Daniel Taylor: Interview by Philip Anson - La Scena Musicale - Vol. 3, No. 2, Oct. 97

[La Scena Musicale]

La Scena Musicale - Vol. 3, No. 2, Octobre / October 1997
email: sc...@brenrose.com / web: http://www.brenrose.com/~scena
(c) La Scene musicale 1997

Daniel Taylor: Interview by Philip Anson

Canadian countertenor Daniel Taylor debuted as Didymus in Handel’s
Theodora at the Glyndebourne Opera this August. I asked Daniel
recently about the challenges of working in director Peter Sellars’
avant garde production.

DT: I had not worked with Peter Sellars before, but they sent me a
video of last summer’s show and told me to get used to the style. I
learned the part six months in advance and I arrived in June for a
month of rehearsals, which would usually be plenty, but because
Sellars uses a kind of sign language, it took special preparation.
Luckily coaching at Glyndebourne is very efficient. Sellars has a
distinct style. You have to accept the fact that this was a modern
production — for example, that we would die by lethal injection. For
the execution scene, I was strapped to a gurney in mid-air and could
see the conductor only on monitors, so it was a challenge to sing. I
tried to make Sellars’ direction as organic as possible. I don’t think
he wanted it to be mechanical. I disagree with the reviews which said
we moved mechanically.

LSM: Does singing in a third cast of the same production in the same
place pose problems?

DT: Glyndebourne traditionally presents an opera one summer, tours it
with a UK cast, and then stages a revival. Of course, people compared
us with the first Theodora cast, which included Lorraine Hunt and
David Daniels. I just tried to bring all I had to the role, regardless
of previous interpretations.

LSM: Your reviews were uniformly good, while the critics were tough on
almost everyone else. How do mixed reviews affect the spirit of a
production?

DT: At least half of the cast didn’t read the reviews until after the
final performance because they know that reading reviews, whether they
are positive or negative or right or wrong, can upset one’s subsequent
performances.

LSM: What have you been doing since Glyndebourne?

DT: I just got back from doing Handel’s Hercules in concert with Nick
McGegan and the Philharmonia Baroque in San Francisco. Catherine
Robbin and Kevin MacMillan were in that too.

LSM: Now you have your first solo disc out with Atma.

DT: Yes, we have a deal for a series of solo recordings over the next
three years. On October 4, there will be a salon concert of mostly
Dowland with Les Voix humaines, which will be the next program I
record for Atma. In January, we’ll do Bach arias with oboist Bruce
Haynes. After that maybe Buxtehüde.

LSM: What else is in the future for you?

DT: Quite a bit. In Stuttgart to record another Jomelli opera for
Orfeo. In January a recording of Messiah with Matthew Best and the
Croydon Singers for BMG. Hercules at BAM in March. In April to Rome to
sing Tolomeo in Giulio Cesare. Next September back to San Francisco
for Solomon with McGegan. A tour of Japan with the King’s Consort and
a Decca recording of Rinaldo with Cecilia Bartoli and the Academy of
Ancient Music under Christopher Hogwood in 1999. w

Closer to home, Daniel Taylor will sing baroque arias and duets with
Susie Leblanc and the Arion Ensemble Nov. 26 at Pollack Hall, with Les
Idées Heureuses Nov.14 and the McGill Chamber Orchestra Nov. 24. In
December Taylor joins the Ottawa Choral Society for Bach’s Christmas
Oratorio, and in April he flies to Toronto for Bach’s St. John Passion
with Tafelmusik.