Nathalie Stutzmann on Wagner's Tannhäuser
You have to work hard to get the sound you want
by Falk Häfner
In the revival of Wagner's "Tannhäuser" in the production of Tobias Kratzer, Nathalie Stutzmann takes over the musical direction this year. She is thus - after Oksana Lyniv - only the second female conductor in Bayreuth. What it feels like to stand in the legendary pit - and why there are no ego games here - she tells in the BR-KLASSIK interview.
BR-KLASSIK: "On stage" and "down in the pit" - these are two different worlds that have to come together in opera. You, Nathalie Stutzmann, know both perspectives: For you are both a singer and a conductor. Here in Bayreuth, you are conducting "Tannhäuser" for the first time this year. How different do you find this "capped pit" compared to other opera houses?
Nathalie Stutzmann: This pit is unique, that is known worldwide! And I can really only confirm it: It sounds like no other! It is very delicate: First, the nature of its sound; then, that you can't rely on what you hear there at the console, but rather have to rely on your assistant. So this only works as a collaborative project with people sitting in the hall for you. But I like conducting here. I was quite worried beforehand about what to expect here. And I was already afraid I would find it terrible - but instead I'm really enjoying it!
BR-KLASSIK: "Mystical abyss" - that's how Wagner himself described this construction of the pit with a kind of lid that throws the orchestral sound onto the stage. How do you manage to register the orchestra in a balanced way so that the singers at the top of the stage can get over the ramp well?
Nathalie Stutzmann: First of all, there is the fact that the acoustics in the Festspielhaus are also very special! The singers can whisper here and don't have to sing loudly all the time, but you can still hear them. Anyway, we didn't have any big balance problems with them. Somehow I seem to have a good instinctive handle on that. However, here in Bayreuth I really also went to colleagues' rehearsals a lot and listened in the hall. The acoustics here are so different and special. The more you listen here, the more you can also imagine what you have to do down in the pit to make it sound like this or that. But you have to work hard to get the sound you want, for example when you want to articulate something particularly clearly so that it sounds clear and transparent. Everything sounds much softer in the hall than you think. You see the musicians going all out for it. And downstairs, it also sounds exactly the way they want it to. And then you ask outside - but in the hall, obviously, almost nothing of it comes through.... So you have to emphasize everything: The dynamics, the articulation, the colors, the flexibility of the colors, the harmonies, the voices, the counter voices... I really worked on that a lot during rehearsals. Having sung for a long time myself, of course it helped me to understand the problems of my singer friends. And of course I do everything I can to support and help them up on stage. It's all really quite challenging. But it also creates a wonderful atmosphere, because you're making music exclusively with people who are only there because they really love Wagner!
BR-KLASSIK: Does that also mean that you really have to exaggerate to achieve the effect that you imagine in the room?
Nathalie Stutzmann: First of all, you have to have a precise idea of what you actually want to hear. I coordinated that exactly with my assistant. I told him exactly what I wanted to achieve at each point. So he could check that and then guide me, so to speak, to achieve exactly those effects.
BR-KLASSIK: You have already described how you hear the orchestra in the pit. But how do you hear the singers there?
Nathalie Stutzmann: Sometimes almost not at all, depending on where they are standing. It's really tricky! If they are standing far back or in a large ensemble, when the orchestra is also very busy and plays mezzoforte or forte, then it is sometimes really difficult to hear anything at all from the singers.
(…)
Text excerpt from the interview
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