It is a cool, gray, late spring day as I speak with Marcello Giordani who is at his New York City apartment. He is just finishing up his 2009-10 Metropolitan opera engagement, during which he has sung Calaf in Puccini’s Turandot, Gabriele Adorno in Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra, and Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca. Although he is in the United States, his heart is in his hometown of Augusta, Sicily, where the sun shines much more often and a gentle breeze warms both head and heart.
In addition to his busy stage career, Giordani has big ideas about giving back to the next generation of singers. Last May he started a foundation to assist young singers in beginning their careers. This new organization is still in the developing stages, but Giordani already has selected his first benefactors. These singers will participate in masterclasses with Giordani, and then the foundation will assist them with whatever they need to be ready to audition for major opera companies.
Before we dive into the ins and outs of his new foundation, I ask him about his first foundation—that charming Italian village he loves so much.
What is your town like?
Augusta is a really beautiful southern Italian town. You see lots of boats bringing in fresh fish, and it is only 20 miles away from the extraordinarily artistic city of Catania. Vincenzo Bellini’s hometown of Catania is a Baroque jewel and, of course, it is very important to a Sicilian opera singer like me. Augusta, however, is my own little jewel, and I miss it when I am away. I am very proud of being Sicilian because we are people with very big hearts and intense passions. When we are outside of Italy, we find ourselves loving our country more than ever. It may be chauvinistic, but we want to protect our own land.
When did you begin to study music?
I did not start until I was 19 years old. Then I began private singing lessons with a retired soprano, Maria Gentile. She taught me singing, sight-reading, and solfège, with which I was previously unfamiliar. I had discovered that I had a good voice when I started to sing in church at the age of 15. Also, when I sang at home, my father began to notice that I had an operatic sound and he encouraged me to take lessons. It was he who put the thought into my head that I might one day have a career as a tenor. He gave me that dream of being an artist. Personally, I did not care if I was a baritone or a tenor. I just liked singing. Basically, my mentor was my father.
Twenty-five years ago in Sicily we did not have any vocal scholarships. Even now, there are none for classical singers in Italy, which is a very sad state of affairs. The government will help if you want to become a pop singer or a rock star, but not if you want to study opera. They no longer take it to be a serious art! Thus, my father paid for all my lessons in Catania and in Milan when I moved there for further private study. If I were starting out now, I would try to get into a Young Artist Program. The singers who come out of these programs are wonderfully well prepared both vocally and with regard to the stage. I wish I could have done that.
I had to do everything, step by step, by myself until 1986 when I won a competition sponsored by the Italian Spoleto Festival. Then, I made my debut there in Rigoletto and I got an Italian manager who started my career. Eventually I also acquired an American manager, so my career began to advance on both continents.
From that point on, an artist has to be very humble and listen to the trusted people around him. They will tell him if he is singing correctly or not. That way, any technical problems can be fixed before they become evident to the audience. Thus, at one point, I went to William [Bill] Schuman so that he and I could retrain my voice in the proper way.
What do you hope to do for young singers with your foundation?
I want to work with them on both vocal and stage skills. I want to help them with style, with phrasing, and with the practical aspects of the business of singing. For that reason, I am starting a competition that will allow me to introduce the best talent to agents. I will have those singers perform with me whenever possible and I will support them financially so that they have adequate lessons and coaching sessions. I want them to be fully prepared when they go to contests or audition for roles. I also want to see that they have tickets to performances from which they can learn.
I want to do my best to see that the next generation of singers finds the process of emerging a little easier than I did. I want people to audition for my program without paying a fee. I will take people from any country, and their expenses will be paid if they are accepted for live performance. I want our singers to come from every class in society and I will not be satisfied with choosing only those who have already proven themselves. If I see someone who is very young and still needs a great deal of work, I will not step back.
My preference is for singers ages 18 to 28, but I would look at those who are older if they seem promising. The grants that my foundation gives are based on the young singer’s needs. If they only need voice lessons, we pay for that—but if they need more, they will get it. They will also have a free choice of teachers and coaches.
When they are ready to audition, we will cover travel expenses. Of course, all the expenses we pay will have to be adequately documented. It is very important for the foundation to see that every penny goes to the right cause. For the instruction of the young singers we select, I will employ coaches, accompanists, directors, and voice teachers whom I respect. I want to work with them so that my singers get a truly accurate idea of what is expected of them in the theater. Since movie opera has become important, we expect to teach them how to do that as well.
One year we might focus on Bellini’s operas. Another year we might pay more attention to Verdi or Puccini. Naturally, if we decide to work with an organization like the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania, everything will be easy. We can choose a production to mount and then select the singers to fill the roles. We may start with a summer program, but my idea is to work with the young artists during the full operatic season. They have to learn how to organize their schedules while they are performing.
Who are the members of this year’s class and where did you hear them?
First we have bass Dario Russo and soprano Daniela Pedi, two wonderful talents from the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania, Sicily. From the United States, we have sopranos Robyn Lamp and Heather Gallagher, singers I met recently in a masterclass that I did for Vero Beach Opera. We also have baritone Steven LaBrie from Philadelphia and dramatic soprano Sabina Kim from New York. All the singers have worked with me. Some of them came to my academy in Catania, some of them had sung for me in New York or in the other cities where I performed. I worked with all of them on technique, phrasing, and interpretive style.
How does a young singer apply to be heard by foundation judges?
An applicant does not need to send in a CD—a simple letter requesting an audition should suffice. My office will then contact the singer and establish the best location for that person to be heard. This year, for example, I will be doing free masterclasses in San Francisco, Chicago, Vero Beach, and New York City. We will arrange for each singer to be heard in the most convenient city. These masterclasses give me the opportunity to find talented singers who express the desire to work with me on some aspects of their technique. When and if I think they are ready for good exposure, I will invite them to join me in the Giordani Foundation fundraising concerts.
Selection of participants for 2012 will again be made through the free masterclasses and the free lessons I will be giving in the cities where I perform. We will have a new group of young artists each year, because I think it’s absolutely necessary to help as many people as I can.
What qualities do you find lacking in today’s young singers?
I often find that they lack humility and the sense of sacrifice. When I was young and I met someone who had a major career, whether I liked this singer or not, I had the utmost respect for this person who was older and had more experience than I did. I knew that he was doing a job that is not easy by any means. I also knew from the beginning that I would have to sacrifice a great deal and that I would have to invest money, time, and energy without any guarantee of success. I was aware that if things went well, I would have my reward, but only later on.
I also listened unceasingly to old recordings to get a sense of the evolution of the style. Thus, I became familiar with the voices of the great singers while getting inspiration and ideas from them. Many young singers nowadays don’t know who people like Schipa or Pertile were.
As for the sense of sacrifice, I run into young singers who think everything is due them just because they have a beautiful voice. They expect everything to be easy, smooth, and comfortable. They want to become rich and famous right away and they accept theatrical engagements when they are not vocally ripe. After a few years, their careers are over because they were unaware or didn’t care to know that it takes years to cultivate the mental and physical discipline that singing requires.
What combination of talents do you think make up a great opera artist?
Voice is first and foremost. You must have a love for your talent and a passion for the music you sing. A great artist needs to have a healthy curiosity and a desire to learn everything related to singing. You need to have devotion and a sense of sacrifice, discipline in perfecting your technique and your style. Finally, a great artist must have humility. Your voice is a gift that you need to share with others. It was not given to you so that you could enlarge your ego.
What are your thoughts on older singers who are just starting out?
Someone is born a singer and dies a singer. There isn’t an age that defines that call. Career and opportunities are something else, and they can vary according to the case, the type of voice, the rep you want to sing, etc. I’d rather listen to a 35-year-old singer that has gained expressive power through years of mental and vocal research than listen to a younger person who believes a good voice is all he needs. Experience is something to be valued, and you can’t have much experience when you are 20. You sing with your voice and with your whole life.
What took place at the foundation’s dinner in May?
The first Marcello Giordani Lifetime Achievement Award went to Magda Olivero who let us talk with her via live video at the foundation’s May dinner in New York. She had just celebrated her 100th birthday, but she stayed up after midnight so that she could speak with us live at the reception. I don’t think I could find a more inspiring model for our young singers to emulate. She is amazing. Her brain is as fresh as that of any 40-year-old.
In opera you never stop learning. I learn something from my colleagues at each performance, and I hope they learn something from me, too. The words of the libretto are important to understanding the story, even though it is the music that really speaks to your heart. I have sung in Italian, Russian, and French, so far, and I want to continue learning new languages. A famous Italian playwright, Eduardo de Filippo, said, “The test of life never ends.” That’s why I don’t think there should be an age limit to the learning experience.
Right now, I am finishing my master’s degree in Italian Literature. When I started singing, I had to focus entirely on my career, but later I had the time to go to school and fulfill my life’s dreams. One needs to have the humility of Socrates, who said, “I know that I do not know.” Despite all the possibilities of online learning, I still love holding a paper book in my hands. My hobby is reading. I just finished Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot. It makes you realize how hard life was in those times, and the author includes some wonderful philosophy in it. I also enjoy writing poetry when I have the time. Once in a while, however, I go to the cinema to see an action movie.
Where will you be singing in the United States during the 2010-11 season?
I start the season in San Francisco singing my first Radamès in Aida. Then I go to the Met for the centennial of Puccini’s La fanciulla del West. Enrico Caruso sang its premiere. I think we will do that as an HD movie as well as a show in the house. That is a genius-level idea. Twenty-five years ago, when I began my career, we never dreamed of reaching an audience of the size that the movie reaches. I often hear from my fans in Italy and Austria that they watched my performance while eating popcorn. Right after the Met, I go to the Lyric Opera of Chicago for the same opera.
Are there specific challenges for the singer when the movie cameras are rolling?
Actually, the movie camera makes you a better performer because you know you cannot lose your focus for an instant. Your acting, your concentration, and your whole performance have to be 100 percent. If your nose itches, you can’t scratch it. You have to remember that you have both a theater audience and the movie cameras, so you have to have a mix of gestures for the theater and facial expressions for the cameras. You also have to be sure never to overact.
Are there uncharted waters you hope yet to explore?
What I love to do, even more than singing opera, is giving recitals. I hope to sing one in New York soon. I really enjoy choosing what I sing and I love having close contact with the audience. I like to see their faces, which you miss when you are across an orchestra pit from them. In a recital, I can sing Italian art songs like those of Tosti and some Neapolitan songs. I have the same affinity for them that Germans have for lieder. To the Italian songs, I often add some French and Russian pieces.
I enjoy singing in the United States and I would also love to go back to Mexico again. I sang in Monterrey once and want to appear in Mexico City at some point. It’s a beautiful country and the people are Latino, so we have the same feelings for music. We love art, we love food, we love women, and we have great respect for them!
Tell us a little bit about your personal life.
Wilma and I have been married for 22 years and we have two beautiful sons. She was originally from Switzerland, and I met her when she was working in public relations at the opera in Lucerne. She speaks five languages. She is the rock of my life. I don’t know what I would do without her patience and support. Our oldest son, Michele, is 13 and the younger one, Gerard André, is 12. My wife and children travel with me most of the time, so I’m very lucky.
Usually, we spend four or five months here in New York where the boys can attend an Italian school. Then when we return to Europe, they go to school in our hometown in Italy. I do make a few sacrifices when I travel to European engagements, but I can often go home between performances.
Do you have any new recordings coming out?
Yes, I have just finished recording a disc of Italian songs. These are not the famous ones that everybody knows. I took a year to do the research for it and I found songs that were once very popular. Great singers sang them in the past, but somehow they fell into oblivion. They are really gems. I was amazed to find that they fell out of favor. Today’s audiences should not be denied the joy of hearing their music and poetry.
With the help of Steven Mercurio who arranged them, I was able to record many of these beautiful songs. I dedicated each song to a famous tenor from the past whose recording made me love the song. I think it is important to introduce these tenors from the past to the current generation. None of us would be here if it were not for the legacies left by the singers who preceded us. It is our duty to take the torch from them and pass it on to future generations. That is the only way we can assure the future of opera.
Requests to be heard can be sent to: The Marcello Giordani Foundation, 110 West 90th Street #5E, New York, NY 10024. For more information, visit www.marcellogiordani-foundation.org, call the foundation at 917-423-5559 or e-mail info@marcellogiordani-foundation.org.
