Opera | Everyone wants Mika Kares now – a wonderful year culminated in the Bavarian State Opera

Munich

“comm’ ich zu euch nun, Männer von Brabant!”

Pedestrians in Munich’s Max-Joseph-Platz freeze to listen when a sonorous bass sound echoes from the street next to the Bavarian State Opera.

Mika Kares it opens its voice and sings King Heinrich’s monologue by Richard Wagner Lohengrin– about the opera before our interview.

This role crowned the miracle year of the 44-year-old Kares.

A year the work as a soloist of the Berlin Philharmonic coincided with the beginning Kirill Petrenko led by Pyotr Tchaikovsky Jolanta-in concert performances of the opera.

In the summer, Kares got the main role in the new direction of the Salzburg festival Béla Bartók too Knight Bluebeard in the castle.

And for autumn itself Daniel Barenboim chose him for central bass roles in Wagner The Ring of the Nibelung -tetralogy (Ring des Nibelungen) for a new direction at the Berlin State Opera.

Barenboim fell ill, but as conductor for the rehearsals and most of the performances, another peak was obtained, Christian Thielemann. All I’m ringing four long operas were performed in the same weeks.

“We practiced a lot,” Kares recalls.

“Thielemann did it with his monocle gesture if the rhythm needed to be corrected, and contorted his face in his well-known way if the text needed to be brought out even more clearly.”

Kares considers that he has been getting bass roles in Germany and Austria for years by bringing out the text more clearly than the Germans themselves. With Thielemann, this was taken even further.

“He made sure that all the desired colors came out.”

Most of all, the role of the evil Hagen In Götterdämmerung.

“I knew it was a gigantic role, but the multidimensionality of it was still an overwhelming experience.”

In the last trainings, Kares experienced an increase in value.

“Until then, Thielemann had called me by the name of the role at that time. Now I was for him What, and he said he was very pleased with how hard I worked and progressed in these new roles.”

Many critics said the same. “Mika Kares is an insanely good Hagen,” declared Tagesspiegel. “Kares is an impressive Hunding again,” he said Neue MusikZeitung Valkyrie in his assessment. And the same continued in December in Munich Lohengrin’s in assessments.

Karsen the rise to the international top took time, which is not uncommon for a bass singer. The voice often matures only in middle age.

“Growing up as a Finnish bass has not been the easiest path. I came to the field when Matti Salminen and Jaakko Ryänen were in full force in their sixties. I wasn’t a protege or a copy of either, I sang with my own voice. No alms were given.”

He matured for his duties in the soloists of the Karlsruhe Opera House. Ferruccio Furlanetto the evocative beautiful bass sound attracted attention, but some of the challenges came too soon.

Arrigo Boito Mephistopheles the main role at the Savonlinna Opera Festival was, according to Kares himself, a “flop” in 2008. Divorce and an eight-week sick leave hit the same trough. The help of a psychologist was also needed.

But now his calendar is full of top houses just like Salminen’s back in the day.

“I’m not trying to fill anyone’s shoes, but I come on stage with my own boots of the foursome. You have to sing that position and those roles for yourself. You don’t get them for free.”

Renewal invitations come comfortably from the best places. Of the top houses, only New York’s Metropolitan Opera and Bayreuth’s Wagner Festival have yet to be experienced.

“There have been offers from both, but the calendar was already full in those weeks.”

Is however, there is one house where Kares would like to sing, but this hasn’t happened in ten years: the Finnish National Opera.

The reason has been speculated to be the departure of the artistic director of the National Opera Lilli Paasikiven and Kares’ personal chemistry. Kares came sometime in the past years to criticize some of Paasikivi’s policies on social media.

“Such artistic choices are matters of taste. I don’t think Lilli will be the first to invite me in her next role as the artistic director of the Bregenz festival.”

Kares wonders if he will ever be able to play his internationally celebrated central roles on Finland’s biggest stages. This applies especially to Wagner’s masterpiece Around.

“If a new one is made in Finland Ring once every 15 years, so the next guidance may already be over for me. But I managed to do it I’m ringing in Berlin and Götterdämmerungin in Vienna. Can not complain.”

The interview after that we will get more information about the National Opera as well: in ten years there have been concrete agreements.

Wagner’s of the Nuremberg master singers the contract for the role of Hans Sachs for the year 2015, Kares had to cancel after noticing that it was too high for his voice field. In the fall of 2018, he also asked to cancel the contract for Hunding’s role as Wagner In Valkyrie after receiving offers from the Berlin State Opera to perform Wagner The Ring of the Nibelung – in the new directions of the tetralogy, or Ring, the roles of Hunding, Fasolt and Hagen, as well as the role of Ivan Hovanski Mussorgsky Hovanshchinain the opera.

Desires to work It would be in Finland. Kares lives with his spouse in Espoo and their first child was born last year.

“We thought it would be good if the birth didn’t hit the hardest rush. But it hit Salzburg Duke Bluebeard’s castle and Berlin I’m ringing to the work rush. The passport was acquired when the baby was eight days old.”

It has gone well, he praises.

“The new productions have long rehearsal times, and the family has been involved. These last ones Lohengrin– gigs I have flown back and forth and returned as soon as possible. Even in a baby’s five days, development can take place, which I want to witness.”

Therefore, Kares plans to take parental leave this year as well. But before that, there is another interesting production.

“I’m going back to the Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden and I’m going to sing Wagner Tannhäuserin the opera. There is a month of rehearsal time and then the premiere and performances.”

After that comes the holiday, followed by new challenges. They include the Vienna State Opera Götterdämmerung and the Lyric Opera of Chicago and Wagner The Flying Dutchman. The Paris Opera has Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra by Gustavo Dudamel under. There are plenty of concert soloist roles from the Oslo Philharmonic to the London Symphony Orchestra.

And there are some gigs in Finland too!

“In April, I will sing as a soloist of the Tampere Philharmonic Dmitri Shostakovich Symphony No. 13 (Babi jar), which is an important work even in these times. I will return to the Savonlinna Opera Festival in the summer Mozart’s The Magic Flute Sarastro.”

At Eurajoki’s Bel Canto festival, he continues as the second artistic director. There they perform Wagner with the organ, and it’s time Tristan and Isolde. He has time for one recital for Joroinen’s music days.

Karesta is also warmed by the pending opportunity to – finally – return to the Finnish National Opera. The next offer came already for 2024, but he was booked.

Instead, spring 2025, the last season planned by Lilli Paasikivi, seems to be successful.

Correction January 3 at 4:17 p.m.: The article initially incorrectly mentioned that Kares would not have “been able” to sing at the Finnish National Opera for ten years. Added information about the contracts offered by the National Opera and corrected the agreed date of the next cooperation: it is in the last season planned by Paasikivi in ​​the spring of 2025, not in the season of 2025–2026.

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