Ana María Martínez: The day that the nominations were announced. It’s one of those pinch me moments. I am just so happy for Nicholas Pike, the composer, and also for the creative team of the film, Christine Lamont, Yvonne Russo. They’ve done an incredible labor of love with this documentary . So the excitement is for this moment and for everything that the film represents. And also for the importance of classical music and classical singing, which feels so marginalized and it’s such its own little niche that to get the spotlight of the Oscars on it is just huge.

OW: Prior to the nomination, the song surprised many pundits when it made the shortlist. Did that feel like a win already?

AMA: Well, we were just ecstatic. And I know Christine is a force of nature and she has championed so much for the film to be accessible and the song in particular, and Yvonne as well. So they’ve been really the beautiful, creative, elegant boots on the ground, if you will, and the mover and the shaker. And you have to be a doer in a situation like this to get the word out. And they’ve been hard at it, as has Nick.

OW: When were you first approached to do the song and what was that process like?

AMA:  So it was years ago when this came to be. Nick was contacted to do this and what he saw was the trailer. It moved him so deeply that then he had to create this song and create the music that links one scene with the rest, or sometimes links Verdi’s music to the next Verdi piece from one to the other.

We all know how each art form is its own concentration, its own universe. So to think one art form to the next is not an easy feat. And a lot of it’s who you know, who knows you, and who thinks that you would be an ideal person for this project.

I was the voice of the opera diva in “Mozart in the Jungle.” So Clark Germain, who was the sound engineer for that and knows and has worked with Nicholas Pike, was in conversation with Nicholas, who said to Clark, “I need to find somebody to do this. Do you know anybody?” And Clark said, “Well, I just finished working with Ana María Martínez, and I think that she’d be good for this.”

So, it was just in many ways, being at the right place at the right time. I think your body of work speaks for itself, which then puts you in people’s minds, and who knows, maybe it’s the kind of conversations that you have, what you stand for, what you believe in, that then links you to the spirit and the essence of a project that’s being done.

OW: When you recorded this song and worked with Nicholas Pike, was the song adapted to your voice or was it left as written?

AMA: It was pretty intact. I mean, it’s gorgeous that it stands on its own and its beautifully written for the voice. Hats off to Nick because its well written for the voice. To understand how to write for each voice is quite unique. A composer that’s not used to it, for example, might say, “What is the normal vocal range for a soprano?” And then they’ll just see the range and then they’ll see the sonority that they like. And they’ll write not necessarily with the voice itself, but a key signature or a certain point in the musical staff and what speaks to them without taking into account that you can’t have a soprano up on the stratosphere the whole time. You’ve got to let her kind of get there and that’s the same with any voice. It’s where they feel most comfortable.

For example, the lower parts of the song, anytime it’s in the lower part of the voice, it’s about exclaiming the text. That’s the most important thing. We see that in Verdi’s music as well as in Puccini’s music and Mozart recits, which are almost spoken. That gives you the nuts and bolts of a scene. They’re usually on the lower part of the vocal range so that the text is very clearly understood. Then you’ve got notes that are more about sound and beauty of sound, and that’s where the voice soars. So the operatic soprano voice will have these beautiful ringing sounds on A flat, A, B flat, approaching high C. Those are going to be the beauty notes, the climactic notes. So that was just perfect.

The other thrill about singing opera, not only is it about the acoustic and we’re not amplified when we’re performing in opera houses, which is already an Olympian feat, it’s the technical difficulties or challenges that really call for the technique of an opera singer. And this song requires that very much and I loved that beautiful, well written challenge.

OW:  This is the first time in 10 years that an operatic song is nominated for the Oscars. The last time was in 2016 when “Simple Song No.3” was nominated. What does that mean to you as an opera singer that opera is getting this mainstream moment?

AMA: This moment needs to be maximized to champion the relevance of opera and the opera singer. We’re such a niche and people see opera as an elitist art form. And I know that opera companies are trying desperately to really connect with the pulse of today, to be relevant, and to be interesting to everybody. And I think that we need to really start reaching across the aisle and saying, “Hey, let’s do these things together.”  I mean, when I think about projects that need to be maximized, I emphasize an opera house that shares a space with a ballet company. Years ago, I would be making suggestions all the time about finding a production where we can work together. And then you show that synergy that you get together.

Opera singing within a film. It’s not the first time that opera voices have been featured. Sometimes there are recordings of great singers of the past that might not be around anymore. You also have the current day singers that are featured in these Hollywood projects. It takes a lot to get out of your own box and you also need to jump into somebody else’s sandbox and make sure you’re invited.

It’s time to really start co-creating together and not be isolated. But I think that it’s got to be interesting to the younger generations and still keep the older generations. A friend of mine, Sam Wall once said to me in a wonderful conversation, “to have vision, you have to have memory.” And this art form has such memory and such history. You need to honor that and you need to keep that right here and sometimes right here as you keep your vision moving forward. And this vision moving forward needs to include all of the art forms and even maybe not just art forms, other types of brilliant, inspiring thinking.

OW: As you noted opera has been prevalent in cinema throughout history. Many people have discovered opera when watching a film.

ANA: Absolutely. The other thing is people who haven’t heard it think it’s too elitist and they don’t connect with it and it’s for a certain social class. No, opera was first created as a popular music of the current day. And it’s for everybody. And I’ve been championing this forever. Opera is for everyone.

People that are intimidated by it. I say don’t worry about it. You’re going to get a synopsis and you’re going to have word for word translation. And the emotion, the visceral reaction, people have to hearing the human voice without amplification in a huge hall is unlike anything else. And once they hear it, they’re hooked. And I also emphasize, please start young. But at any age it’s okay. The earlier the better.When kids hear it, they’re hooked for life. But at any age you’re hooked. It reminds us of what the human can do without technology.

Now we have technology in all aspects of our life. We need electricity if we’re going to be in the opera house, and we need lighting. But much like an athlete, much like a dancer, the opera singer is that. It’s an Olympic feat.

OW: The  documentary is called “Viva Verdi!” and it’s about what Verdi called his “ultimate masterpiece.” Having done so much Verdi in your life, what does Verdi mean to you?

AMA: When I think of Verdi, what I sense of him as a human is this was a man that had an enormous heart and compassion, yet seemed to present quite the formal and strict presence. I wouldn’t say it’s a facade. I think it’s part of who he was. That structure and formality was very important. So you might today, if you were to meet him today, perhaps feel that this is someone who’s quite distant.

Maximum respect is what I feel for him and admiration. If we think of someone that is so strict and so formal, you’d be intimidated. And yet I think the sense of loss also that he lived in his life on a personal level filled him with tremendous compassion. He must have suffered a lot with his personal losses in his life.

And I think that that’s part of what made him able to write such beautiful music that both inspires the intellect and inspires the heart. I think he had the greatest reverence for women and in many of his operas, you have the sense of sacrifice. The woman is sacrificing herself for either her country or her father or father figure or her lover. There’s always this sense of ultimate sacrifice. And I think he felt that only the woman could truly accomplish that and through her sacrifice there could be redemption of some sort.

When we think of his music and we take the volumes of the music that he created, let’s highlight the fact that at the age of 81, he composed his only comedy, “Falstaff.” And then the fugue at the end is,”everything is light. Everything is a joke. Don’t take everything so seriously.” And I think what he probably learned was, take your work seriously. Don’t take yourself so seriously. Don’t take things so personally. Just keep going and find the beauty in everyday life.

Now, when I highlight the most important aspect of his vision of leaving as a great part, and probably the greatest part of his legacy, Casa del Riposo, the Casa Verdi. The vision that he had to leave this beautiful estate in perpetuity for those that had devoted their lives to art in the different genres of art and perhaps did not have a place to retire, a home to retire, family that could help them, funds that could help them that they didn’t have, that, he left this for them.

And he gave the world a successful blueprint and a creative strategy to approach housing and housing limitations. And now, more than ever, in the United States and throughout the world, there is a housing crisis. There are so many unhoused people, and many of them are senior citizens and we’re seeing a rise in that.

So he created this as a beautiful blueprint that should be adopted by cities across the world. It’s not just that they live out the rest of their lives in this beautiful place, they give back by mentoring. So younger generations are coming in and working with these elite artists in their day, learning from them. So it highlights the mentoring, which gives them a continued sense of purpose and vitality and it allows the younger generations to learn from the wisdom of the older generations. Now you’ve got this intergenerational, thriving community which also highlights compassion.

OW: You’ve worked with a lot of young artists at the Houston Grand Opera and Rice University. With a changing industry, how do you think young artists could approach their careers at this point?

AMA: When you know what your purpose is and you know you want to do this more than anything else, you can’t imagine doing anything else. Sometimes you will have to imagine doing something else. But the something else, you can definitely do is create your own opportunities. Classical music is quite formal and it aims for perfection all the time. It doesn’t aim for improvisation and do it your own way and find your own way, like jazz or pop music does. You have to conform.

So there’s this sense that’s not spoken or written, but it’s understood. You have to ask for permission and you have to wait until you’re given permission. And I would say make your own opportunities, create your own opportunities. And we see that with a lot of younger artists coming up where they use social media to their advantage and to promote themselves and I think that’s brilliant.

I grew up in a generation where you had to ask for permission at home, you had to ask for permission at school, and, and there are rules. I’m not saying don’t follow the rules in society. You still have to be a respectable contributing member to society. But you can find creative ways to start linking with other parts of the community to get yourself noticed and known because it, it still works in this way. You come up through the ranks, you go to a good grad program, then ideally you get into a young artist program and ideally you can get management. And then management is the one that has to get you the audition to be heard with an opera company. If you are a graduate of a young artist program, that’s great because they have the joy and privilege of putting a stamp on you that you kind of belong to them. And then you can build that relationship, which I had for so many years with Houston Grand Opera, when David Gockley hired me as a young artist and gave me tremendous opportunities. And that was a beautiful relationship that lasted many years. And that is something that you aim for.

But I would say, don’t be deterred.

For example, I’ve been fortunate to record with every major classical label, but not with an exclusive contract. It was a one off, but it’s there, and it’s part of my library, and you have to think that way. And many years ago, I produced my own solo album and I financed all of it, and I was so proud to do it. And at the time, it was still early years in my career. I thought, I could put a down payment on a home or I could invest in myself and record, because how I sounded then, I don’t sound now. I wanted to document that and it came out of my own pocket. And my father, who was like a knight in shining armor on his horse, always had this drive.

And he said, “Ana María, you need to find a house that can distribute it like a recording label.” And I said, “I’m knocking on all these doors and they’re all saying, we don’t really need that. We have this and we’re doing this with this artist and whatever.” And I respect all of that and that’s the rules and their system.

So he started knocking on doors and he found Naxos, who has actually the widest worldwide distribution. And Naxos later admitted, “we’ll humor this man because he’s championing his daughter and how sweet.” And my father sent the CD that was already edited and ready to go by Michael Fine, my producer, and they said, “we’ll take it.” And they gave it the biggest worldwide distribution and that album ended up opening a lot of doors for me.

So you find the ways to do it. And I ended up going in my own direction and very clearly my own path. When an opportunity has come my way, that’s off the beaten path, I’ve always said, “sure, let’s try it.” And it might not be understood by people in the industry at the time, but then it might later end up being a very wise move and a very big risk that I took that ended up leading to my next steps.

OW: What did you learn about yourself in this process?

AMA: It’s so important and it’s not easy to know who you are. Just because you know your name and where you come from and who your parents are and your family, you don’t know who you are. Self reflection is vital to know who you are because when you start auditioning and competing, I want every young artist out there to pick the pieces that are ideally suited for their voice now. Not where they want to go, but where their voice is slightly on the larger side of what that piece is so they can shade it with maximum nuances. That’s a technical thing and an artistic thing. But when you know who you are and you can identify with either the pain or the loss or the humor or in that scene of that character, it reaches the audience and if you’re competing, it reaches the judges, who are also your audience on a much deeper level. It also helps you to advance further. If you don’t know really who you are and you don’t really understand those emotions, it’s a little flat. And I don’t mean flat musically, I just mean there’s not much. So I encourage a lot of self reflection and take that vulnerable risk.

OW: As a Latina, what does it mean to be representing a culture for this Oscar-nominated song? How do you think it helps bring opera to the Latino culture?

AMA: We’ve heard younger people say, I see this person on stage who I know is from the same culture I am and I feel represented. That means I can do it too. And it doesn’t only apply to the arts and classical singing. It’s achieving a high status in a very competitive field. So we could apply that to every field, astrophysics, medicine, and law.

And I just want to point out that there are few opera singers who have recorded an Oscar nominated song. And of those few are, Sumi Jo (“Youth”) and Luciano Pavarotti (“Yes, Giorgio”) and now Ana María Martínez. And I think, it’s only beginning now.

And I am the only Latina in that group. And I get chills when I think of it. I am championing Latinos everywhere to dream big. But the dream can only come to fruition if you do the work.

And what is the work? Be the best that you can be every single day and every single day that your maximum is required, you must deliver that. Everything will fall into place. But it can’t magically happen. It’s not about the glossy picture on the magazine. That comes as an addition.

You can be a late bloomer and you should never give up. You just have to do the work and just show up.

OW: What would it mean to you to be able to perform the song at the Academy Awards?

AMA: Obviously, it would be such an honor. First of all, the song is gorgeous and inspiring. People who have seen the screening of the film leave uplifted. They’re grateful for it and they feel so good when they see it.

So it represents hope, feeling uplifted, and what each one of us can do when we feel uplifted.

It represents classical music, and it represents Latinos everywhere. It would be an enormous honor for all of those reasons and to champion Verdi as well, and the vision that he had. I’m specifically talking about that blueprint that he left for the world that I hope we can follow because if I perform it, it is representing all of that and the opportunity to highlight the importance of that blueprint. I would also be representing being Latina and it would be an honor to join my other fellow Puerto Ricans that are nominated everywhere especially Benicio Del Toro who is nominated this year.

And I look at Bad Bunny, who is nominated at the Grammys as well and what I love about him is that he’s so open about his whole path and his whole trajectory.  He has manifested and continues to manifest his dreams. And again, how do you do it? Hard work. You’ve got to be a doer and you’ve got to be out there.