Aleksandra Kurzak

Scofield: The amazing thing about you and your mother, I was utterly fascinated, is when you did make your first professional debut in the Wrocław State Opera in Poland as Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, you were performing with your mother Jolanta Żmurko, who played the Countess in the same production. Amazing!

Kurzak: Yes, exactly! It was my debut. I was still a student, and some of the best students of the Conservatory at the Musical Academy in Poland could participate in this performance of the opera house. It was indeed amazing. It was 1999, on the 26th of May, which is the Mother’s Day in Poland. So it was an incredible gift, and we sang this performance together. It was really amazing. But my mother was, of course, more nervous about it. I can imagine now that I’m a mother and I have a daughter what emotions she had!

Scofield: Yes, to have you there on stage with her!

Kurzak: Yes, with your own daughter. It’s incredible. I remember I sang the first act already. The countess comes in the second one, she sang her entry aria, “Porgi, amor, qualche ristoro”, and then there is Susanna, she has to sing [Sings]. I came on the stage, and she was so nervous when she saw me that she went out of tune totally! [Sings] Something like that! And I looked at her with a small smile and closed teeth, and I said, “Mum, come on!” And she was thinking, “Okay, think about yourself, she’s fine, my daughter.” It was beautiful.

Scofield: I think that must have been the point where you really grew up in your mother’s eyes, when she could make a big mistake, and you, her daughter, had to cover for her.

Kurzak: Yes, can you imagine five years later, I was already making my debut at the Met, so it was incredible. From the student and the first opera house, to the Metropolitan Opera in New York. They went there for the first time, in their lives, to America and like going to Hong Kong, seeing all these skyscrapers and all these incredible buildings. And I sang Olympia from The Tales of Hoffmann. After the show, I said, “Mum, how was it?”, and she was in tears. “Don’t ask me,” she said, “I didn’t see anything, I didn’t hear anything, I don’t know nothing, I was crying the whole performance! I have to come once more to see it, because I don’t know anything.” It was a really touching moment for her.