With “Tannhäuser” opened in Tenor Stephen Gould games, this year’s Bayreuth festival. In some moments it looked then: In a DW Interview, the 57-Year-old of Doubt, and the help of Wolfgang Wagner’s told.
DW: Mr Gould, what makes your heart beat faster when you come to Bayreuth?
The Tradition, in my first year here I was really intimidated by. It is magical when I Sing Wagner something to discover, you can discover would probably have nowhere else to go. It is what describe actors and artists as being “in the Moment”. I’m trying to sing for the Public. If you’re younger, you want to be popular, you want the critics to love you, your career also goes high. When I’m on the stage now, I like it the best, to discover something for myself. Especially in the Festspielhaus, a place that was created just for the performance of Wagner’s music.
What do you think of this year’s “Tannhäuser”production?
It has multi-media elements, with many of the previously recorded films are integrated into the performance. Sometimes we have to play, although we are behind the stage. The second act is really a piece within a piece. It suggests that there is behind the Scenes, a different life, between Tannhäuser and Elisabeth, before he leaves for Venus. It’s about the conflict between free and traditional love. I was a day completely convinced by the concept of the Director Tobias Kratzer. I am rarely someone who has thought out the concept to the Details so thoroughly.
“Discover something new”: The Richard-Wagner-Festspielhaus sings Stephen Gould for themselves.
How did you become a Wagner singer?
I was a very young singer, and I started out as a baritone. During my early years in the Conservatory I wanted to be a Tenor, but I lacked the proper technique. As the Chicago Lyric Opera is not more then told me that they needed my services, took place in an audition for the Musical “Phantom of the Opera”. I went for the fun of it – and that was almost eight years of my life working there. After that, I wanted to stop the Singing, until I met a vocal coach, the Metropolitan Opera, told me that I would have from the beginning, incorrectly sung.
Have you seen the previous years as wasted time?
No, because when I was back in the Opera, it became clear to me that these years in between, perhaps my salvation, because now I was at the right age to sing Wagner. Too many singers today are pushed too early in her big Wagner roles. I’ve heard people say: “If I was 28 or 29, I will sing Siegfried.” Now, if you’re singing at the age of 28 years, Siegfried, I can guarantee you that you will sing with 38 years of nothing. It is simply wrong. Everyone wants that his heroes are young and alive and like Brad Pitt in his early days appearance. But you have to give the voice time to develop.
When you find Wagner?
He has found me. My teacher said: “You have to go in the heavy German roles.” Tannhäuser was my first Wagner role at the Opera in Linz. I called my teacher and asked: “do you Think, am I ready for this?” He replied: “You practice for three years and know the tricky Spots, so go for it!”
Stephen Gould in “Tristan and Isolde” in Bayreuth
How came you to engage in Bayreuth?
As soon as someone sings New in Europe Wagner, you can be sure that the Wagner’s are going to be there, for me it was Wolfgang Wagner and his wife, Gudrun. You saw me in Linz and invited me in 2004, “Tannhäuser” to enter. It was an incredible cast, you could have no better peers. Later, I sang the Siegfried, the preparation cost them two and a half years, but even that was not enough. For a main role you need Routine, you need to be excreted in your body. I have it a bit rushed.
Nevertheless, this was not the end in Bayreuth.
I have to thank Wolfgang Wagner, the former Director of the Bayreuth festival. When I played Siegfried, he realized that I would soon fail. He said: “Come here, Boy.” No one else was in the vicinity, and I thought he would fire me. Instead, he told stories of all the great tenors who had been here since his Childhood, singing: tenors like Max Lorenz, who was fantastic, but intonation problems and is actually very lazy. Later, Wolfgang windgassen at the first appearance not left, as Siegfried, eight high “A’s” in the forging song, because he simply could. Wagner told of these legends, got up and went. No Tenor was the first Time a perfect Siegfried.
The Interview was conducted by Hans Christoph von Bock.