Sara Blanch

Let's not forget that we are making art and that we have to be as real as possible if we want to convey the essence of our soul and share emotions through music.
alice

Author:

by Alice Lechner
July 30, 2023
Read the entire

No.6/2023

of opera charm magazine

INTRODUCTION

It is our great pleasure to share with you the story of one of the rising stars of the international opera panorama, an artist & a person full of joie de vivre - the soprano Sara Blanch, throughout an exclusive interview by Alice Lechner. Our questions found Sara in the middle of the rehearsals for her role debut as Zenobia in Aureliano in Palmira at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro. She shared with us her first impressions of opera, the beginning of her career, the challenges of singing opera, her passions behind the stage, but also her house debut at the legendary Teatro alla Scala as Tibrino in Antonio Cesti’s L’Orontea.

BIOGRAPHY

The lyrical-light soprano, born in Darmos (Tarragona), entered the world of art with dance (classical and Spanish), piano and choral singing. At the age of 14 she began her singing studies and, at 16, she made her first appearance in a contemporary opera at the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya (TNC). Since then, she continued her training until obtaining a degree in Singing and Interpretation at the Liceu Conservatory of Barcelona.  The soprano made her operatic debut in 2013 at the Rossini Opera Festival, playing the role of Folleville (Il Viaggio a Reims).  After having won recognition in several competitions, highlighting the "Concurs Internacional de Cant Montserrat Caballé" (Audience Awaed- 2014), the "Josep Mirabent i Magrans de Sitges" (2015) and the contest "Tenor Viñas" (2016), where he obtained eight awards, we have been able to follow in their footsteps in various renowned theaters and festivals, such as the Gran Teatro del Liceu (Barcelona), the Teatro Real (Madrid), Teatro de la Zarzuela (Madrid), the Teatro Campoamor (Oviedo), the Teatro Regio (Torino, Italy), the Teatro Verdi (Salerno, Italy), the Teatro de la Maestranza (Seville), the Palau de la Música (Barcelona), the Tchaikovsky Theater (Perm, Russia), the Palau de les Arts (València), the Castell de Peralada Festival (Peralada), the Salzburger Festspiele (Salzburg, Àustria), the Teatro del Maggio Musicale (Firenze), Circo Massimo Opera di Roma, the Accademia di Santa Cecilia (Roma), the Músiques en Fête (Théâtre Antique de Orange, France), Fauteuils d'Orquestre (Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris, France), Rossini in Wildbad (Bad-Wildbad, Germany), Donizetti Opera Festival (Bergamo, Italia) etc. Sara Blanch has already performed more than 27 operatic roles, of which the most notable are Norina (Don Pasquale), Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor), Matilde (Matilde di Shabran), Fiorilla (Il turco in Italia), Amina (La Sonnambula), Königin der nacht (Die Zauberflöte), Adèle (Le compte Ory), Ophélie (Hamlet), Zerbinetta (Ariadne auf Naxos), Anne (The Rake’s Progress), Marie (La Fille dú Rériment), among others. In addition, her operatic activity is combined with an important concert activity, also passing through the oratorio, the song and the recital. Soon we will be able to hear the soprano at the Rossini Opera Festival, (Pesaro, Italia), Teatro Real (Madrid), Teatro Comunale (Bologna), the  Wiener Staatsoper (Viena), Accademia di Santa Cecilia (Roma), Palau de la Musica Catalana (Barcelona), the Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona) and the Opera de Lausanne (Suiza), among others. 

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INTERVIEW

Dear Sara, thank you for accepting our invitation! It’s such a pleasure to meet and talk with you! You recently began rehearsing at the Rossini Opera Festival for Aureliano in Palmira. How are the rehearsals going? What can you tell us about this edition of the Festival?  Rehearsals are going very well. Aureliano in Palmira is […]

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Alice Lechner

Alice Lechner

Alice Lechner comes from a music-loving family. Her first encounter with the opera universe was at the tender age of six. The grandeur of the stage productions and costumes, the backstage chatter, and last, but definitely not least, the music left her in awe, beginning with Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The overall feeling that opera awakens in anyone who gets a glimpse into this part of artistic eternity, that each and every day passes the test of time, was what drew her to stay and be a part of this world. The Opera House of Brașov became her second home, and the people who worked there were her second family.

Since then, Alice has devoted her spare time to maximising her musical knowledge through instrumental studies, studying both piano and violin for a short time. In the following years, her number one passion stepped out of the limelight and graciously gave way to Law Studies.
Since 2018 she has been studying Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.

Her passion for opera, even if it is no longer her top professional priority in terms of career, it has most definitely become her priority during her free time. Wanting to experience the best of both worlds and extend her musical horizons, she regularly attends opera performances throughout Romania and abroad.
With OPERA Charm Magazine, Alice aims to nurture her creative side to help it flourish and bloom and to discover, alongside the magazine’s readers, the fascinatingly complex world of opera.

Currently, she is an LL.M. in Business Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.

Oana Zamfir

Oana Zamfir is a second year MA student at the “George Enescu” National University of Arts, at the Department of Musicology.

She studied violin for 12 years at the “Stefan Luchian” High School of Art in Botosani, later focusing on the theoretical aspects of music. In 2019 she completed her bachelor studies in Musicology as a student of the National Academy of Music “Gheorghe Dima” in Cluj-Napoca. Her research during 2018-2019 brought to the forefront elements of the archaic ritual within works of composers who activated during the communist period, giving her the opportunity to start a research internship at the “Carl von Ossietzky” University in Germany. In this context, she recorded conversations with members of the Sophie Drinker Institute in Bremen, and had access to documents directly from the Myriam Marbé archive.

Since 2019 she has been a teacher of Music Education and Theoretical Music Studies, making full use of interactive methods in the musical training of students and working, at the same time, with the children’s choir founded in the first year of her activity.

Her interests include pursuing a degree in interior design in 2020.

Alexandru Suciu

Alexandru Suciu inherited his passion for art growing up in a family of several generations of musicians. He began his musical studies at the “Augustin Bena” School of Music in Cluj, where he studied piano and guitar. Even though his main study direction was philological, his passion for music prevailed. He began his academical journey at the Faculty of Letters of the “Babeș-Bolyai” University, studying Comparative literature and English. He continued by studying Opera Singing at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy. He also graduated the Musical Education section, followed by Artistic Directing at the Musical Performing Arts department.

His multidisciplinary education opened the doors towards research, which is seen both through his participation in national and international conferences and symposia, such as the Salzburg Easter School PhD-forum, organized by the Salzburg Universität or the Silesian Meeting of Young Scholars, organized by the Institute of English at the University of Silesia, as well as the collaboration with Opera Charm Magazine.

During his student years, he won several prizes, including the Grand Prize at the “Paul Constantinescu” National Musical Interpretation Competition, the Romanian Composers and Musicologists’ Union Prize at the same competition, the First Prize and the Schubert Prize at the “Ada Ulubeanu” Competition.

He further developed his artistic skills by specializing in courses and masterclasses held by personalities such as Vittorio Terranova, Giuseppe Sabbatini, Marian Pop, Ines Salazar, Riccardo Zanellato, Paolo Bosisio, Valentina Farcaș and Manuel Lange in contexts such as the Internationale Sommerakademie für Operngesang Deutschlandsberg, Corso Internazionale di Canto Lirico I.M.C. Licata or the Europäische Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst Montepulciano. Besides his activity on-stage, he currently teaches Opera Singing Didactics, and Pedagogical Practice within the Department for Teacher Education and Training at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy.

Cristina Fieraru

Cristina is a 24 year-old Romanian soprano & a student at the National University of Music Bucharest, where she pursues the MA program in Vocal Performance.

She made her debut in Pamina from “Die Zauberflöte” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at only 19 years old at the Bucharest National Opera House, as a member of the Ludovic Spiess Experimental Opera Studio. Over the years she made her debut in roles such as Contessa d’Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Mimì & Musetta (La Bohème), Alice Ford (Falstaff), Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte) in her university’s opera productions.
Her passion and experience extends in the field of choral music, too.

She has been part of our dream team since the fall of 2021. For a good period of time she took care of OPERA Charm’s social media and took you on the monthly journey through the history of opera through our Legends rubric – and a few times through the Theaters around the World rubric.

Her little soul rubric – from 2021 to present – is definitely the Conductors of the Future, where, every month, she gives you the chance to meet a young star of the world of conducting and, of course, to find out what’s the most charming feature of opera in these artists’ views.

BIANCA L. NICA

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