Philippe Jaroussky on Thé ou café (Engl. transl.) Part II.

CC. Do you remember when you first stepped on stage? PJ: Yes, I do. CC: At 13 years old. PJ: It was really rather special. CC: 1500 people in the audience … PJ: It was at Sartrouville and (I sang) a song that my music teacher had written for me. CC: “Le Petit Prince”. You could have had a career like Patrick Bruel! PJ: It was at a time of youthful over-excitement and exuberance – that’s why you see all those cigarette lighters waving about in the background. It seems that I was already quite a little show-off. CC: You liked playing to the gallery even then and it’s still going on … PJ: What I do remember is the vague feeling of being quite at ease (on stage). It’s never been very hard for me to get up on stage. CC: That’s not your adult voice (we hear in the videoclip). At that time, your voice had not yet broken. PJ: It’s the only record of my childhood voice. Unlike other singers, and countertenors in particular, I never sang in a choir as a child. I really came to singing quite late. CC: Your portrait … do you like to return to the past? We have some footage from the archives – that’s where those others came from. It started well, so we’ll carry on. Report by Magali Defer: I’ve always had this vision of an opera singer in my head – somewhat mature and with a certain build – a deep and powerful voice – until the day I discovered Philippe Jaroussky – the look of a choirboy and a slender figure and, above all, a voice that blows you away. PJ: The countertenor voice generates a lot of interest but raises many questions. MD: That’s true. One asks: “How is it possible for a man to have such a feminine voice”. PJ: I sing in a head voice instead of a chest voice. MD: True. But it’s this uniqueness that makes you an extraordinary artist. PJ: I didn’t think I’d be able to make it professionally with such a voice. MD: Yes, and you can even have a career – yours is spectacular – singing lessons at 18, Révélation Artiste Lyrique at 26 and you picked up three more awards. Idolized by the public on stages the world over, your Golden Discs proliferate whether you’re singing Vivaldi arias or the repertoire of the castrati – and with the same success when you interpret the Mélodies Françaises. It’s your personality which charms as much as your virtuosity. Behind the facade of a good student, there hides a facetious kid who doesn’t take himself too seriously – and when you are not singing … PJ: I do all the things that I’m not supposed to do – staying up late, smoking, drinking. MD: Clearly, with you, the clichés about opera singers don’t apply. One might even wonder which planet you are from and it’s not your friend, Cecilia Bartoli, who would say otherwise. CC: Do you feel like an extra-terrestial? PJ: Sometimes, yes. At the beginning, I kept saying that the countertenor voice was just like any other but I think that you should retain a certain amount of mystery. I think what the public likes is to travel across the centuries with this voice. You can conjure up the great castrato voices of the 18th century and reflect upon the (musical) genre as well. CC: Who is Cecilia Bartoli for you? PJ: Big question. I’ve always been a huge fan of hers even before I began to sing. CC: Is she the greatest singer of the present time, according to you? PJ: Yes. For me she is the greatest because she really revolutionized the way of interpretation. Cecilia is someone who never sings a note just for the sake of it. She’s someone who really tells a story (with her singing) and for me this has always been fascinating. There are a lot of colours in her voice. Perhaps as a countertenor I have fewer possibilities with my palette of colours and that’s why I’m so fascinated by her. CC: And then, such modesty. PJ: In any case, she’s a great lady. CC: When you were watching Magali’s archive footage, were there any outstanding moments that struck you? PJ: What I find amusing in a typical operatic career – perhaps people are not aware of this – when you see a parade of all those opera costumes – you realize that it’s a life full of fantasy and surprise. CC: And discipline as well. PJ: Discipline, yes – but I’ve always tried – and this is why I sometimes say in a rather provocative way that when an opportunity arises, I do all the things that I’m not supposed to do – it’s a way of not being a slave to one’s voice and feeding one’s voice by other life experiences and not thinking about one’s voice from morning to night. More to come ...