“Today I have a new feeling of everyday happiness”

The National Philharmonic So­ciety held the first solo concert of the soloist of the National Opera Susanna Chakhoian after a maternity leave. She performed with the National Symphonic Orchestra conducted by Volodymyr Sirenko. The soiree heard classical opera repertoire which requests not as much unrestrained power of a young voice as the maturity of the singer’s personality, based emotionally on her own life experience. All these are main “trumps” of Susanna Cha­khoian. Today her singing is power­ful, with numerous un­der­tones. This is a singer with a won­derful colo­ratura soprano; any opera star may envy the perfect intonation purity and natural subtlety of her voice. Susanna dedicated her Kyiv solo concert (like her recent performance at the Donetsk Opera Festival “Gol­den Crown,” as well as the per­for­mances in Odesa and Lviv scheduled for this year) to her teacher Yevhenia Miroshnychenko. This was not an official dedication: the pro­gram began with the dream Mirosh­ny­chenko did not realize, Norma’s cavatina from the epo­nymous opera by Vincenzo Bellini, and continued with crown parts from the singer’s repertoire: Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti), Violetta (La traviata by Giuseppe Verdi) and Gilda (Verdi’s Rigoletto). It is no surprise that our interview is more about Yevhenia Mirosh­ny­chenko than Susanna Chakhoian. It is hard to say though, for it is common knowledge that only another person can lend wings to, reveal, and inspire some­body with life. What we tell about our dearest people largely characterizes us.

Can we hear the parts you performed at the concert on the stage of the National Opera of Ukraine?

“The concert program included only Gilda from Rigoletto. I have never sung Norma and Violetta’s parts in the theater, where I have been working for long. I performed the scene of Lucia’s madness five years ago at the performance dedicated to Yevhenia Miroshnychenko’s 75th anniversary. Since that time I have never sung it. Currently Lucia di Lammermoor is not in the thea­ter’s repertoire. I sang only in two productions of the last season. Of course, I would like to perform more frequently, but I have no feeling of stagnation. I have concerts, tours, and recordings.”

Where do you go on tours?

“My son Daniel has turned 19 months, therefore I have not gone on lengthy tours in the past two years. I think everything should be done timely. At some point of time I came to dislike long-time trips, like I had before. I remember my first tour at the beginning of my cooperation with the Dzhalil Tatar Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet (Kazan, Russia): 45 performances of Pearl Hunters in two months. I had to sing in a variety of halls with different kinds of acoustics, in different conditions, I had to learn to allocate the load. That was a real school of surviving. I have been cooperating with Kazan Opera for many years. After Pearl Hunters (where I performed the part of Indian priestess Leila) the administration of the theater invited me to take part in the international production of Magic Flute. I did not understand how one and the same performance could be shown two times a year and enjoy full houses. At the Holland tour the same people came to see it several times.”

What is your current agenda?

“Maternity routine. It is so wonderful. It is an absolutely different condition and feeling of everyday joy. I am a person who wants to do everything in her life good and for all. I think that you should marry once, and you should have only one man, reliable and faithful. Then marriage will bring real joy and make you stronger. With my husband (he is an Austrian) we have communicated for three years in English, now we speak German. Not long before I gave birth to our child he said he would speak German with our son. I had to learn it too. I took lessons for a month until my passive knowledge activated. Languages are my hobby. Maybe mathematic school taught me to quickly perceive the structure of the language. Overall, it is important to do something else besides singing. Incidentally, my teacher Yevhenia Miroshnychenko sewed herself wonderful costumes. Miroshnychenko knew well where to run a stitch and where to make a tuck. Profession of a singer is synthetic by its nature: the more components you combine the brighter the image.”

There is an opinion that giving birth to a child greatly influences the voice. Did you feel it?

“Surely, the reason is that hormonal levels change. It was very easy to sing when I was pregnant – to a certain moment when you lower the diaphragm and get a reply: ‘There is no free space here. Have a heart!’ It was easy to sing as I was breastfeeding. But mere hormones won’t make your voice sing. Singing is an everyday work. Besides, the difference in voice of a young girl and a woman is not just physiology. It’s about your world outlook stand. You begin to view many things differently, things that long ago teachers put into you reveal. You have more psychological freedom at a mature age. You understand that the rear is protected, you have achieved something, and you have already left a trace on this earth. As a result, your voice acquires confidence and consequently a new sounding.”

Have your dreams also become more brave and uninhibited?

“I don’t simply dream, I don’t draw pictures, I don’t write wish lists, which is a popular thing now. I come up with an idea in the process of my life: a call, an interesting meeting, which I afterwards think through to the end and put in life. I am a pragmatic person; I am a Taurus by Zodiac, an earth sign. For example, I have never dreamed of singing opera. Moreover, I hated opera in childhood. I played the piano (I gra­duated from Odesa’s Stoliarsky School and conservatoire, I was taught by outstanding pianist Liudmila Ginsburg, student of Heinrich Neuhaus), I trained in France and Germany, listened to great instrumentalists, symphonic music.”

Who then discovered a singer in you?

“I think it was foresight. One day as I was rushing along the conservatoire’s corridor, I accidentally heard a duo of Violetta and Germont from La Traviata. I did not hear anything but that. I understood at once: I wanted to do this, I wanted to learn how to sing opera. By that time my musician parents did not let me sing even in choir. They understood that I had a voice, but I had to preserve it and not exploit it by 18. I started singing when diaphragm and chest were formed, when I felt differently my body and all the muscles. Before giving birth to a child I regularly went in for sports, without fanaticism. I needed this not to be slim, but to feel well. The physical moment is very important in singer’s profession.”

Did you immediately go to Yevhenia Miroshnychenko’s class?

“In Odesa’s conservatoire I took up singing as an optional class, I was taught by Halyna Polivanova, then I began to study at two departments simultaneously, piano and singing. As a five-year student I found a plate with a recording of Gliere’s Concert for coloratura soprano and orchestra performed by Miroshnychenko. That was the second moment when the time stopped and it was clear that I had to study singing under Miroshnychenko’s guidance. As a pianist I got an invitation to the post-graduate course, to go abroad, but at that time all of that did not matter for me.”

Do you remember, what was your first meeting with Miroshnychenko?

“She listened to my piano recordings and said: ‘Of course, you are a musician. But I will make you eat the cream of wheat.’ After Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini it was not easy to move to elementary vocalizes by Panofka. Miroshnychenko developed my singing: gradually warming up my apparatus she made me sing the upper notes, which I had never dreamed of. Before the B of the se­cond octave was the limit of my possibilities, after Miroshnychenko’s clas­ses, I reached the G of the third octave. She felt the natural coloring of my voice (coloratura soprano was her favorite type of voice with which she liked to work). I was immediately enrolled in the third year of the NMAU, and as a fifth-year student I sang on Kyiv’s stage. My first performance was the part of Muzetta in Puccini’s La Boheme, soon after that was Romeo and Juliet by Gounod. I think I was very lucky, especially as I see the current situation with singers who wait for months before going on stage.”

Did Miroshnychenko control your work in theater? Did you pass the parts for her?

“For the first time at the National Opera of Ukraine she heard me at the general rehearsal of Romeo and Juliet. After that Miroshnychenko, my mother and I went to my place. We discussed the details for long. Suddenly Miroshnychenko said to my mom: ‘Halia, lie down on the floor.’ And to me: ‘Imagine this is dying Romeo. You should crawl to him, phrase after phrase, millimeter after millimeter.’ Those were the ultimate features of the master that revived the whole picture.”

Did you ever argue with Miroshnychenko?

“When I felt that I was 100 percent right. When we were working on the stage of Lucia’s madness, we argued over one Italian word. Miroshnychenko probably remembered her own variant, but I said that would sing grammatically correctly. She was so furious. I was silently waiting for the thunderstorm to abate. Then at 3 a.m. my phone rang: ‘Are you sleeping?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘You were right, damned thing.’”

All pupils of Miroshnychenko automatically became her dearest people, her “adopted children.”

“Sometimes they were even too close. She gave lessons at the conservatoire, as she did not like home classes. At home, as we were drinking tea, were received other precious lessons of life. Actors and directors were regular guests at Miroshnychenko’s house. We listened to their talks, reminiscences, debates, got imbued with their attitude to profession. Miroshnychenko could talk for hours about Lucia or Violetta. Therefore now I approach new material with a store of knowledge that I got at that time. Besides, in Miroshnychenko’s class, students, while waiting for their class, listened to each other for all day long. I remember everything she said about different works. As soon as I touch the material, her thoughts and ideas immediately revive in me.”

In your opinion, was Miroshnychenko intuitive or analytical in music?

“It was all a combination of musician and actor’s intuitions. I had a feeling that some divine energy made her do everything on stage in one, not other, way. Of course, Miroshnychenko thought over the parts for long. For example, to mould Lucia’s image she even went to a clinic for mentally ill, studied their photos (the doctor did not let the singer to the diseased, he said that the image of an insane person should be beautiful, but she could see ugly things in the clinic). Yevhenia Semenivna imitated poses, face expression, and typical position of body and hands. With the help of director Iryna Molostova she molded a sculptural image of Lucia, where every gesture is meaningful. Today I don’t care where the director makes me sit or stand, what kind of costume I wear, whether it will be a play or a concert performance: none of this will change the filling of the role.”

Have you met your director?

“The thing is that I have sung the parts I perform at the National Opera of Ukraine on other stages, prepared them with different directors and conductors. As a result I have acquired a collective image. I am very grateful to German director Michael Hensel, who staged Romeo and Juliet by Gounod in Kyiv in 2000. He did not limit me, on the contrary, he showed that an opera singer should be absolutely unrestrained. I could throw pillows and lie on Romeo’s belly, whirl in a waltz and sing. That experience turned out to be really important for me.”

Many festivals take place in the world. In your opinion, why do we need opera forums?

“I am fond of how the Donetsk festival ‘Golden Crown,’ is organized; I take off my hat to the people who pull this carriage. I think we should think over an annual, regular opera forum where one could bring new performances and which would gather soloists from the whole world. A festival is a fresh stream. When you have a new partner with his ideas, you change too, even in an old production. The invited soloists, conductors, and interesting form of a gala concert – all this is able to turn into a feast of operatic art. I don’t like the condition (so far I have ma­na­ged to avoid this) when people treat plays and concerts simply like their job, performing your duty, when you do not want to go to the theater. In this case, you should not work in theater. Miroshnychenko said that ‘you should sing in every perfor­mance as if it is your last one. The audience likes meat and blood.’”

How do you spend the day after the performance?

“I sort out the bouquets. If to be serious, I want to relax. I cannot speak less because everyone calls me on this day to greet or share their impressions. I need this, I wait for the reaction. I cannot sleep after a good, real performance, the adrenalin is wandering. Immediately after the play everyone praises you, and on the day after the analysis begins, and then you can hear criticism in your address.”

Do you easily perceive criticism?

“At first it was hard to stand a blow, because my first reaction was to deny, but some time later the information ‘ripens’ and you think: there is something about this. Criticism sits in you like a caterpillar and gra­dually turns into a butterfly.”