you can feel good there, but everything else in this concert hall is good – also the aura around it is very good. I have performed Rachmaninov in an interesting way in “Gora”, we played Rachmaninov’s “Calls”, there was also a recording, and they are very good memories. At that time, it seemed that during the crisis they had built this concert hall – with little money, but with good acoustics. And then I always thought – the concert halls in the world are most often remembered not from a design point of view: basically all musicians talk about acoustics – whether there is good acoustics or not. That is the most important thing. And it is also very important for the listener.
It is really necessary to start slowly saying that it is a shame that there is not enough good acoustic medicine in Riga. Not only musicians are stolen – listeners are also stolen without hearing the full sound.
I understand that exile tables and attendance are important for bureaucrats, but we have so many outstanding musicians in Latvia, more and more often outstanding foreign musicians are happy to come to us – let’s mention the “Riga Jurmala” festival. Everyone is very excited about the splendor and architecture of our Riga, but here we have been discussing one concert hall for 40 years. Always someone else’s interests prevail – either in the location of the place or in some other aspect, but do not look at the goal itself. That just needs to.
It always happens to us – the one who does something is circulated and reprimanded. And the others are starting to wonder – who should I do it to. We need a brave one who says – yes, we build there and do it! And all those cycles are in the context of the election …
That’s right, and that’s why Egils Siliņš will sing “Aleko”, Schubert and Mahler in Cesis and Rezekne, but not in Riga. But in Riga you will sing Hermann. Probably an opera soloist cannot do without at least one opera role in the context of a birthday.
The music of “Traviata” is very close and dear to me. I also sang at the premiere of this opera at our National Opera, when the main conductor of the opera made this offer to me. So now everyone is welcome – on December 18, I will sing the role of Hermann. I will have wonderful partners – Mikhail Chulpayev and Julia Vasilyev.
Take a look at your website – of course, this is a time when it is a bit risky to talk about the future, but at least in the first half of next year, Japan will appear in your plans several times.
The plans with Japan and in general are that I will
I am currently only planning a week ahead, because there is so much that has happened that it is no longer worth hoping for. The Japanese have sent a work visa, but the Japanese government is currently banning Europeans from entering until the end of December. How will it be.
Already last season I had to cancel two performances in Japan. Also this year, there are two contracts – “Wandering Dutchman” at the end of January, and “Loengrin” concert performance at the end of March and the beginning of April.
Does Europe look more real? In Budapest you have several Wagner operas. And then quite interesting – Cemlin’s opera “Florentine Tragedy” in Bilbao.
Yes…
I would not like to say that I am under pressure, but unfortunately the laws, paragraphs and regulations in our bureaucratic legislation do not allow me to do so.
Literally another restriction was adopted a year ago: that even unpaid leave has a limit, which means that I will probably refuse Bilbao.
Are you longing for the stage?
Of course! There’s already such a thing – it’s just a pleasure to be on stage at all, to make music. This is a very difficult time for us musicians. It will be two years since we hardly believe it. Individual concerts or something like that – it’s such a patching.
What will you do on December 14, your birthday?
I think that, as I go to work every day, there will be attempts to perform “Traviata”, because this work has not been done for a long time.
I don’t like to celebrate birthdays: it’s better to be on stage like Raimonds Pauls.
We started with singing things, but we also talked about the duties of the opera director – they are already inseparable worlds for you right now. Although – singing Aleko, you’re probably not a director.
(laughs)
I already assume that the musicians who sit in the orchestra, and also the soloists with a critical ear, now appreciate, say, how is he there – he demands of us all the time, and what can he do now? But in the end, I’m a professional, so I look at everything. I’m in good shape and I enjoy making music.
Yes, and your self-confidence is absolutely necessary! May it stay with you, even when you cross the threshold.
Thank you, Liene! For us Latvians, its self-confidence is unfortunately a bit low, it is not enough.
I always look at the smile and self-confidence that Americans talk about, and I think we are twice as good, but twice as modest.
Unfortunately. But it will be good.
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