Report: LISA GASTEEN: BAYREUTH SCHOLAR 1999
The Bayreuth scholarship is awarded by Opera Foundation
Australia to enable an Australian artist who is professionally engaged
in some facet of opera to further develop his/her skills by undertaking
study in any part of Germany for a month. The Wagner Society in NSW
sponsors the scholarship in association with Opera Foundation Australia
by paying the return air fare to Germany of the scholar. Lisa Gasteen
is to be congratulated on her achievements in Germany and also in
her outstanding performance as Chrysothemis in Elektra. We
thank her for giving us the following report.
"While away I worked on preparing in particular
the roles of Chrysothemis in Elektra, Brünnhilde in Die
Walküre and Siegfried and revised Leonora in Fidelio.
I was also particularly keen to start some intensive German language
lessons.
"Because of the heavy work schedule of the staff
at both the Berlin Staatsoper and the Stuttgart Oper I didn't work
with any one person in particular but was fortunate to be able to
avail myself of the experience of several of the very experienced
coaches at both houses.
"I started in Berlin where I finished preparing
Chrysothemis and worked on revising Fidelio which I had not sung for
seven years. Then I moved on to Stuttgart where I had some final coaching
sessions on Brünnhilde (Siegfried) prior to commencement of
rehearsals of the same opera. Once performances were under way I was
able to fit in coaching sessions on Brünnhilde in Die Walküre.
"While in Stuttgart I was excited to be able to
settle down and do some significant work on the German language. For
three weeks I attended lessons with the Berlitz school. This is the
most intensive and extensive language coaching that I have ever been
able to do. Most of the lessons were spent in one on one conversation
with my teacher. Whenever I had time I would also go to the school
and use their computers in the language laboratory. The vast improvement
this has made to my spoken German has given me greater ability to
interpret roles and have a better understanding of the actual characters
and their motivation etc. It has also given me much more confidence
when working with a German team e.g., here in Sydney with the Elektra
company for Sydney Festival.
"I was very gratified to hear from the people with
whom I have previously worked in Berlin (in particular Katharina Lang
the director of the Elektra for Sydney Festival) that my German
is much improved. Obviously I still have a lot more work to do on
mastering the German language but I really feel that I'm well and
truly on the way and I intend, on subsequent trips to Germany, to
continue German language lessons whenever and wherever possible.
"Subsequent to receiving the scholarship I have
performed the roles of Brünnhilde (Siegfried) and Chrysothemis
(Elektra) causing much excitement and positive response. In
Stuttgart some of the older fans likened my singing to that of Birgit
Nilsson, which I take as high praise indeed. I didn't get one negative
review and was credited with the "best vocal achievement of the
evening" in one review. My German colleagues have also been very
complimentary with regard to my sung German saying that my diction
is excellent and without accent."
LISA GASTEEN
This Page was last updated on:
10-Mar-2004
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