Interview to Lisette Oropesa Only a Few Months Back

MAKING A DIFFERENCE - Interview to Lisette Oropesa by Santiago Rodrigo Hilara

Only a few months back, news were made when the cast of the Teatro Real's Lucia di Lammermoor's latest production set the stage ablaze with a memorable performance that prompted the audience to ask for an encore of Act II's famous sextet. The leading role was then played by Cuban-American soprano Lisette Oropesa [Gilda at the Real in 2017], with tenor Javier Camarena and baritone Artur Riciński joining forces as Lucia's lover and brother, respectively, in David Alden's brooding, neo-gothic take on Donizetti's most well-known tragedy.

Oropesa was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Cuban parents, and played the flute for 12 years before her mother suggested she should give vocal performance a try. She then studied at Louisiana State University, and went on to winning the Met Opera National Council Auditions, entering the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and moving to New York City. She sang her first major role, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, at the Met at the age of 22, and has sung there in over 100 performances in many different roles since.

No stranger to Donizetti's tragic character, Oropesa had already performed it four other times, the most recent one at the Royal Opera House in London in 2017. The ROH production, as explained by director Katie Mitchell in an interview, deployed a screen- split set design to reinstate what she believes had been missing throughout its performing history: a focus on the female bonds amidst all the drama and the rationale behind Lucia's actions. As different as the productions in Madrid and London can be, they do seem to share the intention to denounce a system that pressures women into the personas they should play. Whether in shock after having a miscarriage (in Mitchell's production) or seemingly acting 'mad' in front of the same bloodthirsty audience that pushed her into that very scene after systematically subjecting her to all sorts of abuse (Alden), both directors could be questioning the oh-so-simple reading about many a leading lady in opera (or elsewhere) giving into madness as if they were just incapable of reigning in their own emotions or without much plausible reason at all. Whether a brainy, curious Lucia, or the woman impossibly trying to keep integrity and hope alive after having her spirit broken time and time again, Oropesa, a consummate actress, excelled at portraying both.

L.O. - The Katie Mitchell production was one of the most intense productions I’ve ever done probably of any role in my entire life, because I was on stage the whole time. When I wasn’t singing I was always in another scene. From the very first day of rehearsal, she wanted a hundred percent of energy and commitment, a hundred percent of the time. So you couldn’t mark, you could mark the singing all you wanted, but if you were marking

the acting or the drama she asked to do it all over again. She had many supers who were doing silent acting parts, and they were so talented that they didn’t even have to speak. They were playing the servants or Enrico’s guys, the ones that were always with him. They were fantastic - so good that I felt 'Ok, I need to up my game.' I really felt inspired to bring everything all the time. For this production [Madrid], they wanted much less. And for me, after being so physical in Katie Mitchell’s production, to come and do this production felt quite different.

- Weren't you able to bring anything from the previous production into this one? - Yes, of course. My personal expression, my ideas, musical ideas... But still... For example, in our production here in Madrid, there's this very strange relationship between Lucia and Enrico, who has a weird obsession with his sister - she is the only woman he’s ever known and he has feelings for her that might be going too far. We didn’t have that in London. There was not an incestuous angle, but here we do have that, which changes my relationship with him - he abuses me, he treats me like an object. In London, she wanted Lucia, not a victim and not stupid, she wanted Lucia in charge of her own destiny, sexually active, grown up, while here they want her much younger, much more innocent, much more helpless, which is totally valid, as well. It makes Enrico more of a villain. He's almost crazier than her. So it’s just a different path to get from the beginning to the end.

- One thing that I felt was really different in both productions is that in the first one, watching the DVD with Diana [Damrau as Lucia], she was with Alisa at all times, and even with the ghosts [of her mother and a girl], so there was a sorority kind-of feeling going on, whereas here you were completely alone. I was wondering, how did that make you feel in terms of being on stage? It seemed like you were really on your own, there was actually no one standing for Lucia, not even Alisa. - Right, that’s very true. Katie wanted much more feminine presence on the stage to show the stark difference between the women’s world and the men’s world in that time. Here of course we don’t have that, and Lucia does seem much more alone, because she is the Thanksgiving turkey, if you will. When she gets up at the end of the sextet, lays on that table upside down, I said to the director that it seemed kind of abstract - that’s not something a person would do in real life. I said, “I feel as a Thanksgiving turkey”, and David said, “That’s exactly what you are in this moment. You are a Thanksgiving turkey and they are going to eat you. They are celebrating your sacrifice.”

- She walks into that room and says “Io vado al sacrifizio!”. - Yes, it’s like a slaughterhouse and that is a symbol. The thing about staging is that there are directors who want a more literal world, like in Katie’s production. She wanted a very literal world where we see the murder, the plan, the sex, the miscarriage, the ghost - everything is there, literal, every single thing. You don’t have a magic anything, whereas this director wanted a more abstract, conceptual staging. And so as a singer, as an actor, how do I play the difference? Because if I’m very realistic all the time, I’m not

the same as the production - I don’t match the production. I have to be more symbolic in the way that I interpret, just look into the audience, sing the music and trust. I always get nervous, because I don’t know if I have a strong experience as an actor to play the abstract. Even though I think, in the end, the audience gets it and I don’t have to demonstrate anything.

- You mentioned in different interviews that singing comes natural to you, because of your upbringing, but what about acting? - I always used to get put in front of people, sing for everybody since I was three. So being in front of people, putting on a show... My sisters and I used to put on plays, with costumes and all, all the time. So I don’t feel awkward in front of people, but what I do feel when I see real actors work - friends who are real actors as in trained, with a diploma -... I realize that what I’m doing is doing my best to imitate them, but I don’t necessarily have the training background to call upon. I haven’t studied plays as thoroughly as real actors have. I haven’t done exercises acting teachers would give to actors.

- Have you had any specific experiences that you would say 'This is where I learned about acting'? - Katie Mitchell was one example. Not that I’m at level 100 or anything, but it might have taken me from level 4 to level 8. Because I saw her and the actors and the way they behaved in rehearsals. Actors do what they have to do and then they watch so intently at everything else. [She says as she observes all around her at the café.] They are studying.

- They're absorbing… - They are! Even when they weren’t in the scene. They would come to rehearsal, sit and watch like they were watching television and absorb. Not that singers are lazy, but they just work in a different way, and it was so interesting to observe that. I thought “You know, that’s why this people are so good, they listen.” That’s what actors do that it’s different. Singers sing, but they sometimes don’t listen so much.

Whether it is something she gained working with Mitchell or not, Oropesa's stage presence proved every bit as competent and note-worthy as the ones given by the actors she so admires. As we continue talking about other directors, she fondly mentions Jack O'Brien, who "directed Suor Angelica at the Met, where I had a very small part, and I just loved his commitment to theater. He came from a Broadway background, and I loved the way he would express what we needed to do as the nuns in Suor Angelica. The part when they talk about the bee sting, and you hear the music and the bees. He would show us what he wanted us to be thinking about, “Are there probably going to be bees and are they going to sting us?” He made one of the girls cry because of how beautifully he demonstrated that moment. You know, those little tiny moments have such an impact as an artist. I love Robert Carsen, too. He is more about character’s motivations. He is the

one that teaches you why your character does something. I’ve done Falstaff and Rigoletto with him. His Rigoletto took place in a circus and it was a beautiful, amazing production in Geneva."

After Madrid, Oropesa was scheduled to sing at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Italy, both in the composer's rare opera Adina, as well as in her first solo concert with orchestra, which she got raving reviews for. Her Italian summer was to culminate with Carsen's La Traviata production in Venice. "Violetta is a character that my mom used to sing a lot so I associate her with my mother, but when I studied the role I was depressed - I read the book and was depressed for months, being unable to pick up the music. Usually, I used to go to Traviata, sit in the audience and cry, and now I have to think of it and sing it. Now, if I’m singing it, I can’t sit there and cry, I have to actually do it and to commit to actually doing it. I cry every time I sing Traviata, anyways. I cry in this opera too [Lucia], especially in the opening night because the audience was so generous after the mad scene, I didn’t know what to do - I never expected that."

- Are there any Belcanto roles, even if you are not planning to sing them right now, that you want to do? - Yes, Puritani! I keep saying I Puritani - I never had the chance. I Capuletti [e i Montecchi], La Sonnambula … I studied the roles, I know the arias, I never got the chance to do them. Juliette, I would like to sing soon. For now, I’m going to do a lot of French repertoire. I love singing in French, it’s one of my favorite languages to sing in. Next year, I will sing Meyerbeer's Robert, le diable and Pearl Fishers. I think with French music it’s either very high or very lyric, and there’s not a lot in between. Because I am not like a Lakmé coloratura and I’m also not quite a Marguerite, yet, if maybe in a few more years, but in between the operas are rarer, like the Pearl Fishers that is not done that much. And who does Meyerbeer? Very few people, so I’m lucky to have the chance at all to sing these roles. I understand it’s not the easiest stuff to do, but I think after Diana Damrau and Juan Diego Flórez, it will start coming around. I think it’s great music.

Only a few weeks ago, a promotional image for Les Huguenots at the Opéra de Paris popped up on Oropesa's Instagram account, as she herself was announcing her fans that she would be appearing as Marguerite de Valois in Meyerbeer's grand opéra, after Diana Damrau had to cancel her participation. Different media outlets quickly echoed her words, as well as the excitement, as her warm, well-poised lyric coloratura has been, undoubtedly, one of the most in-demand voices in Europe in the last few years. Later in October, then, she is going to be dividing her time between performances at Opéra Garnier and rehearsals for L'Elisir d'Amore, to be presented in the same city shortly after Huguenots is over, but at the Bastille. Oropesa's latest album with pianist Michael Borowitz, Aux filles du désert, features Prendi from Elisir and, in her own words, "if you sing it well, if you sing it sincerely, it’s magic."

Oropesa's onstage performances are no short of magical, indeed, as you witness her fully inhabit her characters in self-effacing fashion, made all the more evident by her strong social media presence and the stark contrast between both her latest Lucias and her candid, bubbly self on camera. Highly active on both Instagram and Facebook, she stands out for her personable, informative, and sometimes quirky YouTube video appearences where she might discuss topics ranging from fitness [she is a marathon runner] to vocal technique and her following commitments.

- You have two options, you can either be the diva next door, that people fall in love with, and the people love you and they wanna be your friend, or you can be the diva that is totally private. And some singers choose to be totally private, and that's perfectly fine. That's not how I am - it's not like I want everybody to be my friend, because not everyone is going to like my voice or like me, and that's fine, but I felt like, to some degree, if you reach out to people, as a person, and they see that you're willing to share and talk, it makes a difference.