Whether performing
opera, gospel, or comedy, Jonathan Veira is known as a larger-than-life
character, with a powerful voice and big laugh. When I spoke to Jonathan, I found
him in a thoughtful mood, reflecting insightfully on fame, art, work, and the
faith that inspires him.
How did you get into opera? I’m guessing it wasn’t the
suggestion of a careers teacher?!
JV: My
careers advice at school was rubbish! But I had a music teacher who was
brilliant at encouraging me. I was terribly bullied, but he took me under his
wing and gave me the key to practice rooms, where I started to do music all the
way up through ‘A’-level. Whenever I did things on stage he said “Jonathan has
‘it’!” So he pushed me and pushed me and encouraged me to go on to further
study.
At
university they said to me, “you aren’t very good at the viola, why don’t you
have singing lessons?!” In my first singing lesson I thought the professor
would want me to sing like a classical singer, so I did my impression of one.
Now I’ve ended up singing for the last 34 years professionally… doing an impression of an opera singer; I just
hope nobody finds out!
Then I
studied music as a postgraduate, won some national singing competitions, which
got me noticed by the famous Glyndebourne Opera Company who asked me to
audition, and gave me a job!
What
was your first lead role?
JV: Well,
you start with a lot of comprimario
roles, an aria here or there; but my first ‘lead’ was when I did The Magic Flute. When I was 30 I did
Falstaff.
That’s
quite young for Falstaff!
JV: Yes, it
was very young, and it was frightening actually. But I was starting to learn
what I was doing. Recently “Stage Magazine” said, “Jonathan Veira is the best
in the UK
at doing these roles”, so now, at 55, I think it’s time to retire, while I’m
still the best!
The Guardian review of you in La Cenerentola described it as, “High
Camp, irony, and huge fun”; it sounds like a cross between Rossini and Monty
Python!
JV: In my
operas I want people to laugh out loud. I don’t care about sensibilities, I’m
not posh, I’m quite earthy, I suppose, and I like people to laugh at stuff
that’s funny.
And
you like playing villains too!
JV: Yeah –
I do! Goodies can be fairly one-dimensional.
Baddies are usually the parts which are etched by the writers more
carefully. The goodies are well… good aren’t they?! They say the right things,
do the right things, like Cinderella.
The Marriage of Figaro, is a dark comedy; all about what was
called the Droit du seigneur, which
means the right of Counts to have the virgins of the village. But then what
follows is redemption because the bad person turns good; so there’s somewhere
for you to go with a villain. Don Giovanni, though, gets his comeuppance,
because he doesn’t repent. So I do like playing villains! I don’t celebrate how
bad they are, but you have to be bad in order to make sure that the good comes
out.
Some
interpreters see Christ allusions in Billy
Budd and you played the mutinous Claggert in there, to set the story up!
JV: Yes –
exactly right, Claggert was one of those who was almost totally evil, but yet
there’s one moment where he delivers: I
want to love but I can’t ! He teeters on the edge, which is very interesting
to play. Finally Billy dies almost sacrificially, a sacrifice is made so that
that goodness can be seen. I mean what else is there?
Music
is an extraordinary gift of God to humanity
JV: Well,
if it’s not, …. I don’t know what is!!
I think
we are creative people made in the image of a creator God
JV: I think
so. “The man who hath not music in his
soul, is fit for treason, stratagems and spoils!”, that’s Shakespeare, but
the great poet O’Shaugnessy says “we are
the music makers”, those who create order from chaos. Music puts order into
a chaotic world. I intervene and I create the sound, the rhythm, the tone, the
beauty. I can’t put my finger on it, but it’s something spiritual, something
transcendent that happens when I sing. Now, I have been given that gift, and I
haven’t been given any others, I can’t do anything else, I’m useless!
But
along with the gift, there is a lot of discipline in your art; how long does it
take you to learn a part?
JV: It took
me initially six months to learn a role. I’m partially dyslexic, so I do it
over and over again.
To be the best at something they say you have to invest
about 10,000 hours. I’ve done my 10,000 hours, so now I know the process of learning. But some of these
roles take me months to learn. Some of them in Czech are very difficult.
You are
actually called to be professional, with a big work ethic. I think there is
something about being Christian in
the way that you work; where you honour the people who come to hear you. I was
quite ill recently, and I had to go on and do a show, which I got through with
God’s help. People said to me, “Why didn’t you just cancel?” But I have a
responsibility to my audience.
How
many languages have you performed in?
JV: Eight!
In whatever the opera is written in, be it Russian, French, German, Italian,
Swedish, and a lot of Czech.
Is it
hard to deliver jokes, in a language that isn’t your own?
JV: Yes –
but you’ve got your body as well, not just your voice. You have your face, your
hands, your body position. It does mean that you have to work harder than if
you are singing in English. I would say that I didn’t really know what I was
doing until about 1990. You only really start learning when you perform in
front of people who have paid two-hundred pounds a ticket, where you either
sink or swim, because opera is a ruthless world!
If
you could choose one performance from those thirty-two years, as the one you
are most proud of, which would it be?
JV: I
remember doing Falstaff in Denmark at the
Verdi Festival. Danish audiences don’t applaud a lot, and they certainly don’t
give standing ovations. At the end of the first night, fifteen-hundred people
all stood to their feet! I wept, I really did – I wept. There are times like that…
Then there
are times when I perform with my sons. They are great musicians on their own,
but if you ask me for a great or favourite moment, it’s when we come together!
Then, when
I did Mozart’s The Magic Flute with
the famous conductor Jane Glover. It was a huge performance for me, and I came
on for my bow to three-thousand people giving a standing ovation. I looked
behind me because I thought someone else had walked on!!
But there
are two sides to every story. After the applause in Denmark , everyone came back to the
dressing room, saying, “oh how marvellous,
blah blah blah”, but then I went out
of the stage door into the cold. It was snowing, and I went back to my hotel.
As I walked out into the street, nobody knew who I was, nobody knew what I’d
just done, there was an emptiness…. I thought of people without faith; what do
they do? Obviously they will drink, they will take drugs and have affairs,
doing what they need to do to fill that void, because applause is a drug. So
when you get back in the hotel, and there’s nobody to give you adulation, it
brings you right down to the brass tacks of who you are, and how you want to
live and what is it that motivates you.
And
which came first, Christian faith or professional singing?
JV: Oh,
faith. I was brought-up in the Christian Brethren and I came to faith quite
early, but I didn’t really know what it was until I went to university.
So
what is at the centre of the faith you developed at University?
JV: The
person of Jesus! People can get bogged down in church ‘stuff’. But what we must look at first is the character and person of Jesus and if we don’t do that,
if we don’t understand who he is; everything else pales into insignificance.
When Jesus isn’t central, what becomes central is ‘my place in the church’,
which doesn’t actually matter! So, I’m a Christian today, not just for Sunday,
not just when I do my shows, but when you catch me now. Here’s who I am, this
is me; and that is both a weakness and a strength.
You’ve
never hidden your faith in the opera world though.
JV: No
How
have people responded?
JV: Some
people are antagonistic and want an argument! I don’t present myself as some
kind of virtuous perfect guy, I just turn up and start working. I sometimes
lose my temper, like everyone else does; but it’s how I then go and apologise
that contextualises my faith. I don’t take my Bible to work and preach at
people; but people do want to talk to me. Someone recently came to me asking
“What do you think about faith? Is it difficult to be a Christian?” and I said
to him, “Yes it is.” But it’s no more difficult to be a Christian singer than a
Christian banker or anything else. You take in your core values, and your
faith. You walk in with Jesus and you walk out with him.
Christians
are deliberately very misunderstood, by an atheistic media who want to decry
faith. But rather than shout and scream about that I just say, “well this is
me; you can criticise me as much as you like. I’m doing my job, I’m doing it
well”.
How
do people respond when you talk about your faith in Jesus in your one-man show?
JV: We’ve always wanted my shows to be a place
where people could bring their non-church friends where they wouldn’t be
embarrassed or made to cringe. I just talk about my faith and share it in song.
And I have lots of responses, from total elation to utter disgust; from “how
could you mention your faith; what’s that got to do with anything!”; to “I
can’t believe you’ve made me think about faith, and now I’ve become a
Christian!”
And
you sing songs like, “I want Jesus to walk with me”
JV: Yeah by
Eric Bibb! It’s one of the most wonderful songs. I often close my shows with
that song, followed by “How Great Thou Art”.
What’s
your next musical project?
JV: At the
moment I have backed away from opera, I’m still doing it, but when I choose to.
I’m now touring my one-man show “Song and Tales”.
Do
you have any musical ambitions left?
JV: There’s
one I would love to do… Sweeny Todd! I played the judge in Sweeny Todd, at Covent Garden with the legendary Stephen Sondheim. Todd
is the arch-baddie; but one who’s been wronged. And there is also redemption
for him, somewhere in there! I would fancy that.
What
about personal ambitions?
JV: I did
want to play cricket for England
but that ship has sailed I’m afraid. Offstage, I always want to be a better
person because ultimately, “singing is
more than a job, but it’s less than a life!”
So
what makes a complete life?
JV: I think
having God in your life gives you context. It settles you where you are, tells
you where you are in the universe: that you’re not the centre of it, but that
GOD is, and He loves you.
__________________________
http://www.jonathanveira.com/
This was first published in SOLAS Magazine, reproduced with permission.
No comments:
Post a Comment