Cristina Nassif chats to Femalefirst

05 February 2009

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Cristina Nassif is considered to be one of the most distinctive and interesting young singers in Opera. On February 26th she'll take the starring role in "Carmen" at London's Royal Albert Hall. Femalefirst caught up with her to discuss Carmen, her musical roots and what she thinks of our capital.

Hey Cristina. Carmen is starting soon, are you you looking forward to that?

Yes I am. Very much so, its all very exciting.

The character you play, Carmen, what is she like?

What is she not like? She's definatley got fire, she's got passion. She's very passionate and very strong willed. I'd say she's a tempter of fate, she believes in fate and yet in her stubbornness and willfulness she wants to try to challenge it. She's a very strong character. At times you don't see people play her sense of humour its all this doom and gloom but she's also very funny. Very free spirited and I guess she's everything all in one, there are soft sides to her too.

Is that something you'll be concious of when playing her to get her sense of humour across?

I'm certainly trying to tap into that, it depends on really the production, how certain things that are lighter could be played. I definately think that we'll tap into it in this production.

How would you dexcribe Carmen for non-opera fans?

I think that those who haven't been exposed to opera there are certain ones that they ought to go to to get their first taste. This is one opera that even if you've never been to one before, its a story that is compelling and it will draw you in. There are a lot of familiar tunes that i think non opera goers don't ever realise that they know of and then they go an see this sort of production and they'rll recognise a lot of the arias and duets.

So, would you say this is a good show to introduce people to opera?

Yes certainly. Opera in general now can be traditionally staged and be catered to opera goers but there are definately other outlets for those who have not ever been to an opera. There are pop-operas, they're been coming out with things like Rent and Moulin Rouge. They're trying very hard beacuse it is somerthing that i think people don't realise they could really fall in love with until they go and are moved by it. The key is as a perfromer to be as honest as you can in the roles that you're playing. One thing always try to do is be very honest and tell a story. It's not about standing and singing, it's about the story.

What do you tnik makes Carmen stand out from other operas?

Becuase it's so real, the story. We live in a society unfortunatly where you see this kind of heightened passion all the time. There's murder, theres lovre all of the things that we're exposed to, hopefully not in our own lives but we're constantly having it kind of thrown in our faces. It's as if they're watching a drama but it's live and there's something very different about live theatre. Especially in this performance with the round stage round where we're constantly in motin and you're seeing things from different angles, you almost feel like you're on a movie set where the camra is coimg aroung the characters.

Do you think the round stage brings something extra to the performance?

I do think so. It forces us as performers to be in the moment at all times i think sometimes, this obviously is not everybody but if you've got the back of the stage where no one can see you, you can take little moments to catch your breath or are tempted to fall out of character, as much as you don' t want to. In this setting it really foces you to connect with the other characters on stage at every moment, you're not really given that kind of break and its very exciting.

Are you looking forward to playing in London?

Certainly, this has been coming for a long time now and it's crazy to think that it finally here, this moment. I'm having a great time in rehersal, I love this city and I'm looking forward to having more time to explore the rest of the city but this is an incredible venue and I'm very happy to be here to be doing an opera that I love

What have been your favourite roles that you have played?

I would say Violetta in La Traviata. I like alot of these strong characters with hearts. The often misunderstood characters and I love to play charcters that force me to search for feelings and emotions that I don't experience every day, things that I would never do. It's very excing and liberating to do a role like Carmen or Violetta where I'm able to tap into things that I never knew about myself.

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