(Credit: Juan Carlos Blanco Olea)

Barno Ismatullaeva is a rising star in the opera world. Born in Andijan, Uzbekistan, she studied at the State Conservatory in Tashkent and went on to join the Alisher Navoi Opera House in Tashkent as a permanent ensemble member shortly after graduation.

In 2017, she participated in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition and has since performed at many of the world’s leading opera houses, including the Staatsoper Hamburg, Teatro Real Madrid, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro Regio di Torino, Dutch National Opera, Teatro Massimo di Palermo, and the Bregenzer Festspiele.

Today, she is renowned for her interpretation of Madama Butterfly, a role that has earned her great acclaim and taken her around the world. Barno has also explored the bel canto repertoire and is now preparing to tackle some of the most dramatic soprano roles, including Isolde and Turandot.

The soprano spoke to OperaWire about her Butterfly, never being put in a box and exploring her first Wagner role.

OperaWire: I want to start with “Madama Butterfly,” which is one of your signature roles — how has this role developed over the years for you, and what have you learned from it throughout your career?

Barno Ismatullaeva: Oh, it’s been quite a long time since I first started singing this role. I’ve performed it quite a few times in different opera houses — in Hamburg, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bregenz, Madrid, Palermo, Turin, Lima, Leipzig, Nuremberg, Warsaw, Moscow, and Bucharest. I’ve done many very different productions.

The role has developed naturally. When you return to a character you love, you feel more secure, more involved, and you know all your vocal tricks. Musically, you’re much better prepared. Time has also given me greater confidence to sing Butterfly again and again, even in very different productions and concepts. Nevertheless, the music remains the most important thing for me, and I believe I have grown vocally a great deal with this role. I was only 26 when I first sang it.

The highlight was definitely Bregenz. It was my only open-air opera production, which I did two years in a row. Performing outdoors brought a whole new dimension to the role, especially in terms of acting. There were 7,000 audience members, and because the stage is so enormous you feel tiny, so everything in the acting had to be much bigger and more powerful. Working with director Andreas Homoki, I think we really achieved that, and a DVD of the production was released.

OW: This is a very emotional role. How do you control yourself when you’re singing such intense and beautiful music so that the emotions don’t come out?

BI: There is so much emotion in Puccini’s music. Especially in the final scene when the child comes out just before Butterfly kills herself. We love the first act because it’s full of love and light — there’s very little darkness in the music, and it’s filled with beautiful Japanese colours.

But the first time I sang the role it was very hard. You have to learn how to handle those emotions professionally. On stage you need to stay calm and in control, yet at the same time sing with your whole heart. You can’t be purely technical, especially in a scene like the final harakiri.

When I first performed Butterfly in Bregenz and Nuremberg, it was quite difficult to overcome those intense feelings. As the music becomes more and more dramatic, it gets even harder. Over time, however, I’ve learned to approach it more technically while still keeping my heart warm and fully connected to the drama. That balance helps me overcome the emotional challenge.

OW: When you sing a role like Butterfly, how do you balance between technique and expression?

BI: It’s very different with every role. You should always know where the most challenging parts are. Once you start to analyse the entire role, everything becomes much clearer. We are all different — our vocal cords, the way we sing, our technique, and the way we interpret music.

Knowing this, I always like to analyse the most difficult sections of a new role and work on them thoroughly so that I feel completely secure in those passages. No matter how I feel on stage, how demanding the role is, or how challenging the staging may be, I need to feel secure. Once you’ve mastered the difficult parts, you can be fully at ease on stage — no matter what the production is or what the composer demands of you.

OW: When you were studying “Madama Butterfly,” was there any recordings or any artists that you looked to or admired that you wanted to listen to? Or do you listen to anyone when you’re studying a role?

BI: For inspiration I listen to certain singers — I’m a big fan of the Golden Age. I listen mainly for the technical information, not so much for the interpretation.

Of course I love listening to Maria Callas; she’s the reason I started singing. I always check which roles she sang, and I’ve listened to many of her recordings. I also admire Renata Scotto, who I believe made one of the greatest Butterfly recordings, and Mirella Freni — although she only recorded the role and never performed it on stage. I especially like live productions and live recordings because they give you more information about how the artist handled the difficult moments.

As you mentioned, piano is very important. In Puccini the rhythm and dynamics are so clear, yet at the same time very complex. You can’t just sing forte all the time. Even when the orchestra is playing fully, if you have a good pianissimo you can still be heard. If you listen to the Golden Age singers like Renata Tebaldi and Birgit Nilsson — one of my favourite Wagner sopranos — they sang with such beautiful piano. It makes the performance much more human and real.

OW: You started doing a lot of bel canto and then moved towards Puccini and Verdi. How have you seen your career path and trajectory?

BI: As someone who is always open to challenges, I really love performing rare and demanding roles. I began my bel canto journey with “Norma,” which I learned in less than a month and performed on stage in Hamburg. It was a dream role for me at the time, and whenever the opportunity arises, I would love to sing it again.

In Amsterdam I sang Elisabetta in “Roberto Devereux” with Maestro Enrique Mazzola — that was an extremely challenging role. I also performed Elisabetta in “Maria Stuarda,” (in Hamburg) which is very different even though it’s by the same composer. Both operas are extremely demanding vocally and technically, but I love them. Bel canto feels like medicine for me — a real recovery from all the dramatic, heavy singing. We have to treat our voices with great care. I live for music and singing, and I want to sing for as long as possible, so I need to soothe and protect my voice. That’s why I see bel canto as a way to come back to normal and rehabilitate.

OW: With this Donizetti Trilogy, it’s interesting that it’s soothing for the voice because it is so long and incredibly challenging. Are you interested in singing more of his work?

BI: It’s a marathon — a real marathon of numbers. It’s a different kind of challenge and demand. Nevertheless, I do want to sing more dramatic roles beyond Donizetti. I was supposed to debut “Tosca” in Tel Aviv, but I’m expecting my first child, so it has been postponed.

I will sing Puccini’s “Edgar,” which I am currently learning in the four-act version. The role of Fidelia is much more expanded there, with a lot more to sing and to show, and the character opens up beautifully. I can’t wait to perform it next season in Turin.

I will also sing Isolde in “Tristan und Isolde,” but I can’t say where yet. This is a monumental moment I’m really looking forward to. I am also doing “Turandot.”

OW: You are expecting your first child. Have just sung Butterfly being pregnant, does that change the way that you see this character?

BI: That’s a very good question. It’s already emotionally consuming me. I feel it in every single phrase I sing. I keep thinking: if it feels like this now, what will it be like after I have my son? Butterfly has a son too, so I believe it’s going to be really hard.

I’ve also spoken with colleagues who have sung the role after becoming mothers, and they told me it becomes completely different once you have your own child. But I’m already experiencing this change — the role feels much deeper than before. You no longer have to imagine the feelings; they come naturally now.

OW: You mentioned “Tristan and Isolde” and you sang “Norma,” a huge influence on Wagner. When you look at Wagner, is that the way you hope to approach his music?

BI: My season began by opening the Teatro Regio di Torino with “Francesca da Rimini” by Zandonai. It’s almost like the “Tristan und Isolde” of Italian verismo. This role gave me the confidence and strength to be even more determined about singing “Tristan und Isolde.”

I’m currently preparing the role and I’m definitely not approaching it in the stereotypical Wagnerian way. When I listen to older recordings, the German articulation sounds quite different. Of course we are in the 21st century, so there is a different way of performing it, but for me Wagner is still Wagner.

I truly believe in approaching Isolde from the bel canto side, since Wagner was a great admirer of bel canto. I want to interpret the role through that lens. Of course, it is a marathon of singing. It requires enormous stamina and vocal strength, but also fragility, because Isolde is not only singing — she is constantly storytelling. She basically lives her entire emotional journey over four and a half hours of music.

So it’s going to be very different.

OW: Have you done other Wagner roles?

BI: A decade ago I sang the Third Norn in a recording of the Ring cycle. That was my only Wagner role so far. I was still a beginner in Europe at the time, so I accepted it. It was a very interesting experience.

But apart from that, I haven’t sung any Wagner. So this Isolde will be my first-ever title role in Wagner — and we’re starting big!

OW: Singing Isolde as your first Wagner, is fearless. Do you consider that to do this profession, you have to be fearless and listen to your intuition?

BI: You have to listen to your intuition. When I was singing Butterfly at a certain age, people were saying I was crazy. They told me, “You’re too young. Why are you starting Puccini with Butterfly?” I had already sung Mimì before that. But it all depends on how you look at things.

With Turandot, you could just see her as a cold tyrant who only screams “In questa reggia,” but that’s not the role for me. Even though I haven’t performed it yet, I’ve already learned the part. From my understanding, it’s about the journey from the cold princess to a warmer woman — where love ultimately wins.

The same can be said of Isolde. Until I bring the full character on stage, I cannot say I truly own the role. But every new part starts this way. This is artistic life — you have to listen to your intuition and decide whether you can do a certain role or not. It can either take your career further or become one of the highlights of your career.

We always have to take risks and make important decisions. I always say that repertoire is the most important thing for an artist. It decides the path of your career and its success. I feel very strongly about this.

OW: Do you ever fear that you’ll be put in a box of only doing these dramatic roles and not being able to explore something further away from what you’re known for?

BI: I have never felt that way. I prefer to think outside the box and challenge the stereotypes of our time. It gives me greater freedom in my artistic choices.

I don’t like to label myself as a certain type of soprano. Opera loves putting us into boxes — lyric, lyric-dramatic, dramatic, spinto, and so on — but I personally reject these labels.

I believe this openness allows me to explore a much wider range of roles and possibilities in my career. I don’t like these stamps on artists because they limit us. We are human beings, constantly growing and evolving. We are capable of achieving things we have never done before. That is the beauty of life and art — we discover our true potential by living it fully.

OW: In the industry people don’t think about the theater, orchestra or even conductor when casting. I wonder do you think it changes what roles you accept depending on these circumstances?

BI: I think so, absolutely. Music is born right there on the stage — together with the team you’re creating it with and the specific venue. It depends so much on the acoustics of the house and how big it is. I personally love singing in larger venues and reaching a wider audience.

There are singers who are perfect for intimate theatres and others who really come alive in big spaces. Some voices carry beautifully and are warmly embraced by the audience in certain venues, while in others they can struggle to be heard.

OW: You do a lot of Puccini roles. But you also do Verdi. How does he factor into your roles and are you hoping to do more of his dramatic roles.

BI: The father of Italian opera. I love Verdi and I adore his music. For some reason his works haven’t featured as often in my career until now, but I certainly want to sing his later operas, which are my real passion. I feel they suit me more naturally.

I have already sung “Simon Boccanegra” and “Otello,” but there are still so many Verdi roles I want to discover: “Don Carlo,” “Il Trovatore,” “Un ballo in maschera,” and “La forza del destino,” for example. There are already some conversations with my agent about “La forza del destino” and “Don Carlo.” If the right opportunity to sing Verdi comes, I will say yes immediately.

I know people often talk about “Verdian voices,” but I don’t like this idea. Renata Scotto once said something very true: “You cannot be a Verdian voice. You either have a voice or you don’t. You can either sing Verdi or you can’t.” I have never understood these stereotypes. Unfortunately they put artists in boxes.

Sometimes opera-related people decide an artist’s path and try to limit them to one frame, which I believe is a real pity. As I mature both physically and artistically, I very much want to explore all these great soprano roles I’ve mentioned. And I believe there will be many opportunities to bring them to life.