Monica Zanettin is a very good soprano from Treviso who in the last decade has been able to carve out a prominent space in the national and international opera scene. A few days ago she returned from Tenerife where in the stupendous local Auditorium she played the part of Amelia in the staging of A masked ball co-produced with the Teatro Regio of Parma.
Hello Monica, we find ourselves chatting with pleasure several years after that little interview we did with you on the occasion of the final of the Verdian Voices Competition in Busseto in 2012. Since then you have come a long way and have reaped important successes in many prestigious theatres. Among other things, we realized that on the occasion of the contest just mentioned, you had already made your debut in important roles and OperaClick had reviewed you, moreover always with flattering tones, on more than one occasion. This means that you really started singing at a very young age. How about telling us a little about yourself starting from the beginning? What brought you into singing?
Good morning Danilo and good morning to OperaClick readers. Thank you for the attention you have given me over the years.
As a child I wanted to become a painter, while my sister an opera singer: it seems absurd but the opposite happened. For fun we both sang with background music and the first role I “learned” so to speak was the Count of Almaviva (Monica smiles) in The Barber of Seville, as my sister played Rosina. The neighborhood must have suffered a lot and even today when I sing Tosca’s cantata from behind the stage and it happens that Scarpia goes to the window of the apartments with Cavaradossi and says “his voice…” I immediately relive those condominium memories, when the neighbors ran to the window to close the double glazing to not hear.
It is not very usual for two little girls to play at home singing the Barber of Seville. Why this peculiarity?
At my house there was a lot of music to listen to and there were many artistic and original personalities. We weren’t bored.
Do you remember your beginnings? In which roles did you take your first steps?
I’ve done a lot of apprenticeship in amateur contexts with hundreds of performances from Vivaldi to Mozart, Verdi and something by Puccini. All while working.
Could you explain better what you mean by “always working”?
I have carried out other professions: from the librarian to the archivist, the press officer, the art gallery collaborator with which I financed myself when singing alone would not have allowed me economic independence. It was a daring and painful phase, but very instructive.
Among the first roles tackled there is also Violetta. Considering the complexity of the role, one would think that you acquired the necessary technical security rather early; Was this by virtue of your particular predisposition, or were you lucky in finding the right teachers who helped you complete what nature had given you?
Violetta is a monumental role and I performed it with a natural voice at the time, but most of all I put myself into it. It was a very relevant experience, which made me understand what a performance means as well as vocal above all mental. Without Violetta I would not have been able to tackle other operatic portraits such as Butterfly or Aida itself. The technical study, then, was carried out with many masters from whom I certainly learned, but none was as important and decisive as Maria Cristina Orsolato.
How do you choose the roles to include in your repertoire?
As I think Mirella Freni said, it is necessary to pursue the voice; therefore, I choose them based on how well I can render them with vocality. I haven’t always accepted the proposed roles, because I preferred to support an instrument whose maturation I respected and respected.
What is the method you use to prepare new roles?
Preparing for a role is a very articulated and demanding process from a technical, musical and interpretative point of view. I immerse myself in as much music as possible composed by the author I’m preparing, because I find even just listening important. Through intuition (I don’t know how else it happens) one can perceive a quid such as the typical color and the idea of sound that an author had and consequently put oneself at the service of his very personal world of sound.
What does opera represent for you?
I wouldn’t call myself a melomaniac or a student of the history of opera. I’m just a singer who holds on to a sense of wonder at the voice. Personally I find it limiting to define it as an instrument; I like to think of it as something more, allow me to dare to call it a person, as the voice is the bearer of word and spirit which by definition pertain to the being and not to the instruments. Undoubtedly the voice has a “material” face with extension, lift, color and characteristics that are constantly discussed, but I think that society is excessively taken by the cult of technique (in the broadest sense) and that the voice – while supported by solidity technique – should become today all the more a vehicle of spirituality.
Are you satisfied with this last experience in Tenerife? Were you debuting in the role of Amelia?
I made my debut in Amelia in 2015 at the Teatro La Monnaie in Brussels and I have taken it up again in other productions in Italy and abroad. Tenerife was a positive experience with a wonderful company and an intense philological work carried out on the scenic and musical level.
In recent months you have successfully interpreted the role of Butterfly at the Fenice. Was it a commitment with a somewhat particular flavor for you who were born in Treviso and studied in Venice?
The debut in Butterfly was supposed to take place in 2017, but I had lost my father a few days ago and it wasn’t the time. This is the life. Butterfly will always be tied to him, willy-nilly. It was a great success, the wait was worth it and the emotions overlapped quite whirlingly in those moments on stage.
Do you have a role that you currently see as an ideal starting point for your career? A sort of dream in the drawer…
I would like to sing Elisabetta from Don Carlo, a work that I admire very much.
Do you have any sopranos from the past who particularly inspire you?
I love Claudia Muzio very much, of which I own the entire personal archive. Her sense of the ineffable, the use of her theatrical voice and the almost paroxysmal tension of her chiaroscuro, have enabled her to achieve incredible results with an imaginative and abstract song.
What is your relationship with directing?
It’s one of the aspects I love most about my job. I like all those directions that have a clear interpretative mediation that doesn’t need to be explained by providing instruction manuals. However, it must be said that, as happens with contemporary art, in the case of modern directions, the public is required to make a greater interpretative and cultural effort to understand them.
It has already been sixteen years since we first heard and reviewed you; you’ve done important things always getting positive feedback, however giving almost the impression of doing nothing to appear from the media point of view. Do you feel like sharing our impression?
Yes, it’s true. Let’s say that I like to go a little against the tide…
How do you live this profession of yours which, we know, requires many sacrifices especially for the time it takes you away from home?
Basically I like to be on my own and the time I spend away from everything and everyone doesn’t bother me. At the same time I am very lucky that my closest loved ones can come and visit me.
When you have free time how do you like to spend it?
I like writing and drawing, especially charcoal or mixed media graphics, travel and not just work travel.
Could you describe your typical day?
Typical day? Studying occurs, but I’m a spontaneous, distracted person with my head in the clouds and I don’t like programming.
Thanks for the chat and good luck in your future endeavours.
Thank you and greetings to all OperaClick readers.
Daniel Boaretto
Monica Zanettin: “I think that the voice, today more than ever, must be a vehicle of spirituality”