Credit score: Curtis Brown
Jacquelyn Stucker defies pigeonholing. After a doctorate on the New England Conservatory, she was a member of the Jette Parker Younger Artist Programme on the Royal Opera Home the place her roles included Handel’s Alessandro, Henze’s Aphrodite, and a very memorable Frasquita in Barrie Kosky’s new manufacturing of Carmen alongside Aigul Akhmetshina’s Mercédès. Following a pandemic-truncated season in Fest on the Deutsche Oper Berlin, she’s had main successes as Poppea and Rameau’s Dalila at Aix-en-Provence, Lucia di Nobile in Thomas Adès’s Exterminating Angel in Paris, Zabelle in George Benjamin’s Image a Day Like This in London, and Two in Philip Venables’s We Are the Fortunate Ones in Amsterdam. She just lately made her Met debut because the Countess and returns subsequent season because the Bride in Saariaho’s Innocence, and is at the moment in Santa Fe singing the Governess in The Flip of the Screw together with a last-minute jump-in because the Countess on opening evening of Laurent Pelly’s Figaro.
Kevin Ng: You’re identified for the breadth of your repertoire, singing all the things from Monteverdi to Adès.
Jacquelyn Stucker: I feel there’s a protracted custom of wonderful artists engaged on the fringes of the repertoire – singers like Daybreak Upshaw, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Richard Croft. It’s what my voice likes to do, however I ponder how a lot of that was influenced by this custom of a lyric voice with a functionality and willingness to tackle troublesome music. I didn’t begin in up to date music — I began largely with live performance repertoire by Handel and Bach, and I discovered my method into up to date music within the Jette Parker Younger Artist program on the Royal Opera Home. I feel there are similarities between baroque and up to date music, when it comes to their remedy of dissonance, use of concord and kind, and I feel that’s what my mind likes.
KN: How do you describe your Fach, and the way does that inform the roles you tackle?
JS: I used to be briefly in Fest on the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and there was in the future the place I used to be singing a efficiency of Gretel and rehearsing for Tytania in A Midsummer Evening’s Dream. These aren’t essentially two roles I might put in the identical Fach, so I feel the definition of it’s fairly free typically. That’s an inefficient preamble to what I’m about to say, which is that I feel my Fach is simply lyric soprano. I don’t sing too excessive or too low, and my voice isn’t too heavy or mild. I might sing Musetta and Juliette, however I feel a whole lot of what I do additionally feels directed by what I take pleasure in singing.
Evan Zimmerman/Metopera
KN: Do you ever need to battle for roles that others could understand as being outdoors your Fach, both in customary or up to date repertoire?
JS: The one factor I don’t actually sing is Romantic music, particularly the core lyric French or Italian repertoire. A lot of that has to do with fashion; as an example, Amina Edris is an efficient buddy of mine who sings a whole lot of Massenet, and to do what she does I feel you actually have to talk French and spend time investing in that fashion. Immersing your self in that type of fashion is a full-time job, and I’m somebody who likes to have a whole lot of part-time jobs.
For Exterminating Angel, I don’t suppose I used to be the best voice kind for Lucia di Nobile particularly given how dense the orchestration was. However as a result of the function was so excessive and had some key moments of agility it match my voice, and Tom Adès performed in such a method that made the stability work. With up to date and baroque music, the enjoyable of it’s discovering methods to spotlight your strengths and minimizing your weaknesses. So, I’m not preventing to sing issues like Musetta as a result of proper now there are different issues I’m interested by doing. Which may change — definitely if there’s a manufacturing of Bohème that actually explores the intersection between capitalism and public well being with a younger forged, I’d be very interested by singing that Mimì. There are some characters that I’ve at all times wished to do however that at all times elude me – Blanche in Carmelites, Alcina, Thérèse/Tirésias. I feel I simply wish to get my enamel into these characters so badly that the universe senses my desperation, however I’ll stay affected person and hopeful.
KN: You simply made your Met debut because the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro.
JS: It is a function that everybody instructed me that I’d sing once I was a younger artist, however I undoubtedly had some concern that my voice wouldn’t be large enough for the function on the Met. So I needed to discover my method, and a giant a part of that, past a whole lot of practising and making certain that I arrived singing the function as effectively as doable, was the dramatic facet of the character. It’s simple to consider the Countess as a tragic sack, however she is simply as flawed as the remainder of the principal quartet, and the dramaturgical wrestle for her is watching her come to phrases with that over the course of 4 hours of music in heroic keys like C and E-flat Main. Working with Adam Plachetka because the Depend was nice, as a result of we each actually benefited from what the opposite dropped at the desk when it comes to characterization, and Rosa Feola, now buddy, and I had been capable of stroll that line between mischievous girlfriends and “ride-or-die” confidantes as the 2 characters.
The Countess may not be the Mozart function that looks like the obvious function for me dramatically — for that I might say Donna Anna at interval pitch, Elettra in a smaller home, Pamina actually wherever — but it surely’s changing into a job in my common rotation, which is thrilling. Engaged on the function actually pressured me to develop vocally and dramatically, and so I’m additionally cognizant of preventing for alternatives that may permit me to develop.
What I liked about Richard Eyre’s manufacturing is in how a lot room there may be for various characterizations. It’s a manufacturing that is smart of the piece with out decreasing the characters to archetypes, which is the place I really feel that many productions don’t fairly meet the mark. It actually handled the darkness of the work in a method that confirmed each the noble and ignoble sides of every character, all inside the context of a interval manufacturing. I’m an enormous fan of The Sopranos, so forgive me for these metaphors: my Countess, residing her Carmela Soprano delusions, works on this interval manufacturing, as would a Dr. Melfi-esque characterization the place the character’s robust sense of ethics is on the core of the interpretation.
KN: Only a few years in the past, you had been masking Susanna at Covent Backyard. Your Susanna on the Met, Rosa Feola, is doing her first Countess later this yr. Does this replicate an evolution of your Fach, or altering tastes in casting?
JS: That’s a extremely good query and one I take into consideration lots, as a result of I feel there’s this bizarre concept of there being a hierarchy of roles to graduate into. I might nonetheless like to sing Susanna — I might have a lot enjoyable singing that function! Having labored on each roles, I feel they’re difficult in several methods. With Susanna it’s extra of a stamina sport, whereas with Countess it’s scary, uncovered singing in the entire passaggi.
With Rosa and I there wasn’t actually a large vocal weight distinction, and this allowed us to make particular selections with vocal coloration and timbre. Dramatically, you may learn into that what you want: possibly they’re nearer in age, possibly they are surely mates, who is aware of? And with this opera specifically I typically discover it problematic how we conflate vocal attributes with class, age, and even gender. When Rosa instructed me she was singing the Countess subsequent season I used to be so excited, and I feel her expertise singing so many Susannas goes to be a boon for that manufacturing. However I feel we, as an trade, most likely want to consider purposefully dismantling these preconceived notions of vocal and even bodily measurement for these roles so as to supply a variety of interpretations to the bigger cultural discourse.
Evan Zimmerman/Metopera
KN: Discuss to me just a little about your forays into German repertoire. You’ve accomplished Rosalinde in Fledermaus, Pamina, and Gretel. All of these roles have been carried out by everybody from mild coloraturas to younger dramatics.
JS: It’s such a disgrace that the international language I do know greatest can be affiliated with the repertoire that I’m not likely considered for. I’ve formally retired Rosalinde – the principle factor with that function, extra so than vocal weight, is whether or not you may get by means of Act I with out panicking the entire time. It’s so excessive and due to this fact fits extra dramatic voices that are snug in excessive tessituras for sustained intervals of time! However, by some means Rosalinde is definitely the function I’ve accomplished probably the most variety of instances so far, though Countess will quickly usurp that title, but it surely’s additionally so sophisticated given the entire custom related to that fashion. I actually liked singing Gretel, as a result of it’s a job that actually fits my voice and I’ve sufficient vocal weight to drag it off with the work’s very dense orchestration. I did Henze’s Phaedra and I liked that function, but it surely was written for Marlis Petersen and I needed to discover my method into it with my voice.
I’d like to do extra Strauss — I feel I have to develop extra technically for roles like Arabella, however I’d like to do Komponist and Octavian. I’m not a Zwischenfach, however I like these characters lots and they’re good for a lot of lyric sopranos. If somebody would let me sing Salome simply as soon as, in a small home utilizing the discount that Strauss made, I feel I might supply a extremely compelling portrayal of the character – however, solely as soon as in my profession in that very particular surroundings. However I by no means wish to push my voice larger than it needs to go and I really feel like if I had been to do one thing like that, it will be a really complicated selection for each myself and for different folks.
I’m 35 now. Although folks nonetheless discuss with me as an rising artist I really feel like I’ve considerably emerged. However I really feel at this stage a whole lot of strain to do repertoire that is smart. I feel Elsa Dreisig is a extremely good instance of somebody who’s experimental together with her repertoire in a method that also respects the integrity of her instrument. She sings Countess and Donna Elvira and all this lyric repertoire that’s simply good in her voice, after which does issues like Salome and the Donizetti Three Queens in very particular settings. I might like to do extra of that, however the tradeoff is that in the event you’re going to purposefully step out of your Fach and the messaging round that needs to be precisely proper, and also you additionally find yourself churning by means of repertoire with the understanding that you could be spend months or years studying a bit solely to by no means carry out it once more.
KN: I’m curious as to the way you method up to date opera, notably when a job isn’t written for you. Final season you sang George Benjamin’s Image a Day Like This in a job written for Anna Prohaska, and Thomas Adès‘s Exterminating Angel in a job written for Amanda Echalaz. Their voices couldn’t be any extra totally different from each other.
JS: I feel each composer is totally different, and I do know which of them I can ask for choices. What’s the precedence right here, and what do you want from me musically? Some composers are completely up for that dialog and others need it precisely the way in which they wrote it, and I respect each factors of view. For the latter, I nonetheless wish to ask the composer why they wrote one thing in a sure method. Generally there’s a dramatic answer to creating one thing work — typically I would like to change the staging to make one thing work vocally, and typically simply having that perception permits me to intellectualize an answer to an issue by myself. Asking for alterations is a final resort; I at all times really feel embarrassed once I really feel I’ve to try this. Most composers, although, have already written in ossias for notably tough moments, but it surely’s my aim to at all times carry out what the composer initially wished.
I strive to not take heed to different recordings as a result of my voice isn’t going to operate the identical method as the unique performer. Saariaho’s Innocence is an efficient instance the place my voice will match very nicely with what Lilian Farahani did; will probably be totally different as a result of I’m totally different, however that’s the nice factor with up to date music. You’ve gotten as many various interpretations as doable. With Exterminating Angel, I used to be capable of do issues that I didn’t know I used to be capable of do. It was extraordinarily technically and vocally demanding, however at all times within the service of the drama. George Benjamin’s music is organized differently, and I don’t discover that I’m residing in my vocal extremes as a lot however I’m having to consider the musical construction much more. It is dependent upon the work, it is dependent upon the composer, however that’s the enjoyable of it.
KN: What are your dream roles, out and in of your Fach?
JS: Like I mentioned, I’d like to do Salome. It’s undoubtedly outdoors of my Fach and no person ought to let me do it, however I really like that piece and, particularly, that character. There are phrases that I take advantage of from that work to follow approaching register shifts and excessive notes, and from that facet it’s been very helpful. Donna Anna is one other one; I misplaced my father a number of years in the past, and I’ve but to see a Donna Anna that’s hysterical sufficient over her useless father’s physique. There must be much more yelling, and he or she must be completely able to throw herself on her father’s funeral pyre. It will undoubtedly need to be at interval pitch, however she’s a personality for which I might supply a really sympathetic characterization. It’s the identical with Salome – I simply noticed it on the Met, and I liked how the manufacturing highlighted that she’s only a particular person processing some trauma they don’t perceive. I actually like that nuance, so I ponder what it will be wish to discover that myself. There are roles like Salome which I shouldn’t need however I actually need, after which there are roles like Donna Anna which might be doable.
I feel Mimì can be a kind of characters. It’s a job that may check me dramatically; like, how do you course of being that poor and being in a poisonous relationship like that? Let’s face it, Rodolfo is an extremely well-intentioned manchild. I feel that may be a extremely fascinating step out of my Fach and it’s possible that no person would naturally consider me as a Mimì, however I feel I might be a extremely devastating one. That was the principle suggestions I obtained from the Countess: that I provided a unique tackle the character, and for me that’s crucial factor. However, actually, if I’m going to justify my presence on any stage, I wish to provide you with one thing new. Singing it based on some current preconceptions doesn’t earn my place up there in entrance of the pit. In any other case, why are folks paying $400 a seat?
