Multiple roles for Romanian opera star
Print Edition
ROMANIAN soprano Mariana Nicolesco has traveled around the world for years, performing at the most prestigious opera houses and concert halls. Her recent stop was China — to inspire more young artists.
At the end of October, Nicolesco was in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, as a jury member for the China International Vocal Competition and later spent a week in Shanghai, where she talked to Shanghai Daily face to face about her career as a soprano and the mission to promote singing as a universal language.
Back in Romania, Nicolesco founded two competitions — the Hariclea Darclée International Voice Competition and the Romanian National Singing Competition.
“A voice competition has the merit of generating hopes, enthusiasm, a great effort by each young artist to do the best he can,” she says. “It has the merit of revealing new voices, new talents, no matter whether they get prizes or not.”
Born in 1948, Nicolesco’s musical path started with practicing the violin at the age of 6. But singing has always been her real passion.
“I was singing secretly when I was alone, and my instinct pushed me to be in front of a mirror and improvise. It was fantastic experience for a future opera singer,” she says.
The study of violin did provide her with all the elements to achieve musical discipline, which prepared her well to become a singer.
“The great American conductor Lorin Maazel said to me how wonderful it was to be making music together,” she remembers. “So violin played an important role in my formation.”
Nicolesco won a scholarship at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome to be taught by Jolanda Magnoni.
“That was absolutely the temple for singing, and from there on the whole thing took an extraordinary explosion of emotion,” she says.
Nicolesco first became a mezzo-soprano, as her voice has an exceptional natural extension.
“I can recall that during the general rehearsal of the ‘Mass in B Minor’ by Bach at London’s Royal Festival Hall, Carlo Maria Giulini, the great conductor, interrupted at a certain point, asking me not to sing forte but mezzo forte because, with the harmonics that I have, he could not hear the mezzo-soprano,” she recalls.
Nicolesco switched from mezzo to soprano because her professor, Magnoni, at the conservatory realized that she was in fact, a lyric soprano.
Nicolesco’s repertoire includes a very diverse range of roles in many productions, including many acclaimed interpretations of Verdi operas, such as Violetta in “La Traviata,” Leonora in “Il Trovatore,” Desdemona in “Otello,” Gilda in “Rigoletto” and Amelia in “Simon Boccanegra.”
The public adored her interpretation of Violetta, and it was one of the most complex roles. Her first Violetta was with the great tenor Alfredo Kraus under the direction of American conductor Thomas Schippers.
When she debuted in the role at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the New York Post wrote that “Mariana Nicolesco is the kind of artist capable of generating true passions and even battles between the opera lovers.
Her eventual weaknesses will always be more interesting than the virtues of other sopranos.”
She has also performed Donna Elvira in Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” many times under conductor Riccardo Muti at La Scala. In 1993, She was invited by Pope John Paul II and sang in the first ever Christmas Concert at the Vatican.
“Actually, all music is creating great emotion,” says the soprano. “If there is a rigor and respect for the score, perfect vocal technique and spirituality, which is a sacred charge, this comes to great emotion and touches the public’s soul. So I would say we are very privileged.”
Nicolesco has established herself as a true soprano in the bel canto repertoire (a term meaning beautiful singing in Italian, sometimes attached to operas written by Bellini and Donizetti), with her interpretation of Bellini’s “Beatrice di Tenda” at La Fenice in Venice. The recording of this opera is considered a landmark in Bellini discography.
Opera is elegant, and the audiences include people with knowledge of the art and the general public as well.
“Nowadays the language of music is universal, instant translations in all languages. If you tell them a little bit of the story, there are no barriers, and people will be touched in the same way,” says Nicolesco. “They will cry, express joy and feel the same sentiments. So if the expression is there, if the truth is there, if everything you have in front of you is strong and authentic, then you have the enthusiasm of people.”
Nicolesco is a model for many young singers around the world. She travels a lot to give master classes, and she’s also a UNESCO Artist for Peace.
“Because we are like a big family, and we are working together, we correct errors and I tell them each appearance must be a battle you win, and to take in mind you must always do the best you can thinking today’s triumph does not guarantee tomorrow’s success,” she says.
Her advice to young singers is to be authentic, search for the truth in the expression of music, study with seriousness, feel the instinct, be humble, curious and be a leader.
The most important is to enjoy everything.
And for Nicolesco herself, the model to follow for life is Magnoni.
“There are a lot of artists I love who give you the richness and happiness, but I always will be most grateful to my professor, Jolanda Magnoni, and
wherever I was, I would call her and communicate with her,” she says.
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