Aida Garifullina

Soprano Aida Garifullina was born in 1987 into a Tatar family in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan in the Russian Federation, some 500 miles east of Moscow. Aida’s mother, a choral conductor, noticed her daughter’s love of singing very early, and her first public performance took place when she was 5 in a televised children’s competition in Moscow. At the age of 11 she was accepted for singing lessons at the Kazan State Conservatoire, and at 13 she appeared at the Tchaikovsky Great Hall in Moscow – the city’s most prestigious venue – during the Festival of Gifted Children of Tatarstan.

She went to Nuremberg to study with the heldentenor Siegfried Jerusalem at the Hochschule für Musik. “My parents thought I should study abroad, to learn different languages and cultures. Of course it was a bit of a shock to go and live abroad. But you can only learn how to sing lieder properly in Germany, and I also learned the language of Mozart” In Nuremberg Aida worked on some of the songs featured on her debut album for Decca Classics. “Rachmaninov’s romances – Lilacs and Zdes’ khorosho – seem full of nostalgia and they reminded me of home… I was 17 and homesick and thinking about my parents and the countryside.” She was also inspired by recordings of the legendary soprano Anna Moffo, a singer whose career became an inspiration for her. “She was unique: she had wonderfully rich low notes, but soft, glittering high notes too, and so many colours in her voice.” Her recording of Rachmaninov’s Vocalise was a particular draw. “I listened to many different recordings, but hers was the best: I wanted to match it, but in my own way. And it was so interesting to me that a non-Russian soprano could do this heavenly music – which seems to carry a kind of bright sadness, of suffering and unrealised hopes – so beautifully.” Aida regularly includes these items in recitals, along with Tchaikovsky’s lilting Serenada (from Six Romances, op 63), a piece full of gentle yearning and desire.

Aida’s debut album reflects her life and musical tastes as well as her Tatar ancestry. Alluki is a popular Tatar song with words by Ğabdulla Tuqay, one of the greatest Tatar poets. “The most important thing in Tatar folk music is how you sing the melismas,” says Aida. “Each singer does it in her own way – this is where the beauty comes from.” Alluki, roughly translated, means ‘lullaby’, and there are several other pieces from this genre in her programme. ‘Maria’s Lullaby’ is a hauntingly beautiful  aria, sung by the mentally fragile heroine of Tchaikovsky’s opera Mazeppa as she cradles a dying man in her arms after a battle. Cossack Lullaby is another Russian favourite, with words by Lermontov set to a melancholy folk tune.

Many of the pieces also reflect the Eastern side of Aida’s culture and character. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was the greatest exponent of Russian Orientalism, enthusiastically using motifs from Russia’s Asian territories. His Oriental Romance is typical, with its exotic melody and augmented intervals. “It always makes me think of the story The Nightingale and the Rose by Oscar Wilde – it has the same sadness and the same depth.”  The Song of the Indian Guest from Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera Sadko is written in the same Orientalist vein, and – despite being composed for a tenor – has been a favourite of several  legendary sopranos, including Lily Pons (whom Aida portrayed in Florence Foster Jenkins) and Rosa Ponselle.

Like many other opera singers, Aida is fond of popular songs and ballads. “I grew up in a musical family where all kinds of music was playing the whole time. It is nice to sing these lighter songs sometimes.” She includes the song Midnight in Moscow (also known as Moscow Nights), which she performs over an instrumental version taken from the 1962 Mercury LP Balalaika Favourites, the first LP made by a Western company in the Soviet Union.  It is a wonderfully fitting mix of cultures for a soprano who looks set to conquer the world from the furthest east to the furthest west with her talent and beauty.

But Aida’s heart and career remain firmly rooted in opera. “Very few people can sing opera – it is the hardest thing. You have to be healthy and resilient, full of stamina, and ready for an immense amount of work – as well as having the vocal qualities and a good strong voice.”