Interview, Kateřina Kněžíková on Strauss and Janáček

Three years on from her BBC Music Magazine Award-winning recital Phidylé, the Czech soprano Kateřina Kněžíková's all-Strauss album Tag und Nacht is receiving an equally rapturous response, with The Times praising the 'ardent, wide-eyed wonder' which she brings to the Vier letzte Lieder and The Guardian applauding the 'simple eloquence' of Jakub Hrůša (who makes his debut as a song-pianist on this recording as well as conducting the Bamberger Symphoniker). 

In between performances as Janáček's Vixen and Jenůfa last month, Kateřina spoke to me about how she persuaded Hrůša to partner her at the piano, how pregnancy altered her voice, her recent transition into more dramatic repertoire - and why the key to a happy two-singer marriage is never offering unsolicited feedback!

I’d never heard Jakub Hrůša play the piano before this recording!

Me neither, and I’ve known him for years! We met at an audition in 2006, and connected very naturally: since then we’ve collaborated in concert and on a new production of Rusalka in Prague. I always knew that he could play the piano well, and that he loved to play - I remember him buying a clavinova to help with learning orchestral scores! Over the years we’ve had many discussions about whether he sees himself as primarily an orchestral conductor, but I’ve always thought that he’s a wonderful companion for singers because he’s such a great listener.

We recorded the Vier letzte Lieder live in 2021, as part of a concert for the Dvořák Praha Festival, and the plan was to record more Strauss songs with another pianist. It was my idea to ask Jakub to play instead, but he took some convincing…in the end I told him what he’s often told me when we’ve been working on operatic arias: ‘You’re overthinking: just give it a try!’. And it worked!

Do you have a favourite recording of the Vier letzte Lieder?

I have two! The first recording I heard was Kiri Te Kanawa with Georg Solti, and I thought it was a miracle: the sheer beauty left me speechless and dumbfounded, and still does to this day. I discovered it in the third year of my conservatory studies, and since then I’ve hoped I could perform at some point in the future. And the second one is Lucia Popp: she has the same type of voice as me, but what impresses me most is what a wonderful narrator she is. It’s not like listening to a fine singer (though obviously she’s that as well): it’s like hearing a brilliant actor declaiming great poetry.

Over the past couple of years, you've transitioned from the light lyric repertoire into rather meatier roles by Dvořák, Smetana and Janáček - how did the change come about?

I never thought that my voice would develop in this direction: I started out as a lyric coloratura, because the voice was so bright and sat really high. I think there were two main things which brought about the change: hard work, and having babies! The hormonal shifts during pregnancy altered my voice a lot. After my first child was born, people around me asked if something new was happening in my voice, but I couldn’t actually hear it myself: I was just aware of feeling more grounded in my body in terms of breath-support. 

But after my second baby the centre of gravity shifted: the high notes were still there but the middle and low range became more rounded and secure, like a well-built house! So I started exploring operatic arias and songs in this new direction, and dropping others that no longer sat comfortably. For example, we’d planned to record Strauss’s 'Kling!' for this album, but the tessitura just didn’t feel right any more: it’s really high, Edita Gruberová stuff! It’s so interesting how women’s voices can change through the years with pregnancy and menopause - I feel like there’s more research to be done on that…

So what operatic roles do you have in your sights now?

In terms of Strauss, I think I could sing Arabella and maybe Ariadne in the next few years. Not Salome or Elektra, though: in my opinion those roles need a silver, more penetrating sound rather than the golden, honeyed voice that works for Arabella and Ariadne. 

My first step into this territory was Káťa Kabanová at Glyndebourne, in 2021. I don’t like to use the word ’heavier’ about this repertoire, because Káťa is fundamentally a lyric role: it’s the orchestration which is heavier. That experience made me realise that I was on the right path: I was so anxious when I arrived in Sussex because there were still COVID restrictions in place, and it also meant three months away from home and my kids. But it ended up being exactly what I needed - I was in a new place with new people where I could focus on myself and this new repertoire instead of juggling five or six roles in the space of two months, as often happens! I’d been to Glyndebourne a couple of times as an audience-member, and was just enchanted by being in nature: what a place to recharge the batteries!

Just seeing that cast-list on paper kicked my anxiety into overdrive, but once we got going I felt very secure - and with the team I had around me, who wouldn’t?! Robin Ticciati is the sweetest person, and I’m so looking forward to doing the piece with him again next summer: we’ll have a completely new cast, with the exception of Nicky Spence who’s going to be singing Boris this time instead of Tichon.

What was special for you about Damiano Michieletto's production?

Damiano is a treasure - a workaholic, but a treasure! He truly believes in the score and in the cast, and what more can you ask for in a stage-director? I love that he’s always open to discussion rather than being a despot: he has this quiet authority, but he also gives his singers space to create. And he believed in me in particular in this production, because obviously I can speak more Czech than him! He didn’t mess with the plot, and his direction was so clear: I always knew exactly what I had to do in each moment, and why I was doing it. I think he’s one of the best directors around, and I’d love to work with him again. 

How was the experience of being the only native Czech-speaker in the cast?

Oh, we had some funny moments! But I so admire singers who can learn Czech pronunciation. Our soft consonants can be really hard to master, but sometimes I can actually understand foreign singers more than native speakers - perhaps because they don’t go onto autopilot. David Butt Philip (who was my Boris at Glyndebourne) sings amazing Czech, as does Asmik Grigorian, and Karita Mattila who was just in Jenůfa with me. I find that it’s most difficult for Russian singers, oddly, because their language is so similar: English or German-speaking people generally find it easier because it’s something completely different. Once you get the hang of the difference between the short and long vowels in our language, you learn to adapt the rhythms a bit. ‘Jan-AH-ček’: his name in itself is a great example of how long vowels often follow short ones! 

Which stretches of the role did you find most challenging?

Tough sections? I think one is in the first act, when Káťa meets Tichon and he’s drunk; in that scene she gets absolutely destroyed by her mother-in-law and by his behaviour. The orchestration is pretty heavy, but the main challenge is emotional and dramatic rather than vocal. And the same is true of the final scene: you have to really feel the depth of her sorrow, but also those fleeting moments of happiness. 

When I started preparing this role the first thing I did was to allow myself to cry with Káťa - I had to get that out of my system early on, because obviously you can’t cry on stage! And I did that by devouring a lot of recordings…Gabriela Beňačková is one of my favourites for Czech repertoire and Janáček in particular, and I listened to her recording countless times: no learning, just listening and feeling! If I can walk alongside a character like that, it helps me to understand where I want to go with the role and how far I want to take things. 

I did something similar with Jenůfa and Libuše: I listen carefully to what another singer wants to say with her or his voice, and if it moves me to tears then I hold onto that feeling and find a way to channel it for my interpretation. It’s not rocket science, but it is hard work emotionally - it’s about tapping into any bitterness or pain you’ve experienced in your own life and learning how to sublimate that on stage.  And spending a lot of time with the text is so important: I love close-reading librettos and song-texts, because it’s so helpful in understanding what the composer wanted to create.

You recently sang Smetana's Libuše at the Prague Spring Festival - is she likely to figure more in your future?

In all honesty, I actually didn’t want to sing that role! My initial impression was that Libuše is for a real dramatic soprano – I was originally asked to sing it six or seven years ago, when it seemed absolutely impossible. But it turned out to be a really nice journey, because I had Jakub conducting and he assured me that he wouldn’t let me get lost: as usual, he promised me something and he delivered! I spent two years learning it, starting right after I did Káťa at Glyndebourne. Jakub called me up saying ‘Do you know if you could sing Libuše? Go through the part with a pianist’; I said it wasn’t for me, and even suggested various other singers to him! But he just kept calling, and convinced me to accept.

I’m so glad I did, because I learned so much about projecting in the middle and lower registers: it’s really dramatic, but it’s so cleverly written because when she’s singing the orchestra is usually piano. It worked out well in the end, but I can’t imagine singing this role with anybody else: now I’m focusing on things that are really me, like Jenůfa, Káťa and the Vixen.

Have you had a coach to guide you through this transition into new repertoire?

I was so lucky to find the one and only Mark Pinzow, with whom I’ve been working for twelve years: he’s my mentor and my precious! We have a lot of great pianists here in Prague, but good coaches are rather harder to find: Mark works at the National Theatre of Prague, and I take absolutely everything to him for advice. When I finished my studies I felt that I needed to change my technique - not from the ground up, just tweaking some things going forward. I tried so many voice teachers and gave up after one or two sessions because the energy was so negative: it’s so draining to work with someone who just says ‘No, no, that’s wrong!’ to everything you bring. But Mark never says ‘It’s bad!' - instead he’ll just suggest trying something another way. He’s very polite and very calm, and for me that’s the most productive way to work. He’s like a master-builder who can pull out bricks in your house without you even knowing he’s done it, and without the structure collapsing around you!

You’re married to a singer [bass-baritone Adam Plachetka] - do you use each other as a second pair of ears?

No! The golden rule is never to give feedback unless you’re asked, and for a husband and wife that applies even more! I occasionally asked what he thought when I was working on this new repertoire, but it doesn’t happen often: we don’t sing when we’re cooking dinner at home! We’ve been singing together a lot recently, so we’ve made a conscious effort to stop thinking and talking about work when we’re at home and focus on our family life, because things get tough if you don’t draw a line. We recorded Czech arias and duets together six or seven years ago, and now we have an album of operetta excerpts in the can – it’s really promising!

You and your husband have already done a lot to champion your native repertoire on record and in concert - are there more Czech operas which you think deserve to be better-known?

Smetana is an amazing composer and I would love to see his operas getting more performances outside the Czech Republic, but the libretto is always the problem. Because he was such a Czech nationalist, the texts are always very grounded in our history and culture – but the music itself travels so well! The Bartered Bride is a bit different, because it’s a comic opera (it’s often done in German and English translation), but The Secret is another comic opera which doesn’t get out even nearly as much. It’s almost Rossinian in style: Smetana’s opera ensembles are so cleverly written and full of colours.

And The Devil’s Wall and Libuše are both fantastic, as is The Two Widows. What an amazing piece that is: we recorded it last summer with Robert Jindra, with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra in the Prague National Theatre, and we’re just looking for a label to release it....