Volume 25 Issue 5 - February 2020

OPERA SPOTLIGHT
Always
Asking Why
SPERANZA SCAPPUCCI, conductor
LYDIA PEROVIĆ
Will there come a time when we journalists will
be able to stop making a big deal out of women
conductors? We are not there yet – systemic
barriers in the profession remain all too real – but the
fact that we can already see such a time on the horizon is
thanks to the critical cohort of women in their 30s, 40s and
50s who have more than paid their dues in the industry
and are now toppling the dams everywhere, finding
themselves equally at home in opera and symphonic
music, and combining associate principal positions with at
least one directorship. We are talking people like Susanna
Mälkki, Xian Zhang, Keri-Lynn Wilson, Dalia Stasevska,
Gemma New, Han-na Chang, and the conductor currently
in charge of the COC’s The Barber of Seville (January 19 to
February 7), Speranza Scappucci.
Piano study since the age of five; degrees from the Conservatory
of Music Santa Cecilia in Rome and the Juilliard School; nine years
as the rehearsal conductor with Ricardo Muti; 15 years as a répétiteur
in some of the most prestigious opera houses in Europe; fluency
in English, Italian, French, German – even with such a résumé and
experience, the switch to full time conducting wasn’t immediate.
“It helped that I have worked as a coach in so many places and that
I know the opera world well already,” recalls Scappucci. “But trying
to break that wall between the categories – convincing people to see
that yes I was a good répétiteur and can also be a good conductor, that
was a challenge sometimes. People like to put you in a box. So they’ll
think, ‘Oh she’s a pianist, and pianist primarily.’”
It wasn’t a long uphill battle, however. “I think I was lucky that it
happened in a historic moment when it was becoming more open for
women to make that transition. If I had tried ten years ago, I expect
it would have been harder.” And then there were colleagues who saw
something in her from very early on: “People like Francesca Zambello,
and the artistic director of the Macerata Opera Festival who gave me
my Italian debut, or Emilio Sagi in Spain whom I have worked with
– they all felt that there was something there to be explored and
gave me my first chances,” she says. “And from then on things have
started rolling.” They’ve continued rolling so well that the Romeborn
conductor is now the music director in Belgium’s Opéra Royal
de Wallonie Liège, has conducted in opera houses in Vienna, Zurich,
Washington, Barcelona, Rome, and L.A. and is debuting this season in
Toronto, the Paris National Opera and at the Tokyo Spring Festival. She
is open to all kinds of repertoire – her ideal season, were she to be an
artistic director of an opera house, would include a little bit of everything
in between the back ends of Baroque and contemporary music
– but these days she is most often found conducting the Italian 19th
century, from the bel canto years until the late-style Verdi.
What would she say to opera lovers who aren’t huge fans of
Rossini and bel canto, who find it all repetitive, too focused on the
vocal fireworks, hampered with weak librettos? Her answer is multipronged.
It matters who sings it, of course. “With all of Rossini – and
same for Bellini and Donizetti - you need these super voices who
are technically very advanced. If you don’t have the right tenor in I
Puritani, for example, you can’t do it.” And this is the reason why
we don’t often see operas like Tancredi or Guglielmo Tell – works
more complex than Rossini’s comedies: they’re not the easiest to
cast. I tell her that for me there are only certain singers who can
bring Rossini to life, like Cecilia Bartoli or Anna Bonitatibus – and
ask her who else should I look for. “There are a few great Rossini
singers of the new generation (there have been many in the past),
like Paolo Bordogna, Bruno de Simone, Nicola Alaimo, Juan Diego
Flórez, Lawrence Brownlee. They do other repertoire too, but they’re
particularly good in bel canto.” They tend to be Italian? “Not necessarily…
I just did Cenerentola in Liège with Karine Deshayes who was
excellent, and there’s a new South African tenor who’s incredible in
this rep, Levy Sekgapane. And let’s not forget Jessica Pratt.”
But while singing is important in bel canto, it’s not the only thing
that makes or breaks those operas. She concedes: “There’s been a
tradition of focusing the attention only on the singing in this repertoire.
And that’s a mistake. The orchestra is just as important in bel
canto. The orchestra is not just an accompaniment to the singing.
The orchestra is what propels the energy of the work. How you shape
the music can change completely the sensation that the listener will
have – they’ll be moved, not moved, bored to death. It’s not all about
the singing; it’s the singing and the orchestra and the chorus. The
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