How do you balance career and family, and is it possible to have both?
That is the most difficult thing in the world. Because you perform in one place, and then you’re around the world in a million other places. You’re very seldom at home. Being a nice sweet father or mother is a challenge. You are forced to sing—to do well—you are forced to travel, and when you arrive at home, you have very few days. At home, you are really like someone else. Your family wants you home and you must find a way to balance a family life and all that travel. For opera singers, it is hard.
In pop music, a singer makes a record, in general it takes one year, and then he spends two years without anything else, that costs him little time away. Take for example the Sting family. They always travel together, they have a place in New York, in London, in Italy, and they are always together. That is the most beautiful family I’ve ever seen. And she [his wife] is able to keep everything together. She is very busy doing the moving—she’s very good at it—and they’ve been together all this time. Celine Dion is also very family-oriented. Now that she’s having a baby, her answers to your questions would change. For the operatic singer, it’s much more difficult, unless they are devoted. And they don’t see their family as much.
It’s very hard, especially for American singers, to know what to do after they finish their formal education. What do you think is the next best step for a young singer after university?
It isn’t more difficult for Americans in any other way except language. In Italy, the decisions are hard, too, but they have help with the languages, Italian, Spanish and even a little French. There are a lot of things to do for young singers.
Is a competition the way to go?
Well, usually the people who come to my competition were already somewhere else and have a little more experience. Not being able to express themselves the way they want, they probably come to my competition to see if they can use my advice to make the things better. And I am devoted to helping them, I am patient, I am a singer myself and I found these difficulties at the beginning of my career, too.
And you’re a nice person. That helps.
A person who has a career should not make anything difficult for anyone, especially for a young singer. You should be paternal, maternal with young singers. I don’t always see that around the world.
Repertoire is a big problem for young singers. Those who sang Fiordiligi in college get hired as Zerlina in the professional world. What kind of advice would you give to help them find their “fach”?
Generally, the people in the theaters, when they ask you for something, know what they are doing. They probably won’t ask for something that is too difficult or too much for you. You are right—some of you who sang Fiordiligi are then asked to do Zerlina—very well said! The practical thing is to make your money from the stage;do the jobs you are hired to do (even Zerlina)… eat from the stage!
So in other words, listen to what the managers say. When they hire you for a certain role, that’s your repertoire.
Yes, because you arrive, make an audition for the theatre and you get a job—that’s the end. And generally, not saying yes to a role makes you lose out with the theater. If you listen to what they ask you, you have engaged great advisors who will be there to help you along the way.
And what do you do if you go and sing an audition, and somebody looks at you and says, “You’re singing the wrong repertoire”?
I’ve said that to one of the great young tenors of today. He’s singing the wrong music.
We’re not going to say whom!
Ok, we won’t. But he was singing dramatic, and he’s not. And I say, yes, you come to Philadelphia for the finals [of the Pavarotti Competition], but don’t bring Pagliacci; bring Rigoletto and Traviata.
It’s hard to find the right pieces for a young singer.
No. It’s not. It can be very boring, yes. But it’s very simple, very easy. Let’s say, when you study at school, learn all the Bellini, Rossini, Donizetti, when you are beginning. And very little Verdi, unless it’s Rigoletto. And then you stay there. Why become more right away?
Should a singer wait until they have perfected the art form to get on stage or should they learn it on the stage?
The only thing we have to know is that the singer has more good qualities than defects. Sometimes a defect can become a quality, can become a characteristic sound. But that is very difficult. You have to have a personality, but in your own way. Your good quality can be the voice, how musical you are, your acting, or all of these things. What ever it is, you must make it [so others] can recognize you. For example, when you turn the radio on, you say, that is so and so and not somebody else. Then you have already begun something important.
We talked about quality. In your mind, when you hear a young singer, what are the most important qualities that you look for?
Intonation, for sure. They must be good looking, because now television doesn’t allow a chubby boy like me to come out, unless it’s just a super voice. And intelligence, like I said, personality. That’s the first thing I’m looking for. Certainly, the voice. And you can tell if it’s a long, easy voice. Is it easy on the top? Because, like I’ve said before, you lose 20% on the stage. So, if you have, for example, Boheme, you must vocalize much higher than the C. You have to go to D flat or D natural. Because you lose it when you go on the stage, you take one wrong breath and you’re finished. You need a reserve.
So, the first thing is the voice and then you look for the other attributes, like attractiveness and intelligence.
Musicality, intonation, intelligence, staging, they are all together. It’s not one that’s more important than the other.
What habits do you have to keep in good vocal shape?
You have to be with your instrument daily. If you stay one day without singing or practice, you feel a little uncomfortable. If you stay two days, the audience and the critics will feel uncomfortable! Every day you have to be with it, because if you know that your instrument is answering your requests you are confident, you go on the stage sure of what you want to do, and really without trouble, problems or anxiety. You have to do more than what is expected.
So preparedness is part of the security?
Absolutely. In my case, I’m very lucky because I learned to sing from a tenor. I developed my voice by imitating my father. To this day has a beautiful tenor voice; he’s 88. He sings in church by himself, with a very fresh voice. So I think he gave me that one. The technique of singing arias gives you longevity, that’s for sure. The technique.
How do you keep your sanity in this business?
I was very lucky and I survived twice from illness—things were very up in the air during those times—all the rest is “down on the ground” for me. When I was 12 I was in a coma for two weeks. I remember saying to myself, in a moment of understanding, in 20 years from now I will always thank God for being able to see the sun. The rest is all a big gift. If you see the world like that—first of all, you never ask for anything, and you are very happy, in the best way. The only way to be at peace—don’t ask for anything. I don’t mean that you don’t have to fight to be better; you have to fight for your power. In fact, being free from expectation like that—you spend time just fighting, not looking at your success. Look to your singing. Make it great. It’s the best way, and everybody wants that from you.
Is there something that you wish you had known at the beginning of your musical career that you know now?
No, I was a very professional singer from the start, making effects that a young kid doesn’t normally do. If you heard my debut, 40 years ago, there is a tape, you may say, hmm, the voice is a little smaller, but the intentions are very good. So, I left the voice alone, becoming a little more refined here and there. I was very lucky. Generally, I don’t have much to complain about.
So let’s pretend you have 100 young singers in front of you, and you want to say something to them that you hope they’ll take with them for the rest of their careers.
I would say to them: 10 of you are going to become very musical, 50 are going to sing on the stage, but you will only know who they are in time. You will never, listening to someone, know what this person is going to do. Yes, we give prizes to people, generally, to try to predict the future. In general, I’ve been right. But not giving a prize to someone doesn’t mean they cannot be famous some day. Maybe they were sick the day of the contest. And no matter where you are now, there is always a way to improve. At 28 years old Simionato sang comprimario roles. She hit the big time at the age of 40. She sang until she was about 64, she had over two decades of the big time!
