The Soprano
when it comes to operatic talent, measha brueggergosman muscles out the competition
2007-11-26
By Sergio Mims

                
Measha Brueggergosman is without question one of the most talented and exciting classical music sopranos in music today and who is attracting major acclaim all over the world becoming one of the most sought after performers in her field today. A native of New Brunswick Canada, Brueggergosman (her name is actually a combination of her last name and that of husband Markus Brugger) studied music in Canada and Germany before pursuing a career as a singer. She has performed with major orchestras and conductors around the world including the San Francisco Symphony, the Orchestra Teatro alla Scala in Milan, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Gothenberg (Sweden) Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin and recital halls around the world. She also has recently signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon, one of the leading classical music labels in the world and has released her first two new CDs for DG, Surprise, a collection of cabaret songs written by William Bolcom, Arnold Schoenberg and Eric Satie and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 performed by the Cleveland Orchestra and conducted by Franz Welser-Möst.

Recently while Ms. Brueggergosman was in Chicago Ebonyjet.com had an opportunity to interview her.

EBONY: How did you start singing?
BRUEGGERGOSMAN: Well I started piano and voice lessons when I was seven and I really liked it but the music teacher at my elementary school told my parents that I had an affinity for pitch and rhythm and thought that it would be a good idea to put me in voice lessons. And I was like…hummmm O.K., but I really wanted piano lessons.

I focused more on piano than singing because the good thing is that when you are seven, you cannot really establish a solid technique as a singer because it’s all going to change in, like, two minutes, anyway. But I kept playing piano because it developed for me a work ethic. So I kept at it, and when I would go out to do a recital as an accompanying pianist for a singer, I would pick and my hair would fall out and I was stressed.  It was not that my family wasn’t musical, but they were not formally trained. It was really not a good time. 

I eventually followed the road less traveled. Singing for me was easier. Obviously, if I knew back then what I know now, I would have focused more on singing. But if it’s hard then that means it was supposed to be,  because if it’s easy it means it’s not right. It’s like yoga, if it’s easy that means you’re doing it wrong. So I started being hired more as a singer and less as an accompanist so I kind of went and followed the money.

EJ: What singers are your inspirations, who do you really look up to?
MB: We always listened to Etta James. My dad is a huge Etta James fan. Not her secular music but her spiritual albums. The music tradition in my church was classical, and, my first teacher was the music director at my church.

Although I didn’t learn classical music back then, we were big followers of church music so I would say people like Sandy Patti, Eve Green, Keith Green, Andre Crouch and all these Christian contemporary singers. I mean Patti was like the first Christian opera-esque singer that I’d ever heard and I said to myself: “ OOOH this is so cool!” The first classical album I ever owned was the Kathleen Battle/ Christopher Parkening duet album. 

And you know the first dress that my mother ever made for me is an exact replica of the dress that Kathleen Battle wore on that baroque duet album with her and Winton Marsalis, that deep burgundy dress with the empire waist. I said I would sing so well if I had that dress and she made it for me and I still own it!

EJ: Who are some of your favorite conductors, conductors you look forward to working with and what in your opinion makes a great conductor?
MB: Franz Welser-Möst for sure, Michael Tilson Thomas and I really like German conductor Christoph Poppen and Gustavo Dudamel.

Conductors I would love to work with are Yannick Nézet-Séguin, James Gaffigan, who is becoming the American version of Dudamel. He’s been conducting at San Francisco and Cleveland and there’s a lot of buzz about him.

As for a good conductor -- a good conductor lets things happens. He there’s for you, he will bring you in and he will set the tempi and has to be very collaborative, more than usually what most people think.

EJ: What qualities do you look for in a song?
MB: I think it’s always the grand sweeping themes of death, loss, dirty humor and some sort of politicized injustice.

EJ: Don’t you feel that sometimes classical music is too formal and that turns off people?
MB: I think that there are so few things that you can get dressed up for like funerals (laughs) that creates a sense of occasion that I would hate to stray too far from that. But at the same time people should feel welcome no matter what they have in their closet or what they have in their bank account. Classical music needs to become more accessible or else no one will have a forum for that experience. But I would never wear jeans to my own performance because I think it’s an insult to the audience. And of course people are not paying to see me wear what I would wear in the street.  I dress  to respect the people who have paid money who could have spent it on something else.

EJ: What opera roles are you eager to perform?
MB: Well, this will describe the kind of heroines I like to sing: The first opera role I ever sang was an opera written for me called Beatrice Chancey by composer James Rofle. The librettist was George Elliot Clarke who’s a wonderful black Canadian poet and told the story of a young woman during the time of slavery about 1801 owned by a Annapolis family. She was the offspring of the white slave owner and one of his slaves, and my father tries to rape me. I slit his throat and I’m hanged for his murder.

So I kind of look for roles that give me that much to do (laughs) Like some kind of horrific thing happens to me and I die at the end .

EJ: Like Luigi’s Cherubini’s opera Medea or Alban Berg’s opera Lulu? (i.e. Berg’s 1935 opera about a destructive young woman who seduces and manipulates several men before she’s killed at the end by Jack the Ripper)
MB: Yeah, Medea,   Richard Strauss’s opera Elektra is good, Leo Janáek’s opera Janufa. These kinds of very tragic, misunderstood roles. Lulu? Hmmmm. No, that’s a little too off color for me. I still need my parents to be able to come see me. (laughs)

EJ: As a black person have you noticed a difference in the way you’re treated or perceived in your field?
MB: I recently did an interview with a non-classical music publication more a pop music publication and they asked  me: “…well being only one of the few women of color in classical music…” and I said excuse me but Marian Anderson, Jessye Norman, Leontyne Price, Barbara Hendricks, Grace Bumbry -- and these are like household names. I mean give me a break! We are not alone!

So in the industry when I say I’m a black North American soprano they’re expecting it’s going to be good. I mean vocal music is so international that it really doesn’t much matter where you’re from because you’re in a different country for every gig.

EJ: So your nationality is more your identity?
MB: Yeah, like I’m Canadian which is way more important in this business than being black. But I’ve never felt blacker than when I’m here in the United States which is amazing, and my husband is Swiss which translates to “Oh, so what”? (laughs)

EJ: But it goes to that old debate about what defines blackness?
MB: Yeah, like as if you’re not fighting out of the ghetto or struggling then you’re a total sell-out. I guess we don’t have that in Canada because our population is so diverse with a massive immigrant population.

EJ: What five pieces would you recommended for someone who’s curious about classical music?
MB: Verdi’s Requiem if you love the sound of the human voice. I think there’s something very moving about the Verdi Requiem. I think Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8. The Mahler 8 is like the culmination of everything he tried to achieve. To hear and see the Mahler 8 is something that you will never forget. If only for the sheer…girth of the amount of people on stage at one time. It’s pretty phenomenal.

Francis Poulenc’s opera Dialogues of the Carmelites. I think is so important because it’s about faith and women and tyranny and persecution and I think it one of the best things ever.  And every time I do, and I never say no, I feel a sense of solidarity with my sisters. It like our periods become in sync (laughs) and we’re all at one with our inner goddess. It’s a work that makes me a better person.

Frauenliebe und Leben which is a song cycle of  Robert Schumann about the life and loves of a woman. It’s  all about the journey and the arc of love and struggle and marriage and death all in just six songs. It’s great, great.

And, five, it would have to be either Wozzeck or Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs for soprano and orchestra. Wozzeck is an opera by Alban Berg which is ridiculously challenging. The Four Last Songs will absolutely meet you where you are. They are unquestionably, undeniably beautiful. They won’ t leave you confused, they won’t leave you wondering what happened. 

EJ: What has been the greatest thrill in your career so far, when you said to yourself I can’t believe this is happening?
MB: It was when I got to introduce my dad to Oscar Peterson and they sat around talking like old friends  It was like WOW! It was very cool. And it was one of those instances when your job grants access to something that you otherwise wouldn’t get to experience. It was one of the coolest things after growing up and knowing my father was one of the biggest fans of Peterson and I was able to return that favor.

Film critic, lecturer and festival consultant Sergio Mims covers all things film from the city that works, Chicago. He is a regular contributor to ebonyjet.com

Buy the EbonyJet.com iTunes Mix of Measha's Recommendations:

Photo: Salvatore Sacco