Lisette Oropesa: "People kept clapping and I was naked in the dressing room"

This Wednesday the curtain of the Teatro Real came down with the last show of a historic Traviata that has marked the reopening of the Madrid coliseum after its closure due to the Covid-19 . There have been 27 representations that have been developed without incident and that were crowned, on Tuesday, with an encore by the soprano Lisette Oropesa (New Orleans, 1983) in the aria Addio , of the passato.

So the American of Cuban origin is the face of this operatic rebirth in Spain. "Being in a theater again, almost full of people, at 70%, is something that I really missed because I have not sung a real performance in all these months that we have spent in solitude, " the singer explained yesterday. «It's something I really missed already. And when we started rehearsals I felt it immediately: this is what I need. Like when you are very thirsty and then you drink water and feel much better ».

The semi - staged montage of Verdi's opera has been developed among great security measures. Between the audience and also the orchestra and the singers, separated by red lines of distance. “At first it took a little work to get used to, because the party scenes are full of people. So there is less movement, less freedom, than in scenes where there is a character or two on stage, " Oropesa recalled of Leo Castaldi's stage design . “But after the party scenes I started to feel a little more comfortable, when I could walk and sit down. Still, connecting with my peers was not easy, because if I have to speak to one, I have to turn completely to look at her. It is also a bit strange for the public, to make that connection through that distance, which is a little big ».

The separation of the orchestra also became strange. “It makes us a little bigger than we are used to. Sometimes the ear bothers you a little because you don't hear everything you have to hear. But the orchestra here is incredible, " Oropesa praised after the performances. “They follow singers very well, they know how to listen and play like that, with a sensitivity that is super important for Verdi's music . So I am completely happy with these features. "

Regarding the encore, the singer fondly remembers the experience: “Many times we were on the brink, because there were so many very excited people. For example, the first night. After singing that aria, I have to go straight to the dressing room to change my dress, and people kept applauding and I was naked in the dressing room, so I couldn't go out to say hello ... Although in the second one I already did ».

"I do not do the encore if it is not true, if the public does not demand it," says Oropesa . «It has to be the whole theater for it to be deserved, really. A bis must be something organic, natural ».

That penultimate night it was: « I looked out and saw that all the people were standing, screaming . A very generous audience. So I knelt down next to the bed and sang Addio's second verse , del pasato.

"All the violets," he recalled yesterday, "arrive at the third act tired, because it is a difficult role. But if I had been too tired to sing I would not have done it, because I don't want to sing badly or take risks either, and because after that aria the final act is still missing, which Violetta sings practically alone ».

"I want all my colleagues that all artists of this art feel this sometime in their lives," wishes the soprano. "Because it is a feeling and a moment that cannot even be described . "

And all this with a strong confession : «I was very afraid to travel. From going on the plane, from the airports. Because in the US many people still go without a mask. In addition, in this profession we use the lungs a lot, so if you get sick, maybe you will heal, but it is possible to maintain lung problems due to the virus. So we can't do something like that without being very careful.

But the experience in Madrid has reassured her . «The Teatro Real has done very well. You can not even enter without a mask on and if there is someone who does not wear it, they give it to you at the entrance. Here they take it very seriously and have done their best under these conditions that are not ideal.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

• culture
• music
• Opera

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