The South African soprano Elza van den Heever, presently in Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Met, has let it be known on social media that she’s singing Elsa in Wagner’s Lohengrin at the Bayreuth Festival this summer.
In today’s NY Times she discusses how she manages to learn scores with dyslexia, a condition she bravely disclosed two years ago:
Here is the thing: I am dyslexic. It’s not a secret, but I remain to this day embarrassed about it as it affects my interaction with my profession. I’m a professional musician who has real trouble learning music, let alone difficult music. I go through life feeling like a total fraud because of my dyslexia and the hurdles it presents. I live in fear that I am going to be “found out” everyday. I am 43 and I can still not “read” music. How embarrassing, right?! I have to learn every note manually and I have to mark my beats in my scores otherwise it’s like staring at a foreign language. In my wildest dream did I never fathom that I would be able to learn and memorize a score like Salome. Tonight I sing my premiere in a new production for which we had six weeks of rehearsal. But to be prepared for rehearsal, I started my learning journey two and a half years ago. It took me two and a half years to learn this role. I learned five measures a day starting in March of 2020. Just five measures a day. Note by note. Interval by interval. I’m stupefied that I managed it. I’m still dumbfounded. You can imagine my excitement in particular for tonight! I feel like I have achieved something so far out of my reach! My role debuts for Chrysothemis and Marie were both aided with a prompter! And the one and only time I sang Kaiserin was in concert with my score in hand. Tonight’s feat is a personal victory! No prompter.
I feel compelled to share this in hope that it might help a young musician out there. NEVER let fear stop you if you are dyslexic. Never let yourself be so overwhelmed by your own insecurities that it hinders you from reaching your potential! So it takes us a little longer to learn?! So what! I’m living proof that you can achieve anything through hard work and dedication! Never be afraid to ask for help and never be embarrassed over it! Through my Salome learning journey I’ve discovered so much about myself. Most of all I’ve discovered just how much I let fear control me. No more! Please don’t let your dyslexia and fear hold you back!
The post Elza will sing Elsa at this summer’s Bayreuth appeared first on Slippedisc.
