Page 53 - Classical Singer Magazine November/December 2019

si parla.” The question after that
is: “Ma come si parla?” You have to constantly look at it from all sides: the emotional, the physical, and the intellectual.
Please tell us about your experiences with the abundantly talented singers of South Africa.
In 1997, I went to South Africa
for the rst time to conduct Lucia di Lammermoor and I have gone annually ever since. Apartheid ended in 1994 so it was very recent that everyone got access to training. The college kids would ask me for help with their exam pieces. Word got around that on Saturdays I was at the theater listening to people.
I’d also go out to the townships on Sundays and work with two or three community choirs a day. People’s choirs there become their identities. Most have had little access to
training and reading Western music notation, but they hear great singing on YouTube. At his rst coaching with me, a teenage Luthando Qave— who later became a Lindemann young artist and now sings all over Scandinavia and Northern Europe— brought “Avant de quitter ces lieux,” and the position of his voice was naturally extremely beautiful and right.
I told him that his sound reminded me of Gino Bechi and he said, “Maestro, I love Gino Bechi!” And I thought, “How does this young man know who Gino Bechi was?” You don’t nd all that many students at well funded conservatories who know that. You have to want information to nd it.
In South Africa, each region produces di erent kinds of voices. For example, the Zulu region that gave us Sunnyboy Dladla and Pretty
Yende produces higher, pointier, shinier, Bel Canto voices. The South African audience is very knowledgeable about the physical e ort that people need in singing because they experience it in their choirs. Many could be singing at the Met—that’s how good they are! The talent and the wish to sing are inborn.
What about your workshop for singers in the Dominican Republic?
I’m super excited about that!
The Fundación Sinfonía has been organizing it. I’ve gone there three times. There are four constituent groups from the Dominican Republic: young singers in their late teens and early 20s who have a real desire to sing professionally, singers in their late 20s and early 30s who are active in other parts of the world and
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