WHEN GIANLUCA Margheri steps onto the stage of the Town Hall Theatre to perform the title role in Vivaldi’s opera Bajazet, it will be a double debut for the acclaimed opera singer.
Irish National Opera’s production of Bajazet will mark the first time Gianluca has played one of the key roles for bass baritone, while his Town Hall Theatre performance on Tuesday January 25 will mark his debut in Galway city.
“It’s exciting for me to be able to perform this role,” Gianluca tells me during our Tuesday morning interview. “I had studied the role before as it’s one of the most important leads for bass baritone. It’s a dream come true as I’ve wanted to sing it since I first heard a recording of it with the incredible Ildebrando D'Arcangelo, who is one of my teachers.”
Gianluca is also looking forward to coming to Galway. “It will be the first time I have sang in Ireland, my first visit to the country, and that makes it even more exciting and interesting, and I’ve heard Galway is one of the most beautiful cities in Ireland.”
From Florence to the world
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Florence's iconic Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore.
Gianluca is from Florence, the birthplace of the Renaissance, and later, of opera, as it was in Florence that Jacobo Peri's opera Dafne was first premiered in the late 16th century.
“I really love Florence,” says Gianluca. “I feel privileged to be born in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Returning home after a very long journey is still exciting for me, because Florence has such a favourable environment that stimulates people of an artistic disposition.”
Gianluca studied opera in Florence, graduating with honours in Musical Dramaturgy at Università degli Studi di Firenze, and in Vocal Chamber Music at the city’s Cherubini conservatory.
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Photo:- Ste Murray
“Singing was a dream of mine since I was a boy,” he declares. “The first element that struck me about opera was the vocal acrobatics of the soprano coloratura, like June Anderson, Edita Gruberová, Natalie Dessay. I would listen to and memorise any opera they sang.”
It was the operas of Mozart though, which would have the greatest impact. “My high school teacher encouraged me to study opera,” Gianluca says. “It was not easy at first to find my way. As a bass baritone my voice was considered too dark, but I found an unequivocal path with Mozart’s vocalisms. I discovered what I really was as a singer. Mozart was my teacher as it helped my vocal range, study, and technique.”
Another important early influence was the dancer, mime artist, and director Lindsay Kemp, who had previously been a mentor to a young David Bowie in the late 1960s.
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Gianluca Margheri as Bajazet. Photo:- Kip Carroll
“Lindsay Kemp was my first maestro, as I sang my first opera under his direction,” says Gianluca. “I was Demitrius in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and consequently he invited me to take part in one of his shows, Queen Elizabeth I - The Last Dance, in Spain. I was really young, around 20, and I was the only opera singer in the cast. There were actors and dancers, and to experience that form of theatre with all those talented personalities was an extraordinary training ground for me. They gave me a lot of energy and I lost every fear I had about the stage.”
Since then, Gianluca has performed across Italy as well as in Spain, Hungary, France, Germany, and Belgium; won the first prize at the international opera competition, Toti Dal Monte, in Treviso in 2009; recorded Händel's Deidamia and Stiava's Vespri di Santa Cecilia; and been praised by Operawire for having a voice possessing “depth and an attractive timbre” and for employing it “with sensitivity and expressivity. Singing with apparent ease.”
Fear, anger, hatred, and love
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Gianluca Margheri (Bajazet ) and Niamh O’Sullivan (Asteria ). Photo:- Kip Carroll
Next week, Galway will see Gianluca in the title role of Vivaldi’s great operatic work, Bajazet, inspired by the life of Bayezid I (c1360 - 1403 ), the Ottoman Sultan who decisively defeated the Crusaders at Nicopolis in 1396, but in turn was defeated and captured by Timur, founder of the Timurid Empire, at the Battle of Ankara in 1402.
The opera is set after the battle, with Bajazet now in captivity, yet still hoping to influence events through his daughter Asteria, and the man she is in love with, Andronics, a Greek prince and ally of Timur.
“The director, Adele Thomas has opted for a much more realistic and physical approach, where the character becomes more modern and current,” says Gianluca. “Bajazet is a sultan, proud of his royal blood and he is willing to sacrifice himself and his daughter rather than bow down to the enemy.”
One of the reasons Gianluca enjoys opera is its ability to “make a character live theatrically” through song. “It’s something different from drama theater as you have the music,” says Gianluca, “and the music is something more, it comes from the depth of your soul.”
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He also prefers to play the ‘bad guy’. As he told The Budapest Times: “As a bass-baritone, I’m by nature fascinated by evil characters”.
“Bad characters are often more stimulating in the drama sense,” he tells me. “I enjoy researching that inner dualism of the psychological facet that justifies their badness. It makes the density of the character more fascinating. If you are the lover or the hero, it's a beautiful role, but it’s not so tense. If you find out why the bad character is bad, it’s more exciting, and you can give more expression to the badness and to the character as well.”
However, Gianluca does not see Bajazet as a villain, more a man in extreme and terrible circumstances, where he is left with few, if any, good options.
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Gianluca Margheri as Bajazet, with Eric Jurenas (Andronico ). Photo:- Kip Carroll
“He is exasperated by torture and political defeat,” he says. “His every reaction is aimed at saving the purity of his Ottoman blood. Even when he asks his daughter to kill herself it’s not an inhuman act, but a last, desperate attempt to save her dignity. It’s a really strange and complicated situation for him.
In terms of the music, Gianluca describes Bajazet as “a playlist of wonderful arias”.
“Some of them are among the most famous in Baroque opera,” he says, “for example,’ Sposa, Son Disprezzata’, the insane ‘Qual Guerriero in Campo Armato’, and ‘Anche il Mar Par Che Sommerga. Actually, Bajazet sings four arias, and they are arias of fury, powerfully rich and full of colour, the most famous of which is ‘Dov'è la Figla?’ which is beautiful for its intensity.
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Photo:- Ste Murray
“However, the one I enjoy most is the accompagnato in the second act, for in this Vivaldi gives me an infinite amount of different expressions. The sultan gives room to the man with all his fears, anger, frustration, hatred, and also love. That is what truly makes Bajazet a complete character, rich in expression, it gives me an opportunity to give light to this character.”
Irish National Opera’s production of Bajazet takes place in the Town Hall on Tuesday January 25 at 5pm. It will be Sung in Italian with English surtitles. Tickets are available via www.tht.ie and 091 - 569777.
