Angela Gheorghiu

Star in private: “I am a woman and a singer”

From a small Romanian village to the big world of opera, it was a stone's throw for soprano Angela Gheorghiu(Bild: Gabriel Hennessey)

Before her acclaimed recital at the Klagenfurt Stadttheater, Romanian star soprano Angela Gheorghiu gave an interview to the "Krone": A harmonious experience!

Normally, this would be a classic review of last night's recital. But because we can only indulge in superlatives when it comes to an artist who has been acclaimed on all the world's major stages for decades, we let the Romanian star soprano Angela Gheorghiu have her say in private.

 So you stand under a royal chandelier in the red and gold lobby opulence of Schloss Seefels with its baroque touch and prepare to wait. The moment of surprise is enlightening, because SHE is already there and both the warm greeting and the radiant smile give you an idea of why you will fall for her immediately.

It's not a diva sitting elegantly relaxed on the divan, but a strong, passionate, determined, undeniably glamorous woman who talks so unpretentiously and engagingly about her life and career that you feel like you know her.

Celebrities from the Romanian homeland
"In Romania, we have always studied the culture of the West and also of America, but the others have learned nothing from us. We have such great creative potential and of course people know sculptor Constantin Brâncuşi. But many others who wanted to stay or had to stay because of communism are largely unknown abroad. Like the Romanian Socrates Petre Ţuţea, who inspired the masses with his speeches and understood the political world as well as the wisdom of the people. Clara Haskil is another example, born in Bucharest in 1895, she was a great pianist of her time. And of course the first 'Tosca' Hariclea Darclée, for whom Puccini composed the aria, or the soprano Eugenia Moldoveanu," says Gheorghiu, scattering roses over another famous predecessor from her home country.

"I still remember the shots well"
As a student in Bucharest, she herself experienced the revolution that saw Romanians rise up against the Ceauşescu regime in December 1989 in demonstrations and bloody battles: "I can still remember the shots. Romania became a democracy slowly and in small steps. I started here as a professional singer when I was 18. In 1990, after the political change, the phones were ringing off the hook because all the international opera houses wanted to hire me. They already knew me," she says with a smile, recounting the start of her meteoric career, which continues to this day. What is the secret of her success?

"I need harmony, I'm very disciplined and have learned all the roles in my life on my own. Head and instinct have always guided me very well. When I sing the first note, I remember the last. That is my inner law, so as not to destroy the voice that I have never inflated. I turned down very dramatic roles. I know my limits and didn't want to tire myself out. If you sing too loudly or too high, it damages the timbre," she reveals from the vocal sewing box.

Gheorghiu gets angry "when a director asks me to do something that he himself has no idea about and doesn't know what this or that opera is about. In 80 percent of the productions, I knew everything there was to know before the actual work even began." Hypocrisy is just as alien to her: "I only sing for myself? What a hypocrisy! People pay to hear me. I sing to share my gift with the audience."