Margarita Slepakova spoke to Kai Luehrs-Kaiser for the German magazine Oper! about her debut album Semele, recorded with her ensemble Le Sommeil.
The Polish-Russian coloratura mezzo-soprano recalls how she began as a soprano, until her teacher Anita Garanča asked whether she had ever thought of being a mezzo. She describes her voice as having “a soprano timbre, or at least almost”, a quality she sees as both her distinguishing feature and a surprise for those hearing her for the first time.
The album brings together Semele arias by Handel, John Eccles and Marin Marais, and was conceived as a project of Le Sommeil rather than a personal recital.
Semele will be released on November 20th.
Read the full interview in Oper!