在同一部歌劇中扮演新角色

小瓊：幾個月前，我在舊金山歌劇院主辦的一個有趣的ZOOM視頻研討會中，看到三位瓦格納天后與觀眾們分享了她們的職業(yè)心得。在這三位中，有兩人在《指環(huán)》中扮演了多重角色。 妮娜·斯特默在成為布倫希爾德之前，曾以弗麗亞、齊格琳德和古特魯尼的身份出現(xiàn)在舞臺上。我真的很好奇，想知道有多少其他的歌劇可以為同一個歌手提供多個角色。

小薇：由于歌劇是一項(xiàng)如此龐大的集體項(xiàng)目，因此，有時(shí)一位藝術(shù)家會在同一部歌劇重演時(shí)扮演不同的角色是有道理的。但我想這些大多是小角色。有多少歌劇可以同時(shí)容納兩位明星男高音，或一位以上的女高音呢？

小瓊：我剛剛看了一個舊金山歌劇院的點(diǎn)播節(jié)目，主角包括芬蘭女高音卡麗塔·瑪?shù)倮Ｎ矣浀?4年前她曾在大都會歌劇院版萊奧什·雅納切克的《耶努法》中擔(dān)任劇名主角。當(dāng)年，用捷克語演繹捷克歌劇，業(yè)界都公認(rèn)是一項(xiàng)壯舉！

小薇：我知道這部作品中有兩個主要的女高音角色。除了女主人公耶努法，還有她的繼母科斯泰尼卡，村莊里的一位圣器守司。簡而言之，關(guān)于私生子的悲慘故事將這兩個女人聯(lián)系在了一起。

小瓊：十幾年前，卡麗塔·瑪?shù)倮驗(yàn)槌鲅菀ǐ@得了很多關(guān)注，不僅讓她聲名大噪，更為雅納切克的歌劇贏得不少粉絲。真正令人驚奇的是，我在網(wǎng)上看到的2016年舊金山歌劇院的演出中，她擔(dān)任的角色是繼母科斯泰尼卡。

小薇：這兩個角色都極具戲劇性。這兩位摩拉維亞鄉(xiāng)村婦女的角色中，耶努法的臉頰被割傷，作為未婚媽媽，她飽受煎熬；科斯泰尼卡則盡力挽救繼女，使其免遭丑聞之苦，但最終還是殺掉了繼女的孩子。這兩個角色的情感創(chuàng)傷真的很沉重：一個是被愛情蒙蔽了雙眼的年輕女子，另一個是對社會壓力保持警惕的中年母親。你可以從她們的聲音中聽到痛苦和悲傷。

小瓊：我發(fā)現(xiàn)，這次舊金山版《耶努法》最令人驚奇的，不光是瑪?shù)倮趧≈谐鲅萘瞬煌慕巧疫@就是奧利維爾·坦博西（Olivier Tambosi）當(dāng)年為大都會歌劇院制作的那一版，這意味著服裝、布景、道具和其他幾乎所有東西與十幾年前都是一樣的。這個制作對觀眾和瑪?shù)倮瓉碚f都可謂是似曾相識！

Joan： A few months ago， I saw an interesting ZOOM chat hosted by the San Francisco Opera where three Wagnerian divas shared their professional experiences. Of the three， two have played multiple roles in the Ring Cycle. Nina Stemme， before her star turn as Brünnhilde， had already appeared as Freia， Sieglinde and Gutrune. I was really intrigued and wondered how many other operas could offer one singer multiple roles.

Valery： Since opera is such a massive group effort， it makes sense that sometimes the same artist will appear in the same opera， but in a different role at a different time！ But I guess they are mostly minor roles. How many operas can accommodate two star tenors， or more than one soprano？

Joan： Well， I was just watching an on-demand stream of the San Francisco Opera starring Finnish soprano Karita Mattila， whom I remember 14 years ago performing the title role in Leo？ Janá？eks Jen？fa（at the Metropolitan Opera）， back when performing Czech opera in the original language was a big deal！

Valery： I understand there are two major soprano roles in this opera. Apart from Jen？fa， theres also her stepmother， the village sacristan by the name of Kostelni？ka. In a nutshell， this tragic story about a baby born out of wedlock ties these two women together.

Joan： Karita Mattila got a lot of attention in the role of Jen？fa， not only for herself but also winning converts to the opera and to Janá？ek. What was truly amazing is that in the 2016 performance at San Francisco Opera that I saw online she played the role of Kostelni？ka.

Valery： These are both intense roles. Of these two Moravian village women， Jen？fa has her cheek slashed and suffers as an unwed mother， while Kostelni？ka tries her best to save her stepdaughter from scandal but eventually resorts to killing the baby. The emotional trauma of both roles is really taxing： one is a young woman blinded with love， the other a middle-aged mother wary of social pressures. You can hear the anguish and sadness in their voices.

Joan： What I found most amazing this time is that not only did Mattila appear in a different role， but this Jen？fa was the same production by Olivier Tambosi that appeared at the Metropolitan Opera， which meant that costumes， sets， props and almost everything else was all the same. Thats déjà vu for both the audience and for Mattila！