Soprano Emőke Baráth has had a lifelong relationship with Müpa in Budapest. She was still a student when the venue opened its doors in 2005, a modern concert hall with state-of-the art acoustics. Even in recitals, it was possible to hear every pianissimo from every artist, from the top floor. She remembers going there with cheap standing room tickets as a girl, an experience that exposed her to world-renowned artists, shaping her understanding of classical music and the singing art.
When she finally performed there for the first time, in 2011, it was a great achievement: finally a large, important concert hall and an intimidating and important milestone. Since then, she sang there almost every year and that venue became a fundamental part of how she grew as an artist. This year, Baráth has been named as Müpa Artist of the Season for a series of three concerts, including one of Handel’s arias with Philippe Jaroussky and his Ensemble Artaserse.
Baráth started playing the harp as a teenager. She studied it as far as that could go, but there came a point when she had to choose between the harp and singing. “The harp is a very intimate instrument,” she tells me, “and playing it is a solitary, introverted activity. Singing gives me a chance to be more communicative, it challenges my natural introverted character.” This is one of the reasons she chose singing, as a way to open up to the audience.
A breakthrough in her musical education came in 2009, when she attended a course at the Austria Barock Akademie in Gmunden, near Salzburg. “I grew so much as a musician during this experience, I realised that this is what I wanted to do in my life.” She describes a masterclass with Deborah York as “mind blowing”. The course was structured not only around singing lessons or masterclasses: there was yoga, outdoor activities, concerts, producing chamber music together with all the other students, it was a full immersion in Baroque music, an all-embracing experience.
After this, she dedicated herself almost exclusively to Baroque and Early music, and her career took off. Many are the artists who inspired her and helped her grow. The fruitful professional relationship with Jaroussky is an obvious example: “With him, I don’t need to discuss things,” she tells me. “We have the same approach to music: we share an aesthetic taste for Baroque music which guides us in our performances. Everything is very natural.” She likes to recall that time when, as a student, she stood in line for hours to get tickets to hear him sing at Müpa. Sadly he had to cancel, and she was sorely disappointed, although she remembers that the performance, even without him, was very good. “If somebody had told me in that moment that I would be singing with him in a stable professional relationship, I would have thought it absurd,” she laughs.
Following the conversation on artists and colleagues who have inspired her, Baráth recalls an instance, in 2018, when she was called at the last minute to replace Julie Fuchs, who fell ill, as Morgana, in a performance of Handel’s Alcina at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris. Fuchs was acting on stage while Baráth sang from the pit. In that performance, Alcina was sung by Cecilia Bartoli, and Baráth remembers being completely mesmerised: “I couldn’t remove my eyes from her. Every note, every gesture, every gaze was an illustration of her commitment, her deep study and understanding of the music, her obsession with every detail. It was a life-determining moment which I carried inside me ever since,” she tells me.
Baráth also finds Italian conductors very inspiring – “They have a different approach to Italian music. I feel the difference.” – and as an example she mentions Ottavio Dantone: “His orchestra is fantastic. He doesn’t speak much but his artistic view is always very clear.” She also speaks fondly of the time she worked with Hungarian conductor György Vashegyi, who leads an accomplished Baroque ensemble and has a collaboration with the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles.
During this last year, she started working with a new teacher she trusts and cherishes, and her voice is taking a new direction towards bel canto. In her future she sees more dramatic Mozart roles: she enjoyed singing Susanna (and even Cherubino), but now she is looking at the Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro, or Donna Anna in Don Giovanni. “It also depends on the casting,” she says.” If there is a more dramatic soprano as the Contessa, then I can sing Susanna again. But paired up with a lighter soprano, I would love to be the Contessa”.
Italian bel canto seems to be around the corner: “Rossini seems particularly suited to my voice, it is a lot of work, but it feels comfortable. It fits me like a glove”. Baráth has concrete goals in the near future: Donna Anna in a concert performance, Sifare in Mozart’s Mitridate in Copenhagen, Giulietta in Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi in concert again, while Ilia in Idomeneo is farther away. I ask her for a role she’s dreaming of, something far away in the future: “Rossini’s Semiramide, perhaps. The big Rossini roles in his opera seria would be a great achievement, something to work towards,” she answers, sounding very committed to this new path her voice is following.