Peter Katona

Scofield: It’s a perfect opportunity to reflect on what it means to be an opera singer, and your tremendously important position in developing this art form and the artists who make it happen. It’s a huge weight of responsibility.           

Katona: It’s also a huge weight of responsibility if one wants to encourage the right people to do this kind of job. It is one of the hardest jobs in the world: you are very exposed on a big stage with a big orchestra; the world listens, not only the 2000 people who may sit in a big opera house; every good or bad news travels these days around the world. And in this artistic marketplace, to succeed is extremely difficult, and you don’t just achieve that with a wonderful voice. Of course, you need a wonderful voice, or a voice that is resilient, and has stamina, but you need so much more. The voice is only a small part of this.

You need your musical education in different styles, and to be able to learn and perform very complicated music, you need to be able to act very freely, and to different directions by different kinds of producers on stage, you need to have health and stamina, you need to have, in a way, the right age, the right body for the type of role you are singing, and you need a personality that speaks to people and opens their ears and eyes, and you need all this at the same time. And it is as difficult to succeed in this job as to become the best footballer in the world. There are many footballers, that’s the right moment to talk about football. There are many footballers, but only very few reach the very top of the profession.

But, on the other hand, there are 80 opera companies in Germany for example. Eighty, eight-zero, that is an extraordinary wealth of artistic scenery, and there are many others in Europe, but particularly in Germany. But there is much space for young Asian singers, but not everybody will end up in a star role. Many of them will end up maybe as choristers in medium-sized companies, which can be a satisfying artistic and musical life as well, but you need to approach that with a lot of realism.