This week the Salzburg Festival opens a new production of “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” with an all-star cast that includes some of the best performers of the work. Among them is Kathryn Lewek, who will be taking on the challenge of portraying all four heroines, something that has always been seen as rare and complex. In preparation for the roles, Lewek spoke to OperaWire about the roles and her love for her cast.
OperaWire: This is not the first time you have taken on the four roles. How has this opera evolved for you after doing it before? Kathryn Lewek: Whenever I return to a role, I enjoy discovering a more nuanced and complex connection to the character – and that was certainly the case when I sang these roles the first couple of times, in Berlin at the Deutsche Oper in 2022 and then again at Palm Beach Opera this season. But my last several weeks in Salzburg have me viewing all three of these women in a completely different light.
It’s wildly surprising to me, to be honest, how deftly our director, Mariame Clement, has simultaneously stayed true to the libretto AND found an updated and (IMO) much more satisfying interpretation of the journey of these women. My brain tends to automatically concentrate on the dramatic side of things, but there of course is also the vocal side of things, and here I am feeling more settled and confident that I am up to this unique challenge having done multiple productions over the last couple of years. The terror has abated.
.. a little.
OW: What is the most challenging thing about singing these four roles given they have different vocal writing? KL: There are several challenges with singing all four of these roles in one evening. It is not a short opera, and singing all of the heroines means I’m onstage almost the entire show (a far cry from another role I am well-known for, Queen of the Night, more like a 12.5-minute sprint), so it’s a real marathon.
Aside from that, my challenges are mostly linguistic. I feel confident that I have the right vocal colors to sing each of these roles, and I think I have correctly confined my performance anxiety in delivering the text as accurately and correctly as I am able. As we go through the acts of this opera, the sounds from the pit thicken dramatically with each role, making it much more important for the clarity of my French to soar over the glorious texture of the Vienna Phil (and it truly is glorious, the sounds they are making!) I felt very fortunate earlier this season to sing my first Lakme in Nice with a completely French cast.
It was a fantastic opportunity to refine and polish my French diction in preparation for this experience where I’m singing face to face with one of the greatest French singers of our generation, Benjamin Bernheim. He has been incredibly supportive, even when I flub my text during rehearsals. Ben is a great singer, but an even better colleague and friend.
He teased me about a mistake I had made in French in rehearsal (which resulted in me singing something very silly about slapping my father) and his levity really put me at ease in a situation where I could very easily have fallen prey to the immense internal pressure that I feel! OW: How is this production reinterpreting this classic? KL: I remember my first conversation with Mariame, almost a year ago, when she began explaining her concept for this production. I was simultaneously fascinated, excited, and a little terrified at the way she was working to contend with the problematic way the heroines are normally portrayed, bringing a strong statement of feminist conviction to each of them. (Excited at bringing a new energy to this piece, and a little terrified for my ability to pull it off successfully!) As much as I have loved this opera for its music, it has always been equally unsettling to me how the women I portray are simplified, objectified, stereotyped, martyred, abused, and reduced in the “male gaze.
” There isn’t a moment in this production that we aren’t completely faithful to the libretto, but this concept stirs up the entire plot with some clever redirection of line delivery. We are in the film world: Hoffmann the talented yet tortured cinema auteur, Stella the much adored movie star. In his films, he constantly tries to write her characters the way he wishes she would be in their relationship: compliant, demure, adoring.
.. and blond (just like his high school crush, the curvaceous teen hottie Olympia, who we saw as his first leading lady in his first foray into film making as a high school project.
) Instead, she’s a strong-minded, independent, ambitious, and compassionate woman who won’t be forced into matrimonial servitude, despite her love for Hoffmann. He tries to bring her down, but she maintains her independence and makes the decisions that feel right for her own life. How refreshing! OW: What is your personal favorite and why? KL: I love them all for different reasons – and this is new answer for me to give.
Two months ago I would have easily answered “Antonia,” for the incredible duets and the final trio. Musically, Antonia wins every time for me. But in this production, there is so much more to appreciate in the other roles.
In our production, Stella is the main presence throughout, with the other roles branching out from her character in various imaginative ways. It is she that is really the heart of the production, since we get so many more glimpses at why Hoffmann is so obsessed with her. I admire her strength of character and the confidence in which she makes decisions about her life and her career.
She is also a very loving, compassionate, and understanding partner to Hoffmann during their relationship, and she does not delight in his insecurities. She witnesses the tragedy of an artistic soul being swallowed up by his own vulnerabilities, and his downfall truly disturbs her. But also, then there’s Olympia, who shows up as Hoffmann’s 1970’s era blond bombshell of a high school crush.
Her act is a laugh riot from start to finish, complete with teased hair, light-up laser boobs, UFO’s, pyrotechnics and phallic crystals! This is some of the most fun I have EVER had on stage – it rivals the last time I was here in Salzburg singing Barrie Kosky’s “Orfée aux Enfers.” Evidently, I’m just destined to have a blast singing Offenbach in Salzburg? This Olympia is so fun and interesting to me, especially when she uses her entire final cadenza of the act to rage against people’s assumptions about her based upon her sex and her body. She is a blazing feminist teenager! OW: How has it been to rehearse with the cast that you are doing this production with? KL: This is a dream cast!! First of all, every person in the room is ridiculously talented, but the laughs we have had during this rehearsal process are the moments that I will hold on to long after the curtains fall on our last performance at the end of the summer.
It’s funny that three out of the four leading roles were cast with American singers here in Austria, though we are all familiar faces to European audiences. This has made us all a bit more social this summer than we might have otherwise been – and Ben naturally fits right in with us. Plus, we all have kids, so there have been plenty of pool parties, backyard BBQing, and playground visits together as a cast.
The vibe in the rehearsal room has been really special, and we owe that first and foremost to our director, Mariame. She is brilliant, but she is also a true believer in collaboration, and she has invited all of our opinions, concerns, and ideas to be freely voiced. The trust and respect that she has for every person in the room really set the tone for the whole production, and it’s been such a unique experience because of this.
Christian Van Horn is an old friend of mine, but we’ve had so much more opportunity to interact during this show (as opposed to the “Magic Flutes” we have sung together at the Met) so that’s been really fun. He has a confidence and swagger onstage that you can’t fake, and he brings a sense of gravity and intimidation to the villains that I have never seen. He was born to sing these roles, but it’s also been a lot of fun to see him play with his interpretation of them as this production pushes away some of the stereotypical “evil” moments.
He is so natural in his command of the stage. Kate Lindsey is someone I have been eager to work with for years, and for several reasons it’s been so fantastic to work with her and get to know her, not least of which because our kids are similarly aged and we have spent plenty of time having sympathetic and supportive mom-talks in our free time. She’s an incredibly thoughtful human being, and it shows in her artistry onstage.
Her voice is pure chocolate and cream, and it’s pure joy to listen to her in the role of Nicklausse, who honestly gets some of the most beautiful music in the whole opera. It’s a complete dream to sing the Barcarolle with her. I love melding my voice with hers in this iconic duet.
I hardly have the words to describe how great it has been to work with a talent like Ben Bernheim – and I already waxed poetic about what a great guy he is, but it’s also really satisfying to work with someone who experiments on stage as much as I like to. Our interactions together onstage keep evolving as we discover more and more about the relationships we share together as Hoffmann and the Four Heroines. It’s a journey to tell many love stories together over the course of the show, and we’ve really relished in finding more reality in our romantic exchanges, rather than the more scripted operatic lovey-dovey expectations.
The relationships we portray onstage are super-complicated, but Ben is a super-easy person to be around, so putting this show together has been a great experience for me opposite him onstage. For those not in Salzburg, the production will be streamed live on August 16 on orf and arte.tv and on stage plus music on August 24.
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