“Classique,” the highly anticipated classical album from soprano Mirusia, is finally available for purchase. Our very own contributor, and top-charting soprano, Joanna Forest, had the privilege of speaking to Mirusia about this significant release. (You can also read our review HERE.) The full interview is set to premiere on Sunday, March 10th, on our YouTube channel. However, in celebration of the album’s release, we’re excited to share this sneak preview with you now.
Joanna Forest: It’s so exciting – you’ve gone back to your classical roots! It is the most beautiful repertoire that you’ve chosen… How did you decide what to put on the album? Because I bet you’ve collected so many classical favorites throughout the years?
Mirusia: As you said, I have been collecting a lot of these arias for many, many years. It is sort of a reflection on all of those years of collecting songs and putting together something very special. I’ve been wanting to record a classical album forever, I guess. I studied at the Conservatorium of Music here in Brisbane. After I graduated from university, I was sort of at a crossroads. “What am I going to do here? Am I going to go down the operatic pathway? Or am I going to do more concert work where my classical crossover repertoire would take over?” At the time, I had a wonderful vocal coach called Horst Hoffmann, who was a very, very well known Wagnerian tenor. He’s sung around the world in opera houses and also in Australia as well with Dame Joan Sutherland. And I had just won the Dame Joan Sutherland Award.
He reached out and said: “Shall we do an audition tour around Germany? I know all the opera houses there. Let’s do an audition tour and go around and get you in one of the opera houses in Germany.” However, in the meantime, when all of this was being planned, I received a random phone call from André Rieu, I guess you could say the ‘King of the waltz’, and I guess the king of classical crossover instrumental music…I ended up touring with André Rieu for over a decade. He taught me everything I needed to know. I did get to sing a lot of classical music on the road with him, of course, classical arias and lots of operetta and lots of musical theater stuff as well. So the real classical crossover repertoire. I got to really be involved and loved it. It opened up a whole world for me… it was exciting and special, but I collected music as I went.
This album Classique, I guess you’d say it’s my real musical baby because I’ve been working on this for a very long time – ever since I won the Dame Joan Sutherland opera award. She sent me a letter and she said, “You should follow the operatic career path because this is going to be where your voice really lies and where it suits.” But then at that time, I had the offer from André and it was an offer I couldn’t refuse. So I guess I’m finally honoring Dame Joan Sutherland with what she asked me to do.
The first track on the album as well is from Romeo and Juliet by Gounod and it’s called “Ah, Je veux vivre.” She sang this so beautifully in her time and so in a way this is my way to honor her and I guess because it’s a little bit coloratura repertoire, it was never in my voice. But I feel as though with all that time that’s passed since I won the Dame Joan Sutherland opera award, and I was a purely lyric soprano. I feel that my voice has developed and as time goes on, your voice does change a lot. And now that I’m in my 30s, I feel like my voice has really opened itself to a different style. I’m able to reach those higher notes that I was never, never able to get to before.
Joanna Forest: I suppose that André Rieu was a good sort of grounding, wasn’t it? Because it’s such an eclectic mix of what you got to sing… it just looks so much fun, like the joy in those years. That’s the joy that it gives to people. I also think it’s amazing, because it isn’t necessarily people who would have a passion for classical music who would go to those concerts. It’s people who just enjoy music and want to be entertained, and just want to be opened up to sort of anything, even though it is an orchestra with classically trained people providing that entertainment. It is the epitome of crossover, isn’t it?
Mirusia: It’s making the music accessible, as you said to the masses, to people who may be frightened to enter a concert hall and see a symphony orchestra play. This is making it accessible for them to then say, “Well, you know what, that wasn’t so bad. So now I dare to go to my local symphony, or I dare to go to the opera house and see an opera put on in my city.” That’s what this has enabled people to do. I think I learned a lot from that. André really took me under his wing and was a mentor to me. I can say I learned a lot about how the industry works about the business behind it, which I find is really a key part to being a successful artist. But also what he taught me was that you’ve got to do what you love inside your heart – and the audience will follow you and follow what you love. And if not, you’ll find a new audience. It’s always that way.
I guess with this particular album, Classique where it’s really going classical, I have a following and I want to introduce my following to this more classical side of my voice. A lot of people have already been asking for this for years. “When is your classical album coming out? Where can we buy an album of you just singing opera?” Well, finally it is going to be available. And, this is a really exciting journey, not only for me, but for my audience to experience something a little bit different. For the people that are a little bit hesitant, then this is almost like a test or a taster for what you can expect when you hear opera or classical music being sung.
Joanna Forest: You’re about to take this beautiful album on tour. That must be so exciting, something that you’ve created for a while now. You’ve decided what’s going to be on the album, you’ve gone through the creative process of recording it. And now you get to do it live and you get to share it with people.. that’s just going to be so lovely to share that side, isn’t it?
Mirusia: It is lovely. I think the thing that makes live performance different from an album is that you get to actually talk about the songs and speak to the audience. I love that! I do really enjoy having a conversation with my audience and it is an open conversation. I do enjoy having feedback from the audience and you know, speaking to people and hearing their reactions and asking questions during the concert, that’s part of how I run my shows. I love that interaction! I find it really important because the audience are really part of it then and don’t feel like it’s just me singing to a wall. The great thing is you can explain a little more in depth “What is this song about? And why am I singing it?” and reasons why, behind-the-scenes stories of when I performed it, for example, somewhere else or when something happened or something went wrong. Those things are really quite enjoyable to share with an audience so yeah, there is a difference.
When you record an album in the studio it’s again a totally different vibe because it’s just you and a microphone in a small little vocal booth. Usually I record my vocals in Melbourne with my producer Michael Christiano. We had a really enjoyable time. I recorded it over a small period of time – six days, which is not a very large time frame for an album of this size.
Joanna Forest: You’re absolutely right… So there must have been a lot of rehearsal before you stepped into the recording studio.
Mirusia: Absolutely. Also I’m one of those people that love to record and I want it to sound like I’m actually singing it live. I don’t want it to sound like it’s fake or that it’s been edited. So I will do take after take and we will use a whole take. I’m not going to sit there and edit little bits because that’s fake. If I can’t sing it live then why am I singing it on a recording… That’s probably one of the things I also learned from André was if you can’t sing it live then why would we record that? That’s silly. It’s not real then, especially when it comes to this style of music. You’ve got to be able to belt this out live, otherwise there’s no real point to having a classical album. I spent a lot of time on two particular aria’s on the album and others and other’s “one-hit-wonder.” For example, “Barcarolle” which I sang together with Lee Abrahmsen, who’s a wonderful Wagnerian soprano from Melbourne. One take you know, and we were like, “Oh, was that it?” And my producer said, “Maybe we should do another just in case” and we did it again. And we’re like, “No, the first take was better.”
Joanna Forest: You were talking about how you really enjoy connecting with an audience and having a chat with them, and it being like a conversation… Is that something that you would completely prepare? Or is it a bit more organic?
Mirusia: You get on stage as me and you go, “Okay, what am I going to say now?” I mean, obviously, I’ve prepared. I know what I’m talking about. However, I don’t really have a set script. It’s very much on the day, every performance is different – that’s part of the appeal to my repeat customers who keep coming back, because they know every show is going to be a completely different show. Often in my concerts, I have an audience participation segment where they get to choose what the next song will be.. in the Classique concert that is different, because we have classical arias that you know they’re choosing from, so they’ve all been studied, they’re all in here. So we’re ready to do that. It is a lot of fun because the audience are then so involved because they’re choosing the setlist. So it’s different every night.
Buy Mirusia’s new album now from: www.greatmusiclivesforever.com and stay up to date with her tour schedule at: www.mirusia.com
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