Interview with mezzo-soprano Jana Wallingerová

I’m always pleased to see in your CV that alongside choral signing you don’t overlook your folk past. What did you get from your folk music experience?

I realised thanks to them that folk songs, in any form, should be sung as naturally and as simply as possible. I always remember that whenever I sing the songs of, for instance, Martinů, Janáček or Dvořák. And when we have to do folk dances and performances on stage, I can recognise easily which choreographers understand folk and which ones haven’t a clue about it.

Your home theatre is the National Theatre in Brno. You are clearly one of the most popular performers with audiences. What role are you working on at present?

We are rehearsing Britten’s opera A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I sing the part of Hermia.

What do you have to concentrate on most when you’re standing on a theatre stage?

Mainly the words. And in the case of a difficult musical entrance the conductor. But most often during a performance it flows automatically and I awaken from a trance at the end of the opera.

What does acting mean to you?

Joy, a cure for my aching soul. If something is bothering me before a performance, most times by the end of an opera I’ve completely forgotten about it. I have a wonderful profession, I can put myself in the position of others, escape from reality. My life is therefore enriched by experiences I never go through in normal life. But I also draw a lot of my own experiences on stage. Theatre is a wonderful world – I enjoy it a lot.

What premieres have you had so far in the current season?

They’ve included Korngold’s Das Wunder der Heliane, in which I played the part of the Messenger, Massenet’s Don Quichotte, in Liberec, the role of Dulcinée, for which I was long-listed for a Thalia prize, the part of Ninette in Verdi’s Les vêpres siciliennes, and I appeared as Carmen in the theatre in Košice, playing the title role.

If I attempt to ask which roles have been your favourites, would you be able to answer?

Almost all of them! If you enjoy something, you enjoy every tone on stage, and it’s all the same what costume you’re wearing and if you’re holding a cat o' nine tails or flowers in your hands. A variety of roles and stories suits me perfectly.

Have you thought about going abroad? Would you have the courage to look for work in another country, or are you too tied to home?

I’ve thought about it and even at the conservatory I’d decided that I wouldn’t look for that. I wouldn’t like to live anywhere else. But it is pleasant to go somewhere from time to time, to get to know another culture and to realise that I would have a chance abroad. When the entire Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra tapped their instruments to me after the Inflammatus aria from Dvořák’s Stabat Mater it was a very pleasant feeling.

Judging by the repertoire on your website, Prokofiev’s cantata is a premiere for you. How rewarding do you find the part?

Yes, it is my premiere and I’m looking forward to it a lot. Prokofiev’s beautiful music immediately found a place in my heart. My part isn’t big at all, it’s just one part – and that’s harder, because I have to say everything in a short passage.

In conclusion, tell us what you like most about a life of sacred classical music? And is there anything that bothers you about it?

What I like most is that singing isn’t easy and it can’t be done without talent. I still have new challenges and tasks in front of me. I experience constant euphoria – seriously. This profession constantly forces me to think again about life and what it means. You can’t be cold and make a living through art… In a way, that bothers me at the same time. It isn’t possible to get away from it, to rest.