Opera opulence

Imagine working on a project with a team, and one of your team members falls sick just a day before the final presentation. You find a replacement, the project goes well, and you find a work partner for life. This is the story of French soprano Fabienne Conrad and mezzo-soprano Yete Queiroz, who met a few years ago in France. The two started performing together when the mezzo-soprano singing with Fabienne in France fell sick. With no replacement in sight, Fabienne called Yete to perform with her the last moment. Even with limited rehearsals, the two gave a magical performance, and both the singers have been touring the world together eversince.

“It can happen sometimes, but it is always a challenge to make it work. We are so connected to each other because we like singing together. We could sing and breathe together without looking at each other,” says Fabienne, recalling her association with Yete during her first visit to India recently for Artie’s Festival at NCPA. “This is why we both are very happy to come to India to sing together. It is such a pleasure to build our sound together,” adds Yete, who has marked a few visits to India in the past.

The duo has mastered the art of arias – a long song accompanying a solo voice – as well as the duets of pieces by Mozart and Bernstein. However, both of them confess to being accidental singers. While Yete studied psychology and loved singing popular Brazilian music with her father in her college days, Fabienne was a student of Political Science and enjoyed acting and singing casually. “I sang and acted in a show in my university, where a soloist singer from National Paris Opera saw me and told me that I had something special and I was made for opera,” recalls Fabienne, and adds that she at the same time decided to be an opera singer. “Since then, it became my passion and my whole life actually,” she muses.

Being an essential part of any chamber and opera concert, Fabienne and Yete continuously work on singing, learning new roles, working with pianists and conductors on stage, and interpreting new music. “Music is always there in your mind, even if you don’t sing all the time,” reveals Fabienne, to which Yete adds that regular preparation is important to connect with audiences. “When you are a professional singer, you need to know how to connect with the audience. And if you know how to manage your rehearsals and concerts well, then you only need to work on connecting with audiences,” she opines.

In their more than a decade of musical journey, the singers note the changes in the music industry over the years and opine that live music cannot be replaced. “We need to keep in mind that perception of live performance could never be replaced by a movie or a record,” says Yete. Fabienne adds that now there is a bigger place in the panorama for open-air concerts, “that actually makes the operas move to unusual places.”

Although the concept of opera is still alien to Indian audiences, Fabienne believes that opera is made for a wider public and Indians too enjoy musicals. “India too has audience for operas. If you make a simple and funny resume of the story, then people just love listening to it. It is like a Hollywood movie for them with amazing music in it,” smiles the soprano.

Yete agrees, saying that opera is a unique experience and Indian audiences are open to experimenting. “You can’t compare the sensations you feel with your ears and body when you listen to someone singing or an orchestra playing live. I have seen Indian audiences enjoying operas internationally,” says the mezzo-soprano in conclusion.