What musical experiences inspired you to become an opera singer?
That's quite a funny story. I attended the Eötvös Secondary School and for an early morning class, at 7am, I could have gone to basketball practice or choir rehearsal. At first, I was uncertain which one to choose but eventually I decided to go for the choir training because the choir was just preparing to go to Denmark. That trip was such an attraction that I decided to join. No matter how strange this might sound from an opera singer, that was my first musical experience, at age 14.
Who was your first teacher?
I started to study voice with the help of Anna Pauk, who was actually also the first teacher of László Polgár. Soon after, Gábor Carelli, who used to teach at the Manhattan School of Music, heard me and invited me to New York. I managed to get a scholarship for one year. I studied from the father of the famous actress Sandra Bullock. He was an excellent teacher and although I started as a bass, it was he who advised me to sing in a baritone voice.
The scholarship was probably not enough for normal livelihood. How did you support yourself?
I worked an awful lot while studying at the same time. I had a job with a moving company, worked as a porter and in the restaurant of the halls of the residence where I was staying. I felt I did not have enough energy to sing and my scholarship was not enough to live from. I was not satisfied because my singing development was not as I had expected, so I decided to move back home. Here I continued my studies with Mircea Breazu, who would come over from Cluj Napoca and has helped the career of many people at the opera house in Budapest. In the meantime, I supported myself by teaching English.
In the meantime, your career included a Mozart singing competition.
Yes, as one of the winners of the competition, I sang Papageno in The Magic Flute.
Three years later, you once again met some world-famous singers as part of a course.
I learnt a lot at master courses by Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge and became a member of the studio at the Zurich opera house in 1997. I could thank that to László Polgár's daughter Kati who invited me there saying that I would certainly develop and also learn German if I went. Marc Belfort heard me and I was immediately accepted. He was a wonderful person but unfortunately, we only worked together for a short time because in the following March he died after a long battle with cancer. Already before his death, I learnt that I would get a contract from the theatre for the next season. I was very sorry that he could not help my career any further. I still owe him a lot.
At age 28, you found yourself on the international opera scene.
World-famous singers and conductors would come and go. When I first arrived, Zancaro was singing, then Leo Nucci, Bruson, Juan Pons and I could go on with the names. I was in the theatre almost every evening. I listened to them and made good friends with some of them. When they learnt that I was savvy with computers, they would always come to me for help. And I sometimes even believed it was also because of my singing... But anyway, no matter what the reason was, all these discussions still benefited me and I also learnt Italian. I got very good roles, sang Belcore, Papageno and Agelotti and many others. I worked together with a whole range of excellent conductors, for instance with Gergiev, de Burgos, Christoph von Dohnanyi, István Soltész and the Nello Santi, who is over 80 now but still very active and conducts many performances. He is the only one of the great "Last of the Mohicans" I know. I will never forget one of his sentences during the rehearsals of Tosca. He told the pianist: Listen to me and remember what I'm saying because when I'm gone, nobody will tell you these things. I always felt with him as if I were standing over a safety net. He was a real Italian musician. Zurich was very good training, where I learnt a great many things that one needs for serious singing.
Why did you decide after seven years to return home?
I felt my career had come to a standstill. Even though I was a member of the theatre, with a steady income, I had to accept uncertainty in order to make progress. The last straw was when they invited another singer to step in for a colleague who had fallen ill even though I could sing Figaro in Mozart's opera by heart and had even performed it at home. I told myself then that was it and told the director on the following day that I would go home. Singing is more important than anything else to me.
Your membership in the Zurich company is also documented in a recording.
Cecilia Bartoli recommended I sing the baritone in Bellini's La Sonnambula. I had the opportunity to sing with Juan Diego Florez and Ildebrando D'Arcangelo.
What roles did you get at home?
I sang in the Barber of Seville already in 2003, then in Mozart's Figaro and had the role of Ping in Turandot. I will sing the minister five times in March. I consider my favourite and also most difficult role Beckmesser in Die Meistersinger. German declamation goes well with my voice. I also have a role that appeals to me in Xerxes.
You are ahead of another premiere on March 20, singing Faninal in The Knight of the Rose.
That role is a typical example of when you "spit out" your lungs. It is incredibly high and difficult, not a thankful task. It means only twenty minutes of singing and no applause....
What other tasks do you have after this premiere?
During the Miskolc festival in the summer, the title role of Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, directed by Gábor Miklós Kerényi. There is talk that the performance will be brought to the Operetta Theatre in the autumn. I do not have any firm commitments yet, but once I would quite like to sing Jago, Scarpia and some of the more defined Verdi roles.
Author: Péter Spangel / Source: fidelio.hu
