In conversation with Aigul Akhmetshina: Carmen fascinates me for being a free-spirited women up til her fatale end

15. August 2024

Rubrik Interviews

©Lera Nurgalieva

Aigul Akhmetshina is making big waves in the opera world of today. With her flourishing voice and a chocolate dark timbre the Russian mezzo-sorpano shines ever so bright in her signature role Carmen, which she passionately interprets at some of the most prestigous opera houses of the world.

Not yet conquered in it´s entireness, Aigul strives for the perfect interpretation of the "Femme fatale" that fascinates her in all aspects of a multilayered and profound character. With 8 productions lying ahead of Aigul, Carmen stays true to her repertoire this year. And with her first solo album just released a few weeks ago, Aigul also demonstrates her talent for other dramatic as much as comic roles. 

That her routes mean a lot to the young opera singer, Aigul Akhmetshina reveals with a song called "Nightingale" which her grandmother used to sing to her. Prefering to have a quiet life off-stage, the drama stays back on stage where it belongs. But when it comes to the magic of opera,  the mezzo-sorpano knows well enough that only attending a live performance can unfold the beauty of an operatic experience. For Aigul Akhmetshina opera is a true inspiration as much as she inspires audiences with the sheer beauty of her lush and sensual voice and her fascinating personality with which she enriches any of her roles full of verve, passion, temperament and depth.

Operaversum: When did you first discover that you wanted to become an opera singer and was it ever an easy path to follow?

Aigul Akhmetshina: Well, I always loved singing and acting. So when I turned 12, I already had some ideas about opera and thought maybe I could become an opera singer.

But only when I went to college at the age of 14 and saw my first opera I clearly decided to take on that path and thus tried to do everything to become an opera singer. As a matter of fact I did not expect to come that far in my career, but I was convinced that I would succeed to have a decent career in opera. But to be honest, it has not been an easy path, it never is.

So after I had finished college, I realized my voice was transforming from soprano to mezzo-soprano, which made me decide to keep on practising with my teacher for another year. After that year, I needed to obtain a higher education. So I went to the Moscow academy and was refused, which made me seriously rethink that I was probably not talented enough for a career in singing.

On top, there was a lot of competition going on and the things being said about my voice did not make it any easier to give me the right support and make me believe in my talent.  Consequently I took the decision to quit, and change my profession instead.

All that coincided on the very day, I had a car accident whilst driving home from Moscow and being on the phone with my teacher explaining to her that I would be persuing a different career.

From that moment it felt as if my life was ruined, not having gained access to the university, having missed the deadline applying for another university and having lost my voice due to the psychomatic trauma caused by the car accident.

Thanks to the determination of my teacher, I was being pushed to keep on practising again. She was also the one having me participate in a singing competition where David Cullun, the casting director from the "Young Artist Programme" of the Royal Opera House in London discovered me and took me up for his programme.

But also those beginnings in London were difficult. Many times I just wanted to quit, for various reasons. You know, I was scared, as it was my first time abroad, plus I could not speak any English. On top of that I felt a lot of pressure put on me and all the expectations I wanted to meet, as a lot of people believed in my talent.

Overally speaking I would say that everything I have been achieving so far, has not only worked out because of my talent, but because of hard and constant work, destiny, my subborness and the luck of meeting the right people along my journey.

And even now, I find that the further I move forward, the more pressure I am exposed to, as I always strive to become better and develop my skills. Sometimes that is hard to reach as perfectionism can be torpedoed through illness or just having a bad day on stage. 

Operaversum: So you seem to be a very self-critic person?

Aigul Akhmetshina: O yes, indeed! I am my biggest critic for sure and I also tend to sometimes put myself down. In that case I need trusted people around me who can pull me out of that state.

Luckily I have my vocal coach and pianist, Jonathan Papp, whom I call my "trusted ears" as much as my manager and few other people who know my voice well enough to tell me the truth way before it may be too late to improve it any further.

You know, we as singers hear ourselves differently and therefore we do need people to critically judge our performance. All that is constant work and always prone to improvement.

©Andre Usbenksy

Operaversum: I can imagine! Having watched you in a Carmen production at the Met Opera alongside Piotr Beczala, I was just wondering what  vocal and characteristic challenges you have been encountering to conquer the role of Carmen in it´s entireness?

Aigul Akhmetshina: First of all, I love Carmen. Her character fascinates me very much. I am studying her all the time. And just this season I have 8 productions of Carmen, which I call "The 50 shades of Carmen". Still this character never bores me, as I always find some new characteristic features in each show which are thrilling.

Operaversum: So what is your personal approach in getting prepared for the role of Carmen?

Aigul Akhmetshina: Preapring for Carmen demands 100, if not 200 percent, knowing that this lady would demand the same absoluteness from herself, meaning if she loves, she loves, if she hates, she hates. Carmen always lives to extremes. There is even a phrase that says: Carmen only lasts six months. She is throwing herself into love, burning and getting trapped in her own convictions.

And every time I get to study this character even closer, I come across different psychological complications rummaging inside of her. Singingwise interpreting Carmen is not really difficult, apart from the French language, which I do not speak. So delivering the words can be a challenge as they carry very important messages.

As for interpreting her character it can definitely be quite draining, finding access to portray her emotions that to a certain extent need to reflect on my personal story, as otherwise it is hard for me to sing.

Most importantly I always need to leave some space for improvisation every time I go on stage. That is when I have no idea what my Carmen will be like. I simply step on stage, sense the energy coming from the audience, the chorus and my colleagues, which is important, as the mood and the human condition we are in differs from day to day.

And that also impacts on our performance. So I can usually not predict in advance what my interpretation of Carmen will look like the minute I go on stage. Will I be more flirty or more philosophical and grounded in my thoughts? Or will I be in a fighting mood and more aggressive. What emotional state will I be in?

Operaversum: Your approach sounds rather fascinating. But tell me ,Aigul, what makes Bizet´s opera so popular with audiences still today?

Aigul Akhmetshina: From a musical point of view, I think Bizet wrote an absolutely perfect opera, both storywise and musicwise. You can immediately sense the trail of each character in the music, in the behaviour of the protagonists and the prediciton of the future.

At the same time Bizet´s work reveals the spirit of Sevilla. You can almost smell Sevilla, right at the very beginning of the overture. It is so tasty. There is so many flavours such as the smoke of  cigarettes, the sensuality. Everything, all the spices are put together in the right amount to make up for a perfect operatic composition.

Psychologically speaking this opera has been so popular throughout music history, as it speaks about human nature as in feelings and relationsships. Everybody is thrilled by Carmen who is a free spirited woman, true to herself. On the other hand I think that even in the 21st century it is hard to accept that type of non-conformist person, fighting for her believes.

That is probably why women, who refrain from standing up for their rights and just live by the given rules or even self-imposed restrictions of womenhood, hate her. Men hate Carmen because they can neither control nor manage this unpredictable woman, who is always on fire, which is irritating.

Plus Carmen is strong and faces men without fear. We do not know why that is. Perhaps she was abused or taken advantage off in the past. Her backstory is unkown to us, we can only guess that as a gypsy girl, she might probably have had a diffult life that influenced her behaviour and the way she is protecting herself from the outside world.

And even though she can be scared at times, especially when getting to know that her destiny is to die, she still clings on to her freedom until the very last moment.

©Camilla Greenwell / Royal Opera House London

Operaversum: From all the different Carmen productions, is there one in which you have captivated the role best, where you found the ideal personification of Carmen as to speak?

Aigul Akhmetshina: Well, there is lots of interpretations why Carmen is behaving in certain patterns. There is so many versions which make it a fascination journey to keep on trying to captivate this role in the most catching way. And I love these challenges.

But it is also very demanding to tackle this character the best possible way, which has also not happened yet. I have not yet performed my best Carmen, I can tell. And I still feel there is so much more to discover in that personality. Of course I have already sung my favourite roles of Carmen, those ones where I enjoyed the productions and where I thought to myself, that in particular scenes I really portrayed Carmen well.

But I would not maintain that those were already my best performances of Carmen.

Operaversum: Well, I have to say I got extremely fascinated by you performance at the Met. But perhaps with getting older, gaining more experience, also the interpretation of that role changes and develops?

Aigul Akhmetshina: Oh yes, already with each and every perfomance it changes. 

Operaversum: Does it also change with the dynamics of your partner, depending on with whom you perform on stage?

Aigul Akhmetshina: It changes all the time. But the performance at the Metropolitan Opera was amazing, also the one at the Royal Opera House in London, where I had the pleasure to also sing alongside Piotr Beczala.

There was such an amazing chemistry between the two of us despite the difference in age. But when you have such a fantastic colleague with whom acting and singing on stage is a lot of fun, it makes working together easy and an absolute inspiration.

Operaversum: I could feel that, even on the big cinema screen. So Carmen will also be on your schedule at the Glyndeborne Festival this summer throughout August. Is that a special production? And what can the audience be looking forward to?

Aigul Akhtmetshina: Well, as a matter of fact it is a new production directed by Diane Paulus and it resembles very much the concept at the Met due to the similarities in stage asthetics.

But the main emphasize is on the message the director wants to bring across, namely that of freedom. Carmen is a freedom fighter, organizing a revolution.

So everything is based on strong bonds and solidarity between the women in the tobacco factory, as they work there by force. And Carmen is preparing their escape. On top she helps to smuggle people across the border for a better life.

To sum it all up, this production is about sisterhood, about women supporting women, fighting for their rights and for freedom.

©Lera Nurgalieva

Operaversum: Change in topic. You have just released your first solo album with lots of beautiful arias. May I ask if there is one particular aria from the album which you are particularly drawn to?

Aigul Akhmetshina:  O, that is a very tricky question because all arias equally portray my career path in the opera world. So each role is unreservedly important to me.

For that reason, it is hard for me to pick one out. In other words or maybe to give you a clear picture of what I am getting onto, Charlotte from Werther for example showed me that I am capable of dramatic acting and dramatic roles as such.

Rosina on the other hand helped me to bring out the comedy side in me. And of course Carmen is Carmen. But if you still ask me, well, there is this one special piece on the album, which is a Bashan folk song, that my grandmother used to sing to me,  called "Nightingale".

And the reason why I chose that song to be included on the album is because I find it important to be connected to my routes, especially when I am far away from home.

And since  I am half Tartar, half Bashan, I wanted to show people that our culture consists of so many different nationalities, which I wanted to highlight through this song. And as I mentioned before, I want to stick to my routes, not loosing my identity, as it is so important to remember who I am and where I come from.

Operaversum: Dear Aigul, living a dramatic life on stage, does this somehow impact on your personal life or do you always leave the drama back on stage?

Aigul Akhmetshina: (laughs) Well, I just prefer to have a quiet life. So when I have the opportunity to simply rest, I love spending time in the nature or listen to different music than opera, go to concerts, just try to explore different things and have a normal life as much as possible.

But of course that is not always easy, since I am most of the time on the road with little free time to spare, always living by my schedule.  So when I hit a point when it gets hard for me to switch off from work, I am trying to find the right balance between stage and private life, because in the end I am also just a normal person who finishes their job as soon as the work is done.

Nevertheless I always seek purpose on how I can impact the art through for example charity events as I personally think it is a very important feature of art to bring people together and spread more kindness and love, especially in our world of today.

Operaversum: Very true, Aigul! And can you recall on a very special stage performance, which you could share with me?

Aigul Akhmetshina: To be honest, I have a couple of very special stage performances. So the minute you asked me about it, already three shows sprang to my mind, of which my first jump-in as Carmen at the Royal Opera House was somewhat inforgettable.

But then the only thing I remember about that performance is that the curtain went up and down. The performance itself I cannot recall upon at all. At that point I was so terriefied and just wanted to get done with the show, that I had a kind of blackout.

After the final curtain fell, the only thing I still recall, was the applause and that I felt extremely tired and exhausted, as this jump-in meant a great deal to me.

Then the second highlight was when I performed in Werther alongside Jonas Kaufmann, which was such a special stage moment because I had watched the lifestream of the Metropolitan Opera dating back to 2014 when Jonas celebrated his big success as Werther.

So at that time I could never have imagined that one day I would perform together with him, plus Sir Antonio Pappano conducting that opera at my home theater. That was absolutely magic.

And last but not least  celebrating my New Years Eve in Carmen at the Met Opera, which maybe only outbid my recent performance at Arena di Verona in this fantastic Carmen production by Franco Zeffirelli. Celebrating my debut there I was so impressed by this huge machinery consisting of 500 people, donkeys, horses and professional Flamenco dancers on stage and me performing in front of 30.000 opera enthusiasts.

It was so incredible to observe the overall spirit of the cast, who was living the story down to the core. I could not wait to get back on stage with every new scene coming up. And it makes me sad that it will not be possible any more to get to know Zeffirelli and learn about his work and how he managed such a big crowd of performers on stage.

Otherwise I can only state how breathtaking this whole experience turned out to be for me. 

©Lera Nurgalieva

Operaversum: So maybe you could wrap it up for me in a few words. What makes opera such a magic place to be for you?

Aigul Akhmetshina: Opera is supposed to be listened to in a live performance because only if it is experienced within a beautiful set-design and production, when everything comes together such as the orchestra, the voices of the opera singers in it´s natural ambience, it can for sure make you feel something, even if you have never been to the opera before.

A live performance will move you, I am convinced of that. And honestly I could not imagine anyone going to the opera and not feeling anything at all.

Then I would be at a loss for worlds, not knowing what would need to happen to at least impress you. I am sure one thing like the sound of the orchestra, the beauty of an opera singer´s voice or just the general experience and atmosphere of entering an opera house can put a spell on you.

Moreover opera is a wonderful opportunity to dress-up for the occasion, pretending even to be part of an act, playing an imaginary role, just for the fun of fantasizing about it. So I love recommending to people to go there, dress-up and be open to opera. And if you do not like that particular performance, then try another one, but just give it another try.

Operaversum: So giving up on the first performance is not an option. What would be your recommendation for a first-time opera to watch?

Aigul Akhmetshina: Never start with a Wagner opera though. That would mean six hours of torture for a beginner. It would not work out, since you have to concentrate and listen attentively to the play to understand it in it´s entireness.

So for somebody new to the genre having to stay put and listen to a six hour opera performance that would just be to heavy. Instead start with Carmen, Rigoletto, La Boheme, all the Puccini operas, which sum up to all the famous works where the plot is quite clear.

Operaversum: And what makes your heart beat faster, when you had to explain your personal view on opera and the magic it creates for you?

Aigul Ak hmetshina: There is truly something magic abouth this particular kind of music, the way how it was composed that really speaks directly to the soul.

As for me being part of the artistic world, I also love that we can bring audiences together. We are the perfect example that people from different backgrounds or even different parts of the world, can live together in harmony an peace, no matter the language, the sexual identity that may set us apart.

In the end every artist on stage creates something uniquely beautiful, which makes the whole experience of opera such a versatile and multifaceted gem.

Well, in the end opera is about bringing people together and making us forget, if only for three hours,  about our problems or whatever might bother us in life. Opera is an inspiration and food for the soul.

Operaversum: Dear Aigul, thank you so much for having taken your time and sharing your inspiring insights and wonderful thoughts on Carmen. Wishing you all the best and toi, toi, toi for all your future projects to come. 

©Lera Nurgalieva

Since her debut as Carmen at the Royal Opera House at the age of 21, Ms Akhmetshina is making waves in the operatic world. Her upcoming engagements include Romeo I Capuleti e i Montecchi at the Salzburger Festspiele, new productions of Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera (dir. Carrie Cracknell, cond Daniele Rustioni), Royal Opera House (dir. Damiano Micheletto, cond. Antonello Manacorda), and Glyndebourne Festival, the role she performs this season also with Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bayerische Staatsoper. 

Elsewhere she appears as Elisabetta Maria Stuarda at the Teatro di San Carlo.    Future credits include debuts with Staatsoper Berlin, Wiener Staatsoper, Opernhaus Zürich, Theater an der Wien, returns to Bayerische Staatsoper, Teatro Real Madrid, the Royal Opera House, Metropolitan Opera, Opéra national de Paris, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Arena di Verona as Adalgisa, Elisabetta, Carmen, Rosina, Charlotta, Isabella, Dalila.