Aria winner Elenora Hu used to dare to sing a Christmas song alone in hiding

Last November, the final of the opera talent show Aria of Omroep Max 1.2 million viewers. The result will have surprised few of them, despite the high level of the ten candidates. Soprano Elenora Hu (26) emerged as the winner. The conservatory student from Delft always impressed by singing one demanding aria after another fantastically. The three-member jury looked for superlatives, sometimes with wet eyes: ‘Technically really top notch!’ (mezzo-soprano Tania Kross). ‘It is a pleasure to listen to you’ (baritone and musical star Henk Poort). ‘A real knockout!’ (The Almighty secret judgewho turned out to be conductor Jaap van Zweden).

Hu had to be initially urged to participate. “Usually, talent shows for opera singers are amateurs,” she says via Zoom from her attic room at home. “When I realized this was different, I auditioned.”

After ‘the great void’ without performances due to covid, the TV program turned out to be exactly what Hu needed. It was not so much the prize that attracted her, working for six months at the Opera Studio of the Dutch National Opera, an intensive two-year program for singers at the beginning of their career that is only reserved for half a dozen lucky ones at a time. ‘The Studio is the icing on the cake, but the biggest prize is the opportunity to sing a lot with an orchestra and to work with great professionals. In most singing competitions you have to make it at least to the semi-finals before you are accompanied by an orchestra.’

Timid

Talent show producers love a biographical storyline. Hu was always described by presenter Dionne Stax and the judges as a somewhat timid girl, almost a wallflower, who gradually turned into a confident diva. To what extent is this correct? ‘I think there is a grain of truth in it, because it really took some getting used to. After half a year in which I wasn’t able to do much, I was out of shape anyway. It was: Wow! Straight from nothing all the way to level 399 of activity and music making. Add to this the cameras and the incredibly impressive set in the Gashouder (in Amsterdam, red.) and it was quite overwhelming. I think I felt a bit small in the beginning and a bit more timid and over time I got more and more familiar with the people and the environment.’

Hu grew up in Delft, in a family in which everyone loves music. ‘My grandfather and grandmother and my aunt and niece lived next to our first house. We have a very close-knit family.’ It was clear early on that she was a musical child with an exceptional voice. As a child she sang in the church choir of the Catholic Raamstraatkerk. ‘Maybe Noortje likes singing lessons’, suggested the conductor. Indeed it was.

In his second year of high school, Hu tried to audition for a solo in the Christmas concert. ‘I was allowed to sing for the choir director, but I found it exciting. He said, why don’t we hide you somewhere, behind a pillar or behind the choir? When we finished the joint piece, the choir stopped and I could hide in the back O Holy Night to sing. Then people came to me and said: you should do something with this.’

Hu continued to take singing lessons, but found language and literature at least as fascinating. After reading The Lord of the Rings she wanted to be a philologist for a while, like the writer JRR Tolkien. She only started her singing education at the Utrecht Conservatory in the last year of her bachelor’s degree in English.

costumes

Anyone who Aria has seen can confirm that the girl who once dared to sing a Christmas carol hiding alone was born for the stage. Look, for example, at her dazzling rendition of Granada by Agustín Lara, a favorite song of her grandfather and dedicated to him. The jury praised not only her voice, but also how confidently she moves ‘in a tricky suit’ with gigantic sleeves and a heavy train.

Bee Aria the startling costumes were part of the spectacle. The unbridled imagination of stylist Maarten Spruyt dressed the participants in sometimes very outlandish creations. Didn’t some costumes get in the way of freedom of movement? Hu has to laugh. ‘When I caro nome sang, Rosemary got me on my head.’ (Rosemary Joshua, the jury chairman and also the artistic director of De Opera Studio, red.) ‘She said: You should have said no to walking down the stairs in such high shoes. But my motto is ‘have fun and learn’, in the broadest sense of the word. And that means that I go along with the artistic vision of others.’

‘In opera, different disciplines and art forms come together. And certainly as a novice singer, if you have to sing ‘Orange Number Two’, for example, you can’t come in and immediately say: I think my hat is too orange. Bee Aria some great Dior shoes passed by, but couldn’t get down the stairs in them. Martin understood that. But I would never, out of vanity, rule out an option without trying. And I really enjoyed the costumes.’

hurtful

Be open to new experiences and at the same time indicate your limits. It is not easy, especially with regard to the feedback, whether solicited or unsolicited, that every performing artist has to process. “Some people can say really hurtful things with the best of intentions. For example about your appearance: you sang very beautifully, but you looked like a red cabbage with that dress on. Or weird suggestions like: maybe you should change your name because you’re actually a western woman and otherwise people think you might be such a korean. Which makes you wonder: what do you mean?’

Hu is a Chinese surname. Her paternal grandparents are from China. “If you’re not in the right mindset, comments like that can really gnaw at you. I want nothing more than to sing, I sometimes find it very difficult to focus on my love for singing and let go of the bad things. In January 2021 I felt I should talk to someone about this. I learned a lot from that therapy and it certainly helped me in the competition.’

Hu prefers to be only occupied with singing, and not with all the noise around it. At the moment she is busy with De Opera Studio, finishing her singing education and preparing for concerts.

And where will Elenora Hu be in five years? My dream is not necessarily to become a great opera star, but I do want to the best of the best performance. I want to enjoy singing and making music at the highest possible level. I dare not ask for more, neither from myself nor from the future.’