Liliya Namisnyk
After coaching at AVA, American soprano Corinne Winters made waves in Peter Konwitschny’s Traviata in London in 2013. Since then, she’s turn out to be identified for her distinctive timbre and compelling stage presence, commonly working with administrators together with Krzysztof Warlikowski, Calixto Bieito, and Mariusz Trelinski. Notably celebrated for her Janácek roles, she scored an enormous success in Barrie Kosky’s Kát’a Kabanová in Salzburg in 2022. This previous summer time, she starred in Dmitri Tcherniakov’s Iphigénie en Aulide and Iphigénie en Tauride in Aix-en-Provence, singing each title roles in a single night. She returns to the Met subsequent week in a revival of Zeffirelli’s Bohème, and I sat down to debate her profession, fach, and taking up vocal marathons.
Kevin Ng: You made your Met debut again in 2011 as Countess Ceprano in Rigoletto, however you’re again singing your first principal function right here as Mimì in La Bohème.
Corinne Winters: It’s attention-grabbing that I’m right here doing Bohème, as a result of I haven’t sung it onstage in 10 years apart from a number of jump-in performances. It was one of many first roles I discovered as a soprano, and it was the primary skilled function I did once I was round 24. I at all times thought that was my fach: lyric Puccini, Traviata – the entire commonplace lyric soprano roles.
KN: You began your coaching as a mezzo, and your roles throughout your coaching at AVA ranged from Norina in Don Pasquale to Arabella. How did you navigate repertoire while you began your skilled profession?
CW: My method took a very long time to develop, so for the longest time individuals couldn’t hear what my sound was. I believe individuals had been confused as a result of I at all times had a richer color to the voice however I didn’t have an enormous instrument. So, I began with Despina and Norina once I was at AVA, and over time I discovered my sound and my method.
Arabella was a little bit of a wild card – I used to be initially meant to sing Zdenka, however after we began rehearsing the opposite soprano and I spotted that we had been a greater match for one another’s function! I additionally did Suor Angelica, so it was apparent that my voice was altering.
Tristram Kenton/ENO
KN: Your ENO Traviata actually put you on the map, and also you’re returning to the function this season in Rome.
CW: Verdi is rather more clear orchestrally than Puccini, so for a lyric soprano with stamina and excessive extension it’s not an excessive amount of of a stretch. I did many Violettas early in my profession as a result of it was an apparent vocal and dramatic match for me, however I began doing fewer and fewer as a result of I believe tastes have modified and folks now choose a lyric coloratura within the function.
In my early years I at all times sang the E-flat, however I used to be mainly screaming it out and my voice could be lifted for the remainder of the function. Simply because one has the word doesn’t imply one ought to sing it! I don’t suppose {that a} lyric versus a lyric-coloratura Violetta is healthier or worse, it’s only a style. However all through the course of my fifteen years as an expert singer, I’ve observed a common pattern the place lighter voices at the moment are doing heavier repertoire.
KN: Has that allowed you to tackle the heavier lyric repertoire?
CW: An enormous issue is that my method has gotten higher, particularly for prime notes. That’s what permits me to sing issues like Butterfly and the Janácek roles. I’m not the heaviest voice that sings these roles, however I don’t suppose that’s essential – it simply must work for the home and the acoustic.
KN: You’ve additionally finished some decrease roles, entering into the Zwischenfach repertoire: Blanche, Mélisande, Rachel in La Juive, Iphigénie.
CW: I really understudied Blanche right here over a decade in the past, when Isabel Leonard did it! Individuals have at all times heard me in that type of repertoire and I like it. I’ve at all times beloved coloring and shading my center voice and I’ve at all times had that in my sound, which is why individuals thought I used to be a mezzo at first. Iphigénie I took on largely for the dramatic facet – I used to be so intrigued by the thought of enjoying a single character all through the course of their life. It was solely later that I spotted the vocal similarities: Aulide with Mélisande, and Tauride with Rachel and Blanche. I really like this repertoire although it’s not finished fairly often within the US, and I like combining these with the usual lyric repertoire as an mental and vocal problem.
KN: Does the scale of the home consider as nicely, notably in Europe versus the US?
CW: I’ll use Salome for example. Homes are larger right here, so it’s sometimes solid with a dramatic voice. In Europe, it might work with extra of a full lyric voice although it nonetheless has to have a dramatic high quality to it. Strauss himself wrote a diminished orchestration, so he clearly wished the choice for a extra lyric voice. I received’t sort out Salome till 2029, however I’ll be nicely into my forties and I’m doing it with a conductor I belief.
KN: You’ve additionally talked about the lyric Strauss roles like Arabella, Capriccio, and Marschallin previously.
CW: Strauss took some time for me, primarily as a result of individuals don’t essentially see me dramatically in these roles. There’s a facet to me, although, that intellectually actually loves that — just like the considered sitting round philosophizing about phrases and music. I’ve these sorts of conversations with my buddies on a regular basis over a bottle of wine! It’s possibly not how I’m identified onstage, however vocally and intellectually in addition to to check myself as an actress I’d like to sort out these roles.
I don’t suppose I’ll do Marschallin fairly but. Not as a result of she’s speculated to be previous, and never as a result of there’s something vocally in it that worries me, however primarily as a result of I need to play energetic younger girls so long as I can. I believe that doing all these Butterflies and Jenufas retains me energetic and younger, and I’d wish to proceed that whereas I can.
KN: Speak to me somewhat bit about Mozart. It’s so usually cited as one thing all singers need to do and also you had successes as Fiordiligi and Donna Anna, however you’ve mentioned that they by no means felt absolutely comfy for you.
CW: Anna was fairly early in my profession, and I’m glad I did it as a result of it taught me quite a bit – largely within the sense of “oh, I’ll by no means sing this once more!” Perhaps I’m generalizing, however for the singers I do know that sing the function quite a bit it’s a job that comes naturally to them, which it definitely wasn’t for me.
With Fiordiligi I believed it might match higher, however I struggled partially as a result of I used to be at some extent technically the place I used to be in transition. I didn’t actually know deal with switching between the low-lying arias after which having to sit down on this excessive tessitura for the ensembles. I don’t suppose I did a horrible job by any means, however I don’t suppose it was my greatest work.
It taught me quite a bit about repertoire decisions, and I say to younger singers on a regular basis that there’s a time and a spot to take a danger. In relation to doing one thing in a high-profile state of affairs, like doing Fiordiligi at Covent Backyard in a brand new manufacturing in my early thirties, that was possibly not the time and place to do the function for the primary time!
KN: You had an enormous success as Kát’a Kabanová in Salzbburg, which was while you determined to be taught Czech.
CW: I’ve at all times been drawn to the Slavic repertoire – my grandparents had been Ukrainian – and it matches my vocal coloration completely. Once I began singing Janácek I didn’t converse the language, and I used to be overdoing the consonants. All Czech diction coaches will inform you to do the consonants correctly however to maneuver via them shortly, as a result of overdoing the consonants will get you caught on the jaw, and that limits projection. Consonants in Czech may be actually expressive, and since they’re so percussive additionally they assist with projection.
Czech is likely one of the solely languages I’ve sung in (aside from Mandarin) the place it has a sung rhythm. For Janácek specifically, it’s like a sung play and to sound idiomatic, the rhythms should be adjusted to suit the phrases. I didn’t actually be taught that till my time in Salzburg. I used to be with such wonderful Czech specialists who knew clarify it in a approach that was digestible, and I simply fell in love with the language much more and determined to decide to studying it.
KN: Have you ever needed to battle for roles that others thought had been exterior your fach?
CW: It’s such a very good query. I really feel very strongly about this, and my opinion has modified over time. I had a part the place I used to be doing numerous Janácek, and I used to be so involved about entering into the massive homes that I wished to be seen within the extra commonplace repertoire – not essentially out of my fach, however rep that I used to be struggling to be thought of for by sure homes. But after Salzburg, although it was in Janácek, many homes ended up casting me in Butterfly or different commonplace rep roles. This Bohème is an efficient instance of that.
What’s humorous is that subsequent season I’m doing mainly all commonplace Italian repertoire! So what I’ve been solid in has modified quite a bit since a number of seasons in the past, and I didn’t need to push for that. Lately, I belief the natural stream of issues, and to a sure extent the enterprise decides for you. It’s a enterprise on the finish of the day, not only a playground for inventive expression, as a lot as I want it had been!
KN: You’re doing all your first Trittico subsequent season. How do you method singing three roles in the identical night? How does that evaluate to singing each Iphigénies in the identical evening?
CW: Iphigénie was a bit totally different as a result of I used to be primarily going mind lifeless with the entire specificity of the regie. Tcherniakov, as a lot as I am keen on him, is at all times like that: the whole lot is extremely detailed and particular. He involves the primary day of rehearsal with each a literal and poetic translation of the rating, utterly annotated with the subtext he desires to convey out. It’s so particular that any little flip of the top or motion is significant, and that took numerous brainpower to memorize. There have been additionally simply hours and hours of French recit to recollect!
One thing like Trittico is rather more of a vocal marathon. I did Tabarro and Suor Angelica collectively a number of seasons in the past, and what was attention-grabbing is that Angelica felt simpler after having finished Giorgetta. I simply did Angelica by itself in Rome and I at all times felt like a fish out of water within the first couple of traces, which I didn’t really feel once I did Tabarro first.
Giorgetta doesn’t need to be an enormous dramatic voice nevertheless it needs to be a voice that may sit low. Low notes usually are not an issue for me as a result of I exploit numerous chest voice and I exploit it excessive, however there are a few notes that sit on the chest-to-head voice transition for me. But when there are a number of notes that aren’t as highly effective as I would really like them to be, I’m okay with that as a result of the aria sits nicely for me.
Lauretta doesn’t have all that a lot music, and I wished to take it on whereas I’m nonetheless younger sufficient to drag it off! There really aren’t that many sopranos who’ve finished all three heroines within the US – Scotto, Teresa Stratas, and Patricia Racette most just lately. Asmik Grigorian, after all, does it superbly!
Caitlin Oldham/Washington Live performance Opera
KN: Do you’ve gotten any dream roles inside and out of doors of your fach?
CW: I’ve a few these roles arising – I’ll do Liza in The Queen of Spades quickly, and Salome is a job I by no means thought I might do, however the extra I hear the extra I like it. I’m not doing the complete function till 2029, however I’ll do the ultimate scene in live performance subsequent season. I did Manon Lescaut earlier this season in live performance, and it was an ideal match for my persona and voice. I’d like to do a stage manufacturing of that, nevertheless it doesn’t come round that usually.
In fact, each soprano’s dream function is Tosca! I haven’t finished it but on goal, and to return to what we had been discussing earlier about how one is perceived in sure roles, I believe it might be a battle to get individuals to see me as a Tosca. Vocally, I don’t suppose Butterly is any lighter than Tosca other than the D-flat within the entrance, however after all everybody has such robust emotions about what Tosca ought to look and sound like. However after Manon Lescaut, I felt like I used to be prepared to begin fascinated by the function down the street.
I’ve additionally by no means finished any bel canto, and naturally there are individuals who focus on that repertoire and I don’t need to butcher it! That being mentioned, if I may ever have sufficient time to totally put together it, I’d like to do Anna Bolena. All via the pandemic I used to be singing via the function, simply as a vocalise, and it’s my dream bel canto function. I don’t know whether or not that can ever occur although!
And utterly exterior my fach, I’d like to do the massive Italian baritone roles – the stuff that Ludovic Tézier and Tito Gobbi do. Who wouldn’t need to carry out Iago or Scarpia?
