Latest / Erstklassisch mit Mischke - Klassik hautnah / Lea Desandre: „Ich bin meinem Herzen in die Oper gefolgt“
Transcript
- Music. Schönen guten Tag zu einer neuen Folge. Meine Begrüßung heute könnte ich zweisprachig machen. Ich könnte es mir aussuchen, entweder Bonjour oder Buongiorno. Mein Gast ist in Paris geboren. Das erste Mal live gesehen habe ich sie 2019 in der Elbphilharmonie mit Händel, Scherzer in Fieder und dann 2020 in der Cousy in den Salzburger Festspielen. Ich habe sie gesehen, sie hat mich nicht gesehen. Das Ganze wurde damals von Johanna Malwitz dirigiert, diese sensationelle Aufführung während der Corona-Zeit. Und sie ist keine Balletttänzerin, obwohl auch das hätte passieren können. Warum, werden wir gleich besprechen. Demnächst ist sie in der Elbphilharmonie mit einem Liederabend. Und jetzt ist sie erstmal hier, was sehr schön ist. Und wir sprechen gleich auf Englisch, weil ich nie Französisch gelernt habe. Ich habe also eine großartige Entschuldigung. Also Bonjour oder Bonjourno. Lea Desondré, that's right, isn't it? ist André. Yes, that's right. Well done. Okay, thank you for having me and nice to speak. Thank you for having me. Und übrigens, falls Sie jetzt schon neugierig geworden sind, wer in diesem Podcast schon zu Gast war und andere interessante Dinge womöglich von sich gegeben hat, Sie finden Erstklassisch mit Mischke auf abendblatt.de und auf allen anderen Podcast-Plattformen. Und so ab fünf Sternen aufwärts. Die Bewertung freut uns und hilft uns und dann machen wir auch gerne weiter. Aber jetzt komme ich zu meinem Gast. So when I read about you one of the first things I saw that you just became a singer because you didn't become a ballet dancer, sort of kind of, it's not exactly that I wanted to be a ballet dancer and then I discovered opera and I decided to choose to try to be an opera singer more than a dancer also because I've seen a video of Nathalie Dece and she was singing while dancing and I thought well, it's kind of, you can do both if you sing, so that's cool. Did it work out already and did you actually sing and dance on the stage? I have to say, very often now because now stage directors know that I'm, a trained dancer for 12 years so lately, for example, I was with Robert Carson in Paris and I had to dance and the production before of Medea in Garnier. I also had to dance. So that's very, very fun and it helps me to sing better. I think, I don't know if I sing better, but I feel better in my singing if I just danced before because it helps me to connect with my body, and to feel more free in the instrument. And so it's nicer to sing better than... But isn't it totally complicated? I mean, professional dancers who are just dancers have all their hands full and all their brain at work just to dance and not make mistakes. Singers just as well. And you do both things at the same time. No, I'm not a professional dancer. I've been trained in ballet. So I know how to move my body, but I'm not able at all to do what my colleague dancers are doing during productions is just sometimes, directors ask me to do for example in Les Fêtes des B with Robert Carson I had, a tiny solo dance of maybe one minute so it's very short and it's while I'm not singing so and it's done with lots of love and passion but I don't have the pretension to say that I dance as well as a professional dance Okay, but what I wanted to know first was, how hard was it to make this decision and to say, okay, I'm going to sing professionally after training for so many years? What? After so many years. Yeah, because you've trained, you've worked for this, you thought maybe one day I'm going to be a dancer and then you'd just kiss this idea goodbye in a way. Ja, aber es war nicht eine schwierige Entscheidung, weil ich war zu groß, um die Schule in Paris zu enter. Until ich war 12 Jahre alt, weil sie hatte, an der Zeit, besondere Regeln. Und ich konnte nur den examen, wenn ich 12 war, weil ich endlich die gute Zeit war. Und an der Zeit, also, ich begann zu dance. Und beide disciplines waren fascinant für mich. Und mein Ballet-Teacher, eine Minute, sie sagte mir, wenn du gut bist, wenn du gut vorbereitet für die Schule der Petit Rat de l'Opera in Paris hast, du hast die Zeit, die du singen hast, du hast es für die dance. Und sehr natürlich, ich sagte, Ich habe mehr zu erleben mit dem Singen, so ich nicht will, zu quitter. Wenn es nicht mein Zeit mit dem Dancing ist, dann ist es okay. Was die Universität hat für mich. Und es wurde sehr natural. Ich habe mich nicht mehr als 19 Jahre alt, weil ich nach Venice nach Hause kam. Und ich hatte keine Schule dort. Ich habe nicht Gefühl, dass ich etwas hatte, dass ich nichts mehr verletzte. Ich habe nur mein Herz gehalten. Und mein Herz war mit dem Oper. So in a way, was ich gelernt, also mit den Dance Lessons, I still use nowadays, for the quality of the work that we do when we dance we learn to be very rigorous and patient and disciplined so these things I still use today and then when I'm on stage to move my body to be flexible to know how to. Understand the distance with my colleagues on stage all that comes from the dancing so it's just life made it, as good as it could be Since you already mentioned this scene of seeing Natalie in TV and singing and dancing was there an actual moment when you discovered I'm not just singing okay there might actually be a singer inside of me Es gab einen Punkt in deinem Training, wenn du tatsächlich merkst, dass ich das als Karriere muss, Again, it came very naturally. So I started singing in the choir of my school because I loved my music teacher. And I've been like that also before. When I was younger at school, I had an amazing sport teacher and I became passionate about sports, all sorts of sports like basketball, tennis, handball. So thanks to the teacher, I was very curious to get to know the discipline better. So with the wonderful music teacher, I entered the choir of the class and of the school and we had to sing one by one. So one day she said, oh, you have a nice voice. If you like singing, you should try to enter the choir of the kids of the Paris Opera House, because it was very close to my house also. So I thought, okay, why not? Let's try. That's cool. So I tried the audition and I entered. And then we had to do, I sang in Werther while Jonas Kaufmann and Sophie Koch were singing. So it was very inspiring. I thought, oh, that's nice. And I enjoyed very much being on this huge stage with my friends, having lots of fun. So I just continued. And my parents offered me singing lessons just to improve and to feel better with the choir discipline. And like that, it continued. Und ich never thought ich wollte das zu sein mein work ich einfach dachte ich kann nicht mehr than das so ich. I will hopefully earn money thanks to that and will not have to do anything else because there is no option in the future, other than spending my time singing and being on stage. So I think I was very... I wanted something, so I went for it. And I gave... Yeah. Did you ever have the chance of telling Jonas Kaufmann that you were one of the girls back on the stage when he sang in Paris Werther one time? No, never, because we've never done anything together so I never met him. Okay, that's a big task. And sometimes it's not maybe a good thing to say because then when I say that to some French colleagues with whom I was on stage, they just answer me, oh, I feel very old now Now that you say that. And when you mentioned that there was no plan B for you, never, you, right from the start, you thought, I have to sing, I have to be on the stage. There's nothing else for me. I mean, not every parent is really excited and jubilees when the kid tells them, I want to be an artist. Did you hear anything from your parents when you told them that I want to be a singer, I don't want to study medicine, I don't want to become a teacher, I don't want to become a physicist, I don't want to study law? I don't know whether any ideas were in your house, but what was it like when you told them, by the way, I'm going to be an artist? Again, I've never said I want to be an artist. It was natural in just seeing probably for them how happy and full of life I was when I was coming back from my singing lessons or the opera productions. And this is probably the biggest chance I have in my life, is that I have parents that they just want me to be happy. And they've done everything they could for me to have access to what I needed and just to help me to reach my dreams. So they come from a family of artists also, so maybe it helps because my parents, they work in the movie industry, and my grandfather, one of them was also in the movie industry, The other one was the man presenting at the circus all the shows. So he was living in a roulotte, you know, in a van and following the circus. And my other grandma was an opera singer also. So it was very spontaneous. And yeah, I've never had any problem on that side. And I remember some friends in the choir having difficulties with their parents saying, well, you have to study law before to have a real job and then you can have fun. But this is not a life work. So I'm very lucky. So if you if you had told them, if you might, if you would have told them, I want to become a lawyer or a doctor, then you would be the black sheep of the black sheep of the family. Because everybody else is working in the arts, more or less. Yeah, maybe. No, because I also have other people in the family having more serious jobs. I don't know how to say. Yeah, I think they want, I have a little sister, and for both of us, they just want us to have access zu dem wir lieben, jeden Tag. Und zu wachsen und zu arbeiten mit Leidenschaft, das ist eine große Luxur. So, ja. I think it was not a surprise anyway. Actually, we never, you know, when you are at school and you finish the main school and you have to decide the studies you want to do, all my friends, they were applying on a website to say, okay, my first wish is to go there, my second is this school, and my third is this school. And at the end of the year, the school sent a message to the family saying, well, it's very weird. We've not received any wish from Lea's side and we were having dinner with my parents and we just realized so you don't want to go to school don't you? I was like no no. Something completely different in a way you're singing mezzo soprano so you're not, absolutely working at the highest level of notes possible for a woman to sing is this because I've never I was never good at singing and even more so I'm not a woman but is it sort of, comfortable singing mezzo-soprano or did you ever have ambitions to if I try real hard I'm going to be a real soprano, I'm going to sing Queen of the Night, I'm going to sing all this crazy stuff or was it just like, natural as well like you're a mezzo, that's it you don't have to work hard to get real high, you don't have to get low, to become an alto, so mezzo-soprano is the ideal middle way in a way for you? No, the voice is, first of all, it's the physical side of the body that is your instrument. So if you have longer vocal cords or smaller vocal cords, it defines the tessitura that you have. You have natural abilities. It's easy for them to go very fast with agilities and coloratura. For others, it's easier to sing very long notes with lots of legato. The tessitura is basically what the nature is giving you. For example, my teacher in Venice, Sara Mingardo, she has a pure Contraalto voice, which is the lowest female voice. She has a very, even when she speaks, a very low. Range. And it's not that she doesn't try, she doesn't study enough to be able to sing The Queen of the Night. It's just that her physical is not, her physique is not made for her to sing that. And it's the same for me. I don't like to say that I'm a mezzo-soprano, soprano, whatever. I'm a human being, that's sure, I think. Und at the time when composers were writing music for operas they were writing for people so they were writing for example they would write for you depending on your vocal abilities, and the most interesting thing is to follow the career of a singer at that time to understand, which roles the singer used to sing because you have hundreds of sopranos thousands of sopranos but each one of them is different so I have the notes to sing the Queen of the Night I do it at home to have fun, but it's not the part of my voice if you look at the old role the Königin der Nacht sorry for my German. I cannot sing this role it's not comfortable for me and someone will be able to sing this role will not be comfortable singing Cherubino, for example, a role in which I'm comfortable. So you just have to understand your own instrument, to understand what are your qualities. I love to go high, but I have to come back in the medium range. Everyone is different, and it takes a long time to understand the instrument. Also, the instrument is changing through the years. So you just have to listen to the body. Und since everything came so natural for you. How important is quietness or rest? If everything came so natural and you felt from the beginning that you have to be on the stage, is there a certain point of time after, I don't know, three days that you get nervous and itchy and you think, I have to get back on the stage? Or is this just as necessary for your job to be off stage than to be on stage? Yes, it is as necessary. Es ist sehr wichtig, eigentlich. Und wenn du hast, du hast du Tage in den Bedenken. Ich habe viele Dinge in den Bedenken, einfach denken, okay, ich bin in der Stadt, so ich werde meinen Kollegen sehen, werde ich den Museum, werde ich diese Interviews und meet diese Person. Also, jetzt bin ich in größeren Rösen, so they are more involving in a physical way. But now I just keep my days off. And okay, if I want to go to the museum, I go alone. I read my book. I study with calm. The best way to also regenerate the voice is to keep silence. So my favorite company is The Nature or The Sound of the City. Um i need also to just to hear the sound of my voice in my head um to hear my thoughts. And also when i'm home in my family we love to have music at home or to have i don't know a podcast or a tv or when i'm alone sometimes i choose my moment i will listen to a specific music I want to listen to because I want to listen to it and I just do that but otherwise if I'm doing other things and if I'm resting I love silence or I have another passion which is kind of weird but I have these, audios of songs of birds or songs of sound of the nature like the wind in the trees, in the leaves, and little birds singing and the sound of the river und das ist so comforting for me und das ist was ich listen to, Okay, I won't tell anybody. You might be singing better in a way than someone like Taylor Swift, but you might not get as famous and not as rich as she has become. Is that any problem for you? Oh no, not at all. My dad, who worked in the cinema industry and used to go on tour with Brad Pitt and George Clooney and all these famous stars from Hollywood, He always told me, vivons heureux, vivons cachés. To live happy, let's live hiding. I don't know how to translate it there. Let's hide, don't show. Yeah, I don't know what's the equivalent in English. And so my work makes that I have to have a part of me that is public. But I'm so happy to have the liberty to walk in any street and just to enjoy my confidentiality, to be no one. And yeah, no, I'm very happy to be Taylor Swift. I think we don't realize how heavy this kind of career is. Mine is beautiful I have access to the most beautiful opera houses to lots of beauty but when I come back home I'm no one I'm just Lea and that's great So what was it like when someone asked you for an autograph, I guess that happened already. Yeah, this is part of the job we do it if it makes the audience happy that's the most important, we do photos also and sometimes in the streets in Paris I have people stopping me und sagen, oh, ich habe gehört, ich liebe es. Und zu sehen, die smile von der Person macht mich sehr glücklich. Aber ich habe nicht das Gefühl, in meinem Leben. Aber ich prefer das als auf der Stelle, und die Leute sagen, booh! Es ist besser this way. Und mein Werk ist. Zu offeren mich incredible physical sensations through the music and to get to know myself better through the characters also and to connect with wonderful and inspiring human beings. But the biggest part is to offer emotions to the audience. So if it offers them emotions to have an autograph, then let's do it. Did you ask someone else for an autograph already? Like maybe, I don't know. Well, I have, like Nathalie Doucet, of course. Okay. Many of them. Not anymore. When I was a student, I used to ask some singers that inspired me to do an autograph on my scores. For example, for Il Barbiere di Siviglia, I have Joyce Di Donato, who's a wonderful opera singer, and she signed it because she was, for me, one of the best singers of the role I was dreaming to sing in this opera. So I thought, let's put some magic in my score. Maybe it happens, then I sing Rosina. I really believe in science and in trusting the universe and what life has for me. And to see signs everywhere and to really believe in my dreams, to create them in my mind so that I can create them in my life. Did you tell Joyce Di Donato that if she puts a note in your score, then one day you're going to sing as good as she does? No, never. But I've told her that she made an autograph on my score. But again it's also a part of my life that I'm happy when I meet the artists I used to listen to a lot when I was a teenager I'm happy to come as a colleague and not as a fan. It's a different position and it offers a better communication also I have a small collection of questions that are more personal so. Was war die erste oder die größte Defeatung du hast in deinem Karriere? Ein Traum, das absolut nicht kam, etwas, was du wirklich gewusst hast? Und es hat sich einfach und es ging weg. Ich hatte eine Mélisande in der Theater, where they used to, where they created it. And it get cancelled two times. So that was the biggest disappointment. Otherwise, I've been lucky until now. You think that this might come up a third time and then finally you're going to get your part in this opera? I have I'm going to sing this role next season and I have another one coming but it's just to sing it in the place where it was created being on the same stage is kind of a magical thing also because it's my favourite opera. Well in French we say never two without three so it means if they offer me a third time a third time it might be cancelled again so we don't know We'll see. Okay, we'll see. Is there anything that you really don't give a whatever about in your career? Is there something that you really don't care about, whether it happens or not, something that's completely uninteresting for you or in other parts of your life, something that just doesn't matter to you anyhow? Like, I don't care how much money I'm going to earn. I don't care how I'm going to look on stage. I don't care whether I have to work on Saturdays, whatever. Oh I don't care that I have to work on Saturdays and on holidays I've been not caring for years not having holidays at all actually for days off, I yeah that's it, I do care if I don't eat. I need to eat to be in good mood, but not to have days off is okay Does that mean you need to cook as well for yourself? I mean, like being in the kitchen, doing things, or are you just as lousy as I am in the kitchen? I do both when I'm traveling. For example, when it's a tour, I love to go to the restaurant or just fast eating around just to try the specialties of the place. But when I'm in an opera production, like for now, I'm in Zurich rehearsing for six weeks. I love, I come with my personal knife and my personal objects for the kitchen because when you arrive in an apartment you're renting, very often it's not well you know, the material you find is not well so in this moment I love to cook also because it's a very, meditative, silent moment, and you take care of yourself and you can think about other things and it's a mix, very long answer, No problem. Since you're from Paris, the next question might answer itself, but what's something that you spend an enormous and completely unreasonable amount of money for? In Paris? Ja, I mean, in Paris, the idea or the answer might be quite easy because of fashion, but is there anything you spend money, lots of money for, and afterwards you always think, oh no, I shouldn't have done that. I don't buy myself lots of things, but when I buy something, I can spend a lot of money if what I want is expensive. Because I like to, when I buy something to keep it, In my mind, it's for my whole life, you know. So, yeah, it's fashion. It's for this fabulous knife I bought in Japan. It was extremely expensive. But they say if you take good care of it, you can keep it your whole life. And it's the best knife ever. So, and I love to spend money at the restaurant to celebrate with my families and friends for a special event also. In Paris, we have incredible restaurants, all kinds. And recently, for example, I went to a Japanese sushi master. With your knife or without? No, he had the biggest knife than me. Voilà. Okay. Since you mentioned your family, I wondered whether you had your first performance at Salzburg, when you were 21, if I'm right. Did all your family come there as well to see Lea performing at such a famous, production and at such a famous venue or is that sort of normal for your family? Okay, she's singing there, whatever, it's Wednesday. No, my family is always trying, my parents are always trying to come if they can come. My mom very often if it's an important show for me many times very often she could be the cover of my cover because she knows the role by memory at the end just coming to every shows, but in Salzburg we had a beautiful time they came for my first time but they came I think every year and they came for the show and then we enjoyed the countryside and it's such a beautiful place also to spend time, quality time, so yeah, good match. What's worse for you, getting on the stage or getting off the stage? Was ist das Worte? Worte. Was ist das Worte? Ist es Worte für dich zu kommen, oder ist es nicht so schön zu kommen, zu kommen? Well, es ist 50-50. Weil ich wenn ich auf dem Platz gehe, ich nicht möchte, aber wenn ich auf dem Platz gehe, ich nicht auf dem Platz gehe. So, ich habe große Probleme. you know. It's not natural to go on stage just to put yourself in front of so many people and in a way to put yourself in danger because you never know how the body, will react but then once you're there it's so good you don't want to leave, that's my answer. Okay five short questions you can just say yes or no or the one thing or the other thing. Okay. What do you prefer? Piano or forte? Piano or? Forte. Piano. Your favorite instrument and your own, the voice doesn't count. Cello. I would have thought lute. Cello. Okay. I've always wanted to play the cello or the piano. Did you ever try it, actually? The cello, once. It was very fun. The piano, very often. I have to play the piano right after we speak. What did you do with the first professional money you earned? Um... I think I bought myself a pyjama. And I still have this pyjama in my parents' house. Yeah, I think that's it. Okay, okay. You were not expecting that, huh? No, I mean, I had so many nice answers, but this one is a new one. I like people buying dinner for their family or buying something to put the money in. They just aren't, or shoes, or whatever. But buying a pyjama is new. Buying a bike. Somebody told me he had bought a bike, but pyjama is nice. But it's not when I had my first fee as an opera singer. It was my first job as a teenager. Okay, but the first money as a singer? As a singer, it was probably dinner with my family, yeah. Okay. I've always wanted to make myself gifts after important moments, but I've never done that. I should start. Yeah, sure. I mean, that's something that I've heard before, that people tell me that whenever something went really nice and well and was a success, then they just get something for themselves and make a present to themselves. So maybe a second knife. Could be. A smaller one, yeah. I need one. Beer or champagne? Sorry? Beer or champagne? I don't like bubbles. That's my answer. Okay. What kind of superpower would you like to have? I'd love to fly or to be able to be at two different places at the same time. Okay. Ubiquité, we say in French. And... No, I have a better one. Okay. To heal, to heal, to heal, heal people. Like I touch you, if you're sick, you're not sick anymore. Okay. If I've just cut off my arm, you put a hand on what's left of it and then whoop. Yes. It comes back on. Yeah. That's the coolest superpower. Mm-hmm. I found a few quotes from you and one of the quotes was, on stage, you feel like an animal. I thought that's interesting. What's it like feeling like an animal on stage? It's when your brain stops. What I mean, my brain is just questions. You know, an animal will do things by instinct. And we ask ourselves so many things before doing it. And when I'm on stage, I just follow the energies on stage and my instinct. Because I'm supposed to have rehearsed enough so that my brain is not of any kind of use anymore. You still have to work with what's going on around you. You just can't. Ja, aber es ist eher wie es ist, dass es instinktiv ist. Weil du es so viel worked on, dass es wie wenn du Biken bist, du nicht mehr denken über deine Leger. Du machst es, weil es in dir printed. Und wenn du reheißen genug hast, und wenn du dein Rollstuhl gut genug hast, und wenn man die technischen Probleme hat, wenn man auf dem stage ist, You feel like an animal because you just follow what's printed inside of you and you listen to the music and you answer to the music. But you have to lose control. And I think animals, they don't control themselves. If they are hungry, they will kill. That's not a good answer. You know what I mean. They go with the instinct. That's what I'm looking for on stage. Okay, so ideal is going to be when, or is it still Léa Desandrées singing all the time on a stage, or is it Mozart singing out of you and there's something else going on with you and you're not yourself anymore? It's more like there is the score and there is the audience and I'm the bridge in between. So if I'm singing a character, for example, now Poppea in Agrippina, it's not interesting to see Léa. So we'll work on the character. I will still be me. But me is not interesting. What's interesting is to give life to what was created and to offer it. That's really modest. I mean, saying I'm not interesting. No, that's really what I believe. Okay. So the final question would be, if you would be able to meet the 20-year-old Lea Desandre, what would be your most important advice for yourself being 20? Keep trusting your heart, trusting yourself and follow your heart, not the others', advices. Trust yourself. Follow this instinct and don't think about what the other people will say. Because to be happy, you have to be truly yourself, not what the others want to make of you. And then, being happy, you can give happiness and joy and love to the others. The interesting part of your answer is that it seems as if this might have been a problem when you had been 20. No, actually, when I was 20, in my whole life, Things I've done following this instinct and this passion I've had inside, not doing what was supposed to be done. I've not been to the school, the conservatory. I've not done what is usually done in a percorso, in a study time and even in my life. Usually, again, you sing what's written for the repertoire, and my voice being also in between different repertoire I had to understand my voice so I've always, trusted my guts and my instinct so it would just be. Be my advice because I'm very proud of that, I've made decisions because I was trusting them deeply inside of me and not because it was what was supposed to be done, and see where it brought you now you're in Zurich rehearsing and your career seemed to work out quite okay, I'm happy, I'm very lucky okay, so thanks very much I've learned a lot and maybe I get a Japanese knife myself yes please it changes your life definitely it changes my life okay, no because then cutting elements becomes a real pleasure and we should just all the little things we do in life they should all be done with pleasure, okay that's a perfect ending thank you very much I hope to see you on stage here in Hamburg and I'll just wrap up yes please so, I hope you come to the concert I will, I will. Wir haben viel gelernt von Lea Desandré, also inzwischen jetzt auch vor allem, dass man unbedingt ein japanisches Messer braucht, um Spaß im Leben zu haben. Um nochmal darauf hinzuweisen, das Konzert von ihr ist Anfang März in der Elbphilharmonie mit Thomas Dumfert. Es gibt Lieder und Chansons von Charpentier bis, ich glaube, bis Barbara. Und es gibt eine CD, die heißt Idylle, die ist vor kurzem erschienen. Also auf jeden Fall gibt es einiges von ihr zu hören. Und alle anderen Folgen hören Sie auf abendblatt.de. und ich freue mich jetzt auf das Konzert im März und werde jetzt mal schauen, wo ich so ein Messer finde. Vielen Dank. Ein Podcast von Funke. Weitere Podcasts vom Hamburger Abendblatt finden Sie in unserer Abendblatt-Podcast-App und auf abendblatt.de slash podcast.