{"id":1075858,"date":"2026-06-07T05:00:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T05:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/de\/1075858\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T05:00:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T05:00:51","slug":"the-superstar-soprano-saving-opera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/de\/1075858\/","title":{"rendered":"The superstar soprano saving opera"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a draughty Victorian arts centre in south London, Danielle de Niese<\/a> is finessing the timing of an almost-kiss. In this scene from Mozart\u2019s The Marriage of Figaro, the teenage Cherubino is trying to pluck up courage to kiss his godmother, the Countess. De Niese is encouraging her young performers to make the moment last. As a superstar soprano<\/a>, she has sung this opera herself countless times. Now she is tackling it from the other side: this is her debut as a director.<\/p>\n

De Niese, 47, could scarcely have a stronger pedigree. She made her debut at the Met in New York aged only 19 (coincidentally, in Figaro, singing the role of Barbarina); a whirlwind rise to fame followed. She is a stage animal from tip to toe, bringing together bell-like clarity of sound with super-trouper charisma, and versatile enough to turn her voice box to anything from Handel to Weill to Andrew Lloyd Webber. <\/p>\n

All voices change with the years, and hers has deepened and extended so that her recent Carmen for Australian Opera \u2013 a role normally sung by a mezzo-soprano \u2013 drew many plaudits. She was born in Australia to parents of Sri Lankan and Dutch heritage, grew up in Los Angeles and now lives in the UK.<\/p>\n

On seeing a soprano becoming a director, however, some fans might wonder if she is thinking of winding down her singing. De Niese knocks that one straight on the head. \u201cI\u2019m not a singer who has been sitting around hankering after directing,\u201d she says, \u201cand I\u2019m not about to hang up my singing boots. This opportunity came about really by chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The opportunity was offered to her by the touring opera company Wild Arts, launched just four years ago by the conductor and cellist Orlando Jopling. It has made a swift impact, staging small-scale but high-quality versions of audience favourites that can travel to locations heftier productions rarely reach.<\/p>\n

\"WildDe Niese, left, in rehearsal for \u2018The Marriage of Figaro\u2019, which she is directing for Wild Arts (Photo: Anastasia Tikhonova)<\/p>\n

When Wild Arts asked de Niese if she would be interested in directing, she says, the idea threw her for a minute: \u201cI went away to think about it. I so wasn\u2019t expecting this, but what would I lose from trying it?\u201d New opportunities of any type are inherently risky: \u201cYou don\u2019t often get them as you become a more seasoned singer, unless you have a role debut. That involves a certain amount of calculated risk; you won\u2019t take it unless you feel you could do it right. Whereas this is a total leap into the unknown. The learning curve has been absolutely wild, but also fascinating and exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the studio, de Niese \u2013 seemingly tireless, fired up and bubbling over \u2013 forensically questions almost every word of the action. \u201cThis is how I work on my own roles,\u201d she remarks. Habits, sometimes senseless ones, often form in the interpretation of famous works like Figaro, and she\u2019s keen to eliminate those preconceptions. The process is intense; it\u2019s also deeply convincing, at least from my corner of the studio beside the blowy heater.<\/p>\n

For instance, the rift between the philandering Count and the lonely Countess is often assumed to have gone on for years \u2013 but what if it hasn\u2019t? What if it is relatively new? And when Susanna dances with her bridegroom Figaro and the predatory Count, who has designs on her, her attitude needs to fit her personality: \u201cShe is not someone who would just play along and smile,\u201d de Niese says. \u201cShe would not want to lie to her husband.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having been on the other side of all this has its advantages. \u201cI think I\u2019m a good colleague for the singers,\u201d says de Niese. \u201cI\u2019ve been them. I\u2019ve been in the room my whole life, making things. Here I\u2019ve enjoyed creating a theatrical story that I can sculpt away at, detail by detail.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, not everything in the opera world is straightforward for directors who are women. Despite a growing handful of outstanding figures such as Deborah Warner, Mariame Cl\u00e9ment and Annabel Arden, the gender balance is still heavily skewed, and last year Katie Mitchell announced that she intends to stop working in opera, blaming the widespread misogyny<\/a> she says she has encountered.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have probably worked with more male directors than female ones,\u201d de Niese acknowledges. \u201cI haven\u2019t found yet that a male director has been trapped in the male gaze, however, because so much about directing is observational. As an actor and performer, which most directors are or were, you file away so much information.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do wonder whether some female directors feel it\u2019s still difficult to be the woman in the room,\u201d she adds. \u201cThat being said, I worked with Annabel Arden, who is a beautiful, supportive person and can absolutely take charge of a room. Every director that I\u2019ve worked with has very much their own style. The way in which I\u2019m going about it is totally my own. It\u2019s how I am as an artist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LONDON,De Niese at The Olivier Awards at the Albert Hall in April (Photo: Dave Benett\/Getty)<\/p>\n

Perhaps there is an advantage in cutting her directorial teeth with a small company, rather than a big national theatre, where extra spotlight would mean extra pressure. The Wild Arts Figaro is small, audience-friendly and portable. It has no chorus \u2013 some of the principals take on those episodes \u2013 and has an orchestra of only 10 players, conducted by Jopling. The English translation is by Jopling and de Niese themselves and is still being tweaked as the rehearsal goes along.<\/p>\n

In recent years, Arts Council England (ACE) has critically slashed the touring budgets<\/a> of companies such as Welsh National Opera and Glyndebourne <\/a>(the latter is de Niese\u2019s home, as her husband, Gus Christie, is its hereditary proprietor). Far from \u201clevelling up\u201d, these cuts have left locations across the country as operatic deserts. Now \u201cfringe opera\u201d seems to be filling the gap as the artform\u2019s gateway drug.<\/p>\n

Performed up close in cut-down versions, operas like Figaro can be intimate, immediate and inspiring. Yet most of the big 19th-century classics \u2013 which audiences do still want, to judge by the big opera houses\u2019 ubiquitous reliance on things like Carmen and La Traviata \u2013 need full orchestras, choruses and established stars to make their ultimate impact. De Niese insists that both ends of the spectrum are essential, indeed inextricably related.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly important to have grassroots opera that is accessible for people in a multitude of locations,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve never felt a frustration towards ACE for funding smaller groups in opera \u2013 I think it\u2019s absolutely amazing. It\u2019s just that when singers come into a company atmosphere like this, they\u2019re going to learn and grow a lot. After that, they are ready for some of the bigger stages. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut what if those intermediary companies aren\u2019t around any more?\u201d she continues. \u201cIt\u2019s important to cross-pollinate between our grassroots opera and our bigger companies. That\u2019s how we grow our artists. If we take those middle companies away, it\u2019s like removing the middle rungs of a ladder. The Royal Opera House, the Met and La Scala Milan all await you at the top, but without the middle rungs you can\u2019t get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

A case in point is English National Opera, which is still managing to do superb work and starting to make the most of its new second base in Manchester<\/a>; few would disagree, though, that the cuts have left it a shadow of its former self. De Niese, who starred there recently in Kurt Weill\u2019s The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, is outraged by its cavalier treatment. \u201cENO is one of the greatest companies in the world and they\u2019ve had some severe financial blows due to the ACE. I will hold their hand in the trenches till I die.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking at the bigger picture, though, she remains optimistic. \u201cI don\u2019t feel that opera is fighting to survive. Loads of different changes have happened in the evolution of classical music, and we\u2019re still here. We\u2019re responding to the cultural, societal needs of the time with an evolving musical style. We\u2019ve already done it. We\u2019ve survived.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her Figaro opens this week, then hits the road, aiming to reach a new generation of audiences<\/a> with the marvels of Mozart. Perhaps it really is, for the moment, the keeper of the flame.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Marriage of Figaro\u2019, directed by Danielle de Niese for Wild Arts, opens on 5 June at The Wild Arts Summer Opera Festival, Layer Marney Tower, Essex, then tours the UK until 27 September. <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a draughty Victorian arts centre in south London, Danielle de Niese is finessing the timing of an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1075859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3976],"tags":[331,332,182906,228756,13,5278,14,15,83624,12,3992,3993,3994,3995,3996,3997],"class_list":["post-1075858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vereinigtes-koenigreich","tag-aktuelle-nachrichten","tag-aktuelle-news","tag-classical-music","tag-danielle-de-niese","tag-headlines","tag-interviews","tag-nachrichten","tag-news","tag-opera","tag-schlagzeilen","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-kingdom-of-great-britain-and-northern-ireland","tag-vereinigtes-koenigreich","tag-vereinigtes-koenigreich-grossbritannien-und-nordirland","tag-vereinigtes-koenigreich-von-grossbritannien-und-nordirland"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@de\/116707072225243787","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1075858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1075858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1075859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1075858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1075858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1075858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}