Interview, 05/2003: Nina STEMME und Robert GAMBILL, Tristan und Isolde

Interviewed: Tristan and Isolde
ROBERT GAMBILL and NINA STEMME
They had never met before their arrival, for the six-week period of intensive work and study that preceeds a new production at Glyndebourne. Although they are both seasoned Wagnerians, this was a first Tristan and a first Isolde for each. Both agree that it has been a memorable and wonderful experience, culminating as it did in immense success with packed houses and enthusiastic ovations for every performance.
The artistic rapport and friendly relationship between Robert Gambill and Nina Stemme is obvious from the beginning – which has to be helpful in the staging of one of the greatest love stories of all time. But suppose they had disliked each other at first sight?
”It can happen, though not very often,” admits Robert Gambill. ”But we are professionals, and in such a case you’ve simply got to overcome the antagonism. A good producer can help a lot towards bridging it.”
He is a cheerful, down-to-earth American from Indianapolis, and has a sensible approach to his own talent, which has undergone a significant change in the course of his career. Between 1981 and 1995 he sang countless roles in the lyric repertory… ”But then,” he says, ”my body told me it was time to move on. So I cancelled everything and started working on the big dramatic parts. My chance came when there was a cancellation in “Lulu’”.
Today he is in much demand as Tannhäuser amongst other Wagnerian characters, whereas Nina Stemme is more frequently associated with Senta. She has sung it at the ”Met”, she will sing it for her début in Vienna in the forthcoming new Staatsoper-production of the ”Holländer”, and it is the role she was singing for the first time when Glyndebourne approached her at Antwerp in the year 2000. ”I could hardly believe it,” she says. ”In fact, I wondered if I’d dreamed it?”
But she had not, and during the summer of that year she sang through the music three times with her coach, and listened to various different recordings of it.
”I have no less than ten records of “Tristan’,” she told me. ”In the end however you forget the records and move forwards to a concept of your own.” Those who heard her at Glyndebourne can confirm that her concept imparts a dignity unshakeable even in the transports of love to the personality of Isolde.
These two fine singers are not content to be mere vehicles for the transition of great music, but as intelligent people, are keenly aware of the need to attract new young audiences to opera. It is a challenge facing most of the world’s managements at present, and made worth by the relative dearth of new work in the genre, compared with the fertile conditions a hundred years ago. One much-practised production device is the up-dating of earlier operas to more recent decades, and in fact a substantial quantity of them are susceptible to the technique. All the same, it would be hard to imagine what even the most adventurous stage director could do with ”Freischütz” when so few of the beliefs and customs expressed in it are any longer current!
It follows therefore that neither Robert Gambill nor Nina Stemme is fundamentally opposed to the imposition of contemporary ideas on the traditional repertory. Both are prepared to try anything a producer demands at least once before protesting or going to the extreme length of withdrawing.
”Because we’ve got to get the young,” says Robert Gambill. ”And of course another good reason for accepting many of the things modern producers introduce is that it’s our job. And it is our jobs that pay the rent.”
He points to the Stuttgart opera where about seven out of ten innovative productions are successful, as against the two out of ten averaged by other houses. Nina Stemme shares his attitude. ”Opera must move forward in time,” she says, ”though you must never underestimate the audience who’ll quickly sense a characterisation, or even a costume which is incompatible with the singer’s image.”
”As you become more experienced,” she continues, ”you learn what you can and cannot do. However, we never say no to a producer without at least giving his idea a try.”
They are at one about the overriding importance of stagings that enable them to sing their best, and both agree that a good producer will never insist on anything that makes this difficult.
From Glyndebourne Nina Stemme goes to Lyon for her first Marie in ”Wozzeck”, while Robert Gambill returns to Munich for another ”Tannhäuser”. These are busy lives, but they own a further dimension that is highly prized by each of them, and it is focussed on home and family. Robert Gambill lives in Hamburg with his wife, Sabine – who is active in the cultural institute there – and their four children. Nina Stemme has three children and lives in her native Stockholm with her set-designer husband, Bengt Gomer. The time spent at home is precious to both artists, and it is inevitable and only natural that most of it is devoted to their sons and daughters. Marèse Murphy