Before La Scala, Elīna Garanča in Don Carlo

“OR don fatal! O cruel Don / who in his fury made heaven for me! / You who make us so vain, haughty, / I curse you… I curse you, oh my beauty!». For the Princess of Eboli who rails against her own attractiveness there could be no more credible interpreter than Elīna Garančaco-star of Don Carlo which opens on December 7th the season of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan.

With blue eyes and perfect movie star features, the Latvian mezzo-soprano is too intelligent and outspoken for false modesty: «Of course beauty is useful, and acting like a blonde sometimes helps (laughs). But when I go on stage my knees shake because of the voice, because of the technique, not because of the face.”

Before La Scala: Verdi’s emancipated women

Moreover, the role does not allow distractions: consistent with his emancipated vision of the feminine, Giuseppe Verdi makes the princess a complex figure, far from languid romantic heroines and a little passive. «She is a strong, very clever woman who – in a patriarchal world – has learned to survive by playing the male way. She is not a “man in a skirt”, but she understands how a man thinks and can face him on the same ground »explains – in good Italian – Garanča, fresh from her debut in another Verdi role in Vienna, the Pharaoh’s daughter in Aida: «I love Amneris: I dreamed of her, I waited so long for her!».

Elīna Garanča: «We were super poor»

Why did he “dream” about it? Do you feel her close?
Perhaps in the evolution of the personality, in the discovery of the true self. At the beginning the world seems pink: at twenty everything is fantastic, everything is possible, you snap your fingers and everything happens. At 40, we downsize. There are watershed events: as far as I’m concerned, the loss of my mother, in 2013, and becoming a mother myself.

Did the world seem pink to you before?
We need to distinguish because, as a child, I had two lives… In the 1980s in Latvia we were super poor, and from June 1st to August 31st I went to my grandparents’ farm and helped out in the fields and with the cows, selling flowers or tomatoes from the garden: we spent weeks eating only potatoes and cucumbers, we had nothing else. But I am grateful for that hard and simple existence: contact with nature stimulates the imagination and teaches us not to take ourselves too seriously, not to feel like the center of the universe, to accept the fact that everything follows a cycle. I became fond of the pigs – so to speak – and, invariably, they “disappeared”…

And the second life?
When school started I returned to Riga and in the city – despite the economic constraints – there was hope, there was “pink”: as soon as the lessons were over, I joined my mother in the theatre, who taught singing and diction to the actors. And I participated in the choir directed by my father.

«They said: you have no talent»

There, the electrocution.
No, not in the choir. But one day with my mother, seeing the protagonist of the musical they were putting on enter in jeans and “magically” exit with a pearl dress and a diamond crown, I understood: “Well, acting is what I want to do when I grow up”. But when I tried after high school, she didn’t go.

How come?
At the Academy they rejected me. “You have no acting talent” they claimed.

Bad shot.
In hindsight, no: those who were admitted remained in Latvia, they did not have an international career.

And at that point?
I tried to write, I sold furniture in a shop, I worked in a bar, I imagined a career as a translator since languages ​​came easily to me.

The solution was at home, he was already singing.
For that matter, I had been playing the piano since I was six years old, music was a constant presence, but neither of my parents pushed me towards solo parts. In fact, my mother was even against it, also because I smoked a lot, like many foolish girls at that age. Eventually, though, she gave in and she took me to her teacher for an opinion. And this little old lady, between puffs of a cigarette (laughs), he said: “Mhmmm, there is something…”. For me it was a hook.

«I am the sergeant major»

Hence his studies in Riga, Vienna, and his professional debut in Meiningen, Germany. The next turning points?
Probably Tito’s clemency at the Salzburg Festival in 2003, where I was Annio, and the Carmen of 2010 at the Metropolitan in New York: after having played many boys (the mezzo-soprano is sometimes entrusted with male roles, ed), from the Cherubino of The Marriage of Figaro to the Octavian of The Knight of the Rosethanks to Bizet’s work they “discovered” me as a woman and the path that led me to the Santuzza of Rusticana Cavalry by Pietro Mascagni, one of my favorite characters for his pride which is not arrogance, but rather a sense of dignity.

It’s hard to believe they didn’t see her as a woman.
I’m 1.75m tall, I have big shoulders and perhaps my temperament also contributed.

Why, what kind of temperament does he have?
Oh, just ask my daughters: I am the sergeant major in the family, order and discipline! (laughs) But I must admit that I didn’t mind proceeding step by step at all: I always looked at the big picture, to the long-term framework. I waited until I was really ready to take on some roles, I didn’t intend to give in to tempting offers to burn like a comet. And, in any case, you need to think strategically: if you try your hand at everything by the age of 35, how do you maintain interest until 55-60?

How, in your case?
Changing often. I’ve almost reached my fiftieth Carmen and I’m considering not impersonating her anymore: even if you climb Everest, the third time it’s still the same Everest!

Before La Scala: «Anna Netrebko and I»

No regrets about some rejections?
No, I believe in the Eastern proverb: “Don’t look at the past, otherwise you will enter the future from behind.” I’m happy with what I have, I’ve never wanted anything else, not even to be a soprano: the responsibility of being a prima donna is not my bread, I love being in the background.

So no competition with Anna Netrebko, who in Don Carlo will it be Elizabeth of Valois? Forgive us, we’ve seen it too many times Eve against Eve…
(smiles) This idea of ​​rivalry intrigues the public (and journalists), but it doesn’t affect us: we are just two artists who go out on stage to defend Verdi’s music. Do you know what success really means to me? That moment in which I finished singing and a suspended atmosphere is created in the room… The applause, after all, is more a need for the spectator to vent the emotion felt than a confirmation for us.

The centenary of Maria Callas

Today marks the centenary of the birth of Maria Callas.
A revolutionary, a legend who made every singer’s dream come true: having an instantly recognizable voice. An example of enormous talent, and the price you pay: crazy success and terrible loneliness.

Even in her case it won’t be easy to integrate the private life: she married Karel Mark Chichon, an orchestra conductor who often goes on tour, like her.
So far we have managed to reconcile well: we have a house in Latvia, where we stay in the summer and at Christmas, and one in Southern Spain, where my mother-in-law helps us with the girls. They attend an international school which allows, if necessary, to study online for some period. But that will soon change: her eldest is 12 years old, she is starting to talk like an adult and I love listening to her, trying to guide her and protect her. I don’t intend to stay away from them for too long, there is only one life. (laughs)

How do you recharge away from the scenes?
With pure effort, perhaps mindful of my summers as a child: yoga and things like that don’t interest me, I enjoy when I work in the garden, I put my hands in the earth, I move the plants. I need silence (in Latvia we say that speech is silver, silence is gold) and solitude: chatting style Sex and the City I never liked it. I’m like a man in this sense, I need my “hole” and to think while doing something physical. But you’ll never see a selfie of me with the spade… Selfies, pfui: the stupidest activity on earth!

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