I first toured with Miklós Teleki last year, on a commission by Filharmónia. Our evenings worked very well and we were invited to play again this year. Singing in a church gives me special inspiration and this combined with Miklós’s beautiful organ playing is a wonderful experience. Our programme this year includes arias by Händel, Purcell and Mendelssohn, and Mascagni’s Ave Maria. In the latter, the audience will be able to recognise the intermezzo in Rustic Chivalry.

 

 

I can hardly wait to return to Kőszeg where I had several open-air concerts a few years ago, in front of the Sacred Heart of Jesus church. At the time I found it a great challenge to sing the roles of Santuzza and Nedda on the same evening. This time I will sing in the church. I had time to explore Kőszeg at the time because I spent a whole month there for the performances. I enjoyed looking at the delicately shaped buildings, the stork nests on the top of electricity poles, and listened to the bells resounding from the nearby hills. Last year I sang in the synagogue in Szeged and even though I was sad to see the leak in the roof, the concert remained one of my best memories. I am saddened to realise that such treasures are in danger. Another venue where I will return this year is the basilica in Pécs. I have sung there in the past and I can hardly wait to return. I am attached to that church also by way of a childhood memory. We were on a class trip and my father, who was a teacher, was also with us. He asked to be allowed to play the organ for us. My father improvised some amazing music in that church. I saw him as a hero and I think it was the time when I was proudest of him. He is not with us anymore but his organ playing still resonates in my heart.

 

 

The concert in Eger will be different from the other recitals because I will sing with organist Miklós Haraszty and the French tenor Thierry Pillon will also appear on stage We will sing duets from the Verdi’s operas Otello and Il trovatore, plus music by Gluck and Donaudy. The concert will be followed by the singing course organised by the House of Arts in Eger. The programme consists of French operas, because my colleague is a specialist, and Liszt’s song, which have always been close to my heart. Now that the Liszt jubilee is approaching, since the 200th  anniversary of his birth will be celebrated next year, I would like to give it due preparation. I give many courses around the world, often together with Thierry Pillon. We recently gave a course to young people in Nice and we will give a concert and master course at the Hungarian Institute in Paris in September. I have also been invited to Sao Paolo and Rome. A course can never substitute regular training with a teacher but it offers guidance and ideas for new approaches in music and technique. I consider it important to pass over the knowledge I have accumulated during my career. After all, I have worked together with such outstanding musicians as György Solti, Lamberto Gardelli, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Alberto Erede and Georges Pretre, and such directors as Jorge Lavelli and Jean-Pierre Ponnelle.       

 

 

I recently looked up the meaning of the word tradition in an Italian dictionary and they explained its meaning with the word passing on. Indeed, I feel this to be my task as well as to pass on my deeply felt and very personal love for music.

 

 

My volume The Song of Dreams was published in French with the title Infinie Mélodie….Next to music my other passion is writing. I am writing my third book which will be about my travels. I have completed four chapters already. But now it has slowed down a bit because I focused on preparing for the concert series.

 

 

Painting is my third muse. The altar at the church of Pötréte has been consecrated. Now I am working on a tabernacle for the church of Alsórajk, depicting the annunciation. I am extremely moved to think of the fact that people will pray in front of my small paintings.

 

 

I think what makes us fit for life is to be capable of change. I have chosen this topic for a JÓSZÓ evening that I will hold in Budapest on July 27. One must be able to ask questions from himself or herself sincerely in order to find the dreams of ourselves at the time. I keep looking for them. I am forever curious: one who wishes to learn new things all the time. One who wishes to be renewed.

 

 

I enjoy concerts but I would like to reserve enough time for my other two great aspirations because I think they all blend into one whole inside me.

 

 

This will need to wait because as long as the Master Class is still running in Paris, as the copyright for the performance is not available. But I hope this plan will also take shape one day. And I am also very much interested in directing.

 

 

The composer Alberto Santana recently informed me that he finished the music. I am waiting for a printed score so that I can finally hold this much-anticipated work in my hands. I would be moved if it were Budapest audiences who first see and hear the opera which pays tribute to Callas’s art. The story is not a biography but several aspects are reminiscent. I wanted an opera about the tribulations of a great artist, something with which many renowned singers can identify with.

 

Interviewer: Zsuzsa Réfi / Photo: Dániel Kováts