Sharing two minutes and fifteen seconds of the delightfully surprising Dmitri Chostakovitch, a discovery for me at least! This composer has somehow brought me luck ever since I auditioned to perform in his opera ‘Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk’ for conductor Myun-Whung Chung. It never happened, but he did decide to hire me for ‘Les Troyens’ by Hector Berlioz for the grand opening of the newly built Paris Bastille Opera, so I guess you could say that turned out alright!
A few years later I was asked to perform in Chostakovitch’s Symphony N° 14 for Bass and Soprano, based on poems by Rilke, Apollinaire, Küchelbecker and Garcia-Lorca. It was an enormous adventure, as we performed each of the poems in their original languages, enriching and life-changing in many ways!
I still recall every day the words which the wonderful American soprano Phyllis Curtin said to me at my final Master Class with her as a Fellow at Tanglewood Festival so many years ago: “Always trust and follow your musical taste.” Feeling the gratitude: Thank you, Miss Curtin.