Intrigue, poison & angels

Nadine Sierra: I sang my first Luisa Miller in Naples at the Teatro San Carlo. It was exciting. After Violetta in La traviata, my most dramatic role to date, this role is a further step in my singing career. And it was also moving, as I had made my European debut in this very theater at the age of 23. Being back there now was like the completion of a cycle.

Freddie De Tommaso: My first Rodolfo - I was allowed to create the role in Valencia - was wonderful! For me, too, it was an important step in my development, the next big Verdi role. Such debuts are always milestones: that was the case with Ballo in maschera and also with Simon Boccanegra. Apart from that: I simply love singing Verdi. Of course, there are many great Italian composers and great Italian music, but Verdi is simply the king for me.

FDT: Yes. Verdi is more challenging; mastering his roles technically is extremely difficult. On the one hand, you have to be technically very good, but you also need great expression and dramatic potential. Puccini requires a verismo approach, Verdi the greatest precision. I appreciate this challenge with Verdi.

NAS: In a certain way with Gilda - because she too is a beloved daughter that her father is trying to protect. Just as Miller - understandably - tries to do. And also with Violetta: because both are about the sacrifice for a loved one. And about the enormous burden as well as the enormous pressure a woman is under to comply with the will of the people around her - namely men.

FDT: I would say that family drama is the right word. Verdi changed his direction with Luisa Miller, it's an opera that's not about war, not about countries and peoples, not about warring clans. - And, perhaps as an aside, there is also something almost Romeo-and-Juliet-like in the love story. With Luisa Miller, Verdi paves the way for what is to come, and the three great, famous operas Rigoletto, La traviata and Il trovatore were what was to come. They all tell stories about people, stories between people; they are not about battles, armies or empires. Now you could say that Rigoletto features the Duke of Mantua, i.e. also a ruler, but the focus is not on this aspect, but on the relationships between the individual characters. Incidentally, it was precisely these themes that appealed to audiences in Verdi's time; the audience recognized their everyday problems and what they saw on stage was comprehensible to them and taken from life.

NAS: I think the opera is both. Both a family drama and a play that deals with political issues: Because back then, at the time it was written, entering into such marriages was a (socio-)political statement. In the sense that an "advantageous" marriage gave a woman the opportunity to get ahead in life and at the same time give her family a good reputation. If you put these two things together, it is clear what an appalling burden such a situation was for families and especially, of course, for women.

NAS: Verdi was probably also very interested in this relationship because he himself suffered greatly from the loss of his children. Apart from that, the love between parents and their children is always something quite extraordinary. Probably even more unifying than that between lovers. I would say it is the purest form of love. And to capture this love in music: It can be so beautiful and uplifting! Perhaps Verdi's suffering, his pain, helped him to write some of the most incredible works we know today.

NAS: I think that Luisa Miller is in a way a symbol of a real woman in this time. Because she experiences manipulation, lies or even the attempt to control - and all this at a young age. But she is perhaps even more than a symbol of a woman of times past, possibly we can still identify with things about her today. Because you know: I also see a piece of myself in every part I play. There are things that happen to these characters that I also had to go through. Verdi certainly wanted to portray a pure, innocent soul to whom terrible things happen. He wanted to teach his audience something: Don't do all this to your children! To those who are innocent, defenceless and at the mercy of others!

FDT: Well, in this production that we're currently preparing, he's a young man who is under the enormous thumb of his father. You will be able to see that very clearly, he is someone who is really afraid of his father and is massively dominated by him. You can see this very clearly in the first act in particular - our director Philipp Grigorian has worked this out very precisely with us.

FDT: I would say no. In the end, this aspect no longer plays such a big role; Rodolfo's motivation for the murder is jealousy. Wurm forces Luisa to write a letter in which she states that she loves Wurm and not Rodolfo - which of course isn't true. But Rodolfo believes it. At the beginning of the scene, he asks her: Did you write the letter? And when she answers "Yes", he is certain of the terrible deed.

NAS: An excellent question! First of all, I would say that Rodolfo - even though he initially lies to her about his identity - has always shown her his true personality. It was always him who faced her, so nothing changes in their love when she finds out who he really is. And he says an interesting sentence: I want to be your husband. He doesn't say: You are my wife. He wants to be her husband. That was unusual at the time and is therefore very beautiful. Because it perhaps also shows respect. We mustn't forget that Luisa is very young, he is probably the first love of her life. And sometimes this is the most moving. Maybe it's because she still has feelings for him at the end, in the tragic finale.

FDT: He is a very unhappy character. We talked about his relationship with his father, about the oppression and that he broke him. As is so often the case, we don't learn anything about his mother - although she was in Schiller's original, she is missing in the opera. But Rodolfo also has something to oppose his father with; he knows that his father committed a crime in order to come to power and he uses this against him. It is a toxic relationship between father and son ..

FDT : You can see a big difference right from the start: Rodolfo pretends to be someone other than he is. Therefore, his approach to the relationship is not sincere from the beginning. Luisa loves him with all purity and honesty, and even if he loves her deeply at the beginning, a lie clouds this love. Even if he doesn't mean the pretense in a negative way.

NAS: Yes, absolutely, I see a development towards a feminine maturity. And I like the fact that she transforms many things that happen to her into spiritual thoughts, into thoughts that are really oriented towards God. And that at her young age! That shows a spiritual development, and one that cannot be based on the human alone. Sometimes you have to turn to something that you feel is much bigger than yourself. In my opinion, that also defines her character.

NAS: There is a lot of bel canto in my part. Thank God for that! Because bel canto has made up the biggest part of my career so far. Of course, the part becomes more dramatic towards the end, but that's obvious, because the story also becomes more dramatic, tragic and complex. It also needs more sound and a richer orchestral accompaniment to support the plot. In any case, I am very grateful for the bel canto elements, because they make singing the opera incredibly beautiful and are also good for the voice!

FDT: To be honest, I don't think it makes much sense to look further than five years into the future. Of course I have an idea of how things might go - but you always have to be prepared for surprises. You never know ... For example, you might expect your voice to drop a little after a certain age - and then it turns out that it stays high. I've just turned 33, my expectations of what's to come go up to about 40, so we'll see.

NAS: My plans as a singer ... in a way they are quite precise, but then I don't try to predict too much with absolutes. Because ultimately we can never predict physical development perfectly: Our bodies do what they do. As far as the voice is concerned, you may have to recalculate every year, because women's voices in particular change a lot, perhaps even more than men's voices. It is therefore dangerous to make strict predictions; a certain degree of flexibility is much better. After all, we are dealing with an instrument that is part of the body and is also very sensitive. In other words: I make plans, but try to remain flexible and cautious. And to always grow from the inside out.