In Conversation With Katie Bray and Alexander Sprague

Charles Eager talks to mezzo-soprano Katie Bray (Varvara) and tenor Alexander Sprague (Vanya Kudryash) about their appearance in Opera North’s current production of Janacek’s Katya Kabanova.

Topics include family names, the story and meaning of Janacek’s opera, what the various implications are of singing in Czech or English, what goes into learning and staging an opera like Katya, and Katie’s and Alexander’s upcoming appearances elsewhere. Finally, by way of conclusion, Katie and Alexander teach Charles to sing some Janacek.

With Charles’ attempt to pronounce Alex’s surname, Alex explained that Sprague (rhyming with plague) comes from the French.  Although his family hails from the West Country, there is evidence of a New Orleans history in the family tree.  Katie hadn’t explored her heritage, with family most recently from Norfolk and, before that, the Isles of Scilly.

As for the opera, Katie explained the story, which surrounds a woman, Katya, who married into a strict, backward, old-fashioned family living a cloistered existence in a small village.  Her mother-in-law is evil, played by the incredible Heather Shipp, who Katie says is also glorious offstage.  Katya is anxious that she is not able to live up to her mother-in-law’s expectation.  Her childhood was full of imaginations and dreams, which have been killed off by her in-laws and the way they make her live. In contrast, Boris is, to her, wonderful, representing the life she would rather have had.  With Varvara’s help, Katya and Boris have secret meetings in a garden to which Varvara gives her the key, and the two, Katya and Boris, see each other for 10 or 11 days whilst her husband Tichon is away.

However, eventually, Katya finally admits to everything and the guilt makes her not want to live.

Katya was an outsider, as many tragic characters in opera are, knowing that she doesn’t really belong. Everyone senses that Katya is doomed from the outset.

Charles then suggested that Janacek creates something like a fairytale world with the music, with Alex’s Vanya Kudryash starting with what is almost a hymn to the River Volga.   Alex agreed – Kudryash is the opposite to this conservatism and wants to push the boundaries and open people’s minds.  At the beginning of the third act, Kudryash says of the appearing storm  ‘If we had rods of steel we could direct the lightning away and it wouldn’t burn our buildings.’  Dikoy, Boris’ uncle and, set in his ways as a member of the older generation, replies, ‘It’s God’s punishment.’

Stephanie Corley as Katya and Katie Bray as Varvara. Photograph provided by Opera North.

Alex and Katie’s characters are both breaking boundaries.  Varvara thinks she is helping Katya, as they both had a difficult childhood, but Varvara, unlike Katya, has no-one to answer to, being unmarried.  She doesn’t think it through.

Katie then agrees with Charles that the story is one of idealists and realists, particularly in the case of Katya, who is desperate to feel nature, freedom, youthfulness, life and vitality, and yet feels dead.  She is brought to life by Boris in a sexual way and doesn’t know how to handle the danger.  The text seems to suggest that the characters are somewhat oppressed by their own religion.

Charles feels the characters are very rich, and the opera itself symmetrical.  Varvara’s helping hand in bringing Katya to life ironically brings her to death, and this is paralleled by Boris, who does the same.  Charles senses something satanic in Varvara offering the key to open the garden. Katie agrees that Varvara doesn’t see the evil; she just sees life simplistically – go and find happiness.  She loves Katya and doesn’t want her to be unhappy and believes she deserves better.  Varvara just doesn’t look ahead and there is no weight of responsibility which Katya, as a religiously serious person, feels, thus believing the storm to be her punishment.

Photograph provided by Opera North: Katie Bray as Varvara and Alexander Sprague as Kudryash

Katie says Katya is a tragic figure, not destined for happiness.  Alex’s view is that Varvara is guilty merely of naivete.  Katie declares that Kudryash and Varvara’s departure is a cowardly and selfish one, with only the thought to escape Kabanycha in case she’s the next one she’ll treat as a prisoner.  The pair don’t even say goodbye to Katya, which Katie (as herself, not as her character) finds difficult to understand.  Alex states that everyone ultimately lets Katya down, including Boris.

Charles looks on Tichon and Kabanycha as weakness and evil respectively.  Katie endorses this:  the son can’t get out from mother’s influence and this weakness manifests itself in his reliance on alcohol.  Katya talks about how he gets violent after drinking.

Alex adds that it is also as well to remember that some of the writer’s intent is lost in translation, in this case from Czech to English, and that Director Tim Alberry in discussions had to allow some degree of artistic licence.

Charles wondered whether it is better sung in Czech or in English.   Katie said she’d only sung one opera in Czech and it is a beautiful language, but it’s important to reach English speakers, too.  She very much believes in the power of the original language.  Janacek might be turning in his grave, but accessibility is also important.  Alex’s view was that the composer must be respected, so changes need to be sensitive. Alex hasn’t sung in Czech but knows it’s a wordy language.  Both are agreed that the opera’s many messages need to come across to the audience. Charles said this was his first encounter with this opera and it resonates with him, so he thinks the result is a success.

Charles asks about the psychology of performing an opera, especially Janacek’s, which is very complex. What goes into it? Katie replied that it’s essential to get to know the score intimately. Alex agreed that prep is key. There is no fast-tracking.  The score must become so familiar that one can sing it whilst doing other things such as running, or doing the ironing – and this score was particularly difficult, so extra time and effort was needed so that the singers could be ready to fix any small errors, which are made from time to time, even in the performance.

The next stage is building up confidence, not only with singing but also with risk-taking on stage.  If the director wants something out of one’s comfort zone, then an element of courage is needed.  We are all of us capable of doing more than we often think, so finding courage and having a go is the imperative.  Sometimes, you achieve in the afternoon what you didn’t think was possible in the morning, just by trying and overcoming the nerves. There is always the need to sing, but the physicality which might not be comfortable is always worth trying.

Alex told Charles that the multi-tasking required demands considerable rehearsal, because one is conditioning the muscle memory as well as using the voice.  We do have to be all singing and all dancing and are constantly asked to do more extreme things on stage, whether physically, vocally or emotionally.  Thomas  Ades, for example, deliberately pushes the human voice to extremes. By the time singers are performing to an audience, they have to defy the devil on their shoulders telling them that they can’t do it!  And if you lose yourself in the emotion, it is easy to fall out of time with the orchestra, so you need to sing in exactly the right place as well as delivering the drama and the emotion.

Charles joked that this would result in a prospect of utter terror.  Alex replied that it can be so, but is amazingly exciting. Adrenaline does amazing things, and here the six weeks of rehearsal were especially worthwhile.  Katie felt it is about being human, that it’s good to push yourself and find out that you can get there, where you need to be.

Katie and Alex paid tribute to what they see is a fantastic team of people – Sian Edwards is incredible as conductor,  Tim Alberry a genius, pushing hard in the right way, believing in the detail, explaining  ‘I want it to be like I’m filming you up close in HD.’

Alex was keen for everyone to know that so much goes on behind the stage.  There are around thirty people – makeup, costumes, set changing – working very hard and co-ordinating in a very skilful way, ensuring all the performers have to worry about is performing.

Alex arrives in his dressing room, has his make-up and hair done, is helped with dress and the props handed to him. Each person takes their job very seriously.

Charles told Katie and Alex that he always gets excited about an Alberry production, because they are so well thought out.  He then asked the singers about their favourite moments in the opera.

One of Katie’s is the beginning of the bedroom scene between Varvara and Katy, who sings of her wish to be as free as a bird. It’s beautiful music and dreamlike.  But Katie’s favourite moment is in the overture: a moment about ten bars long when the harmony changes in such a way that it gives her goosebumps.  At this point the singers are standing behind the curtain, waiting for it to go up and to go out on stage to perform.  The orchestra enjoys it, too.

Alex also enjoys the overture, because it’s so cinematic and gets the emotions going.  His favourite moment, however, is the folk song sung by his and Katie’s characters in Act 2 Scene 2, which offers a great moment of simplicity within a complex opera, with strings or harp and little else, with beautiful harmonies. Katie believes it comes as a bit of relief from the stress, a moment of welcome calm.

Charles agrees that within the mesh of complex opera, this brings a moment of well-judged sweetness and simplicity.

Tim Alberry wanted everyone in the audience to wish they were the couple, to feel their happiness, and to sense that everything is okay. Katie adds that this is perhaps the only moment in the opera which people might sing on the way home from the performance, since the rest is so comparatively hard!

Charles adds that this simple song is wonderfully complemented later in the scene, when Alex’s and Katie’s characters are on the stage, and the orchestral harmony behind their vocal lines is rich with foreboding.

Alex adds that there is also a moment when the clock is heard in the percussion, giving a sense of time’s ticking, with an underlying message that Act 3’s storm is brewing.

Thinking of Ostrovsky’s The Storm – Janacek’s influence – Charles suspects Shakespeare’s influence, from The Tempest.  It was agreed that this may be for the erudite to consider and to research.

Katie Bray and Alexander Sprague

Charles asked if Katie or Alex had any other engagements coming up.   Alex said he is off to Opera National de Lorraine in Nancy to do Wuthering Heights (score by Bernard Herrmann) and is very much looking forward to that, because his character receives a stunning aria.  Charles notes Herrmann’s other claims to fame – Psycho, Vertigo, Taxi Driver and Citizen Kane, amongst others.  After that, Alex will be in  Strasbourg, performing in Don Giovanni.

Katie has a bunch of concerts coming up, including a performance of Wolf’s Italian Liederbuch, about which she is excited, then will be going to Irish National Opera to play the title role in Vivaldi’s Griselda, which involves millions of notes!  It’s Katie’s first time in Ireland and she’ll be rehearsing in Dublin, with Peter Whelan’s incredible conducting.

At this point, the discussion moved into a few moments of delight for Charles, when Katie and Alex showed him how to sing!  Having been treated so generously, Charles thanked the two performers for their time and a wonderful interview, and wished them well with their performance that evening.

You can listen to the interview in full including the singing lesson here:

The Katie and Alex photographs are by Mark Wheelwright    http://markwheelwright.co.uk/

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