Atlantica - 01.05.2007, Page 82

A T L A N T I C A 81
Gardar Thór Cortes, the
32-year-old heartthrob
of Icelandic opera, is
every bit as handsome as the
local papers make him out to
be. He greets me with a firm
handshake, immaculate hair,
and English that might as well
be falling from the lips of the
Queen herself. I expect birds to
alight on his broad shoulders at
any minute. The rising star has
slowly but surely been emerg-
ing from the formidable shadow
of his operatic trailblazer father,
Gardar Cortes senior. Junior’s
new album, simply titled Cortes,
came out on April 16. However,
young Cortes’s reputation pre-
cedes him, as the record became
a bestseller in the UK through
presales alone.
Jonas Moody: I hear the
new album is a departure from
straight-laced opera.
Gardar Thór Cortes: The best
way to describe it is crossover
– classical with a twist. There’s
an A-ha track, Hunting High and
Low, a pop song but with a clas-
sical makeover, Nessun dorma,
an aria, and Granada, a classical
Spanish song. It’s a good mixture
of classical and lighter stuff. I
don’t want to go too far, so as
to lose credibility as a classical
opera singer. I’m trying to open
people’s ears and reach a larger
audience.
JM: With your popularity in
the UK, are you thinking of re-
locating?
GTC: Today I’m able to be
both here and there, but if things
start to pick up even more, I will
get an apartment there. We have
an apartment here [gesturing to
his girlfriend seated nearby] so
Reykjavík is our home. Though
I’m very mixed – Polish, English,
Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Danish
– I feel strongly Icelandic. But
when in England I feel at home
as well. I feel comfortable in dif-
ferent places. I was in Warsaw
the other day singing and felt
calm and at home. I didn’t expect
that to happen. But I still feel
very Icelandic. It’s difficult being
away from home, but we try to
have no more than two to three
weeks apart from one another.
JM: How has your family in-
fluenced you as a musician?
GTC: Well, I have a very musi-
cal family. My father is a singer
and conductor, founded the op-
era, the Reykjavík Academy of
Singing and Vocal Arts, and the
Reykjavík Symphony. My moth-
er is a concert pianist. My sister
is an opera singer. My brother
is studying to become a singer,
a composer, conductor, and pia-
nist. My parents encouraged us
in any decisions we made, but
they never pushed us into mu-
sic. I saw a cornet player on the
telly once when I was young and
said, “I want to do that,” and my
parents said “fine”. Likewise, at
18 when I realized singing was
what I wanted to do, I started
to learn classical singing. My
younger brother did not want
to study music because everyone
was in music around him. We
thought that was fine. But now
he’s doing more than we ever
did when we were his age: study-
ing singing, piano, composition,
and conducting, and he directs a
little choir. Thad er mikill kraftur
í honum! (There’s a lot of fire in
him!)

JM: Besides classical music,
what are you listening to?
GTC: I have very broad taste
and loads of albums. I like Mu-
gison, Sigur Rós, and jazz like
Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole,
Sinatra… the list goes on. I liked
Mika’s new album, a mix of Fred-
die Mercury and Scissor Sisters.
Prince and Bon Jovi have been
idols since I was a little kid. But
sometimes when working with
music, it’s good to not listen to
music.
JM: Whether you like it or
not, you’ve become a figurehead
for a young, sexy opera world
in Iceland. What’s happening in
Icelandic opera now?
GTC: I look at it björtum au-
gum (optimistically). The last op-
era I did was La Cenerentola, Cin-
derella, by Rossini. I love singing
in the Icelandic opera. We only
have the one opera company,
which my father founded about
25 years ago, so it’s not a huge
opera scene here. But it’s our
opera house. There are only two
to three big productions a year,
as opposed to theater. Opera
compared to that is minuscule,
but the quality is good. We have
good singers. The number of
people that study singing is high
compared to the population. But
as is the case with theater, there
is not enough money put into it.
JM: Speaking of your passions,
what does Iceland’s sexiest man
(as voted by two separate polls)
like to do for a romantic eve-
ning?
GTC: We love good food,
cooking and going out. When
we travel we pick the top places
wherever we are. That’s one of
our comforts. But mind you, we
look for the good places when
we’re out in the world, but we
haven’t done that at home in Ice-
land, funnily enough. a
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