When any opera singer faces a new production of an opera, whether or not he or she has previously performed it, there is usually a mix of excitement and fear. How will this turn out? Will I be glad I signed up for this? Tenor Saimir Pirgu, who is singing the role of Rodolfo in Barrie Kosky’s production of La Bohème for LA Opera starting this Saturday, has definitive ideas of when a director’s vision is good for the opera.
“I do love to experiment,” he told me prior to a rehearsal earlier this week. “But I have a very strict idea of whether the ideas are really prepared. Don’t do the changes just for their ego. Most of the time we’re talking about a beautiful idea or no idea whatsoever.”
He has no such concerns for this production of Puccini’s classic opera. Kosky is best known to Los Angeles audiences for his innovative production of The Magic Flute which used animation extensively. (That production returns to LA Opera in November.)
“I saw The Magic Flute, I think it was in Barcelona. Hearing that production there is nothing that is not possible. I think his plan [with La Bohème] is to do it as simple as possible and more focusing on the characters of those four bohemians. He’s done quite a good job. He really thinks how to make that first act as real as possible.”
This isn’t Pirgu’s first time playing Rodolfo. And each time he does he knows that are plenty of other tenors who have sung the role before him.
“It is quite difficult for a tenor to face that crowd and that role that every famous tenor has sung,” he offers. “It is quite difficult. You just need to find a cue how to read it and do your best and usually it helps when that production, in this case Barrie’s, has a lot of freedom and it varies between the friendship of all four friends so it helps my interpretation and to bring something new.”
Later this year Pirgu will perform the role again in a production originally directed by the late Franco Zeffirelli. That means he’ll be tackling this role with a completely different directorial vision.
“It’s not that difficult,” he says of jumping from one production to another. “The La Boheme in Vienna is big emotion. Sometimes opera singers are quite happy when they arrive on those productions because they are exactly how people think a production should be. I’m happy to be in a classic La Bohème. If you ask me which you do I feel more? They are both beautiful.”
One thing he does find to be distinctly different between American productions and Europe productions is how they get produced in the first place.
“It’s a different mentality and the biggest thing in the United States that has a repertory program is the Metropolitan Opera or Chicago or San Francisco. Other cities have only 3-5 productions and they try to bring the best they can. But in Milan, Berlin, they have ever day a different opera, a different staging and more time to do experiments. In Europe the government pays for the art, in the United States donors pay. It’s a completely different mentality of doing art. The culture in Europe is a bit more common to everyone. Here it is still high class, but not everybody has access because it is not touchable for everyone to go to opera in America.”
Pirgu, who was born in Albania, believes in the passion and power of music. In fact, he’s described himself as an atheist. But also added, “If God exists, he exists in music.” It was an intriguing idea I wanted him to explore more fully.
“i believe in the art I’m doing. When the voice of the singer flew to the orchestra and ear of the public and makes them feel happy and emotion, I think that is something special. If you want to understand what is God, music can say something more about that because it is something we don’t need to believe. We can eat, we can sleep, we can work, but music makes our lives much better. If it is a high level of music you get sick of it, but it is a wonderful sickness.”
One of the tenors we spoke about before the conversation ended was Spanish tenor Alfredo Kraus who once said, “You have to make a choice when you start to sing and decide whether you want to service the music, and be at the top of your art, of if you want to be a very popular tenor.” So which route has Pirgu taken?
“I’ve done the first choice,” he says. “I want to do the best for the music and being on top of that level and forget about popularity. It’s very difficult to be loyal to the music and that’s what I’m trying to do.
“I think music chose me. Music has created how I am. Of course I pay attention to what music says to me, but music has chosen me. This conversation will be very mysterious, but music has chosen me.”
For tickets to La Bohème go here.
For our preview of La Bohème go here .
Main Photo: Saimir Pirgu in La Bohème at LA Opera. All photos by Cory Weaver/Courtesy of Los Angeles Opera
Note: English is not Pirgu’s first language. Rather than clean up what he said to make it sound “correct,” I have chosen to let me speak as he naturally does.