Danilo is a charming bon vivant ?
Yes, and I?m everything but that character. I have made Danilo into a macho-like Pest kid wearing a stretch suit. I tried to inject my characteristics into Danilo as much as possible, making him rather sloppy. An actor will work best if he speaks like an everyday person. He should avoid being artificial and pathetic.
Did you have any difficulties with the genre?
This is my first operetta role. I usually learn things easily and it also helped that I had known most of this music from a long time ago. And I had no trouble with the lyrics, either. Danilo is more of a tenor role than a baritone, so it?s a bit too high for me. What?s more, the conductor Gergely Kesselyák wants some of the most sensitive parts to be performed with fine detail. This is a great idea but quite difficult to put into practice. Singing with the help of a Mikroport also requires a very different technique because the singer cannot hear any of it. It?s difficult to sing high tones at low volume and at the same time expressively. So it?s definitely a good idea to be on good terms with the sound technicians. It?s unusual that I have to start singing after a dialogue that is stressful for my voice. What?s more, I rarely had to perform prose in the past and so I have to learn that. The organisers of the Open-Air Festival have contracted many excellent actors. So I was a bit nervous when I had to start speaking next to Péter Haumann. Luckily, we helped each other out. He corrected my prose and I could give him a few tips on the sung parts.
I?ve heard that you originally also trained to be an actor.
My mother?s brother, Oszkár Gáti, got me involved in several exam performances when I was around five or six. What child would not get affected by the atmosphere of the theatre? I wanted to be an actor but I felt that it would not give me enough international opportunities. In school I had to choose between the basketball team and the choir. Since the choir was going on a trip abroad, I chose that. But of course I had a terrible singing technique then. I mostly shouted out of tune. Still, my history teacher liked it and said: Péter, you have such a good voice.
It is a stereotype for singers that they are discovered by the music teacher in school and then they train their voice so that they can go to the Music Academy and later to the Opera House. But you took a different path.
Yes, I had a completely different story. My first singing teacher was Anna Pauk who also set László Polgár on his career. I was so amateurish that I would get a sore throat by the end of every lesson. But then after finishing secondary school, I went to work and study in New York. I would wash dishes, worked as a doorman and transported furniture to get enough money for a singing teacher. I studied with the legendary Gábor Carelli in Manhattan. For a whole year, we tried to make improvement with the help of two pre-classics songs. I suspected quite early on that this was not the right way for me. I even studied with Sandra Bullock?s father, which was paid by the church where I sang on the weekend. After returning to Budapest, Mircea Breazu became my teacher.
Did you debut in the Opera House after that?
There was a Magic Flute singing competition in 1993 after which I got the chance to sing Papageno. It was an amazing feeling to first enter the Opera House as a singer but my story did not continue there. I moved to one of Europe?s best opera houses, the studio in Zurich, on the recommendation of László Polgár?s daughter Kati. The studio head Marc Belfort, for some reason, thought I was interesting. However, he unfortunately died after just three months of working together. As the story goes, he asked the intendant Alexander Pereira on his deathbed to give me a place at the studio. So I stayed in Zurich for seven years. There I could listen to world-famous singers every day, watching their abdomens and their breathing technique. I would just watch them and ask questions. I learnt that there was no such thing as a perfect singing teacher. There is a feeling that needs to be reproduced. I am not yet at the end of the road and I developed my technique with hard work, sound by sound.
The theatre of Zurich is very famous. Almost everyone who counts in the world of opera performs there. Why did you still decide to return home?
When I was in Zurich, I did not sing especially well and I did not get really good roles. I got roles in many performances, but, except for Papageno and Balcore in The Elixir of Love, mostly small ones. I thought I had more potential than that but for some reason it was not allowed to flourish. I did not feel well there and Zurich became a school forced on me. In the meantime, people started calling me back to the Opera House. For instance I got offered the role of Mozart?s Figaro in Budapest, while in Zurich I got the role of the gardener. So I felt I had enough and I returned home.
Did they await the young baritone returning home from his journeys abroad with open arms?
My career in Pest started slowly. Lately, I?ve been singing much more than five years ago, when I returned home. These days, I don?t even have time to rest between productions. I get more and more invitations to sing concerts, even though it?s a more stressful job. But I don?t like sitting around in one place. I really enjoy working for instance with Gábor Hollerung and we have done some great concerts together. Thanks to the many performances, I?ve acquired quite a big repertoire. I know much about theatre and don?t panic by having to stand in front of 4,000 people. You have to be out on the stage to be able to develop.
Did you get much professional help from anyone?
Back in the old days, there used to be leaders or masters in the theatre who would tell the performers which roles would suit them best. I never had such a mentor and I always have to find for myself the best direction of development. For instance I?ve realised that in the world of international opera there seems to be a gap now in buffa baritone roles. Whereas twenty or thirty years ago, there were great many Gianni Schicchi and Don Pasquale singers, I don?t see any performers of that calibre today. I enjoy these characters and find them more exciting than for instance a Count di Luna. My voice started getting deeper and these days I find it easier to sing Bartolo than Figaro in the Barber of Seville. And so I am making a change. Opera buffa characters are undeservedly undervalued, yet they can be difficult to properly accomplish.
We saw you in many productions in recent years. Which of these did you consider your most lasting experiences, if any?
In the past, singers used to be in the focus of operas. But the world has changed and instead of personalities, what counts today is the production. I joined quite a few old productions. I do not especially like these because the instructions did not come first hand. As if I had to play substitute in a mathematical formula. I like doing things instinctively. If I have a feel for it and it?s working, then too many rehearsals only wear out the character for me. I also admire actors who work very rationally, as they start preparing a role on a small scale and then keep adding to it every day. I have worked with Balázs Kovalik several times and he makes all the decisions for the singers. He has an idea in his head for the final product and then goes to find the people who can best accomplish that. He knows what?s in me and how to get it out of me. This can make it easy to work with him. In the Kovalik school, you are only a player on a chess board and he knows your exact place. A very different type of director is Gábor Miklós Kerényi, with whom I?ve done Gianni Schicchi. He likes the singer?s voice and allows the performer to make the role his own.
You mentioned earlier that the significance of individual singers seems to be diminished. However, there are some exceptions. For instance the great Cecilia Bartoli, whom you know quite well.
Cecilia has been living in Zurich for a long time and the opera is one of her bases, performing there every season. When she sang in Pest two years ago, we took her everywhere. After that, she invited me for a visit in the summer. Her mother, who still trains her today, also gave me a few lessons. Cecilia has an amazing enthusiasm for singing. She sings in the bathroom the same way as on the stage. And she gives herself fully in both places. Two years ago she offered to me the role of Alessio in a CD recording of The Sleepwalker. At first I was hesitant because the main reason I had left Zurich was that I did not want small roles anymore. But since then, I had to accept that these few-liner roles may be my entrance to grand theatres. Cecilia has recently recommended me for the role of Curio in Händel?s Julius Caesar at the Salzburg Festival in 2012. And one cannot afford to refuse such invitations.
Interviewer: Márton Karczag / Photo: Gergely Zoltán Kelemen
