(Credit: RibaltaLuce-Studio)

Celebrated as one of the preeminent mezzo-sopranos of her generation, Vivica Genaux is a definitive champion of the baroque and bel canto repertoires. Renowned for her instrumental role in the modern revival of Johann Adolf Hasse, she was honored with the Hasse-Preis by the Hasse-Stiftung Hamburg in 2025. She is actively collaborating with HfMT Hamburg as a mentor for the Hasse “Artaserse” project.

OperaWire spoke with her regarding this pedagogical project, set to premiere on February 27 and 28, 2026.

OperaWire: What does it mean to you, personally, to bring Hasse’s music back to his North German roots through this residency in Hamburg?

Vivica Genaux: Hasse has been my favorite composer since I first sang his opera “Solimano” at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden with René Jacobs early in my career. His use of text, fluidity of line, and open harmonic structure is so satisfying to sing, to interpret, and to embody. I am always excited to share that with the younger generation. Hasse’s works have been fundamental to my personal and professional development; so by championing his music, I hope that young artists have the same opportunity as I had.

OW: Leopold Mozart once famously hoped his son would achieve a level of success comparable to Hasse. Yet today, Hasse’s works are rarely staged. What do you see as the primary reason for this historical displacement?

VG: There are several reasons why Hasse’s music has not had the same renaissance as Handel. At the most basic level, many of the scores held in Dresden were destroyed in various wars and no copies have been found in other locations. Beyond that, the luxurious cast of singers and instrumentalists Hasse had in Dresden makes modern performance quite challenging. His company included not only incredibly virtuosic singers, but also the best horn players in Europe, the best oboists… specialists that, already in the 1700s, were few and far between.

Today, the costs of engaging a full baroque orchestra, including these specialty instrumentalists and singers, are quite high. Given that Hasse’s name in itself is not an automatic box-office draw, theaters cannot be sure that they will sell out performances, so it is a higher risk, financially, to produce. I would add that Hasse’s writing invites and demands a very high level of technical as well as interpretative skill to bring it to life. The music itself is lush, but it is the artist’s interpretation that truly brings it to life. As a singer, it is an amazing opportunity to fill Hasse’s outline with one’s own soul, but also really disappointing for the audience when that doesn’t happen. One of my favorite explanations for Handel’s music is that its true beauty lies in its structure. The true beauty of Hasse’s music is in how the artist fills it, tests it, challenges it, and absorbs it.

OW: How has your personal understanding of Hasse evolved from your early performance of “Solimano” with René Jacobs to your current role as a mentor?

VG: I always feel too small as a guide. Learning from Maestro Jacobs, he illustrated phrasing, text, and articulations both at the harpsichord as well as with his voice. I wish I had focused more on my keyboard skills, as there are many phrasing ideas that I would love to be able to show — how the voice accompanies a melodic line, contrasts it, bounces off of it, or responds to what’s happening in the orchestra. With my voice alone, I’m not able to show the dynamics of the conversation with the orchestra.

Also, as a singer, I feel so much of this phrasing and use of text as being so natural — it is difficult after 30 years as a professional to remember how I myself was taught to “speak” these languages. I love looking into myself and figuring out how I approach something, how I understand a character, and how I analyze a scene to figure out the dynamics, directions, and objectives, and then trying to communicate that to others.

OW: Since some roles were written for the castrati, how do you adapt Hasse’s specific vocal shaping to suit the realities of today’s young singers?

VG: It’s amazing to me how comfortable the music written for castrati is for female voices! The main difference, as far as I have understood, is that the color/textural differences between vocal registers were often emphasized rather than minimized, as we are taught for most later repertoire. The singer has the option of really making a marked difference between “chest” and “head” registers, either in large interval jumps, arpeggios, or even scales. I try to show how that choice is suggested by other stylistic indicators in the text, orchestration, and dramatic situation.

In addition, as we are most often repeating the same words over and over in an aria, the text itself is crucial to building colors, line, and expression. In psychology, it’s akin to “rumination,” which is what we do in life when something important happens to us — we think about it over and over, we dissect it, we put it back together, we think about what we might have done differently if we’d had the chance, we think about how life is different now that this event has happened to us. That in itself is not unique to the castrati roles, but again, our menu of options as to how to evoke those thought processes is enormous.

OW: This production is based on the 1734 London version, which features arias inextricably linked to Farinelli. How do you guide students to find their own authentic emotional expression within the framework of these “superstar” works?

VG: This is difficult, because Farinelli evidently had specific qualities that are embodied in the composer’s writing (several of the famous Farinelli arias in this version were written for him by his brother). Some of these qualities were innate to his instrument, others were learned. These learned techniques can certainly be studied by other singers, while the innate qualities can vary from singer to singer, so I focus on valuing and improving on one’s own strengths, as well as teaching the conventional articulations and phrasing language typical to this era.

The exciting part about baroque music is that it was constantly rewritten or modified for the singer who was actually performing it. Keys can be changed as long as the orchestra can still play it; tempi are modified according to the current singer’s needs. It’s really like being a “cover artist” — the beauty of a cover version is not how well you imitate the original. It’s your own interpretation that makes it work. This music is intended to be performed by stars; you have to be the star in that moment.

OW: What are the most common technical or artistic hurdles students face when they first encounter baroque operas in general?

VG: People are always surprised how long these operas are. Most, if left uncut, last for about 5-6 hours. Also the huge recitatives which in themselves require great interpretative skill to keep dynamic. Some of these recitatives also presage Rossini’s use of secco recit moving fluidly into accompagnato and then aria, making an enormous gran scena where the artist can be alone on stage for up to half an hour — that requires a lot of theatrical skill, as well as stamina. Most singers are used to thinking of baroque music as “easy,” indicated for singers who are not good enough to sing other genres… I think it’s a genre that requires specific technical as well as mental skills. There is a lot of work that needs to be put into building these operas.

OW: In a semi-staged production, what vocal tools do you teach students to maintain dramatic tension during Hasse’s recitatives?

VG: I didn’t have time to look at recitative very much in this masterclass; my priority was technique for the arias. Professor Mark Tucker is guiding the artists in this staging, and is excellent in teaching how to build a scene!

As an artist myself, one of the most incredible experiences I had was working with the stage director Claire van Kampen. She used a range of theater improvisation exercises that I wasn’t previously familiar with, which were absolutely fantastic in helping the cast build a stronger understanding of their own characters as well as the social dynamics which determined their “menus” of actions and reactions. I would love to study those techniques more thoroughly as they were incredibly helpful, even in a cast where not everyone was fluent in Italian!

OW: How do you guide students to interact with the instrumentalists, particularly the basso continuo group?

VG: Again, the luxury of time for me to do that was not available in this masterclass. However, the interaction and play with Professor Isolde Kittel-Zerer at the harpsichord during our coachings was phenomenal. One of the things I most love is collaboration with other professionals in teaching, and this experience at the HfMT was magnificent. Working alongside Professors Tucker and Kittel-Zerer was a true luxury, knowing that we were all working together in the same direction. Knowing that the artists also had Maestro Catharina Lühr working with them on baroque movement and dance, I think each element of the teaching team was able to focus on individual elements while knowing that they all contributed to a coherent greater schematic.

OW: What is the most fascinating aspect of being a mentor in an academic setting? And how does the training in baroque or “pre-classical” styles benefit a student who may eventually spend the majority of their career singing something else?

VG: This has been fascinating for me in my teaching work — I am always trying to identify similarities, developments, and differences between musical styles. It goes without saying that whatever music we are performing today is informed somehow by what has come before; so when singing Verdi or Stravinsky with some understanding of the repertoire of the 1600s and 1700s, one can recognize similarities and differences.

That said, it feels quite similar to watching one of the original Bugs Bunny cartoons — children were amused by the purely slapstick elements, while adults also reacted to clever double-entendres in the dialogue, or references to other cultural figures. One’s perception, both as an artist as well as a listener, is influenced by context. The more context you have, the richer the experience is liable to be.

OW: Do you notice a shift in what is expected of an opera singer today compared to when you started your career?

VG: Yes. Unfortunately today there is not so much focus on building a long career. Many theaters and agents want the youngest, newest big hit, and there is very little interest in developing a more mature artist. Stage directors generally have more say in a production’s values than the musical director or the composer/librettist’s original concept, and the singer often finds themselves performing a series of actions that has nothing to do with the text they are singing.

The beauty of the theater for me is its power to show us mere mortals how we can all aspire to divinity, to morality — to making our world, our societies, our personal relationships, and ourselves better. That seems to lose out, more and more, to reflecting the immorality, the stench, and the violence that we are accustomed to seeing on a daily basis on television and in the outside world.

OW: What is the essential “toolkit” you hope your students carry into their professional lives?

VG: I hope that they all understand that they are responsible for their own learning, that they need to be curious, ask questions, find solutions, try things out, propose their own ideas, and learn from failure as well as from success.

OW: If you had to choose one aria from this 1734 “Artaserse” that perfectly encapsulates Hasse’s genius for the human voice, which would it be and why?

VG: For me, the most beautiful aria in Hasse’s “Artaserse” is “Se d’un amor tiranno,” sung by Mandane. She is tormented by the conflict between her desire to uphold the law by convicting her beloved Arbace, and her longing to save him. It’s an amazing almost 15-minute-long scena, flowing from a secco recit with Semira into a gorgeous aria where she begs to keep refuge in her own delusions.