cultural activities
22
finnish cultural foundation
annual report 2013–2014
I
t’s the morning after the Final at the
Helsinki Music Centre. Only a fewhours
earlier, Kateryna Kasper (b. 1986) has
been declared the winner of the prize for
women in the MirjamHelin International
Singing Competition, and various emotions
flicker across her face: joyful surprise,
emotion and weariness.
“I didn’t sleep very well, because things
like this don’t often happen,” she says, eyes
gleaming. “But I’ll soon be back to normal,
sitting at the piano learning new pieces.”
The mighty emotions unleashed by
the Final will, in the days to come, act like
a magic wand. Right now, she gives the
impression of being shy as she twists her
notebook ribbon round her finger.
This is, however, far from the impres-
sion she gives up on stage. In the Final, she
sent the audience into ecstasy with her
electrifying rendition of Thérèse’s femi-
nist aria from Poulenc’s surrealist opera
Les Mamelles de Tirésias.
“Singing the aria for the first time with
an orchestra was fantastic! It’s a funny
sort of song, but it’s also topical in that
it’s about war and strong women.”
Throughout the competition Kateryna
appeared radiantly self-assured – a sharp-
witted, versatile story-teller. If successful
singers were to be roughly divided into
vocal wonders and artists, then Kateryna
would most definitely count among the
latter. For at no point did her sparky
eloquence and expressiveness desert her.
This is also how she sees herself:
“I’ma very sprightly sort of personwith
a lively imagination. I long for variety and
am interested in all kinds of things.”
Opera is one source of enjoyment,
because up on stage it’s possible to do
things that would be out of the question
yivka near Donetsk. Right now the guns are
roaring there, but her parents have not left
their home and Kateryna’s anxiety about
them surfaces the moment the competi-
tion is over.
Kateryna Kasper left Ukraine for
Germany a few years ago, first as an
exchange student in Nuremberg and then
to Frankfurt.
“I’ve now got a contract lasting several
years at Frankfurt Opera. I love this house
and I hope to be here a long time,” she
says. This does not, however, prevent her
from performing elsewhere. Indeed, she
wants to travel, to meet different kinds of
people and to work with good musicians
and orchestras.
From Baroque to
contemporary opera
In Frankfurt, Kateryna has already been
entrusted with parts such as Pamina and
Papagena in The Magic Flute and the
leading role in Cavalieri’s Baroque opera
Rappresentione di anima e di corpo. This
summer she sang in the premiere of the
new opera The Golden Dragon by
Peter
Eötvös
. Last year she formed a Baroque
ensemble of her own called théâtre sans
rideau (theatre without a curtain) to
present early music scored for solo voices
and ensemble in a direct, exciting way. Her
husband,
Johannes Kasper
, plays the cello
in real life.
“But Lied is a completely different
world; there, I’m the boss.”
At the Mirjam Helin Competition,
Kateryna Kasper proved that she has honed
her voice into an instrument of numerous
dimensions. She seemed equally at home
whatever she was singing: Baroque rhet-
oric, Mozart coloratura, subtle German
Lied, abandoned French chanson or ascetic
20th-century repertoire.
“I want to do all sorts of things. At the
moment I’mmostly singing opera, but I’d
like to do more concerts and oratorios as
well.”
Dream job in Frankfurt
Already a fully-fledged professional,
Kateryna Kasper recently signed a contract
in the city, Frankfurt, that is now her home
and where she has been part of the opera
studio’s student programme since 2012.
How did she become a singer?
“I’ve always been a singer,” she laughs.
“I loved performing even when I was
very small. I even dreamt of becoming an
actress, but as a singer, I can also act and
keep discovering new aspects of myself.”
Her parents dedicated themselves to
Kateryna’s musical education. Her mother
is a painter and her father a jazz musician.
Kateryna comes very close to tears
when she thinks of her home town, Maki-
Sprightly story-teller
holds audience spell-bound
“Genuine contact with an eager audience is surely the biggest prize I
won here.” This, in a nutshell, is how versatile soprano Kateryna Kasper
describes her experience of the 2014 Mirjam Helin Competition.
Right now Kateryna Kasper has but a single dream:
peace for Ukraine.
