Admirable Advice

or

A Tale of Two Singers

Here are two wonderful singers at very different stages of their career.

At just 24 years old  Valentina Naforniţă, from Moldova,  was the winner of Cardiff Singer of the World in June of this year and it proved to be a life-changing experience with offers from around the world coming thick and fast.

screengrab from video

*

whereas …

Vesselina Kasarova, from Bulgaria,  has 23 years of professional singing behind her and, hopefully, many more ahead and, at 46, it can be said that she is at the peak of her career.

Frau Kasarova greets fans after a performance at the Bavarian State Opera recently.

photo from BSO facebook page

*

Interestingly,  in the past couple of weeks,  both these women have given interviews which have been published.

“The Cardiff judges said that I have to do bel canto repertoire, because they liked the Donizetti that I performed in the final but I would also like to sing Verdi and Puccini – a little later, perhaps.”

In the first,Valentina Naforniţă speaks frankly to Elizabeth Davis about her competition win and the whirlwind which ensued. She tells of her feelings during the Cardiff Competition, the advice she has received and how her family is reacting to her extraordinary catapult to fame.

 You can read the full interview  HERE

**

Wouldn’t it be terrific if the singer just starting out could hear and heed these words from the singer who has made such wise choices in her career that she is still working as hard as ever and her schedule stretches way into the future?

Excerpts from the full interview:

  • “I had a con­tract for Don Car­los. And Ioan Holen­der, Direct­or of the Vien­na State Opera, res­cued me say­ing: “Ves­se­li­na, if you want a long career, go back to Moz­art and Ros­sini. If you sing dra­mat­ic parts, in 6 years you will be exhaust­ed.”
  • “Back then, they advised me not to sing too much in the US as voi­ces quick­ly die there. Sing­ers per­form with large orches­tras in vast halls with audi­en­ces of 4,000-5,000 peo­ple. It is good for an art­ist to appear in front of an Amer­i­can audi­ence, but with­in rea­son­a­ble lim­its. I fol­lowed their advice and I wasn’t wrong. I would advise young sing­ers not to hur­ry with dra­mat­ic parts. It is not only about vocal cords endur­ance. Jit­ters, stage fright may break the tie voice-per­son-spir­it­u­al­i­ty. And when art­ists feel fear, they can­not con­tin­ue their way.”
  •  ”And besides, dis­ci­pline is also crit­i­cal for sing­ers, their under­stand­ing where their lim­its are, how much they should sing and what and whom with. And that is why I have sur­vived through so many years.”
  • “The most impor­tant thing is to stay com­plete­ly down to earth. Only few art­ists can cope psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly with the word ‘suc­cess.‘ I do not know how my art is eval­u­at­ed, but I have remained a very down-to-earth and nat­u­ral­ly-behaved per­son.”
  • “And I have refused to sing Leon­ore in Fidel­io. I have done this to spare my voice. Back then, these parts were not for me.“

HERE is the full interview that Frau Kasarova gave to Europost’s Roslava Kumanova and published a couple of weeks ago.

I must admit to being shocked when Frau Kasarova recalls racism against singers of Slavic origin but it shows that obstacles and negative attitudes can forge a core of steel in a  personality with talent, ambition and, above all, integrity.

Thank goodness there are strong women who are wise as well as being superstars and long may these women impart sensible advice to the young.

*

*

And, because it’s White Shirt Weekend,  here’s one of the latest images of Frau Kasarova -

complete with white shirt and swooning Soprano!

Vesselina Kasarova with Ekaterina Siurina in I CAPULETI E I MONTECCHI, 

Bavarian State Opera, July 2011  photo from BSO facebook page

*

Whether you are imparting or heeding advice …

HAVE A WONDERFUL WHITE SHIRT WEEKEND!