I met Anna Pirozzi in her dressing room at the Opéra de Paris the day after her triumphant debut as Leonora in a star cast revival of Jean-Claude Auvray’s superb, atmospheric production of La forza del destino. It was hard to tell which of the two of us felt most elated – she in the knowledge that she had wowed a difficult and demanding audience on one of the coldest Parisian nights in living memory, or me, still wallowing in the wonder of hearing the best Leonora I have heard since Leontyne Price, in an evening of overall vintage ‘Verdian’ singing.

Within a few minutes into our conversation, I was in for a major surprise: this superb soprano, who exudes the vitality, charm and joie de vivre of a native Neapolitan, began life as a pop singer and only began studying classical singing at the age of 25.

‘I always sang, throughout my childhood. My parents [who had moved the family from Naples to Val d’Aosta when she was little] used to say that I was born singing, not crying! I would learn all the songs by heart, follow the San Remo Festival with my sister and sing at weddings, balls, and suchlike. I even participated in pop contests. People were always telling me, “You have such a beautiful voice, why don’t you go and study at a Conservatoire?” I replied that I knew nothing about classical singing and had no idea where to go. They said that at least I should learn how to read music. So I enrolled in singing classes at the Casa di Canto di Val d’Aosta. But in order to enrol I had to audition, even though I had been singing since the age of 12. And the only classical song I knew was Schubert’s Ave Maria, because I used to sing it at weddings. The teacher said I had an operatic voice and made me listen to Callas singing Casta Diva and duets with Di Stefano. And I thought: “How beautiful, it seems like a film”. So I decided, this is it. I want to sing opera and became quite passionate about it.’

Yonghoon Lee as Calaf and Anna Pirozzi as Princess Turandot at the Royal Opera (photo: Marc Brenner)

She was 25 by then and after the Casa di Canto she enrolled at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Torino, where she studied for five years. She then sang for two years at small provincial German theatres, ‘which was great because when the time came for my big debut, in 2012, at Torino’s Teatro Regio as Amelia in Verdi’s Un ballo in Maschera, I was ready.’

She expresses a real love for this opera, which contains ‘the most beautiful love duet’ and the role of Amelia, which she has sung often. ‘But it’s a tiring role. You’re constantly onstage and have a lot to sing. The second Act, although sublime, is the most challenging. First you have the great aria Ecco l’orrido campo, followed by the sublime love duet and then the trio with the baritone and all the basses. And, in Act 3, you have the aria Morrò, ma prima in grazia. So it’s a very heavy, demanding and, ultimately, ungrateful role. Because in the end who wins? The tenor!

‘The Leonora in La forza del destino is one of my most favourite heroines and, although very demanding, it is ultimately more rewarding. It is almost a “spinto” role which demands three different kinds of voice – you have to use the entire range of colours at your disposal.

‘In fact it’s almost a singing lesson. It teaches you how to sing piano, how to sing legato in a mezza voce, softly, sweetly, pianissimo and then springs up to powerful high notes. It needed a lot of work for me to dominate and get on top of my voice, which is always harder with large voices. Some of it, this facility for rapid high notes, came naturally, but it also needed a lot of hard work.’

Turandot comes just weeks before Pirozzi sings the title role in Cherubini ’s Medea at Greek National Opera (photo: Marc Brenner)

The other Leonora, in Trovatore, is totally different musically. A typical early Verdi role in the form of recitative-aria-cabaletta, with a lot of coloratura, ‘written in a very “heroic” way for the soprano. Dramatically, though, these two ladies have a lot in common. They, and especially the two Leonoras, always seem to fall for the wrong guy – an outsider, as if they are almost seeking to fall in love with the wrong man. They are probably very bored with the characters they meet in “good” society. This also happens a lot in real life. It renders romance more exciting and more passionate. In this sense Verdi heroines are very different from Puccini’s, who are more sensual, more carnal. I can understand them because I come from Napoli and am very passionate, very sunny, sociable and like people.’

Pirozzi has sung a lot of early Verdi, starting with Odabella in Attila and Abigaille in Nabucco – the latter being one of her main battlehorses, with more than 115 performances to her credit. ‘I started off singing the small role of Anna (in Nabucco), while still very young, and remember listening to Abigaille and wishing I could sing it. When I was finally asked to, I thought, God, it’s difficult! How on earth am I ever going to study and learn it? But, believe it or not, it turned out to fit my voice like a glove. I discovered that producing high notes felt quite natural to me, and I could jump to them without much force or effort.

‘As a character, Abigaille is a sensitive woman in love. The only thing she wants is to be loved in return – by her father and by the man she fancies – and the hard front she puts across is because she knows she is not loved.’

Shortly after our meeting in Paris, Pirozzi was to sing the role of Princess Turandot at Covent Garden which, she admits is ‘a great adventure! I know it’s considered one of the sacred monsters of the soprano repertoire, but it’s not actually that tiring. All it amounts to is half an hour’s singing. But I would never do more than a couple of Turandots a year. More than that would be tiring.’

So why do people consider Puccini so dangerous for the voice? ‘Mainly because the orchestration is very heavy,’ She explains, ‘which makes it hard and tiring for the voice to climb over it. Singing too much Puccini would definitely endanger your Verdi roles. In other ways, though, Puccini is easier to sing, because you can get away with a lot – the accents make it easier for you to hide. Whereas in Verdi, as indeed in Mozart, you are completely exposed. Your singing has to be near-perfect.’

Anna Pirozzi as Princess Turandot (photo: Marc Brenner)

All this was in answer to my anxiety that almost immediately after the Covent Garden Turandots, she is due to sing the title role in Cherubini’s Medea at Greek National Opera in Athens for the first time, in a major co-production with the Metropolitan Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera and Canadian Opera. ‘Medea is a very important point in my career. It’s a very long role and demands a lot of vocal stamina and a tremendous vocal technique. You have to know how to pace yourself. Fortunately the Met’s version, which we will be singing in Greece, is the shortened Italian version.’

She reassured me that the month’s interval between the two was enough for the voice to settle. ‘Her [Medea’s] first entrance is with that dramatic recitative immediately followed by the aria and duet with the bass – and all of this without preceding music to help you warm up. Then there is the very long scene with Neris which reminds me a bit of Verdi. I am in the middle of studying it at present, so it’s hard to tell exactly which passages will ultimately prove the most challenging.’

As a character she sees Medea as ‘a woman possessed by demons, who has a sort of devil inside her, which alternates with her role as a mother. And when he has the upper hand, she becomes a monster.

‘For me, the scene with her children will be very difficult, because I, too, am the mother of two children – a girl of 11 and a boy of five. But fortunately in this Met production by David MacVicar, she doesn’t kill her children onstage. It all happens off stage’ – in accordance with the tradition of ancient Greek Tragedy, where violent acts were never performed onstage – ‘and she enters with their blood on her hands. The music is fabulous. But in order to cope, I am having to develop a technique that enables me not to be overcome by emotion. Emotion is something we all have to learn to control. Yes, you have to put emotion into your singing, but not too much, otherwise the sound will be affected.’

Of course, Medea is a signature Maria Callas role, especially in her motherland where she performed it at the ancient theatre at Epidaurus in 1961. Surely the prospect of following in her footsteps must be rather daunting. How does Pirozzi prepare for challenges such as this and how does she spend the day of a performance? ‘I do a bit of vocalising, then ensure I eat properly at midday, as this meal is very important for building up your stamina. Nevertheless one shouldn’t exaggerate. Then I take a short walk to wake up the body and the breath, followed by a rest at home before the performance.

‘After the performance there is always a little melancholy, because there are some roles I know I won’t be singing anymore: some of my early Verdi roles, for instance, with their sudden leaps, should be put aside. One of my dreams is one day to sing Violetta in La traviata, even if only in concert. I realise that my physique is not right for a staged production, because I look too healthy, too wholesome! But of course, my ultimate dream is to sing Norma, Callas’ other signature role.’ 

This interview originally appeared in the May 2023 issue of Opera Now. Never miss an issue – subscribe today