Marina Rebeka: “A party to go back to Verona, Nedda? A free woman like me”

Eyes of ice, precious vocals. Marina Rebeka is among the stars of today’s opera, contested by the major theaters in the world. Tomorrow evening the Latvian soprano will be the protagonist at the Arena di Verona of ‘Pagliacci’, in the role of Nedda-Colombina, a character with whom, he tells Adnkronos, he has freedom in common. “Nedda is young and beautiful and has a great desire for freedom – explains Rebeka -. She wants to feel free to do what she wants, because all her life she has always been subject to Canio. He saved her but she never loved him. When he meets another man, for the first time in his life he has something of his own, he says ‘Of that indignation of yours is my strongest love’ and in the end the clash with Canio brings out all his identity, his freedom ”. Singing in the Arena, for Rebeka, is always very exciting. “It is a particular, beautiful space – observes the soprano – it is a stage under the blue and unlimited sky, and then there is that enormous number of people. I can’t wait to see the audience live, to feel the party, the joy, to go on stage with real costumes, with a real orchestra, it’s crazy, it’s very very beautiful ”. It is not the first time that Marina Rebeka plays the role of Nedda, who in ‘Pagliacci’ is the wife of Canio, the manager of a small traveling theater company also composed of Tonio and Beppe. Nedda is an orphan, who after being saved by Canio married him more out of gratitude than out of love. When she falls in love with Silvio, a farmer with whom she plans to escape after the show, everything falls apart. Tonio, in love with Nedda and refused, decides to take revenge by telling Canio about the triangle. “Like Nedda, I love freedom, love very much – remarks Rebeka – In some respects we are very different in character, but I understand it, I also really like the challenge to play two characters on the same stage: Nedda and Colombina, a real and a fictional character, I love this theater within the theater “. The passion for opera transpires from the voice. Energetic, vibrant: “I realized at 13, when I discovered ‘Norma’, that I wanted to become an opera singer and I did it”. Luck? “No – she is keen to emphasize – it was a lot of work, luck didn’t enough, without work I would never have gotten there. ”Since her debut at the Salzburg Festival in 2009, under the direction of Riccardo Muti, Marina Rebeka has been called upon to perform in the most prestigious opera houses and concert halls in all After Verona Marina will be in Aix-en-Provence for Giuseppe Verdi’s ‘I due Foscari’, then in August she will return to the Arena for the other performances of ‘Pagliacci’. “I made 23 productions of La Traviata, I sang it for my whole life until this year – he explains -. I also love Norma, I adore Juliette and Thais. “But the secret dream, she confesses, is to play the role of Bizet’s Carmen.” If the voice grows up one day I would like to interpret it – says the soprano – not so much for her voice as for her character. She’s a very impulsive woman, yes wild, free inside and out, incurable. Very close to Verdi “I feel completely at home with him” she admits, Marina seems to count the minutes that separate her from the Verona stage. “I waited a long time for this moment – he confesses – I sang ‘Otello’ with Zubin Mehta at the Maggio Fiorentino but in streaming, I sang at the Prima della Scala in December without an audience and it was not the same thing. The real voice, the real energy can only be had in the hall, with the public. It was very difficult not to have him and I hope he will finally return to the Arena tomorrow ”. (by Federica Mochi)