PETA STEWART
It’s all about timing, and for Luc Robert the invitation to sing in the Duet Verdi Requiem with the CPO at the City Hall on Thursday, 22, November 2018 came just at the right time… he has just finished the role of Don Jose in Carmen in Essen, Germany, and is going to sing in La Fanciulla del west (Puccini) in Tallinn, Estonia. And then he moves on to Tosca with the Bolshoi in Moscow.
So a quick visit to Cape Town is nothing out of the ordinary for this travelling man!
Don Jose is really his role, the one that has made this Canadian tenor leap to international fame. In the last season he sang it in Frankfurt, Estonia, Cape Town and in Nice as well.
Although he says he didn’t really grow up in a musical family, there was always music in the family. His father was an amateur tenor and a good guitarist and he was introduced to music as a child. For a career, he first became a fire fighter in his home town of Rouyn-Noranda, and it was only when he was 30 that he began to study music and take voice lessons. He entered the Conservatoire de Musique et d’arts Dramatiques in Montreal, about 700 kms from his home town.
Teacher Gabrielle Lavigne
Asked how he knew that he would become a singer and that music would be his life, he says candidly: “I didn’t know. I decided to enter the conservatoire because the teacher Gabrielle Lavigne was the best in Canada! She was my only voice teacher, and unfortunately passed away just a few weeks ago. She was the one who made me realize I could have a singing career. Being an artist like an opera singer is something that people around you need to see, love, accept, acknowledge and recognize.”
It wasn’t a conscious decision – he just realized that with this love and acceptance he could attain the status of an artist and live the art.
He joined the Canadian Opera Company Studio Ensemble in Toronto in 2002, but it was only 10 years later that his debut as Rodolfo in Verdi’s Luisa Miller at Malmö Opera, Sweden, brought him to international fame. So his life changed quickly and today he is a highly sought-after spinto tenor – a voice between lyric and dramatic. High points include his Metropolitan Opera debut in Verdi’s Ernani along with Plácido Domingo.
He sings a lot of Verdi
He is looking forward to this Verdi, for he sings a lot of Verdi, spending most of his time singing in opera. He made his debut with Cape Town Opera in Carmen in 2016, and he adds, “I am thrilled to be invited back for this Requiem. It’s a real treat for me.”
Since Robert’s career is mainly in Europe, he moved to Tallinn four years ago, married a violist in the National Opera Orchestra and they have a baby daughter, Flora. He also has 10-year-old Rosalie, his daughter living in Canada, who he misses madly and sees when time permits.
Not that he has too much time, only for fillers like playing billiards, imbibing scotch with his friends, and being a carpenter … So when he is not singing or working on his own house you may find him working on the houses of others!
The Verdi Requiem on 22 November is sold out, but the dress rehearsal will be open to the public on Wednesday, 21 November, 2018 at 7.30pm at the Cape Town City Hall. Unreserved seating and entry via Longmarket Street entrance.
The concert is being streamed live on musicscape.co.za and broadcast live on FMR 101.3 on radio and on the internet https://iono.fm/s/6.
Who: Canadian tenor Luc Robert
What: CPO Spring Symphony Season, Duet Verdi Requiem with conductor Perry So, soprano Anne Sophie Duprels, mezzo Violina Anguelov, tenor Luc Robert, bass Thato Machona
Where: Cape Town City Hall
When: 22 November 2018, 8pm sold out. Dress rehearsal 21 November 2018, 7.30pm
Info: luvuyo@cpo.org.za
WS
