As she prepares a set of contemporary songs to perform – written in the ancient Greek language — I ask singer Anna Molnár, who loves hip minimalist clothing, what she will wear for the occasion: an artfully draped white sheet, perhaps?
“I do dress for the music,” she laughs. “It’s not a random decision. When I see the score, I almost immediately know what I’m going to wear! For the ancient Greek program, I’m going to wear black trousers with wide high heels with golden ornaments, a white shirtdress, and a golden necklace with a lizard.”
In the recent past, when she performed florid folk songs by Luciano Berio, she chose a pink dress. if she sings something more surrealistic, like Pierre Boulez’s “Le Marteau sans maître,” — “I prefer simple black, because everything [in the musical score] is so complex. The clothes help me feel the vibe of the music, and show the audience it’s music with a text which is so interesting! Clothes help, especially Chinese silk, for example. It’s theatre. Every piece is theatre.”
Beyond her fashion preferences though, singer Molnár, sporting closely cropped hair and oversized designer glasses, has carved out a career as one who tackles the more complex stuff in the vocal sphere. Thus, she’s in demand by composers who appreciate her loving devotion and extraordinary skills.
On May 20th she will perform two cantatas by Máté Balogh and Péter Tornyai, respectively, at the “Euripedes ‘22 Conference in Classics and Ancient History” at the University of Pécs’ Faculty of Music and Arts. The two cantatas, “Antiope Fragments” and “Amphion and Zethus,” are set in ancient Greek, which is one of those languages only known to academics. For this, she is consulting an expert in order to understand and pronounce the language.
Though the two cantatas are separate pieces, they have a simple connection: “Antiope is a lady, and both Amphion and Zethus are in love with her,” she explains. “In the male duet, I play both people, and I’m switching all the time between singing and Sprechgesang. It’s tiring, but I’m really enjoying it.”
This performance will be a repeat of one of the cantatas, which she sang three years ago. “I learned that very difficult piece [then], and now I get to sing it again! So, it’s a win-win. In the past, I learned many such pieces and only performed them once: this is the contemporary music dilemma. That’s why, if you are engaged with contemporary music, you have to be really engaged, because if you’re not interested, it’s just too much energy [to spend]. But I don’t mind, I learn everything, even for one occasion. One opportunity came one after the other. I just learned them; I didn’t care how much money I got or that I sang it only once — I’m just happy I’ve reached this place.”
The diva and her dreams
The word ‘diva’ suggests a stereotype, a larger-than-life personality – one that commands the spotlight. The key is whether it’s just onstage, or whether it’s offstage where it can get annoying. I ask Molnár whether she is a diva, and what that means in her world.
“I am!” she laughs. “Not in the classic way, but in my way, I am. You cannot avoid this thing if you are a performer. I call it energy. They say that we are ‘so sensitive,’ you know, sometimes we have to care about our voice, and that makes other people feel that you are a diva because we might say ‘I need silence, I need this or that,’ but you cannot avoid it”’
“If you are not a singer, it’s difficult to empathize with singers. Even for instrumentalists – they cannot think with our mindsets. I know my body, and it’s my instrument, and I know how to deal with it, it’s not someone else’s responsibility. It’s not like I ask for a special plant in my dressing room or something stupid. You know, they say Pavarotti always drank cold Coke in his dressing room! It’s a question of personality and what you know is good for you.”
Though it seems she has carved her own path, Molnár claims that path actually found her. “Those pieces by Berio and Boulez found me when the musicians who were organizing those concerts asked me to sing them,” she says. “So, I’m really lucky in this way; it was a bit random and I believe many things happen randomly through other people I’ve met, but contemporary music became my thing.”
I ask her when the traditional repertoire training became a shoe that didn’t fit. “At the Liszt Academy when I started to sing at 23 with Andrea Meláth, from the very beginning she realized I was good at sight-reading and singing more difficult pieces – more complicated rhythmically and melodically. And my pianist (Szabó Ferenc János), whose degree was in music theory, showed me a lot of wonderfully interesting scores, for example, Anton Webern’s Op. 12 (Vier Lieder). So, I chose them for my master’s recital.”
“During those years, I did realize that I’m good at singing these pieces quite easily. And I’m really enjoying it; for example, when I sing a piece for the first time, especially at a world premiere, there is this dual thing: the responsibility [of being] the first one in the universe to perform it, and I want to sing it well! Yes, it’s a big responsibility, but it’s also a delightful feeling for me. Not in an egoistic way, but there is freedom in it. If I sing Cherubino – and I love Mozart, of course – but because there are a lot of recordings of it on YouTube, it’s really difficult to create something new and exceptional with that role. I’m more interested in creating something really exceptional that no one else can do. Now, of course, a lot of people in the world can sing Boulez’ ‘Le Marteau sans maître,’ but I’m [focused] on creating something on a high level; with Cherubino I cannot.”
Looking ahead five years, Molnár’s dream is to sing abroad as a contemporary music soloist. “The world is big, though … if you step out of Hungary, it’s crazy how many good singers there are, even in the contemporary music world. We are living in a small box here, but I believe in myself. Maybe we [she and her partner, composer/conductor Gergely Vajda] can live elsewhere in Europe, though of course, I need a fixed job to start with. But let’s say this is my dream – to be an international contemporary music soloist. And if I had a steady repertoire of music by Berio and Boulez, I think I would be very happy!”
