‘The dialogue you have with the design team, the conductor, the music staff, the production team, the stage team and of course ultimately the cast – all of them – is the basis to the success of the performance you create.’
Natascha Metherell joins Opera Holland Park for the first time to direct La bohème. In this interview, she tells us about the joy of collaboration, her rehearsal room process and what she is looking forward to about this production.
Can you introduce us to your role at OHP this season?
I am the director for this season’s production of La bohème.
Your degree was in Neurosciences; how did you make such a huge shift and have you brought anything with you to the rehearsal room from your scientific studies?
As a kid growing up my main passion was for ballet but an injury to my foot early on meant that a career in dance was not something I would be able to pursue. I met an Italian professor of Neurosciences and the way he talked about his subject fascinated me because the study of the brain is a combination between science and humanity.
One of the main aspects of my degree was to study the connection between the brain and our behaviour, emotion, perception, thought and motivation. I think that has stayed with me in my career as a director. Our body language as humans is something that can be understood instinctively by other humans outside the realm of spoken language. I work a great deal with gesture and physicality as extensions of the text or libretto and I think that interest partly comes from my background in dance but also from my studies at university.
What are the biggest challenges of being a director?
These days, money and time! But every project brings different challenges. Certainly being able to have a focus on the minutia and the big picture is an important thing to balance as a director. Also, flexibility: knowing your concept but still being able to be flexible when better ideas present themselves along the way. You have to see the process as a living organism and allow it to arrive at the final product, not be so fixed on the final product that you don’t let the journey there unfold naturally through the rehearsal process.
What do you enjoy about working on opera, in comparison to other art forms?
Everything is amplified in opera. It is a play with the most amazing and complex underscore, situations and emotions that are heightened. I think opera gives so much creative freedom to the storytelling. It invites the creation of performances that are visually, emotionally and aurally spectacular.
Can you describe a director’s working relationship to the conductor and to the design team?
I think this varies from show to show and person to person. I like to be hugely collaborative with the whole team. The dialogue you have with the design team, the conductor, the music staff, the production team, the stage team and of course ultimately the cast – all of them – is the basis to the success of the performance you create. Since moving to Scandinavia nearly a decade ago, I have designed a lot of my own shows, so now when I get to work with a designer I relish the dialogue as it pushes my ideas in a way that being alone in the process can’t.
I like to work hand in hand with a conductor from the first day in a rehearsal room, so I always try to involve a conductor in conversations during the design process. Again, their input often brings new ways of approaching the piece that are so important during the design phase. The traditional boundaries between conductor and director in the rehearsal process are fast being softened and that better suits my way of working.
What are you looking forward to about working on La bohème?
Everything! It is such a great story to tell and I always get so much pleasure from directing La bohème. It continues to surprise me as a piece. I find new things every time I hear it sung by different singers and interpreted by a different orchestra, so it always delights. Also, as I find myself in different phases of my own life, I relate to particular elements of the story very differently.
I am also really looking forward to working with the chorus in our concept – I don’t want to give too much of a spoiler but in this version, the chorus will be fundamental in creating the world in which our bohemians are living, so they will appear from the very start of the opera. The OHP chorus has a fantastic reputation of being vibrant and versatile actors as well as sounding fabulous, so I can’t wait.
How do you tackle working on such a well-known piece like La bohème?
My principal focus is always on how to tell the story, how to engage with the characters and how to keep their story genuine. For me, La bohème is like a brilliantly crafted film. For audiences who have seen the piece many times, they know Mimì will die and they know Puccini will give them a big lump in the throat moment at the end: that very knowledge makes the journey there all the more delicious because you are anticipating the emotional payoff all the way through. It is like watching your favourite film over and over, it often just gets better. For a new audience who have never seen or heard Bohème, focusing on the storytelling and the characters will ensure that they are fully invested when that emotional punch comes in the final page of music.
Is the opera primarily about love or about friendship?
I think the two are impossibly linked – in fact I think La bohème is a love letter to friendship above anything else.
What is one piece of advice, musical or otherwise, that has stayed with you?
The late Alexander Verdernikov once told me “You can never be half pregnant!”. Be bold, don’t compromise to please others, or because you are unsure what others will read into your work. You will never please everyone and you cannot sit on the shoulder of every audience member and whisper a running commentary of what your intention is. So be true to what you want to create on stage and go for it 100% – the reaction will often surprise you!
Interview by Lucy Hicks Beach
