Out of darkness into light

First Heliane, and now Francesca: Sara Jakubiak portrays women seeking to evade their destiny. Three questions for the soprano

Sara Jakubiak, in 2018 you played a female character, Heliane, who goes her own way. Now you’re singing the role of Francesca. Are those two women good role models?
Oh yes. Heliane chooses paths that take all her courage to tread. There are times when the only means of making progress is to find your way in the pitch dark. It is those moments in these operas, the times when gloom and hardship are overcome, that are interesting, not the moments when Heliane and Francesca get back together with their loved ones. And the moments when they are scared are nothing if not intense. That’s why they’re role models in my eyes, even heroines. Live your life as intensely as you can! Be brave in the decisions you take and stick to them!

Would Francesca be a feminist today?
Yes, because she doesn’t act in line with social conventions. She’s progressive in her actions. She could have opted for victimhood; instead she chose the path laid out for her by Zandonai in his heroic opera. Francesca and Heliane both have to deal with horrendous predicaments. They struggle with a dilemma: to accept that they are the victims of others’ actions or to aim for liberty. And they choose liberty.

What does emancipation mean for you?
My family has always supported me, but that doesn’t mean that there were no expectations: the assumption was that I would marry, have children and lead a traditional life. But I chose another path. I emancipated myself from my parents’ conventional ideas of what I would do. But the reason I can do that is because my parents taught me to form my own opinions and come to my own decisions – something that Francesca, the heroine, was never allowed to do.

 

Sara Jakubiak is famous above all for the versatility of her voice, with the New York Times praising her »gentle and remarkable soprano«. At the Deutsche Oper Berlin she was most recently seen delivering a triumphant turn in the title role of Korngold’s THE MIRACLE OF HELIANE.

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