A (Long) Chat with Danielle de Niese

Soprano Danielle de Niese, photo by Sven Arnstein

Opera lovers of today might know Danielle de Niese from her astounding output in the last decade: starting with her famous video of Giulio Cesare as well as her continued participation in the Glyndebourne Festival and for New York operaphiles, her recent performances of The Enchanted Island, Così fan tutte, and Nozze di Figaro. But de Niese actually made her Met debut in 1998 as Barbarina and has been singing ever since she was 8 years old! Unfortunately Danielle won't be able to sing in the may revival of The Merry Widow, but for the happiest reasons: she is expecting her first child! But Danielle was kind enough to take the time to talk with me about her very long, successful career. Thank you Danielle!

Here are some highlights:



Ivy: Let’s start with how you began singing. I saw that you competed in a Whitney Houston competition as a child! Whitney Houston is one of my idols. Which songs did you sing, and tell me a little more about that experience!

DDN:  I fell in love with singing when I was about 5 years of age; my mother had already been singing to me since I was born, and my parents were definitely surprised that I was able to sing with perfect intonation at the age of 1 and 2! Then at the age of 5, my parents took me to classes and I was hooked! I studied singing, piano, music theory, jazz dance, modern dance, ballet, tap dance and drama. It was like Fame!! And then I won a National Talent contest called Young Talent Time which was televised on TV. It was the Australian equivalent of America’s got Talent, and was the youngest winner in the history of the competition at 9 years of age. I sang a Whitney Houston medley of "The Greatest Love of All" and "I Wanna Dance with Somebody” and it was amazing to win a big competition and sing on National TV! and I look at the clips of it now and it still brings me to tears— I was so tiny! Like you, Whitney is one of my idols! Her voice was a voice for a the ages and her genuine joy for what she did was inspirational- it is very sad that the end of her life was marred by tragedy.

Ivy: I assume you always liked to sing. When did you decide, however, that you were going to pursue a full-time career as a classical singer?

DDN: Well during that same time that I won Young Talent Time (about 8 years old), I also took my first classical singing lessons after my mom finally found a teacher in Victoria, Australia (where I was born and lived until 10 years of age) who would accept to teach a little 8 year old! The minute I started those lessons and discovered I was able to produce that classically produced sound in my voice quite naturally, I fell totally in love and was “bitten by the bug” as they say. 

I chose to become an opera singer because of all the things I studied as a child (Piano, Ballet, Jazz Dance, Tap Dance, Music Theory, Drama, and Voice), classical music was the thing that made me feel most special and distinguished. While other kids wanted to be a doctor, vet, nurse, fireman, I decided at that age that I wanted to become an opera singer! I think I realized even at 8 years of age (when I took my first classical voice lessons) that being able to produce a classically trained sound in my voice was a gift and something I couldn’t ignore. I also really really LOVED it, and still do- it’s like a love affair that continues even today! 

Ivy: I saw that you actually made your Met debut in 1998, as Barbarina! Obviously you were very young back then. How was that experience for you?

DDN: I was 18 years old and a freshman at Mannes College of Music when the MET came to my performance of Le Nozze di Figaro at Mannes in which I san Susanna. I was asked to audition for Maestro Levine and the MET which, at 18, was a big big surprise! I was at school when my manager told me the MET had   given me the role of Barbarina in this new Jonathan Miller production of “Figaro” conducted by Maestro Levine which would star Cecilia Bartoli, Renee Fleming, Bryn Terfel, Dwyane Croft and Susan Mentzer. I really could not believe my ears! It was a dream cast and Barbarina was a very coveted role in this production. 

However, they said they were not sure that I was old enough for the program, whether I was mature enough and whether I can handle the rigorous demands made of a Met artist, which obviously at first seemed wild, because I had just been given a MET debut when I would be 19 years old! :)

But it was the right assessment to make- it would have been one thing for me to perform on stage but another thing to go into a rigorous program at 18 years of age with people twice my age. I was asked to do a coaching with John Fisher to ascertain if I had was as developed as a musician as I was a performer. Fortunately, because I had the piano and music theory training since 7, I passed Mr Fisher’s coaching with flying colors, and was then invited to join the Lindemann Young Artist’s Program, which was wonderful because of the excellent training I would receive whilst in the program! 

Ivy: I think it’s safe to say your “big break” came in the 2005 Glyndebourne production of Giulio Cesare. That performance made its way to DVD, and is considered one of the most excellent recordings of the opera. Do you ever go back and look at that performance and if so, how do you react? Are you proud of it, or do you think, “There are things I would never do today now”? 

Yes it is one of my all-time favorite experiences, and was a huge milestone of my career. This David McVicar production of  ”Julius Caesar” has become an instant classic. It changed the way people looked at opera, pushing singers to another level. People are so moved by the piece.

I can never get away from the iconic role of Cleopatra. It has such resonance with people, some of whom tell me that their kids watch “Julius Caesar” at home. Professors as well as students and even children have responded to it. I always say to people that for me it’s like Titanic was for Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. For those two actors to be part of that during that period of time that changed everything, that had such a massive success and a massive impact! And Giulio Cesare was like the Titanic of the opera world, you know? It just had a global impact, and people knew it from the moment we were rehearsing. You could feel that there was a gasp in the air; people would come to us and go, “oh my God I hear that Cesare will be really good!” People would come and watch our rehearsals. When we did the first run of the first choreographic number of Cleopatra, when as we finished it I was on the side hyperventilating, but everyone else was clapping and they were so excited! It was an opera that really changed the game. It really changed the way we use choreography, and I think people will look back in history and realize that it was one of the very first productions - one that really pushed it – that had not just choreography on the stage but actually the singers themselves participating in full of the choreography.

I don’t often have time to go back and look at the DVD, but recently I did a wonderful talk with the wonderful Fred Plotkin which was streamed online and they showed a clip of me as Cleopatra and.. I found myself tearing up with emotion. I am so so proud of this career achievement and the life-long friendships that have been forged and I never ever think that there are things I would never do- I would do them and would do the role for many years to come! I performed the role in that show four times, and amazingly, each time I started rehearsals (it’s a very aerobic role!), I thought “oh I must have some stamina reserves out of having been used to doing this before” and each time I didn’t; I had to start from the beginning again, to learn again how to regulate my heart. I always had to do cardio exercises on a treadmill while I was rehearsing, trying to sing some aria while running, because I had to get used to singing with a high heart rate! 

Ivy: You’ve worked so many times with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants. Could you tell me a little bit about the maestro and his methods? How does he draw such incredible work out of singers? 

DDN: Bill Christie is an inspiring mentor, a brilliant collaborator, a force to be reckoned with from the pit, and a dear friend.

Some of the best performances of my life---even my debut Decca recording-- have all taken place under his baton He has an unbeatable energy, a great love for the music and the drama, and an innate sense of timing and dramatic flair- it’s these qualities that brings out the best work from all the people he works with. 

Ivy: Also, you’ve since then sung Cleopatra in this revival. How do you keep each revival fresh and spontaneous? 

DDN: Well for me, the thing is that if you are really listening and reacting in real time, then every show will be fresh and spontaneous! Everything in a story has never happened until that moment you play it out on stage— So I never have to think about making a show fresh and spontaneous because they are never the same! :)

Ivy: You’ve had such an incredible career singing baroque opera. However, I know a lot of opera lovers that still say baroque opera is too specialized for them, almost like they’re intimidated of it! What would you like to say to the people who are intimidated by baroque, so to speak? Is there an opera you’d recommend as a starter for people who think “da capo” and run away?

DDN: Interestingly I know a lot of opera lovers who adore Baroque and won’t have anything else! So there’s probably equal amounts who love it and can’t relate to it. 

To those who can’t relate to it, or who feel that compared to more contemporary opera that the soundscape of baroque music is too sparse for their liking, I would say that Baroque music has provided the musical skeleton to every wonderful song we know and love today and the melodies don’t get catchier than those from the baroque period- in fact baroque arias are like pop songs and I wrote a piece that touched on this subject for the Huffington Post.

Ivy: I love your video of L’Incoronazione di Poppea with Phillip Jaroussky. But I’d like to ask you about Poppea. The music for her is so beautiful, so seductive, but the character is actually really manipulative and a villainess! How do you balance those two sides of that character?

Two “bad" people make one good couple!  But seriously though, in actuality I don’t feel that Poppea is “bad" and that is, for me, what makes her so fascinating. “Bad” people live amongst us and they probably don’t think of themselves as bad. They still live rich lives, they fall in love, they align with people who share their interests and they have lots of “good” people stuff like birthdays, children, holidays etc.. For me, Poppea is someone who acts out of the best interests of those she loves. She loves Nero so she will do whatever it takes to protect his interests, be that ruthless (like with Seneca), or ego-boosting (like with Nero). Their final duet moves continually from dissonance to suspension and resolution. For me, it’s rather perfect that the duet ends with a unison because these two people are so synched in their intentions and desires that they basically turn into one. 

Ivy: You sang in the Met’s new production of Nozze di Figaro. It’s really different from the old Jonathan Miller production. One of the things I noticed in the Eyre production was that the relationship between Susanna and the Countess was directed to be more formal and employer/employee. What do you think about this? Are Susanna and the Countess friends? 

DDN: This production is quite different from the Miller production because of the period change. In this time period, ladies maids were a great deal more educated and some even spoke more than one language. Though there was definitely a class distinction on the outside in formal situations, and though the dress code between them is a great deal more stark than in the original period of the piece, in an intimate setting in this time period, these two ladies could have had more to talk about than the Susanna and Countess of the original time period and might have been closer. So I think in this show they conduct a relationship that one can call “friendship” in terms of the Countess taking Susanna into her confidence, though in a formal household of the 1920’s there would have been a very distinct line drawn between the relationship in public and the friendship behind closed doors.

Ivy: We saw you around the world in an HD of Cosi fan tutte. Despina can be played a variety of ways — I’ve always seen her as kind of mean, to be honest! A little shit-stirrer. Do you see her the same way?

DDN: I see Despina as a girl who would rule the world if only she was born into a different class. I think she’s happy to wake these innocent girls up to the realities of life and she’s so hell-bent on proving her point that she too falls for the guys and can’t see the wool being pulled over her eyes!

Ivy: And do you think there’s anything going on between her and Don Alfonso? Their’s enough ambiguity in the da Ponte libretto to suggest there might be an interest there.

DDN: In my opinion, there has definitely most definitely been something between her and Don Alfonso in the past. There is far too much innuendo in their dialogue for something not to have happened! :)

Ivy: Also, in Cosi fan tutte you’re working with Maestro Levine, who one could say has a very Romantic approach to Mozart. Very little appogiaturas, ornamentations, or cadenzas are allowed. Is it a big adjustment working with Levine after working with Les Arts Florissants? Do you have to adjust your voice, your ornamentations, even the tuning? 

DDN: Not a big adjustment at all, I just didn’t do the cadenzas I did on my Mozart album (even though it was, they say, written by Mozart), my appoggiaturas remained the same. Maestro Levine has such a sense of dramatic timing and such a deep understanding of character that he doesn’t need any extras, he infuses the opera with so much inner life it’s been such a pleasure to work with him, as always.

Ivy: You’re well known for your portrayals of Despina and Susanna. I’m surprised you haven’t sung Zerlina. Or have you? Is that in the future? 

DDN: I really should do Zerlina— ok I will do it! I did do it once for a role and house debut (with two hours rehearsal) at the 2003 Prague Spring Festival when I was 23. IT was great fun!

Ivy: Can you tell us about future roles you’re that you’re studying? What can we look forward to in the future from you? 

DDN: I am currently working on two one act Operas by Ravel (Conception in L’Heure Espagnol and L’Enfant in L’Enfant et les Sortileges) for the Ravel Double Bill this summer at Glyndebourne Festival. I will then create the role of Superstar American Diva Roxanne Coss in the world premiere of Bel Canto be composer Jimmy Lopez at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The opera will be conducted by Sir Andrew Davis and directed by Kevin Newbury and I’m so honored and excited to be creating this role. I’ve also got a new production of Agrippina with Robert Carsen and a new production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Alessandro Corbelli in 2016 (can’t say where yet!). So lots of new roles and new collaborations for me this year! :)

Ivy: One last thing. Boy or girl? (Or surprise?)

DDN: It’s a surprise!! Longest wait of my life! :)