In conversation with Adela Zaharia Part 1: "Getting close to a Character´s mindset and psychology is essential to perform convincingly on stage."

22. November 2023

Rubrik Interviews

©Oana Vedinas - Adela Zaharia

Adela Zaharia has become one of the most sought-after representatives of the soprano field, which spans from triumphant successes as Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor to other breathtaking interpretations of great character roles such as Donna Anna in Mozart´s opera Don Giovanni.

Performing at great opera houses around the world, including stage productions at the MET, the Royal Opera House in London, the Bavarian State Opera, the Opéra de Paris and the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the charismatic Romanian soprano begins her 2023/2024 season with her return to the Opéra de Paris as Donna Anna, soon followed by a performance as Gilda in Verdi´s Rigoletto at the Teatro Real Madrid with which she is closely associated. 

Talking about her operatic career, roles and what it takes to be an opera singer, it soon becomes crystal clear clear that Adela Zaharia not only loves her tragic characters, but very much aspires to constantly work on improving her vocal technique, and overcome her limits.

That, Adela claims, is what defines any great opera singer!

Operaversum: Why is classical music and opera so fascinating for you and what made you decide to become an opera singer? 

Adela Zaharia: Well, my story is a bit longer to tell, as I come from a family with no musicians before my generation and my parents had really nothing to do with neither arts nor music.

But as soon as my older sister started taking music lessons privately, which was around the same time I started going to primary school, I somehow set my mind on taking up music lessons as well and begged my parents to send me to music school.

And as music schools in Romania are specialised, which means that the subjects such as music theory and learning how to play an instrument are an integral part of the school curriculum there, I started studying piano in the first grade and continued for 16 years (later becoming a secondary specialisation). Later, when it was my brother´s time to start school he followed my footsteps.

So from no musicians in the family at all, now three of the four children in our family have become professional musicians.

But the funny part of my story is that even though I studied the piano for 16 years, I was never really caught by it, even though I do hold a diploma and could well be a piano teacher. But soon my interest shifted towards music theory, which made me intensely concentrate and prepare for becoming a musicologist. 

In parallel I was also singing in the school choir. And ocasionally in the concerts we did, I was given small solo parts, which were reason for both great excitement and immense stress, as I was suffering from intense stage fright.

Then in my last year of high school, I was more or less forced to participate in a national voice competition. And even though it made me so nervous and felt like a nightmare I - completely unexpected for me - won the competition. 

©Oana Vedinas - Adela Zaharia

But the turning point which made me get a real taste for singing was when a new singing teacher showed up at our school and got me prepared for the competition. 

Young, passionate and with a lot of energy and new ideas, she got me so fascinated for singing, that for the first time I was seeing this complex world, this art, where technique, emotions and thoughts all intermingle in a very natural way.

So for that reason all of a sudden singing became very interesting to me. And because of winning that competition I started giving it a first real thought. By the time the year finished and I was supposed to go to the music conservatory, I changed my mind and opted for studying singing instead of musicology.

My mentors at school were not happy at all with me for making that choice, even making comments that it would be a waste of time, as they had put so much effort in preparing me for becoming this great musicologist.

But as I would always tell people: In the end, it was not me choosing a career in singing. It was more like singing chose me instead, because if all those signs at school had not come my way, I would have never given singing a real thought.

It actually would have never crossed my mind that I should be an opera singer, since the only contact I had with this art form was one performance of "Die Fledermaus" that I have seen in high-school, a performance that I did not like at all - to put it mildly (laughing).

©Oana Vedinas - Adela Zaharia

Operaversum: So did you not like the company´s performance or was it the music you could not connect to? 

Adela Zaharia: The music, the plot, the staging, basically everything. I was not impressed at all (laughing). So after that experience and during the entire time at the music academy I kept telling myself that I was never going to be an opera singer and that I would only be working with philharmonics and orchestras to do concerts and recitals.

I could not imagine myself being an opera singer at that point, mostly as I could  not see myself acting at all. On top of that I was having a very different mindset back then, having to come to terms with various misconceptions and "self-limitations" in order to be able to understand that I could sing on stage and overcome my stage fright, from which I was suffering a lot.

Operaversum: And how did you finally overcome your stage fright? 

Adela Zaharia: Well, you know, I am a very perseverent person. So it never mattered how many times I fell. It did not matter how many times I made a fool of myself and it also did not matter how many times I was frustrated.

All those experiences combined with the simple exercise of stepping out on stage to try one more time and do my best not only added up to make me even more perseverent, more determined and hard-working, but also helped me overcome my fear and get used to just standing in front of an audience without wanting to run away.

Operaversum: That being said, I understand that the more demanding, the more difficult a situation or a role gets, the more thrilled you are about it. So challenges seem to be very much your thing? 

Adela Zaharia: They are. Sometimes I love challenges too much. That is when I realize if only I would not want to take on every challenge. I would have a much easier life (laughing).

But on the other hand if I had not gone beyond my own limits, it would not have been a satisfying feeling and I would not have been able to grow artistically and personally in the first place.

With my repertoire for example, I had to gradually build that up, as I was not a natural singer right from the very beginning.

Operaversum: Now this comes as a real surprise to me. I would have reckoned you to be a natural singer all along? 

Adela Zaharia: Not really. When I started singing lessons as a student, I did have this pretty little voice. But I simply had no idea how to use it above "passagio", as I was only singing beginner´s lyrical repertoire.

Getting a bit frustrated with my lack of temperament in singing - these were my first two years of studying though - my accompanist convinced me to try out "The Queen of the Night" aria in order to awaken something else in me.

She initially did not even care about the perfect singing technique. She just wanted to put my vocal potential to the test in order to see what the outcome would be.

So we apparently got started with working on that aria and had been working so much on it, that I was literally singing "Queen of the Night" at the end of the year. And my first years in Germany "Queen of the Night" was also part of my audition repertoire.

So up to the point that somebody did actually dare to throw me into the deep waters and make me sing this repertoire, I just had no idea how to technically evolve. Moreover I did not even know that with enough work and the right technique I could have that vocal range.

©Klaudia Taday - Adela Zaharia

Operaversum: Recently I was told that the "Queen of the Night" aria is not really the easiest one to sing, mostly because you are not constantly performing on stage and once you get back out, you have to be right on the spot for this highly demanding piece?

Adela Zaharia: Well, generally speaking there are only two arias and the "Finale", so you do not really get tired when singing "Queen of the Night", if compared to other opera productions, where you are on stage permanently, having to sing one aria after the other.

But from my personal perspective and from what I have been confirmed by several casting people in the past, they all recommended, that I should not sing "Queen of the Night", as it was not the most natural tessitura for my voice, and it was also taking a bit away from the dimension where I have learned my voice performs best.

The most important advise came from Stephen Harrison, former casting director of Deutsche Oper am Rhein, who recommended, when I started my contract with their theater to change my "Fach" and move one step lower into the lyric-coloratura repertoire, let my voice develop in the middle, have it grow fully to develop in the body and not try to keep it high.

Then the high notes would come naturally, as I could use my voice in tessitura and the supracuto also came easier and safer because it was more connected to the body and part of the voice consistency that is so important for me.

And this was a revelation moment for me, as I started to find my real voice, my repertoire, and thus my identity as a singer. It was, what literally put me on the right track. Stephen Harrison also was the one who gave me my first Lucia and Konstanze during my first year as a member of the State opera in Düsseldorf.

Operaversum: Apropos Lucia, one of the most demanding becanto characters in opera: I wonder how you physically, mentally and vocally manage to get through the almost 20 minute long mad scene? 

Does this aria need extra preperation if compared to other roles? 

Adela Zaharia: Honestly speaking, Lucia has become "my role" to which I feel closest - vocally, artistically and personally. Of course it is always a challenge to sing and perform Lucia, but then I have been singing this role every season since 2016 until the pandemic break. Now I have started to perform it again. And you know, it just sits well for my voice.

But yes, it is an enormous effort and the biggest challenge of all is to find this balance between being fit and in a good shape physically and vocally, but at the same time conveying that softness and vulnerability in the character, even though Lucia does have those situations when she is trying to be stronger and her voice also tends to have little spinto moments.

But overall her frailty and vulnerability are part of her from the very beginning. 

So singing Lucia demands physical stamina and the muscles supporting it paired with the brain and the soul-factor that bring out the emotions. So once the physical work and the emotions meet in the middle, for me that is the ideal portrayal of Lucia.

Be kindly invited to read part 2 of the interview with Adela Zaharia 23rd November 2023

©Klassik NDR

Watch and listen to the Klassik Open Air 2022, which starred Adela Zaharia, Charles Castronovo and Georg Petean in a wonderful setting in front of the New Town Hall in Lower Saxony´s capital of Hanover.

©Adela Zaharia

Adela Zaharia sing "Qui la voce" from the opera "I Puritani" at Bayerische Staatsoper 2019.