THE JOY OF SINGING Aleksandra Kurzak's Gioia! "Coloratura is a
gift. I think you have to be born with it", says Polish soprano
Aleksandra Kurzak. "If you have to learn it, it will never be as
natural and precise. Of course you have to sing with the brain as
well. But when I'm on stage, I forget about all those technical
demands. I just enjoy myself." Anyone who has been lucky enough
to hear Aleksandra Kurzak display her sensational coloratura
skills in the world's major opera houses as Rosina, Lucia, Gilda,
Norina or Matilde (in Rossini's Matilde di Shabran) - or indeed,
anyone who enjoys this - will no doubt have cause to
thank the donor of such a gift to the singer. But this wasn't the
only bequest from the operatic deities, which marked her out as a
potential star soprano from childhood. Her mother Jolanta Żmurko
was (and still is) an opera singer, and her her played the
French horn in the opera orchestra. "I feel like I grew up at the
opera house", she recalls cheerfully. "Once, after I saw my
mother in La traviata, I came home and replayed the whole of the
casino act in my bedroom, using dolls. I was Alfredo pushing
Violetta over, I was Violetta, I was the chorus, everything. I
loved it." The inter-generational opera gene later produced a
remarkable result: Aleksandra Kurzak has sung Susanna to her
mother's Countess in Le nozze di Figaro on more than one
occasion. The role is also now one of her stes, and she
includes the aria "Deh vieni, non tardar" on this album. It seems
extraordinary that the young musician had no vocal training until
just three weeks before her audition to study singing at the
Karol Lipiński Musical Academy in her hometown of Wrocław. "No,
absolutely none", she insists. "My parents wanted me to be a
violinist. Growing up in communist Poland in the 1980s, they
thought that playing the violin would be my best chance of
getting across the Iron Curtain and living in freedom. So I went
to a spet music school at seven to study violin, and then I
began piano at nine. I sang a bit of jazz at school, but just for
fun. All my focus was on the violin." Then, at the end of her
school years, she unexpectedly decided she wanted to be a singer.
"It was quite a surprise for everyone. So my mother said: `OK,
let's see if you have a voice or not.'" Mother was duly
impressed. After three short weeks of training, Aleksandra Kurzak
passed the Lipiński Academy entrance exam to study voice. Singing
became everything for her, with her mother as chief mentor and
teacher. The loss to the orchestral world was opera's gain. After
her studies, she received a travel and study grant from the
prestigious Crescendum Est - Polonia foundation, and spent four
years in Hamburg at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater. At the
same time she also joined the young artists' programme at the
Hamburg State Opera. She began to receive prizes in competitions,
too. But in a curious twist of e, it was the competition she
didn't win that was to provide her biggest break. At Plácido
Domingo's Operalia event in 2000, the director of casting at the
Royal Opera House, Peter Katona, was a member of the panel. And
although Aleksandra Kurzak didn't get a prize, Katona wrote to
her asking her to keep in touch. Four years later, having heard
her sing again, he asked her to step in at short notice at Covent
Garden to replace an indisposed singer as Aspasia in Mozart's
Mitridate, re di Ponto. She triumphed. Word immediately got out
that a sensational new talent had arrived. Within months she was
receiving rapturous applause as Olympia in Les Contes d'Hoffmann
at the Metropolitan Opera, and being invited back to London for
L'elisir d'amore, Don Pasquale, Le nozze di Figaro, Il turco in
Italia, Il barbiere di Siviglia and Matilde di Shabran, the
latter with Juan Diego Flórez. "We had a y competition",
she says of her great coloratura colleague. "He inspired me, and
motivated me to be better and better. I loved working with him."
With such a facility for high coloratura, The Queen of Night,
Olympia and Blonde formed a large part of Aleksandra Kurzak's
early successes. "Then, one day, I decided I'd had enough", she
says candidly. "I knew my voice was changing, getting richer in
the middle. I wanted new challenges." She has decided, however,
to present here an aria ("Quando me n'vò") from another part,
which is no longer in her portfolio: the secondary role of
Musetta from Puccini's La bohème. "I love the music, but I never
enjoy being the second lady!" she jokes. She includes more
Puccini on the album with "O mio babbino caro" from Gianni
Schicchi. It was at the point of giving up the high coloratura
parts that Aleksandra Kurzak added Violetta from Verdi's La
traviata to her repertoire instead; her Warsaw role debut in 2010
gathered some glowing reviews. Another Verdi role, which had been
in the singer's repertoire from the beginning, is that of Gilda
(from Rigoletto). She sings here "Sempre libera" from the former
opera, and "Caro nome" from the latter. But it's in the bel canto
repertoire that Aleksandra Kurzak still feels most at home, and
she gives us a duet from L'elisir d'amore and arias from Il
barbiere di Siviglia and Lucia di Lammermoor. (Her debut as Lucia
in Seattle last year was another sensational milestone). Also
included is "Son vergin vezzosa" from Bellini's I Puritani, a
number in which the heroine looks forward to her marriage. "I
feel this piece is particularly appropriate for me," says
Aleksandra Kurzak, "because it's known as the `Aria Polacca' [the
Polish aria]. It uses the rhythm of the dance mazur, which is the
basis of the mazurka." Continuing the Polish theme, Aleksandra
Kurzak also sings the heroine's principal aria from a comic work
often called "the Polish national opera" - Straszny dwór (The
Haunted Manor) by Stanisław Moniuszko. Aleksandra Kurzak says
that the title of her new Gioia! - in English, "joy" -
was actually her agent's spontaneous idea: "He said that he can
see the joy on my face when I'm singing. I've also heard from
fans that listening to me sing makes them smile, because they can
tell how much I enjoy performing. On this album, there is also
joy in the music and in the words. This notion of "gioia" comes
up in many arias, like Violetta's and Susanna's, which I sing and
love. And this is just what I've been feeling about this
. The joy in the music and my enjoyment of singing go
hand in hand." A new , new roles . . . what does the
future hold for the young star? "I'd love to do more Puccini and
Verdi", she says. "But you never know how your voice will
develop, and you mustn't force it. You have to follow what your
voice tells you." If her voice continues to guide her in its
current manner, then her success seems assured. Warwick Thompson
Review
------
"A superstar in the making, as I noted here after her Adina in
last year's L'elisir d'amore, Kurzak fills the house with her
thrillingly pure, warm voice and acts the rest of the cast off
the stage. It is a rare moment, indeed, when an opera singer can
change the mood with a flash of an eye, the tiniest gesture of
disdain." -- (The Guardian)
Donna Fiorilla in Il turco in Italia - London, Royal Opera House,
April 2010 "Kurzak, a rising-star soprano with flashing eyes and
cover-girl looks . . . she can define a saucy moment with a
twitch of an eyebrow and pings her way perfectly through
Rossini's stratospheric coloratura vocal lines . . ." -- The
Observer (London), 11 April 2010
Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor - Seattle Opera, October 2010
"Making her debut in the challenging role of Lucia, Polish
coloratura Aleksandra Kurzak acted the rest of the cast off the
stage. Kurzak's mad scene made those of most current Lucia
interpreters look quite tame . . . her performance was a musical
and dramatic tour de force." -- Opera News (New York), January
2011
"Kurzak is a dazzling new star" -- (The Sunday Times)
Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia - London, Royal Opera House,
January 2011 ". . . this is Kurzak's evening, first and last. The
aria in which she introduces herself is perfectly paced, with her
demure self-description (`I'm obedient, gentle, and loving')
belied by a sudden access of fury as she starts hurling darts at
the wall: so convincing is she that when she makes a feint at the
stalls, people in the front row instinctively cower in fright.
Her coloratura is smooth and accurate, and her tone can turn from
silk to steel in a flash; she's both a consummate farceuse and a
commanding vocal presence . . . This is a singer who must be seen
as well as heard." -- The Independent (London), 19 January 2011
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About the Artist
----------------
Polish-born soprano Aleksandra Kurzak began her musical education
at the age of 7, playing violin and piano. She studied voice at
the conservatories of Wroclaw and Hamburg. She made her
professional opera debut at the age of 21 at the Wroclaw State
Opera as Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro. Her mother and teacher
Jolanta Żmurko performed the role of Countess. Kurzak is a
laureate of singing competitions in Warsaw, Barcelona, Helsinki
and Canton. In 2009 she received a PhD in Music. Between 2001 and
2007 Aleksandra Kurzak was a member of the ensemble of the
Hamburg State Opera, where she sang numerous roles: Queen of the
Night, Blonde, Susanna, Servilia, Marzelline (Fidelio), Nanetta
(Falstaff), Ännchen (Der Freischütz), Gilda, Adèle, Gretel
(Hänsel und Gretel), Maid (Powder her Face), Musetta, Cleopatra,
Fiorilla (Il Turco in Italia), Marie (La Fille du Régiment). In
2004 Aleksandra Kurzak made her debut at The Metropolitan Opera
in the role of Olympia in Les Contes d'Hoffmann. In the same
season she debuted at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as
Aspasia in Mitridate, Re di Ponto. The artist returned to the
Met, singing Blonde in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Gilda in
Rigoletto. Since her first London appearance, Aleksandra Kurzak
has returned regularly to the Royal Opera House, where she has
performed roles of Norina (Don Pasquale), Adina (L'elisir
d'amore), Susanna, Matilde (Matilde di Shabran) achieving a real
triumph on this stage and most recently of Donna Fiorilla (Turco
in Italia) and Rosina (Il Barbiere di Siviglia). In February 2010
she made her debut at the Teatro alla Scala as Gilda in
Rigoletto. Aleksandra Kurzak has appeared at the Staatsoper in
Berlin (Queen of the Night), Teatro Regio in Parma and Théâtre du
Capitole in Toulouse (Gilda), Bavarian State Opera in Munich
(Cleopatra, Adele, Rosina), Vienna State Opera (Rosina, Adina),
Teatro Massimo in Palermo (Norina), Lyric Opera House in Chicago
(Blonde), Salzburg Festival (concert arias by Mozart, Ännchen and
Donna Anna), National Opera House in Helsinki (Gilda), Palau de
les Arts in Valencia (Adina), National Opera House in Warsaw
(Gilda, Violetta), Mozart Festival in La Coruña as well as at the
Welsh National Opera in Cardiff (Aspasia), Finnish National Opera
(Gilda), Theater an der Wien (Donna Anna and Amenaide), Teatro La
Fenice in Venice (Donna Anna) and Seattle Opera House (Lucia).
Aleksandra Kurzak has collaborated with many well known
conductors including Ivor Bolton, Bruno Campanella, James Conlon,
Sir Andrew Davis, Christoph von Dohnányi, Riccardo Frizza, Rafael
Frühbeck de Burgos, René Jacobs, Nicola Luisotti, Sir Charles
Mackerras, Ingo Metzmacher, Daniel Oren, Carlo Rizzi, Ralf
Weikert and Simone Young. Aleksandra Kurzak has signed an
exclusive contract with DECCA in 2011. Her debut
Gioia! - a collection of contrasting lyric and
coloratura arias - will be released in August 2011. In next
seasons Aleksandra Kurzak will appear as Violetta in Torino,
Frankfurt, Warsaw and Berlin, Rosina, Adina and Susanna at the
Royal Opera House, Adina, Susanna and Marie in La Fille du
Regiment at the Vienna State Opera, Susanna at the Teatro Real in
Madrid and Teatro alla Scala in Milano, Gretel and Gilda at the
MET, Fiordiligi in Los Angeles, Gilda in the new production in
San Francisco and Zurich and Adele in the new production of Le
Comte Ory at the Teatro alla Scala. 4/2011
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