Coloratura, enthusiasm with elegance

American tenor ascending on the international opera scene

It is a year that we have heard his name in many theaters. He is Gregory Kunde, the American tenor who is appearing frequently on the opera stage in Europe. I met with him in Torino, where he performed his first Edgardo in the Lucia production that concluded the season at the Teatro Regio. Spontaneous, simpatico, and poised, Kunde is fortunately not a member of that category of singer who is timid and reserved, who sweats through seven shirts in an interview: so to intelligently speak about the issues of technique and style, it was clear that he posseses a passion without reservation for many genres of music.

For me the discovery of operatic music did not occur immediately. I have always had music in my blood, but initially my interests were jazz and rock. I was born in Kankakee, a little town in Illinois, thirty-nine years ago. When I began the study of music at Illinois State University, I did not believe it was my destiny to become an opera singer.

At the university I began to study with Professor Schuetz, who is American and of German descent, and with whom I am still in contact with - even today. The first significant experience of my career, as a comprimario, was at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, where I played a secondary role, and was noticed by Jon Vickers, who convinced the director of the theater to give me a large financial benefit to continue my studies. In addition to that good fortune of my debut, even more important was my actual repertoire typing and my "covering" Alfredo Kraus, who gave me indispensable advice.

Is it true that Kraus' method was immediately fruitful?

Initially I had a short vocal range, getting to C with fatigue. It was Kraus who allayed every fear of mine and taught me to understand my real top extension, suggesting to me that it was better to produce sound in the masque area, always insuring the top notes.

And in Rossini, your approach to coloratura?

As yet, these roles don't create insurmountable problems for me. Certainly I don't have the agility of Blake; for me the conquest of agility is still challenging, in order to create that expressive and creative virtuoso style. The variations I invented for Semiramide in Pesaro, above all, and in Italiana in Algeri last October in Nice - these, I think, might be the best of all my possibilities for Rossini.

I recall that for the most part your repertoire is oriented always to the grand romantic tenor roles of bel canto in Italian and in French. I think, for example, that Edgardo or Raoul in Les Huguenots would be too heavy for your voice . . .

There are, as you know, many ways to approach these roles. My voice is not dramatic, therefore I would never be able to sing Les Huguenots - an opera I did perform in Montpellier in 1991 - as Corelli did; there is, however, a more lyric way to approach this and this is the way I followed when I performed Guillaume Tell in Nice, or when, recently, I debuted in The Tales of Hoffmann in Montpellier.

In which operas do you feel today most comfortable?

The great Bellini tenor roles fascinate me for the difficult tessitura and the legato lines of singing. Last February, at Carnegie Hall in New York, I participated in a concert version of La Straniera, but I love, above all, I Puritani, in which I made my debut in Montreal in 1987 opposite Luciana Serra. I will reprise this role at the end of this year in San Francisco. Maybe I am being unconsciencious to say that I am not afraid of the challenges of Arturo; for now I feel that I can sustain the role without too much worry.

When we will see you again Italy?

After the Armida in Pesaro at the Rossini Festival, next February I will sing Leicester in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda in Bologna.