 |
| Photo by Andrew Keshan |
Deborah Humble is becoming quite famous for a role that is just four and a half minutes long. “Erda in Das Rheingold comes out of the ground, she sings, and she disappears back where she came from. How on earth can you make a reputation on four and a half minutes?”
But that’s just what the talented mezzo-soprano has been doing, making a name for herself as a “Wagneress” around the world. This November, Humble will sing two roles in Opera Australia’s first production of the Ring Cycle: Erda the earth goddess and Waltraute.
She’s grown very fond of the earth goddess that began her Wagner career. “I have sung that aria so many hundreds of times that I feel we might even be the same person. She pays my rent, so I guess that’s a close connection!”
Each time she sings the role, it’s new, Humble says. “You have to make it fresh each time, and hold a little something back for when she reappears in Siegfried.”
Humble is gaining a reputation for her dramatic mezzo tones, and has played five different roles in Ring cycles around the world to date. She is also rehearsing Fricka for a yet-to-be-confirmed gig somewhere outside Australia.
“By then I will have sung every mezzo role in the Ring. During rehearsals, I have to keep remembering not to sing other people’s parts!”
As a freelance artist with more than a decade of experience working across Europe, Humble is perfectly placed for the raft of Wagner opportunities available in the year of the great composer’s birth. “These kinds of roles come with age, and vocal development,” Humble explains. “It took my move to Germany in 2005 and the interest of [Hamburg State Opera Chief Executive] Simone Young to give me my first chance at that kind of repertoire. And then it all took off!”
The move to Germany was a catalyst for change, and Humble believes she sings Wagner so much better now she understands the nuances of the language. “I’ve spent many years studying the language and trying to understand the music. I don’t think I’ll ever understand all of it ... that would take a lifetime. And what an interesting journey! I sing Erda very differently in 2013 than I did in 2008.”
Immersing herself in German culture also offered a new perspective on Wagner’s music, Humble explains. “These stories are part of German culture. Children grow up with the Ring of the Nibelung as a fairytale, the way we grow up with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. It’s a very big learning curve for an Australian.”
Nearly a decade of singing in Germany has taught the Adelaide girl there is no middle ground when it comes to Wagner. “I had no idea when I started on this path that there were people that were so passionate about the music. It’s one thing to sing it and try to understand the story, and another to learn of the history, the politics, all the things about this music that make people so for or against Wagner. People either love it or they hate it. I just sing it.”
If you can leave the history and politics aside, the music will win you over, Humble says. Despite having sung her way through so many Ring cycles, Humble admits “The Ride of the Valkyries” can still give her goosebumps. “There are other truly wonderful moments, often ones that my character isn’t involved in. The big immolation scene in Götterdammerung is so beautiful. I often just sit on the side of the stage and listen.”
When she’s not being captivated by the music, Humble sits backstage and knits between her scenes. “All my friends with children start receiving booties and baby clothes.”
The glamourous mezzo can’t quite believe that she’s now at an age where younger singers come to her for advice, saying it doesn’t feel like all that long ago that she was in their shoes. But she is quick to tell them two things: firstly, that you don’t have to always sing fortissimo (very very loud) to master Wagner. “Yes, there is big orchestration and big moments, but there are also very tender musical moments. It’s not about having a huge voice.”
Secondly, that if you want to have a career overseas, you have to be prepared to make sacrifices. “People come to me and say, ‘I’m moving overseas for 3 months, do you think it’s going to happen?’”
From the outside, it does look like a charmed life: Humble spent seven years living in Paris, seven years in Munich, and next year is moving to the food capital of Italy, Bologna to master Italian. But you have to be prepared to become just a singer with a suitcase, Humble says.
“I was a high school teacher and at 24 I just packed up and left. I’ve been gone ever since. It affects your friendships, your family life ... I don’t have any children. If you want a nice house in the suburbs and a regular income and a car and all the things normal people have, it’s not a very good choice.”
But if you can imagine opera singing as more than a job, there is no end to its rewards, she adds. “It’s a passion, and I’ve always wanted to do it. As long as I keep getting nervous about performances, as long as it keeps making my heart beat, and as long as I keep wanting to find out more, then it’s still worth doing.”
When the Melbourne Ring Cycle’s last curtain falls, Humble will make the big move to Bologna, to study under some great Verdi specialists. She can see herself fitting into the ancient university town. “I like cooking, I like food ... but I’ll begin to look like a traditional Wagner singer if I stay in Bologna for too long!”
Next year, as Wagner fever recedes with the composer’s 200thanniversary behind her, Humble is looking forward to tackling some different roles, with a focus on Verdi and some Wagner roles she is yet to conquer.
But what about Erda?
“Erda is the sort of role that will be with you for life,” Humble says.