cultural activities
21
finnish cultural foundation
annual report 2013–2014
done more dramatic roles such as Strauss’s
Daphne and Puccini’s Madame Butterfly.
This season she can, for example, be heard
as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Nedda
in Pagliacci and Marguerite in Gounod’s
Faust.
Learning is a never-ending
process
At the top a singer, as Andrea Rost points
out, has to be her own teacher and critic.
“You have to check yourself far more.
I record myself all the time in order to
maintain control over my voice.” She also
points out that without a cast-iron vocal
technique a singer won’t get very far.
“Opera houses sometimes give young
singers too heavy or too many roles, and
this requires a really good vocal technique,
otherwise they’re doomed. You have to
practise, and a lot, every day. I’m still
learning how to learn vocal technique!
It’s never ending. Keeping up to scratch
is sometimes very difficult. A singer needs
tremendous self-discipline.”
This, according to Andrea Rost, is
what’s most important in a singing
competition: always learning, constantly,
because learning is a never-ending process.
Andrea Rost still keeps in touch with
the Finnish family she stayed with in
Helsinki back in 1989.
“Family accommodation is a wonderful
thing! My family have been following my
career, just as Mirjam Helin did. She was
a very special lady: elegant and kind, and
she had a wonderful sense of humour.”
Twenty-five years ago Andrea Rost was
concentrating on the competition, but this
time she sees Helsinki from a different
perspective.
“I’m more relaxed now and have time
to enjoy myself, especially since the
competition organisation is so wonderful.
I’ve jogged round Töölö Bay and spent
some time with the other members of the
jury. They’re wonderful. Ben Heppner is a
real story-teller!”
The end of her nearly two-week stint
on the jury arouses feelings akin to the
end of a hectic opera production, says
Andrea Rost.
“Everything’s so intensive, and all of
a sudden it ends and will never happen
again. I’m a bit sad, the competition had
such a good atmosphere. I’ve loved every
moment!”
All competititors got face-to-face feedback frommembers of the jury. Andrea Rost held also her very first masterclass in
connection with the competition.
