A Conversation with Håkan Hagegård
2007; Routledge; Volume: 63; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2769-4046
Autores Tópico(s)Literature, Musicology, and Cultural Analysis
ResumoIn a conference room in the beautiful Hilton hotel in Minneapolis, during the NATS Conference, Hakan Hagegard and had the following conversation. Leslie Holmes: Yesterday, was talking to one of my NATS colleagues-she was teaching for awhile at Louisiana State University-and she said, Oh, Hakan Hakagard! He gave a recital for us in 1985. He stood by the pianoquietly-and sang for two hours. We wanted him to go on all day. have never forgotten that, of all the recitals have ever heard. What a wonderful thing to say! What is your intent when you get up to present a recital? Hakan Hakagard: With that question, of course, you touch the question as to why we do concerts in the first place. My simple answer to that question is that want to lift the audience's way of up to a higher level ... to sharpen their tools, sharpen their senses to questions that they might not dare to go close to, or open them a little bit to influences from parts they haven't dared to open up to. LH: In this world of computers, that is so important. You can fill people's teeth and their bellies, but you need to fill their souls. HH: Absolutely. LH: How do you feel when you are up there? remember talking with Dawn Upshaw, and she said, I feel absolutely exposed when I'm up doing a recital. HH: Absolutely exposed-yes. That's the way we want it, to maximize our performance. If we're not exposed, they won't see us or hear us. So, that's fine. don't feel naked in the way that feel intruded [upon], because do believe that we are creating an image for the audience of something that we could call the truth. It's the image that the audience believes in, anyway, because they never believe in the truth. So, we have to paint the painting so they can understand what's behind it. It's very hard to present the truth to an audience. LH: What do you mean that they don't believe in the truth? HH: They don't want to see on stage, for example, a real building, because that's what they have in real life. They want to see sets that look like a building. And they want to see a person who looks like a character. But they are not interested in going home to Gilda in Rigoletto and meet her in person. There are no Gildas, so there is no truth to that. It's an image of something that we present to them and that they can believe in. Also it has to do with the fact that the audience doesn't want to get too close to the performer. They don't want to go into their identity, or scratch inside the performer. [This may be] out of respect, and so they back off if the performer is too personal with the performance. But, if there is an image, you can throw tomatoes or give ovations without hurting the performer. This the audience does subconsciously, perhaps not really knowing about it. This is the nature of performing, and that's the way it should be. LH: Interesting. It sounds as if the performer is more of a vehicle, or a vessel, filled and giving and honest. Honest? HH: No. We are liars in the way that we are presenting a lie. LH: Maybe mean sincere. HH: Sincere, absolutely. LH: Sometimes those two-maybe it's just for meconnect. Someone being honest seems sincere. HH: True. But we are honest to our profession and sincere about our performing, so that we can translate the message that the composer meant it to be for the audience to understand it. That's being honest, and that's hard work. But we do present something that is not reality that the audience will hear and experience as reality... but not the same reality as they have at home. was very happy. saw an interview with Dustin Hoffman the other night, and he said exactly the same thing. LH: I've thought a lot about performing-because, of course, have the privilege of doing that myself-but love the way you say it. read somewhere that you are the thinking person's performer, and that made me want to talk to you, because we're not just talking about what you had for breakfast, or what do you like to do when you walk in the woods. …
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