Norma FantiniFounded in 2000, Classique Foundation – under its artistic/music director Joseph Debrincat – will present a concert of opera excerpts, titled Grand Operatic Concert, at the Aurora Opera House, Victoria.
Classique Foundation is a non-profit-making cultural organis-ation which aims at promoting music and is privately funded. This concert is the latest in a series which have always been of a high standard and will feature the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra taking part under Debrincat’s direction. Apart from arias and duets from operas – including works by Verdi, Puccini, Donizetti, Catalani, Ponchielli and Boito – there are also orchestral excerpts from operas by Rossini, Berlioz, Bizet and Saint-Saëns.
Two very accomplished Italian singers, soprano Norma Fantini and tenor Luciano Ganci, have been engaged to take part and I interviewed them.
I always like to go to the very beginnings, to the roots of the respective careers of singers and their commitment to opera. One must add that behind all the glamour, it is not the easiest of careers.
Speculating that her very name could suggest that Norma Fantini was to the manor born, she says that she is no figlia d’arte and that her parents chose her name casually, just because they liked it. It is the same with Luciano Ganci, who is not the son of musicians.
However, both singers have had the full support of their respective families who always believed in their talent and qualities. Ganci adds that the fact he is no figlio d’arte must have relieved him of certain unbearable pressure such musically-gifted children have to take from their parents.
One always tends to be curious about a singer’s very first import-ant step, which sets them on a successful career. Fantini says that hers occurred in Turin in 1992 at the opening of the season at the Teatro Regio.
One singer’s bad luck is another’s good fortune, as Fantini stood in for an indisposed Margarita Zimmermann in Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust. She calls it her “…determining opportunity”.
As for Ganci, his involvement with singing began very early at the age of nine, when he joined the Cappella Musicale Pontificia Sistina singing under the direction of the world-famous Padre Domenico Bartolucci.
This was where he started along the musical path which he was to travel, until he started appearing in various prestigious opera houses.
Hard work is the order of the day. “It is never-ending, a vocation; one is always learning. I believe that one should be at the service of the music, involving the audience and seeking to make the public feel the same emotions interpreted on stage.”
It was a great honour for him when his career progressed to a stage where singers like Carreras, Domingo, Nucci and Bruson called him “colleague”.
Looking over the wide range of roles these singers have in their repertoires, I wondered whether they had certain particular preferences.
Fantini sticks to that wise determination to always sing roles which are suitable to her voice. Looking at her repertoire, which has a preponderance of Verdi and Puccini, with a touch of verismo and some Wagner, it was no surprise when she said that so far she has showered her attention on “the great Verdi and the great Puccini, pretty much equally, I should say. We shall see where the future will take me.”
Ganci says that he has enjoyed singing all the roles which came his way and, of course, sticking wisely to roles suited to his voice, he has a practical and personal preference for early Verdi and the bel canto repertoire. These are roles which mark his early career.
Young people should be involved and made aware of the real magic of opera
Having trodden the boards of famed opera houses like Milan’s La Scala, the Metropolitan of New York, the Vienna State Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Deutsche Staatsoper of Berlin, Barcelona’s Liceu and St Petersburg’s Mariinsky, it is understandable that both singers have worked with a great variety of orchestras and artistic directors.
Fantini says that she sometimes finds it difficult to understand certain ideas some conductors and artistic directors come up with, but she says one must always try to find a way how to collaborate.
Ganci believes that, above all, an opera production is a team effort. He has sung roles in modern productions and was comfortable doing so, as in the majority of cases there was no departure from the innate core of works, which could have so many different interpretations.
About those who think that opera is a rather exclusive genre, both singers disagree. While remarking that culture, in general, seems to be restricted and prob-ably not given as much import-ance as it should, Fantini hopes that upcoming generations will find the right stimulus and love for what is beautiful, and that this love would never fade.
She also says that she has nothing against the combination of opera and pop “as long as it is done well”.
Regarding young singers who try mimicking established opera singers, she feels that such shows make things look too deceptively easily.
“In actual fact, one needs solid training built on serious study, determination and consistency.”
Ganci may be in agreement, even though he puts it differently. He says that there is, indeed, space for opera in the modern world, because opera reflects a country’s cultural state of affairs, he says. It is the most complete form of theatre and embraces all art forms.
“Young people should be involved and made aware of the real magic of opera. On a personal basis,
“I am trying to demolish the image that opera is for the few; it is a spectacle to be enjoyed simply, but attentively.
“Opera needs active participation and one must find that special magic which emerges in the opera house, what I like to define as ‘the magic box which lurks behind the scenes’.”
Grand Operatic Concert takes place on November 8 at 7.30pm at the Aurora Theatre, Victoria. Tickets are available by calling on 2155 9452, or by sending an e-mail to grandoc2014@gmail.com or online.
www.teatruaurora.com