Deinós

Yoandy Cabrera

Enrique Mazzola

This coming Saturday, September 23, 2023, the Lyric Opera of Chicago is starting its new 2023/24 season with a production of The Flying Dutchman by Wagner. Deinós had the opportunity to interview Maestro Enrique Mazzola, Music Director of the Lyric Opera right before the premier of The Flying Dutchman. Some reasons to admire Mazzola’s work are his charisma and contagious energy. Born in Barcelona from Catalan parents, Mazzola left Spain when he was five years old and went to live in Italy. His first season as the Lyric’s Music Director was 2021/22. In this conversation with Deinós, Maestro Mazzola talks about his Hispanic origins, commissioning new operas today, and the challenge of conducting Wagner.

Yoandy Cabrera: Were you born in Barcelona? Can you tell us more about your connection with Spain and Hispanic culture?

Enrique Mazzola: Yes, I was born in Barcelona from Spanish parents (both Catalans). Then my father died, and my mother married Mr. Mazzola, who gave me his surname. I was in Barcelona until the age of five, so basically the Spanish I use is the language of a kid. When in Italy, in a very few months, I started to speak Italian and I was guided to accept and make the Italian culture mine. Therefore, in some way I disconnected with Spain. Even my first name was changed to Enrico (rather than Enrique) and only when I made my first identity card at twelve, I discovered I have actually a Spanish name and not an Italian one.

YC: In a recent conversation with John von Rhein, you mentioned that Anthony Freud (Lyric’s General Director, President & CEO) and you work together to create each opera season. Who else is involved? Can you tell us more about the process of shaping an annual program for The Lyric Opera?

EM: There is a big team involved in creating an opera season. In fact, the artistic idea starts from Mr. Freud and is shared with me, then all the process goes through more detailed artistic choices—director, singers, conductor—and then through other very important parameters, like ticketing, marketing, timing (“too early for a new Traviata?” For example), political moment, and so on.

YC: In November 2021, The Lyric presented Florencia en el Amazonas, the first Spanish-language work performed as part of a mainstage season. It was also one of the first operas selected to restart the Lyric performances after the most difficult years of the coronavirus and it was during your first season as Music Director. ¿How did you come up with the selection of this play in this context? 

EM: I think it’s very important to present a season with the biggest variety of languages—this 2023/24 season we have operas in five languages. And we considered it very important to also present a piece in the Spanish language, especially when we reopened the theatre after Covid-19.

YC: In the last years, the Lyric Opera has staged both classical pieces (such as Madama Butterfly or Ernani) and “contemporary opera that tells contemporary stories,” including some about the black community in Chicago. What place do modern and recently created plays have in your vision for The Lyric?

EM: Actually, a very important place. Historically, opera always had the task of “telling” contemporary stories, pointing out social, political, and religious issues, and we tend to forget that every opera has been a contemporary opera during its time. The idea of commissioning new operas today is simply in line with the idea of telling socially important stories through the most impressive and grandioso form of art: the opera.

YC: As a conductor, what are the biggest challenges you are facing with this new production of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman?  

EM: Wagner is a composer of the extreme. He is not happy to be one of the composers of his time, because he wants to be unique. And he is unique. He made probably the most incredible music revolution in the history of opera, and if we think that the Dutchman was written in 1841 (and then performed in 1843), we simply recognize the genius in it. In a time when Verdi was writing Nabucco and Donizetti Don Pasquale, we have Wagner who, with Dutchman, sets the rules for opera writing of the next forty years. Energy, music never stopping, supernatural elements, harmonies never used before, orchestration more symphonic than operistic, and many other elements, were the ingredients of this revolution.

Note: The Flying Dutchman will be performed at the Lyric Opera of Chicago from September 23 to October 7, 2023.