OPERA NEWS, March 16, 1996

Turkish Diva

Leyla Gencer discusses her career with Brian Kellow

OPERA NEWS: Did you have good experiences singing in competitions when you were young?
Leyla Gencer: I never won. Never.

I was in the conservatory in Istanbul, and I worked on my technique very hard. But I had my problems. Then I met Giannina Arangi-Lombardi, who came to Istanbul from Ankara to stay in a villa. For vacation. She agreed to hear me audition, and when she asked me what I wanted to sing, I said Aida. I didn't know Arangi-Lombardi was the most famous Aida in Europe. She decided to work with me, but she complained that she got bored sitting around her villa, so she came to my villa on the Bosporus for two weeks. Every day from ten till one, we studied Trovatore, Aida, Ballo. And in the afternoon, after siesta, three more hours of study. And then she said, you come with me and audition in the state opera house in Ankara, where she trained young opera singers. I was engaged and continued to study with her. And after one year, malheureusement, she died.

I continued my studies with Apollo Granforte, who employed the same technique as Mme. Arangi-Lombardi had. It fit with my natural way of singing: with diaphragm, in maschera.

ON: You made your Italian debut in Naples, in 1953--54.

LG: Yes. I was in Naples and sang an audition at the open-air theater, the Arena Flegrea. I sang "È strano" and "Pace, mio Dio," and the management said to me, "Now we have in the opera theater Cavalleria Rusticana. You want to sing it?" I said, "I know the opera, but not in Italian. I know only the aria 'Voi lo sapete.'" And they said to me, "After five days, we give another Cavalleria. If you want to sing, you sing." So I studied and sang Santuzza, before an audience of 10,000. Then they understood that I was able not only to sing, but I could act, too, and they liked this very much.

Then in early 1954 I was engaged for Madama Butterfly and Eugene Onegin (in Italian) both at the San Carlo. Tullio Serafin asked for me. And this Onegin was the first one they'd done in fifty years. This was the beginning of my career -- without a competition!

ON: You worked with so many of the best maestros -- Serafin, De Sabata, Gavazzeni, Vittorio Gui.... Which one taught you the most?

LG: Serafin. He was the first to put me on the path toward bel canto. I studied with him Norma, Aida, I Due Foscari -- many roles over many years.

ON: When you were alternating between bel canto and the heavier Verdi roles, was it difficult at first to make that adjustment?

LG: No. I am un caso particolare -- a special case. It was no problem for me to sing Verdi, even early Verdi -- which is very difficult -- along with Donizetti and Bellini. Technically, early Verdi is very difficult, because the style of Rossini had made an impression on Verdi that was still with him when he wrote his early operas. But I just passed from one to the other.

I remember in San Francisco Lucia di Lammermoor. I learned the opera in five days. All the parts. Kurt Herbert Adler was intendant in San Francisco, and when he proposed me for Lucia, I was already there singing Traviata. I was still at the beginning of my career, and they had asked me for my repertory list. So, before going to San Francisco, I had written down all these roles that I didn't really know. I gave them a long list, and I knew it was a lie. Then, when Callas didn't show up for Lucia rehearsals in San Francisco, Adler looked at my list and saw Lucia, and suddenly, I had a grande problema. He came to me and said, "You sing for me Lucia." And I said, "But Mr. Adler, I don't know this opera." And he said, "You don't know it? È scritto!"

I never liked the standard exercises, vocalises. They annoyed me. For exercise, I would do the cadenza from the last act of Lucia, and "È strano..." It was the only part of the opera that I knew. I had only one week. When you are young, you are fearless. This was my first Donizetti role. And ever after, whenever different theaters would ask me to sing Donizetti, they would say that I was one of the first singers to create real interest in the Donizetti renaissance. I was considered a very successful Anna Bolena. My version is very different from Callas'. I never copied anyone. It was my interpretation. The example was Callas, but this was not good for me.

ON: How were relations with Callas when you were both at La Scala?

LG: I was the young soprano who came into the company, and she was already there. But we never had any difficulties.

ON: I love your recording of "Martern aller arten" from Mozart's Entführung. It's an amazing flesh-and-blood performance.

LG: Yes? You love? The big Mozartean critical establishment in Austria and Germany ... they didn't like my style. I thought, at this time, that Mozart must be interpreted in the Italian style, because Mozart loved the Italian style, and he composed for Italian singers. And the Austrian, German and English singers, teachers and critics thought that this was not exact, was not Mozart's style. I was, after all, a soprano drammatica d'agilità. It was rare at this time to find a singer like me to sing this repertory. In Mozart, the recitative is so important, and the Anglo­p;Saxon interpretation of recitative was very fast. But I have my personal idea of Mozart, and like a good Turkish girl, if I have one idea, I don't change. At first it was difficult to persuade these people to accept me. Now they say I was right.

ON: Were there offers from the Met over the years?

LG: Yes, but we never got together with the right role at the right time. The first offer was for Tosca, in 1956, but the discussions never got very far.

ON: Dialogues des Carmélites was so different from anything Poulenc had written before. Were you nervous about the way the La Scala premiere would be received?

LG: No. When La Scala first proposed me for it, I didn't want to sing it. I was appearing in San Francisco when the telegram came offering me the role of Mme. Lidoine. I showed it to Kurt Herbert Adler, and he gave me good advice. He told me I must, because Mme. Lidoine was an important role, and it would be an important work. So I began to study, and I grew to like the role very much. Wonderful role. I had my first applause with Lidoine's entrance ["Mes chères filles"]. When I finished, with a pianissimo, I got my first applause at La Scala. And they never applaud during Carmélites. [Historical aside: Opera magazine reported in 1957 that the opera was "a considerable disappointment" and thought it "doubtful whether it will outlive its initial attraction."]

ON: You also sang in the premiere of Pizzetti's Assassinio nella Cattedrale in 1958.

LG: Yes. I had not a very good part. The First Woman of Canterbury. The best personage was the bass. Pizzetti liked me very much and he asked for me. At least it was given a very grand production by La Scala.

ON: When you look in a reference book and see an entry about yourself, how do you feel about the way your career is represented?

LG: I immediately see all the mistakes. For instance, I never studied with Elvira de Hidalgo [Callas' teacher]. And they always get my age wrong. I was not born in 1924, and not 1922. It's 1928.

ON: What do you hope the Yapi Kredi Competition will accomplish?

LG: It's very good for the republic of Turkey that we have realized this very important musical event. It's important to give an idea of our potential, musically, to the rest of the world, to open up the possibility of collaboration, and to serve the new generation.