Nedda, the main feminine character of Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci,” should die reasonably than consummate real love. The soprano Ermonela Jaho, who was making ready to make her debut within the position at London’s Royal Opera House this month earlier than she needed to cancel last-minute for causes of well being, has found that the character is extra complicated than she first thought.
“She is strong enough to fight until death for her freedom,” Ms. Jaho mentioned in a telephone interview. “She never loses the light inside of her.”
The Albanian soprano, 48, has received over audiences on either side of the Atlantic with the depth and authenticity of her performances, particularly within the realism of “verismo” works by Verdi and Puccini. Her portrayal of the character Violetta in “La Traviata” is a signature position which introduced her into the worldwide highlight after she jumped in on quick discover on the Royal Opera House in 2008. (She will return to the Verdi work on the Metropolitan Opera in January). The London stage additionally introduced her position debut as Suor Angelica in Puccini’s “Il Trittico,” which she is going to sing at Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu in December.
Ms. Jaho was chosen to look within the documentary “Fuoco Sacro,” now taking part in on the French-German tv station Arte. Next April, she is going to return to the Royal Opera to sing the position of Liù in Puccini’s “Turandot,” which she recorded for the Warner Classics label beneath the baton of Antonio Pappano.
At the Royal Opera from Tuesday by means of July 20, the soprano Aleksandra Kurzak has jumped in as Nedda in Damiano Michieletto’s double invoice of “Pagliacci” and Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana,” first seen in 2015.
Mr. Pappano, the Royal Opera’s longtime music director, pointed to a successful mixture of empathy and energy in Ms. Jaho’s performances. “She is sensitive to every curve of every phrase and every situation the character finds herself in — also in heartbreaking situations,” he mentioned in a telephone interview. “But she’s also got this steely resolve, which she has to have in ‘Suor Angelica’ and, in particular, ‘Madame Butterfly.’”
“She is capable,” he mentioned, “with her voice and with her acting — which is so detailed and so nuanced — to make you cry. She’s very generous when she’s out there. She’s not saving for anything.”
In “Pagliacci,” the soprano position calls for large flexibility and vary. The story focuses on a theater troupe in Nineteenth-century Calabria. The work creates a metadramatic tightrope when Nedda’s husband, Canio, takes vengeance for her infidelity each in a comedy onstage and with a villager.
“This is absolutely essential verismo,” mentioned the conductor. “Sometimes the part is almost spoken, and then it becomes thrusting and dramatic.”
Ms. Jaho sees a problem in conveying her character’s complexity inside the two-act drama. “You have to play all these cards, all these emotions, and be read from the public in little time,” she mentioned.
The soprano started assimilating Italian tradition at 17, when she was chosen by the soprano Katia Ricciarelli to review at her academy in Mantua, Italy. Ms. Jaho went on to enroll on the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the place she studied with Valerio Paperi. She was additionally coached on the aspect by the bass Paolo Montarsolo.
“I wanted to prove to everyone that even if I come from Albania, I can speak your language, I can sing your music,” mentioned Ms. Jaho, who now lives in New York.
Having grown up in a rustic that was behind the Iron Curtain, the soprano struggled in Italy with each tradition shock and the space from her household. She additionally needed to work odd jobs, babysitting and caring for older individuals. “But always I had in mind that if the dream is big, maybe the sacrifices and difficulties will be big as well,” she mentioned.
She inherited a present for mindfulness from her father, who was a army officer and professor of philosophy: “Sometimes you feel hopeless, because life is not always beautiful. He told me that nothing is impossible. And you have to work hard.”
Ms. Jaho considers it future that she went on to star in “La Traviata” after falling in love with that opera in her hometown of Tirana, the Albanian capital, at 14. It was her first expertise with reside opera, and he or she swore to her older brother that she would sing the character earlier than she died.
To date, she has sung the position of Violetta 301 occasions. She mentioned that the position had turn out to be “richer with life experience” and that it remained “like a dream for my voice.”
“Somehow, it pushes me to stay in shape,” she mentioned.
Last fall, she added the title character of Cilea’s “Adriana Lecouvreur” to her repertoire, with performances on the Vienna State Opera. She additionally sings French-language works resembling Massenet’s “Thaïs.” But she doesn’t goal to play roles for which she doesn’t have a pure affinity.
“It’s not because I don’t like challenges,” she mentioned. “But sometimes you need to know which kind of battles you want to win.”
Since 2012, she has given grasp courses to college students each in her house nation of Albania and in cities together with London, Paris and Sydney, Australia. “The young generation today wants to take it so easy,” she noticed. “They think it’s enough to put your face on social media — which we need as well — but only with a certain balance.”
She emphasised that the Covid period had underscored the vulnerability of the occupation: “We discovered that we are nothing — the opera houses were closed. It really has to be love from your guts.”
Ms. Jaho expresses a childlike delight with Mr. Michieletto’s staging, which for her captures “all the details and flavors” of southern Italy. “You forget that you are the artist who’s singing the character,” she mentioned. “You become the character because everything around you helps with that.”
The director additionally weaves collectively the two short operas by having characters from “Pagliacci” seem onstage throughout “Cavalleria Rusticana” and vice versa. “Everything makes sense,” she mentioned. “Their hate, their love. You don’t understand the difference in the end, even though they are different composers.”
And a lot as Leoncavallo’s opera reveals the fluid boundaries between artwork and life, Ms. Jaho says she believes {that a} singer should be “real onstage” in an effort to serve the music. “If you don’t cry, love and smile as yourself,” she mentioned, “you cannot give to the public.”
