Franco-American opera company takes on Mozart’s “first-class manipulator”

by Aidan O'Donnell

Article published on the 2009-02-07 Latest update 2009-02-11 14:00 TU

Opera Fuoco’s Don Giovanni (Marc Callahan) and Zerlina (Caroline Meng) catch their breath between arias
(Photo: Artcomart)

Opera Fuoco is young – the company was created just a few years ago, and the singers’ average age is around 28 - and it’s founded on the principle of the troupe, a body of musicians that work together for several years. Between concert stagings of Telemann’s Orpheus and Handel’s Jephtha this year, the company is touring a fully-staged version of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, opening in their resident theatre in St Quentin-en-Yvelines on the western edge of Paris, before moving on to la Rochelle and Orléans.

Aidan O'Donnell spoke to soprano Sara Hershkowitz, who is singing the role of Donna Anna for the first time.

“It was important to Yoshi [Oïda, Theatrical Director], and also to me, that Anna be someone modern,” said soprano Sara Hershkowitz, who is singing the role of Donna Anna for the first time, in between make-up and curtain call at the second-last rehearsal of Don Giovanni.

Soprano Sara Hershkowitz in the role of Donna Anna with Don Ottavio (Arthur Espiritu)
(Photo: Artcomart)

“This is a modern production. In some productions Donna Anna is portrayed like an old maid, or the unmarried aunt who’s been engaged, and that’s not the case here at all," she said.

Hershkowitz hails from Los Angeles and works in Germany with the Bremen Opera House, but she manages to make time to work with Opera Fuoco. She has been singing with them since she read about the group in an article and then successfully auditioned for the part of Arminda in Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera.

“I was studying in Berlin at the time and I thought ‘I’ll just go over to Paris and do an audition’,” she recounted. “And so I did an audition and it wound up being one of the best things I ever did. This group Opera Fuoco, with [founders] David Stern, Jay Bernfeld, is one of the most special groups of musicians and people that I’ve ever met.”

She says that for some of the troupe members, this is one of the first productions they’ve worked on.

“There are different levels of experience within the troupe – we have some people who’ve been doing this a long long time. Everybody’s young but within that, there are different levels of experience”.

Sara Hershkowitz in rehearsal with David Stern
(Photo: Artcomart)

The company aims to give young singers the time to rehearse over long periods and learn the roles thoroughly. Hershkowitz says that when working with a fixed group, “you start to develop a trust. It’s like a family”.

“I think it always shows on the stage when the people working together actually like each other," she said. "I think that shows up and I think the quality of the music-making is better when people feel comfortable with one another and also have a history of making music together.”

“I think it shows for the better," she added.

Giovanni relaxes between women
(Photo: Artcomart)

Rehearsing for the opera, she said she decided with Stern and Oïda, not to present her character Donna Anna as a victim of rape, as operatic tradition has often had it.

“I hope it’s more subtle,” she said, suggesting that Donna Anna is thus more conflicted in her relation to Don Giovanni, whom she described as “a first-class manipulator”.

She realized while preparing the part, however, that “you can make all the decisions that you want to make, you can decide what the character’s childhood was like, what their inner drama is and what not - but it’s going to unfold, it’s going to have its own life”.

“So she [Donna Anna] changed actually a lot from the beginning, where there were several versions of her that sort of unfolded as the rehearsals went on. It’s exciting – you can’t know it in advance,” she concludes.