One of the reasons Northern Ireland Opera’s Eugene Onégin will be a must-see (and must-hear) production is the casting of stellar US tenor Norman Reinhardt as Lensky. The poet may not make it to the end of Tchaikovsky’s opera but the friend of Onégin underlines a warmth in our otherwise self-centred eponymous hero. But that’s before the duel. So how does Reinhardt (45) read Lensky? “He’s a lovely person which I like as I don’t always get to play them. I love his heart-on-his-sleeve nature. Lensky does reveal a different side to Onégin through their friendship. He tells you how he feels in the opera too which is interesting.’
Musically, Kuda Kuda is one of the most moving arias ever written. Reinhardt admits that helps in preparation for this emotional workout. For it is sung as Lensky contemplates death in the duel with Onegin, and the meaning of his life. “Because of how beautifully it’s constructed and written, it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to be in that space. Tchaikovsky has set you up so well. The character’s so honest that an honest delivery is the best way, being overdramatic gets in the way. You need to do your best to express what’s there. The aria at the end is very beautiful, a high point, and then he dies. He’s alone, so no one hears it to record it for future generations.”
Reinhardt adds that this is a favourite role that he is looking forward to reprising. “I have done two other Lenskys. One, the Carson production in Houston, was very famous and another was with the German director, Peter Konwitschny, who made us sing it in German and Russian, with Russian for the poetic passages, recitative in German. It was funny, maybe a little jarring, but it worked.” Reinhardt sings a bit to illustrate.
Recent career highlights include a performance in English National Opera’s Magic Flute as Tamino. One critic praised his “tender nobility” in the role. Reinhardt comments: “I think Simon McBurney’s Flute is a great production, the favourite I’ve ever done. It was a lovely company too.” He also sang in Norma in Strasbourg which was “fun” after Reinhardt was called in late. And it meant he got to see his wife soprano Soula Parassidis’s performances in the music festival at Aix en Provence.
Reinhardt is not averse to musical crossover, having sung Stravinsky, Mozart, Bellini and Bernstein. “All good music meets at some level. When the quality of something is high, expertise, skill and poetry all come together whether it’s classical or popular music.”
He worked with Cecilia Bartoli in her 2016 West Side Story as Tony. “I sure did. I did a few things with her, West Side Story, Norma. Cecilia is a very special person to me, I’ve never seen anybody quite like her, not just as a singer and performer. She’s the boss and now runs the Monte Carlo Festival, how she’s able to do that and compartmentalise what she does is amazing.” He adds: “It was a memorable West Side Story and the director was a guy who’d done Spiderman on Broadway, it was vast. But I’ve never seen anything like the way she performed that Norma.”
Reinhardt got into opera indirectly via singing a lot of Southern gospel music. “My father was a minister in a small, non-denominational church in Carolina, the Church of God. I sang in quartets, also sang from the musicals, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin. I grew up with Dean Martin, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday, all those names.” But the love of opera began early. “It started with the Three Tenors in the 1990s and my aunt Sandy. She and I would listen to opera for hours together. I got my voice from my aunt who had a great voice, like my father and grandmother, but she was sickly and blind after juvenile diabetes, couldn’t leave the house much, but we listened to this music together. I loved it when I heard it. Her favourite singer was Pavarotti and she introduced me to him. ” So when Reinhardt saw Rigoletto and La Boheme in Kentucky, he was already hooked.
He trained at the University of Kentucky, then was recruited by Houston Grand Opera, after being talent-spotted by the noted American voice teacher Stephen King. Reinhardt says now “I knew I had a voice early but never thought I’d be an opera singer. It was never my dream. I grew up singing all these styles which is why I have such a wide repertoire.”
Reinhardt met his wife Soula in Oper Leipzig working in the ensemble, and together they run the Living Opera online project. “It’s multi-media, moving towards being a production company.” They’re looking forward to visiting Northern Ireland for the first time, “We’re very excited as my wife’s mother’s family is from Portaferry and we’ve never been.”
He's looking forward to working with Northern Ireland Opera in their upcoming production of Eugene Onégin: “ My goal when I walk into rehearsal room is how do I make the job easier for my colleagues and the director, make them look good, even though as a soloist it’s sometimes all about you.”
It’s ten years since Norman Reinhardt sang the Lensky aria movingly on YouTube. “My voice has grown since then. So will his account in The Grand Opera House in September be even better. “I hope, we’ll see.”
Jane Hardy
