Why the future’s looking rosier for Losier
The Canadian mezzo-soprano playing the lead in La Cenerentola tells David Kettle why singing Rossini is a joy – though it didn’t come naturally
The brilliant success of the Opera de Lyon production of Rossini’s La Cenerentola last year – his sparkling operatic account of the Cinderella fairy tale – came as something of a surprise to its star, the Canadianborn mezzo-soprano Michèle Losier. “For me it was very unexpected,” she remembers. “It’s a great show, very funny, and mixing together fantasy, reality and comedy – but I wasn’t expecting that reaction at all.”
When you see Norwegian director Stefan Herheim’s dazzling, inventive, somewhat hyperactive production – all video projections, magically transforming scenery and a gaggle of Rossini lookalikes jostling alongside Losier’s charwoman Cinderella – it’s perhaps not such a shock that the show drew such adoring crowds. And it’s sure to delight audiences at its Edinburgh International Festival outings next month. For Losier, however, the biggest surprise was being able to sing the title role at all.
“For me, singing Rossini was a challenge,” she explains. She’s spoken previously of putting off tackling Rossini, even wondering whether her voice was the right fit for his music. “I’m a very high lyric mezzo. Today we have specialists who sing Rossini so easily and fluidly, whereas for me it required more work. But I needed to give it a chance, to see the extent of my capabilities. And actually I’m proud of myself. I think I was a bit black and white about it, but now I can see the grey zone – and being in the grey zone can also be good.”
Losier is at a pivotal moment in her career. Her rise to stardom has been steady rather than meteoric, but she’s earned recognition worldwide through her remarkably focused, thoughtful performances, as well as for her light, lyrical, equally focused voice. Her clutch of previous roles, both big and small – among them Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro and the title role in Charpentier’s Medea – have taken her all round the world. “I would never have thought I’d sing at Covent Garden, the Met, Paris, Milan’s La Scala. If I was 20 again and could see myself now, I’d be astonished at how much I’ve achieved,” she admits.
But she’s aware, too, that she may have been overly prescriptive in the past about her voice and her repertoire. “When we start singing, we have the tendency to categorise our voices. For example, I’d say I’m going to sing Cherubino and other roles that are not too high, not too low. But as the years pass, there’s the danger that you get stuck.” Hence, no doubt, her pride in triumphing over Rossini. The solution, Losier thinks, is to be honest with yourself about your own capabilities. “It comes with singing with your own voice. I don’t have a big, Wagnerian voice, for example, but that’s nothing to be afraid of. Once you sing with your own voice, with your own qualities and your own flaws – yes, actually embrace your flaws – then everything helps out, and those flaws can even become qualities.”
Losier talks with disarming – and refreshing – honesty about her singing, and the same goes for her activities away from the opera and concert stages. “I have the most wonderful, spoiled life right now,” she
‘I don’t have a Wagnerian big voice – but that’s nothing to be afraid of. Once you sing in your own voice, its flaws can even become qualities’