在同一部歌剧中扮演新角色

小琼：几个月前，我在旧金山歌剧院主办的一个有趣的ZOOM视频研讨会中，看到三位瓦格纳天后与观众们分享了她们的职业心得。在这三位中，有两人在《指环》中扮演了多重角色。 妮娜·斯特默在成为布伦希尔德之前，曾以弗丽亚、齐格琳德和古特鲁尼的身份出现在舞台上。我真的很好奇，想知道有多少其他的歌剧可以为同一个歌手提供多个角色。

小薇：由于歌剧是一项如此庞大的集体项目，因此，有时一位艺术家会在同一部歌剧重演时扮演不同的角色是有道理的。但我想这些大多是小角色。有多少歌剧可以同时容纳两位明星男高音，或一位以上的女高音呢？

小琼：我刚刚看了一个旧金山歌剧院的点播节目，主角包括芬兰女高音卡丽塔·玛蒂拉。我记得14年前她曾在大都会歌剧院版莱奥什·雅纳切克的《耶努法》中担任剧名主角。当年，用捷克语演绎捷克歌剧，业界都公认是一项壮举！

小薇：我知道这部作品中有两个主要的女高音角色。除了女主人公耶努法，还有她的继母科斯泰尼卡，村庄里的一位圣器守司。简而言之，关于私生子的悲惨故事将这两个女人联系在了一起。

小琼：十几年前，卡丽塔·玛蒂拉因为出演耶努法获得了很多关注，不仅让她声名大噪，更为雅纳切克的歌剧赢得不少粉丝。真正令人惊奇的是，我在网上看到的2016年旧金山歌剧院的演出中，她担任的角色是继母科斯泰尼卡。

小薇：这两个角色都极具戏剧性。这两位摩拉维亚乡村妇女的角色中，耶努法的脸颊被割伤，作为未婚妈妈，她饱受煎熬；科斯泰尼卡则尽力挽救继女，使其免遭丑闻之苦，但最终还是杀掉了继女的孩子。这两个角色的情感创伤真的很沉重：一个是被爱情蒙蔽了双眼的年轻女子，另一个是对社会压力保持警惕的中年母亲。你可以从她们的声音中听到痛苦和悲傷。

小琼：我发现，这次旧金山版《耶努法》最令人惊奇的，不光是玛蒂拉在剧中出演了不同的角色，而且这就是奥利维尔·坦博西（Olivier Tambosi）当年为大都会歌剧院制作的那一版，这意味着服装、布景、道具和其他几乎所有东西与十几年前都是一样的。这个制作对观众和玛蒂拉来说都可谓是似曾相识！

Joan： A few months ago， I saw an interesting ZOOM chat hosted by the San Francisco Opera where three Wagnerian divas shared their professional experiences. Of the three， two have played multiple roles in the Ring Cycle. Nina Stemme， before her star turn as Brünnhilde， had already appeared as Freia， Sieglinde and Gutrune. I was really intrigued and wondered how many other operas could offer one singer multiple roles.

Valery： Since opera is such a massive group effort， it makes sense that sometimes the same artist will appear in the same opera， but in a different role at a different time！ But I guess they are mostly minor roles. How many operas can accommodate two star tenors， or more than one soprano？

Joan： Well， I was just watching an on-demand stream of the San Francisco Opera starring Finnish soprano Karita Mattila， whom I remember 14 years ago performing the title role in Leo？ Janá？eks Jen？fa（at the Metropolitan Opera）， back when performing Czech opera in the original language was a big deal！

Valery： I understand there are two major soprano roles in this opera. Apart from Jen？fa， theres also her stepmother， the village sacristan by the name of Kostelni？ka. In a nutshell， this tragic story about a baby born out of wedlock ties these two women together.

Joan： Karita Mattila got a lot of attention in the role of Jen？fa， not only for herself but also winning converts to the opera and to Janá？ek. What was truly amazing is that in the 2016 performance at San Francisco Opera that I saw online she played the role of Kostelni？ka.

Valery： These are both intense roles. Of these two Moravian village women， Jen？fa has her cheek slashed and suffers as an unwed mother， while Kostelni？ka tries her best to save her stepdaughter from scandal but eventually resorts to killing the baby. The emotional trauma of both roles is really taxing： one is a young woman blinded with love， the other a middle-aged mother wary of social pressures. You can hear the anguish and sadness in their voices.

Joan： What I found most amazing this time is that not only did Mattila appear in a different role， but this Jen？fa was the same production by Olivier Tambosi that appeared at the Metropolitan Opera， which meant that costumes， sets， props and almost everything else was all the same. Thats déjà vu for both the audience and for Mattila！