Link to Michelle Breedt's official web site: http://www.michellebreedt.com/
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The following is an interview with Michelle Breedt, as published in Scenaria magazine (October 1993)
SCENARIA INTERVIEWS MICHELLE BREEDT
Michelle Breedt studied at the University of Stellenbosch (with Nellie du Toit) and in London, winning several bursaries and awards. She joined CAPAB [Cape Performing Arts Board] in 1985, and in 1987 was invited to sing at the Brevard Music Festival in the USA. She has appeared in a number of opera and concert performances throughout South Africa, including PACT’s [Performing Arts Council of Transvaal] production of Carmen, Le Nozze di Figaro, and Les Contes d’Hoffmann. In 1989 she joined the Opera Studio attached to the Cologne Opera in Germany and a year later joined the ensemble of the Braunschweig State Theatre where she is regularly seen in a wide operatic repertoire, including roles in Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Pique Dame. She opened the current season there as Romeo in Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi, with other productions including Lulu and Der Rosenkavalier. Michelle Breedt was last seen in South Africa in PACT’s revival of Le Nozze di Figaro last year. Forthcoming roles include Adalgisa in Norma and Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, this time under the direction of Brigitte Fassbaender. She recently sang the role of Idamante in PACT’s production of Mozart’s Idomeneo, and it was during this season that Julius Eichbaum interviewed her for Scenaria.
You left South Africa in 1989 to study overseas. Where did you start out?
Initially I intended heading for the United States where I had some auditions set up with the Dallas Opera, but on my way, Marita Knobel said to me: “They are looking for somebody in the Cologne Opera Studio – you might as well go and audition there.” And I said: “Fine, no problem.” I auditioned and they offered me the job immediately. Since I was on my way to America, I asked them if I could start in January, and they said “no problem”. I got to America and promptly got extremely ill. It was one of their very, very bad winters. I got such a bad bronchitis that I landed in hospital and had to cancel all my American auditions.
At the end of January, still ill, I came back to South Africa to see Weiss Doubell, and during that period, I convinced myself to accept this post with the Studio in Cologne. My reasoning was:
(a) It will give me the opportunity to learn the language.(b) I am in one of the biggest opera houses in Germany and will see how the German system works.(c) I can get used to the repertoire, without being exposed to the front line, and have the opportunity of doing the smallerparts which are very difficult.I take my hat off to anybody doing smaller roles in opera. Some of the experiences I had there – I was thrown in without any rehearsals and learned to sink or swim. It was very difficult. Cologne, I thought, would only be to my advantage. I could learn, I could observe, and have the opportunity of working with good coaches. I really enjoyed my time in Cologne. I had the opportunity of working with Leonie Rysanek, for example, which was wonderful. What a humble lady. She sat down next to me one day and said: “I think you will do very well.” I very sheepishly told her that I had been a student when she sang in Cape Town. She told me how she had enjoyed South Africa. Working with wonderful coaches and just being in the opera system… – when you are in South Africa, you do not have a clue what it is like to do that repertoire. In Germany you see so many different operas in one week and get to know them – seeing a performance and then at ten o’clock the next morning having a rehearsal, whereas in South Africa we are still cushioned, in a sense.
So, that’s how I landed in Cologne. I wasn’t there very long. The season started in September 1989 and in March of 1990 I was sent off to Braunschweig. They were looking for a Cherubino and I auditioned with about twenty other mezzos that day – so I decided not to sing ‘Voi che sapete’ as my first aria – instead I sang Siebel’s aria from Faust. I was sent off stage again and then I was called back and they asked me to sing the aria from Les Huguenots, which I did. So, I was engaged. I had a contract lying on my desk from Bremen and I thought, oh my gosh, what am I going to do now? The problem was that I was still under contract to Cologne – how was I to resolve this problem? The Braunschweig Theatre was closed for extensive renovations – they were putting in a whole new stage. They wanted me as a guest, first of all, and then they wanted to engage me permanently. So, I went back to Cologne and spoke to them. James Conlon wanted me to go into the Company. It was a big honour, but I had observed from the other people that had moved from the Studio into the main body of the Opera House, that could be very detrimental as a young singer. I wanted to sing my repertoire. I wanted to go out there and sing Cherubino seventy times – under all sorts of conditions and circumstances – really get my teeth sunk into it and know what it’s about! I wanted to sing Dorabella – I wanted to sing my repertoire. I didn’t want to get stuck, which happens unfortunately, doing the smaller parts in the larger houses. So I left Cologne and went to Braunschweig where I have benefited greatly. I have learned a tremendous amount about myself. I think young singers today are in too much of a hurry, wanting to sing the big things too soon, too quickly. There is a lot to be said for the experience one gains in a smaller house.
You have just sung Idamante in PACT’s production of Idomeneo, yet you are a mezzo. It is very rare for a mezzo to sing this role that is usually sung by a tenor.
I have never actually seen Idomeneo on stage although I know the opera has been recorded using a mezzo in the role. I think it depends on what type of vocal ensemble a producer or conductor wants. I read a very interesting thing about exactly this point, where they were asking why Strauss chose three women for Der Rosenkavalier. It has to do with the sensuality that occurs when one combines the voices of two or more women. For example, in Idomeneo in the duet when one sings in thirds and sixes. Now thirds and sixes are very sensual. When a tenor sings in thirds and sixes with a female voice, he actually sings an octave lower, so you get immediate distancing. So I guess having a female voice as Idamante blending with the other female voices adds a very interesting colour. Other people say, yes, but having a tenor singing Idamante brings out the stronger sexual conflict with Elettra. Then of course you have to make sure that with the other tenor roles in Idomeneo you cast them with different weighted tenors. So I guess it’s up to the fates as far as that is concerned. I am grateful that I could sing the role. It’s been a great challenge. One definitely sees that it was written for a higher voice, especially the first aria. The rest of the opera not so. It varies. The second aria is also high but it doesn’t lie consistently in F’s and G’s as the first aria does. You have to create magic, or try to, and that was the tremendous challenge for me to be able to not just sing the notes vaguely, but to do something with it.
I believe in any case a mezzo-soprano is a singer who should have very good range, should have very good high notes as well as middle or bottom. I mean, all Mozart’s quasi mezzo repertoire has a high tessitura. I consider myself as a higher type of mezzo-soprano. So, as far as that was concerned, it was a challenge – the tessitura was a challenge – musically it was a big challenge.
Curious how the opera has been neglected for so long.
Absolutely. It’s coming into its own now. I did quite a bit of research into the style of the opera. Since the work belongs to the period of Gluck and Handel rather than the later Mozartian style, it has little in common with the operatic style we are more accustomed to. Yet, I think it is an opera that is extremely relevant today. It’s about power – it’s about the positive side of power, and it’s about the negative side about power. Power as an influence on the populace. It’s about love. It’s about this whole thing of loving your neighbour. What intrigued me about Idamante was how does somebody come to the point of saying I want to give my life for a cause. It’s a phenomenon through history where one has all these martyrs who die for a cause. What is it in a person that brings him to such a point? One could be cynical by saying that the person is not all there or that he is a fanatic, but I think that this is an oversimplification of the issue. This is what I find so fascinating about Idamante. In this opera, Mozart, in the so-called confines of writing this music in the Baroque style, still manages to write music that is so human.
Do you not think that opera performance is, today, in danger of becoming too stylised?
Yes, I agree with you that there is a danger to making Mozart sound very clinical. It needs warmth. I think if Mozart lived today he would have agreed with that. You only have to read what he says about Idomeneo himself when he was complaining to his father. Mozart wanted real people. Mozart, I think, separates the mice from the men. Mozart is very difficult to sing, but it doesn’t mean to say that you must take the drama out of Mozart. You must sing Mozart. But within the style you can use all the elements to create the real person. Mozart is passionate, let’s not forget that. Just listen to his orchestra. Just listen to that last aria of Elettra.
That is pure passion. Also, I think that producers tend to look at Mozart opera generally with the idea that there’s not a great deal to do with it – it’s very static – there’s not a lot of stage action.
I beg to differ there. I agree with what you say, and that is a big downfall with producers. Producers need to go back and look at the human elements in Mozart. Too little is done, I believe, to identify the human conflicts in Mozart’s operas. I mean, look at Figaro. How many human conflicts happen there? I say go back and analyse what is being said and from there the production will evolve.
If I was a producer I would encourage my singers to observe the character more closely. One needs to escape from the confines of the past when opera singers – especially in Mozart – merely made those archaic gestures and things that make opera very laughable for people who don’t know very much about it. I would like to see people moving back to being real people on stage.
Do you see yourself becoming a producer in time?
I haven’t really thought about that. I am very fascinated by the production side of things. I am an extremely inquisitive person. Because I definitely believe that a singer is not just an entity on his own. It’s the role that is very important. I am fascinated with the role. I enjoy finding out what makes a character tick. I think to be a producer is a great responsibility – but I have not seriously thought of producing yet.
