The 32-year-old mezzo-soprano will have a run on the stage of the Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv in the company’s 2016-17 season opener, Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma.
By BARRY DAVISIsrael-born and raised, Anat Czarny is a leading opera voice, well known and beloved from appearances in recitals, concerts, radio broadcasts and more throughout Israel(photo credit: URI MENI)
Musically, Israel is in the pink.That applies across the disciplinary board and definitely to our operatic exploits.Anat Czarny provides further evidence of that bill of health.The 32-year-old mezzo-soprano will have a run on the stage of the Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv in the company’s 2016-17 season opener. It kicks off on November 30 with a production of Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma, with the libretto supplied by Felice Romani.The two-act work was first unveiled at La Scala in Milan in 1831 and has enjoyed enduring popularity, with the leading titular role filled over the years by some of the operatic community’s most feted artists, such as Maria Callas and Joan Sutherland.The current production will be performed 13 times between November 30 and December 17, with Daniel Oren wielding his conductor’s baton, working alongside – at least during the preparatory stages – Italian director Alberto Fassini and compatriot revival director Vittorio Borrelli. Czarny will share the role of Clotilde with Shahar Lavi, a fellow graduate of the Buchman-Mehta School of Music of Tel Aviv University.Both rising stars honed their vocal skills in-house with the Israeli Opera’s Meitar Opera Studio. The role of Norma will be performed by American soprano Hrachuhi Bassenz, Italian singer Maria Pia Piscitelli and Israeli soprano Ira Bertman. Other leading characters will be portrayed by Argentinean tenor Gustavo Porta as Pollione, Italian mezzo-soprano Marina de Liso as Adalgisa, and compatriot bass-baritone Carlo Striuli in the role of Oroveso. The Italian-language performance will be accompanied by surtitles in English and Hebrew.Czarny says she was something of a late starter in her current line of work, even though she has never been reticent about displaying her vocal qualities.“I always sang, from a very young age, but it was nothing like opera singing,” she says. “I didn’t start learning opera or how to read music until the age of 22.”It was not as if she didn’t have aspirations in a general artistic direction and, in particular, wanted to sing.“I danced ballet and studied acting, but I always wanted to be a singer,” she recalls.But it looked as if her main ambition might have to be consigned to the unrealized dreams section of her life story.“I thought I had probably missed the boat. I couldn’t yet read music.”But she had to get her act together in double-quick time when, absence of technical skills notwithstanding, she applied to the Tel Aviv University music school. She managed to become proficient at reading scores and was duly accepted as a student. It was a life changer, and one she thought she’d never encounter.“I was an officer in the army and, after I was demobbed [demobilized], I spent a year and a half in Paris as deputy military attaché,” she recounts.“It was while I was in Paris that I realized I wanted to be an opera singer.But I didn’t go to see opera there. I just wasn’t an opera goer. I listened to classical music, which I also got to know through ballet, including vocal classical music. I tried to imitate the singers because it was so beautiful, and I saw I managed to sing a little bit like them.”That was encouraging, but she still had a way to go before eventually convincing herself that she could make it as a professional.“I took a few voice lessons when I was in the army, but it wasn’t too serious. I just couldn’t imagine getting to the level of those opera singers I heard,” she notes.That may have seemed like a bridge too far for the young IDF vet, but she was gradually drawn into the thick of things during her tour of duty in the French capital.“I don’t know what exactly the turning point was, but I decided I would study a bit of solfeggio [vocal exercises] and voice training with singers who were around my age. It was nothing professional,” she continues.Even so, her interest had been more than piqued, so she decided to get down to brass vocal tacks once she returned to Israel.By now, Czarny was determined to have a serious stab at making the grade.“I took private voice training lessons for four months – and spent all my savings,” she says.She was hopeful and optimistic but far from convinced that she had what it takes.“I never had any breaking points. Maybe if I hadn’t been accepted by the music school, that might have broken me. But I was accepted, and I was really surprised. When the woman from the university called me to say I’d passed, I asked her if she was certain and told her she should check again,” she recounts.And the rest is evolving musical history.“That changed my life completely. I simply fell in love with opera singing,” enthuses Czarny.She followed her university degree studies with a year of working, which often entailed singing all sorts of material at a variety of events. She also had a change of vocal orientation.“During my studies, I realized I wasn’t a sort of weak soprano; rather, I was a sort of high mezzo-soprano. My voice is like a second soprano. It is a young voice, but it also has a darker color to it,” she says.That was something of an epiphany for the young singer.“I could sing things with which I felt far more comfortable,” she explains. “I realized I didn’t have to exert myself so much. It was a good diagnosis of my voice.”The next stage in Czarny’s rapid professional development was when she was accepted to the Meitar Opera Studio. It was there, she says, that she really started getting to grips with her tardily found vocation.“I got a lot from my university studies, but I really found out what opera was about at the studio,” she says.Czarny knows she is far from the finished article but has managed to gain a decent amount of experience with the Israeli Opera. To date, her role roll call includes such popular works as Donizetto’s L’elisir d’amore, Verdi’s Rigoletto and Il Trovatore and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.Considering her late entry into the craft, she has made impressive progress.She comes across as having a sunny approach to life and to her work, and that seems to stand her in very good stead.“I have got to where I am now because I fell in love with this. There is this thrill of wanting to see what else there is to discover. To discover what this world is about. What it has to offer,” she says.With Czarny’s talents and positive outlook, it looks like she is heading for a brilliant career in opera.“I’m off to try on a black wig now [for her role in Norma],” she smiles as we part. “This should be fun.”The Israeli Opera performs ‘Norma’ from November 30 to December 17 at the Opera House in Tel Aviv. For tickets and more information: (03) 692-7777 and www.israel-opera.co.il