(Photo credit: Claudia Greco)

Opera singers, for the most part, seem to take on certain characteristics of the role they are portraying. But the French mezzo-soprano, Virginie Verrez, does not just portray the role—she becomes it. No matter what she is singing, Verrez enchants the listener and has the gift of taking one at once into her world which she renders so very real. This is evident, more than ever, in her interpretation of Erika in Samuel Barber’s “Vanessa” at the Glyndebourne Festival. Her stage presence here goes beyond astounding and becomes mesmerizing. As David Karlin of Bachtrack wrote, “Virginie Verrez was outstanding as Erika, with a voice that was pure, confident and strong and a lovely sense of line. I believed utterly in her character as it morphed through sexual awakening to self-destructive obstinacy; her stage presence was magnetic to the point where one felt that the opera could easily have been entitled ‘Erika,’ not ‘Vanessa.’”

She has performed at the Metropolitan Opera, Wiener Staatsoper, Santa Fe Opera, Komische Oper Berlin, Opéra National de Bordeaux, Welsh National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival, Stadttheater Klagenfurt, Opéra national de Paris, Dallas Opera, and Opéra de Lille. She is a former member of the ensemble of the Wiener Staatsoper where her roles included Zerlina in “Don Giovanni,” Cherubino in “Le nozze di Figaro,” Bersi in “Andrea Chénier,” Alisa in “Lucia di Lammermoor,” Thibault in “Don Carlos,” and Meg Page in “Falstaff.”

Verrez will make her début at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan in October 2024 performing in Richard Wagner’s “Das Rheingold” followed by “Götterdämmerung” at a later date. In a recent phone interview from Berlin, she recounts some of the salient points of her career leading up to this début.

Verrez spent the first five years of her life on the French Island of Réunion, an overseas region of France in the Indian Ocean, where she was born. Her parents decided to move to France and settled in the northwest city of Nantes. Later on, the family moved to Morocco for a year and then returned to France remaining in the town of Brive-la-Gaillarde in the center of France where she remained for some time. Nonetheless, the year she and her family spent in Morocco seemingly gave impetus to her musical talent. In fact, it was there that she developed an interest in music as she explains in her conversation with OperaWire.

OperaWire: So how did you start out with music?

Virginie Verrez: I think in Morocco when I was nine years old. There was a choir and I sang with them. I liked it. So when we moved back to France, I continued singing with the school and I had this great music teacher who pushed me a bit. Then I began taking private lessons and that’s how it started.

OW: Did you frequent a conservatory in France?

VV: I went to a conservatory. In Brive there was the conservatory, not at the national level. It’s just a normal conservatory. Then I also went to a sort of conservatory on the side. After high school, I studied something completely different from music for two years and then, after those two years, I decided that it was not my thing and, indeed, I did want to pursue a career in music. That’s when I applied to the Paris Conservatory and to The Juilliard School, so before it was on a small level.

OW: How did you know you wanted to become a singer? Did you have someone who pushed you, apart from when you were little, or perhaps have someone who helped you?

VV: When I did the other studies (outside of music), math, economics, that kind of thing—I thought it was so boring! The second year, I was living in Nîmes in the south of France where I also had this great teacher who prepared me for the entrance exam. He kind of pushed me and said he thought I had a chance, so I trusted him.

OW: What was your first impression when you arrived in the United States?

VV: First, I realized I barely spoke English! I thought I had learned English in school but I really didn’t so it took me about three months to learn the language but then it was all right. I could understand everything.

OW: What was the very first opera role you performed in public?

VV: Maybe that was at Juilliard when I did a whole opera. Ah yes, I remember. I did Zenobia in Handel’s “Radamisto” at Juilliard. I think that was the first time. No! It was “Le Donne Curiose” by Wolf-Ferrari. Nobody knows it. I was in undergrad and it wasn’t with an orchestra so I don’t know if it counts. With an orchestra it was Zenobia in “Radamisto.” That was the first one. Yes, in November 2013.

OW: Can you imagine doing anything else in life? What would you have done if you hadn’t become a singer?

VV: I think I would have wanted to pursue the study of art because I really like to draw and paint since I was a little kid but I think it would be unfeasible to study art even more than music. Both would not be ideal career choices.

OW: What kind of a person do you think Erika in Samuel Barber’s “Vanessa” was?

VV: I really enjoyed singing that. You know, I believe all these people who don’t go out a lot and just make up something from books and stories and stuff, I mean, they’re not grounded in reality and what it really means  and they get so influenced by other people and what they think. That’s why, when Anatol treats her so, she can’t really deal with it, I feel. She doesn’t have the weapons for life. She wasn’t unhappy but she was completely foreign to anything else. I mean, what does she do at the end? She does what her aunt did. She doesn’t know what else to do.

OW: What is the most challenging role you’ve performed up until now?

VV: Hmm…there are different challenges. Carmen, for example, was challenging, because you have to be there the whole night. I sang it thirteen times with the same company in Wales, the Welsh National Opera. I mean, you don’t have a break—almost none—so in that way the focus is challenging but vocally I wouldn’t say it was too challenging. Character-wise it is. Somebody like Erika for me is an easier figure to impersonate than Carmen. For Carmen I have to work more. I mean, it depends what you want from Carmen.   

OW: Do you have a favorite opera role?

VV: I think I would really like to sing Charlotte in Massenet’s “Werther.”  I covered it when I was in Vienna, so I learned the whole thing and everything, but I never got to sing it. I would really love to sing it.

OW: How do you deal with the stress of opera singing?

VV: Sometimes well. Sometimes not so well!  For me it depends, it shouldn’t normally, where and who the people are. For example, in Glyndebourne it was such a wonderful atmosphere to work in. I have to say my favorite place to work at until now was Glyndebourne because, I mean, people take their time to work on things and they trust you will do a great job and they never doubt.  There’s no doubt. They’re just supportive. I felt all these good thoughts from everybody that make you feel super confident and then there’s no problem. When people start picking on you or doubting you or doing things like that it’s not so good for your psyche, you know.

OW: Do you have any hobbies or interests outside of music? Like gardening, for example?

VV: Well. I mean I’m not so good at gardening, but I try when I have time. I have a small child. She’s one and a half years old and I’m actually having a second baby in April so I won’t have lots of time! They will be two years apart. With my daughter the “terrible twos” started early! When I have time, I love drawing and I have to say I read a lot.

OW: Do you speak German fluently? Perhaps you learned it in Vienna when you were with the Staatsoper?

VV: In Vienna I didn’t really learn German. I learned it more in Berlin. I took classes and stuff, and literature classes, so now I feel more confident. I mean, German is such a difficult language! For many people it’s so different.

OW: What are your thoughts about your role as Le Prince Charmant in Massenet’s “Cendrillon” in the Klagenfurt Stadttheater production?

VV: In this production the Prince is a bit of a rebel. He likes music; he dresses in black, and is completely against the authority of the palace, of his father, and all of the ministers. He sees all these princesses and they’re beautiful but that’s not what he is looking for. Then suddenly he sees her and it’s what we call in French “coup foudre,” love at first sight.

OW: Your thoughts about recording “La Princesse de Trébizonde”?

VV: It’s always a bit stressful to know that you’re recording an opera that is not very well known and there is no recording of it. Because for most of the famous operas, there is tradition so we know that here you can do this or you can do that. I mean, some people don’t like tradition and don’t want to know anything about it. I actually like to listen to many, many recordings so that I know what people did before and then I choose what I want to do but for “La Princesse de Trébizonde” that was not an option. So we know Offenbach’s style: it has to be witty, it has to be charming, elegant, but apart from that, it was all making something new and interesting and yes—a bit of pressure, I would say, to be the first!

OW: This the first time you will sing at la Scala so what feelings does this provoke?

VV: The first time at la Scala, that’s so exciting and also the first time singing Wagner. For me it will be a bit of a challenge having both two kids and a new role and everything but, you know, I’ll have help!