Future Classic Women Awards – Chiara Angela

Hello and welcome to future Classic Women Awards with me, Stefania Passamonte on women's radio station, the program where we search for the most amazing new female artist on the classical panorama. Today on future Classic Women Awards, we will be talking to the fantastic soprano Chiara Angela. Hello, Chiara. Hello, Stefania. And hello to all the listeners. Hello, Chiara. Where are you now? I am in Verona, in the city in which I live and just arrived for Tuscany, where my parents lives and when I've spent this weekend. So a little bit of Tuscany in my body and also Verona in my heart. Ah, wonderful. Verona is the place where there is the fantastic arena. Have you ever sang in the arena of Verona? Yes, I sang in Verona in 2014, when there were a beautiful performance made with European TV in Eurovision and for the opening of the season of the opera, Summer opera. And it was a great time for me because there were a special time to make a song, an arrow, an aria, romantic, to dedicate to the Nobel Prize of Literature, Dario Fo. And I sang Casta Diva from Norma Bellini's Norma. So it's a great time. Wonderful. So, I mean, are you from Verona? Were you born in Verona? No, I am not born in Verona. I was born in La Spezia. My small town is Pontre Emory. I lived there for 18 years, then I started to go to study in Parma and then I finished my study in Milan. And then now I am a world citizen because I have traveled a lot and I love all the countries, all the cities, all the continents. I've traveled a lot and I loved every place in which I went. Wonderful. Well, Chiara, you studied in Milan, but among your professors. I don't want to say it because I want you to say it. You have my favorite singer ever that was from my hometown, Modena. So I think I have understood which one is the great teacher you speak about. I studied with Luciano Pavarotti. Yes, he was my great maestro. Was my maestro, I think, because I've studied with him for the last four years of his life. And so in this time I lived in Modena, because I went to his house every day for four years. Every day I was there, except for the time in which I was singing somewhere. And it was a great time with him. And it was with him it was a very special time, because the first time I met him, it was before the time in which I spent to study with him. It was in 2001 with Maestro Leone Maggiera, the director and the pianist with whom Maestro Pavarotti has worked A lot. And Maestro Madeira told me to. He asked me to go with him to have an audition with Maestro Pavarotti. And I saw my first time with Maestro Pavarotti was this time, in this situation. In this time, Maestro Pavarotti told me, you have a great voice, but you have not decided very well. What do you want to do? What do you want to do? And he was right. It was right. It was in one time in which I was not about, very sure about my repertory, about my career. I started very, very young. In the beginning, it was all very, very fast and very simple. But naturally, of course, after the first one, two, three years, the problems arrived because I was not so young. There were some new, younger than me singers arrived. So I was in a little bit time confused. And Pavarotti told me, you have to think about your singing, about your career. And we will listen you. I will listen about you in the future, but with no meeting, with no anything about, not decided anything. While I made a competition in 2004, and there were a friend of him in the final, in the public, and he listened to me and he told me, I want to present you a friend of mine. Come tomorrow, tomorrow. And the friend of him was Maestro Pavarotti. I remember you. Me too, Maestro, me too. I remember you. Have you decided something about your voice? Oh, wow. He remembered what he asked. That's incredible. And I told him, yes, I have decided something. And so now what would you like to show to sing for me now? I want to sing for you, Aida. While the first time I sang for him, Adriana de Cabrera. And he told me, ah, yeah, Aida. In Aida, I listened to you very, very with great pleasure. And I saw, I sang. And he told me, oh, I have so many things to do, but I cannot say you another time we will find sometimes again. And so tomorrow comes to me to my house and we start, we stud together. So it was a very, very great time, Very, very great time. Also because Pavarotti was fantastic Maestro, musical Maestro, but also life Maestro. He understood me very well. He told me, you are a little bit crazy, Chiara. But so he had the right way to teach me understanding first who I am, and so how to transfer to me his suggestions. So it was a great time with him. You know what is incredible of Pavarotti? I've seen many master classes of him talking apart that he was always quite humble as well. And he sounded like everything was coming naturally from him. So you would think, you know, he just would open his mouth and have this incredible voice and this incredible sound coming out. So how did he start to you? He told me always people listen speaks about my voice. If like a very natural voice with no starting, just a natural way. But to win the prize of a natural way, you have to study a lot first in listening to you. This is also my way of teaching, paying attention to all the way of. In which we use our voice every day. I have a small dog. Oh, my love, how are you today? So I use the high voice, but if I have to go to sing too much things. So he suggests me and I suggest to my students to listen to the daily, daily voice, to the natural way of speaking voice, especially in Italian language. Of course, we sing every day. Oh, I forgot the fire open. Oh my God, it's unbelievable. And so I have made probably for a scene to another scene, but I didn't know about while. When I go to the piano and I see the tones. Oh my God, I have to sing too much thing. Absolutely. Wow. So, so interesting. And then another thing, how you said you were going every day, so you were having a lesson every day. I sing every day and I teach every day. In the morning, when I warm up, I. When. When I wake up, the first things as every singer makes, I make. Buongiorno, sui sui. Si. Okay, the voice is there so the day can start. And then I make every day some exercise to have a good way of speaking, especially because I make some exercises to find a good eye position also for speaking. And then I teach, I teach to my students in trying to transfer all my passion, all my ideas, all my natural way of appreciate the great approach. Yes, the great word of the singer of the opera, of the use of the voice also in speaking. Because sometimes people think about singing voice. Singing voice, singing voice. But our voice is not an instrument that we can put in some box. We have our voice every day and we use our voice every time. Speaking by phone, speaking with the students. So we have to take care of our voice 24 hours per day. Because I also speak when I sleep, so. 24 hours. That's very funny. Well, the first song I want to listen because, you know, we talked about you performing at arena in Verona. It's actually taken from a live performance. So it's Santo di Patria from Verdi opera Attila. So where was that recorded? Yes, this was a festival verdi Festival in 2012, in Vicenza, in front of the Palladian. The buildings made by Palladium. The cathedral made by Palladium. Yeah. Piazza DEI Signori Signori Square in Vice. So a special artistic place with the orchestra Malipiero in Veneto and Maestro Giuliano Fracasso. Let's listen to Chiara Angela in Santo di Patria. It. Sam j. Sam. Sa. Sa. Ra. Kon. Wow. And this was sent to Di Patria from Attila with Chiara Angela. Wow. So this is by Verdi. This is a very virtuoso piece. So what would you say was your is your favorite composer to sing? Ah, this is a very difficult question, but I have a very good answer because I was born in Pontemoli that it is exactly in the middle for Torre del Lagoa, Puccini's town and Proceedo Verdi's town. So my heart is exactly in the middle from between Verdi and Puccini. I love both the great musician, of course, but not only Verdi Puccini. I also love Mascagni and Leon Cavallo and also Parcel and Wagner and Masna of course. So it's difficult to say which one is the favorite one, of course, I think. But I can say that in singing Verdi I often felt the great emotion to sing something like you told virtuosistic music. It's very well written for voice also to show your possibilities. While when you sing Puccini, you sing your soul, you sing your feet, feelings. You are characters that you can live on stage. So you feel all in your body. This kind of music, while for Verdi is well, beautiful to sing Verdi and is fantastic to live Puccini. I think I can explain in this way. My. So I think Tosca would be a very good role for you. Yeah. Yes, yes. Tosca. I've loved very much Tosca. I waited a lot of time before to seeing Tosca because Tosca is a character not too far from mine one because a little bit crazy moment is very happy, five minutes late. She's very sad and she's chaotic and she's a star, she's a diva. And she's a very. Also very simple and very jealous too. So I like Tosca. I love to sing Tosca very much. Yes. And I sang a lot of Puccini's opera. My debut was in Chochosan and probably my favorite, my favorite role, Cho Cho San in Butterfly. And then I sang also Mimi. I sing Janice, Kiki, Tabaro. I love Tabaro. Swar Angelica. Oh, wow. All. All Puccini I love very much. You have understood something because in touch with this, this Tosca idea, you told me you have touched my heart. You are very, very smart, Very smart. Well, Tosca is one of my favorite opera as well from Puccini. I' passionate fan of Verdi. And so I love all the opera. Love Otello, I love Traviata. But I see you more as Tosca than Violeta. Did you sing Violeta? I did, I. I did not say sing Violeta. No, but I. I think it was one of the dream that I had. But it was not very good for my voice, because the first half very, very light soprano. Not very light, but very high soprano. It was not very. But I sang, of course, some duets or the last arias. Yes, great, great music. You said something that I really like. The fact that like Tosca, you're very jealous and you have a fantastic partner. That is Sylvia Zanon, who is a. An amazing singer. He's a baritone. And so I wondered if you were ever on stage together and if he was jealous of you singing and your love to a tenor instead of him, for example. Yes, yes. But I think it was harder for me than for him and some other operas when he sang to in which the director decided that scarp. Yeah. And he was a scarf that shows in that performance had to touch a lot this duet. And my. My face was so red that they thought that it was not necessary to open the lights because my face was like. But of course, it too had sometimes these kind of problems. But, you know, when we met. We were. We met on stage in singing Ravaleria Rusticana. I was another of my favorite. Me too. And I was Santuzza and he was Alfio. So we have decided to change the final of the opera. And Alfier and Santuzza decided to go together. So we have. Of course, we have a respect for the. The job of the other. But of course we know that on stage we have to be actors. And so it's a show. But sometimes it's difficult. When I see some video, some movie, I think, oh, my God. And the cinema is worse. But there is a big difference. Stephanie, I have to tell you these things. Sometimes you can find some soprano that look like top model. Yeah, why? And so, for example, the Tosca who sings that Tosca about we were speaking about, in which my husband touched a lot, while I have had sometimes some partners. Not very. Very like. Definitely. Okay. Because, you know, for theater sometime, sometimes the beauty. The upper inch is important more probably for women than for men also because there are more women who sings than men. So sometimes I sang also with very. Not. What's the name in not very beautiful men. So there were problem for you. To Be honest. Actually, I had a few friends, opera singers and all the baritones that I knew. They were all not necessarily handsome, but extremely charming. So beauty is not something that goes. There is a very, very funny joke that sometimes you can find on Facebook. And it is what the singers thinks about when sings. It is a singing. All right. So the soprano thinks to the. To be the diva. So to the applause the people who says bravo. Oh, soprano things do that then or things to the money. I'm rich. Oh, people pay for. Listen to me. Oh, dollars, dollars to technique how to. To perform better, how to use better the voice and the mezzo soprano things to the baritone. So she has decided to think to the baritone. Funny enough. My best friend Chloe, she's married. She's a mezzo soprano and she's married to a baritone. So. So I told you. And me too. I sang something for as mezzo in the last time, the last years. I sang me to something like Carmen. I said me too. Heads on Shai. The look up to the. Well, let's listen to another opera for a soprano. One of the most famous one that is C. Mikiyama. No, Mimi from Bohem. When did you perform the recording we're gonna listen to? This is always. That one is a. Also this one is a live recording. It was on 2001 in Firenze Maggio Musicale. The theater in Firenze. And it was a Jonathan Miller production. And the conductor was Roberto Rizzi Brignoli. Wonderful. Let's listen to See Me Come and Mimi with Karen's pleasure. Ra. Ra. Sa. Ram. Ra. Sam. How beautiful. See Me Wow. It's one of the most. Thank you, Aristotle. Which one is your favorite aria of all, if you had to choose one? Ah, it's very. The. This question is a new question for me because generally the question is which is your role? Your favorite role, which favoritaria. But is probably one of the favorite areas, see, because it's so full of dream poetic feelings. She is so enthusiastic of the sun of the spring. She's poor, but she's rich. And it's a great character and the great music with this passion in the second part of the aria in which the orchestra plays so full of harmonics with the violins. Ah, yes. Probably this is one of my favorite one. I mean, it's hard to choose. I know as well a role. It's very hard. Yeah. So much beautiful music out there, isn't it? And well, at this point, and I have to ask you which one was the most difficult one that you had to sing. This one is a very easy question for me, because I have not problem to answer, because I'm sure about the answer. The worst for me it was surely Celia Zuri of Aida, the ones we were speaking about for my audition. The second one with Pavarotti, Celia is for that that he asked me which one would you like to sing? And when I answered him, Aida, he told me, now you are ready. Because it's really very difficult. She's a very difficult eye to see. After all, the aria sang in the middle of the voice. So to sing softly but not pulling back. Because if you are not free in your singing, you become heavy and it's difficult to go higher. So I think with no, I have no problems to answer that. The worst was surely Aida. Also the first one of Aida Return Avincitor is very difficult, but the second one in the third act is very, very difficult. But of course, some. There are other areas. Has other kind of difficulties, because sometimes it's difficult to find the real feelings, to have the real. The right colors. For example, Saint Samamma Suar Angelica is one of my favorite ones. You have to find the heavy color of the voice of a mother who has lost the son, but also the light voice when she feels that he's close to her and she see him close to her. So you have to change characters and feelings in the voice 100 times in one area. So every area has different difficulties. But there are someone very, very difficult. For example, also Santa Dipatria, the first one we listen is not very easy to listen to the in concerts, because it's enough. It's not enough art. But you know, I was asking you this question because exactly in both of them I could see the change of the color that you're describing and is incredible. Is supernatural what you're doing with your voice. And still you are doing it in an area where it sounds so simple. So when you are an audience watching a person in the public at the theater and you're watching that moment, you can really get lost in the nuance of the interpretation of the singer. So even if you heard the same aria million times, me, Cameron, Mimi, we heard it, I don't know, so many times everyone likes to sing Miki ama no mi, but everyone is singing it in a different way. And now everyone actually managed to capture the light, for example, of the morning sun. Right. That is coming through. And it's very special. Thank you. I love my job and so I'm always very proud of to Be the voice of these characters. So is an honest way to represent the feelings. So I study a lot of them, of their feelings. I think of them during my day. I spent some time in listening, in thinking of their. Their life, their problems. And so when I'm on stage, I try to sing all of these feelings, all of these. So it was always an important part of my job to understand, not only to sing. I'm not. I always say not. I'm not a singer, I'm an artist who sings. It's not the same thing. So I'm not a singer, just I'm. When you are on stage, if you only sing. No, it's not. It's not. Okay, not enough. No, no, not. You will be not honest with the composer, with the musician who plays, and with the public who wanna come back with the cathartic feelings. So if you sing, it's not enough. Absolutely. But there is also something else that comes to my mind and is this fact of searching the characters, of leaving them every way, every day, for example, and understanding, in a way you're bringing them to life, that you bring back this character to life and you bring them back to today. So, you know, I believe the feelings of people are the same as they were 100 years ago, 200 years ago, years ago, isn't it? Absolutely not for old people. Sometimes I explain opera also. Sometimes I go to the school with very young children and I speak about opera. Me and my husband often we go to the school to speaks about opera today, the young children, but also to the high school age. Because it's an age in which listen just rap trap. But of course, but if you listen to open the television, watch the television. In Italy now there is a Umbel di vedremo to make a publicity of. I don't remember. Probably for something like Auto. There is La Donne mobile Rigoletto for the pizza. There is Carmena for the Ajax for the. To wash the laundry. Wash, yeah. Yes. And when you. When someone call you on the phone, this is a bisex Carmen. So opera. Our life is full of opera. Opera speaks about people, not about old people. Love is not for 200 years ago. People love is for us, for every day, for every age. So of course opera is a little bit difficult because now it's a way of music. Not so, so fast, so close to our times, to our age. But it's enough to prepare a little bit, have the interest to find something into this kind of music, to find a world in which you can be better, you can Transfer something about you and to learn. It's fantastic word. And also I often go with young students to theater. Not now, unfortunately. With this unfortunately. But I often invite younger students to go to theater to make a rehearsal. For example, they can listen to the musician who to take the A. In the first of the opera, the violin make A. And all the instruments find the same A. And together. Yeah. Yes. The conductor make the great movement that sounds. It's like an ug. A hug is right. So I think we cannot pick bad about opera if we are not gone on theater. Because on theater it happens something magic that is not possible to. To speak about if with no experience. Direct experience. No. Well, the next song we want to listen to, it's Saula Perdute and Bandonata. This is from Manon Lescaut by Puccini. Where did you sing? This area. This area was in one concert on 2005 is was Bassano Opera Festival. And the conductor was Gian Paolo Bizan. Let's listen to Sola Perduta Bandonata from Manandesco with Kiara Angela. Ra. Range. Sam. How beautiful. This was Sola Perdutai Abandoneta by Manon Lesco. How beautiful. I mean, this means literally I was alone, lost and abandoned. And unfortunately was a little bit the feeling of discovery, of being all separated. What would be instead the best moment you had in your career? My best moment? The best moment, I recall it was probably when I felt now I'm ready. Because my story was a little bit strange. I was very young, winners of an international competition in Teatro La Scala in Milan. And so my career starts very, very often, very, very early. Very, very early. I was 21 years old. And so in the beginning all arrived very, very fast, very, very easily and. But people always told me, you are a very. You have a very beautiful voice. What a beautiful voice. What a beautiful voice. And in myself I felt I have to be a beautiful artist, not only a beautiful voice. So I've studied, I've studied, I studied a lot. And as you told with great Maestro, I was very lucky in my studying, because I've studied with Maestro Pavarotti, with Magda Oliveiro, great artist too. And when I was not so young, when I was a woman, in one special time, for example, in 2008, I worked a lot, a lot in France, in Switzerland, in Italy too, in India, in China. I felt. I'm sure I feel good now. I'm not afraid of anything more I sing and more I would like to sing. And people came to me and told Me which great artist you are, how great is your performance? So I thought, oh, not only the voice now, so now I feel very good. Now is my best time. I think it was that one time. And then when I felt me so ready, so, so arrived in my good feeling in singing. I accept to teach to a lot of students asked me before, but I told I'm not ready to teach if you are not. So. So. Well, sure. So I don't know the word, but when you feel not secure about your technique. Yeah, Yes. I cannot. It's not possible to teach now after this great work I've done. Because in starting so young, in the beginning, the voice was very natural, but of course you have to be natural, but with a good technique. To be natural, you have to be very strong in your body singing. So with this great work, now I feel good in singing and I feel very good in teaching too. To transfer all my knowledge to the young students and my passion and also so my ideas. One per one. This is my style. One per one. Not one technique to teach. Everyone is different. Everyone has a different voice, everyone is a different soul, everyone is a different character. I cannot teach to everyone in the same way. The way and also the technique too, because everyone is different. So for everyone I study, I. I think I built a special way of teaching and I'm very, very happy because I feel that they have a great satisfaction. Absolutely. And actually we can tell our audience you're going to be teaching in London and for now it's going to be online because we are all in, you know, we can't travel from one country to another. As soon as we will be over and we will be able to open the campus of the Alpimum, the London Performing Academy of Music. You will be one of the pillar of our opera department. You with Silvio Zanon and you're gonna build the most incredible department of Bel canto. So you're gonna bring all your knowledge in Italian opera techniques. We are so happy for that. We have like so many students that are inquiring. So it would be fantastic, fantastic not just to see you teaching, but also performing. Because I believe the students learn the most when actually they are able to see their. Their idols singing as well. So of course it's a way of studying, but it's so, so great for us this great project of London Performing Academy of Music in which Stefania Passamonte is very, very important, because she has had the great energy. When one project starts with this great energy, with a great project, with great ideas, dreams Energy, power. Absolutely. A success in the starting is great, surely also for the future. And so we are so proud of these great opportunities to teach in London with London Performing Academy of Music because with also online. Because this great platform made especially for this kind of studying is something built for a great goal. The goal to open the possibilities to the students to study all around the world, staying at home, not traveling a lot, not spending a lot of money. But with whom I want to study with this teacher. Where is him? In Italy. Okay, no problem. I study with him often, of course, hoping to meet us as soon as possible. Of course we will, we will. Surely. I'm sure about that. But it's a great idea and it's a great opportunity for us to teach and for the students, I think to have these great windows in which to search what they are looking for. Absolutely. Now, the very last question before we finish is. Do you have any funny moment or embarrassing moment that you can recall going on stage? This is the trademark question of this show. Future Classic. You know, one of very funny things happen sometimes in the past. Now it doesn't happen often, but in the past. The last one performance you made in some tourney, there were some jokes. And so one of the funny one it happens was in Mimi, in a poem, when my friends, my colleagues in the last act in which I'm dying, and I ask something to make my hands warm, because are always very cold. I put my hands inside of this manicotto. I don't know in English the name of this manicotto. It's the hand warmer. It's a furry hand warmer. Yes, yes, I may I put my hands inside. And I feel something very strange. And after that I understood that it was a yogurt. But in this time when I was singing. Oh my God. So it was difficult to not finish with a great laugh in the most dramatic part of the opera. But it was a funny time often sometimes changing the words. The last one performance in one production were full of jokes. And for example, one time I put in the Camerino in the guard robe of the tenor my shoes. And I take the easy one. So I was on stage with the big shoes of the man and he arrived with no shoes because my one were too small. Look of that because it was. The face was absolutely on the. On the character. So the shoes were not in the first line. But sometimes happens something funny. It's okay. Well, on this very funny note, let's listen to the last aria of today. That is this from the very funny opera Janice Kiki or Pinocaro. Ra. Sam ram. Sam. How beautiful. And this was Homeo Babino Caro from Giannis Kiki by Puccini sang by our wonderful guest soprano Chiara Angela. If you have any questions that you would like to ask to our guest or nomination for our Future Classic Women Awards, please email presenters@womensradiostation.com or tweet us @womensradio. Again, a big thanks to our guest Chiara. You've been a wonderful guest and the music was absolutely stunning today. Thank you so much Stefania to you and to all the listeners. Thank you Chiara. You've been listening to Future Classic Women Awards on Women's Radio Station Live every day at 10am and 10pm London time or 11am 11pm Italian time. If you want to listen to it again or catch up on our previous programs, you can head to my presenter page. Stefania Passamonte Future Classic Women Awards on womensradiostation.com thank you for listening.