For an ice cream with . .
Asmik Grigorian: Queen, druid & neo-Viennese
Vilnius-born soprano Asmik Grigorian rounded off her summer at the Salzburg Festival over ice cream with the "Krone", talking about her love of Salzburg, awards and her new home in Vienna.
Do opera singers actually have vacations? "I don't know how the others do it, but I don't have many vacations - and when I do, it's mainly in winter to catch up on the summer. But this year I can't make it. I'm completely booked up. I think I need to think about my life!" Says Asmik Grigorian and laughs heartily.
On one of the last festival days in the garden of her Salzburg accommodation, she visited the "Krone" and spoke to her over a cool ice cream.
She has been a fixed star at the Salzburg Summer Festival every summer since 2017: as Wozzeck-Marie, Salome, Chrysothemis, Lady Macbeth, in Puccini's "Trittico" and this year as Polina in "Der Spieler".
Salzburg is one of the most important places in her career, "but my heart lives here too. I always joke: if I make it to the summer in Salzburg, then I will have survived. Salzburg is my energy center, where people I love live. Just like the mountains and the surrounding nature."
The daughter of Armenian tenor Gegam Grigorian and Lithuanian soprano Irena Milkevičiūtė comes to the interview directly from Vienna, where she is rehearsing her first Elisabetta in Verdi's "Don Carlo" at the State Opera.
Major award for a new Viennese actress
Today, Sunday, Asmik Grigorian will also be presented with the "Grand Jury Prize" of the Austrian Music Theater Award at the Volksoper.
"Sometimes it's like a dream for me because I receive so many prizes. But this one is special now that Austria is my new home," says Grigorian, who has chosen Vienna as her new permanent residence because her daughter has started school. "I feel so loved in this country. That is the greatest gift for any artist. The prize is a symbol of that," says the soprano, delighted with the award.
What you probably didn't know about Asmik Girgorian:
Favorite type of ice cream: Asmik Grigorian is not a "sweetie" per se, as she confesses. If ice cream, she prefers the coffee flavor or a not-too-sweet sorbet.
Gambler? This summer at the Salzburg Festival, she played Polina in Prokofiev's "The Gambler". But she doesn't dare go to the casino herself: "My father gambled. We Armenians are gamblers at heart. So it's better to stay away."
Neo-Viennese: Asmik Grigorian now lives in Vienna. Her daughter is of school age and has started school. As a result, her mother no longer sings Saturday performances. Every Friday evening she goes home to Vienna to spend the weekend with her daughter.
The soprano has never taken part in singing competitions in her life: "Maybe because I don't know how to lose. If I win, I feel guilty that maybe someone else was better. When I lose, I think I'm a failure."
Panic attacks when she's on stage
She doesn't have any special rituals before performances. "I don't feel very nervous before performances, but I have these panic attacks on stage. I never know when and how it's going to happen. It's like animals that suddenly freeze. Then I can no longer feel my hands or open my mouth normally. I've had this since I was a child, but over the last 20 years I've learned to sing and play anyway."
Bellini's "Norma" as a tribute to her mother
Her credo is to accept challenges, to grow within herself. That's why she dares to take on Bellini's druid priestess Norma at the Theater an der Wien in February.
"I've never sung bel canto, no coloratura roles. Learning this at 43 is a bit crazy, but the role is somehow inside me," explains Asmik Grigorian: "I want to dedicate these performances to my mother, she was one of the best Normas, she was magical. Of course, I will sing Norma in a more veristic way, in keeping with my vocal range. It's a very personal story and I will do my best!"
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