New Classical Tracks: Songs of Spain

Latvian mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca is a tall stunning blonde who loves Spain.

"I live in Spain, in southern Spain in Andalusia for two years now, and I really feel at home. It's wonderful weather, it has great food. Sometimes I feel I was born in the wrong geographical place. I should have been born brown eyes, and dark hair like Spain." Elina Garanca says she has been bewitched by Spain ever since she was a little girl. "My fascination with Spain started in the late '80s, I was probably seven or eight years old, it was the first time I saw the movie with Julia Migenes and Placido Domingo, 'Carmen,' and I found her so fascinating and the costumes, and I thought, that is so beautiful! And then my mother, who is a singer, sang so much Spanish repertoire at home, so that repertoire was well known for me. I then met my husband and I was blown away. I really saw those proud Spaniards as I actually see them, the beautiful flamenco, and fell in love with it!" Elina Garanca's husband, conductor Karel Mark Chichon, grew up in Gibraltar near the Spanish border and on Elina's third solo recording, titled "Habanera," he leads the Italian Radio Orchestra in a very clever program celebrating an area he knows so well.

The role Bizet created in his opera "Carmen" is probably the most famous Spanish gypsy, and it's a role Elina Garanca knows well. She says to bring out the real Carmen depends a lot on the stage direction, the right Don Jose and her mood of the day. On this recording Garanca sings the rarely heard first version of Bizet's Habanera, which the composer later replaced with the more popular version, "I wanted to show how different both arias actually are," Garanca explains, "And how in my opinion the character and the recognition of the Carmen would be if the show would actually start with this first, Bizet Habanera that we don't know. The traditional one that we all recognize is so kind of sneaky and it's like Carmen is a python around Jose making the circle closer and closer until she really has him. The first Habanera is so much more joyful, more romantic. I think it would be very interesting to have a production where a stage director would have the courage of letting me go out blonde with my natural hair and putting on this first Habanera and I think that the whole prototype of Carmen would actually change so much, and it wouldn't be the femme fatale, and she wouldn't be this kind of destiny-strangled woman, it would be very fun to do that."

It was Elina's husband, conductor Karel Mark Chichon, who first introduced her to the zarzuela. Many don't take this style of Spanish operetta seriously, but Elina says it's actually quite challenging. "Very often the singers who sing that kind of music are considered not being good enough to be really on serious opera stages but I don't think so. It's very hard for orchestras to play zarzuelas well. You have to go really on your tiptoes and be very, very fine with your fingers and with your lips and you have to find colors and very often there are so many words. I remember when I first starting singing zarzuela, thinking I will never be able to remember all those 3000 words in one minute. So it's a challenge to make your lips and your tongue run and I really often like to see the audience just grab their seats and having that sparkle in their eyes when I sing it in a concert." Though it's not easy for her to choose a favorite zarzuela, when asked, Elina doesn't hesitate, "I have to say I love the aria from 'El Barquillero' because it has such a beautiful text. It speaks about the woman and about the force when she's in love. And she says, I want just to become crazy from the words he's telling me and how can I forget him when he cries below my window and I just live for him."

Elina Garanca is used to being on stage feeding off of the audience as she sings. So how is it different when there is no audience? "Very often when I sing arias and when I do different recordings," she explains, "I have different paintings in front of me. It's either a big dark forest or you have a big field and you have a couple of trees in it or you just have a field with sunflowers." I asked Elina what picture came to mind as she was recording the gorgeous aria "I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls," from Balfe's opera, "The Bohemian Girl?" "You know I have like a Cinderella in front of me in a big, big tall hall," she explains, "just sliding on a shiny floor with a big broom, and having somewhere all her cleaning stuff in a corner, and just like a big Disney movie, seeing all those chandeliers and beautiful lights and dreaming about a better life."

As you listen to Elina Garanca sing Spanish songs, operatic arias, and zarzuela you will be swept away by the mystery and excitement of this Mediterranean culture, and by her gorgeous voice, her incredible technique, and the pure beauty and energy of this music.

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