Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

Reached in Paris, the day after performing in Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegra” at l’Opéra national de Paris, celebrated Siberian-born baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky talked about one of his signature roles — the title character in Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” — and the Metropolitan Opera production he starred in that will be presented by GREAT PERFORMANCES

GREAT PERFORMANCES: What draws you to the title character of “Eugene Onegin”? Is he a difficult character to portray?

Dmitri Hvorostovsky: This personage is not easy to understand, even for someone who has been doing this role for decades. The character created by Pushkin in literature is very complex. In the opera, he appears slightly different, with an infusion of Tchaikovsky’s own personality and attitude that changes [Onegin] a little bit

He is definitely not the bad guy, which is how he is portrayed often in the West. He is a product of his time, very cynical, but highly educated, refusing to be active. There are a lot of question marks at the end of the opera. Who will this young man become? Potentially, he could become a revolutionist, a member of the avant-garde Decembrist movement. Will it be easier for him to commit suicide because of his unlucky love? Or will he become someone who would do something for society? Will he start writing? Or become a politician and fight against the routine of government structures?

Onegin is from the beginning of the 19th century, but he is also a common figure in our time. So each time there is a new production, we try to find out who Onegin is. The easiest thing to say is that he is a bad guy because he turned down Tatiana, and gets what he deserves when, years later, he suddenly falls in love with her — and she turns him down. But this is not true. He is a much more profound guy

GP: Do you need to be a Russian singer to get the maximum out of this opera?

DH: I’ve been outside of Russia for many years, so I’ve become a foreigner myself. I’ve seen more of an international conception of this opera. My own conception of many things has been changed a great deal because I have changed over the years. My life and professional experiences have taught me a lot more than I knew when I first did this opera

GP: It has been said by more than one observer that you were born to sing Onegin, that the role suits your voice perfectly. What were your feelings about the music when you first sang it?

DH: Tchaikovsky wrote nothing easy for a musician — singers, instrumentalists, everyone would complain about the difficulties Tchaikovsky wrote. He had no pity on singers. Only mature singers can really handle it. But when I performed Onegin for the first time, I felt like it was a piece of cake because I was a student, and I felt I would conquer the world with incredible speed and velocity

Then I started to perform the role abroad and became slightly frustrated with the conceptions of stage directors who had not treated one of my favorite personages with all the respect it deserves. I put myself into a difficult position trying to fight it, being young and quite arrogant. One of my first appearances as Onegin was in Paris in 1993. I fought with all my strength and all my knowledge against the stage director. I had a group of Russian singers supporting me. Eventually, though, we did the production and it was nicely done. But ever since, I lost the respect of that director; he has always refused to hire me. He still doesn’t like me, even now

After doing the role many times, I found I could not be satisfied with myself as an actor or a musician. I was always looking for the ideal Tatiana, the ideal conductor, and the ideal production. I couldn’t find that balance, so I gave up the role for a number of years

GP: Why have you felt confident to perform this work again, and at the Metropolitan Opera?

DH: One of the reasons I came back to “Onegin,” if not the main reason, was my good friend Renée Fleming

We first did it in 2000, in a concert at Avery Fisher Hall. It struck me then that I had actually found the ideal Tatiana. I knew she could refresh my performance of Onegin. She seems quite Slavonic to me. I guess she has some Slavonic blood in her. The first time I heard her sing Tatiana, she was vibrating the right kind of strength in her heart and soul. It touched me right away. Finally, we got together on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera and did a very, very beautiful production that has been seen at movie theaters and can now be seen on television. I am still feeling very satisfied about this. To do “Onegin” with Renée, with [tenor] Ramón [Vargas], and with [conductor] Valery [Gergiev] in one of my favorite theaters in the world — the Metropolitan is like family to me — has been wonderful. I’m now very keen to do this opera as many times as I can, but I’m probably becoming too mature, too old for Onegin. [Hvorostovsky is 44; the character of Onegin is in his early 20s.]

GP: What do you like best about working with Renée Fleming?

DH: She’s very unpredictable as an artist. Each time I sing with her it is surprising. She always tries to challenge herself, to take risks. She is an amazing artist. I am very proud to sing with her. She has a big, powerful, loving heart that she performs from. And she has one of the most perfect techniques among sopranos of our time. I’m sure she can do anything she wants to

GP: The other big star of the Met’s “Onegin” is Ramón Vargas as Lenski. What are your thoughts about his performance?

DH: Ramon is so touching, so amazing. This is another beautiful performance that matches the character. He is a very vulnerable Lenski, a typical poet — even visually. He reminds me of one of the historic persons that Pushkin knew himself. Ramon is also an absolutely beautiful musician. The way he sings Lenski really pleases me a great deal

GP: You used the word “unpredictable” when discussing Renée Fleming. It’s a word that critics often use to describe Valery Gergiev’s conducting. Does that make things difficult for you?

DH: Valery is always very easy to work with. He makes you feel so comfortable and secure. He’s a superhuman to me. I’ve known him for many years and consider him to be a dear friend. I have so much respect for him, the way he can pull the heartstrings in any music he conducts. He is not just surprising in performance; the profundity of any performance he conducts is also so incredible. Anything we do together feels like a piece of cake. He always welcomes any ideas I can create. He always follows me. Believe me, to have such a conductor, it encourages you

GP: You have enjoyed particular success in Italian repertoire as well as Russian. Will that continue to be a big part of your career?

DH: I’m still doing a lot of Verdi, still enjoying it. I’m so happy, like yesterday [April 10] here [Paris Opera], with the opening of “Simon Boccanegra,” probably the best role ever written for [a] baritone. It is such a pleasure and privilege to do this role. I will be doing it at the Met in a few yearsí time

GP: Are there other Verdi roles you plan to add to your repertoire?

DH: I haven’t done Iago or Macbeth yet, but probably will soon

GP: What about other Italian composers, from Rossini to Puccini?

DH: I used to do [Rossini's] “Barbiere [di Siviglia].” I mentioned it to [Metropolitan Opera general manager] Peter Gelb, and he just raised his eyebrows. I don’t know if that’s good or bad. I just changed the subject. A lot of people have been sitting on my shoulders trying to persuade me to do Scarpia [in Puccini's "Tosca"], but I think that will have to wait

GP: Are there other operas you particularly want to tackle?

DH: I’m not dying to do anything, but I’m trying to enlarge my repertoire. I also want to expand my activity

GP: Do you mean outside of opera?

DH: I’m curious to do something else, probably a movie — maybe an action movie, with no singing [laughter]. And I’m curious to perform different types of music, like classic pop. But anything like this needs to be thought through

GP: Meanwhile, how are you enjoying your career?

DH: My life is very beautiful, very exciting, and quite lucky. It is the biggest pleasure in the world to perform for a crowd that listens to your every breath. What can be better than this?

Interview by Tim Smith for GREAT PERFORMANCES Online conducted in April 2007.

Breakthru Films

Sergei Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” has inspired an Oscar®-winning short film of extraordinary imagination written and directed by British animator Suzie Templeton. In a masterful use of stop-frame technique and lifelike models, the film offers a fresh take on the classic tale, set to Prokofiev’s colorful score from 1936. Templeton, 40, spoke to GREAT PERFORMANCES Online about the five-year effort to bring this updated “Peter & the Wolf” to the screen.

GREAT PERFORMANCES: How did the initial idea for making this film come about?

SUZIE TEMPLETON: The producer [Hugh Welchman] and Mark Stephenson, the conductor, had the idea between them to do a film of “Peter and the Wolf” and they asked me to make it. I hadn’t listened to the Prokofiev piece since I was a child, but I had very strong feelings about it then, and those very strong feelings came right back when they suggested it.

GP: Instead of a very folksy, once-upon-a-time approach, you have created a present-day and sometimes spooky Russian world for Peter. How did your interpretation of the story take shape?

ST: Most of it developed organically. Several options were kicking around about where to set the story. I didn’t want it to be insipid in any way. I wanted it to feel timeless, but also to feel contemporary and talk about things that are relevant to us today. I think we achieved that. I went to Russia twice to do some research for the film. I took thousands of photos. I talked to children and old people.

GP: People who know the story from hearing Prokofiev’s original text recited at concerts and on recordings will notice a few minor differences.

ST: I knew at the start that I wanted Peter to have an intensity and darkness about him. And I knew I wanted him to let the Wolf go free at the end.

GP: In addition to the Wolf’s fate, there’s the question of the Duck. In the original, the poor thing is swallowed whole by the Wolf and is still heard inside him at the end. That postingestion element isn’t in the film.

ST: I did consider it. But I couldn’t find a way to have the Duck in the Wolf’s stomach, which is something I still remember being affected by as a child when I first heard the piece. I couldn’t show that without completely changing the style of the film. It was a not a happy situation for me.

GP: In your film, Peter is pretty much confined to a gloomy, run-down compound with his grandfather, a place that conveys a lot of fears. The nearby town Peter goes to isn’t much better; it presents an unflattering view of Russian society, very much an economically deprived spot with what look like young paramilitary thugs. It’s a very striking image. Have you heard any complaints from Russians who have seen the film?

ST: I know of maybe 10 Russians who have seen it, and I was really happy with their response. Two or three said they couldn’t believe a non-Russian had made the film. That was a really great feeling for me. I wanted it to feel Russian, and they said that’s what it felt like. But one Ukrainian told me I had robbed him of his childhood vision of the piece. So many people have a vision of “Peter and the Wolf” in their heads, a vision of what it meant to them when they were a child, and they don’t want it changed.

GP: What is your vision for this story? The original text doesn’t necessarily seem full of symbols or lessons, but your film, even though there are no words at all, seems to convey lots of different layers of meaning. Are there specific messages you want viewers to think about?

ST: It is a primal story of a boy and a wolf. But [Prokofiev's] text is quite short, actually. To read it, what does it take, three minutes? I had to create all the rest. That gave me a tremendous scope to determine what the music meant to me and what I wanted it to mean. All sorts of interpretations are possible. I do have many subtexts in there, but I would prefer not to talk about them. I’d rather leave that to others to decide.

GP: How difficult was it to find backing for the film?

ST: It’s really hard to raise money for a short film, and this one had a very high budget. The producers worked incredibly hard to get the money. It was a very, very hard sell. It took three years to raise the money. I was mostly shielded from that trauma, and I was busy all of that time anyway working on the project. I didn’t have to go in person to make the pitch to investors, so I was very lucky in that respect. What I was required to come up with were nice pictures and storyboards that the producers could show to give people an idea of what the film would be like.

GP: Was the actual filming fun?

ST: I wouldn’t say it was fun. No, it wasn’t fun at all. But it was definitely interesting, definitely intense — brilliant and terrible at the same time. We were under incredible pressure, all of us, all of the time. It is a dreadful pressure in a form that is so meticulous. You can’t make mistakes. But there is a great joy in making good work and making work at this level with these people.

GP: In regular filmmaking, directors look at rushes, all the footage from each day’s work. In stop-frame animation filming, do you still get rushes?

ST: Yes, but they’re quite short (laughter). You only get two or three shots a day. I would put the rushes into my computer each day in a time line with the music, to make sure it worked.

GP: Could you change things as you went along, come up with different ideas about a shot?

ST: We were on so tight a schedule it was very difficult to change anything. I could tweak small things, ad lib a little bit. But the camera angles, the shot lengths, the sets — they were all set, so we were very much constrained.

GP: After working on this project for five years, can you stand to hear the music of “Peter and the Wolf” anymore?

ST: I listened to it literally thousands of times, repeating little phrases over and over and over again as I was writing and drawing scenes. But after all of that, I am still enjoying it. I think I never became deaf to it, you know, the way you can hear something so often that you don’t actually hear the notes. That didn’t happen. It’s amazing.

GP: How has the postfilming experience been for you?

ST: The reaction was better than we could have ever hoped for, so it will be easier from now on to make more films. But it has been very tough for the producers to get distribution, because it’s a short film and people don’t know what to do with a short film. Going to the Oscars was crazy. I have never been to anything like that, but it was great fun.

GP: Have you settled on your next project?

ST: I am considering several things. I’d like to make a feature story with stop-motion.

Interview by Tim Smith for GREAT PERFORMANCES Online conducted in March 2008.

GREAT PERFORMANCES: Your father was always so dapper in his dress, and looked more like a successful banker than a major Broadway composer.

Mary Rodgers: I know. We made lots of jokes about that in the family, for he was a man who was very caring when it came to clothes. And although poor Oscar [Hammerstein II] was always concerned about his dress, no matter what he did, he looked as if he had just gotten out of bed!

GP: Mr. Rodgers always seemed so down-to-earth.

MR: He could be, and he was no slouch in the humor department.

GP: And he seemed to keep his great fame in perspective.

MR: That’s true. He was no prima donna. As a man he was very sensible, very aware of who he was. He, of course, went through all the anxieties every writer feels when he embarked on a new project. But he was also spoiled in ways that I think all men were back then. He expected my mother to be a good housekeeper and see that everything was properly taken care of. There were certain things he wanted nothing to do with when it came to the house.

GP: What do you feel was the special chemistry at work between him and Lorenz Hart?

MR: To start with, they were both so talented, and they had higher aspirations for musical theater than anyone before them, with the obvious exception of Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” and Jerome Kern’s “Show Boat.” Daddy used to say that with Larry Hart he had met the partner of his life and the most irritating man he had ever known. But then, talented people are often very difficult people.

GP: Did one spark the other more than the other way around, or was it fairly equal?

MR: One fed off the other’s ideas, and theirs was a mutual respect. Daddy was very good with languages and a very good lyric writer himself, and Larry was very musical. He couldn’t have written those genius rhythms of his if he had not understood music so well. Interestingly enough, in their work together, the music usually came first, where with Oscar and Daddy the lyrics came first.

GP: Could you compare the music your father wrote with Hart with what he wrote with Hammerstein?

MR: It is completely different. With Larry, Daddy’s music was quirkier and more mischievous. It was the music of his youth, less folksy and more sophisticated. Both of these qualities existed in my father. What Oscar did was to bring out the deep-seated, perfectly beautiful sounds of German Romanticism that were latent in Daddy’s writing. These enabled him to reach a new dimension in moments like the death scene in “Carousel” or the opening of “South Pacific,” when Nellie and Emile first meet. There had been no opportunity to write anything like that in a Rodgers and Hart musical. The subject matter wouldn’t have brought it out, and the art form hadn’t advanced to the point where you could present extended musical ideas.

GP: Did your father ever yearn, like George Gershwin, to write something substantial for the concert hall?

MR: Never! He was not remotely interested in abstract music. He needed the stimulus of a story and the stimulation of the theatrical experience. Then, too, although he wrote complete manuscripts and was a trained musician, he was not an orchestrator. And you don’t write a symphonic piece and let someone else orchestrate it.

GP: Why did Hart turned down “Oklahoma!”?

MR: It was just too folksy for him, and besides, he was coming to the end of his emotional tether. He was a prime candidate for Prozac, if it had only been available then. If he could have dealt with his emotional problems, God only knows what more he might have done.

GP: Was writing easy for your father?

MR: It was very easy. Noël Coward once said that Daddy just “pissed melody.” That doesn’t mean that a lot of thought didn’t go into his songs, however.

GP: Was your father close to his contemporaries, such as George Gershwin and Kurt Weill?

MR: I don’t believe he knew Weill or even particularly liked his music, but Gershwin was a close friend. If he was ever jealous of anyone — and I don’t mean “jealous” in any nasty or competitive way — it was Gershwin. But then everyone was. But Daddy was secure about his talent, and he knew that there was only one Richard Rodgers, like there was only one Frank Loesser, one Cole Porter. If you gave the same book and lyrics to three composers this good, they would have written three completely different shows.

GP: One last question: How would you compare the lyrics of Hart and Porter, which both have such a marvelous sense of word play?

MR: The difference, I think, came with what interested Porter as opposed to what interested Larry. I guess the lyrics for “The Lady Is a Tramp” could have been written by either one of them, but Porter, in general, never had the wistful, sentimental, slightly cynical quality you found so often in Larry’s lyrics. Porter was much more up front about joy, humor, wickedness. There was something that was more sly and complicated about Larry. They were both wicked — Porter could even be dirty — but they were wicked in very different ways.

Interview by the late John Ardoin for GREAT PERFORMANCES Online.

Question 1: Is everybody in your family as musically inclined as you?

Answer: My family is pretty musical in that they enjoy and appreciate music from all genres. When I was young, they really made sure I was exposed to some great music, and I definitely got my ear from my dad, who learned to play both piano and trumpet by ear when he was in high school and college. My younger brother plays guitar, but his real passion is film.

Question 2: What do you love most about singing?

Answer: Singing brings out in me what I can’t normally bring out in everyday life. It’s an incredible feeling to be able to bare your soul to people you’ve never met in a way that can make them understand so clearly what you mean. That’s what I love most about singing … it becomes my truest form of communication.

Question 3: The music you sing is beautiful, to say the least, but you’re a pretty good drummer as well. Did you ever aspire to be a professional drummer, or is it merely a pastime for you?

Answer: Yay! Thanks for this question. I LOVE the drums. I’ve always bought CDs that were drum heavy and featured amazing drummers, and it’s been my main hobby for the last five years. I hope one day to join a band as a drummer, but in the meantime the most professional it will get is a little bit on tour or on my next album if I get brave enough.

Question 4: What kind of advice would you give to someone who dreams of a career in vocal music and acting? It is frustrating with so many ups and downs.

Answer: When I found out that I had “the bug” for music and acting, something just turned on like a light switch and I … [had] a one-track mind that I HAD to get as much training as possible and go for it one day. There are many ups and downs, but the one thing that I’ve learned that has helped me is that for someone starting out it takes two things (besides talent) … unending drive and patience. Immerse yourself in your craft and study other artists around you as much as you train yourself. Other than that, it can come down to being at the right place at the right time. But if you’re driven enough and you’re prepared, your chances of that happening are much greater. Good luck!

Josh Groban: Well, even back when we were first starting to make the CD, really as far back as when I was in high school, I always dreamed of one day doing a show on PBS, because I had grown up watching so many great PBS performances and being inspired by them. All the shows on GREAT PERFORMANCES — “Sunday in the Park with George” was the first musical I ever saw and it was on TV, it was on PBS, with Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters, and then “Sweeney Todd” with George Hearn and Angela Lansbury. It really kind of introduced me … to a whole new world out there that I wanted to be a part of. So, when we were making the CD and the CD was done and we were trying to build a fan base, I knew that eventually — I had hoped, at least — that I would do a television concert at some point in my career. And I hoped that it would be on PBS. I never thought that it would happen at 21. It was just something that I always kind of knew that I would do, and so the entire process of it was just such a joy to do because it was like a dream come true.

GP: Can you tell me a little bit about the process of doing the PBS special? From the idea to the actual taping.

JG: Well, I had never done a TV special before. I’ve had to build a team around me to make an album, but I’ve never had to work with a team that had so much more to think about than just recording music for an album. We were essentially recording an album, but we were doing it with production trucks and video cameras and an audience and a stage. Filming a TV special is extremely difficult because you’re on a budget, you’re on a time limit, and the pressure is on to get it right, right away. Not to mention the pressure is on for me, to have something in my hand that I’m going to watch for the rest of my life and make sure that it’s something that I am absolutely proud of. So the planning stages were many, many months, in terms of who I wanted to have on the show and what kind of instruments I’d like to have and what the setup would be and how to make it look unique and how to make me appear on stage the way that I’d like to do a show. I wanted the theatricality, but I didn’t want it to go too much in that direction. But on the other hand, I’m not the kind of performer that stands on stage with an orchestra behind him for the whole show.

You know, it was great, I had a great, great team around me, between my manager Brian Avnet and my stage director Danny Ezralow, who also created the show with me, and with lighting by Simon Miles. Just so many amazing people came on board, and we all sat at a big table and we said, “What about this?” “Oh yeah, that would be great,” “What about this?” “That’ll be amazing.” It was just lots of late-night coffee shop talks … then the real tough part started. The stuff that I’m not really used to, the budget meetings, and a lot of roadblocks were put up and we had to work around them and it made finishing the process, and finishing it far beyond anything I would have ever imagined, all the nicer.

GP: You mention “Sweeney Todd”; wasn’t that a show that you’ve always wanted to do? You were in a production of it at Interlochen Center for the Arts, right?

JG: That’s true; it’s so funny. Interlochen wound up being one of the greatest camp/arts school experiences that I’ve ever had. And it all started because shortly after seeing that TV special of “Sweeney Todd” I got word that that particular arts camp, which I had found out was one of the best, was putting on “Sweeney Todd.” And I said, “Oh my gosh, I want be Sweeney, that’s it. I want to be Sweeney.” I was 15 years old [and] part of me knew that there was no chance that I would be able to tackle that role or even get that role, because, you know, the lead roles go [to] the seniors. Well, I went over there and I auditioned my butt off and got Broom Sweep #3, or something like that, in the chorus, and I learned real, real early on, and it was such a valuable lesson for me, to love a show and to put all of your energy into it, whether you’re Broom Sweep #3 or Sweeney Todd. And so I was on stage for five minutes, and every other minute of the show I was sitting at the wing listening to the whole show and just loving it. I had a love for theater from a very early age. I went back the next year and I got a larger role, and … I needed to work my way up that ladder and take voice lessons and take acting classes and take whatever training I needed to be the best performer I could be.

GP: Do you have any aspirations to do more musical theater?

JG: Yeah, oh sure, at some point in my career. I was young then for the high school productions, and I’m young now for the professional productions. I want to get a little older and let my voice mature and put a little age on me before I ever audition for a Broadway show or even opera, way, way down the line. We’ll see, but for now I’m doing exactly what I want to do.

GP: Any thoughts about returning to Carnegie Mellon?

JG: The thoughts, honestly, about returning to Carnegie Mellon in particular, are probably not realistic because of its location. It is an amazing school but Pittsburgh is not, unfortunately, a place where I can be right now. And also, my entire class is graduating now so it would be kind of a bummer to go back to that campus without any of my friends. So, if and when I go back to school, it would probably be somewhere in L.A. or New York.

GP: What’s it like to be dubbed “The New Boy Wonder of Voice” by THE NEW YORK TIMES, at 21?

JG: Wow, that newspaper article basically made my head explode. That was such a nice, nice article — and the comments by Barbara Cook and by some of the great people of New York — it just meant the world to me. I was very, very flattered.

GP: Do you have any plans to go on tour?

JG: I am probably going to do a full-length tour, in March. We’re already setting up a 15- to 20-date tour that is looking really, really good. We have some amazing theaters lined up. It’s great. I think, but I’m not sure about this, that we are going to put tickets on sale on Valentine’s Day.

GP: I’m sure your fans will love that.

JG: Yeah, I think we are expecting a pretty quick sell-out. It’s going to be very exciting for me because I’m going to be able to do what I did for the special, but I’m going to be able to do it over and over again for new audiences, and I have the luxury of being able to make it live. It’s not [going to be] recorded, so I can relax about that a little bit more.

GP: Your fans are wonderful, loyal, and dedicated. How does this affect your work?

JG: Oh, it’s essential. To build a fan base like that, they become part of your team and their opinions are very good ones because they begin to know me for everything that I am. They become the real, real fans. It’s very important to keep them in the loop and keep them happy and keep them communicated with. I try to post on the Web site and let them know what’s going on. And then of course we offer them lots of goodies. We offered them the tickets first for the PBS special; we’re going to give them all a free Christmas song. They have been really amazing. Their phone calls to the TV stations, the letters that they write, the letters that they write to me, the meet-and-greets that they come up with, the name they’ve given themselves [Grobanites], it’s all pretty incredible. It’s really flattering, really wonderful to feel that kind of warmth from so many diverse places and people.

GP: I think your relationship, posting messages on the Web site and really communicating with the fans, contributes to their loyalty.

JG: I hope so. I think every performer understands how important the fans are, but especially for someone like myself, where MTV is not in the picture, pop radio is not in the picture. This is primarily a word-of-mouth album. And the people who were there first, these four or five thousand people on the Web site, they’re the ones who believed in it from the beginning, with me and my team, and they helped make it happen. They are very important.

GP: How do you describe your relationship with David Foster?

JG: David Foster has been the real taskmaster, father figure in the recording industry for me. He discovered me. … He was looking for a singer for Gray Davis’ inauguration — it’s funny ’cause he was just reelected — he had an inauguration concert four years ago, and Michael Crawford was supposed to come in and sing “All I Ask of You” from “Phantom of the Opera” and couldn’t make it; he had a rehearsal he had to do. [David Foster] called my voice teacher at the time [Seth Riggs] and said, “Send me some tapes of some people that you have, we need to pick someone right away.” And he listened to some tapes, and my teacher had said, “Go ahead and make a tape, I’m going to send it to somebody.” So I went off and I made one and sent it to him, and he called me up and said, “Hey, David Foster” — and I had no idea who David Foster was — “Yeah, I want you to come down to the Arco Arena in Sacramento and sing for the new governor.” I thought, “Wow, that’s pretty amazing.” And it was really kind of a turning point for me. It was for 20,000 people, and it was the first time I sang anything professionally and it got a great reaction. Then two weeks later, it was kind of the same situation [for the Grammy Awards rehearsal]: “Andrea Bocelli couldn’t make it, and Céline Dion is here, and would you mind learning ‘The Prayer’ and coming down and singing it with Céline?” I was 17. That was a little harder to say yes to because I didn’t really think that I could do it. Because Andrea Bocelli is like the tenor of tenors, and I was a 17-year-old baritone. And I went and I did do it, and David Foster was the guy to say, “Look, you’re not letting me down. Come down here and do this right now.” And I needed that push, and it wound up being a day that changed my life.

GP: Who else has had a great influence on your life? Musicians, songwriters, composers?

JG: The number of angels who have come down from high places and helped me out, that have said, “You can do this and we’re going to help you,” is incredible. David’s been one of them. Walter Afanasieff, who is a huge Grammy Award-winning writer/producer, is another. David and Walter both have a real love of classical music and orchestration and of arrangement and they look at this as a challenge, but also as a chance for them to stretch their arms out a little bit and try something new. Everyone in this business, to a certain extent, is dictated by formula. When they sit down at a piano, generally speaking, they’ve got orders to come up with that next catchy tune that we’re going to put on the radio and sell a million records. So, when this project was starting and I was trying to find songs and … looking for people to do things with, they kind of looked at this as something refreshing to sit down and play, something that they would want to play over and over again — not because it’s got that tune that nobody’s going to be able to get out of their head. They wrote some beautiful music together. The first song I recorded was “Gira Con Me”; I heard it and I said, “Wow, this is really incredible, guys.” I learned a lot from the great writers — David, Walter. John Williams and I got to work together on the AI soundtrack, on the song “For Always.” That was a thrill and an honor. Ennio Morricone wrote two songs on the album. So I learned a great deal. I sat back and I watched and I learned a lot. And I love to write as well, so I hope to do some collaborating on the next CD.

GP: Oh, you do?

JG: Definitely. I’ve been writing all my life, but when you have those kinds of people collaborating on your album … if they had said to me, “We really don’t know what to do,” I probably would have sat down and come up with a few things. But man, the amount of beautiful music that was handed to me for this CD, I was so honored to have it, I figured, sit back and learn for now.

GP: When do you expect to release your next album?

JG: The next album will hopefully be out in October of 2003.

GP: When you mention the formula, I think that’s very interesting, because you do seem to be outside of any formula one could name. I know you have mentioned that folks at record stores just don’t know where to put your CD.

JG: Well, yeah, it’s very, very difficult, and I have been so blessed and so happy to have the success that I’ve had on the CD, which went double platinum in America, and we’re almost at three to four million worldwide. It has been incredible, but even still, there are so many people out there who just don’t know where to put it or are afraid to enjoy it or afraid to buy it because it doesn’t fit into a formula. And it really kind of opened my eyes to the fact that there is such a risk when you try to break a mold, even a little bit. And it’s why so many people are pressured not to, which is why I give so much kudos to people like David and Walter for deciding to take this on and put so much of their power and money into [it] because, to a certain extent, whenever you decide to go away from what is usually formula and pop, pop rock — and don’t get me wrong, I love that kind of music and that’s the kind of music that makes the world go ’round right now — when you don’t do that, you are going to be discriminated against a little bit. It’s my job now for the rest of my life, I think, to win over those people that are scared of it or aren’t willing to give it a chance.

GP: What are you listening to these days?

JG: What am I listening to? I love world music. I’m listening to a lot of people. I’m listening to Peter Gabriel. Actually an artist I found out about from him, who has a new CD out, called Youssou N’Dour. He’s amazing; he’s an African singer. I’m listening to Coldplay, Radiohead, Björk, Depeche Mode.

GP: Who is the African singer?

JG: Youssou N’Dour, he’s the biggest pop star in Africa, and he has just an incredibly beautiful voice. That’s the thing, I’ve been able to travel around the world this last year and one of the most fun things for me to do is go into music stores around the world and say, “Look, who are your biggest artists here?” And just listen to what the differences are between the cultures and what’s big over there compared to what’s big here. And hopefully find some artists to work with on the next CD and kind of bridge the gap.

GP: That’s a great idea. So, is Youssou N’Dour in your CD player right now?

JG: Actually yes, in my car.

GP: You have had the opportunity to work with some amazing performers. Anyone else that you are hoping to sing with?

JG: I am very much looking forward to singing with a woman in Oslo, Norway. I’m going to be singing for the Nobel Peace Prize concert in Oslo, and I’m going to do “The Prayer” with an enormously popular Scandinavian singer who is just now breaking in[to] America, her name is Sissel. I have not met her yet, but I’ve been a fan of hers for a while, and I am really looking forward to singing with her. I know we have been looking forward to singing with each other for a while. That will be a great time for me. I love Oslo, Norway. My whole mother’s side of my family is from Norway, and I always feel very, very good when I get over there. That will be a thrill for me. [Listen to an interview with Sissel on NPR's MORNING EDITION.]

Other than that, people I’d like to work with, it’s hard to say, because I have … people who are my fantasy duets that probably, honestly, [it] would be very hard for us to work together. I could say I would love to sing with Björk. But quite honestly, what would we do together? I think it would be kind of a challenge, although that would be really amazing. Sometimes the best collaborations are the ones that are the most unexpected. Certainly on this album, the people that I wound up working with are not the people that I sat around dreaming of working with for my entire life. They were people that kind of came about through fate and it just wound up really, really working. I hope to keep that relaxed feeling about it for the next CD and whatever comes, comes, and we’ll just see what happens.

GP: I have to tell you that since seeing the TV special, I have not been able to get “Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word” out of my head, just from that little snippet that you did. Do you think you’ll do an album with songs like that on it?

JG: I think it’s almost positive. This debut album definitely has a mood to it and it has a style to it and it has a feeling to it that’s similar from beginning to end. Is it everything I want to tackle artistically? Absolutely not. It’s a small amount and it’s a style of music. And I’m not going to go too far away from that, but there is a lot more of me that I’d like to get out there, and certainly there are different types of songs that I would like to try singing. And I hope to do that.

Yeah, that little snippet was fun to do. It was cool for David to do that. I’m sure it probably looked pretty scripted on stage, but I swear, I had no idea he was going to say, “Come over and play some piano.” Because I think I had told a couple of people, “You know, if he asks me to go play the piano and I don’t know about it — !” That was totally unscripted, and when he told me to go do that in front of all those people, I was like, “Ugh, just go do it.” Bite my tongue and just go do it. And that song was the first thing that came into my head.

GP: It looked very natural. You mention musical theater possibly in the future; do you have any plans to pursue acting?

JG: Actually, yeah. I’m glad that you brought that up. I’m looking at a lot of scripts right now. Doing the small amount of work that I did on ALLY MCBEAL was just so inspiring to me and so much fun because as a singer you really are acting. You have to find something within you for every song that you sing and then express it to an audience, and it’s the same thing you’re doing with spoken word, you’re just not singing the words. I’ve always had a great fondness for acting. I love it. I’d love to do more of it, whether it be plays or TV or film. We’ll see. There’s not a whole lot of time for anything like that right now, but in the future I think, hopefully, definitely.

GP: You mention in the special that you play the drums and the piano, and obviously you sing. Any other instruments?

JG: In terms of playing instruments, I am very much interested in world instruments, although I’m not really that good at any of them yet. I’m trying to learn the uilleann pipe, which is one of the instruments featured in the special. I am a real great fan of that instrument, and I love other Irish instruments, the Irish low whistle and things like that. But piano and drums are really the main instruments that I play.

GP: Okay, so, five years from now, at the tender age of 26, where will you be?

JG: Oh man, I’ll be 26 years old. Gosh, I’m getting old.

GP: Ancient.

JG: Yeah, five years from now — so much has happened in the last five months, let alone the next five years. I get phone calls every other day that just blow my mind. I’m like, “Wait a minute, I’m going to be doing this!”

In five years … well, I could hit a huge peak and fall off the face of the earth in five years. Who knows what will happen in five years? I hope that in five years it does what has happened in the last year, a slow, slow but steady climb, and I hope that I’m able to not do everything that I’d ever want to do in the next five years. I hope that I always give myself room to grow and room to learn, and I hope I don’t rest too much. And I hope that I’ll be able to check off at least a few things on the list that I’d like to do — write music, do a little more acting, and in five years I’d like to have at least three more albums out. So we’ll see. A few tours. Who knows, marriage, couple of kids, grandkids?

Interview by Samantha Gleisten for GREAT PERFORMANCES Online conducted in November 2002.