The prestigious mezzo-soprano Elina Garança (Riga, Latvia, 1976) will be one of the stars of the first evening of the Cap Rocat Festival, which kicks off this Friday August 4 and will continue throughout the weekend with a line-up packed with top international names. Garança, who lands in Mallorca after her highly acclaimed appearance at the opening of the prestigious Bayreuth Festival, will play Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana and will share the stage with Michael Fabiano (tenor), Luca Salsi (baritone) and the soprano Maria Agresta, accompanied by the Balearic Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Nicola Luisotti. Tickets are on sale on the event’s official website: www.festivalcaprocat.com.
Congratulations on your triumphant debut in Bayreuth. Have you read the reviews?
“I’ve looked a bit, but I’m not one to read the reviews immediately because you either get super euphoric or super depressed. I usually receive everything as a press dossier on the day of the last performance and I read it a bit on the way back. Well, the audience was very generous with me. The truth is that I had a good feeling. And friends have sent me positive reviews, that’s enough for me.”
After the opening, some critics called you “new guardian of the Grail”, “heroine of the Bayreuth Festival”, “new star of the Wagnerian shrine”. How does it feel?
“I don’t think I have yet understood what has just happened. I’ve actually arrived at very short notice and, above all, it’s the first Wagner role I’ve sung. To be noticed in this way at the festival is simply unbelievable. First I have to digest it."
Weren't you a bit nervous before your debut?
"What do you mean, a little? That morning, first I dropped my tea bag, then a knife and fork while eating the omelette, and when I was paying at the breakfast place I hit the door. Then we missed the flight by two minutes and I had to call for a car to go to Bayreuth. It was really all signs saying: 'Don't go!' (laughs) But then somehow you pull yourself together and say: if we're already there, then we'll go on. Sometimes it was like being in a trance, and I have to say that my colleagues carried me along. It's a great team, that's for sure."
To what do we owe the luxury of your coming to Mallorca to sing at the Cap Rocat Festival?
“To my old friend Ilias Tzempetonidis. I have never been to Mallorca before, except at the airport. I am not always attracted to perform classical music in traditional places, but precisely where one might not otherwise go. I have been organising the Elina Garanca & Friends event in Kitzbühel for ten years. For my audience, Kitzbühel is only known as a place for skiing and golf. With good friends, good company and good musicians you could do something like this also in Mallorca, which is better known for its tourism. And if my name, my presence and my respectability can lay a foundation here, why not! The festival is new and still has to grow, but it is exciting and can have an interesting development.”
For the Mallorca performance, four of the soloists are members of the Vienna State Opera. It almost seems like a family reunion.
“I think that is also Ilias’ idea and skill. In his casts, no matter in which theatre or festival, he thinks not only of quality, but also of familiarity. When the audience sees and hears this familiarity between the performers, there is also a certain intimacy in the music that is much stronger than when you sing with someone you don’t know. And because we’ve all done something together before, we know what we’re getting into, we trust each other and we have fun together because we also understand each other well on a musical level.”
In your performances of Cavalleria Rusticana you first sang the role of Lola and now you take on the role of Santuzza.
“From the gut, I still have the urge to join in after the interlude in Lola. I will never forget the first notes of Fior de giagiollo. I loved this opera from the very beginning. And the Santuzza is a part that seems to suit me with its melancholic intensity and a certain pride. I think this is also how my personality as Elina is forged. My dream would be to sing the third female role, Mamma Lucia, at the end of my career and thus close the circle.”
The great Joan Sutherland once described you as “a born diva”. What qualities does it take to be a diva?
“I don’t know. I would hope it comes from the divine, something magical that we perceive but can’t grasp or describe. We singers don’t give ourselves those titles. People who watch us, people who listen to us, people who describe us or trash us in reviews do. We singers can’t value that and we can’t justify it or judge it. That’s for the public to decide.”