🎵 Royal Opera Masterclass with Antonio Pappano #5: Yaritza Véliz (La bohème)

hello and welcome to the limbury theatre here at the royal opera house my name is antonio papano and i'm very happy to be here with yaritza veliz and richard hetherington at the piano and this is a new initiative um that we've started here at the royal opera house these master classes with the jetta parker young artists and we're going to be performing some ravishing music now aren't we well you are i'm not but um yes the two mimi arias from puccini's la boheme beloved pieces they are both are using interestingly enough using some of the same music in but in a very very different way mimi is a young seamstress she's tubercular so she's quite ill she comes downstairs to the garrett below to ask her neighbors uh for a light her candle has gone out and it's it's very cold and she and but she's also she's looking for human contact for company she's uh one of the greatest creations of puccini and in this aria mikhail mimi it's it's her visit visiting card basically she tells us about herself after the tenor tenor's passionate outpouring his of his story this is written in a very very different way in a very natural and almost as if she's making it up on the spot that's wonderful absolutely wonderful and then there's a payoff in the middle of the first aria that is incredible anyway here we go see [Music] me [Music] me [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] quick [Music] is [Music] me [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] so [Music] me [Music] me [Music] my [Music] foreign [Music] me [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] you have such a wonderful color in your voice for this music it's so so natural beautiful um i talked about when i introduced the aria i talked about how you're you know you're telling us about yourself but you are there's a certain shyness you keep you one introduces you know you start by telling your name and then you make a little joke they people call me mimi but my real name is lucia let's say lucia as if it were the most common name in the world but mimi sets you apart doesn't it then you you talk you say my story is actually it's a very short one i embroider on canvas and on silk little flowers yeah and i'm tranquil and i'm happy and i'm and my hobby is to make little uh yeah is is to make lilies and roses that's my favorite plants and i like you then you start to become a little bit more poetic you you say i like those things that have a sweet mystery magic malia that speak of love of spring time okay so i want to investigate a little bit each of these little details of text and singing so um the the orchestra just plays this note waiting for you to you must have been affected of course by this outpouring of the tenor you know his famous aria when when your hands when you're you're looking you're looking for the key uh and he touches your hand and he says oh your your hand is freezing and then he tells you his life story so for a moment there's a hesitation and and your first word is yes my and then you create a phrase okay see me [Music] okay and one of the important things of of puccini's writing is how close it is actually the shape of his music how close it is to actually how we would say the words he shares this very much with strauss richard strauss would say what what you know people would ask him what are the temperature the tempo is the speech tempo yeah so you don't say me so give it give it a natural shape of the language yeah okay try that try now be careful when you descend [Music] you portamento up you glide up to the note but when you come down mimi be careful not to drop yes the pitch and especially because the word it's a cute like mimi it's not me me it doesn't sink it's me me okay yeah okay see [Music] make a little joke [Music] but your shaping now is much more convincing i helped a little bit with the conducting but you need to be able to do that on your own show me [Music] now the orchestra has the the tune you have to speak so tell me your story [Music] boom don't let it get square the italian language is many things but it's not square ever do that again find the naturalness let him rhapsodize you know he's beautiful embroidered embroidery the the refinement of the of the music but you just telling here we go [Music] talk to me [Music] there's another hesitation [Music] you did it because i went like this yeah but listen why you need to get a special color play the chords [Music] ah listen to the seventh chord yes [Music] and it's my hobby [Music] lovely now you're ready to go into the poetic world [Music] so never even in music that is just simply steady in 4 4 time me piachu still with the language chianzi if you had to speak this language that have us i love those things that have a sweet magic come on he'll go with you do the language [Music] yeah but you know why don't you it goes to the minor here da da da da da [Music] because you're going to go up and the phrase is going to build but if you do that right away you've given away yes what's coming come on [Music] [Music] they speak of love of springtime [Music] too slow yeah yes okay very good now i started to see me me and what and what's behind the exterior that's fabulous really sensational do um do it again come on [Music] the l for the sweetness [Music] yeah otherwise little portamento even get right on it [Music] yes [Music] that's your inspiration you come back to the minor you hear his trills a little bit of springtime [Music] things that speak of dreams so things that speak of dreams and of cameras of things that are elusive things that we can't touch we can't yeah yeah so that needs a special placement that word because you've you've said a special word already dreams but this one is even more from the this magic chord the b minor yes okay you're writing everything down so you remember it okay that's good that's good good sign the magic chord is [Music] thank you one more time magic chord those things [Music] he says yes now here's the slowest version of the tune you hesitated [Music] come on now you now you you describe for us that your domestic situation sola before i make my meal alone and i don't always go to mass but i pray a lot yeah okay [Music] domestic at home [Music] there's you're doing [Music] go ahead [Music] this line is much discussed because after you're saying you pray a lot you you say without orchestra i live alone all alone now some people say that that she's coming on to him a little bit that she's floating and that might be true and that's that's fine but it has to be ever so subtle what you're doing now is um you're doing um [Music] vivo solace it's got to be almost whispered especially it's like a diminutive of sola it's all by my pretty self i'd live all along okay i pray a lot [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] when we say it the first vowel is long isn't it so sing it [Music] there you go yes yeah and then you jump in you created this moment of maybe flirtation and then you jump back in so ma right [Music] to okay very good so i have my little white room and i can look over the rooftops and into the sky and that's the moment of transformation that changes you into this because for you when you get that first sun of april after the ice melts yeah yeah that's the first sun is yours because you live on the top floor yes okay so do do the second domestic part vivos i live in a white room [Music] me [Music] very good very good we have to work on that anchor your support needs to be underneath you yeah a little bit better because the notes were just a little shaky yeah but remember what we said about the language what we've been saying and you as we've gone on your shaping of the language has gotten so naturally italian wonderful here again needs shaping otherwise it becomes very square okay so do for me um one more time this transition is so important come on [Music] don't do that do that little portamento don't add a note ain't [Music] now breathe in magic breathe in magic [Music] what happens when the thor comes [Music] me [Music] don't put a fermata there you can stretch it but don't stop there because the key word is not the the sun is but the sun is mine me on you must double the m you get an explosion the world is yours yes okay so go from go from il primo bacho de la [Music] [Applause] [Music] me listen to the magic chords now there's a little fermata there's a little stop and you wake up like out of a dream and then you speak again this is very important this moment because you must you've gone too far right you've just met him two minutes ago yeah and all of a sudden you've just revealed yourself and so you come back into that shire how um a a rose buds in a little vase and i and you look at it you look at it closely okay because it's so genteel and it has the perfume of perfume of a flower but unfortunately the flowers that i make that i embroider are fake they're not real okay so it's a little tragedy in there it's little a minute minute okay but so play the magic called bloom the e-shop [Music] [Music] this is very close to speech he puts he puts in the score agitando um so the music moves a little bit you've already sung [Music] near the beginning this is you find an enthusiasm for the subject come on germany [Music] me [Music] if you're [Music] this moment this moment you need to really concentrate you can't throw this moment away the flowers that i make are not real no none they don't have perfume if you are [Music] yeah keep the atmosphere he sighs he listens to you and now the most unexpected ending of any aria ever written instead of that being the end of it you say i don't know what else to say about me um i'm your neighbor and i come at an inopportune time to disturb you i'm sorry but this is really speech now we've had different sort of forms of speech different speeds but now this is really speaking so boom boom [Music] so you know have long vowels in italian yeah right and but long vowels in italian you have to find the way to sing them and speak them so what you're doing is this [Music] [Music] you see i'm a little bit more fluid if you pick up the tempo a little bit you'd get a natural fluidity just the d majors yeah [Music] no you're stopping on altru and may you're [Music] at a wrong moment actually i've come at a bad time to disturb you um [Music] that's the regret okay one more time [Music] great i love that little shoulder move but that's that's what it is good now look yeritsa we've worked on a tremendous number of details but they all have to do with what i think the text is asking and what the music and how the changes of color so your job now is to put that all together it's easy for me to take it apart and and and and make all the details but if you can get all those thoughts clear in your mind and drive the car a little bit in other words you sing in the speed of the language is what i mean by that you'll be very you'll be even more natural in that because you have the right color voice you have the right size of voice which is great for this can't be too small because the orchestra is quite big now let's move on to the third act aria by this point you are very very sick and as uh yeah well it is it is opera you the you will have fallen in love with the tenor and here with you in in that first act but at this point in act three the relationship is going has gone very very sour um he's jealous of anybody you look at he says some really ugly things to his friend marcelo about you you say to marcelo that i feel that he's even spying on my dreams yes that's a terrible thought spirami sony like he looks at my face and he sees he's imagines all kinds of things that i'm you know but you are very very sick and this is what and this is what's driving rodolfo really crazy is that he he's poor and he can't help you and you're living in an apartment where the north wind is going through there and it's freezing cold and he doesn't know what to do and you and you know your cough is really really bad and so you hear him say that you're going to die you you're you you overhear his conversation with marcelo you come out and there's you say i will you decide that it's time that they actually break up that um that you should return um to the place where you were originally at the beginning of the opera and um to the place where his cry of love called you out from yeah okay you will return alone and there's a key note there to your lonely nest you call it el solitario you will return again to embroider flowers and you say goodbye without regret sensa rancor listen listen and now this is the is wonderful about this aria because you're telling him you know as with every breakup this the painful you know getting your things from the other person's apartment and it's terrible and you describe this put them all in a i left some things um get them together i i've got a little ring in the little box that i left and the prayer book and put them all together in an apron and i'll i'll send the concierge the porter to coming to come and get them but say take care underneath the pillow is the little red bonnet that's the little red bonnet which he bought for you and you say if you want and you repeat it if you want se voy cerbar la if you want to keep it as a memory of our love and then she repeats the word goodbye goodbye without regret it's amazing amazing um thing is so personal so touching and yet so so simple so we'll hear a different version of the mimi theme and you speak above it okay here we go [Music] is [Music] go [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] okay wonderful b flat i know fantastic so the this this aria is is difficult to express because it's it's the situation is painful so even though you're trying to be trying to be kind and you're not screaming at him or you know you're um it should never really get happy and i saw a strange smile on your face when you say i'm going to return all alone to the place um and i wasn't sure what you were expressing there so that i want to look at that this how specific you need to be so um [Music] where i happily came out of uh i'm going to return okay where from my little nest my lonely nest where i return to your cry of love i'm going to return and i'm going to return alone okay so let's do the beginning maybe you're sick [Music] but beautiful that had a concentration and a focus that was exactly right for this moment don't double the elk [Music] so melancholy to this note is very sad still you're still you're still hitting the l yes once more to say it once sola [Music] okay you take the breath but it's inc but you must join it to the next thought as if you weren't taking a breath yeah okay one more time [Music] okay one more time [Music] s [Music] speaking speaking speaking [Music] [Music] gather the things up [Music] yeah very good that's has this has a quality now very intimate quality okay it's fantastic um [Music] remember you're saying it to him [Music] hear the music from act one there [Music] so it's not happy they're just you're you're trying not to cry you know when when you when there's a painful human relationship you know that you're you're trying not to cry so you're almost smiling through the almost tears yeah that quality come on ask us golda remember your speech rhythms remember your speech rhythms [Music] it's fine it's great [Music] [Music] the words are not the inspiration because you wouldn't that inspiration of the [Music] for saying wrap up my things in an apron that's not so poetic so it must be something that you feel the regret that almost crying that creates that yeah [Music] yeah something like that can work now here's the surprise this is what we don't expect [Music] the orchestra crescendo now careful your vowel says it's too much ah oh because it's a little bit under yeah okay and go with the orchestra here richard's now crescendoing one from there shape it now okay hold on so you're making a diminuendo in other words you're bringing you're filing the voice down to get softer use your body to help you do that not your throat so in other words your diaphragm support right as you go into the as you sing that note be more aware of your body yeah don't hold it with your throat but did you see how you shaped that phrase up to the b flat that's always said from the g natural richard [Music] [Music] if [Applause] [Music] much better the orchestra sings you can't sing [Music] without regrets [Music] concentrating good girl yeah yeah again lots of detail yes completely different than the first aria lots to think about but you need to put it together now yeah one thing i want to tell you which is very important when you breathe breathe in the tempo you're going to sing so if you for instance if you play the introduction to this aria richard sometimes the tendencies is to do this don't to breathe half an hour before i'm exaggerating breathe just i'll show you don't breathe and you'll be freer and you do that with every phrase because then you'll be in it more sometimes you tend to breathe a little bit too early and then you've got all this air and air gets stagnant very quickly it needs to be used yes okay great but beautiful you have wonderful sentiment and gorgeous quality thank you very much thank you richard thank you brother the two of you

Channel: Royal Opera House

Views: 33,996

Keywords: Royal Opera House, London, opera, music, classical music, ballet, dance, theatre, Royal Opera, Royal Ballet, theater, Covent Garden, performing arts, arts, stage, west end, teatro, musical, culture, art, entertain

Id: Absjf3gBIGM

Length: 50min 11sec (3011 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 21 2020