display
A Romanian, two Czechs, a Swiss of Eastern European origin, a half-Englishwoman, a South African, an American, a German of Arab origin, plus an Italian conductor and a Russian production team, these are the people who are currently - in their 200th year - in Munich, preparing Carl Maria von Weber's “Freischütz”.
The most German of all operas.
Of which everyone is afraid.
37-year-old Golda Schultz too.
But more for technical reasons.
The black South African, who grew up in Bophuthatswana and Bloemfontein, is Agathe, yes, the blonde, passive forester's daughter for whose sake Max has to dare the test shot and sell himself to the evil forces.
And she has two of the most difficult arias in opera history to sing.
With the one: “And whether the cloud covers itself”, Golda Schultuz made it to the opera studio of the Bavarian State Opera ten years ago.
A long way, geographically and spiritually.
Today she feels that she has arrived.
Mentally and interpretatively.
display
Golda Schultz, who initially wanted to become a journalist, works after a few years in the Munich ensemble as a freelance singer.
Of course, she is also affected by the pandemic, but at peace with herself.
Shortly before the lockdown, she stood as Serena (that's the one who sings “Summer Time”) in “Porgy & Bess” on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera.
Max and Agathe have no future
For the first time with so many colored people since they left southern Africa.
And experienced how the music of the Gershwins makes these voices shine.
A special moment.
Like now again with Weber's music.
“I only see a less than hopeful future for Max and Agathe.
You don't even have a love duet, that says a lot.
Most of the time in the opera they act separately. "
display
Golda Schultz sounds sober and yet reflective.
With the “Freischütz” cast, diversity was certainly not a point of discussion.
Does it really have to?
Does an opera house - like the Met in New York and the Bastille in Paris - have to hire a diversity officer?
Or is that just politically correct and a fearful answer to the excesses of American cancel culture?
Diversity is becoming more and more normal in opera: Golda Schultz as Vitellia in Mozart's "La Clemenza di Tito" at the Salzburg Festival
Source: picture alliance / BARBARA GINDL / APA / picturedesk.com
“It is always special to experience how universal opera is and how global these stories, which have established themselves in the repertoire, actually work,” she says.
“It's about human relationships and initially they usually have nothing to do with race or gender.
Opera translates such constellations wonderfully, the music speaks to us all. ”And also:“ In opera, diversity is becoming more and more relaxed togetherness because so many nations come together. ”
And especially in this "Freischütz"?
“It's all about a feeling of being lost, of individual loneliness.
So many hopes are stranded here.
Is that german?
Do I need a German forest for this?
Probably not.
Whereby: I like the natural, earthy quality of this score, I'm standing on my South African feet, it's so dramatic. "
Golda Schultz sings Franz Schubert's "Night and Dreams"
Here you will find content from YouTube
In order to interact with or display content from YouTube and other social networks, we need your consent.
Activate social networks
I consent to content from social networks being displayed to me.
This allows personal data to be transmitted to third party providers.
This may require the storage of cookies on your device.
More information can be found here.
display
For Golda Schultz, this Agathe is also a special figure, in terms of character, as on her career path.
Of course, she has long since sung other, very German soprano roles, Mozart's Pamina, Richard Strauss's “Rosenkavalier” Sophie.
She was Handel's Cleopatra and the Italian fairy tale Chinese Liù in Puccini's "Turandot"
She has appeared at La Scala in Milan and at the Salzburg Festival.
And regardless of whether Baroque, Classical, Romantic or Neoclassical Igor Stravinsky, whose Anne Truelove - “what a descriptive name” - is coming soon, she always looks at such figures in a very bipolar way.
There's the vocal side.
Agathe challenges her very much.
With the conductor Antonello Manacorda, who, as she says, is wonderfully responsive to singers, she has precisely analyzed and clocked their Mozart origins, the melodic bel canto line, the ever larger flow of melodies flowing through the whole body, and the part as very special mixture of emotion and virtuosity created and then reunited.
Career full of setbacks and failures
Now the music takes possession of it, the ability, the knowledge can be called up, and yet it can be carried away in the arias towards limits and beyond.
She jumps high on this board, flies.
That's how you grow.
But it also grows when she thinks about where this role has taken her.
It is easier than before, but still difficult, to make an international career as a singer from South Africa.
She did it, with a lot of setbacks and rejections.
By the way, at the Bavarian State Opera, as the manager at the time wanted, only Reri Grist was allowed to perform as a black singer in the 1980s, because she was a public favorite even before him.
And now there is Golda Schultz as the premiere Agathe.
Mainly because she has developed wonderfully towards this position.
Hard-working, tough, self-confident.
display
For some underprivileged black people in South Africa, it is sometimes already a great difficulty to find sufficient voltage if one wants to record a reference DVD with good sound quality to face international agencies, competition or auditioning commissions.
Because in the still torn country there are many great voices, but few good training opportunities.
“You have to be able to jump the ditch,” says Golda Schultz.
“You have to find sponsors and scholarships, but you also have to have a family that lets you.
Because sometimes it's a goodbye forever.
And then it really starts. "
Everyone in Munich was enthusiastic
The daughter of a math professor had qualified for a degree at New York's Juilliard School, with three jobs on the side to finance it.
And then she wanted to go to a European opera studio.
In the end the only option was Munich.
But there they were enthusiastic before her, they really supported her in an exemplary manner and accompanied her development.
And now is harvest time for everyone.
Of course, Golda Schultz also had to experience racism.
Rarely at work, but always in everyday German life.
She doesn't like to talk about it, it quickly gets emotional.
And she definitely doesn't want to be a victim.
She prefers to be fully committed to her job: “Culture is an important instrument for gaining influence, in order to change something.
It has so many effects on social trends. "
And she still remembers very clearly when she saw the musical “Hairspray” and saw that the chubby suburban girl got the handsome guy in the end.
Her conclusion from such experiences: “All of us as actors have to ask ourselves: How can one play being different?
How can we implement this in our culture, in our bodies, in our zeitgeist?
Because that is why the great music theater works have survived - it is the feelings expressed in them that still touch us. "
Golda Schultz does not see herself as a role model for others.
But it is very visible.
And she does something.
"I am participating in the organization Opera for Peace, in order to give young talents from South Africa the access to jump over the gaps in better training and attention."
display
The opera houses themselves should become more persistent, connections and infrastructures to Africa, India, Latin America develop regularly work with talent there.
Then opera would be even more diverse.
It could be that easy.
Singing is, after all, a privilege of all mankind.
But especially for Golda Schultz.
The Munich “Freischütz” premiere can be seen live and free of charge on staatsoper.tv on February 13th from 6.30 pm and then available for 30 days free of charge as video-on-demand in cooperation with BR-Klassik.