Sicily, 18/04/2020

Enea Scala was born in Pozzalo, Sicily.  He is a tenor, yet his voice falls into a category that is not very known to the public.  He is a "Baritenor", meaning a tenor with "dark, weighty lower octave and a ringing upper one but with sufficient agility for coloratura singing" , a voice very suitable for Rossini's operas and other Bel Canto composers and he is already making a remarkable, international career with this repertoire, singing in main operatic stages in Europe.  What is though more remarkable than his career, is the fact that he is a deeply sensible human being, not only as an artist on stage, but also off stage, thinking and acting with ethos towards others.  He is very aware of the emigration phenomenon of our times and he is trying to raise awareness to others around him.  
By @kassandra_dimopoulou_official

 How did you start singing?
I started singing already as a child.  The sisters at my school made me sing the first solo parts because I had a very good ear and a strong, very high voice.  Later on, during puberty and the period of the voice change, the voice lost its range and strength, but I still had a good ear and musicality.  Thanks to these two gifts, I started to sing in a choir as a tenor, but without having the very high notes.  When I was about 20 years old, I started taking singing lessons privately and then continued my studies in a conservatory.  The high notes “returned” only 5 or 6 years later. 


How does it feel to be a tenor in the opera world of today?
It’s an honour to be a tenor who makes a career nowadays and it’s also very fulfilling.  Many decades ago there were many high level European and American opera singers but the market was viable and there was a place for everyone.  Today, there are no borders and therefore there are many beautiful voices coming from Russia, China, Korea, South America;  the market meanwhile became non viable and the voices are spread throughout the world.  A tenor of today has to find a niche in their repertoire, which to specialise in, so as to have better work opportunities. 


Is opera in Italy still a big tradition?  Does the public attend?
In the Italian opera houses, comparing to other European countries, there is less young public at the moment, because the state started the educational programs at schools much later, and we will see the results of these programs in the near future.  I observe with great interest some young students of singing, that they remind me of the passion and the commitment I had myself at their age, to reach for my dream. 


Nowadays, almost everyone with a good voice can study opera.  Do you think being an opera singer is a job for everyone? 
In my opinion, it is essential to differentiate a singer from an artist.  Everyone can sing, it’s a human thing to do, but to be an opera singer, one needs talent.  The difference is in the ability to expose one’s soul and serve art, simultaneously understanding that one has to interpret what the composer has composed and through their own inner “key” to make it their own, only to give it back to the public in the most real and plausible way, avoiding being fake and artificial.  Everyone has a voice, because the voice is a gift from birth, but not everyone can have the sensibility to use it in order to move universal feelings through an operatic performance.  To perform, is something that is created on the moment and it happens on an instant that one is on stage, which is a short time, but the feeling and the emotions produced are universal and talk to all humanity and all humans in a universal way, also because opera talks about things that are happening to all the people, always. 


If you could go back in time and meet a famous tenor, who would that be, and why?
If I could go back in time, I would like to meet several opera singers, not only tenors but also women, and ask them different things.  As for tenors, I would certainly be curious to go back to 1800 and see how the voice of the early “Baritenors” of the Rossini repertoire was in reality, like the voice of Garcia and Nozzari, and other Bel Canto tenors like Rubini.  I would like to know what were their technical solutions and what was their “strategy” to confront the repertoire of the light “contraltino” but also the more “heavy” and dramatic repertoire.  It’s a fact that today, we don’t have any evidence or references of that era, or how they sang, what techniques did they use, except maybe the critics of those who were living in that period and noting down what they were listening.   Even so, we cannot be sure of what was right, because back then, the “right” was probably a lot different than what is right today, that singing technique is much more developed. 


What was the most unforgettable moment for you on stage?
It was 4 years ago, in Paris, in Théâtre des Champs Elysées, during the opera “Ermione” by Giacomo Rossini, in concert form, under the music direction of maestro Alberto Zedda, just some months before he passed away.  The public was very concentrated and silent;  during the finale of Act 1, all of us soloists were standing, as usual, on the front part of the stage.  Behind us was the choir and the orchestra; the musical and physical energy that was flowing out of maestro Zedda, was of such passion and his gaze was almost hypnotic, that all the stage started to tremble and the music stands seemed to have started waving, while I was aware that Rossini’s music, with its crescendo and its dynamics was completing the scene:  I believe that, in that moment, something magical was happening.  The public of Paris was under that “spell” and was aware of the exceptional moment that we were all experiencing:  The applause at the end was like a volcanic explosion and lasted several minutes, while I personally was still not believing the experience I just had. 

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The world is facing many disasters, among them, the current immigration of many people who are currently loosing their countries, trying to move forward to a better place which is often not possible.  What do you think of this matter and how can an artist help society to become a better place?
Immigrants is a fact of the history of humanity and it has happened, it is happening and it will continue to happen;  they happen because of various reasons, like climate change, war, poverty- which happens because of the first two- or even from the need to find happiness and the affirmation of one’s talent in a place where it can be supported by better living conditions…  In relation to this aspect, somehow we artists are also the result of a self-affirmation due to displacements, continuing traveling and transfers to different countries:  This also is part of the history of humanity.  Unfortunately, the populist and sovereign politics point out the “fact” that “migrants take away wealth and jobs from people who may not be in conditions of well- being” and here is the refusal to welcome or, even simply, to help those who need to be welcomed because in their countries it is impossible to live with dignity.  I created the festival “Pozzallo all’Opera nel mondo“ in my hometown in 2019, because I wanted to create an event in order to raise public awareness of this matter.  Pozzallo is a port city that historically was habituated by mariners as well as immigrants, which, due to its geographical position, constitutes a frontier of Europe in the Mediterranean;  it is a safe harbour that welcomes migrants who arrived by sea from the African coast, offering them shelter and first aid.  I am sincerely proud of the actions that my community took during these years which benefits from an open and comprehensive political class towards this issue and aims to include all cultural diversity in society, without leaving the weakest and most fragile behind.  In my opinion, an artist has the right and duty to use his reputation to make society or his community understand that everyone should be benevolent towards the arrival of desperate people who come to our shores.  Conversely, from a healthy inclusion, new human resources can be drawn which, thanks to cultural differences, can bring a new air and the development of skills and talents.  Schools play an important role in all this, as a primary cultural “agency” for training and integration and can develop and promote everyone's talents, offering them then to the community.


We are currently facing the plague of COVID19.  How, in your opinion, will this change the world and art?
Unfortunately, after this plague, something will definitely change in our lives as well as our work, for an indefinite period of time.  We don’t know yet if our future performances will take place and in which conditions, since gatherings of large numbers of people are forbidden- at least for now.  We are all watching what will happen in the next months and, until the moment that a vaccine is found, we are all exposed to the possible dangers getting infected.  So, at the moment, I wouldn't know how to answer this question.  Unfortunately, I had already two productions canceled in Vienna:  “La donna del lago” by Giacomo Rossini in concert version and my Pollione debut in a new “Norma” production. 


Future plans?
If the future productions are going to be confirmed, I have a series of debuts planned:  June 2020 “Roberto Devereux” in Teatro La Fenice in Venice;  Rodolfo in “La Boheme” in Opera de Marseille;  then in 2021 the roles of Percy and Leicester in a new Donizetti project, “Bastarda” in La Monnaie in Bruxelles, where my debut in the title role in “Werther” would follow in Opera Vlaanderen.  Finally, the role of Carlo in “Edoardo e Cristina” by Rossini at the  Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro.  In 2020-2021, I would also have to sing roles that are already in my repertoire such as Duca in “Rigoletto” in Hamburg, Arnold in “Guillaume Tell” in Dublin, Alfredo in “La Traviata” in Geneva and Rinaldo in “Armida” in Marseille.


Art is...
I strongly believe in the words of Oscar Wilde:  “The artist is the creator of beautiful things.  To reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s claim”.