(Photo Credit: Chris Gonz)

In 1994, when he was 10 years old, Julian Prégardien sang the role of the First Boy as a member of the Limburger Domsingknaben, performing in “Die Zauberflöte” all around the Frankfurt region.

Fast forward more than 20 years to 2010 when Prégardien, whose career has seen him perform for the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Staatsoper Hamburg, Bayerische Staatsoper, Salzburg Festival, and Opéra Comique, sang his very first Tamino at Oper Frankfurt, a close relationship with Mozart’s famed opera continues to this day and will be at the heart of his operatic U.S. debut with the Cleveland Orchestra and lead him to Wiener Staatsoper for his debut in January 2025.

OperaWire recently spoke with the tenor about his forthcoming operatic U.S. debut, his relationship with the music of Mozart and Schubert, as well as his exciting new project “Liedstadt.”

OperaWire: Let’s start with your Cleveland debut in “Die Zauberflöte” and what it means to you to be making this U.S. debut in this opera? How has your relationship with this piece evolved over time? How has your interpretation of Tamino evolved?

Julian Prégardien: Already as a small kid I knew bits of the opera from children’s cassettes and also because my father sang the role of Tamino in the 1980’s, when he was a member of the opera troupe of Frankfurt and Gelsenkirchen. The next step was, as you already mentioned, my experiences as the First Boy.

Until today my journey with both the opera and the role of Tamino has been an ongoing one. With every new production, my insights into the character of a man who is on a journey and is trying to find out where his place is in life become more timeless and impressive. Tamino is young and inexperienced and is confronted with contrasts and conflicts between two worlds. Day and Night, Sun and Moon, Sarastro and the Queen of the Night, Man and Woman. It’s a never-ending story, I would say.

My life experience makes me a very different Tamino, of course now, than I was able to be 15 years ago, when I first sang the role.

OW: In what way would you say that you’re a different Tamino now than you were when you first performed the piece?

JP: Let’s take his very first aria, “Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön” – this first wave of love that he’s feeling. It’s so striking how Mozart sets this, with beautiful melodies and timing, and a heartfelt process of a new vision for Tamino’s life. It’s such a stunning piece of music – so intimate and beautiful, and to follow the emotions of this aria as a performer is a beautiful bridge to each individual listener, isn’t it? 15 years ago I was simply nervous to sing it!

OW: Do you have any favorite moments in the opera?

JP: Listening-wise, I would say that the choir of the priests and also the march of the priests are moments of incredible beauty. They are solemn, something between a chorale and a sacred song. I grew up in a boys’ choir and sang in a male choir, so there’s a lot of deep emotional connection to the sound of a male choir, also to the sound of brass and woodwinds. My son, who’s 13 years old, plays in a traditional band in Bavaria and studies both percussion and clarinet, so there are many layers of my connection to that music.

In addition, when I’m on stage with the three boys and they start singing, something in me remembers how I felt when I was 10 years old and performed this piece for the first time.

OW: In the context of this production and this performance, what are some new things that you’re discovering about the opera? And how has working with Franz Welser-Möst added to this experience?

Julian Prégardien: The sheer beauty of the music and the deep insight that Franz Welser-Möst invites us to share with him, as well as the experience that he has with this piece, are one-of-a-kind. Also our stage director Nikolaus Habjan’s reading of the libretto and the musical and dramatic dimension of this true masterpiece are stunningly new to me. Just yesterday Niki said, “Did you realize that the dialogs between Papageno and Papagena are always happening, when the stage in the background needs to be rebuilt, when it needs to be set up for a new world behind the curtains?” Mozart and Schikaneder had all this in mind.

OW: Let’s switch gears to a very different Mozart opera that you will also be performing soon, “Don Giovanni.” For you, as a singer, how different is singing Don Ottavio in comparison to Tamino?

JP: Let’s start with the language. My mother tongue is German, so with every single syllable, there is a different depth of understanding to the text that I simply feel and have. Italian is not my mother tongue, so this is more learned.

The style is also completely different. There are a lot of questions that come with “Die Zauberflöte.” Is it an opera or a Singspiel? What about the arias? Isn’t there a lot of “Lied” happening in that opera?

“Don Giovanni“ is in many ways an opera seria, although it is called “dramma giocoso.” Ottavio is the noble, conservative counterpart to the hedonistic Don Giovanni, both are stereotypes with different aspects. By the way, I think that’s what makes Don Ottavio a very important and often underestimated role in terms of gravitas. He really needs to have a strong staging to be an important counterpart to the title role.

But that’s similar to “The Magic Flute.” Tamino has to be the counterpart to both Papageno and Pamina. Papageno is the down to earth human, Tamino the noble prince. Pamina is the strong woman, while Tamino is an anti-hero, he’s not the one who is solving the problems. Papageno and Pamina are. The first thing that Tamino does on stage is cry for help and then he faints, which is the opposite of being heroic. Subsequently he is rescued by three women. Sometimes “The Magic Flute” is considered as a piece that’s not very woman-friendly. I think one can see it quite differently: that in fact it is, in many aspects, a very feminist piece, where the women are the stronger characters. They are in action and change the world. In the end, Pamina leads Tamino. She leads through love…

But in terms of comparing Tamino and Ottavio vocally speaking, maybe the one thing that both have in common is the two arias “Dies Bildnis” and “Dalla sua pace,” because both are very intimate moments, in which they talk about love.

OW: From Mozart to Schubert. You recently recorded “Die schöne Müllerin.” Schubert is an integral part of your life. Who is Schubert to you?

JP: To me he is a human being who is very pure and who writes music, first of all, out of an inner necessity. He wrote more than 600 songs without knowing if they would be performed. Let’s compare that to Mozart: He wrote all of his operas because they had been commissioned, right?

But not Schubert. Schubert wrote so much music just because he had to. He had almost no choice but to write music. It was just flooding out of his heart and out of his fingers. The amount of music that he wrote is simply incredible. I think he’s able to draw, paint and create a world of imagination, of beauty and sometimes of peace, but also of deepest sorrow – all of it is so human! It’s such a human music without any kind of manipulation, any kind of aiming to do something. It just is.

The music of Schubert is pure and I would say innocent in a way.

OW: Regarding your recording, in the modern era, it is very likely that you only get one chance to make your statement on a piece. But your interpretation is always evolving, especially with a work you have an extensive relationship with. How did you approach the process of making a rendition of this piece that you hoped would live on for a long time?

JP: My relationship to “Die schöne Müllerin” is one-of-a-kind, to be honest, because I’ve known some of the songs since my earliest childhood, as my father has sung the cycle very often. He has created one of the most outstanding recordings in recording history of the cycle, together with Andreas Staier, in the early 90’s.

When I was 16 or 17 years old, I would play some of the songs on the piano – for myself. I sang and accompanied myself. I really have a deep emotional connection to Schubert songs in general and “Müllerin” in particular.

And that caused me to wait quite a while until I first performed the entire cycle, which was when I was already in my 30s. I aimed to really find my perspective on so many different aspects of the piece.  

The most important part of that development has been happening in the past three years. It is closely related to my collaboration with Kristian Bezuidenhout. We performed this cycle together for the first time in 2020 and we decided against presenting it as a typical Liederabend. With the very first presentation of the two of us, we invited an actor to read excerpts of the diary of Wilhelm Müller, and we integrated those intimate moments into the cycle. This approach not only brought us to different layers of understanding, but also the audience was drawn into the piece more intensely. 

Then in 2023, when I had already decided to record the piece, I took action to really prepare myself. As you said, it might be a once-in-lifetime-chance to record it …

I created a residency in Vienna called “Müller*in Wien” together with my friend and pianist Daniel Heide, and we performed the piece 10 times in two weeks in Vienna. This was all at different venues that were all related to Schubert, to his biography, to places of social gathering, where Lieder used to be performed in the 19th century. I also invited many different women who are artists to join the concerts and share their insights and their perspective on the cycle, because, as you might know, the Fair Miller Maiden herself remains silent in the “Schöne Müllerin.” We don’t know what she’s thinking about this guy. I wanted to know more about that important perspective, so I invited and interviewed an actress, a psychologist, a philosopher, a musicologist, a feminist, talked to them and learned, together with the audience, very striking new insights. A selection of impressions was also captured by a TV team for a one hour documentary for German Television.

I also had the chance to write a radio play together with my dear singer-friend Johannes Held for the German radio station SWR. You know, Wilhelm Müller did not just write the poems. There was a circle of friends that performed a so-called “Liederspiel” with divided roles, inspired by the opera “La Molinara” by Paisiello. In our radio play we get to know a hunter, a gardener and, of course, the young miller boy, who are all in love with the same girl. We also witness that the group of friends who are creating the chamber play with songs are in the exact same situation: three of the historic characters are in love with Luise Hensel. All of that happened in Berlin, around 1815.

I really wanted to dig deep into the question, how did “Schöne Müllerin” come to life? What kind of spirit was it created in? And also an important fact is that Franz Schubert composed the cycle shortly after he had discovered that he was suffering from syphilis, a lethal disease at the time. He was in a specific state of mind, and I think creating, composing this cycle for Schubert, and also for the poet Wilhelm Müller, was kind of therapeutic. Out of that specific constellation this really incredibly touching, beautiful, and also fragile poetry and music are born.

OW: Are you planning any further kind of similar explorations with this piece or with other song cycles?

JP: I’m curious about what might happen next, because I can’t predict that. A lot of what I mentioned was not planned, it happened out of curiosity and open-mindedness. The next important step regarding “Müllerin” is that I will perform it at different venues together with Sir András Schiff, which I consider to be an incredible honor. We will perform it at Klosters and Salzburg Festival, at Wigmore Hall, and the new hall of the Kronberg Academy as well as at András’ own festival in Vicenza.

This will, yet again, give new insights, because he has a specific approach to Franz Schubert’s music. This music is so dear to him. So this will be another part of my journey with this cycle.

I am also creating a format called “First Schubert” that allows more young people to get in touch with music that is not only dear to me, but that can offer comfort, joy, and be a friend in hard times.

OW: What other projects are you working on?

JP:  I’m preparing a project around Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and musical settings of his poetry, but also the female perspective behind those poems. How was the poetry created? I will just give one brief example.

There’s a song called “Willkommen und Abschied” by Schubert. There is a first version of the poem by Goethe that was published in 1775. At a very important point the storytelling in this original version is a totally different one: the male is not the one who departs from the woman, but the woman leaves the man. And later on, Goethe decided to change that perspective. When he reviewed his own poetry for a new edition, he turned the perspective around. I think this is very interesting in terms of male storytelling and the very current discussion about how history has been written by men and has been abusive to women in many ways. Without deconstructing the so-called genius of Goethe, I’m creating programs around an emotional and actual journey that brought Goethe to Weimar in the year of 1775, where he then stayed for the rest of his life.

And apart from that, I’m preparing another project together with my father. We recorded a “Father and Son” album almost ten years ago, and now we are preparing another one featuring a very special repertoire: songs by THE Mozart and his son, Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart. He wrote really beautiful songs. And we are preparing a joint album with music by Mozart, Father and Son, for Harmonia Mundi.

OW: And when will you be recording that album?

JP: We are going to record that in 2025 and then release it in 2026 on occasion of my father’s 70th birthday.

OW: You are also working on a new project called “Liedstadt.” Where did the inspiration for that project come from?

JP: I have co-created “Liedstadt” together with art director Cate Pisaroni and Kian Jazdi, a project designer from Hamburg. Cate is well-known in the world of opera for her revolutionary way of communicating about the vocal arts. Kian’s key goal as a project developer is to create artistic endeavors together with the people that he wants to talk to and share music with. So the whole project of “Liedstadt,” if you want to break it down into certain parameters, is about the power of sharing. It’s about a continuous quest of learning, and exploring the field of song without defining where does art begin and where does it end. What is art song and what is not art song, and what is serious or serene and what is entertainment? 

I have found out through my own experience, for example with “Die schöne Müllerin,” that song recitals can be entertaining and at the same time, or in the next second, can be serene and super intimate. This is something that we want to explore with a wide range of repertoire of international song, and also at venues other than a chamber music hall.

I’ll give you one example of a program that we are co-creating in Hamburg for our first festival in the fall of 2024. It’s a program that combines songs by Mais Harb from Syria and the Kurdish singer Hêja Netirk, with Rückert settings by Franz Schubert. We want to explore the similarities and where they meet, and not define the differences. It’s about what we have in common as humans. The venue we will present that program in is called “Resonanzraum” and it is situated in a flag tower from WWII.

We all meet in the topics that we can share through song and music. These topics are love, life, death, hope, and fear – in all cultures. And it’s all been expressed through poetry and song. And with those topics, we want to create programs that invite people to learn, to share, to strengthen empathy. So this is the holistic perspective of “Liedstadt.”

The basic facts are that we are creating a first festival in Hamburg this year – a 10-day festival from October 3rd to 13th, with more than 50 events around song. For the next years we have established a journey through the German-speaking areas. We “wander” from Hamburg to Leipzig, Weimar and Berlin to Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, Zürich, and Vienna, all within the next five years. We will create festivals together with stakeholders in these cities and explore with them, how we can express aspects of people, of their lives in the city of, for example, Düsseldorf, and the history of places through song. How can we express what has moved or is moving people through song?

We hope that we can fulfill our vision that I expressed before, that we can invite people to share music, to share history, to share stories about life, just as songs allow insight into diaries of human beings who stand as one person representing some spirit of a time.