You won the Ibla Grand Prize 2003. Tell us more about the Bellini International Voice Competition.
It was in Sicily. The competition has a long tradition and a lot of followers. However, because of September 11th a lot of people stayed away. The Americans, the Japanese... So this time there were only about 150 people in the audience. You had 20 minutes to sing. The singers were not allowed to speak to members of the panel. The panel wasn't supposed to speak to the singers.
I sang three things, Adalgisa's aria from Norma, Charlotte's letter scene from Werther and three songs by Granados about a mother who lost her son. Later on, a person from the audience came up to me, looking very flustered. She couldn't get her words out. I asked if I could help her because she had problems with beathing and she was crying. She just said she enjoyed the Granados so much... She said that instead of shouting out the top notes I created a real sense of agony and that made her cry. That was the best thing a singer can hear!
As there was no contact between the panel and the singers at any time, not even acknowledging their presence by saying hello, one of the judges contacted my pianist and told him how exceptional my Granados was. I thought, yes!!!
Singers are very critical of themselves. They never sit down and feel proud of what they've done. But we should have a better balance, to enjoy doing things for the audience. At the same time we have to be critical. We keep thinking, 'I'm not ready', but are we ever ready, really?
You must feel quite ready, though, to accept a role performed in the Royal Albert Hall?
You mean Madama Butterfly... It was David Freeman's production and I was in the first cast, which you now call the original cast. That's the production with water on stage in which I sang the Aunt. It is a huge hall but you don't feel that when you sing there, because the stage is not very big and you end up very close to the audience. They gave us microphones, but I didn't get one because they thought my voice didn't need it. I sang about 20 shows, with two weeks of intense rehearsals.
The production was very interesting: the stage was transformed into a Japanese water garden. As I was one of the Japanese people there, I was supposed to teach other singers how to walk, how to behave, how to pick a glass from the table with your kimono on, how to bow. One should also remember to walk with small steps as it was not customary to have any underwear under the kimono at that time. In order to wear the Japanese slippers one should acquire a specific walking technique - to keep them on.
You have done more teaching - you have coached Angela Gheorghiu in Japanese.
It was quite funny. I was on the books of an interpreter's office and one day they needed someone with singing experience to work on a recording. They gave me a song and asked if I'd ever heard of an Angela Gheorghiu. She was recording a CD in 13 different languages, called something like "This Is My World". All the interpreters were there, waiting for their turn.
Angela was very confident. I thought the key of the song wasn't very good for a soprano, but they told me they were in a hurry and couldn't change it. She ended up singing some of it an octave lower. I tried to
change her pronunciation but in the end we ran out of time. The next one after me was a Korean interpreter who also decided not to get into details because of the shortage of time. This was the commercial world and time was money.
How did that compare to your Hollywood experience?
I was in a film called Thunderpants and we filmed our scene in London. They cut it out anyway, almost all of it. We spent four days doing the ten second scene with opera singers in it. There were ten of us on stage. Four days from 6.00 am to 7.00 pm. The music was written for the film, in Italian. Simon Callow was the opera singer, with someone else's voice. He is so sexy. And so great on stage. The eyes, the hands, the way he stands....
And what about your flamenco for the BBC?
I studied flamenco for five years. I was in love with a Spanish guy and I thought it would be nice to learn some of his culture. My flamenco teacher said - and it is true - that if you dance every day, one or two hours for five years, you can dance fluently. I've had a long break recently but it is all there when you start doing it again. I used those skills in Carmen, where there is this big dance scene and also before you sing your arias in the second act at the smugglers' place.
But how did it all begin? How did you become so multicultural?
I went to a Canadian Mission school in Japan. We had conversation classes, talking about different cultures. I wanted to dance and I tried classical ballet. But if you do ballet, you try to get your core muscles all tightly together, while with singing you try to expand. You open up. I thought if I have to close up for ballet and open up for opera, it's not good for my singing, so I stopped taking ballet lessons.
How early did you start to sing?
I was in a professional choir in Japan, in one of the Pueri Cantores branches, similar to those in Vienna and Paris. We performed together when they were visiting Japan and we would join them in Paris or Vienna on our European tours. I started doing that when I was 10.
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Were your parents musicians?
My father wanted to be a jazz trombone player so I was brought up with jazz band music. He met my mother and he couldn't support a family playing a jazz trombone. He became an architect instead.
What was your first opera and where did you hear it?
It was in Japan, a Covent Garden production of Tosca with Monserrat Caballe and Jose Carreras. I fell in love with Jose... I bought all his records.
What attracted you to opera?
It must be the beautiful voices, the orchestra, the big scene... It was all so fresh to me, used to Noh and kabuki. Let's say, the Japanese tone is monochrome, one-dimensional like a kimono. In England I feel monochrome but three-dimensional and in Continental Europe everything is three-dimensional and in colour. And suddenly this Opera came to my monochrome life - and hit me with colour, with emotions. I was in awe.
Did you then decide you wanted to sing yourself?
It took me ages to persuade my father. He said no. 'A musician's life is very difficult. You are forbidden from studying music at all'. That was the first time I talked to him about it. It took me three years to get his permission. In the end he said that if I am consistent enough to beg him for three years, then maybe I will have enough spirit to do it. That is how I started.
So you joined a music academy and they thought you were a soprano?
For a very long time. It was only Eva Randova at her masterclass in the Czech Republic who noticed I really was a mezzo. She said I could be a soprano, very dark and metallic. I came back to my teacher and she wondered why I didn't want to be a young dramatic soprano any more. I just wanted to sing with my voice. I sang at many summer schools where I was once told that I might be a mezzo because my face is quite long and my cheekbones are quite high. Laura Sarti asked why I sang like a contralto. I just wanted to find my voice. Gradually everyone started saying I might be a mezzo. My teacher suggested we started from the beginning as a mezzo. We did that and my voice started blooming. The top notes started coming much easier. C and C sharp is not a problem. I finally found myself. It was a long way - it took 10 years.
What are your favourite mezzo roles?
One of them is Carmen, but it's not really a mezzo role - Carmen is something between a soprano and a mezzo. You have to have good top notes and a rich bottom, a big range. She has to act in a non-operatic way. The singing has to have some oomph. It can be like chewing gum in places, but the end duet with Don Jose needs full drama. And Carmen is on stage all the time, like Madama Butterfly.
But my Carmen is not the conventional Carmen people are used to. Carmen has to be very, very wise. She is the leader of the smugglers. Of course, she has to know how to use her charm and flirt but most of all she has to have brains. I wanted to show that she is not just a fiery Spanish woman.
My mother saw the video and said, 'My God!' I never ask her opinion about my performances. She said I changed the image of Carmen but it was convincing. The production was quite chaotic. The assistant director was changing the director's concept in his absence. The blocking was there but the image wasn't defined, so I decided to do my own thing.
Is there a mezzo-soprano that you really admire?
Teresa Berganza. I like the way she produces her voice. Also Tatiana Troyanos, for her guts.
You are singing new English songs in your next concert.
I have lived in England for a long time and haven't learnt any songs, so I decided to do it. I met an English composer through a friend and I asked him if I could sing his songs at a concert. He said he would write some for me. The concert consists of songs composed after 1940, with the exception of Purcell whom we've included because he was an inspiration for Tippett. We are going to present it again in September.
My next opera, I hope, is going to be Madama Butterfly with 150 performances in a year, triple cast, for an Italian company. I would like to sing Charlotte as it suits my voice very well. Now that my voice is in one place, I have good agility, so I can expand in that direction. I have also met a composer in Italy who is putting on some interesting concerts.
What are your hobbies?
Dancing with a partner, both salsa and rock and roll. I also love cooking and I've recently taken more of an interest in film and the cinema.
View Akiko's page HERE.
Akiko is also featuring in New English Songs.
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