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ARTICLES AUTOMNE 2020 , HISTOIRES EN VEDETTE
Cros-sover classique Soprano Veronica Bell « L’Antéchrist de l’opéra »
Veronica Bell a eu une carrière incroyable à l'opéra, sur scène et dans l'exploration de sa propre marque de crossover. Elle a figuré sur la musique de « Little Odessa » et a gagné des éloges et une notoriété avec son album cross-genre « Les Frissons D'Amour ».
Natasha:
Parlez-nous un peu de votre performance, était-ce du chant ou du ballet (ou même du patinage ?)
Véronique Bell :
Quand j'étais enfant, mes intérêts étaient tellement variés que mes parents avaient du mal à suivre. J'étais assez tendu entre le patinage sur glace, le chant, les cours de piano, le dessin et la gymnastique. Je voulais aussi être professeur de mathématiques, médecin et créatrice de mode. Mais mon plus grand amour était le ballet et j’envisageais sérieusement de devenir danseuse professionnelle. Mes rêves ont été brutalement brisés lorsque j’ai auditionné pour l’école de ballet du Bolchoï et que j’ai été rejeté. Ils m’ont dit que je deviendrais trop grand et que mes chevilles seraient trop faibles pour supporter ma taille. C'était la fin. Mais avant que mes larmes ne sèchent, le directeur de ma chorale m'a choisi comme soliste et j'ai continué ma vie sans hésitation. J'avais neuf ans.
Natasha:
Quand avez-vous commencé à étudier l’opéra ?
Véronique Bell :
En fait, j'ai commencé assez tard : j'avais 16 ans. Ma première rencontre avec l'opéra a été assez tragique. Quand j'avais cinq ans, mon père m'a emmené voir l'opéra Hansel et Gretel. Comme c’était un conte de fées, il pensait que j’adorerais ça aussi. Je me souviens de ce qui s'est passé comme si c'était hier : pendant la scène dans les bois, j'ai eu tellement peur que j'ai glissé de mon siège sur le sol, j'ai collé mon visage sur les genoux de mon père et j'ai commencé à pleurer si fort qu'il a dû prendre moi maison. Cela aurait pu être la fin, mais ce n'était pas le cas. Ma famille possédait une énorme collection de disques de musique classique, y compris des opéras, et ce qu'ils ne savaient pas, c'est que lorsque j'étais seul à la maison, je montais le tourne-disque à fond et je chantais (ou plutôt, je criais à voix haute). de mes poumons) avec les chanteurs. À la fin de mes études secondaires, je connaissais pas mal d’opéras du début à la fin.
Puis, quand j'avais environ 16 ans, ma marraine, qui était un célèbre chef d'orchestre de la Symphonie russe, m'a entendu chanter dans la cuisine et m'a dit qu'elle « n'était pas sûre mais j'avais peut-être quelque chose là-bas ». C'est comme ça qu'elle l'a dit. Je suis donc entré au Conservatoire de Musique Gnesin et j'ai obtenu un Master en interprétation vocale. J'ai auditionné pour l'une des compagnies d'opéra de Moscou, j'ai été immédiatement accepté et j'ai fait mes débuts dans le rôle de Tatiana dans « Eugène Onéguine » de Tchaïkovski. J'y ai chanté un rôle supplémentaire, puis nous avons déménagé aux États-Unis.
Natasha:
Je pense que les chanteurs russes ont un son vraiment riche et magnifique. Diriez-vous que ces qualités sont particulièrement appréciées ou cultivées ?
Véronique Bell :
Je comprends ce que vous voulez dire, et oui, les chanteurs russes sont connus pour leur son riche. Cela dit, jusqu'à très récemment, les chanteurs russes étaient principalement connus comme interprètes du répertoire russe qui exigeait ce genre de son puissant. Il y a bien sûr des exceptions, mais très peu. Cependant, au cours des 10 à 15 dernières années, les chanteurs d’opéra russes ont commencé à se produire dans le monde entier et à chanter tous les types de musique : italienne, allemande et française, ce qui nécessite des techniques différentes. Je suis ravi de voir comment le monde découvre aujourd’hui la grande variété de talents russes.
Natasha:
You have had some unique experiences as a singer such as singing for the Queen of Thailand. Please share some of your favorite moments!
Veronica Bell:
Yes, performing for the Queen of Thailand was thrilling and challenging. I first met Queen Sirikit in San Francisco, where I was invited to perform in her honor. The engagement was supposed to last about forty-five minutes; instead, I ended up singing for about two and a half hours. My presence was also required at the Queen’s departure, which happened around 1 AM. Frankly, I wasn’t too happy about it. I had a three-year-old son at home and half a dozen voice students to teach in the morning. So, on her way out, Her Majesty came up straight to me and said: “I hope you will be able to find some time to visit me in Thailand soon.” Sure, I thought to myself and forgot all about it before the end of the night. Lo and behold, four or five months later, I received an invitation from the Thai Embassy to fly out to Bangkok for Her Majesty’s birthday celebration. I spent magical two weeks in Bangkok, where I gave three performances at the Royal Palace alongside two soloists of the Vienna State Opera.
Think of it, I’ve had many exciting professional encounters over the years. The year after I arrived in the US, I recorded a part of the soundtrack for the motion picture Little Odessa. I wasn’t supposed to be in this project, but the director James Gray fell in love with the song Love is Sacred by Georgy Sviridov that he heard me sing, and the song ended up being practically the central theme of the movie.
Then, four years after I settled in the US, I went back to Russia to sing with the Moscow State Symphony orchestra. I performed at the Grand Conservatory Hall, the same hall where my grandmother used to take me to my first symphony concerts. I had my first solo performance as an American singer on the stage where Luciano Pavarotti and Vladimir Horowitz performed before I was even born. I remember myself standing by the stage door, thinking that in a minute I would be in front of the audience that I myself used to be a part of; that my grandmother would be there along with my parents and friends; that my first voice teacher will be greeting me after the concert, and I better be worthy of her attention and her time. It was incredibly exciting and totally surreal, but it was only the beginning. Then there was a tour in Europe and back in Moscow, and around the US, and again in Europe. The typical life of a performer went on, but it never became a routine for me. I have always been very conscious of how incredibly fortunate I am.
Natasha:
Your biography mentions how you became more active on the concert stage to find more freedom. What are some of the repertoire you love combining that you maybe wouldn’t be able to do in a role?
Veronica Bell:
Here is the thing about opera and me: we never really took to each other. Growing up, I wanted to be an operetta singer, just like my grandparents. Operetta seemed much more fun than the serious and, at times, heavy operatic music and sad stories where somebody would always end up dead. But in the US, operetta is not very popular except for maybe The Merry Widow. I would’ve had to move again, this time from the US to Europe, but it wasn’t a viable option with the family, a small child, very little money, and only a few English words in my arsenal. So I figured, if I became a concert soloist, my repertoire could be much more inclusive, and I could sing all the types of music I love, from Oratorio to Art Songs to Cabaret. And that’s pretty much what happened. That said, I keep a long list of operatic arias in my concert repertoire.
Natasha:
Vos albums ont été innovants et vous avez chanté des morceaux pour tous les types de voix. Parlez-nous un peu de comment cela a commencé et de la réaction des gens lorsque vous avez chanté des chansons comme Una Furtiva Lagrima en tant que femme.
Veronica Bell:
Oh, my first album was an interesting project, to say the least. I decided to record a few of my favorite operatic arias regardless of what type of voice they were written for, as long as I could sing them. By that time, I no longer had an agent, no one to tell me what I could and could not sing, and it liberated me and gave me the freedom to create. As I’ve mentioned before, I had the entire operas memorized as a kid, and I sang all the parts in them, male and female. Una Furtiva Lagrima was one of my favorites, and I didn’t think of it as a tenor aria but rather a beautiful love song. No, I am not suggesting at all that women should perform male characters. On the contrary, I am pretty conservative when it comes to opera. I am not a big fan of modernizing classical repertoire or giving it drastic makeovers. But taken out of the context, as a concert piece, I don’t see anything wrong with the aria having its own life and a little bit of freedom and fun. Nessun Dorma has practically become a Classical Crossover Anthem in recent years, and everybody loves it no matter who sings it!
Anyway, as soon I recorded the album, all hell broke loose. One of the pretty well-known musicians in Los Angeles called me the Antichrist of Opera, and I love my title, and I wear it proudly. It didn’t discourage me at all. If anything, I immediately started thinking about what else I could do along the same lines. So, I asked my son, who is now a recording engineer and a great guitar player, and a composer, to make me a metal arrangement of the famous chorus Va Pensiero from Verdi’s Nabucco. I absolutely loved the way it came out, and now we are planning on recording an album of metal arrangements of classical music.
Natasha:
Your first crossover album was “Midnight Affairs.” Your voice is still very operatic but you play around with the arrangements and make these famous songs your own. How did this inspiration come about?
Veronica Bell:
The idea of “Midnight Affairs” came to me suddenly when I was searching for something on YouTube and randomly came across a video of violinist Gidon Kremer playing Piazzolla’s “Oblivion”. I have heard this piece so many times before, but Kremer’s performance stopped me in my tracks. I suddenly started hearing a human voice in the sound of the violin. This music practically possessed me and I couldn’t think of anything else for weeks trying to figure out how I could sing this piece. I even found some French lyrics, but they totally took the mystery out of the music, so I discarded the idea. I thought of singing it as a vocalize, but then I was losing the violin. I finally wrote out my own arrangement where the voice and the violin became a duet, and before I even realized it, I was planning an album. It took about a year to finalize all the ideas, to complete the orchestrations, to find musicians, a studio, a producer. Eventually, all the pieces fell into place, and the album came out in the spring of 2019. It is currently playing on over 50 radio stations in the US and Canada and is available on Amazon, Spotify, and iTunes.
Natasha:
You recently started an online show during the quarantine. What have been some of your favorite parts of this so far?
Veronica Bell:
I started my online series “Happy Hour with Bell and Friends” out of fear. When the pandemic broke out, and all my concerts were suddenly canceled for the foreseeable future, I went into panic mode. I realized that if I didn’t find a way to continue performing, I would not be able to force myself to practice because it felt so hopeless. I needed a goal, a reason to keep singing. So, I spent a few weeks learning about giving voice lessons online to be able to continue teaching my students, and also decided to livestream small house concerts for friends on Facebook every Sunday. I would put up my phone, turn on my backing tracks, and sing for about half an hour.
But in two short weeks, it was no longer satisfying, and I started asking my friends if they would like to join me. To my astonishment, I discovered that everyone felt the same way: musicians were more worried about losing their live performances than even about getting sick. We started performing from our homes: pianists, singers, and instrumentalists, and the show grew into a real concert series. It also became a bit too overwhelming to do it every week, so we are doing it now every last Sunday of the month. All the concerts are free of charge, and all musicians are also performing for free. We have no sponsors and are sustained only by our enthusiasm and occasional small donations, so it is truly a labor of love. The upside is, we are all continuing to create and inspire each other to go on. It also gives our audience confidence that we are still here for them. Because, let’s face it, when the quarantine is over, and it will be over one day, and we start performing live again, we will have to hit the ground running. People will be starved for live music after such a long dreadful halt, and we will be ready to bring joy back into their lives.
To keep up with the wonderful Veronica Bell visit her official website: www.veronicabellsoprano.com
NATASHA BARBIERI, EDITOR
CREATOR OF CLASSICAL CROSSOVER MAGAZINE. MEZZO-SOPRANO SINGER, 'SINGING FOR THE LOVE OF IT' FACEBOOK.COM/NATASHABARBIERIMUSIC
PANORAMIQUE DE LOS ANGELES
JUILLET 2019
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