In a draughty Victorian arts centre in south London, Danielle de Niese is finessing the timing of an almost-kiss. In this scene from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, the teenage Cherubino is trying to pluck up courage to kiss his godmother, the Countess. De Niese is encouraging her young performers to make the moment last. As a superstar soprano, she has sung this opera herself countless times. Now she is tackling it from the other side: this is her debut as a director.
De Niese, 47, could scarcely have a stronger pedigree. She made her debut at the Met in New York aged only 19 (coincidentally, in Figaro, singing the role of Barbarina); a whirlwind rise to fame followed. She is a stage animal from tip to toe, bringing together bell-like clarity of sound with super-trouper charisma, and versatile enough to turn her voice box to anything from Handel to Weill to Andrew Lloyd Webber.
All voices change with the years, and hers has deepened and extended so that her recent Carmen for Australian Opera – a role normally sung by a mezzo-soprano – drew many plaudits. She was born in Australia to parents of Sri Lankan and Dutch heritage, grew up in Los Angeles and now lives in the UK.
On seeing a soprano becoming a director, however, some fans might wonder if she is thinking of winding down her singing. De Niese knocks that one straight on the head. “I’m not a singer who has been sitting around hankering after directing,” she says, “and I’m not about to hang up my singing boots. This opportunity came about really by chance.”
