Interview: Olga Peretyatko, the Met's Shimmering Gilda in RIGOLETTO

When singers seem to come out of nowhere, it's usually not the case at all, but the culmination of years of hard work. But for Russian soprano Olga Peretyatko--the Met's current Gilda in the lively 'Ratpack' production of Verdi's RIGOLETTO--it certainly seemed like it.

One day, she was supposed to debut as Fiakermilli, the short but glittery role in Strauss's ARABELLA, then the page Oscar in UN BALLO IN MASCHERA, followed by Gilda in RIGOLETTO somewhere down the line. Then, suddenly, it was out with Strauss and Verdi and in with Elvira in I PURITANI in April 2014, a major role in Bellini's final opera. This is the bel canto opera rediscovered and championed by Maria Callas in the 1950s, in the production that premiered with Joan Sutherland and had last been sung at the Met by Anna Netrebko. In other words, Peretyatko had some big shoes to fill.

And fill them she did. After the premiere, the New York Times said she had "a beguiling stage presence," "a clear, shimmering voice with a bright but never hard-edged sound" and "technique to dispatch runs and roulades with comfortable agility."

Her sudden ascent

What accounted for her sudden ascent? "The people from the Met had heard me in Stravinsky's 'Song of the Nightingale' in Toronto, and soon offered the short Strauss and Verdi roles, which wouldn't have been my choice, but, well, it was the Met," she recalls. "But they watched me--you see them everywhere, to see what you are doing and how you are doing --and noticed that my voice was developing very quickly. So they changed their mind--because those other roles were too small for me--and asked me to change to PURITANI.

"Of course I said yes! I was totally happy and called my husband, Michele (Mariotti, the conductor and notable bel canto specialist) because it was such exciting news and told him that I was doing Elvira at the Metropolitan. 'When?' he asked. When I told him April 2014, he said, 'We're together': He was the scheduled conductor."

Working with Mariotti

What is it like her to work with her husband? "That's how we first met, working together...and nothing happened. Then months later, in a different city, we met again and my Italian was much better than before, so we could communicate and something else was born. To work together as a couple, for me, it is quite normal, like breathing, though I worried at first." Is he more sensitive to her voice because he knows her? "As a wife, no. But he's a sensitive conductor in general; that's why lots of singers want to debut with him because he is 'with you.' He's a great musician--and not just for me. Unfortunately, now we get to work together maybe once a year. Or maybe it's our good fortune..." she laughs.

Being in New York together for PURITANI was a great interlude for the two rising professionals. "We were here for two months--and in this crazy life, it's quite nice when you're in the same city at the same moment. It doesn't happen often," she says a bit wistfully. "If I have a few days off I can't fly Transatlantic. This time, he will come later for a different production [LA DONNA DEL LAGO] and we will see each other for one week, then I go to Madrid for my next Gilda. This season is full of Gildas for me! Opera de la Bastille in Paris, then the Vienna Staatsoper, then the Deutsch Oper Berlin. Gilda, Gilda, Gilda--I will kill myself," she says laughingly. But her Gildas in New York are her first in some time. "So now it's a different Gilda. That's what I like in my work: Never be routine--you find new colleagues, new staging, new colors in your voice, new depth."

"The role of the woman was not nice at all"

Back to Bellini. She had done Elvira in PURITANI before her debut in New York, but only in concert versions. And what did she think of it as a debut role? "It has that amazing mad scene--and a happy ending, which is very rare in the opera world. Normally, I'm killed or kill myself. Or I will be mad and kill myself," she laughs. More seriously, she continues, "I think she was a sensitive person, like Lucia--not quite normal from the beginning. Women were so oppressed in their society in that period--in Scotland--the climate. A cruel country, a cruel story, a cruel dynasty.

"The role of the woman was not nice at all. It was not very much fun to be a woman, because everybody has decided everything for you. You couldn't say a word, just say yes to your father, to your brother, whomever. My key for the role is the conflict of the different sides of the character--to be very passionate and be oppressed, not being able to do or say something she really wants."

What about Gilda--is she another of these women whose lives are decided? No, says Peretyatko. "Gilda's a different one, totally different." But is she a difficult character to make credible for audiences--that she doesn't seem weak and too naïve?

A role with everything

"Absolutely not. This role has everything--from the young girl who's very naïve and dreamy (in the gorgeous aria, "Caro nome") to the young woman in love who will sacrifice herself for her father and her love. She can't be very weak, she must have a strong character because her decisions are not ones you make every day," Peretyatko avers. "That's my key for the role. It's a long journey, from the first meeting with Papa [Rigoletto], in the first act, the duet with the Duke, my aria, second act aria. There's also so much in the story that isn't shown, not even here. This story is very cruel and we shouldn't forget about it."

With so many Gildas on her schedule, how does it affect her performance, with every director having his own concept? She has worked a good deal in Germany, where she went to conservatory, so she is used to the regietheatre--in which the director has all the power to change anything and everything the creators wrote--and is okay with it. But she also needs to be convinced. "If he doesn't convince me, I will not do things. If the stage director is very well prepared and the storytelling is correct, I can be as flexible as I have to. It's teamwork and the goal is a successful opening.

Working with the director

"The basis of the role is always the same for me. You have your vision of a role and then the director"--here, Broadway's Michal Mayer, who squeezed in some rehearsals of this revival of RIGOLETTO before heading to London for FUNNY GIRL--"is here to help you work it into the production. We changed a lot because we are all different artists, every cast is different. You can't do things that other singers did. For instance, I like to move around on the stage.

"So we talked a lot. Mayer's images and how he sees the story don't disturb me. The car [where Gilda is thrown in the trunk before she dies in this production]...why not? In Las Vegas, it can happen certainly. We have seen a lot of movies where terrible things happen and nobody complains. So, in the opera world, why not? In German there's an expression, saenger freundlich--friendly for the singers. That's what matters. It's not so difficult for us--being carried offstage in a sarcophagus or being put in the trunk of a car when she's supposed to be dead.

"It's not possible to always do the same staging of the same music all the time. People need something more. But it should make sense--that's the one point for me. If it's aesthetically beautiful, that's even better and if I not comfortable with something, I will talk with the stage director or change it. Because if I'm not convinced, I don't believe the audience will be convinced," she insists. "The point is to be credible, with a lot of emotions and passions that the audience doesn't see in their own lives. Because 100 years ago, opera stage was like Lady Gaga--a freak show, something they don't have at home. All these mad scenes, sacrificing young girls like Gilda, something on the edge."

Two kinds of staging

"I think there is no old-fashioned or new-style production. There are two kinds of staging--good and bad. Musical and stupid. Sometimes the director prepares himself only with the libretto and not the music. But in the score, everything is written, especially in Verdi, who was very clear about what he wanted, eg, the beginning of the third act, you can hear the darkness. I've seen lots of productions with full light on the stage and it's a disconnect. After the vendetta and before the quartet. Same in the first act, between Rigoletto and Sparafucile--it's very dark and should be lit that way.

Is she missing a mad scene in this opera? "No," Peretyatko laughs. "She has quite a lot to do."

What does she have coming up? Her next big role is Donna Anna in DON GIOVANNI in Berlin. (When I tell her that she looks more like an Elvira, she answers, "Talk to my voice!") Then there will be Constanza in Mozart's THE ABDUCTION FROM THE SERAGLIO Berlin and Zurich, which she first did as a student in conservatory in Berlin. "The Bayerische Staatsopera asked me to do Blondchen [the second lead] because I was young, not famous. They told me I should start with Blond and then change later. I said no--it's very comfortable for me to sing Constanze right now." She recently added her first Violettas in LA TRAVIATA, one with Pablo Heras-Casado, her conductor in RIGOLETTO.

Preparing a new role

What is it like to debut a new role for her? She explains, "I love it. Taking time and preparing myself without any rush, this is important for me. I prefer to work on the role and then leave it a little, a couple of months, to give it a chance to mature. It's important for your voice and your head. Then come back and see how it feels in the voice, to see how it's going." She also works with her teacher, the legendary Mariella Devia.

"I started to sing better after I met her-- her technique is amazing. At 67, her voice is still so fresh and the way she uses the consonants and the text is exactly my ideal. And when you do like she says, you can sing for hours and hours without being tired. It's about technique: To make it homogenous, that's technique; not to lose control on the stage, that's technique." She acknowledges that "you can't take your voice teacher everywhere. Devia understands that even if we see each other every 4-5 months, it's enough, because I'm a big girl.

"On the stage you're alone--you should know how your voice works, to stand alone. I know, for example, that I can't just roll out of bed and be ready to sing. I always have to warm up and exercise-here, I go jogging in Central Park and do yoga. My goal is to sing for a long, long time. The voice changes, of course, but I don't think I'll be doing TURANDOT," she laughs.

Does Peretyatko have a dream role? She shakes her head "no." "Everything I'm singing now is my dream. It's really banal and boring but it's true. My dream role for now is Gilda; I am 200% inside of her. Every role that I've wanted to sing I've sung or will sing in the future--even Wagner, which began and ended with the Shepherd Boy in TANNHAUSER--so everything goes as it should and I'm very happy with it. Wish me luck--and a lot of health." Oh, she adds, "I'd like to sing Carmen on the stage--but who is going to let me! Unfair!"

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