Interview - Bachtrack

Thank you so much to Mark Pullinger for interviewing me in Bachtrack! It was so nice to talk about my summer with him and I am so happy to be back at the Royal Opera House for a concert!

What was it like, performing a socially-distanced Traviata where Violetta is unable to make physical contact with her Alfredo? Did it feel abnormal to be kept inside a taped box on the stage? “You get a zone which you’re supposed to stay in,” Oropesa explains, “but within that zone, you could do what you wanted. The whole stage was chequered, like a chessboard. I watched the production twice. I watched the stream with Marina Rebeka, then I saw Ruth Iniesta in the theatre. I wanted to see what it was like from an audience perspective. You're watching something of a tennis match, it’s hard to connect who’s speaking to whom. At first glance, it looks like a concert performance – everyone’s in a tuxedo or a gown – but then, as the evening progresses, you see more of a staging, more drama once you’re out of the party scenes. I saw there was more freedom than I’d thought.