(Credit: Julia Wimmerlin)

Olga Kulchynska is currently starring in the Metropolitan Opera’s production of “Le Nozze di Figaro.”

The soprano made her Met debut six years ago and has already performed over 20 times with the company in “La Bohème” and Turandot.” This season, she will get her first Met Live in HD with her interpretation of Susanna in Mozart’s comedy.

She has become a leading soprano at major houses including the Opernhaus Zürich, the Gran Teatre del Liceu, the Bayerische Staatsoper, and the Opéra Bastille.

Her repertoire includes the works of Mozart, Bellini, Puccini, Bizet, Verdi, Rossini, Prokofiev, Gounod, and Rachmaninoff, among many others.

OperaWire spoke to Kulchynska ahead of her HD performance, performing at the Met, and her upcoming Salzburg Festival debut.

OperaWire: You perform a lot of Mozart roles. What is it about his music that fits your voice? Do you have a favorite role?

Olga Kulchynska: I have performed four roles of Mozart…and I have a debut in Fiordiligi next month, so it will be my future. I am not sure if that is considered to be a lot, but I definitely feel very good singing Mozart. I feel like I always recover my technique a bit with Mozart’s music…it is like doing yoga for the voice. And also, it’s a great school of theatrical approach to working on music. Because Mozart is a very theatrical composer, and we can even hear this in his instrumental pieces. When you work on Mozart roles, you have to think a lot about character. Not just about sound, not just about the color, but also about the color of the text, and I really enjoy that. And my favorite role, I never really had a favorite! I also enjoyed singing Pamina and Zerlina, and I’m enjoying singing Susanna a lot. But probably, my favorite so far is Ilia because it’s more lyrical. I like this character a lot!

OW: Right now at the Met, you are singing Susanna, a role that you have done previously. How has the role evolved for you?

OK: I made my debut as Susanna in 2015, I believe. Since then, it feels different because I’ve performed more lyric roles and really romantic roles and I can hear it in my Susanna. She is much more lyrical now, more woman than girl, if we talk about the color of the voice. I have never approached it as a soubrette role like many people do. I always tried to sing Susanna with my voice, which was lyric back when I started, and now, it’s becoming even more lyric. I am enjoying having this kind of round color. Even in the recits at the beginning of the opera, I’m trying not to have a big contrast with Contessa’s voice, sung by Federica Lombardi at the Met. She has a completely different voice, and you can hear the difference between our voices. I’m not trying to make my voice smaller, more girlish, let’s say. I am trying to sing with my voice.

OW: Tell me about working on this production. What does it bring to your character?

OK: I really like this production. It is very close to what Mozart and Da Ponte wanted, it creates a real story about the differences in society. The director put it in a set and costumes with the aesthetic of the beginning of the 20th century. But the relationship between the characters remains the same. People never change, and we can see that a lot in this production, also that people’s weaknesses are never changed. I feel in this production that Susanna and Contessa are in a very special relationship. Contessa behaves like she should, but she has sympathy for Susanna and treats her as her friend. She has a special trust in her. I also find it interesting that Susanna does a lot of things as a servant: making up the bed, working on her notes, and taking care of Contessa’s clothes. I compare different productions, but I find it really interesting to see that Susanna is actually a servant, who is busy even on her wedding day. This production gives me a lot of freedom to act and play a real character. I have a lot of reactions and have to make fast decisions. I have to show she is a lot smarter than her fiancé and future husband – and she’s kind of okay with that. I think these kinds of productions show the real character of Susanna and what Mozart would have wanted.

OW: Tell me about working with this cast, and how much time did you get to prepare with them?

OK: We have very friendly people in this cast, warm-hearted, empathetic, very good people, who are on top of that, very professional and great artists! That’s why we enjoy working together a lot, and we feel safe onstage with each other. If something were to happen, I know that my colleagues would know what to do. They wouldn’t leave me alone in any situation like forgetting the text, costume problems, or anything else. We have worked for a week in the rehearsal room and for five days onstage, which is amazing for a revival, but not a lot at all for an opera like “Le Nozze.” It’s a part of our job to be fast, communicative, and remember everything as quickly as possible. It was very easy to find a connection with my colleagues, as it’s not always like that. We are very lucky to have this kind of cast.

OW: What are the biggest challenges in Susanna’s music, and what are your favorite parts?

OK: The biggest challenge when singing Susanna is to balance acting, emotions, and reactions, while also singing. We know that singers should be prepared vocally for every role, but there is still a percentage of the role that we have to think about during the show; we can’t let it go. In these kinds of situations, the most important thing is to show emotions or to control my singing. Sometimes I understand that I can use some acting techniques to keep my body language active, but I think about tricky places in singing. In Susanna, for instance, the role sits very low, especially in ensembles. It’s important to be heard by the audience, despite the Count or Countess singing over me. I really have to understand the placement of my voice, think about the technique. Another challenge in this role is acting with a lot of emotional reactions, the voice should remain clear, project towards the audience, as emotions cannot influence your voice; the text has to remain clear. The balance between all these elements is probably the most challenging part. My favorite part? Second act finale. Susanna is hiding in the closet of the Countess and the Count thinks Cherubino is there, and then she suddenly appears in the middle of the duet. I love that moment as it creates a great reaction from the audience, sometimes not. We don’t laugh onstage, of course, but we all enjoy that moment.

OW: You made your Met debut six years ago and have performed over twenty times with the company. Now you are getting your first HD. What does that mean to you?

OK: The first Met in HD is very exciting! The way the theatre does their broadcast is very special as they have interviews in the middle, which get a lot of attention from people. The audience likes to see us on stage and to see who we are in the interviews during the intermission. So I’m looking forward to being interviewed during intermission! As opera singers, we aren’t used to working with cameras flying around and recording. You are singing onstage, and I find it really cool. We aren’t just inside of the opera house, but also in a cinema where people are watching me, they can see more details in the acting, that’s very nice as we are sometimes working on some emotional details, mimics, gestures which cannot be seen in the big house, but in the cinema you will just see them. I also understand that we can see more of the character with the camera. I will try to remember that all my small reactions are important during the broadcast.

OW: As a Ukrainian soprano, I know your country is going through a very difficult time. What does it mean to you to have an artistic home like the Met that has been standing up for Ukraine since 2022 and has continued to be an ally?

OK: Of course, it’s important for me to know that the Metropolitan Opera really supports Ukraine and Ukrainian culture since 2022. They are also very supportive of artists who perform here, including artists from Ukraine. It’s a big privilege to be on a list of Ukrainian artists who work and sing at the Met. I just hope that one day we will all celebrate the victory, at the end of the war, onstage at the Met. I’m looking forward to that.

OW: How much does your heritage influence your performances today, and what message would you like to send to the world?

OK: I’ve been performing for 10 years and traveling a lot around the world, performing in different opera houses around the world. It may seem like it’s not a lot, but it is! I’ve learnt that being a singer is a bit like being an athlete. Your life is centered around your profession. It’s very important to remember that you also are a human being. I am a woman and we can have needs as normal human beings, not just artistic needs, and not just a singer’s needs. If you remember that as an artist, if you are trying to also invest in yourself as a human being, to have your interests, hobbies, to have a life outside of opera, it will actually make you more interesting onstage. The message I would like to send to people who are not from the artistic world, not from the opera world: you have to remember that being an artist is not easy, to navigate everything, to find a balance in life, it’s all very challenging for us. We are also human beings, we can get sick, have really tough days and still go on stage, bring all of our energy to the stage, to find strength and positivity, and still perform on stage. I just wish people would remember and appreciate that. A lot of them do and I’m very grateful for that. Just remember that to be an artist, it’s important to be a human being, to be kind to people, understanding, empathetic, forgiving, communicative, just to understand the world around us better.

OW: Looking ahead at the summer, you have a double debut in Salzburg. What excites you about this, and is there an artist that you saw in Salzburg once that inspired you? What does Salzburg mean to you?

OK: Salzburg excites me because I’m going to sing a role which I dreamed of singing for many years: Cleopatra! I love singing Handel, I am a very big fan of baroque – and especially Handel. It is also very exciting to be working with our conductor, Emmanuelle Haïm. I already had a working session with her, and I’m looking forward to spending this one month and a half working with her every day on the role to see how she works with her orchestra and other singers. This is also very inspiring for me to work with our director, Tcherniakov. He is a very very special director to me, important in my career and artistic life. Every time I work with him, I grow as an artist and as an actor. A debut in Salzburg is always exciting, I always dreamed of singing there, to be in the middle of this crazy, busy period of Salzburg life in the summer. There are so many artists, singers, musicians, directors… it is incredible, and I am sure I will be inspired every day just by seeing all these people working on the projects, creating art, music together, theatre together. This is something I cannot take for granted, I feel really honored and grateful for this opportunity.

I went to Grigory Sokolov’s concert in Salzburg at the Grosses Festspielhaus during the summer festival. It was an outstanding performance and as an artist, an incredible thing to see. This man – this pianist – comes onstage very casually, looking like a very shy, introverted person, then he just shares the musical world he finds in the piano pieces he performs. We don’t really see him admire himself, but we see he’s completely inside the music, inside his inner world, and he shares that with us. I just admire that. Unfortunately, it cannot really work with singers because we have a text and a voice inside of us. I still get inspired by the fact that these kinds of artists exist. They are so focused on the world that they find in the music, and they just share it with us.

OW: What are some of your dream roles that you are looking forward to in the future?

OK: I’m looking forward to working on Marguerite in “Faust.” It will be my role debut next season. I like that music, story, and character a lot. I’m looking forward to singing Blanche in “Le Dialogue des Carmélites” again, as it is one of my favorite operas. Next season is full of beautiful roles. I am very excited to create my interpretation of a role we have already known for centuries.