Vasco Fracanzani
Teatro Real, Madrid – November 26th 2014
“In recent years, Leigh Melrose has carved out a formidable reputation for the performance of new works. His excellent sense of rhythm, fearless vocal flexibility and engaging stage presence mark him out as one of the most sought after singers for this challenging repertoire.” (www.leighmelrose.com)
OPERAWORLD)
Hi Leigh, I felt utterly compelled to start this interview by quoting the initial paragraph of your website’s biography tab. After having seen the full dress-rehearsal of the Teatro Real’s upcoming production of Britten’s Death in Venice, I feel it perfectly sums up both my thoughts and feelings.
LEIGH MELROSE)
I have to thank my agent for such a wonderful introduction!
OPERAWORLD)
Is this your first visit to Spain?
LEIGH MELROSE)
No, I’ve been to Spain quite a lot actually which means I should really learn Spanish at some point. I have performed, amongst others, in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, San Sebastian, Oviedo, Granada, Seville and Cuenca.
Last year I sang a dress-rehearsal performance of Wozzeck at Teatro Real because Simon Keenlyside was ill. I also sang this production of Death in Venice at the Liceu in Barcelona in 2008.
OPERAWORLD)
Traveller/Elderly Fop/Old Gondolier/Hotel Manager/Hotel Barber/Leader of the Players/Voice of Dionysus. How does it feel to portray such a rich and yet diverse array of characters all in the same opera?
LEIGH MELROSE )
I believe that’s really the real challenge. It is strange but in this production the six characters are really sort of linked together, as opposed to being six separate separate people united by a sense of fate, destiny or perhaps even some facet of Aschenbach himself, conspiring to his downfall.
OPERAWORLD )
Are they vocally very different?
LEIGH MELROSE)
They are not vocally different as such, but I believe they should be made different. Each has a different character and the challenge is on the performer to bring it out.
OPERAWORLD)
Which character is the most enthralling?
LEIGH MELROSE)
I find a certain easiness and fun in interpreting the extreme characters, since I’ve been already involved in many extreme portrayals on stage. The one that I find most interesting in many ways is the hotel manager, because he’s relatively normal, although he’s really not. The continuous goading, facilitating and poking aimed at encouraging Aschenbach is what makes it particularly challenging.
OPERAWORLD )
But in many ways, all of the roles contain a certain amount of menace. Don’t they?
LEIGH MELROSE)
Yes, although they’re all aiding Aschenbach. They never hold him or force him to do something, they simply open the door so he can walk through.
The traveller is in a certain sense the manifestation of the darkest side of Aschenbach’s thoughts. As an example, the hotel manager says «Here’s the beach» without really pointing out the many boys who are there playing. He never directly incites him to go, engage in illicit behavior and destroy his life, yet he knows that is really what’s going to happen.
OPERAWORLD)
You’re a graduate of St. John’s College Cambrige. How did you start singing?
LEIGH MELROSE)
I was a choral scholar and so I sang once a day, every day for three years, which is really a very good discipline. Nevertheless, my real initiation started when I was about 14 and auditioned for a Gilbert and Sullivan production of The Mikado, set up by my housemaster at school.
I went on stage, sang Happy Birthday and attempted to flee the room. My housemaster, also a running coach, beat me to the door and asked me to sing something else. It turns out I was given a principal role, Pish-Tush. Initially I was not very enthusiastic about the result, although I soon changed my mind when I found out it involved working with the local girls school.
As the rehearsals progressed, I was asked to do cartwheels, handstands and many other things on stage. Half way through my aria I had decided that was exactly what I wanted to do.
OPERAWORLD)
You were a member of the ENO Jerwood Young Artists Program. What memories come to mind?
LEIGH MELROSE)
My joining the program was very important because it was the right thing at the right time. Until then, I was admitted in 1998, there was no young artists program at the English National Opera, let alone anywhere in Britain. I joined with another two singers and spent three years.
The didn’t know what to do with us so we were given many covers in addition to small roles. I was therefore able to sing Papageno and other roles. This was the most important facet of the ENO young artists program. In various other programs, young singers are given covers, master classes, learn and observe. You don’t necessarily do much actual good-quality stage time.
ENO has a very loyal audience who has seen me grown up in public. They have followed my artistic development from it’s perhaps green and naïve beginning to my current status. I’m confident that the 16 years in between both stages, have allowed me to grow and mature. Actually, I’ve just returned from a production with the ENO and I’m going back in years to come.
OPERAWORLD)
Would you recommend that a young singer audition for a Young Artists program?
LEIGH MELROSE)
There are, of course, different programs but the main feature is that, with all of them, you can watch professionals at the top of their career, work. When you’re in a conservatoire or a purely academic environment, you’re sort of a «big fish in a small pond», I think one needs to feel like «a small fish in a bigger pond». It is extremely important to be able to observe and absorb as professionals prepare their roles and tackle the different complexities of an operatic production.
OPERAWORLD)
You are recognized as a formidable performer of modern works. How does one specialize in such a repertoire?
LEIGH MELROSE)
A sense of adventure and a sense of mischief.
I don’t think one can choose where one’s voice will take one. It’s sort of chicken and egg. Young singers get asked to perform contemporary works because they can’t sing Otello or Aida. You’re offered smaller roles in traditional operas and many opportunities to perform in modern works. Many singers prefer to decline such offers for different reasons. I have always found them very interesting, so I usually accept.
I believe that my dedication and the intensity of my work has grown over the years so that now, on some occasions, I can actually work in close contact with the composers to adapt the musical writing to my voice. Please don’t misunderstand me, I love Mozart and Verdi but I also find these modern works very interesting and challenging. I never know what I’m going to find when I open the score and this makes it very exciting.
OPERAWORLD)
In preparing for this interview, I was much impressed by the modern opera The Passenger. How was your experience with Mr. Weinberg’s opera?
LEIGH MELROSE)
The piece really tugs at your heart strings, the music is very moving and the subject matter is terribly distressing. Yet, the strongest intensity and the most unforeseeable emotions actually occurred with the curtain call.
The story narrates the encounter of two women who had spent time in a concentration camp: one as a detainee and the other as a camp worker. The latter abruptly and unexpectedly stops breathing when she recognizes the voice of the former, a woman she thought was dead.
I portrayed a very emotional character, another concentration camp detainee who can play the violin and is asked by the camp commander, a very authoritarian and stereotypical Nazi officer who likes music, to entertain him with some bubbly Strauss waltzes. The violin player refuses and instead offers a heartbreaking Bach piece which infuriates the officer.
Now, imagine you’re in the typical operatic bubble rehearsing, experiencing the musical woe and all is working well. Opening night is absolutely fantastic and all artists are warmly applauded. Suddenly, during the curtain calls a very elegant Polish lady is lead on stage by the stage director. She is the author of the semi-autobiographical book which the opera is based on. One unexpectedly realizes that all of the opera-related content is actually fake and the bubble simply bursts. The audience inevitably lost all of it’s emotional control when they realized the lady was the real thing, that she had survived the most terrifying horrors of Auschwitz.
OPERAWORLD)
Can you tell us about upcoming projects?
LEIGH MELROSE)
After Madrid, I’m leaving for Paris to do a world-prèmiere of a piece called Solaris composed by Dai Fujikura and based on the Stanislaw Lem novel. Afterwards I’m singing Escamillo again and then I’m off to Prague for a new project. It’s a piece called R U R, an opera about robots and Internet-related material.
OPERAWORLD)
How about your hobbies?
LEIGH MELROSE)
I actually like to flutter on the stock markets. Traveling with opera you have a lot of downtime and this keeps my brain going. It requires one to research, collect and analyze a considerable amount of information, in order not to resort to random guessing.
OPERAWORLD)
Based on your experience, do you think opera is in trouble?
LEIGH MELROSE)
No, I think that opera maybe has an image problem among certain areas of society.
If you bring a group of schoolchildren who have no preconception to, let’s say, a dress-rehearsal, it is very probable they will love it. They won’t be thinking whether it is or isn’t an elitist type of art form. I think as people grow up, there’s a misconception in popular culture that opera is hard and is not for them.
Opera, therefore, has to work at it. Many opera houses are engaging in outreach programs to allow this art form to reach audiences which would otherwise not be involved.
OPERAWORLD)
Thank you very much for allowing us to peer into the life of a wonderful, vibrant and energetic top-class performer. OPERAWORLD wishes you a great opening night and an unending future of success.
