(Photo by Olivia Kahler)

American soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen is known for her diverse repertoire ranging from Mozart to Wagner. She has performed at leading opera houses around the world to high acclaim.

She won first prize at the 2014 Operalia competition in Los Angeles and at the 2011 Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition, and she was a winner of the 2010 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

She holds both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Brigham Young University and is an alumna of the Houston Grand Opera Studio.

OperaWire caught up with Rachel in Los Angeles where she was appearing in “Otello.”

OperaWire: Congratulations on your recent debut at LA Opera, with “Otello” How is it going?

Rachel Willis-Sørensen: Yes, I have two more performance left, and it’s brilliant! It’s a really beautiful production, the set is very cool, it’s like a bowl. The costumes are sort of different than you would expect, there’s a kind of tribalism. Also there’s also these fisherman who are kind of sparkly…..I don’t know, generally, we’re just doing the story as well as we can; as clearly and as legibly for the audience as we can. James Conlon is conducting and he’s a genius, it’s just been a really beautiful experience. It’s very respectful to the source material, I would say, without being banal and boring. It doesn’t seem to me that anyone on that stage is thinking “Oh! How glorious I am at singing!” I think that’s when opera goes wrong, and that is the problem that some directors try to solve by being really out there and trying to superimpose a different story on top of the opera. They’re not able to access some sort of authenticity in themselves and present “that” through these characters. Then it does become kind of tedious.

In this case, in this “Otello”, here in Los Angeles, it has been a blessing. I’m just really luxuriating in the beauty of the piece. We’re respecting the piece, and everyone is doing a really polished job. I think it feels so cohesive, the energy is all the right way. Anyway, it’s just a stupendous cast. The cast is just so high level, across the board, and beautiful singing and not a great deal of ego. I’ve had a wonderful experience.

OW: You are frequently described as having a diverse repertoire, but I think you have performed some fairly obscure repertoire, have you not? Britten, Beethoven, Gounod, Halevy, Mahler, Lehar, Mendelsohn, Strauss? How did you end up performing these lesser-known roles? Did you make a conscious decision to sing them or were they simply offered to you?

RWS: Definitely B. Because of the people who plan operas. First of all, they plan so far in the future. They have to have known you for a decade before they plan something for you. They generally have musicologists who look at, “What should we produce, in this year, in an opera house?” and then they try and fill in the holes with people. And if you’re lucky, you do an audition initially and they decide whether or not to plug you in, right? I don’t audition anymore, thank heavens, knock on wood, because it’s very stressful. But, generally when you do an audition, the people listening to you want to solve a problem, and you might be the solution.

That’s such a hard question to answer, I don’t think I’ve done anything well and truly obscure, maybe Meyerbeer’s “Les Huguenots” is not performed so often, but generally, yeah, I have been lucky enough to be offered things, and I have had good advice to decide what to take, and what to decline graciously. I think it’s been really great. You can use an obscure piece like Verdi’s “I vespri siciliani,” which was my Verdi debut, and that was like a springboard because once I could sing that repertoire and people heard it and it was a new production. I was offered to do other Verdi heroines, and now, Verdi is probably the core of my repertoire.

OW: You recorded your debut album last year with Sony, “Rachel.” I must confess to never having been an ardent Mozart fan, having always struggled to be moved by his music, but I found your rendition of the “Don Giovanni” arias on this recording quite beautiful.

RWS: Thank you! Mozart is a bit like a straitjacket. The way some people look at it can be strict, and you can’t deviate in any way from exactly the pitches and rhythms on a page as if you were a MIDI. Do you know what I mean, like a MIDI instrument? And I personally find that perspective dull. I think it has to be alive. Luckily, there are some exquisitely written Mozartian characters and I would say the way most people cast Mozart, they tend towards lighter vocal instruments and it’s true. It doesn’t unfold itself before you like a Puccini or a Mascagni in a big, almost carnal manner. Mozart can be more subtle, so it can be presented in a bland way.

That also drives me crazy because, for example, in “Don Giovanni,” Donna Anna she’s kind of a hated character, in a way, (and this is the role that I sing). I feel like every time I’ve gone to the theatre to watch it, people laugh in the end when she tells Don Attavio, “Let’s wait another year, because my dad just died, to get married,” and he’s like “Oh let’s just get married, I’ll be your dad AND your husband!” He puts a little pressure on her. Anyway, I think she gets a bad rap. I

f I were directing, for example, in the scene where she finds the Commendatore’s dead body, I would be so creepy about it, there would be buckets of blood! It would be so obvious that it was a trauma, such a murder scene. Such a distressing murder scene that it validates all of her reactions. Rage, and her vendetta against Giovanni. But this is often missing because we don’t really buy it. Commendatore often dies in an “opera acting way,” and then he’s lying there and Donna Anna comes out and she’s like “Oh, my dad’s dead.” Why do we not feel more sorry for this character whose father was just murdered? The question is always more about whether or not she wanted to sleep with Giovanni. It’s basically not even relevant in my opinion. She probably did want to sleep with him because he’s a really good womanizer. She probably felt really tempted to sleep with him and he was probably able to arouse her interest, but that’s not the point, the point is he murdered her dad.

This is really an intense theme if it’s well done. I think it can really get you in the jugular but sometimes it’s done in this sort of, like, white way.

There are, however, wonderful directors and conductors that make Mozart feel so alive and big and dramatic! Tony Pappano, for example, I’ve done the “Marriage of Figaro” with him, and the way he perceives Mozart is so alive. It has so many transitions and in the rest it has so much humanity; you just have to do it with meat, with blood, with flesh and blood; even though it’s clean, even though it doesn’t have a great deal of, like, portamenti and all these fun, vocal gestures that are appropriate to different styles of music; I believe you have to sing Mozart in a humane way. He really understood the human condition on a deep level.

OW: I read a recent quote from a critic that said, “Successful Wagnerian sopranos are rare, only one or two appear in a generation; arguably there are none singing today.” You have performed a fair bit of Wagner. “Lohengrin,” “Tannhäuser,” “The Master-Singers of Nuremberg” and “The Twilight of the Gods.” Tell me about singing these roles.

RWS: Yes, Wagner is an incredible composer. But, I actually wouldn’t define myself as a “Wagnerian.” I’m a blonde Wagnerian. Meaning for the moment, I only sing the lyric Wagner roles. The “E’s.” The three “E’s”: Eva, Elsa and Elisabeth. Those are the ones that are in contrast to another soprano in the piece. Who is the blasty, horns-conducted one. Like, think, “Lohengrin” I sing Elsa. I don’t sing Ortrud, right? Whenever there are two, eventually, maybe, I don’t even want to say this but maybe, perhaps, I’d be able to top out at Sieglinde which is drastically lighter than Brünnhilde. It’s also kind of soft and lower. Brünnhilde is like C natural, over and over. That’s a big old thing! So, I’m not really a “Wagnerian” soprano.

I tend, however, to agree with some of that quote. I think that a true Wagnerian is so rare. Lise Davidsen is probably the only one of my generation. I don’t know. I would never sing Brünnhilde. It’s not in my throat to do it. It’s not in my physiology. I think that’s something you’re either born with or not. I’m quite tall, I’m six feet tall, and people look at me, maybe, and think “Oh, she should sing Brünnhilde because she has such a big body.” But, I just don’t have the neck. Do you know what I mean? It’s got to be in your neck. I’m thinking, I remember seeing Evelyn Herlitzius, a German soprano. She was quite a small frame but she was electrifying. She just blew your mind. Her neck was huge. I think, you’re born with it or not and it’s incredibly rare.

OW: You once said about opera and classical music, “We need to change the focus, to be less apologetic about the art form itself, which happens, in my opinion, when we do outlandish productions that have nothing to do with the source material.” Can you elaborate on that a little?

RWS: I want to touch people. I want people in the audience to feel real things. I want to help them, to sort of metabolize their less pleasant experiences in a safe way, in the theatre, so that everyone leaves feeling enlightened. That’s what I want to do. I don’t think that’s possible to do, in the context of certain productions where no respect has been given to anyone in the room, not the conductor, not the singers, certainly not the composer or the librettist and definitely, most unfortunately, not the audience.

OW: You are performing as Leonora in Verdi’s “Il Trovatore” at the Royal Opera House in June. How are your preparations going for this role?

RWS: I’ve sung the role twice before, in Turin and in Barcelona. I’m singing here with Gregory Kunde, whom I love. He’s marvelous. He’s going to be 70 years of age in February. His voice is amazing. He does it so easily. It’s really funny. He adds high C’s to “Otello”  that obviously other people can’t do and I expect them now because I made my debut with him singing it.

OW: On your social media you get very technical about your art by explaining intricate techniques for singing and demonstrating certain passages and enunciations. Do you aspire to be a teacher one day?

RWS: That’s such a good question. I don’t necessarily see myself going in that direction in a long-term way. I already enjoy doing my masterclass lessons. My master’s degree is in pedagogy, so I’m sort of available for that. But, I don’t love teaching voice because of all the politics involved. What I think is really missing from a young singer is general psychological support, as they develop their own ideas about what should be done, in their body. So, I try and offer that. I tell the things, technically, like “This is how I conceptualize it, and see if this helps you.” My primary motive for sharing things like that on Instagram is that I want people to feel calm and confident about what they’re doing. I feel that’s the best way to create the maximum potential. Do you know what I mean? To actually achieve the most possible. One of my goals with my profile is to create a resource and community for young singers. Something that I wish I had as an emerging artist.

OW: What new roles are you looking forward to performing in the future?

RWS: I really believe what you focus on comes to you. The flow will bring it right up to your door. So, I’ve been focusing for a long time on doing more Verdi repertoire, and oh my gosh! It happened! It happened. I am singing all these Verdi heroines that I dreamed about singing. Because singing Verdi has been my dream for a long time, I am mainly reveling in the moment and this dream came true!

I remember when I received an offer for “Traviata.” I just cried. It was so exciting to watch that dream come true. Now I’ve done it twice and I have another one. No, TWO more on the books, actually. And I love it. I got to see “Trovatore” which I’m doing again in London. So right now, I’m sort of, pinch me! It’s come true. I get to sing these Verdi heroines that I’ve dreamed of for so long. And I love keeping my repertoire flexible and varied. For example, next season I’m still singing “Lohengrin,” in Munich, and I have more “Rosenkavalier” next summer. I’m super lucky. So right now, I’m just sort of focusing on trying to produce these roles that are in my calendar, in the best possible way. I find that every revisit enriches my experience with them, and deepens my ability to connect to them. I get to produce something for the audience that is very human and hopefully very accessible.

So right now, for the next few years, I’m going to try and keep floating in this beautiful bubble where I am, and loving to make the art that I’m making.