The Eighth Hungarian Tribe, 1985 (12. évfolyam, 1-11. szám)
1985-05-01 / 5. szám
PROFILES IN FOCUS-by-Peter Goodman Eva Marton: A DIVA SHOWS HER DRAMATIC STYLE Eva Marton swept into the Hampshire House’s nearly deserted bar and swept right out again. Next door in the hotel lobby was a florist’s shop; the owner was a friend, she said, and she wanted to liven up the interview photographs with some flowers. “It’s Christmas, you know,” she said in clear, German-accented tones. Marton swept back into the paneled quiet of the bar, the florist lugging a huge pot of flowers beside her. Where should they go? Here, on the window, or here next to her on the leather banquette? “You know what I’m trying to do?” she asked the photographer in a warm voice that, nevertheless, brooked no disagreement. Eva Marton, born in Budapest, resident in Hamburg, at home on opera stages around the world, is a dramatic soprano with few peers today; dramatic sopranos do what they will. Finally, flowers beside her, she sat down, straightened her skirt, and the conversation began. Manager Gerard Semon sat with her, to help translate any particularly difficult responses. What sort of person, in her opinion, was Leonore, the Heroine of Beethoven’s “Fidelio,” whom Marton was currently portraying at the Metropolitan Opera? “Very human, the eternal woman,” she said as the photographer flashed away. “A very mature love, a very mature marriage.” She changed the subject abruptly. “What do you do in Christmas season? We talk. I heard today it will be very, very cold.” Marton batted her hand about her face. The camera flash was bothering her. “That’s enough. I’m sorry I don’t like.” As the photographer left, she said, “Thank you and goodbye.” In a world where great dramatic sopranos exist more in memory than onstage, Eva Marton’s day has come. Her Leonore at the Met, in a production led by the East German conductor Klaus Tennstedt, with Canadian tenor Jon Vickers as her imprisoned husband Florestan and Finnish bass Matti Salminen as Rocco the jailer, is a warm, strong, compassionate portrayal. May, 1985 Her voice is everything a dramatic soprano’s must be: full of power to carry to every inch of a huge opera house, with great range, rich color and flexibility of expression. Complimented on cne oeauuy of her voice and portrayal, she stud, with a rich laugh, “You know, I may be the last white elephant, the last strange animal. Like in a marathon race, there’s always one on top, the first one, so I feel I am, at the moment, at the top. You say [so], and thank you. I think so, too, you know.” This is not mere ego, though any major performer must have her share. Two years ago, her performances at the Met as the ‘Empress in Strauss’ “Die Frau ohne Schatten” (Birgit Nilsson sang the other great role of the Dyer’s Wife) were her first American breakthroughs. Last season, after her Elisabeth in Wagner’s “Tannhauser” at the Met, The New York Times wrote of her that “she has the vocal and temperamental qualities to become the opera world’s next great important dramatic soprano.” And three weeks ago, after she sang the title EVA MARTON The Hungarian Diva. role in Puccini’s “Turandot” at the Opera Company of Boston, Newsweek said the performance “establishes Marton as the crown princess of the dramatic-soprano repertory.” Her American schedule just this season indicates Marton’s increasing importance to opera companies. Besides the Boston “Turandot” (one of her four “Turandot” productions this year), she is set for Puccini’s “Tosca” at the Houston Grand Opera, with Placido Domingo and Ingvar Wixell, another “Turandot” in Denver, “Die Frau...” in Chicago, and in June her first Brunnhilde, in “Siegfried” at the San Francisco Opera. Indeed, Marton is scheduled to sing in Wagner’s complete “Ring des Nibelungen” as San Francisco produces the four-opera cycle over the next three years. Not that she considers her triumphs to be hers alone. She has sung, “Fidelio” many times before, but the Met’s production, heard yesterday in the last performance of the season, came after two weeks of “very hard, intensive rehearsal,” she said. “This is not just my Leonore. Page 7
