Flora’s fun

It took Ayala Zimbler a while to get used to the idea of being an opera singer, but she’s perfectly at home in her role in Verdi’s ‘La Traviata.’

By BARRY DAVIS
‘La Traviata’ opera 370 (photo credit: courtesy)
‘La Traviata’ opera 370
(photo credit: courtesy)
Ayala Zimbler, it seems, was always going to end up on stage, producing vocals at high decibels. “I started singing at a very young age,” says the 26-year-old opera professional. “I was in the school choir from second grade, but I really got into singing when I was 13.”
The results of that early start are on display at the Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv, as Zimbler shares the mezzo soprano role of Flora with Na’ama Goldman, in Verdi’s La Traviata through June 16. David Stern and Daniel Cohen share the conducting duties for the run, which mark’s Verdi’s bicentenary as well as the 90th anniversary of the very first opera show in this part of the world – which, incidentally, was La Traviata.
While instrumentalists can often start their musical education at a tender age without suffering serious physical side effects, one would have thought that 13 was a bit young to get into professional voice training. “Yes, at that age I was growing fast, and my voice changed a lot,” Zimbler recalls. “Before I started voice training I had a hoarse voice, when I sang and also when I spoke, but things changed a lot for the better. You could say I changed from a duck into a swan,” Zimbler adds with a laugh.
Mind you, the youngster was not exactly looking to muscle her way into the operatic equivalent of A Star Is Born. In fact, it took her a while to venture out of her musical closet. “It was only after I started voice training that my parents discovered I could sing,” notes Zimbler.
“I was very shy when I was a kid, and it took me a long time to open up and to want to sing to my parents. I didn’t stand in the middle of the living room and start singing. I’d sing on my own, in my bedroom where no one could hear me.”
Zimbler maintained her musical trajectory into her army service, even though she did not serve in a military band. “I was a service conditions NCO, but I’d sing at all sorts of ceremonies at the base, and I was involved in the cultural activities there. And, after I finished the army, I knew I wanted to be an opera singer.”
It was the combination of the aural and visual that appealed to Zimbler. “I was attracted to the idea of doing something that involved both theater and music,” she explains. “I saw that as a way of expressing everything in me.”
Surely, though, she could have achieved that by embarking on a career in musicals too. “That’s true, but I was drawn to classical music,” she says. “The music of Puccini, of Verdi, of Tchaikovsky, to my mind that is the most powerful music that exists.”
That strong attraction to classical material didn’t come from Zimbler’s earliest recollections. “We didn’t have any classical music records at home when I was small. We had lots of Israeli music, and a bit of the Beatles, but absolutely nothing classical. I was a real pioneer. It really came from inside me.”
A few years later, however, Zimbler discovered there may have been something genetic behind her passion for music. “I found out that my maternal grandfather’s side came from a long line of cantors. They were Reform cantors in the United States.”
DESPITE HER attraction to the music, and her maternal lineage, Zimbler was not entirely sold on the idea of getting into the opera scene from an early age. “I was just this kid from Kiryat Bialik,” she recalls. “I went to an opera recital, and I thought to myself: ‘Am I really going to do this, to be an opera singer?’” Things began to turn serious after Zimbler finished her army service and started studying at Tel Aviv University’s music academy. “I sang musicals and classic jazz to begin with,” she says. “It took me quite a while to get the idea that I really was going to sing opera for a living.”
She began to get closer to the action as a student.
“While I was at university I got a job as an usher at the opera house,” she recalls. “That was a real eye-opener for me. I remember I’d sit there and watch the singers on the stage, and I thought to myself: ‘One day I’ll be up there too.’ It sounds a bit like Hollywood, but it’s true!”
Zimbler is delighted to have the opportunity to strut her stuff in the current production. “It is not by chance that La Traviata is performed so frequently.
Every opera that Verdi wrote was better than the one before,” she notes. “La Traviata is one of the climaxes of his oeuvre. This opera has everything. First, the music really grabs you. It is very easy to connect with but it is also a work of genius. And the subject matter is just as relevant today as when it was first performed [in 1853]. There’s love and jealousy, and illness and death. And in between all the highly dramatic stuff, Verdi cleverly interspersed what you might call comic relief. He knew how to keep his audiences entertained, and get them to laugh too.
“I think La Traviata was relevant in the 1850s and is just as appropriate for today’s audiences. That’s part of Verdi’s genius.”
Zimbler says she is also intrigued by the role she plays. “There are all sorts of ideas about Flora’s true nature. Some directors see her as not being a true friend to Violetta [a famous courtesan of fragile health], and some do see her as a true friend. I think, in this production, Flora comes across as someone who genuinely cares for Violetta, and expresses her concern for her throughout the opera.”
Flora is a colorful character, which suits Zimbler to a T. “She likes to go to parties, and to drink alcohol and spend time with people – the right kind of people.”
The color and gaiety of Parisian high society comes through strongly in the current run. “They have really gone the whole hog with this production,” notes Zimbler. “It is a very bright and sparkly show, and the costumes are amazing. I like that.”
For tickets and more information: (03) 692-7777 and www.israel-opera.co.il