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The first time I had the pleasure of encountering the talent of soprano Patricia Racette was in 1995.She was doing her MET debut as Musetta in Puccini's "La Bohéme" in the big Zeffirelli production. For some singers, it is difficult to stand out in such large, Hollywood-like productions but Racette's Musetta surely stood out thanks to her commanding stage presence, her velvety voice and her undoubtful connecion to Puccini's music. In 1996, I witnessed yet another amazing performance by this American soprano: Antonia in Offenbach's "Les Contes D'Hoffmann". Few sopranos have achieved the pathos and larger-than-life performance, specially in the final trio, as Racette did that time. Her voice soared in such a way that you could feel Antonia's desperation and her gorgeous final high note broght the entire audience to an uproar.
Since those unforgettable performances, Racette has established herself as one of the most exciting singing-actresses in the world of opera. Her repertory includes a wide range of works, from Gounod to Verdi, from Gluck to Britten. But it is Giacomo Puccini the composer that has been more associated to Racette and, specially, her utterly magnificent performance as "Madama Butterfly". For those of us who have witnessed her touching portrayal of Cio-cio-san, her interpretation has establish a landmark of how this character has to be sung and acted. Her evolution from a fifteen year old naïve girl to the tormented but always proud geisha who waits for the return of her unfaithful husband, is unmatchable. Her performance at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York was broadcasted around the world and is now available on DVD.
When I met Patricia Racette for our interview, she was singing for the second time in her career, the role of Leonora in "ll Trovatore" at the MET. Her approach to the role was more human, showing the character's strengths and weaknesses. Our talk took place in one of the dressingrooms. She is a very charming lady, with a bubbly personality and a true passion for her favorite composer: Giacomo Puccini.

Ms. Racette, we want to thank you for this interview and congratulate you for this wonderful performance you gave last night as Leonora.
Thank you for this interview.

Lets start our interview by talking about the role of Leonora in "Il Trovatore", which you are singing for the second time in you career and for the first time at the MET. How is your relationship with this role?
A few years ago, Peter Gelb (the general manager of the MET) asked me to do this role. I had done it just once before and I was not sure if I wanted to sing it again because it might not be the right path for me but then I thought it would be appropriate to tackle the role once more and I'm surprised at how much I am enjoying it!

Do you think that this role has to be approached more like the early Verdi, where belcanto was still palpable in his way of writing the arias?
Yes, I do think so but what is interesting is that it is a large role, longer than other belcanto roles but it also has certain pre-verismo moments to it. It has been an interesting challenge for me.

You now explored more the role than when you did it the first time?
Absolutely! When I did it seven years ago, it was entirely a different task,  I was a different singer and artist. It is more pleasureable this time, for sure.

What do you think of David MacVicar's production?
I think it is a wonderful realization of the story, which is notoriously difficult. He has made the story so real and fleshed it out in such a way that for me as a singing-actress it's really a pleasure to participate in the story. It is a very physical production and I spend a lot of time on the ground! (she laughs) But it is good that a stage director demands acting from the singers. I can't stand a production where singers just "park and bark".

What was your experience in sharing the stage once more with tenor Marcelo Álvarez (Manrico) with whom you sang in 1998 "La Traviata" here at the MET?
He is so passionate and commited on stage and that is so wonderful to play across! He sings so gorgeously!

This "Il Trovatore" also brought you back together with another colleague with which you've sang before: baritone Zeljko Lucic. Tell us about your experience with him.
Well, we sang "Don Carlo" together in 2006 in Tanglewood conducted by James Levine, then we sang "Il Tabarro" at the MET and this is our third collaboration.

In what way do you work with stage directors, such as David McVicar ( in this production) or the late Anthony Minghella in "Madama Butterfly"?
For "Il Trovatore" I worked with Paula Williams, David's assistant when he came here. She remounted it and was very precise on what he wanted us to do but also has her own grasp on what the production is about. In terms of the Minghella produtcion, Anthony did come back to work with us and we become instant friends. I was so heartbroken when he passed away so suddenly.

You've done Minghella's production twice: in 2009 with Roberto Alagna as Pinkerton and then for the HD cinema broadcast with Marcello Giordani as your Pinkerton.
Yes! That was so much fun! Roberto Alagna is so wonderful to work with... and he is so cute! He is such a handsome devil! And he lifted me as if I was nothing at all so I'm in love with him since! (she laughs)

What do you find fascinating about this production in particular?
This is my favorite production, by far. So riveting, so visually stunning so appropriate, so flavoured with the austerity I think its inherent in the Japanese culture. It also has the opulence and passion of the Italian score. I think it marries the two beautifully. The stagecraft, the actual realization in staging and blocking and physicallity is so perfectly placed. When an artist approaches a part with a director, you want to make a role your own. In this production, there was very little or almost anything that I wanted to change and make mine because of what they were asking us to do. Carolyn Choa, Minghella's wife, was a dancer and she had such specific physical requests that I just did what they asked because it was so interesting and right and you could infuse your interpretation through every movement and every gesture. It is such a magical production!

What was your reaction when the role of Dolore was going to be played by a puppet with three guys controlling it from behind? Because it is usually a distraction for the poor soprano singing Cio-cio-san, to have to sing and also to control the boy or girl who plays Dolore who usually is not very coperative in acting terms.
I will only say this: it is so good that the puppet is not picking his nose during "Che tua madre"!  (she laughs) But I have to say I have had some wonderful, divine children playing Dolore, particularly in Chicago. I had this little girl who was just a ray of light, her spirit was so beautiful. In fact, I had rocked her before the "Dormi amor" on stage, that was the Harold Prince production... and she fell asleep for real! But this is the funny thing... she snored!!! It was the most adorable thing! And I also have had some not very nice kids who wip your kisses away in the final scene. But it is fine, it's what it is! I loved the puppet! The way that puppet behaved was more real than most of the times when you have a child playing it. I thought it was so beautiful!

Do you think that the approach to a role such as Cio-cio-san has changed through the years, particularly because of all the requierements that stage directors are asking from you, the singers? For example, in the HD cinema.
Not for me. I always work a character from inside out. I don't believe grand gestures are necessary if there are not filled with meaning. The subtletest of things can reach a four thousand seats theater. Iove the fact that things are being filmed upclose because then they are going to see the tears coming out of your eyes. That being said, we do look very funny when we are wailing away sometimes and it might not be thenmost natural delivery of text but it is opera! It is a beautiful medium that is taking off!

Continuing wth your Puccini roles, we have to talk about your performances of the three female roles in Puccini's "Il Trittico".  You have sung them in San Francisco and then at the MET. What is it about these three roles that attracted you to sing them?
I sang them first in San Francisco in a modern production and then at the MET with the Jack O'Brien production. I loved the San Francisco production and it as great to do Lauretta with a comedic flare, it was very appealing to me.

Starting with the first role that appears in this opera, what is your opinion about Giorgetta? Is she a victim or just another bad girl?
I don't believe anyone is just good or bad or just one-dimensional. My Giorgetta is someone who is caught. These two people, Michele and Giorgetta have been so damaged by the pain and they have not dealt with it well. They certainly drifted apart. I think her adulteros affair with Luigi is just a cry for help, it is needing to fill the hole that their dead child has left behind. She has made some bad choices and you can force certain morality on them but it is all about the pain these people had lived with. She and Michele were once in love and they were probably the happiest couple in the world. Then they had a child and lost him so it was the most painful thing that could happen to them. There are certain situations in life that bring out the very best out of us and those who bring out the worst out of us. I don't want to judge Giorgetta. She is in pain and training to find some relieve.

Do you think this is part of the realism and humanity that Puccini gives to his characters?
It is! I think it is not just in the text and in the different interpretations you can give to the libretto but it is also in the music. I think Puccini is a theatrical genious!

Is it a challenge to perform Giorgetta and then go to the tour-de-force role of Suor Angelica? How do you store your energy from one demanding role to yet another one as difficult and strong?
When you sing Butterfly, nothing is sort of the vocal and physical taxation, that is.But in doing "Il Trittico", I don't think that singing together the three roles you get as much singing as you do in Butterfly. It is a matter of concentration. There are full operas, with a beginning, middle and an end, a full arch for each one.

What is it about Suor Angelica that makes it such a fascinating character to sing?
I love it when my characters are all pinned up with unexpressed emotion and we get the chance to see them explode. That makes it great theater too! And the music, of course!

The San Francisco production was done in a children's hospital, instead of a convent. How did that make you differ your portrayal than when you played it in the traditional staging at the MET?
It was more heartbraking! I think it was a very special production, although I know there were people that didn't like it and that want to see the traditional way, which is fine but this was a very clever production by James Robinson.
One thing that strucked me a lot in that production was that, instead of the child of Angelica appearing from Heaven, there was a boy who came from the back of the crystal door of the hospìtal. He comes back and puts his hand in the glass and reaches out to Angelica but you don't really know if it is the apparition of her child or just a kid that was there in the hospital. I love that ambiguity!

Let's talk about Lauretta. What is your view of the role?
Well, I have to confess that I though she was just this sweet, little ingenue who gets a very beautiful aria to sing. It isn't the most appealing story to tell but it is fun to be part of that opera and I get to sing the famous "O mio babbino caro". I loved that in San Francisco I got to play her as ditzy and funny. It was a more straight forward reading at the MET. I will do "Il Trittico" again in the Theater and der Wien BUT... just the first two... not Lauretta. I'm so excited about it!

Tell us about your other Puccini roles.
I've done Musetta many times and Mimi over a hundred times. I know Mimí is the leading lady but I much enjoy doing Musetta. I don't do either of them anymore, I kind of retire Mimí years ago. I have sung "Tosca" also: first in Houston and then at the MET with Jonas Kaufmann and Bryn Terfel. It is now one of my favorite roles!

In "Tosca", is every act of the opera a different aspect of her personality: the woman, the diva, the artist? Is she a mixture of all?
I think she is more of a mixture of all. She is a lose canon, I don't like to play her as a shrew. She struggles with her own emotions, there is no lid, no filter. She is not easily regulated and I love that in her. It is also wonderful to play someone who isn't  so horribly victimized and takes her fate into her own hands.

How do you prepare a role like Tosca, that has been so iconic and that has a lot of historical baggage for a soprano? How do you make it YOUR Tosca?
The same way I prepare any role because I realize that sometimes it is a new work and I don't have the big baggage of comparison but for me it's interesting to know what has been done before, to observe that. But ultimately, in order to give a performance of MY Tosca, I have to go through my process of doing all the vocal work, the story work and then figuring out what it means to me, what each moment means to me. It needs to feel real and that I am really living that. There are teachers and collegues who say you shouldn't get to close to your roles or too emotional but, for me,  you can't get close enough! The voice and the emotions have to be intertwined!

Did you like the Luc Bondy production of "Tosca"?
I did! I know many people didn't like it. I don't understand why they had a problem with it. If we don't start to push the envelope a little, we will end up doing the old thing over and over again. Is that really art? I'm not sure it is. That, being said, did I have struggle with things of the directions? Yes, there were a couple of things I disagreed but I managed to make all of it work. Even the lying down in the sofa with the fan at the end of act II... I like that idea! I think that, if you stab someone, you sit down, relax and think what you will do next. She is stunned of what she has done! If you read it in that way, it really works. Why do we want to have the famous Sarah Bernhardt ritual over and over again? We are victims of a society who is used to formulas, in movies, in TV. How often are things exact in real life? For me, it is important to take the information of what was done before and then dicifer it through my thoughts and my heart and spirit. I always try to give the audience all that I have and which is uniquely mine. I prefer to have a unique imprint than a generic one.

Speaking now of other composer you've sung: Giuseppe Verdi, let's talk about the roles you've done of him: Leonora in "Il Trovatore", Violetta in "La Traviata", Elisabetta in "Don Carlo"...
I do sing Verdi but I can't lie and say I do it reluctantly but I have to say there are a few roles that I would do again and Elisabetta is one. I love the music of Verdi and my voice likes it but it really likes Puccini more.

Other composer which suits your voice marvelously and that has been also close associated to you is Leos Janacek. Tell us about your "Jenufa" and your "Kat'a Kabanova". What about these strong female characters?
I just did "Kat'a Kabanova" in London and I am singing it in Dallas next fall in a great production. Janacek knows how to write fantastic theater! I always joke that you have to work REALLY hard if you want to ruin "Jenufa"! (she laughs) It is such an amazing story and it is so powerful. It's composed in a speech rhythm, which makes it more real. Janaceka nd Puccini are the composers that suit me more. Unfortunately, specially here in the United States, Janacek operas are dead in the box office, they are not that often done because I would certainly like to sing them more.

You've also sung and premiered a lot of works by American composers: "Emmeline", "An American Tragedy", "Cold Sassy". What is your feeling about this contemporary works?
I love doing that because it is a rich, collaborative process. I enjoy singing them very much, it is a lot of work but it is worth it. You get to give your imprint first!

Thanks so much for the interview, Ms. Racette, and congratulations for your OPERA NEWS Award.
Thank you for the interview!

Ingrid Haas