Don't do anything that doesn't have meaning !
Astrid Varnay in conversation with Dieter David Scholz
Ms. Varnay, you are the child of a true theatrical marriage. Your mother was a coloratura soprano and your father a tenor and theater impresario. When did you first decide to become a singer ?
Actually, I wanted to become a concert pianist. I did sing in the school choir. Someone must have heard me and told my mother that my voice should be trained at all cost. I didn't give much thought to this at the time, to be honest. It wasn't until I had a job in a New York piano antique shop that I became aware of what I really wanted. In this business there were many small rooms, where singing instruction was given. Sometimes it sounded like cattle being taken to the slaughter. I then told my mother that I could do better and that I wanted to study singing, so that from that moment on my mother began to coach me seriously. I owe my complete vocal training to her.
So you never went to a music conservatory?
No, I learned everything privately! First with my mother, who of course passed on to me many experiences from her own life in the theater. Then came the moment when she phoned her friend Kirsten Flagstad, as she did every year - it must have been 1939 - and told her that I was studying singing and preparing myself for an opera career. Mrs. Flagstad was eager to hear me, but during her visit both ladies recalled so many memories from their past that no real singing came of it. Flagstad's advice, however, did give my life a big turn: she was of the opinion that I had to be trained by a strong hand if I ever wanted to sing Wagner. And she held a certain Hermann Weigert to be that right hand. So I sang Elisabeth's Hallenaria to him at full speed, to show him that I had a great voice. He himself accompanied me and asked me if I couldn't sing a little softer and with a little more legato. And then I was allowed to sing Elsa. Then he told my mother, that he would like to coach me in the Wagner repertoire, but on the condition that I would study for three full years and only with him and not sing anywhere else but with him and my mother. And no tinkering.
What did you learn with Hermann Weigert ?
He taught me to express myself artistically! And with his remarkable pedagogical gift he taught me the deeper meaning, the background, the very essence of a role and the attention to subtle acting nuances.
The first in a long line. After all, Hermann Weigert wasn't your only mentor, coach and companion regarding Wagner!
That's right. One day I sought him out very early, because I was outraged by a call from a young devotee, who absolutely wanted to keep me from a Wagner career and instead suggested that I marry him and, as a good housewife, prepare his breakfast every morning. Hermann Weigert stared at me and said, "You're not going to do that to me, are you?" And immediately I realized that this man had become a part of my life. Then in 1945 we got married. But he taught me everything I needed to know and be able to do, including the financial stuff. He really taught me to stand on my own two feet. So that was an extraordinary windfall !
A windfall was also your lightning career at the Met
Yes, absolutely! Especially since it didn't look like that at all at first! I had to audition three times, after George Szell, a friend of Hermann Weigert, had advised me to apply directly to the Met's chief intendant. The third audition took place on stage, which is understandable for a house with more than 3000 seats. I was invited - again after a long wait - on a summer's day in May to sing Brünnhilde's "Hojotoho" at the very moment when a huge thunderstorm was breaking out. I felt like Wotan's daughter and knew it would go well. They wanted to engage me as Elsa in January. But fate decided otherwise: I came for the rehearsal with Erich Leinsdorf, who, however, did not want to rehearse the role of Elsa with me, but on the contrary demanded that I sing the role of Sieglinde, but not in its fullness. He wanted to know if I had mastered the role musically. Very softly I then sang Sieglinde. It was on a Friday. Then he said, "Good girl, now go to the costume department and get made up. That was when the penny dropped. Lotte Lehmann had cancelled and Helen Traubel sang the role of Brünnhilde. One could no longer cancel the Saturday afternoon performance of Die Walküre and no one else was free. So I jumped into the cold water. The next day I sang Sieglinde. And it was a great personal success. And what did fate decide? Six days later Helen Traubel fell ill, and I had to take over the role of Brünnhilde. It's like a novel.
This novel you now offer to the public in book form. Under the title "Hab mir's gelobt" ("I have resolved") you bring your memoirs. Why, of all things, do you quote these words of the Marschallin from Der Rosenkavalier?
Because I have always resolved that interpretation consists one half of acting and the other half of singing. Only in this way can you be totally convincing on stage.
You sang at the Met for ten years, from 1941 to 1951, before coming to Bayreuth. On the recommendation of Kirsten Flagstad, you were one of the few who did not have to audition.
Wieland as well as Wolfgang wanted to bring Flagstad to Bayreuth in 1951. But she did not accept their invitation and recommended me. We had already sung together at the Met and in London. Merely for an audition in Bayreuth, I would never have gone to Europe, because that would have been unaffordable for me at the time. Besides, I had more than enough to do. No less than twenty-eight colleagues had been invited to Bayreuth for auditions. Finally, they engaged me without an audition for the entire Ring.
Alongside Mödl, Rysanek, Silja and Nilsson, you were for decades one of the pillars of postwar Bayreuth that carried the era of "new" Bayreuth.
At the time, both country and city were very poor, and people flocked to the "green hill" on foot. It was a time of hope, artistic revival and reconstruction. And we pulled the cart of the opera from the mud. We formed an intentional community. We were only interested in the art. Not the money! And the public was extremely grateful to us. The same year that I made my debut in Bayreuth, I received an engagement for Berlin and the following year for Munich. In Salzburg I then sang Elektra for a full summer. I stayed in Europe and finally gave up the Met for eighteen years.
In post-war Bayreuth, people ventured into the new. New singers were also given a chance. Wieland Wagner formed a new generation of Wagner actors there.
We were all very young then, but some of us already had a great deal of experience. I had already had the great fortune of working in America with Lothar Wallerstein. He taught me presence of mind on stage and made me aware of the absolute basic principle: "No movement that has no meaning"! Moreover, I also regularly attended spoken theater performances, where I learned a lot. As Brünnhilde, I never just threw the spear back and forth. When I came to Wieland Wagner, I knew instinctively that we were on the same wavelength where acting was concerned. I didn't have to learn anything from him, but I did find in him an appropriate breeding ground.
Not least because of your long and emphatic presence in the "new" Bayreuth, you have become a living legend in the Wagner repertoire. Did you want to become a Wagner singer from the very beginning?
Fate made me a Wagner singer, even though I initially embraced the Italian repertoire. Looking back I can say that it was the right choice! Of course, besides Ortrud, I also loved singing Elektra and Lady Macbeth. I would also have loved to sing the part of Donna Anna, Tosca, Elvira or an Amelia. After all, I grew up with the Italian language. But of course you can't do everything. It was already tough enough to sing the role of Senta after an Isolde, although I enjoyed doing both, and as Senta I could show my lyrical ambitions to the fullest.
When you stopped singing the high-dramatic roles, you experienced a second career of character roles.
After I had sung all the heroine parts for thirty years, there came a time when I could no longer guarantee with certainty that I could sing a correct "Hojotoho" in every performance. That was a difficult period in my life ! But my mother had given me the good advice: "If something in your voice cannot be controlled or corrected within three years, just put the part aside!". I always followed her advice. While I was still doing these highly dramatic roles, Wieland Wagner offered me the role of Herodias in Salome, which I accepted and which I also enjoyed very much. Actually, she never sings for more than seven minutes in a stretch, but she must always be physically present. And making something monumental out of a miniature is also satisfying.
When Seefehlner became intendant in Berlin, he wanted to engage me as Clytemnästra for his opening performance. I was of the opinion then, that as long as no real alto or excellent mezzo-soprano showed up, I could justify myself and the audience as Klytemnästra. Thus, in fact, my second career began. I was very happy because quitting after thirty years was out of the question. Also my lessons in "music drama" at the Bavarian State Opera, with which I can pass on my experiences to young colleagues, give me great pleasure.
You belong to a generation of Wagner singers and expression artists who seem to have died out. Why is it that the Wagner Fach is in crisis?
The Wagner Fach is a luxury business. It always has been. Singing Wagner is a matter of physique. You have to have a certain volume and the capacity to keep it up for hours. The most important thing, however, is that your vocal chords and your neck muscles don't get tired. I was naturally given the ability of a powerful voice. But I trained it slowly and continuously, as a good sportsman does with his body. Training in my day also took longer than it does today. Italians usually study vocally for five to ten years. The vocal cords must slowly adapt to singing. One has to start technically, practice patiently and then just wait and hope for the right voice development. I find that while people now take care of their technique, the craft itself is usually neglected. There are undoubtedly good singers, but they often sing parts that are beyond their strength. This shortens the life span of their voice. No one has time today. All want to jump in and rehearse a new part as soon as possible. It took me five years to study the part of Isolde before I sang it on stage for the first time. You can't open a supermarket without having enough goods in stock. In this respect, most of today's colleagues are making a big mistake.