Latvian soprano Marina Rebeka talks about her recent recording projects with her own record label Prima Classic. Founded in 2018 with sound engineer Edgardo Vertanessian, the independent label released more than 30 albums, including 5 solo albums by Rebeka.
From a participate in the Accademia Rossiniana to La Scala, Royal Opera House, Salzburg Festival and The Metropolitan Opera, Rebeka reveals how she kept challenging herself along this magical journey.
On her latest album collaborates with Bru Zane, Voyage, Rebeka finds Jaëll’s compositions complex and challenging, requiring huge amounts of energy and enthusiasm.
In 2021, she sings Imogene in Bellini’s Il Pirata, which received the 2022 International Classical Music Award (ICMA) for opera recording of the year.
Private life is essential for her as an artist, as it has an influence on her career and understanding of the world.
The Young Artists program helps singers understand themselves and what they want to say in their singing, and it is important to understand when to say no to small roles and when to try for the main role.
Classical music has a huge influence on people, both mentally and physically. However, the public are not exposed to classical music to the same level how they are exposed to pop music. And this leads to industry structure unbalance between pop music and classical music, which makes classical music suffering.
Music Discussed
Johann Sebastian Bach, Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, Anonymous: Bist du bei mir, BWV 508
From Credo
Vincenzo Bellini, Felice Romani: Il Pirata, Act I: Lo sognai ferito
From Bellini: Il Pirata
Massenet: De cet affreux combat…Pleurez, mes yeux! (from Le Cid)
From Elle: French Opera Arias
Intro and outro music: Cosi Fan Tutte, Come Scoglio (Mozart) by MIT Symphony Orchestra. Available for use under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license (Creative Commons — Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International — CC BY-NC 4.0), at [Cosi Fan Tutte, Come Scoglio (Mozart) – Free Music Archive].
