Israeli-born mezzo-soprano Rinat Shaham has received accolades for her operatic and concert performances throughout the world, not least for her portrayal of the title role in Bizet’s Carmen, an interpretation filmed last summer on Sydney Harbour and beamed across the globe. Our review praised her performance as “vocally very alluring and full of seduction”. She has also recently taken part in her first spoken theatre role, in Carmen Disruption, in Hamburg. As part of our Opera Month investigation into the opera in HD experience, we asked Rinat about the role cinema can play in bringing a new audience to the art form and about acting for the cameras.
Have you noticed a difference in the way productions are directed when HD cameras are in the House?
I actually haven’t noticed any directorial differences so far, since the production is usually directed mainly as a series of live performances in the house and the filming itself takes only a night or two out of the entire run, therefore most of the hard work goes to the HD director as they are the ones who end up having to find the best and most natural angles, whereas the director has to think about the entire run. From a singer’s point of view, I know that I’d try, for the filming nights, to reduce my acting in order to achieve maximum nuance (as much as I can), and still be inclusive of my live audience in-house.
What do you think are the advantages of HD relays to a singer?
No doubt that if your voice records well and if you are a decent actor, an HD filming could be a great tool. Facial and vocal expression that don’t necessarily read well in a large house, could transmit easily through the camera. The quality of nuance is something which film has always managed to bring off very well.