Can you tell us about your role at Opera Holland Park?
As Young Artist Conductor, I study Jonathan Dove’s score months in advance, analysing and learning each and every detail of the music. I then delve into and consider various artistic possibilities that will shape the sound through gesture and movement. After this thorough preparation I am ready to rehearse the Young Artist singers, working together with the répétiteur and director for several weeks, before conducting the orchestra and stage. I am delighted to be taking on this role at Opera Holland Park.
What do you hope to learn or gain from the Opera Holland Park Young Artists scheme?
I am keen to collaborate with my fellow young artists. I hope that together we will explore and test the extremes of our abilities in the operatic art form, and that I can find exciting new ways of expressing myself. After assisting on many operas at the Opéra de Paris I’m now looking forward to using my experience there in my own performance as Young Artist Conductor.
Do you find that you need to adapt your approach when working on a contemporary opera with a living composer, compared to working on a more traditional repertoire?
I keep my approach and preparation the same for contemporary scores and “traditional” repertoire. For me, music is music, and a Dove work should be treated with as much diligence as, for example, a Mozart opera. I feel comfortable in the contemporary genre because I’ve worked with a lot with living composers when conducting their pieces. I also like to compose and arrange which extends my understanding: a conductor needs to bring their own vision of the piece, and only then have they earned the right to discuss it and ask questions.
Itch is a character who regularly finds himself in trouble, including burning off his own eyebrows. Can you share a time when something went wrong onstage (or off!) during a production that you’ve been a part of?
I can tell you of a time when despite many things going wrong the concert turned out great. Here’s one: I had commissioned a ballet for solo dancer to accompany an opera singer in Richard Strauss’ Vier Letzte Lieder. Despite continual questioning, I was never shown the ballet, and so I had to resort to a Cunningham/Cage experimental approach of trusting that my fellow artist would produce the piece. On the day of the performance he arrived with 100 cardboard boxes of various sizes, with which he created an amazing story to complement the songs. It was very impressive and well worth the worry!
What’s something about being a conductor that most people don’t realise?
As a female conductor at the beginning of their career, I am challenged because a conductor must juggle many skills at once. We must be analytical and thorough, sensitive and creative, and be able to manage and communicate. But, in my opinion, a conductor must ultimately be completely at one with him or herself. This self-understanding can then give life to other skills, so that a conductor can be a conduit through which music can flow. And the most challenging thing of all is picking out the right outfit!
What’s the most rewarding part of your role as a conductor?
The music, the moment, the magic.
What’s one piece of advice, musical or otherwise, that has stayed with you?
Never lose your unique sensibility, and always keep sight of the logic.
Itch will run from 3 – 13 June.
Interview by Holly Bancroft.
