Even if his characters sometimes lose their heads, the powerhouse German baritone Michael Volle has no intention of imitating them. You'll find he has strong shoulders, feet firmly on the ground and a velvet-lined juggernaut of a voice. I was lucky enough to hear him sing Hans Sachs in Meistersinger at Bayreuth this summer, and this season he is back at the Royal Opera House to sing Guy de Montfort in Verdi's Les vêpres sicilienne and, later, Jokanaan in Strauss's Salome. My interview with him earlier this year originally appeared in the Royal Opera House Magazine and I'm rerunning it below with their kind permission.
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| Volle as Montfort in Les vêpres siciliennes Photo: Bill Cooper/ROH |
For the leonine German baritone, 57,
Jokanaan offers a challenge through sheer intensity. “In Strauss’s big, big lines,
everything must be perfect. And you must be a prophet,” he says. “I would never
have been able in the early years to sing Jokanaan, or the big Wagner roles: you
need the experience, you need the breadth, you need to have been on stage playing
a very strange character. He is in his madness, he is confronted with this strange
young lady and her demands and he loses his security. It’s not a long role, but
a very strong: you stay like a rock, but then it takes your energy, the fight
with the unknown planet of this young woman.”
Jokanaan, the Flying Dutchman, Hans Sachs,
Wotan: the roles that Volle sings are often larger than life, each in its own
way, and Volle himself is a gigantic personality, somewhat resembling an
imposing yet genial German version of Jack Nicholson. His voice, with its vast
capabilities in both quality and magnitude, reflects that strength of presence,
yet can also be as meltingly beautiful as it is dramatic. Wagner, Strauss,
Verdi and Puccini could eat up all his time. Yet his lasting inspiration is
something very different: Bach and Mozart.
BACH TO THE FUTURE
The youngest of eight children of a priest,
Volle grew up in Baden-Württemberg, near Stuttgart, steeped in first-rate
church music. “In Stuttgart you could visit on one day six or seven church services
with six or seven Bach cantatas, because it was part of religious life,” he
recalls.
Because of that background, he insists, he
cannot do without Mozart and Bach: “But the crazy thing is, nobody offers me
Bach any more.” The expectation, he grumbles, is that a Wagner and Strauss
voice cannot possibly suit those composers. “It’s ridiculous!” he expostulates.
“I’m so fortunate that I did recently with the Akademie für Alte Musik in
Berlin the three bass solo cantatas of Bach and we recorded them in concert. I
do a lot of Bach because I need it. No
Christmas time without a Christmas Oratorio; no Easter without a Passion.”
As for Mozart, he remarks with satisfaction
that following a Wagner rescheduling last winter, he found he had the chance to
sing one of his favourite roles, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, in Paris, with his wife, Gabriela Scherer, also in
the cast as the First Lady. “What could be better than that?” he beams.
Perhaps having half a million Youtube views
could run a close second? Last year Volle was invited by an ear, nose and
throat specialist in Stuttgart to be filmed singing inside an MRI scanner,
which duly captured astounding images of the physical mechanism of singing. The
video went viral (see above). “I don’t do social media, so I knew nothing about it,” he says.
“Then my wife told me I’d become an internet sensation.” Wasn’t that a little alarming?
“I would not get a job from the way I sang in that video,” he laughs, “but it
was fun.”
It’s often said that Volle has had a “slow
burn” career, a phrase which also makes him laugh, but is not far off the mark.
“Boys always develop more slowly than girls!” he quips. “I only started to
study aged 25 and in 1990 I had my first opera contract. I was on fire,
wondering why some other people got roles... But 27 years later, I’m very happy
it took all that time, because I had the chance to develop and grow up. I
believe somehow in a ‘plan’ for your life – fate, if you like. For me it was
perfect, because I was never forced to do anything that could have killed my
voice. I was able to grow with the right parts at the right time, and I’m very
grateful for that.”
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| As Montfort, with Bryan Hymel as Henri Photo: Bill Cooper/ROH |
Covent Garden audiences might be forgiven
for thinking, though, that Volle specialises in characters whose fate is distinctly
darker: not least, he is reprising the role of Guy de Montfort in the forthcoming
revival of Verdi’s Les Vêpres siciliennes.
The opera begins with Montfort as a soldier raping a dancer, who then bears his
child – the opera’s hero, Henri. Later, as governor of Sicily, Montfort longs
for his grown-up son to accept him, but ultimately he, along with the French
occupiers of the island, comes to a sticky end.
"THIS IS AN INCREDIBLE PROFESSION"
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| As Montfort Photo: Bill Cooper/ROH |
“I am happy that for the past 20-25 years
opera singers have had to be actors too,” Volle adds. It so happens that his
brother is an actor: “He says often that if you feel close to a role, it must touch
you in some inward way. This is the gift of being an acting singer, or a
singing actor: you can try to be somebody else, something quite different from
your private life you are paid for it, and you can sing!” Volle gives a giant
bellow of laughter: “This is an incredible profession – I love it.”
FIVE AT ONE BLOW
This summer one summit of Volle’s
repertoire approached in a special form: he sang Hans Sachs in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in Barrie
Kosky’s new production for Bayreuth [our interview took place before this, in the spring]. “For me Sachs is the one and only role that
is above everything,” he says. “The singing is so difficult – but it is so wonderful, because you have not only to
sing five characters, but to act them too. Sachs is the wise man, the jealous
man, the artist, the shoemaker, the mastersinger, and this is incredible.” He
was looking forward to working with Barrie Kosky for the first time, too: “He
has incredibly good ideas and I think we will have a great time.” [Author's note: looked good to me.]
And having a good time, he reflects, is vital. “I am glad to be at a level now at
which I can say no to offerings,” Volle reflects. “This can be the least
family-friendly job in the world, because if you do an opera you are away for
weeks at a time. Family is everything, so I do sometimes say no. Singing so
important to me, it is a part of me, but it could be over tomorrow. Then what
do you have?”
Les Vêpres siciliennes opens at the Royal Opera House on 12 October. Michael Volle sings Montfort, Bryan Hymel reprises the role of Henri, Malin Byström and later in the run Rachele Stanisci perform Hélène, Erwin Schrott sings Procida and Maurizio Benini conducts. Booking here.
