Month: January 2017

Christine Goerke: “She’s Every Woman”

Stefan Vinke as Siegfried and Christine Goerke as Brünnhilde in the Canadian Opera Company production of Siegfried, 2016. Photo: Michael Cooper

Singer, mother, actor, opinionator — these are some of the titles that come to mind when I think of Christine Goerke.

The American soprano, currently in Toronto through February 25th performing the role of Brunnhilde in Wagner’s epic work Götterdämmerung (the last of the group of works known as the Ring Cycle), is as feisty a presence to chat to as she is on the stage. Having first seen her in as the Dyer’s Wife in Richard Strauss’s monumental Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Met in 2013, I’ve since throughly enjoyed the work she’s brought to the Canadian Opera Company. Each time she’s performed the Wagnerian heroine (in Die Walküre in 2015 and Siegfried in 2016), she’s brought a sparky resilience that is thoroughly modern and, particularly for Wagner newbies, highly watchable. Christine is just plain exciting to watch as a performer, which makes her an especially great figure for opera newbies; highly expressive in her physicality, she also has a powerful, dramatic soprano and crystal-clear diction. One might attend Wagner’s epic Ring Cycle thinking only of its seemingly-interminable length, its dense score, its weighty mythology… but then Christine appears, and so enters a very contemporary sensibility, one that is involved, feisty, and warmly human. Christine is one of those singers who defies the old image of the fusty / diva / out-of-touch opera singer; she’s not only down to earth, but funny, thoughtful, blunt, and a very intriguing tweeter.

Just before I left for Europe, I had the chance to chat with Christine about Brunnhilde, and singing, and tweeting — and what it means to be an opera singer in the twenty-first century. As with the prior audio interview I recently posted about (with COC General Director Alexander Neef), please pardon the intermittent beeping; recording particulars still hadn’t been quite worked out (but will be going forward). One thing: please don’t feel you need to know anything about Wagner’s world, or indeed even opera, to enjoy this chat. If all you really know about opera is an image of a woman in a horned hat shrieking… well that’s Brunnhilde; Christine will blow that image delightfully apart for you. Oh, and if you like Star Wars, she’s pretty sure you’ll like Wagner, too.

(Photo: Pierre Gautreau)

Something New, Something Old

The Nightingale and Other Short Fables (COC, 2009) / Photo: Michael Cooper

Right now it’s the season of opera companies revealing their upcoming rosters of productions and casts for the following season. Each year these announcements are met with breathless excitement from opera buffs like me; very often we plan our lives around this stuff, though just as often announcements are also met with eyebrow raises, snickers, and/or sighs.

No such reactions, at least from my end, when it came to the Canadian Opera Company’s 2017-2018 season; it’s intriguing and genuinely balanced, and not exactly as safe as it may look from the outset. A revival of a hugely divisive, Christopher Alden-directed Rigoletto (a production that bravely tackles the work’s blatant misogyny) and the Canadian premiere of Richard Strauss’ Arabella (as the season opener, no less) are just two of the notable productions on tap. There’s also another revival, of the hugely successful The Nightingale And Other Short Fables, which, if you don’t live in Toronto, is very worth making a trip for. It’s a very special production involving a flooded orchestra pit, creative puppetry, and some very searing visuals. I can’t think of a better introduction to opera than this.

Just before I left for Europe (where I’m posting from — more on this jaunt in a future post), I had a chance to chat with COC General Director Alexander Neef. It was recorded via telephone, owing to a nasty cold I was (/am) enduring. (I’m still working out the particulars of my fancy new recorder, so please pardon the beeping; it’s not a heart monitor, honest.) Neef is always a good conversationalist, even if he and I don’t always see eye-to-eye in the opera sphere. For instance, I think L’elisir d’amore is far more interesting with older singers; to my ears, Donizetti’s gorgeous score only fully reveals its warm humanity with the timbre of mature voices — though I should add, I am allowing myself to remain totally open whatever surprises may be in the Ensemble Studio-populated production the COC has planned in the fall. Having soprano Jane Archibald as Artist-in-Residence is an equally intriguing prospect; along with performing in The Abduction from the Seraglio, she’ll be making two role debuts — in Arabella and The Nightingale. Archibald was so very affecting this past fall in the COC’s affecting production of Ariodante, and again, if you’re not an opera fan, hers is the voice that may make you a believer. Along with stellar technique, the soprano has a warm, human presence onstage, and she’s a great actor too.

So, without further ado, please enjoy. More audio interviews — and updates from Europe — to come. Stay tuned.

(Photo: Bo Huang)

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