Page 55 - Classical Singer Magazine November/December 2019

performance while remaining aware of singers’ needs?
I don’t really have a tempo that’s my tempo. I certainly have a pulse that I think is right for the composer’s indications. There are times when
I look at the score and listen to the singers and then decide what might be best for them. Sometimes that has to be negotiated.
I’m lucky that I can sit at the piano with them and gure out their organic timing and their breathing. Then I understand better what their musical needs are. Obviously, you want to give singers a structure in which they can strive, thrive, and ourish.
Can you tell us what it is like for you to work with established opera stars?
They absolutely know what they need. In the beginning, my career was very much facilitated by the baritone
“The South African audience is very knowledgeable about the physical effort 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!”
Juan Pons. I’m so grateful to him because I learned so much about guring out what a particular singer needs. When someone knows what they want and need to function best, they force you to develop di erent technical tools.
Sometimes they tell you brilliant things. I’ve worked a lot with Bryn Terfel. A colleague was having trouble singing something in one breath in a duet with him and Bryn said, “Kamal, let’s not always suppose that it’s more expressive if we don’t take a breath. Sometimes that breath tells more than singing.”
That was both very true and a way to take the pressure o his colleague. It was a big representation of why one loves Bryn so much. He knows how to make everyone more at ease and still put the music rst.
Also, Dmitri [Hvorostovsky] was wonderful to conduct. If someone is singing really well, if they know how to be generous with their artistry but be economical with their voice, they can sing all their big arias one after another. He would do the arias in groups of two and not need rest and the encores were huge!
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