EP. 5 SOULA PARASSIDIS - Becoming a 360° opera singer

Soula Parassidis is a Greek-Canadian soprano who has performed at prestigious venues such as the Berlin Philharmonie, the Teatro Filarmonico di Verona, and the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence. Her repertoire spans operatic and concert music from Gluck and Mozart to Wagner and Nono. She is also the co-founder of Living Opera, a multimedia company distributed through Universal Music that produces cross-genre projects aimed at broadening opera's audience.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Today we're in Munich and we're joined by soprano Sula Parasilis. You did not start out as an opera singer. No. Am I right on that? Yeah, you're right. Can you tell me about your background as a flutist, as an actress, and how you eventually found your way to it?

SPEAKER_02 0:16

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you have to understand that like we always need to be motivated by something, you know, in the arts. And for me, I was super motivated when I was like five years old by my friend who had a horse. And I really thought, if I can get near this horse, I can ride it. And she was doing music lessons, and we were five. And this already, this is the thinking I had. So I started out doing like the Orf method for children. And then one day I grew up in Canada, so I heard a concert in school and I heard the flute. And I was mesmerized by that sound. And I like begged my mother, like, may I please learn this? And she's like, I'll ask your father. And my father is Greek, and like was not so excited about the idea, but they allowed me, and I started the flute for several years, and I thought I would do that. And I really loved it. And I and I played almost 10 years. And in the midst of that, I also started with classical drama, but not because I wanted to be an actor per se. My mother thought I didn't speak clearly, and she thought this would help me to enunciate better. But then it turned out I had sort of a talent for that. And by the time I was, you know, 10, 11 years old, I was doing full monologues by Shakespeare and even competitive poetry reading and competitions and stuff like that. And so this was my whole life besides you know going to school like a child does. And I loved it. And the only reason I got into opera is because in the midst of all of those activities, my mother saw one day there was an audition in the local newspaper and said, Maybe you should do that audition. And so we, you know, drove down to the theater and I was prepared to deliver the monologue of Pak from a Midsummer Night's Dream, as most 12-year-olds do. Um and they said, Sorry, sorry, sorry, um, this is for a musical and you're going to have to sing. And I said, Well, in fact, don't do that. And they said, Well, just try. And you know, I guess when you're 12 you have no fear at all. So I just did something. And they said, Yeah, I've got a good voice. You should you should come and do like our camp for children. So I came and someone heard me there and said, You should be an opera singer. And again, I was 12, so I was like, What? What's that? And um basically I ignored that suggestion completely and kept pursuing what I wanted to do. And that same woman, two years later, said, Now, have you done what I said? And I said, Nah. And she said, Ah, I'll call someone that I know. And she made my first appointment with my first voice teacher, and again, my God bless my mother, because I couldn't drive or do anything for myself yet. She drove me into the big city, so to speak, and I had my first voice lesson, and that teacher said, Okay, if you'll put the work in, like I will teach you every week, because you really have something here. And that's how I got into opera. But it all started with the horse.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

I see. And then your formation after that, what does it look like?

SPEAKER_02 2:56

Well, I as soon as I learned what exactly opera was, and my teacher told me to listen to three singers, um, Renata Tabaldi, uh, Maria Ecalas, and Frenny, Virella Freny. And uh actually met Frenny once too, so that was fascinating. But um, when I heard their voices and how they treated the music, I was just immediately mesmerized and I fell in love, and that that that's all I wanted to do. So then I became really obsessed with listening to recordings and just taking all of that in. And I sort of just went through the motions. I, you know, in my mind I was like, okay, this is what I'm going to do now. This makes sense. It's the culmination of everything I've done. You know, I'm an instrumentalist, I'm an actor. Now I'm gonna put it all together on the stage and and sing opera. And that that was really the goal, and that's basically I was so headstrong until I made my you know professional debut. I was like, this is it, this is what I'm going to do.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

And uh so now to take to you know jump ahead as an accomplished artist, one part of that is social media. And the way you use it is just fun and very varied. You know, you've got comedy sketches about promoting your concept and then you give vo advice as well. Yeah. Uh for vocal techniques. So do you have a strategy? Is it whatever that you know comes to mind, or how do you go about it?

SPEAKER_02 4:10

Yeah, I mean, it's funny. So, you know, in 2019, my husband, uh Norman Reinhardt, who's a tenor, professional tenor, um, we started to create content for other artists and not just emerging ones. Like, I feel like there's always the emphasis on emerging artists, but I actually think it's interesting like what happens after 30, like what happens when you're mid-career. We actually have to service these people as well. So it was really for anybody. And I just really want to emphasize that in this interview as well that what I create is meant for anyone who wants to sing at any time. Um with our now, what's like actually turned into a brand living opera? I would say with that one we have strategy and we have focus, and we really try to think about what's useful for the audience as a as a helpful educational resource, and also with our label where we make our own recordings and things like that. So we tried to be really strategic there. Um, but in my own social media, my channels, I like to be more spontaneous and I like to address what's really on spontaneously on my heart for the day or for the week, or if I have a project, of course, I need to promote that. Um, but I never like to sit down and be like, yeah, what's my content calendar? Like, I mean, I I've never done that with my channel. Um I don't know if it's to my detriment or not, but I just want it to stay me and stay authentic and be fun and not get into some sort of formula because I think then it can really get boring, at least for me as a creator. Like, I need to have some outlet where I'm not being told what to do.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Right.

SPEAKER_02 5:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

And have you found uh social media to be an asset at all in finding gigs, or is it just unrelated to the physical rules?

SPEAKER_02 5:46

Yeah, I mean, you know, so far I've I've not been hired for any gigs because of my social media. I think it's an asset when I'm on a job, and I mean, just now I just wrapped a tour and I made sure I was really creating valuable content for the you know the promoter because uh I know that they they wanted that, they needed that. But I think sometimes the stuff that I create, it's it's so varied. It's not just me singing all the time. Um and I know that some artists do get hired that way, and I even asked on my social media recently, like who here has been hired because of their social media and a lot of hands up in the comments. Um, but because of my content and because, you know, I mean, nobody's over here like we want opera comedy, like we please do that for two hours, you know. Um I think it just helps to establish an overall brand. A lot of people know who I am, and they feel like you know, we know each other when we do meet. But um I would I would like to see that convert into some sort of contracts, but I don't really know it's a whole other conversation about casting and how does it work. I think um with the younger generation of casting directors, when I say younger, like maybe under the age of 50, I think it could um have an impact, but so far I haven't seen it. Okay, interesting. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

And uh well, you mentioned Living Opera, and I really want to know more about this uh this initiative and also just in general, where the opera world is going for you, where you want it to go.

SPEAKER_02 7:15

Oh my god. Okay, well, um Living Opera started just as our project on the road. Um, I always knew from the time I went freelance, I knew I needed to do more than um just sing, and by the way, just singing is enough. It's more than enough, but I'm just wired a little bit differently. Um I didn't know what that was gonna look like. So we started just by making YouTube videos just like this one, um, trying to be helpful within the community. Um, my husband had also like, he did 13 role debuts in two years and some really high-profile ones and went through some performance anxiety. And at the time it was like not cool to speak about that publicly. So we thought, well, that's stupid. You know, we're gonna be losing the best artists when they get into their prime if we don't address this head on. So that's how we started at first with Living Opera. Um, then during the pandemic, I sort of said, hey, the gloves are off. There's nothing's happening in the opera world. We can just do whatever we want. So we experimented with emerging technologies. We did a whole blockchain collection with like music of Mozart composed on the blockchain. It was super fun. Um, I then went through a really long immigration process in the United States. So I was like, will I ever go on stage again? Like, what's going on? So then I really lost all inhibition. I started to even create the fun content that I do on my channel. Um, now Living Opera basically has two buckets. One is a nonprofit foundation where we're fundraising currently to be able to make better educational programs for artists of all ages. Um, and then the other one is our label where we um have corporate sponsors to do out-of-the-box projects. So, like this year, for example, it's um USA 250. So we decided to explore uh radio as an emerging technology.

SPEAKER_01 8:58

This is Radio Days. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 8:59

So that's our Radio Days album, and it's a really big challenge for me because I only really sing classical. Norman is much more adept at other styles of music, and he grew up singing other styles. So I had to really figure out how to sing this genre, which was like popular radio hits from the 30s and 40s, and that will release in June. And then next year we have our site set on a more of a classically based project. But we try to do one big project per year in Living Opera, and we want that to grow. And I would love to produce other artists too. That's something we're really passionate about. So to eventually grow the label that we do that as well.

SPEAKER_00 9:33

Since you perform both in opera and in concert, is there anything that you have to change vocally or that is different between those two formats?

SPEAKER_02 9:41

Well, of course, I mean when you're in an opera, you have the vision, not only your own vision, but you have the vision of the conductor and of the director, and then you have maybe the constraints of the theater is like very large, for example, you might sing with a different intensity than if you're doing a solo recital. Um, a lot of the concert work that I do though is like symphonic uh stuff. So if you're doing a big malar symphony, then you kind of just let it go. I think ultimately you should never change your vocal technique fundamentally. I might sing more on what I call the edge of the chords. If I'm just doing, let's say, a more intimate recital with just one piano, I might not give the same force and volume if I'm singing a full opera, but ultimately the technique stays exactly the same.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

Then going back to the opera, so um you've sung demanding roles, uh, which are demanding like big emotional depth of stuff, like ifiginie. Yes. Um so after you stepped off the stage, is it uh difficult for you or how do you go about leaving the role behind you after singing it?

SPEAKER_02 10:38

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I was um pondering this um question a bit because I'm not like a method person. Um I try to explore the emotions the character is going through, convey them authentically on the stage, but I'm completely detached from these characters. And the moment I step off the stage, I go into a mode to wind down, to get grounded again, and also remember that like I'm not so important, you know, to be some diva or whatever. I just I just care about leaving it all there and then building myself up again to be able to leave it all there again, to get filled up with positive things so that I can go and convey these massive emotions on the stage.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

So that also means that you make a difference between your work and your private life, you separate them really.

SPEAKER_02 11:26

You have to. You have to because if you're performing just for the approval of other people, you won't have your own identity. And I think every artist has to really confront this. The sooner you confront it, the freer you are because there's all kinds of ups and downs in the career. And the funny thing is um it helps you maintain satisfaction in what you're doing because you maybe you won't always be the flavor of the month. Let's say you know you're in favor of certain casting directors for four or five seasons and then you're not. So what are you gonna do? Just lose your self-esteem? Absolutely not. They don't define my self-worth.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

Okay, so it's uh so it's but it's also uh like building, it's building your character in in some kind of way or helping helping you.

SPEAKER_02 12:10

Yeah, because you know, um when you have to persevere, that's what builds your character. It's not when things are going easy. I think we want to convey this idea um of lightness easy, and of course I do too, because I want to build people up, especially via my social media. But those moments where you're not sure you should take the next step and you go anyway, and then it works, and the door opens, then you have to hold that up on a strong foundation. Um but failure that teaches you whether or not you've built up your own private life to undergird all of that. And if you need the external validation and success, you're gonna live and die with every engagement. Yeah, yeah. And you can't do that. You can't do that over a long career.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

Yeah, absolutely. Uh then also what what would be kind of interesting is that you've been often referred to as a singer-actress. Um so would you say that currently the opera world is developing a greater appreciation of dramatic skills?

SPEAKER_02 13:20

Well, I think that completely changed with Maria Carlos. I mean, I think, I mean, of course, she was just a consummate vocalist. I know she had some problems later in her career, but I mean, if you hear how she used her voice in actually any part of her career, but the early recordings were definitive, um, I think she was the first one to really swing our business in that direction. Um, in terms of my own relationship to the art form, I, you know, it's you know what's funny? I actually like I cannot memorize the role unless I deeply understand the text. Like, I'm not as sound-driven as other artists. I'm text-driven first. Um, and it took me a long time to actually pay attention when the score was asking for a beautiful sound. I was because you know, most of the characters I'm going through super tough things. So I'm trying to convey that, but I realized okay, you still have to convey that through a certain lens, I would say, of vocal technique and beauty, because I would go so far as to make sounds where it's like, and uh, and I've tried to marry the two, but um I think it just also depends on the market where you start your career. Um, I think I'm learning this because now I divide my time between the United States and and Europe, but I started my career in Germany in like heavy Regie Theater productions, where that was completely expected, but as I developed into other sort of more heroin roles, like the title roles and stuff like that, I realized I needed more in my vocal palette, and I actually worked with a voice teacher to develop my technique so I'd be able to, you know, sing a beautiful penisuma high note. I couldn't do that before when I was just fest and doing like more regie theaters kind of stuff. Um I think we should never lose the vocalism in opera. I think it's important to um take care of what the composer wants and and never at the expense, you know, the drama should never you know be at the expense of the music. Um but that also depends on the kind of operas you sing, because if you are specializing in Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, that's built in. If you are going more the direction which I've gone is, you know, pursuing now more in the Strauss and and Wagner arena, you have to take care of the text, especially, you know, um Strauss is like text-based almost completely, you know, and and in Wagner you have these alliterations, so you really have to be honest about that. But I think whatever sets the performer free is the most important. So if a performer is really like like my husband is very sound, always a very dynamic performer, um, he's very frustrated if the sound isn't exactly as he wants. Um and that's what sets him free. And for me, if I just really convey vocally what I think the character is going to be. I'll give you an example. I I once sang um uh like right when I finished my studies, I sang Suare Angelica, which is like not really a role for someone in their 20s, but that's fine, in my opinion. I mean, some some people can, but I'm like, mm-mm, that was interesting. Um, and I had to get into the mindset of what happens to her when she finds out the baby is dead in that opera. Um and so I tried to imagine, okay, because it says I think it says grido in the score, like scream. So I remember like sitting and thinking, like, and I have no context for that because I was not a mother, I wasn't married, I've never had a baby, and so I was like, mm-hmm. So I sat there and I was like, okay, how would this sound? How would this be? And so I I don't fully remember what I did vocally, but I remember a lady tracking me down afterwards after the show saying, I lost a baby, and I used to go find a field where I'd be completely alone so I could make screams just like that. And so that's what I'm really after as a as a you know, uh quote, singing actress, whatever, you know. And now I'm trying to balance my temperament with what the composer really wants, and and that's the next part of my journey, I would say.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

Oh, yeah, that's a really wonderful story.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02 17:20

Yeah, my pleasure. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

And now let's hear Sula Parasidi's top comment.

SPEAKER_02 17:26

I think it's time for artists to speak the reality they want to see within the classical music world and not the facts on the ground. We're speaking too often about all the problems. We need to start dreaming again, and we need to start believing again. And I think if we'll do that, we will see an explosion in our industry. A positive explosion.