The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.1994, Page 29

SPRING, 1994
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
139
Valdine: Sure, there are some of
those, but for the most part people
tend nowadays to laugh at the idea of
a “diva” having a tantrum. And, when
work is so hard to get, most con-
ductors just don’t want to put up
with that sort of behaviour unless
you are a big superstar, such as
Kathleen Battle or Jesse Norman.
They’ll just get someone else, so
everyone is pretty careful. A bad
reputation sticks and it takes years to
get rid of.
I?elga: Does the conductor make a
difference for you? Is the music
elicited from you or is it just always
there, ready to come forth?
Valdine: I haven’t worked with many
poor conductors. Sometimes you get
an inexperienced conductor and you
sense that they are hoping that you
will make more of the music than
they can; but most are fine
conductors. Some are from the old
school, where there’s no coffee, no
gum; practice is serious and when
the conductor enters you say, “Hello,
Maestro,” and you call him Maestro
all the time. Whereas, there are
others that say, “Call me John, or
whatever.” In either case, it has
nothing to do with the way they want
to relate to you, rather, it's about how
they deal with the music, how they
express it and what they think you
can accomplish. And, if they expect
your best, you usually try to give it.
Ijelga: It must take a lot of time to
learn the music.
Valdine: For orchestra and sym-
phonic works you can use the sheet
music, but for opera and recitals in
general, you sing from memory. It is
nicer to be off the page even for
symphonic works. It is much easier to
relate to your audience. There is
much to learning opera roles, as all
roles relate to one another and they
come in at different times - so you
have to learn the music for the roles
around your part as well as your
own, so you’ll know when to come in.
It’s tricky, but if you love what you’re
doing, it’s fun!
Ijelga: Do you have Icelandic songs
in your repertoire?
Valdine: A few. I sang in Icelandic for
the President of Iceland when she
visited Winnipeg, but that’s the extent
of it. I don’t know the folk songs,
although I know that there are a few
out there. I don’t speak Icelandic, but
I am hoping to go there and maybe
have a recital. It would be very
exciting if that happened. It is such a
small country, but yet so culturally
alive!
Ijelga: Wouldn’t Icelanders love to
have you come to perform for them -
with your lovely voice, your Icelandic
name and looks. What are your goals
for the next three or four years?
Valdine: Well, I hope to make some
inroads in Germany. When I move
back to Canada I would like my
traditional repertoire and my
reputation in opera or symphonic
works to be established enough so
that I can pick and choose from those
fields. Also, by that time, I hope to
have enough connections in the new
music area that I could maybe form a
trio, or do some new works. The
Canadian Broadcasting Company in
Toronto is commissioning a composer
to write a new piece for me. That
really interests me, and I’d like to do
more work like that.
Ijelga: Have you performed new
music from other countries?
Valdine: Yes. The first was a beautiful
piece for soprano and ensemble,
written by an Austrian composer.
Then, I worked with a group of
Hungarian composers and that was
very different. This was followed by