A Night at the Opera

The operatic world is coming to Andermatt with the most beautiful works of classical music. For her debut solo album Mirrors, the soprano Jeanine De Bique from Trinidad and Tobago won many prestigious awards for best solo vocal recording. The Egyptian mezzo-soprano Farrah El Dibany sang the “Marseillaise” at the official inauguration of Emmanuel Macron after his re-election as President of France. Valentin Thill is himself from France and well-known for his powerfully expressive voice and vital stage presence. And finally, the British baritone James Newby is considered a specialist not just in lieder but also on the operatic stage. All these singers will come together in Andermatt to bring the world of opera to the concert hall, accompanied by the Swiss Orchestra conducted by Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer.

What’s special about this line-up is not just that these singers come from different countries, but that they each also represent the specific, typical character of their vocal type. The soprano – the highest female voice, often radiant, brilliant and agile – provides us with emotional peaks. On the operatic stage, she is the prima donna, whether a heroine or a victim of love; she can embody a youthful, beautiful woman, or a powerful, even vengeful figure. She loves, suffers and dies dramatically. The mezzo-soprano, in contrast, has a warm, dark vocal timbre, and while tradition repeatedly demands that she confine herself to supporting roles, these can often be fascinating and multi-layered. She is a seductress, an antagonist, a mother figure – though sometimes she embodies a young male character instead, known as a “trouser role”.  The hero is inevitably a tenor – now radiant, now romantic, now tragic, but inevitably powerful, passionate and lyrical. He’s usually assigned the principal male character: emotional, impulsive and at times naive, he imbues his big arias with all the necessary pathos. The male voice with the medium range is the baritone: often warm, powerful and multi-faceted. His roles can variously be sympathetic or villainous. As the strong-willed counterpart to the tenor he might be a father-figure or an anti-hero, but he’s also often a cool character – sarcastic, charming, and sometimes dangerous. These, at least, are the operatic clichés. But you can find out what they’re really like in the broad variety of roles these singers will embody in the Andermatt Concert Hall.