Rodrigo Garull, how are you preparing musically for your debut as Count Loris Ipanov?
I have an approach that doesn’t vary much: I draw up a play list of recordings, and then I choose one I like and listen to it over and over again.

Which recording have you been listening to this time?
There aren’t that many of FEDORA to choose from, so it wasn’t hard. There’s an amazing one with Magda Olivero and Mario del Monaco that I love and I’ve been listening to it for about a year now, when I’m cooking, driving, cycling, exercising… At some point I start to sing bits, and longer stretches when I’m in the shower, and then comes the serious swotting up where I’m paying particular attention to notes, rhythms and – in this work – the lyrics. My aim is always to arrive at rehearsals with the role already learnt off pat so I can get down to making something of it with director, conductor and orchestra.

And content-wise? Are there any films that you watch for ideas?
I became a father two and half years ago, so that is limiting the leisure I have for doing deep dives into character study, like reading entire biographies or novels. But with the Count I couldn’t help being reminded of two film characters: Rhett Butler, played by Clark Gable in »Gone with the Wind«, and Javier Bardem in »Eat, Pray, Love«. They’re not youthful lovers anymore; they’re mature, grown-up men who’ve been around the block and are true to their feelings – and are suddenly hit by a disastrous set of events that causes them to lose everything.

Is that what fascinates you about the Count: his maturity, his grown-up-ness?
That and the intense emotions that are reflected in the music as well. The tension builds fast and exponentially from the outset, culminating in the Count teetering on the abyss, where he is gripped by a grief and isolation that he cannot escape. The whole thing is wonderfully written.

Is there a particular moment that we should be alert to as an audience?
I love the plaintive love song in Act 2. »Amor ti vieta« is a very touching moment in the opera, when we get a glimpse of the depth of the man’s despair.

What’s it like treading in the footsteps of Enrico Caruso? This was the role that made him internationally famous in 1898.
Caruso’s international breakthrough was in part because his first record was cut shortly afterwards, featuring the very same aria from FEDORA. It made him the world’s first ever popstar of the recording-disc medium. I feel a mixture of respect, pride and gratitude, and it really spurs me on.

It’s interesting, isn’t it, how artists today can approach a part from a variety of angles?
Oh yes. It used to be that there was no exposure to a work outside of the performances. Nowadays everything is captured for posterity. There are shoulders to stand on, so to speak. We already have an idea of how an opera sounds – as does the audience. It can be a good thing, because it means you can take the role in a different direction. It would be stupid not to make use of modern technology.

What’s more important: catering to expectations or putting a new slant on old material?
I always try to stay faithful to what a composer wrote. At the same time I’m reading between the lines, trying to tickle out what his intention was. Those in-betweens are the basis for an idea, and if I couple it with a bit of licence, hopefully I can come up with something interesting.

And then you bring what you’ve come up with to rehearsals with Christof Loy. What’s he like to work with?
He’s brilliant. FEDORA is our third collaboration. Christof works and plays with musical shades and emotions like oils on a canvas. He’s very elegant and exact in his approach, always with the music as his lode star. And within that aesthetic framework he expects the artists to bring maximum authenticity to the table.

FEDORA is not mounted very often.
Sad but true.

What type of person should watch a performance of FEDORA?
FEDORA I’d recommend to anyone who wants to immerse themselves in rich tones and high emotion. You get a tsunami of that, ending in catharsis. On top of that you get a modern storyline with two powerful women in charge of their own destinies, even unto death, because they’re perpetrators rather than victims. Talking of which: FEDORA and TOSCA are both based on plays by Victorien Sardou which starred Sarah Bernhardt – the epitome of a modern woman. The fedora hat is named after the hat that Princess Romazov wore in the play.

A last question regarding the Count. What is the relevance of the part to you as a career move?
It’s a sign of my own maturity. Early on in your career you play a lot of impulsive young lovers. Now I’ve reached a phase of masculinity which also involves a vocal shift for me.

How does that vocal shift make itself felt? How significant is it for you musically?
In keeping with the character of the Count, a lot of the singing is in the middle ranges. There are no drastic excursions into B and C territory. Most of the singing is pitched in the middle. The composer assumes that the singer is at home in the deeper band of mid-range vocals and is at ease toying with the lyrics in the longer stretches. Many passages serve only the exposition – as with OTELLO, too, by the way. That’s the kind of great challenge that I’m rising to more nowadays, and I like it.

Is that the reason why you changed your name from Rodrigo Porras Garulo to Rodrigo Garull? To mark a transformation that you are going through?
That’s exactly it. The new name is cleaner and blunter. And it reflects my maturation process, the vocal maturation too. It’s about what we were talking about earlier: moving from youthful lover to a centred and grounded man and then on to the father.