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Singers on Singing: Grace Bumbry discusses Amneris

Part of the Singers on Singing: Signature Roles series

GRACE BUMBRY DISCUSSES AMNERIS IN VERDI’S AIDA

Many of the most acclaimed great opera singers, such as Grace Bumbry, have achieved early worldwide fame with a particular part that became identified as a signature role. In Grace Bumbry’s case there were two: Amneris in Verdi’s Aida and the title role in Bizet’s Carmen. Of course they make up just a fraction of this artist’s exceptionally broad ranging repertoire, in both opera and song: she has been equally extolled for her vocal and artistic mastery in mezzo-soprano and also soprano roles as diverse as Norma, Medea, Abigaille, Amneris, Dido, Carmen, Chimène, Gioconda, Maddalena, Tosca, Turandot and Salome, to name just a few, as in songs written by composers as varied as Schubert, Schumann, Berlioz, Brahms and Dvorak. And also in a wide scope of oratorio and other genre works by Handel, Mozart, Verdi and Falla – just for a start!

Even when she made her operatic debut, hailed as a sensational new talent in the role of Amneris at l’Opéra de Paris in 1960, she had already been garnering conspicuous attention as a very young oratorio singer of brilliant colour, virtuosity and also refinement. This genre and the world of German lieder and French mélodies had in fact been the original inspirations for her to become a singer quite some time before she became aware of opera, as she recounts in this Signature Roles discussion on the part of Amneris made specially and exclusively for Singers on Singing, which we are presenting here in celebration of Grace Bumbry’s 80th birthday (her discussion of Carmen will follow later this year).

-Jon Tolansky


Grace Bumbry: Quite candidly, opera was not the world I was looking for when I decided on a career as a singer. It was only when Lotte Lehmann insisted I must take her master-classes in opera that I went down that direction – and when I say “insisted”, she really did have to insist, because I firmly wanted to be a Lieder singer, following in the steps of Marian Anderson. However, after about six or seven months of very hard work and hard thinking, I got the hang of opera. It was tough, because I was very shy and very hesitant about making large movements, and in truth Lotte Lehmann didn’t know exactly how to pull opera out of me, but she brought a big change about in my awareness.

That jelled after she had reduced me to tears one day: when I went back to my apartment, I had an epiphany when I looked in the mirror by accident and I saw all these emotions, because I was angry with myself. Lotte had been trying to get me to sing the role of Amneris, and so I said “OK Grace, take those emotions, look at the music of Amneris, and add these emotions in there! Build up an awareness of what you are singing as Amneris. Why is Amneris angry? And is it Grace Bumbry who is angry, or is it Amneris?” And when I realised it was Amneris, I understood what had been missing in my attempts to sing opera with Lotte Lehmann. Right then, and from that day forward, I realised “this is my job – to serve the composer and the librettist and not serve Grace’s voice.” I had to find out “what did the composers and librettists want – why had they written this in this way?” I had come to the conclusion and the understanding that the job was not about Grace Bumbry but about the particular role I was singing, and that meant delving into the role and researching its background and the backgrounds of its composer and librettist. That was the entry for me into this wonderful world of opera.

Grace Bumbry on Amneris

Jon Tolansky: It was significant that the role of Amneris had brought this about, because it is an elusively complex part that stimulated the deeply enquiring nature in Grace Bumbry, generating the searching psychological framework that was to be such a central backbone of all her opera performances. Verdi himself had found it hard to cast Amneris ideally, and Grace Bumbry has always recognised how subtly complex the role is right from her very first appearance in the opening scene, a place that, as she explains, needs the most careful gradations from all three main characters.

Grace Bumbry: The opening scene is crucial for the three principal roles. Each character – Radames, Amneris and Aida – has their own idea of “what is going to happen if……”. I think that Verdi made this trio the central reason for the opera: everything arises from it, and sometimes this is not sufficiently emphasised. The scene and developing trio maps out what indeed will happen as the opera advances.

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO CLIP BELOW
Example 1 from “Grace Bumbry discusses Amneris”
Excerpt from Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida
Amneris: Grace Bumbry
Radames: Franco Corelli
Aida: Birgit Nilsson
Orchestra del Teatro dell’Opera, Roma
Conductor: Zubin Mehta

Radames, the valiant Egyptian warrior, sings about the Ethiopian woman who has captured his heart – “Celeste Aida”. Amneris enters the scene just as he finishes the aria on his high B flat, repeating the words “un trono vicino al sol” (“a throne near the sun”). She sees the radiance on his face and is wondering “what is the cause of such a brilliant demeanour?” She begins her investigation with pretence, saying how the woman who could bring such joy on his face would be envied. Radames immediately understands the danger that is lurking in this conversation, and he answers her with subterfuge, pretending that his heart was lost in the dream that perhaps the goddess Isis might name him as the warrior who will lead the Egyptians into battle. But in typical jealous female fashion, Amneris asks “perhaps that facial expression was prompted by something sweeter, something that he desires here in Memphis?” Of course, this gives him the chance to say that he desires her, but that is not forthcoming.

Now I feel there is more to this moment than is often understood. It is my impression that Radames and Amneris may well have had a fleeting romance, before he went to war with the Ethiopians and lost his heart to Aida, one of the captives – and there is an important clue about this later on, in the Second Act, which I will come to very soon. Of course, she feels his change of attitude towards her, and straight way realizes that the cause of Radames’ joyous demeanour is a person and not a position. Radames is aware of Amneris’ wrath, and is wondering if she has read the name of the slave-girl in his thoughts, just as Amneris swears vengeance on anyone besides herself who is burning in his heart. Then, at the moment of Aida’s arrival onto the scene, Amneris sees how moved Radames is. The knowing glances they give each other prompts Amneris to think “could she be my rival?” She sets about her game of cat and mouse feigning interest and compassion for Aida, telling her that she is neither slave nor handmaiden. Now all the ambivalence that drives so much of the opera is set up in that opening trio which sometimes is musically passed over too simply as though it is secondary in comparison with the famous big arias and grand dramatic scenes.

Too often in this opera there are vital passages for the drama and psychology that can be underestimated, and most especially I would like to point out an instance at the start of Act Two that reinforces my belief that Radames and Amneris have probably had a romance previously, before his involvement with Aida.

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO CLIP BELOW
Example 2 from “Grace Bumbry discusses Amneris”
Excerpt from Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida
Amneris: Grace Bumbry
Orchestra del Teatro dell’Opera, Roma
Conductor: Zubin Mehta

Amneris is in her boudoir surrounded by slaves, and after their opening chorus she sings “ah! vieni amor mio, m’inebbria, fammi beato l cor!” (“ah, come my love, fill me with rapture, restore joy to my heart!”) – and then, very importantly, after the slaves sing again, she sings “ah! vieni, vieni amor mio, ravvivami d’un caro accento ancor” (“come my love, revive in me again, the dear words of love”).  The libretto clearly says both times that she sings this ‘to herself’ – and surely she must be referring to Radames: who else? Of course at the onset of the first act it is not clear that there has been something between them, but it does surely become quite clear now in the second act – that is if we pay attention to the text and do not become distracted by the beauty of the music and the voices.  In this opera the beauty of the music and the pageantry are so great that one can easily overlook important dramatic and psychological details, and this passage here is so often sung only like a beautiful musical line without any inference of the words’ emotional significance. And taking this a step further, we then realise that there is a bigger dimension to Amneris’ feelings for Radames. That is why she was so upset in the first act when he did not respond to her insinuations in her own favour.

I feel that a reason why such an important detail as this is so often overlooked is that so many singers search just for a sonority in Amneris when they perform the role. I always searched for a fragility: after all Amneris is the Pharaoh’s daughter, she does not need to express force – and if you really look closely at Verdi’s writing in that very first scene and most importantly of all if you ask yourself why he wrote the part the way he did, then you realise that he wanted to show the vulnerability of a woman who on the face of it is a powerful lady because of her rank (LISTEN – Audio Example No 1, again). When she comes in and sees that radiant look on Radames’ face as he sings the last bars of Celeste Aida, she is nervous – she is concerned to see that expression that maybe she has seen before but not recently. She is curious, but she is also apprehensive and yet does not want to show it, and this is all immediately indicated by Verdi in the manner of his writing. The clue lies in the vocal register of Amneris’ opening phrase and the dynamics of the orchestra: she starts on an F natural with “Quale insolita gioia nel tuo sguardo!” (“What unusual joy I see in your looks!), and all the first six notes – Quale insolita gio…. – are the same F natural, in that recessed register of the voice, while she is accompanied by a single line of violins playing piano legato. How can you possibly go wrong if you realise why Verdi wrote this? He sets up the underlying essence of her character immediately in this way, which he could not have done if he had written her opening lines in a bombastic fashion.

Jon Tolansky: And indeed that is because Amneris is surely the most complex and maybe the most troubled of all the characters, her personal and official conflicts finally culminating in all their intensity in the final act of the opera where she almost epitomises Verdi’s life-long preoccupation with human dilemma.

Grace Bumbry: After Amneris says she will defend Radames and plead for his life with the King if he renounces Aida but he refuses, as he is led away by the guards for his trial she blames herself and curses her jealousy for bringing about his downfall. Then as Ramfis and the priests pray to the heavenly spirit to descend and light the flame of justice, she sings “Numi, pietà del mio straziato core, egli è innocente” (“Gods have pity on my broken heart, he is innocent”).

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO CLIP BELOW
Example 3 from “Grace Bumbry discusses Amneris”
Excerpt from Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida
Amneris: Grace Bumbry
Orchestra del Teatro dell’Opera, Roma
Conductor: Zubin Mehta

She is saying “I am the culprit, this has all happened because of me, he is not the one” – but of course he is the one. He is the one who has betrayed his country, but she is not interested in that!! All along she has been interested in the triangle of these two women and that one man. She wanted that man at any cost, but unfortunately he did not love her. And – I am sure Amneris’ problem is also to do with race. Aida is a Nubian – and to think that a Nubian, and, until she realises differently at the very end of the third act, a Nubian slave at that, would take someone, an Egyptian, that she loves! After all, “I am Egyptian royalty” she is saying to herself. I am sure that is in her psyche, and that is why I insist that a white singer taking the part of Aida has to have blackface make-up for the performance. You cannot get away from the fact that you have two different races, not just two different countries, at war – Egyptians and Ethopians are two different races. You have to realise in this opera that there is not only a war of weapons but a war of mentality – of psyche – of race. It is a racial war. This cannot just be white-washed.

Jon Tolansky: Grace Bumbry has the rare historical credit of having performed the part of Aida as well as Amneris to equal acclaim during her remarkable dual career as mezzo-soprano and soprano. Did singing both roles give her an extra insight into the other part each time?

Grace Bumbry: Very definitely this did. And not only insight but a kind of empathy, that maybe sometimes might be in the way – because if I were just only to sing the one or the other role, then I would not have any kind of empathy for the other character during the performance, but when I knew from my inside the psychological build-up of the other character that I had already sung, from time to time I began to feel a little bit of pity for her, which I should not have in the interpretation. But there is one side-effect of this empathy that may be significant: I began to wonder whether maybe in the Second Act boudoir scene, when, to test out and expose Aida’s love for Radames, Amneris leads her on to think momentarily that Radames has been killed in battle, and then when she sees her reaction she finally confronts her, Amneris has some kind of an inner suspicion that maybe Aida is not a slave. There is something about Aida’s bearing, both in her music and in her physical presence, even when she falls at Amneris’s feet and begs to be forgiven, that betrays her, and maybe Amneris is convinced that Aida is someone of special status – though she cannot know she is a princess. And don’t forget that Aida has been Amneris’ very favourite slave. There has to be something out of the ordinary about this Aida that has interested Amneris as well as Radames.

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO CLIP BELOW
Example 4 from “Grace Bumbry discusses Amneris”
Excerpt from Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida
Amneris: Grace Bumbry
Aida: Birgit Nilsson
Orchestra del Teatro dell’Opera, Roma
Conductor: Zubin Mehta

As this opera is most of all about the private and inner feelings of both Aida and Amneris, it is so important to have a production that understands the intimacy of the story. The spectacle is only in the second scene of the Second Act, and in a sense it is there to highlight the hopeless position of Aida and Radames as lovers when the King offers Amneris in marriage to Radames as his trophy. For the rest it is a very intimate work – dramatic yes, but intimate in scale. That is something that Franco Zeffirelli understood so well in his production, because he made such a big contrast between the Second Act spectacle and all else.

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