This is an extract of the original article published at the Tutti Magazine in September 2013. Please click here to
read the complete article in French.
Interview with conductor Omer Meir Wellber
Omer Meir Wellber. © Tato Baeza
The Tutti Ovation, which we so readily dedicated to the Blu-ray and DVD of the production
Eugene Onegin filmed at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sophia in Valencia enticed us to
approach the young conductor who directs it: Omer Meir Wellber. At 32, this former assistant
to Daniel Barenboim in Berlin and at La Scala familiarized himself with opera very early on
in Tel Aviv, then in Padua, Milan and Berlin before being named Musical Director in
Valencia. He grants us this interview while making his debut in Verona, directing Aida on the
occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Arena staged by Carlus Padrissa and Alex Ollé, the
creaters of La Fura dels Baus.
Omer Meir Wellber. © Ramon Blanquer D.R.
Tutti-magazine: From 2008 to 2011, you were the assistant to Daniel Barenboim at the
Berliner Staatsoper Unter den Linden and at La Scala. What came of those years of
assisting?
Omer Meir Wellber: It’s effectively during this period that things accelerated for me. Just a
year and a half prior to conducting for the first time at La Scala, I was still a professor in a
music conservatory for children in the south of Israel. The change was therefore so major that
it conditioned another way of life from the one I was used to living. The toll paid off on a
personal level but this transition was unprecedented and particularly interesting for me.
I always admired Maestro Barenboim and I knew his entire musical career. This was like a
dream that was coming true once he called me and asked me to audition to be his assistant…
In fact, I really learned a lot from him. This collaboration constituted the most important
event, not only of my musical career but also of my own intellectual life. I spent two and a
half years next to one of the most important musicians in the history of music, and I learned
so much.
Upon being named Musical Director at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia in
2011, what were the objectives that you focused on?
I knew right off the bat that it was a very unique space. In addition, the orchestra created by
Lorin Maazel and Zubin Mehta is composed of sensational but very young musicians, to the
point where I was directing instrumentalists who were more or less my age. This experienced
proved to be very unique and interesting. Thanks to the Eugene Onegin recording and thanks
to other interesting combined experiences, I discovered an important part of the magic of this
orchestra. Together, we feel free, we employ the same vocabulary and speak the same
language. If you happen to find the key to such an orchestra, you will at the same time be
opening a door to a kind of musicality that you cannot even imagine. It’s a marvelous
experience and completely unique.
*Eugene Onegin, produced by Mariusz Trelinski and conducted by Omer Meir Wellber, recorded in 2011,
edited in Blu-ray and DVD by C Major .
You were 28 when you were appointed. Was this relatively young age an advantage or
disadvantage in terms of the orchestra and its administration?
Coming, as I do, from a country like Israel, you learn very quickly and at a very young age to
keep your feet firmly on the ground. The same applies when you are a musician and
understand that a production costs a lot of money and things are complicated. I was never one
of those extravagant musicians who spends an enormous budget, and this is the reason why I
was able to fit into the established Valencia framework, just as I have in the other places I
have worked. I am a very realistic person. What I am most interested in is obtaining the best
results with the means I actually have at my disposal rather than with what I could have in an
ideal world. I apply the same principle as a musical director and as a musician. The orchestra
members were very young at the time and I was taking over from Lorin Maazel, so it took us
about a season to really win over the public.
[…]
Omer Meir Wellber conducts the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana.
Click on the picture to read a review of Eugene Onegin conducted by Omer Meir Wellber…
Plácido Domingo and Omer Meir Wellber in Valencia during rehearsals for Due Foscari. ©
Tato Baeza
During the 2012-2013 season, you made your debut with 8 orchestras with which you
had never worked before. How do you adapt to these new experiences?
This is part of the challenge of being a young conductor. On the one hand, of course it’s
always interesting to visit new places, meet new musicians, and discover new approaches to
music. On the other hand, it’s much more stressful than returning somewhere familiar where
you already feel comfortable. Having eight new experiences like that in one year is exactly
like starting from scratch on eight different occasions. You don’t have much time, and in fact
it only takes two minutes to know whether the collaboration will work out. It’s important to
make the most of those two minutes, because otherwise you can feel ill at ease for the rest of
the rehearsals and even during the concerts! Of course this is part of a conductor’s job and
you need to cope with these sorts of situations. But so far I’ve had only good experiences.
Aida by Verdi at the Arena di Verona 2013. © Foto Ennevi, with authorisation by the
Foundation Arena di Verona
Omer Meir Wellber at the Arena di Verona. © Foto Ennevi, with authorisation by the
Foundation Arena di Verona
You are currently conducting Aida at the Arena di Verona. The singers have a specific
approach to an open-air opera. What are your sentiments as a conductor with regards
to this context?
This imposes technical obligations, for example with regards to the choir or to different
groups on stage. One must anticipate quite a lot; otherwise everyone will not be together. But
what was an enormous surprise to me was that absolutely everything can be heard. In such a
large space, even if the audience is far from the singers, they can hear even the softest
pianissimos, they can hear… even the smallest mistakes! In the Arena, we can’t hide
anything. I was not anticipating being able to produce something so detailed in open air. Of
course, the dynamic is not the same as that of a traditional theatre, but it’s not ridiculous
either. For the premier of Aida, Giovanna Cassola sang the role of Amnéris. Of course, at
almost 70 years old, she’s one of the greatest Italian singers and she possesses a great
experience of Verona. It’s to her that I own this positive experience because she succeeded in
convincing me that we could work in a satisfying manner in such a space. She knows
perfectly how to use it, how to lead the voice, whether it’s piano or forte, and where we must
maintain. It’s really impressive and I claim that she gave me a huge lesson. Meanwhile, many
weeks of repetition are necessary to get used to the Arena of Verona. At the beginning, it’s
surprising.
*This 100th anniversary production was recorded. The editor of Bel Air Classics forsees a release of Blu-ray and
DVD in his collection Arena di Verona in the first half of 2014.
Are you sensitive to the visual component of opera?
Absolutely, and even a lot. I think that the new generation of conductors is also very sensitive
to it. If I had to direct five different productions of Eugene Onegin five nights in a row, the
musical result would be different. It’s part of the job. Today, we have a more complex
approach, more intellectual, to opera. The music and its colors, those that unravel on stage
and in the orchestra must come together in unison. It’s not enough to be content with a forte,
a piano, or some indication in the score; it must all be integrated in the production, because it
must be the reflection of everything. For me, this constitutes a challenge that I adore. If I
don’t like a production, I refuse to invest myself in it. This is because I know that I would not
be able to close my eyes and produce music of that quality. If a project doesn’t interest me, I
don’t commit to it. I don’t believe in doing this halfway. I’m not part of the older generation.
In a certain era, the producer did his work on his end and the conductor arrived to direct
without worrying about what was happening on stage. This is not the way it works today.
Omer Meir Wellber has been good will ambassador of the non-profit organisation Save a
Child’s Heart since July 2013. D.R.
From 2014 to 2016, you launch a Mozart-Da Ponte trilogy at the Semperoper Dresden.
How will you carry out this project in the long run?
I have to admit that I devote a lot of time for the preparation of this project, as it is the most
important for me right now. I waited until now to devote myself to this trilogy because, not
only did I feel that I was not ready, but I also felt that I had not found the orchestra with
which I wanted to embark on this project. Dresden is one of the most suitable places in the
world for that. The Semperoper Dresden has an extraordinary Mozart tradition and this brings
me great pleasure to live through him the experience of a young conductor who has just
begun to have a certain experience in front of an orchestra in such a rich tradition. It’s a
formation with which I have also developed a great history of love with.
I have the habit of starting my preparations long in advance but, for this project, I started to
work even earlier because I assured myself of the recitatives. I already began to take lessons
with some of the best specialists for thorough bass. I will use a fortepiano, so this will require
a great deal of preparation. In addition, I’m starting this time with a very careful work in the
libretto. And this should be very interesting because I have discovered, on one hand, that
certain very loud passages are made up of recitatives that are some of the most beautiful
moments. On the other hand, in a less interesting passage, we find the most beautiful arias in
the work. I don’t have the intention of playing Mozart like he was played in his day. This
does not interest me at all. But, evidently, like Picasso, who, before being able to paint in a
revolutionary manner by placing the ear at the bottom of the nose and the eye in the ear, had
studied classical painting, I’m working on the foundation and the work in a very classical
manner. It’s then that I will apply this knowledge to my personal research. I’m not a baroque
musician at heart, and if I study this kind of music, it’s because it interests me. I am guiding
myself in a very creative direction, very tied to the development of the on-stage action and
not only to the music. As it consists of a new production, I am entitled to have two months of
rehearsals, which gives me a decent amount of time to refine things.
[…]
Omer Meir Wellber taken by Felix Broede. D.R.
Recorded in writing by Jean-Claude Lanot, Tutti Magazine
4 July 2013