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Friday, November 15, 2002

By Andrew Druckenbrod, Post-Gazette Classical Music Critic

Vivica Genaux really needed a change.

Vivica Genaux has been praised all over the world, but tomorrow will be her first chance to perform opera in her hometown of Pittsburgh. (Harry Heleotis photo) Related story: Talking Pittsburgh with Kevin Glavin

The year was 1989 and she was studying to be a geneticist at the University of Rochester.

"I was really miserable," she recounts at a local coffee shop a few weeks ago. "I don't think I have ever been that miserable in my life, but I am really happy that I did it because no matter what happens now, I know why I am doing this."

"This" is singing mezzo-soprano on some of the world's most distinguished stages, among them the Metropolitan Opera, the Bastille, Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin and the Concertgebouw. The young woman who grew up in Fairbanks, Alaska, never dreaming music could be a career for her, will star this weekend as the woman who never dreamed she could be a princess.

Genaux's own story isn't a Cinderella one, but it's not far off. In remote Fairbanks, she dabbled in music, but never felt it could work for her. "My dad listened to classical music all the time," she says. "I was always told to go into music and I always thought that was a really silly idea cause we didn't know what it takes to be a [professional] musician."

		Music Preview 'LA CENERENTOLA' WHO: Pittsburgh Opera WHERE: Benedum Center, Downtown WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday; 7 p.m. Tuesday; 8 p.m. Nov. 22; 2 p.m. Nov. 24. TICKETS: $16-$105. 412-456-6666. GENAUX WEB SITE: bio and audio samples www.ffaire.com/genaux/

And true to form, at least for the Disney version of the tale, Genaux was blessed with a fairy godmother who showed her the way to the ball -- her voice teacher Claudia Pinza.

After transferring from Rochester to Indiana University, Genaux enrolled in EPCASO (Ezio Pinza Council for American Singers of Opera), an illustrious training center in Rome. That was the summer of 1992. There she met Claudia Pinza, daughter of the famed bass. "I liked the quality of her voice," says Pinza -- no nonsense when it comes to evaluating talent.

By the end of the summer, Genaux clicked with Pinza. So much so that she moved to Pittsburgh -- Bellevue, to be exact -- to study year-round with the teacher. "I had a great time working with her," says Genaux. Pinza also was happy with the decision. "She was a special student and I knew she would become a special singer."

That she has.

A tribute to Genaux's abilities is she has never performed in an opera in Pittsburgh, yet she still is considered one of the city's prominent singers. She simply hasn't had the opportunity to perform here operatically (she did give a spectacular recital in September of 2000 with Chatham Baroque). "In the United States I have a fairly limited repertory, and if that isn't on the roster, then I can't be here," she says.

This weekend, Genaux finally gets to show her stuff to Pittsburgh. "My neighbors keep asking, 'When are you going to sing here?' and it's nice to finally do so," she says. She will take the role of Angelina (Cinderella) in Rossini's opera "La Cenerentola."

Believe it or not, at the young age of 33, she's already played Cinderella upwards of 50 times. "It's one of my favorites," she says. "You have more of a personal relationship with the characters -- bouncing off her father and stepsisters. They have to be really evil or else she is boring."

A star is born

Although it is a standard role that will formally introduce Genaux to opera fans in Pittsburgh, and though it was the Rossini mezzo roles (Angelina, Rosina and Isabella) that got her glass slippers in the door, Genaux lately has thrived on lesser-known music.

	Vivica Genaux as La Cenerentola (Cinderella) performing with the New Israeli Opera.

First came her daring New York recital debut at Weill Recital Hall in the spring of 2000. Eschewing popular arias, she offered a night of relatively unknown baroque pieces. It was quite a risk, considering the importance of the concert to her budding career, but it paid off with glowing reviews.

She then began performing in baroque operas, such as in Handel's "Ariodante," "Arminio" and "Rinaldo" and Hasse's "Marc' Antonio e Cleopatra," all the while still singing mainstream opera.

Her work in the baroque period was relatively under the radar compared to the bel canto productions. That was, until her international profile skyrocketed this year due to the success of "Arias for Farinelli," a CD universally acclaimed by critics and fans of all periods of music. Her first solo studio release, it features Genaux singing arias written for the flamboyant, 18th-century castrato.

"You have to do some reworking to make it fit your voice because that music was written for a specific singer to show his voice off," she says of the singer whose life was portrayed in the film "Farinelli: il castrato." That's an understatement, as Farinelli's abilities were among the most virtuosic of all time. "It is amazing because she could perform all that music with such agility," says Pinza, who urged Genaux to take the opportunity.

Genaux's vocal prowess opened many an ear to her talents:

"Miss Genaux sings dazzlingly florid passagework and ornament with ease and intelligence." -- Wall Street Journal

"Genaux' gifts would seem to be prodigious, beginning with a voice of striking warmth and beauty and a formidable level of rhythmic mastery and breath control." -- San Francisco Chronicle

"Genaux's artistry is simply dazzling." -- BBC Music Magazine

"Vivica Genaux stakes her claim to virtuoso status." -- Opera News

Many, many more positive reviews follow those. If Genaux were trying to get elected, she'd win by a landslide.

She has no interest in the treadmill that is operatic stardom, however. "It's nice, but I like operating low key," she says.

In fact, Genaux views the experience of performing older repertory and working with baroque specialist Rene Jacobs as teaching her, more than rewarding her.

"One of the things I am still working on is putting more colors into the palette," she says. "The timbre of baroque instruments has much more range than I am used to, and I am still not daring enough. The more daring I can become in the baroque, the more [I'll be] in the bel canto. I think they feed well off each other."

True enough, both of her operatic lives are represented in albums to be released in 2003: bel canto arias with conductor John Nelson on Virgin Classics and Handel's "Rinaldo" with Rene Jacobs on Harmonia Mundi.

Genaux's humble approach makes her such a excellent musician, says Pinza: "She doesn't want to be a star, she wants to be a good singer. I admire her for that."

The mezzo choice

Growing up in Alaska, Genaux soaked up every arts event she could. "We had the luxury of the airspace around Russia being closed, so all Oriental-bound flights stopped in Anchorage," she says. "Anyone going to Japan or Korea would stop and give a couple of recitals."

	Vivica Genaux's parents, Hanna and Charlie, shown here on either side of voice teacher Claudia Pinza, will finally get to hear their daughter sing in Pittsburgh. (Lake Fong, Post-Gazette)

Her father, a professor of biochemistry, kept the house warm with classical music on those frigid, long winters. "I grew up with Mahler, Bruckner, Beethoven, Mozart and Brahms," she says.

Ultimately, Genaux is at her best when she factors in the suggestions of others and continues to learn. "I am the 'Tao of Pooh' type of person," she says. "I have always gotten in the most trouble in my life when I have decided what I have wanted to do. I am really stubborn."

Take her first gig. Florentine Opera in Milwaukee hired her for "L'Italiana in Algeri" without looking at her curriculum vitae. But rather than tell the leaders that she was a greenhorn, she just prepared for the part. "On opening night they came to my dressing room at five minutes to curtain, when I had my wig and costume on," she recalls. "[General director] Dennis Hanthorn had the program in his hands and he was looking at the bio. He said, 'This is you?' "

Once the curtain opened on her successful professional debut, Hanthorn's worries melted away.

Then there's her last year at Indiana University, where she had graduated as a soprano, of all things.

"During a lesson, I was singing an aria which has low notes, and I was wailing into them." Her singing teacher at the time, Virginia Zeani, remarked that she sounded like a mezzo-soprano. Genaux responded demonstratively: "There's no way -- I am not a mezzo-soprano! I have always been a soprano and I just finished my degree as a soprano!"

But after three sleepless nights, "Everything started making sense," she says. "I never liked playing first violin; I longed to play the viola. In chorus, I always liked the inner harmony of the lower voices. So I thought I would give it a try."

Aren't we glad she did.

Andrew Druckenbrod can be reached at adruckenbrod@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1750.