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'Figaro' a first ... for NBA-loving baritone
By John Farrell, San Bernardino Sun, 21 May 2004
For baritone Erwin Schrott, who will sing the role of Figaro
for the first time in the Los Angeles Opera production of
Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro' beginning tonight at the
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, there couldn't have been a better
time to be in Southern California.
Schrott, who lives outside Milan, Italy, with his wife and
daughter, is not only one of the world's most in-demand
baritones, but also an NBA fan.
"In Italy, everybody loves the NBA,' he said in his dressing
room the Friday after Derek Fisher's last-second heroics
turned the tide for the Lakers in their series with San
Antonio. And Schrott announced with a smile that he had
managed to get tickets to the next game, which the Lakers
won.
That smile seems to be pretty much a permanent part of
Schrott's personality. There are artists who suffer for
their art, but the young Italian isn't one of them. He loves
life, and especially the life he has as an opera singer who
travels the world to perform. His only regret is that he
can't spend as much time with his wife and daughter as he
would like. He had just flown into Los Angeles from
Montevideo, Uruguay, where he was born in 1972. He had been
visiting his parents.
"I love traveling, and I love performing,' Schrott said. "I
am a very happy man. If you get to do work that you love,
you are very lucky, and I love my work and I love to travel.
"When I am at home, I wake up in the morning and I say, 'I
want to get to work right away,' and my wife will say, `You
have only been home a week. Relax.' '
Schrott is as much an actor a singer, part of the new
generation of opera stars who want to do more in a
performance than just sing. He has movie idol good looks:
tall, handsome, ruggedly built, with a powerful handshake
and sparkling eyes, his loose curly black hair falling to
his collar. He also has the kind of personality that can be
transmitted with just a glance.
He turns on his acting skills for a demonstration of his
method, derived from Stanislavksy, of concentrating on one
member of the audience to get the message across, and you
see how powerfully he can express emotion. He demonstrates
how he uses that technique in singing, with a few bars of
Leporello's opening aria from Mozart's "Don Giovanni,' and,
in the hardly spacious confines of the dressing room, his
voice is so loud and strong you get a brief idea of how
opera singers do their magic on stage.
Mozart has become Schrott's specialty, from Leporello in
"Don Giovanni' to the Don himself, and now Figaro for the
first time. His Mozart roles include Don Giovanni, which he
sang with great success in Los Angeles in 2003, and
Leporello and Maestro in other productions of that opera. He
has sung in "La Boheme' at the Metropolitan Opera and in
Hamburg, Germany, and has also sung with the Vienna Opera,
the Royal Opera, Covent Garden and in Florence and Naples.
He will return to Los Angeles next year to sing Escamillo in
Bizet's "Carmen,' a role he will first sing in Rome this
summer.
This "Figaro' is a new production mounted by the company,
with sets designed by Tim Goodchild and costumes by Deidre
Clancy. The production is directed by Ian Judge, and Maestro
Stefan Anton Reck, making his L.A. Opera debut, will conduct
all nine performances.
"I love doing Mozart. It suits my voice, and I think his
operas are perfect for me right now,' Schrott said. "Of
course, your voice needs some exercise, so every so often I
do a role where I have to growl.'
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