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Nora Sourouzian - New Music
This fascinating mezzo-soprano uses her psychology degree to
understand the complexities of her characters, says Rupert
Christiansen
Opera singer Nora Sourouzian
By Rupert Christiansen
8:00AM BST 18 Oct 2014
Who is she?
Nora Sourouzian is a velvet-voiced mezzo-soprano from Canada with an
arresting stage personality.
What is her background?
Her Armenian father always wanted to be a classical musician and
ensured that his daughter received a sound musical education. After
study at McGill University, she decided to further her career in
Europe, making her debut at the Wexford Festival in 2005, singing the
title-role in Fauré's Pénélope.
Where can I hear her?
After triumphantly assuming two contrasting title-roles in "the crazy
challenge" of a double bill of Massenet's Thérèse and La Navarraise in
2013, she returns to Wexford this month to sing Herodias in Mariotte's
Salomé - an opera unjustly overshadowed by Richard Strauss' version,
composed at exactly the same time and similarly drawn on Oscar Wilde's
play. "In some ways," Sourouzian says, "I think Mariotte's music is
more profound than that of Strauss. And his Herodias is a wonderful
study of a woman who longs for power."
What does she do next?
For most of next year she will be performing Carmen, a role she has
already sung many times all over Europe, the US and Japan: "There are
so many facets to the characters that I don't get bored," she says.
"It's like being married to someone for 30 years who can still
surprise you!" One remaining ambition is to sing Didon in Berlioz's
Les Troyens. "I love the music so much, I feel I'm destined for it!"
What about her life outside music?
She recently moved with her partner from Zurich to Copenhagen, where
she uses any spare time to study part-time for a degree in psychology.
"It helps me understand the motivations of these complex women I
play," she explains.
Salomé opens at the Wexford Festival on 22 October (00353 53 92 2144)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/new-music/11170707/Nora-Sourouzian-new-music.html
This fascinating mezzo-soprano uses her psychology degree to
understand the complexities of her characters, says Rupert
Christiansen
Opera singer Nora Sourouzian
By Rupert Christiansen
8:00AM BST 18 Oct 2014
Who is she?
Nora Sourouzian is a velvet-voiced mezzo-soprano from Canada with an
arresting stage personality.
What is her background?
Her Armenian father always wanted to be a classical musician and
ensured that his daughter received a sound musical education. After
study at McGill University, she decided to further her career in
Europe, making her debut at the Wexford Festival in 2005, singing the
title-role in Fauré's Pénélope.
Where can I hear her?
After triumphantly assuming two contrasting title-roles in "the crazy
challenge" of a double bill of Massenet's Thérèse and La Navarraise in
2013, she returns to Wexford this month to sing Herodias in Mariotte's
Salomé - an opera unjustly overshadowed by Richard Strauss' version,
composed at exactly the same time and similarly drawn on Oscar Wilde's
play. "In some ways," Sourouzian says, "I think Mariotte's music is
more profound than that of Strauss. And his Herodias is a wonderful
study of a woman who longs for power."
What does she do next?
For most of next year she will be performing Carmen, a role she has
already sung many times all over Europe, the US and Japan: "There are
so many facets to the characters that I don't get bored," she says.
"It's like being married to someone for 30 years who can still
surprise you!" One remaining ambition is to sing Didon in Berlioz's
Les Troyens. "I love the music so much, I feel I'm destined for it!"
What about her life outside music?
She recently moved with her partner from Zurich to Copenhagen, where
she uses any spare time to study part-time for a degree in psychology.
"It helps me understand the motivations of these complex women I
play," she explains.
Salomé opens at the Wexford Festival on 22 October (00353 53 92 2144)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/new-music/11170707/Nora-Sourouzian-new-music.html