OPERA Headliners of the Year
"It's
not a matter of who is in charge," Domingo answers when I pose the inevitable
question about who is the boss. "It
is a matter of exchange of ideas. Sure, some artists can be difficult, whether
they are singers or conductors. The first thing they say on day one of
rehearsal is 'No', just so that they can show that they are in command. But
with Tony and me, there is just giving and taking. We are just two of many
people who are working together on the production." Pappano agrees. "If you
start from a position of knowledge and respect, which we do, then you don't
need to ask who is in charge. And therefore it is a question that never needs
to be answered." Well, maybe. It is a good job Sir Alex Ferguson isn't a
conductor. But the two men do not have to talk together for long before it is
clear that there is an implicit hierarchy even in their collaboration. For
even Covent Garden's dynamic music director, now coming to the end of an
immensely successful first season at the helm, is more than a little in awe of
his fellow conductor and vocal legend. "If he comes over to me in rehearsal
and says that everything I just did is wrong, we can discuss it. Because he is
who he is. But if I go to Placido and say, 'What do you think about this?' I
never have to think, 'Well, how do I approach him?' Pappano and Domingo have
made recordings together - important recordings of the Wagnerian repertoire
into which Domingo has increasingly ventured in the past decade. But until
this month, they have given only a single performance together in an opera
house. The place was Oslo, the year was 1988 and the occasion was a one-off
gala performance of Tosca. The way that Pappano tells it, the collaboration
was a truly memorable musical experience. "I got to Oslo very late. I felt a
right idiot, because Placido had got there first. So just before the
performance I went into Placido's dressing room, and Placido was at the piano.
And so we rehearsed very quickly and the wrong way round. Placido played, and
I sang, and we had five minutes and we were done. "But I'll never forget
hearing his voice that first time in the theatre - this is not to flatter him,
because it's just true - but when he started the aria in the first act, my
God, the whole sound of the orchestra just changed immediately to the sound of
that voice. It was quite something. I'm not flattering you, Placido, it was
just true." Fifteen years on, the
two men are now more familiar with one another. Further collaborations are
planned. Domingo will sing Siegmund in the new Covent Garden Ring cycle under
Pappano's baton in two years' time. Domingo may still be who he is, but
Pappano is now a thoroughbred too. They work more easily as equals. "When Tony
is conducting and I am singing, he is in command, because he is in the driving
place," Domingo says. "If I do something wrong, he will deal with it because
he knows I will not do that for capricious reasons. But if there is a mistake,
or a wrong entrance, he will be ready to accommodate things. This is the
wonderful thing about music." "The way we work is that we are always talking
to each other across the orchestra, going back and forth, feeding each other,"
Pappano insists. "There is never a feeling that we have to adjourn to a corner
and whisper or that there are any secrets.
The
great generosity of Placido, from a human point of view, is that when he makes
music with you, you are doing it together. "Look, there are very intense,
unspoken things going on when he's on stage and I'm trying to understand what
he's doing and trying to - I don't like this word - accompany him, or trying
to surround him with something that's idiomatic and right. We don't need to
talk about that stuff. The language is perfect, the rhythm of the language,
the thrust of the language, the acting, the eyes are right. With another
singer, you'd have to discuss and say, 'Here, do this, or do that.' Yes, we do
that sometimes, but the understanding of the idiom is overwhelmingly unspoken.
"Maybe it's because we've got that Latin thing in common," suggests Pappano,
who is London-born, with Italian parents. "If you don't have that slancio
[meaning surge or leap], or if you don't have that feeling for the schwung
[the German for swing or impetus], it may be harder." In the musical shaping
of this new Pagliacci, Pappano has been the first one at the score face. Even
when he is not on stage, Domingo has been sitting in on Pappano's rehearsals
and just listening. Mostly, Pappano just takes the orchestra through
Leoncavallo's score. Sometimes, the two men stop and confer. "We share
information about how I'm beating this, so that when Placido is in front of
the orchestra at least he will know what I've done, and why," Pappano says.
"It's a very organic way of working."
"It's so beautiful to
watch Tony work," Domingo enthuses. "These verismo pieces are more difficult
than many people realise. Verismo is not just brutality and brass. It is also
very delicate. But you need to have someone who can teach the orchestra these
things very clearly. It is important to remember that this Covent Garden
orchestra has many musicians who are now playing this work for the first time.
This music may sound easy, but it is difficult to play. Tony manages to make
the piece very connected in a marvellous way. "These pieces are dangerous," he
warns, however. "You can sometimes give too much. The art is to find the real
feeling that is there." "You can get so carried away," Pappano agrees. "There
has to be élan, but there also has to be a sense of control about how much to
let loose." The two men are on a roll now. They start discussing Leoncavallo's
reputation and his influences. "It is fascinating that Leoncavallo wrote this
piece with such big orchestration, the use of bass clarinet, the bassoons, the
trombones and so on," says Domingo. "I have the feeling that Leoncavallo loved
deeply Die Walküre. He has a lot of Wagnerian feeling."
"What's fascinating is that he writes tunes that that are memorable, but they
don't sound like anyone else's tunes," says Pappano. "They don't sound like
they could be written by Puccini, or Giordano or any of the others. With a lot
of the writing you can tell that he has written it at the piano. This is
someone who had a great facility."
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Le Clown Bar |
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114, rue
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Tel:
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Metro: Filles du Calvaire |
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Seats: 34 |
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