ClassicConcertsNS

By pwalt | April 2, 2017 |

MUSICIAN OF THE MONTH: JANE ARCHIBALD

April showers bring more than just May flowers: Say hello to our latest Musician of the Month, soprano Jane Archibald!

Jane Archibald’s career trajectory has taken her from Canada to San Francisco to the Vienna State Opera and major opera houses on both continents.

Her artistry has generated excitement across Europe and North America with recent engagements including Lucia and Konstanze, Adele and Ophélie at the Met, Olympia, Zerbinetta and Cleopatra at the Opéra National de Paris, Sophie at La Scala Milan and in Berlin, Zerbinetta at Baden-Baden Festspielhaus, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and in Munich, as well as Semele at the Canadian Opera Company.

After beginning her professional opera career in her native Canada, Jane was an Adler Fellow and Merola participant with the San Francisco Opera. She then moved to the Vienna State Opera as a member of the ensemble, debuting many of the coloratura roles she continues to sing today. Jane Archibald stunned the world public with her extraordinary technical ability and breath control in the role of Handel’s Semele in 2012, which was highly praised by Opera News, describing Archibald’s performance as “outstanding” and “simply spectacular” (Opera News, August 2012).

The 2016/17 season will find Ms. Archibald debuting the role of Ginevra in Ariodante with Canadian Opera company, and revisiting Donna Anna for Theater an der Wien, Konstanze at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, Zerbinetta with the Bayerische Staatsoper, Angelica (Haydn’s Orlando Paladino) at the Zurich Opera House, and, finally, Adele in a new production of Strauss’s Die Fledermaus with Santa Fe Opera.

Archibald’s concert engagements for the upcoming season will include recording Messiaen’s Poèmes pour Mi with the Seattle Symphony and a performance at the Aids Gala 2017, the 8th Festive Opera Gala in Support of the German Aids Foundation in Düsseldorf.

Her many concert highlights include Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate with Lorin Mazel and the Orchestra of La Scala, Brahms’ Requiem with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and Michael Tilson-Thomas, Messiaen’s Poèmes pour Mi with Christian Thielemann and the Berlin Philharmonic and Mozart arias with the Camerata Salzburg and Louis Langrée.

Jane has featured on multiple recordings and DVDs. Her first solo CD, a programme of Haydn coloratura arias, was released on the ATMA Classique label and won the 2012 JUNO Award for Classical Album of the Year. A newly released recording of Die Entführung aus dem Serail (June 2016) with conductor Jéremie Rhorer, is receiving rave reviews. Jane lives in Halifax, NS, with her husband, tenor Kurt Streit, and their two children.

1.What is your idea of perfect happiness? Being at home in my own kitchen after a good night’s sleep, wrapped in my warm housecoat and cuddling with my daughter on the couch, while my husband cooks breakfast, with a cup of coffee beside me (that someone else made)!

2. Do you have a favourite musical memory? Not one favourite, but some highlights:

– Being in the middle of singing “Somewhere out there” in the Truro Music Festival when I was 12 and just going for it and feeling “right”.

– Playing “Twinkle twinkle” with my dad as a small child.

– Singing Bach with the First Baptist Girls’ Choir (Bach! He’s not in my life enough right now!!).

– My Met debut as Ophélie.

– My years at university soaking up so much music for the first time…

3. What is something people would be surprised to know about you? Probably a lot of things… Off the top of my head:

-I almost never listen to music (I have enough of it in my “day job”).

-I almost never cook (I married a great cook!.)

-The smell of melted butter turns my stomach.

-I didn’t own my first car until I was 37.

-Years of being on the road in less than ideal rental apartments have honed my “McGyver” skills; I love coming up with creative fixes to little problems, using whatever I can find at hand. (i.e. French bathrooms with no stand-up showers! No thanks. I used a hinged plastic iPhone holder, the top off a water bottle and some packing tape to hook the shower head to the mirror in the bathroom).

4. If you weren’t a singer, what would you like to do, all things possible? I’ve always enjoyed working with language and writing, though I am under no illusions that “enjoying writing” and writing professionally are at all the same thing! I am not so keen on writing fiction, actually, but I could imagine being involved in PR or advertising, something like that. I’ve also wondered what it would be like to be in radio! I’ve only ever been the interviewee, but I think it could be very interesting to be a host!

5. What is your favourite city and why? Halifax. Because it’s home! Until you spend 80% of your year travelling, you have no idea how precious home can be.

6. Which opera singer (dead or alive) would you most like to share a meal with and why? Opera singer? Meh. No one, really. We all talk too WAY too much about ourselves and the business!!! But Mozart? Now that would be very fun!

7. Favourite children’s book? I enjoy reading Shirley Hughes Nursery Collection with my daughter (when I can drag her away from her current obsession, Fancy Nancy). It’s a collection of lovely poems with beautiful illustrations and once belonged to her older brother, my stepson, Axel. There’s something so calming, sweet and nostalgic about the writing and the illustrations.

8. If you could sing any role in opera (any gender) who would it be? I could never pick just one! And that’s a very difficult question at the moment, because I just turned 40 and have been singing a lot of the same roles for 10-15 years now, so even though I CAN still sing all my current repertoire, it’s lost some of its spontaneity. I’m desperate for some new challenges. I’m hoping to expand into some other repertoire, so my wish list is looooong! If I had to pick just one, on the spot, I’d say Violetta.