EDINBURGH - Just as her singing is true and on the mark, Violeta Urmana's
response to questions is unhesitating, straightforward.  What's the right
word for the over-busy opera director? It doesn't matter:  "stupid is
stupid."

Is she a dramatic soprano or a mezzo? Yes, meaning both.  She gives new
meaning to "zwischenfach" or in-between (voice) specialty.  She is not
in-between, she easily encompasses both.  The kind of voice she uses and
cultivates depends on how she feels, on the phase in her career.

Today's reigning Kundry (four major productions in the past couple of
years, including the Salzburg co-production she is singing at the festival
here) started her musical career in Lithuania as a pianist.  After "getting
tired" of that - and attending opera workshops as a non-singing student,
taking copious notes she is using even now, Urmana began singing as a
soprano, switched to mezzo soon after that, and now that "Eboli is the only
remaining role of interest" to her, she is going for the dramatic-soprano
repertory with a vengeance.  She did in the past sing coloratura mezzo
roles, but feels today that Rossini, the most important composer of the
genre, is "too mathematical." Did she mean "mechanical"? The translator
nodded, but Urmana stayed with her original statement.  Mathematical
Rossini? Interesting!

In a conversation with the audience at a Royal Museum event on Friday,
Urmana - a resident of Munich now - spoke in German, her words translated
by event host Henrik Schaefer, after a festival-assigned translator
stalked off stage when challenged from the audience for his mumbled
mistranslations.  Schaefer - a violist and Claudio Abbado's assistant
conductor with the Berlin Philhamonic, continuing to work with Abbado after
the music director left that job - then did a splendid job, in flawless
English and projecting exceptionally well.

Urmana's plans are clearly outlined for the next seven years, culminating
in a "Ring" Brunnhilde, in - so help me - 2009.  She will continue singing
Wagner, but she refuses to become a "German specialist." On her schedule:
the "Forze" Leonore, Lady Macbeth, Aida, a concert Gioconda, "maybe Norma."

What's the most difficult thing about singing Kundry, one of opera's most
demanding roles? Waiting for nearly an hour and a half to sing two words
at the end.  She paused after the laugh the remark received and added
thoughtfully:  "In a way, that wait may be a form of what the character
sings - `Dienen, Dienen,' a kind of service."

When Urmana said she finds it easy to "slip in and out" of various
"Parsifal" productions, I asked if it was really easy to "slip into" Harry
Kupfer's complicated Berlin Staatsoper staging, bordering on Eurotrash.
Both Urmana and Schaefer were puzzled by the term (Having used the word, I
remembered that German measles are called the French pox in that country,
so "Eurotrash" may be called something much less "personal" on the
Continent.)

When "too busy, as in Amfortas riding an ever-moving mechanical platform"
was offered as clarification, Urmana said:  "Aha.  You mean stupid
direction.  Yes, stupid is stupid." She did not "appreciate" Gotz
Friedrich's direction, she volunteered the information, warming up to the
topic, Urmana added that "some directors have not enough talent and too
much power." Can a singer with her current status make a difference? Not
really, she said, but whatever the circumstances, "we just need to do the
best we can." I have never seen her in a performance where she did less
than that, giving her remarkable optimum participation.

Janos Gereben/SF
In Merry Old, to 9/1
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