How does it go when someone writes an opera directly for you?
“They called me from the National Theater to say that they had a tailor-made opera ready for me, and they had just caught up with me in Rome. I said I wanted to hear her first. When the composer Honza gave it to me Curl sent, I was shocked. He wrote it so beautifully that I immediately called him back: “Yes, I want to do it!” And when I learned that David Radok was going to direct it, I wanted it even more.”
How was working with him?
„Heavy, but gorgeous. The first thing he told me was that I had to watch The Godfather. “You have to play Marlon Brando!” I imagined it and said: “Well, I’m not going to play that for you. Marlon Brando was the only one and no one will beat him. If I could play it, I’d be in Hollywood today! But because I don’t like it, I’m not there.” (laughs)
You eat a large part of the opera on stage. Can you sing with it?
“In the beginning, the director asked me if I would be able to do it. And I said: That’s what exams are for, we have to try. Thanks to that I had a great time. At ten o’clock we started the rehearsal, I didn’t have breakfast at home because I knew I would have prosciutto and watermelon for breakfast and there would be spaghetti around noon.’
What did you flavor them with?
“They always cooked them fresh for me before the exam started. They put olive oil and prosciutto on them. And I had that for nine weeks, every day, all the time.”
Concert by Štefan Margita and guests in the 02 arena
Is this the first time you’ve eaten on stage?
“The very first time! I haven’t experienced it abroad either. David Radok even wanted me to sing with my mouth full, so I tried that. But it’s not very comfortable. Anything can happen, it can surprise you. It hasn’t happened yet, I’m trying to be careful.’
They also made a cast of your face for the show, how did that go?
“I also experienced that for the very first time. It’s not very pleasant because they make him out of plaster. First they smear you with a lot of Vaseline and then they put a cast on your head, which starts to get insanely hot after a while. They only leave your nostrils open and that’s it. You have to keep it up for half an hour.’
That’s probably very annoying.
“You know it is! You can feel how hard the cast is on you, how crazy heavy your head is… I was glad when they took it off me. But the cast was needed, thanks to it I don’t have to be on stage in the second act, as if after death, while my “face” is lying in bed.”
STEFÍČKA, ARE YOU SURE?
A few days ago you also released a new CD. How did it happen that an opera singer sings folk songs?
“If it weren’t for the memorial concert on Karla Gottawhere I sang Išel Macek to Malace, then it would never have happened. I went to a meeting at Supraphon, where we were to agree that I would release a second Christmas album. And they asked me: Don’t you want to record folk songs?”
How did you react?
“First came the shock, then I said: Why not! Then I came home, my sweet Hanka was still alive, and I told her about it. And she said in that beautiful tender tone of hers: Sweetie, but you never liked folk girls, are you sure? I said: Yes, if I choose songs that I like.”
Have you never liked folk girls?
“No! I didn’t listen to them at all. When I decided to make a CD, I spent a few weeks on them and fell in love with some of them. I discovered a concert on YouTube where Karel Gott sang folk songs wonderfully, and I picked some from there. What makes me happy is that ninety percent of the people who already have the album tell me: I sing those songs with you at home, even if I can’t sing at all! And that is the nicest gift for me.”
Even at home, in Slovakia, folk music didn’t sound?
“We didn’t listen to them. We lived in Košice, close to Hungary, for us it was the absolute West. A lot of foreign singers and groups got there, so we went to see them.”
So what did you grow up on?
“On the pop! I experienced a Queen concert in Budapest. That was amazing! We had a famous singer there who was very famous and she got me on it. It was an incredible experience, a dream! So I listened to Czech stuff, Olympic, Maruška Rotter’s and the Hungarian groups Lokomotiv GT, Omega… Just not the folk ones.”
Didn’t even your mother sing them to you?
“No. She liked chansons more. When she had an argument with her father, she opened red wine, drank it, and sang sad Hungarian things to herself. So I really only have folk songs on this new CD.”
I’M LISTENING TO HANKA AGAIN
Hanka Zagorová’s first Christmas album was also released at the same time. Why not earlier, during her lifetime?
“Hanka never wanted to make a Christmas album. She always recorded one song or learned a new one for Christmas Lantern, and even when they approached her several times, she didn’t want the whole record. It’s only now that Supraphon has collected all the Christmas songs she’s recorded and made a record out of them.”
Will you let her go?
“Yes, I’m already able to listen to her. It didn’t work for long, not at all. When I saw her on TV, I would switch or turn her off completely. It didn’t work. Now I’m letting her go again.”
Which of the Christmas ones do you like the most?
„Angel guard, what Radůza wrote to her. She is beautiful.’
How will you spend the holidays this year?
“On the twenty-third of December, I will fly to Košice to visit my family. I already have gifts! I don’t leave them to the last minute because two years ago I ordered something and it didn’t arrive. What will you say at Christmas that the post office didn’t make it? That’s not it. So I ordered everything online on time, I don’t have the nerve to go to the store.”
How did you do it at home with Hanka?
“We made a list and always wrote down what to give to whom, what was most suitable. We asked the nieces what they wanted, whether it was something for the apartment, perfumes, clothes… I don’t like to put money under the tree, I prefer gifts.”
Did you know in advance what you were going to get?
“Yes, but I always prepared surprises for her and she for me. But the main thing she wanted, perhaps something to wear, she had to try. I told her: Don’t look now, I’ll pay for it, now pack it for me. We came home and she asked: Can I wear it tomorrow?” (laughs)
And did she take?
“She took it and the gift was over. And I had to invent another one.”
What are your Christmas customs in Slovakia?
“There will be traditional kapustnica, fish soup is not eaten there. Then we’ll have potato salad, carp, poppy seed. And Hanka always made her sirloin steak the next day for the family, because they really liked it. On the morning of the twenty-fourth, she boarded and cooked until the evening. She won’t be there a second time.’
You can find more from the interview in the printed version of Sunday’s Aha!
Devastated Margita behind Zagorová’s coffin: The last goodbye to the love of her life
2023-12-03 13:16:00
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