Soprano Karita Mattila takes on challenging title role in Tosca

"Almost raped and forced to kill"

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By Vesa Sirén
     
      "So I'm almost raped, and have to kill a man! It makes a person think about how to express all that."
      These are the thoughts of Soprano Karita Mattila who performs the title role of Giacomo Puccini's opera Tosca for the first time on Friday.
      Also coming to the Finnish National Opera is Peter Gelb, general manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and for good reason.
      Mattila is also the star of the next Met production of Tosca in 2009.
     
No point in rushing to the box office of the National Opera, unless you feel lucky enough to get the equivalent of a lottery jackpot - a cancelled ticket; all seven performances of Tosca have been sold out.
      Mattila will also sing at two Lied concerts in October, both of which are also sold out. All in all, she will be seen by 12,150 fans at the National Opera this autumn.
      "After that, nothing has been agreed with the National Opera", Mattila says. "We will talk after the premiere. Generally we have come up with something."
     
The National Opera's production of Tosca was directed long ago by Siegwulf Turek. Additional rehearsals have been added to allow Mattila and the new chief conductor Mikko Franck to fine-tune their interpretation.
      Mattila said that she is jumping into a ready production with a flexible mind.
      "There is nothing wrong with the direction. I like the straightforward approach. Assistant director Anna Kelo is very precise, and she knows the roles and the languages, and then there is Juha (Juha Uusitalo) as Scarpia, and this wonderful Russian tenor (Vladimir Kuzmenko)."
      Mattila is happy to be at the Finnish National Opera.
      "Everyone is very friendly. I do not feel that I have changed, and with my old colleagues, I am picking up where I left off. And it is quite touching how the technology boys say as I pass by that it is nice that you're back here."
     
Things are different in new productions. At the Metropolitan, Mattila is in a position where she has approval over decisions, if she agrees to take part. The director of Tosca is now under consideration.
      "They will definitely listen to me - there and in many houses", she says.
      Metropolitan's other decisions on Tosca have already been made public. James Levine is to be the conductor, Marcelo Alvarez is in the tenor role of Cavaradossi, and Bryn Terfel is playing the lustful villain Scarpia.
      "It is one of the most satisfying aspects of my professional achievements to be able to influence productions and do them with the kinds of people who have the same goals. I am very proud of that, and happy to walk this long road."
      Mattila made her breakthrough 23 years ago when she won the Cardiff Singer of the World contest. She has been an international star for half of her life, not least at the Metropolitan.
      "They understand that an opera stands or falls with its singers. And they really take good care of them. The demands are also very tough, but it wouldn't be the Met if that were not the case!"
     
Mattila has sung her favourite aria from Tosca, the Vissi d'arte, since the 1980s, but she did not seriously consider taking on the role until a year and a half ago, when she cancelled her agreement to do Mikko Heiniö's The Hour of the Serpent. The main role in that piece will be sung in September by Päivi Nisula.
      "I have reserved these weeks for the National Opera. Then I asked Erkki (director-general Erkki Korhonen), that when you have this Tosca, then what if I were to have a bash at it?" she says, giving a hint of her native dialect.
      What was the problem with The Hour of the Serpent?
      "It didn't end up being my role. I have dealt with the matter, and now I am here in Tosca", she says briskly.
      "And now came this Metropolitan offer for Tosca, and everything clicked together. And here I am anyway."
      Mattila is happy that Tosca did not come into her life before now.
      "You can already see from the score that this is a heavy-duty vocal effort. It is full of phrases that are very difficult, where high notes are always hit through a very emotional load."
     
The role of Tosca requires control.
      "So you don't wear yourself out screeching! It is easy to go into howling, when the orchestra is playing loud."
      Mattila also read the original play by Victorien Sardou, which the libretto was based on.
      "The Tosca of the play is much tougher and more influential than the opera suggests."
      Puccini is not new to Mattila. She is one of the most celebrated singers to do the title role of Manon Lescaut, and is scheduled to perform it this autumn in San Francisco.
      "Manon is a lengthier role, but a more lyrical type. I had to do it before Tosca, which is so rough to sing."
     
In the core of the opera there really is an attempted rape, a torture scene, a homicide, an execution, and a suicide. Tosca has provoked many negative reactions.
      Even Puccini's libretto writers were annoyed when the composer wanted the events to move on, without the kind of meandering that is so typical to opera. As for the critics, Joseph Kernman famously described the compact opera as a shabby little shocker.
      "When you go onto the stage, you have to have 110 percent confidence in why you are on stage, and not worry about what others are thinking", Mattila says.
      "For me this is a classically rough story, with all of the elements of an action movie. To be honest, I have not had an action role like this before."
     
As incredible as it may seem, Mattila has never seen Tosca on stage.
      "On film, yes, but not on stage. When I accepted the role, I actually avoided it."
      She says that she has heard "almost every one" of the sound recordings of the opera.
      "There is something admirable in almost all of them.Birgit Nilsson is in a class of her own, with her heavy voice, and Leontyne Price, who had magnificent colour in her voice. I like to listen to singers who have Italian as their first language simply for the purpose of dealing with the text, even though I have a good coach."
      What about Maria Callas, who stopped doing entire opera performances at the age of just 41, specifically after doing Tosca?
      "She is everyone's classic, who has her own style of singing. Those with a different type of voice will listen to it out of curiosity", she comments.
      "Usually the best recordings come from those who have done the role on stage as well. Otherwise the truth and realism in the comprehensive nature of handling the role is always lacking."
     
Mattila does not count the number of hours she uses to rehearse for Tosca.
      "I am more interested in counting the hours I have for rest. It is not possible to sing Tosca every day. It is truly rough on the voice. I have never done a role before where I have to use chest tones so much, which I have to produce in such a rough manner."
      She would not want to perform Tosca very often.
      "Not every year, any more than I would want to do Salome by Richard Strauss. They are both very intense", she sighs.
      "When Scarpia says that I am torturing your lover in that room next door, the only thing that Tosca can do is to sing, hitting that high C! There has to be the charge in there to carry it off", she sighs.
      "The world is full of burned-out Toscas", she says.
      And Karita Mattila has no intention of being one of them tonight.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 25.8.2006


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finnish soprano Karita Mattila said to earn USD 15,000 a performance in New York (20.12.2004)
  Karita Mattila is most successful Finnish artist in sales of classical music (1.9.2004)
  New York Times offers glowing review of Karita Mattila in Salome (18.3.2004)
  Karita Mattila wins her second Grammy Award (10.2.2004)
  Karita Mattila: One very feisty, down-to-earth diva (9.12.2003)

VESA SIREN / Helsingin Sanomat
vesa.siren@hs.fi