Lyric Opera 2021-2022 Issue 6 Tosca 2

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 32 In terms of music- making, I always feel the same thing: I sometimes say to the orchestra musicians, ‘Please sing more!’ and I tell the singers, ‘Be instrumental!’ - Eun Sun Kim glorious, and she remains grateful for it: “In terms of the ensemble with all the artists, the orchestra, the stage managers—that level of teamwork was something I was really experiencing for the first time.” She had never visited San Francisco before Rusalka : “I felt it was similar to a European atmosphere—maybe that was a reason I felt really comfortable there.” With her insatiable musical curiosity, Kim is always learning new music, although she doesn’t have favorites (“I fall in love with any piece when I’m conducting it”). The major German houses all do a large number of works each season, and this clearly created the foundation of Kim’s own wide-ranging repertoire. “They present way more performances there than in American houses,” she says. “Practically every evening!” In any run of performances, she notes, “the orchestra musicians change—there is rotation. So, in an orchestra reading, you don’t get to see all the musicians you’re going to perform with. In America you have one team, which is a big advantage—like in a symphony concert. You can develop the same language.” On the other hand, what Kim especially enjoys in the German system is “when you see a musician for the first time in performance. That can be a magical moment: you don’t know the person, but then in the performance we feel the same thing, we do the same thing at that moment. That can only happen through the language of music.” After she conducts an opera production, Kim always comes back to concerts. That balance is important to her. “There’s no stage action to think about in concerts, but in terms of music-making, I always feel the same thing: I sometimes say to the orchestra musicians, ‘Please sing more!’ and I tell the singers, ‘Be instrumental!’ because I always consider the voice as an instrument. When the principals and chorus are onstage, I see it all like a big orchestra, with the voices as part of a big ensemble.” Like every artist, Kim has had to deal with cancellations since the start of COVID but she says, “I live today, I really do. I’m studying scores. I’m also studying languages, which are necessary for my job.” She’s working on her French and Italian right now, just to maintain those skills, and wants “to learn Russian, in order to conduct that repertoire. I just don’t dare conduct Russian works without being able to speak the language.” The past year’s cancellations have enabled her to be flexible. “I lost my Vienna Staatsoper debut, but then the concert at La Scala came up, so I was able to go to Milan for that— six different pieces and three different programs. My first time with the Scala orchestra. It was great!” Roger Pines, former dramaturg of Lyric Opera of Chicago, writes regularly for major international opera-related publications. He currently teaches an opera repertoire course at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music. 2020 Concert de Paris rehearsal with Egyptian soprano Fatma Said. Photo: Christophe Abramowitz/Radio France