As noted in an earlier post, San Francisco Opera star, and two-time GRAMMY Award-winning mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke has announced that she will join pianist Myra Huang hCW on a five-city recital tour, titled Of Thee I Sing.
In this interview she reflects on her career and plans for the future.
Cultural Currents: By all critical accounts, your role as Venus in the recent production of Tannhäuser at Houston Grand Opera earlier this year was a triumph. Can you share some of your impressions of that experience?
Sasha Cooke: Tannhäuser in Houston was a great experience in many ways. Firstly it’s very special to sing with in the opera house where I was inspired to pursue singing in my early teens. I grew up coming to HGO and UT Austin to see opera, and it was in a performance of Mefistofele with Sam Ramey that a lightbulb went off. I was blown away by the superhuman act and how a singer can connect with an audience so immediately. So it’s very special every time I’m on the Houston stage, especially with invitations several seasons in a row. This was a new production and with that comes so many exciting elements from the costume being stitched to your every movement to the pacing of the stage movement supporting the singing. I have fallen in love with Wagner. I don’t know that I ever imagined I would sing it, aside from his Wesendonck which I first learned while in undergrad, but singing his music is a tremendously gratifying, full-body experience.
CC: Francesca Zambello, who has directed this production, has long been a celebrity with San Francisco Opera audiences. Her Ring Cycle here was especially memorable. What’s it like to work with her?
Ms. Cooke: Francesca, or ‘Cesca’ as many call her, is a singer’s dream because she loves opera, for one, and she’s an actor at heart. She not only understands every word but she understands and honors every historical context or cultural influence, so working with her is always an educational experience. I don’t think I know an opera director that loves opera more. She also keeps the movement going so you are not going to find ‘park and bark’ in her productions- thank goodness. With Cesca, it’s always about the story and emotional journey and she demands a lot of her cast, which I especially enjoy. As odd as it sounds, sometimes the singers are overlooked and it’s all about the picture or concept. Even though this production had a clear concept, setting it in Wagner’s time, she never left us out to dry.
CC: Critics for Forum Opera, had this to say about your performance in Tristan und Isolde at Opéra de Rouen last year: “Sasha Cooke confirms that she is one of today’s greatest Brangäne: you only have to hear the messa di voce she delivers from the “einsam” of her call in Act II – notes that she stretches out to the last breath of air that her excellent technique allows her – to be convinced.”
CC: Are there any more Wagnerian roles you would care to take on in the future?
Ms. Cooke: Thank you for mentioning this. Singing Tristan both in Rouen and then act 2 on tour with the Gstaad Menuhin Festival Orchestra was a great treat and I love the character Brangäne. I know many Brangänes have sung Isolde but with her music and the ‘Ruf,’ how could anyone want for more? I’d love to try my hand at Waltraute, Fricka, Kundry and even Sieglinde. Maybe Ortrud is in my future too. With Wagner, one never knows. I wouldn’t be opposed to beautiful Erda either. I definitely hope to return to Brangäne and Venus and like a lot of the Mahler I do, they are the kinds of roles one can sing forever.
CC: Meanwhile, how does your experience with Wagner translate to your newest endeavor, “Of Thee I Sing”?
Ms. Cooke: With Wagner especially, you leave his operas a different singer. And maybe it’s the same for the audience. Vocally but also dramatically, he stretches you to new heights, literally and figuratively, so with Of thee I sing a recital program I am thrilled to be touring, I am ‘more’ of myself than I was before singing Wagner and hopefully sing technically better as well.
CC: When may we expect to see you perform again in San Francisco?
Ms. Cooke: I always look forward to my time in San Francisco. I think it’s the city that knows me best. I’ll be there in February for performances of Mozart’s Requiem but in a theatrical reinterpretation by Manfred Honeck who will lead those performances. At the symphony especially I have done such interesting work thanks to my dear friend Michael Tilson Thomas, and I imagine this will be no different.