Self-critical artist - enthusiastic teacher
Barbara Bonney talks about her ambitions as an artist and teacher
“There is a young generation of singers but audiences are not young”, Barbara Bonney said recently in an interview. “That’s why I’m going on this crusade to appeal to a new public. I am also giving courses for amateurs and the result is fantastic. I feel that if we can motivate people to sing then we can also encourage them to make music at home again. Because that is precisely what is missing; people have to get an individual feeling for music. When great singing stars make appearances in football stadia that doesn’t help music at all.” The renowned soprano is an enthusiastic singing teacher: “I consider myself a much better teacher than singer. When I am teaching I am always 100 per cent certain, whereas when I am singing, I sometimes have doubts.“
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| Barbara Bonney can be heard next summer in performances of King Arthur. |
During the Hugo Wolf Project as part of the International Summer Academy of the Mozarteum University Barbara Bonney spoke about the problems of singing lied. “It is becoming increasingly difficult. Singing lied is the prime discipline of singers. In opera all the forces one employs generously and can give free rein to have to be concentrated and used with the utmost discipline. In the career of a singer, especially for women, it is becoming more and more difficult. They know the repertoire and they know their voice. But it becomes harder and harder to control the body and to realise this absolutely perfect image as required for the interpretation of lied.“
When Barbara Bonney started to study at the Mozarteum she “slipped into a singing class” because she could not afford to bring her cello here to Salzburg; now she is in demand all over the world as an opera and lied singer. During the Salzburg Festival 2003 Barbara Bonney sang the role of Servilia in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito. She also participated in Thomas Hampson’s Hugo Wolf Marathon and stepped in at short notice to give a recital in place of Ramon Vargas who was indisposed.
Heidemarie Klabacher