Ingvar Wixell Interview with Bruce Duffie . . . . . . . . .

Baritone Ingvar Wixell

A Conversation with Bruce Duffie

Karl Gustaf Ingvar Wixell (May 7, 1931 – October 8, 2011) was a Swedish baritone who had an active international career in operas and concerts from 1955 to 2003. He mostly sang roles from the Italian repertory, and, according to The New York Times, "was best known for his steady-toned, riveting portrayals of the major baritone roles of Giuseppe Verdi — among them Rigoletto, Simon Boccanegra, Amonasro in Aida, and Germont in La traviata". He was the Swedish entrant in the Eurovision Song Contest 1965.

Ingvar Wixell was born in Luleå. After studies at the Stockholm Academy of Music, he made his debut in Gävle in 1952, then in 1955 as Papageno in Mozart's The Magic Flute at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm where he was member of the company until 1967.

He made his British debut during the Royal Swedish Opera's visit to the Edinburgh International Festival in 1959. Wixell returned with this company to Royal Opera House in 1960, and sang Guglielmo at Glyndebourne and at the Proms in 1962. For the Royal Opera, London he sang Boccanegra in 1972. In America he appeared at Chicago Lyric Opera, San Francisco, and the Metropolitan Opera.

He was engaged at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 1967 where he was a member for more than 30 years. At Salzburg he sang a noted Pizarro at the Festival, where he appeared from 1966 to 1969, and at Bayreuth he sang the Herald in Lohengrin (1971).

Among other roles, Wixell sang Figaro in Rossini's The Barber of Seville, Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen, Amonasro in Verdi's Aida, Baron Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca, and the title roles in Verdi's Rigoletto, Simon Boccanegra, Mozart's Don Giovanni, Verdi's Falstaff and Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin.

In October of 1982, Ingvar Wixell was in Chicago portraying Scarpia in Tosca. Also in the cast were Grace Bumbry/Eva Marton, Veriano Luchetti/Plácido Domingo, Italo Tajo, Dmitri Kavrakos, Florindo Andreolli, Terry Cook, and Carol Madalin. Julius Rudel conducted, Tito Gobbi (a famous and popular Scarpia in previous years) directed the production by Pier Luigi Pizzi. The following season Wixell would be Amonasro in Aïda with Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Luciano Pavarotti/Giuseppe Giacomini, Fiorenza Cossotto, Bonaldo Giaiotti, Kavrakos, Gualtiero Negrini, and Robynne Redmon. Bruno Bartoletti conducted and Nicolas Joël directed the Pet Halmen production. In 1984, Wixell returned as Mandryka in Arabella, with Kiri Te Kanawa, Barbara Daniels, Gregory Kunde, Mignon Dunn, Jean Kraft, and Sunny Joy Langton. Sir John Pritchard conducted and Willi Decker directed the Peter Rice production. Finally, in 1988, Wixell was the title character in Falstaff, with Daniels, Marilyn Horne, Alessandro Corbelli, Jerry Hadley, Ruth Ann Swenson, Sandra Walker, Andreolli, and Kevin Langan. James Conlon conducted and Vera Lucia Calábria directed the Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production. (Names which are links refer to my interviews elsewhere on my website.)

During his visit in 1982, Wixell graciously sat down with me in a backstage dressing room for a conversation. He gave great insight into many aspects of being an international singer, and there was often a lot of laughter between us. We also spoke of Swedish compositions.

Portions of the interview were used a few times on WNIB, Classical 97, and now in 2025 I am pleased to present the entire chat.

Bruce Duffie:   You have a very large repertoire, but it seems that you specialize in Verdi, so tell me about singing his baritone parts.

Ingvar Wixell:   Yes, that’s what I always used to say, and all my colleagues would agree, that you have to be so grateful for everything that he wrote, especially for baritone. He’s the composer who really wrote the big parts for the baritone.

BD:   Is the Verdi baritone a little higher than a standard baritone?

Wixell:   It’s not a question of being high. It’s just that you have important parts, and interesting parts. That’s what makes his works attractive.

BD:   When you go on stage, is there a psychological difference if you’re singing a title role or a secondary role?

Wixell:   No, I don’t think so. Sometimes you have to do both, but it’s interesting to have a real part to dig into, one that’s more interesting.

BD:   [Noting that he was singing Scarpia at the time] Do you ever wish that Puccini had called his opera Scarpia instead of Tosca?

Wixell:   No! [Both laugh] No, no, no. There are rumors of some discussion about it, but I don’t know if that is true.

BD:   There was talk that Verdi was going to call it Iago instead of Otello.

Wixell:   Yes, exactly! All sorts of rumors...

BD:   Have you done basically all the Verdi baritone parts?

Wixell:   I should have, but I have some still to do. I’m preparing Falstaff, which I’ve sung before, but many, many years ago. It was a little too early. Then in between I’ve sung Ford, and now I’m back to Falstaff again. I also studied Iago for many years, but I haven’t sung it yet on stage. That’s one of those parts which really has to come from inside. Many parts you can learn and you can figure the best way to sing them or do them, but Iago is so important.

BD:   [With mock apprehension] Are you evil enough to be Iago?

Wixell:   [Smiles] Oh yes, sure, sure, sure. You have to be. You have to put a little evil in Scarpia, also.

BD:   In a lot of the baritone parts, he is usually murdering the tenor or the soprano.

Wixell:   That’s true, that’s true.

BD:   Would you rather kill or be killed on stage?

Wixell:   [Laughs] It’s not much of a choice! The baritone was chosen to be the villain in most of these works. There’s another part which is different, and also a favorite of many baritones including myself, and that’s Simon Boccanegra. It’s a great role.
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BD:   We’ve had some nice productions of that work here in Chicago [with Gobbi, Cappuccilli, Milnes, Agache, and Hampson].

Wixell:   Yes, I’m sure!

BD:   Do you enjoy spending the whole last act dying?

Wixell:   Why not? The music is so well built-up, and it’s really great.

BD:   You say that Verdi wrote so well for the baritone voice. Did he give it more prominence than any of his predecessors?

Wixell:   Yes, that’s possible. It seems like it, anyhow.

BD:   Do you find it different singing the early Verdi roles as opposed to the later Verdi roles?

Wixell:   I haven’t sung them on stage, but I have recorded some. I sang Ezio in Attila on the stage, and Nabucco is also an interesting opera. I recorded Un Giorno di Regno [shown at left], but I don’t know if that is ever done on stage. It probably has been, but not lately that I know of.

BD:   It’s one of these that I’m glad to have on records.

Wixell:   Yes, it’s such fun. I love it.

BD:   Do you enjoy making records?

Wixell:   Yes, it’s fun. Some companies have been doing direct recordings from performances, putting sets together from two or three performances. Of course it’s more live, but a recording also has to be perfect to exist, or as close to perfect as possible. That’s the idea.

BD:   Do you listen to your records occasionally?

Wixell:   No... well, sometimes, but I forget about them for a long time.

BD:   Do you listen to other recordings when you’re preparing a role?

Wixell:   Yes, now and then, but not too much, because there’s always a danger if you prepare a part and start listening to somebody else. You get influenced, and you should sing your own version of the part.

BD:   Bring your own interpretation?

Wixell:   Yes, and it’s always a danger to listen too much. It’s easy to start copying and doing things like that.

BD:   If you watch a performance several times, is it the same kind of danger as listening to a record?

Wixell:   It’s the same kind of thing. But especially after you’ve done it, it doesn’t matter. When you’re preparing something, though, I don’t like to go and look at it too much before I’ve done it.

BD:   When you’ve prepared a role and you know it and understand it, and probably performed a run or two of it, if you see a good bit of business, do you steal a little bit from it?

Wixell:   Not really. Usually, you do a part over and over again in different productions, and that’s what adds a lot to it. You never really finish finding small things. Like this Tosca, I’ve sung the role hundreds of times, and still it’s a new production, or a different production, and you always have something else.

BD:   Was it special working with Tito Gobbi because he was such a fine Scarpia?

Wixell:   Yes. I think he’s marvelous.

BD:   Was it at all intimidating because he was known for this role?

Wixell:   Yes, he was very good, and as I said, even if I’ve done it, you always find some things you can add to it or make it different. I worked with him before in London. We did Simon Boccanegra, and I was the first one who sang it in London after he finished singing it. We did his production, but it does not exist anymore, I’m sorry. I dislike the new one. I think it isn’t as good as the old one.

* * * * *

BD:   Let me ask about stage directing. Is the director getting too much power occasionally?

Wixell:   [Thinks a moment] I don’t think so. Most of the directors have the idea of team work. Of course, he likes to see what he’s asking for, but they are usually never demanding that their’s is the only way to do it. It’s always a compromise, but it’s never really a problem.

BD:   I have read reviews where some production is updated, or is out in left field. Is that ever the right thing to do?

Wixell:   I don’t know. It depends. There are enough newer operas where you can start making extra strange things.

BD:   Have you done some contemporary roles? [Vis-à-vis the recording shown at right, see my interviews with Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge, Nicolai Ghiaurov, Graham Clark, and Norma Burrowes.]

Wixell:   Not very many, really. They asked me now to do Wozzeck, which is already not a new opera, but it’s still quite a modern opera. But they didn’t ask me early enough, so I had no time to prepare it because it’s a very difficult part. But that’s something I would love to do. I would not mind a tough part if it’s interesting, of course. Sometimes the critics maybe go wrong when they start talking about this and that singer, and how they did the part. It always can happen that a bit of business originated with the producer, and not the singer. The producer is there to make the singer do the part that way, and they are both responsible for the result. Usually it is the producer who asks you to do the part that way, and if you are not protesting, it’s also your fault. It doesn’t happen very often, but it’s still a combination.

BD:   Then the singer gets blamed for it.

Wixell:   Oh, I’ve seen that sometimes. I didn’t say it happened to me, but I’ve seen it.

BD:   Have you ever worked with a scrim?

Wixell:   Yes.

BD:   Is it more difficult to sing through a scrim?

Wixell:   No. It’s more something that has a feeling. Some people say it’s taking away something of the voice, but that’s not true. When I started in Stockholm, they almost always used it in the theater there, but today it’s doesn’t happen that often. One was used in the third act of La Bohème, the production they televised from the Metropolitan.

BD:   Are you conscious of the audience when you perform?

Wixell:   No, not very much. You forget them, but it’s hard to describe. Sometimes you have a feeling if it’s a good response, and not just measured in the clapping. It’s some sort of energy. It’s interesting, but it really exists.

BD:   Maybe a psychologist can plot it out... [Both laugh] Monday night audiences are different from Thursday night, and Saturdays are yet another feeling.

Wixell:   That’s well-known, yes. In several houses, you really can tell. Its not always true, but sometimes the first-night audience is a little stiff.

BD:   [Somewhat surprised] I would think there would be more excitement because they hadn’t read any reviews, or hadn’t seen it when it’s a new production. What’s the best night? The last night or one in the midst of the run?

Wixell:   I don’t know how it is here in Chicago, but in San Francisco there’s a certain day of the week where most of the Italians go, and, of course, you have a bigger response. You get a much more lively audience, and Saturday all over is a very good night. Several opera companies have those dressed-up evenings, and it’s a little quieter again. [Both laugh]

BD:   At the Met it used to be Monday that was the very fashionable night

Wixell:   Yes, Monday. That’s right.

* * * * *

BD:   Is opera entertainment or is opera art?

Wixell:   I think it’s art, but it entertains, too. I can’t see any big difference, really.

BD:   I’m just wondering how intensely serious an opera should be, or if it should just be fun.

Wixell:   You should be able to enjoy it and relax, and that’s why today you have to do more. It’s not just get in there and stand and sing! It’s become much more acting, which is what’s needed today. It may be more of a show than it used to be, which makes it more interesting, and I think it should be like that.

BD:   Is it more interesting for you, as a singer, when there’s more business going on, on the stage?

Wixell:   Of course! Not all singers like it, but I enjoy it. Sometimes a producer wants a hell of a lot out of you. We did a new Pagliacci in San Francisco a couple of years ago. It was Placido Domingo singing in both Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci, in a Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production.

BD:   Did you sing both Alfio and Tonio [the baritone parts in both operas]?

Wixell:   No, I only sang Tonio in Pagliacci [recording shown at left]. But in that production we had something to do every second from the beginning to the end. Tonio usually has the Prologue, then he has the duet with Nedda, and you see him intriguing now and then, and that’s it! Here we had to feed Nedda all her props during the whole commedia, so I spent the whole evening on my knees and hands, crawling around and doing things. It was a hell of a job, but it was fun! I enjoyed it very much.

BD:   Did it add a lot to the drama?

Wixell:   I think so. It was a very good production. But then, of course, something happened, and for the last performances another colleague came to sing Beppe, and there was no way he could learn all that business and do it in such a short time. We had rehearsed for about three or four weeks, and every second there was something to do. At one point, Nedda never got something she needed, so I handed it from the back to Beppe, who put it up for her just at the moment where is should have been. That was OK, but not everybody enjoys having to do that kind of thing. They prefer to do everything an easier way.

BD:   Now if you’re involved in another production where it’s more standard, would you be bored with it?

Wixell:   No. You have to do the best you can, and that’s normal. It’s the way it’s usually done.

BD:   Have you ever had any great mishaps on stage?

Wixell:   No, not really. I’ve sung in San Francisco the most in this country, and we had an earthquake some years ago. It was quite an experience. It was during La Bohème with Luciano Pavarotti and Dorothy Kirsten.

BD:   Did the house rock a little bit?

Wixell:   Yes, and quite a lot. I have it on tape, and it’s really incredible. There was a sound you can’t describe, like the roaring of lions in a thundering combination. You can’t describe it. They were singing the duet in the third act just before Marcello and Musetta come out of the tavern, and their quarrel makes it a quartet.
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BD:   Did they stop the performance?

Wixell:   No. It slowed down a little, and many people upstairs ran out because it must have been felt more up there. The chandelier in the middle of the ceiling was shaking. We always have a stage manager backstage to give the cues for entrances (whether it’s necessary or not). There’s always someone there. I didn’t realize what it was because I was concentrating on going on, but he dropped his score and fell on his knees. He knew what it was, and he didn’t like it. [Both have been laughing during this story.]

BD:   [With a gentle nudge] So, he’d been in San Francisco before?

Wixell:   He’d been in San Francisco before! [More laughter]

BD:   There’s a wonderful old drawing by Caruso from 1906 where he is standing on a hill watching that earthquake [shown at right].

Wixell:   He left, I think, and never came back. [An article (with another of his sketches) where he describes his experience, is HERE.]

BD:   That was a terrible earthquake. I hope we are all spared that kind of thing.

Wixell:   Oh God, yes! There are still a lot of wooden houses in San Francisco.

BD:   Have you sung Samson and Delilah?

Wixell:   No...

BD:   That’s one where they purposely bring the whole house down!

Wixell:   Yes, that’s right.

BD:   [Making an awful speculation] They should time it with the earthquake so that the whole opera house collapses right at the end.

Wixell:   [Laughs] That’s right. Always small things happen, but really there’s never been anything big.

BD:   They are things you notice, but are they things the audiences know about?

Wixell:   It’s more what we notice on stage, and they can be hysterical. You know how it is when you’re not allowed to laugh, and you can’t stop it because something goes awry, especially because it can be the wrong effect. That happens all the time, and then the audience usually sees it, and they love it.

BD:   Do you enjoy good comic parts?

Wixell:   Yes, I like Belcore [L’Elisir d’Amore] very much [recording shown at left].

BD:   Does it take a special flair to bring across a comic role?

Wixell:   Yes. In Falstaff, he’s maybe not comedy. He’s more a tragic-comic figure, and that makes it even more difficult to put across the situation.

BD:   Should we laugh with Falstaff, or laugh at him?

Wixell:   It’s a combination. It’s very complicated, but it should be funny situations. One will not laugh ‘ha, ha, ha’. It’s more really the comic situations.

BD:   How much outrage can you put into the character of Ford?

Wixell:   I think Ford is quite a boring person. He’s a fool in the piece, but as a part it’s nice. He has a nice aria to sing, which is more than Falstaff has!

BD:   Wozzeck has really no big aria.

Wixell:   No, but as we talked about the modern works, many colleagues I know don’t like to sing modern operas.

BD:   Why?

Wixell:   The reason is that in some of the new stuff you can hurt yourself. It is so difficult to make this modern piece which you studied for months and months. You do three or four performances, and at the same time you have to continue singing your lyric-dramatic Italian repertoire. They don’t fit well together. Today it’s more or less certain singers who have absolute pitch, and they learn it so much easier than the rest of us. They also may never have made a career in the standard repertoire. Maybe they’re not bad singers, but they are better for the modern stuff, and so they specialize in it. That’s a good solution because it keeps them busy.

BD:   If someone wanted to write an opera around you, what advice would you give the composer?

Wixell:   Oh! [Laughs] It has to be singable! That’s the most important thing, and there are some, I’m sure. It’s very important that new things are coming. I’m sure there are some that are singable. One of the best new pieces I heard is Lear by the German composer Aribert Reimann. I think that’s a beautiful piece.

BD:   Is that a role you would like to sing?

Wixell:   I don’t know if I’d like to sing it, but it sounds quite nice as a whole piece, and there’s real singing in it.

BD:   I always regret that Verdi didn’t write his King Lear. I wish it had been Otello, then King Lear, and then Falstaff.

Wixell:   That’s a pity really.

BD:   Thinking of his Shakespeare operas, have you done Macbeth?

Wixell:   No, that’s another one I have to do, but there hasn’t been a new production that was coming which would work with my schedule. That’s not a part to just go in, do a few rehearsals, and sing. For Iago and Macbeth I would like to do a new production.

BD:   Then you’d have two or three weeks of rehearsal?

Wixell:   Yes, yes, at least three weeks.

BD:   Can a production get over-rehearsed?

Wixell:   Yes, I’m sure it can. It’s hard to tell, but if you have the feeling it gets to a point, then it’s better to stop for a couple of days and let the people rest a little to think it over. I have seen people really rehearsing a piece to pieces, and that is not a good idea. [Both laugh]

BD:   Do you ever play hooky for a couple of days?
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Wixell: Yes! [More laughter]

* * * * *

BD:   Let me ask you about the verismo period between Verdi and the twentieth century. Do you enjoy these parts, more than just Puccini?

Wixell:   I haven’t really done very many of them, though I’ve been asked many times to do so. I’ve also never done Wagner.

BD:   Would you want to?

Wixell:   I don’t know. That’s not actually for my voice. The only one I’ve done is the Herald in Lohengrin. It’s a small part, and it’s important. It was nice, and maybe I’ll do Amfortas [Parsifal], which would interest me. Then there is Strauss, of course. I enjoy Arabella very much. [He would sing Mandryka in Chicago two years later (1984).] I also sing Barak [Frau ohne schatten], and the Berlin Opera is making a tour to San Antonio, of all places, and I will be doing Jochanaan in Salome. [He then muses about a couple other operas and tour dates.] I think that’s all in this country for the next year, and then there’s Washington coming along with Rigoletto, but I don’t know if it’s this year or 1984. I have mixed up my schedule! [Both laugh]

BD:   Do you like having your schedule planned so far in advance so that you know you’ll be singing a certain part in a certain city on a certain day? [Vis-à-vis the recording shown at right, see my interviews with Robert Lloyd, Gwynne Howell, and Robin Leggate.]

Wixell:   Today it is like that. The houses plan way ahead, trying to beat each other to get that singer for that period, which may not be ideal. It’s good to have something lined up, but it can go too far. Then something very interesting comes up and you can’t do it.

BD:   Do you ever feel you’re a commodity being traded?

Wixell:   I don’t know. You always have some sort of an agent who tries to figure that out.

BD:   But does the agent look out for your best interest, or their best interest?

Wixell:   That’s a good question! [More laughter]

BD:   I want to be sure and ask you about translations. Do they do many operas in Swedish in Stockholm?

Wixell:   When I started, they always did everything in Swedish.

BD:   Does opera work in translation?

Wixell:   It’s never ideal, and it’s not working too well. It’s interesting what Stockholm did with The Masked Ball, because Verdi was thinking of King Gustav III when he wrote the opera, and was not allowed to use a king because of the censorship.

BD:   Despite the fact that Verdi had to set it in America, is it right for a producer to put it back into Sweden?

Wixell:   Yes, that’s what we did, and that was very good. But then, it was more or less a new libretto with historical persons and places where it took place. For the set up in the opera house, you had almost a mirror on stage of the opera house.

BD:   Have you done it both as Renato and as Count Anckarström?

Wixell:   Yes!

BD:   Which do you prefer?

Wixell:   I think the whole piece is more interesting in its original. Now they have also started to do it here. They call him ‘the king’, but the rest fits very badly because you can never put in the character of Ulrica, for instance. She existed as one of those old ladies in the south of Stockholm, where they had a hanging place. In the production in America, it’s usually an Indian woman. It goes wrong somewhere. In the original, the whole opening with the king and all in their original costumes from that time which were worn at the castle, it’s a great effect.

BD:   Does it touch your heart because it is a Swedish setting?

Wixell:   Yes, maybe. It was the poet, Eric Lindegren, who wrote a libretto. Some of it is more or less a direct translation, but a lot is taken from Swedish poets from earlier. They also gave Gustav a little French accent, which he used to have because French was the language of the Court at that time. So that also makes it authentic.

BD:   Have you ever seen the Auber opera, Gustav III?

Auber wrote Gustave III, ou Le bal masqué as a grand opera in five acts to a libretto by Eugène Scribe, about some aspects of the real-life assassination of Gustav III, King of Sweden. The major aspects of the plot can be found first in Giuseppe Verdi's planned opera, Gustavo III, which was never performed as written, but whose major elements were incorporated into a revised version of the story in the opera which eventually became Un ballo in maschera.

The opera received its first performance at the Salle Le Peletier of the Paris Opéra on 27 February 1833, and was a major success for the composer, with 168 performances until 1853.

Wixell:   No.

BD:   It’s my little hobby-horse try to get more of these ‘other’ operas done. Do you ever wish that you could do some of these unknown operas, rather than Tosca or Rigoletto again and again?

Wixell:   You’re forced to do those again and again, but not too many at the same time. However, they always add something, and go back to something. I’m going back now to do Il Tabarro in Munich, which I haven’t done for some years. I did a new production in Berlin, and since then I haven’t sung it for a while. It never came up, but now they’re taking it up in Munich again. That’s also a very interesting opera. I love it. It’s a great piece.

BD:   How do you handle the last scene, the very ending with the body under your cloak? [Vis-à-vis the recording shown at left, see my interviews with Renata Scotto, Gillian Knight, and Lorin Maazel.]

Wixell:   I don’t know how they do it in Munich. They used to have a television video from Berlin, but usually it’s more or less that he is holding him under the cloak when he falls out. Very often he’s sitting and having the body on his lap, and he rolls him down. At that moment it must be a shock! It explains why the opera is called Il Tabarro (the cloak).

BD:   I saw one production where he was standing, and he held him up close to chest, and the put cloak over the body. As Giorgetta watches, he lets the body slowly slide out from underneath.

Wixell:   Oh, that’s so interesting!

* * * * *

BD:   Let me ask you about Rigoletto.

Wixell:   Yes, I like it very much. It’s a great opera. I just finished a film [shown below] that’s coming out with Luciano Pavarotti as the Duke, Edita Gruberová as Gilda, and the bass Ferruccio Furlanetto as Sparafucile.

BD:   Who is the conductor?

Wixell:   The conductor is Riccardo Chailly with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

BD:   Did you do the sound first and then the film?

Wixell:   Yes, that’s the only way to do it. We filmed mostly outside on locations in Mantua, Cremona, Parma, and mostly in the night. So we came in at nine o’clock in the evening and worked until five in the morning every night for six weeks. It was fantastic. We tried to sleep during the day...

BD:   Does it work that way?

Wixell:   Yes, I think so. Some of it is cut together now, and I’m going to see it in February when it should be finished. We did it just like a film, so some nights you would work all the night for thirty seconds to be effective. They took a little scene, and then they had to rebuild the light for two hours to reverse the whole thing. It’s going to be a video for Unitel, and they make it now in all the different systems for all over the world.

BD:   Does it upset you at all to know that there’ll be people everywhere that will be watching this in their homes at all hours?

Wixell:   [Laughs] I don’t know! That’s the way it is.

BD:   You don’t think about that?

Wixell:   No, not necessarily. For singers today, it’s amazing how many people you can reach compared to colleagues from earlier times. It was only when you had a (radio) broadcast with hundreds of thousands of people listening.

BD:   Are you conscious of the larger audience when your performance is broadcast, as it is here on opening night?

Wixell: No. It’s very unusual to do that. It’s only here that they have it on the opening night, because it’s always a little tense. I would prefer the broadcast be of the third or fourth performance instead of the opening night. Some years ago in San Francisco, it was the opening night of Traviata, and it was a catastrophe because everything went wrong. The snow machine started to blow snow in the room. [Makes various swooshing sounds to demonstrate.] Violetta lay dying, and the snow just swooshed in. There was also some loud noise, and then some stage hand came in and could be seen from the balcony. They laughed like mad. It was really one of those nights. [Much laughter during this story.]
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BD:   You pray that never happens to you!

Wixell:   Yes, and especially when it is an opening evening, with a short rehearsal period, and some new people in it. It’s one of those days when you shouldn’t broadcast.

BD:   If it’s live, it’s too late, but if it’s on tape, they could probably quash it.

Wixell:   Yes, exactly.

BD:   Coming back to Rigoletto, does the hunch on your back affect your ability to produce a beautiful sound?

Wixell:   No, it’s usually very well built. It’s different in different productions. For some productions, it’s built into the costume, in the jacket, but the best would be some sort of undershirt that really fixes it, so it’s like it belongs to your body. Anyhow, Rigoletto is quite hard because you have to walk in a very uncomfortable position all evening, and it’s tiring. After Rigoletto, you feel you have been doing something! [Both laugh] Obviously, it is hard singing but it’s also a long part, and there’s also a lot of moving around in a very uncomfortable way.

BD:   Do you do it in three acts or in four? [Note that the recording shown at left is just excerpts which are sung in German!]

Wixell:   It depends on the production.

BD:   Do you prefer one over the other?

Wixell:   It’s good to have the breaks in between because you like to catch your breath. Some are good for the opera. The first part is not an act but Un’introduzione. It’s just a scene, and it’s only ten minutes. The Zeffirelli production in London is the most beautiful I have seen. It’s a very old production and it’s falling apart slowly, but there you really take a long time because you have to rebuild. So it’s a big break. It’s fifty minutes after the first short scene, but the first picture is so beautiful. It’s like a Rembrandt painting, and when the curtain goes up, everything is frozen with dwarfs, and an enormous table going to the back, and everyone sitting around in their costumes. It’s like a painting really. It’s so beautiful. Then Rigoletto comes in with a little dwarf girl on his shoulder, and they dance on the table. It’s really some sort of a bacchanal that’s marvelous. When a scene is done like that, then it’s okay to take the long break after because it’s also for the audience. Today also many of the stages have the ability to make a quick change.

BD:   With a revolving stage?

Wixell:   No, not revolving. They have that too, but that’s not so easy. Better is the one that just takes it up and it goes out to the left, and the other one is prepared from the other side, and that comes from the back.

BD:   At the Met they have the three different stages.

Wixell:   Yes, and in Berlin also. That makes it possible to do it quickly, even if you have a beautiful scene.

BD:   Do you mind going from the right hunch to the left hunch? Do you get used to shifting from one side to the other for the different productions?

Wixell:   Yes, that happens, but usually they ask you what side you prefer. Maybe it’s easier for some singers to change. It depends. If you are right-handed and you have your sling, it’s better to have the hunch on that side. But if you’re left-handed, maybe it’s better there.

BD:   Do you talk this over with the costume designer?

Wixell:   Usually, but it’s not a problem.

BD:   Have you ever been so completely hunched that you couldn’t breathe?

Wixell:   No, that never happened. You can always protest against things, and it’s possible to change. Usually there is enough leeway, and they are usually very helpful, and they can change anything. But it’s a great part really, and I’m happy with this film. I hope it will come out well.

BD:   It was filmed in the real places. Is that going to spoil it for us when we come to the theater and it’ll be regular stage sets?

Wixell:   No. What they can do with the modern technique today on stage is amazing. But an opera like Rigoletto is very hard to try to modernize. It’s not possible. You have to do it as it stands. Anyway, you can never replace the live performance. It is a pity that television usually has bad sound. Now they’re starting to do it in stereo, but this will take some years before it’s regularly taken to your speakers. [Remember, this interview took place in 1982.] I have a friend in New York who wears headphones so he can get a better sound.

BD:   What do you tell people who spend their lives sitting at home listening to records, or watching it on the television? How do you get them to come to the theater?

Wixell:   There will always be people who just listen to recordings and compare them. They have enormous collections of recordings, and are fixated on them. But there are also many who go to performances.

BD:   Is there a point to listening to the very old records, the 78s, or even acoustic discs from Caruso’s time?

Wixell:   Yes it’s interesting. Of course, they do not give the people justice, and some sound silly sometimes because it’s sung in an old-fashioned way. Then you also have that poor sound. But you really can find some great, great singers from the past. I just heard from a friend of mine in Monte Carlo. He is a good friend of Eva Turner, who I didn’t really know too much about. There was a big gala in London for her 90th birthday. He had some private recordings of her, including the complete Turandot with Giovanni Martinelli as Calaf. [This was a 1937 broadcast conducted by Sir John Barbirolli.] It has amazingly good quality, and she sings incredibly!

BD:   Now you say that those records don’t really do the singers justice.

Wixell:   Some of them are very poor quality.

BD:   Do your records do you justice?

Wixell:   Not always. It’s amazing when you have two different companies, and you can’t believe it’s you. [Laughs] It comes out so differently. It’s very strange, actually.
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BD: Are you pleased with the way your voice sounds on records?

Wixell: Not all of them, but with some of them I have been pleased. One that came out pretty well is the Lucrezia Borgia with Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge. There is a quality to it. It’s the National Symphony Orchestra, that marvelous English orchestra. [Vis-à-vis the recording shown at left, also see my interviews with Piero de Palma, Richard Van Allan, and Nicola Zaccaria.] Also, Il Tabarro is not bad, [shown above-left] but I don’t really know. I never really sit down and listen to myself.

* * * * *

BD:   Let me ask you about Eugene Onegin. Do you like that role?

Wixell:   Yes. It’s a different kind of opera from many others. It wasn’t meant to be an opera. The story is called Lyric Scenes. It’s difficult in a way, but I enjoy it.

BD:   Are you sympathetic with the character?

Wixell:   Yes. He falls into the mentality in the story, and the Russian mentality.

BD:   Do you think he and Tatyana could have been happy if they’d gotten together in the first act?

Wixell:   I don’t think so, but there are some beautiful things in it, there’s no doubt about that.

BD:   Have you sung that in Russian, or in Swedish?

Wixell:   In Swedish only.

BD:   Would you sing it in Russian?

Wixell:   No.

BD:   Why?

Wixell:   [Laughs]

BD:   Too much work?

Wixell:   Too much work, yes! But I won’t sing that part anymore anyhow.

BD:   How do you decide which parts you will sing and which parts you’ll set aside?

Wixell:   After a while you feel it’s not very interesting to do that one anymore. Some parts you have the feeling you are growing away from.

BD:   Are there parts that you are growing into?

Wixell:   Yes, that’s why I have been waiting for a long, long time before I do my Iago. I should have done it long ago, but I’ve always known that it should come from inside.

BD:   Via a new production?

Wixell:   Yes. You really have to grow into the part, which is so important. You have to have the feeling that the singer is really playing the part, and not only playing the part but manipulating the situation. It’s difficult.

BD:   Is Scarpia manipulating his situation, also?

Wixell:   No, I think he’s clearer. He is using his power. Boleslaw Borlog, who is a very famous theatrical producer in Germany, did a production in Berlin, and he came up with the idea that Scarpia has his technique. He’s sent to clear out the situation. He’s not living there. He’s just coming on a command to clear out things. He has spies out, and he takes the people. He’s quite direct in a way. He also tries to get Tosca to give herself to him, and after that he’s not much interested in her. It’s just another girl that he’s singing to. He’s not madly in love with her. Once he had her, she can leave.

BD:   He just wants another conquest?
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Wixell:   Yes.

BD:   Speaking of conquests, have you done Don Giovanni?

Wixell:   Yes.

BD:   Do you like that part?

Wixell:   Yes, it’s great.

BD:   Are you a lustful Don Giovanni?

Wixell:   I think one should be, yes.

BD:   Do you enjoy having your hands all over the various women? [Vis-à-vis the cast-lists of the two Mozart operas shown at right, see my interviews with Martina Arroyo, and Yvonne Minton.]

Wixell:   Oh, yes! [Laughs] It should be that way in certain points. It’s an interesting opera. Mozart is something I haven’t done so much of. I’ve done the Count, which is what I do most in the Mozart repertoire. I started with Papageno, which I’m not singing anymore. It’s one of those parts you feel when you are younger. But it was lovely, and it’s a great piece. I also used to do Guglielmo in Così Fan Tutte. I was asked to do Alfonso for a recording, but I never did it because I had a feeling it wasn’t right. It was to be for Philips, and they had the idea. It’s written in the score that Alfonso is the middle voice, and Guglielmo is the lower. In all the ensembles, Guglielmo has the bass line.

BD:   But you turned Alfonso down?

Wixell:   Yes, I did. There was some other reason, but I didn’t like that idea because everything they’re singing together goes against them. I think it’s mistakenly scored.

BD:   There should be a contrast, with three very different voices?

Wixell:   Yes, exactly.

BD:   If they asked you to sing both Falstaff and Ford on the same record, would you do it?

Wixell:   No! Now in the Rigoletto film I’m doing Rigoletto and Count Monterone, so I’m giving myself the curse. In a way it is the idea of his conscience. We come in wearing different masks, through which I see when I wore it for running to the house, because I’m worried about her. I see the face of Monterone coming through.

BD:   Once in a while the Monterone winds up singing Sparafucile.

Wixell:   I never heard of that. Sparafucile is the bass, and Monterone is a baritone part anyhow. Maybe if they have problems getting singers, they combine it.

BD:   Yes, Boris Goldovsky talked about that. One time the man who was supposed to sing Monterone couldn’t, so they prevailed on the Sparafucile to do it because he was there and had sung it.

Wixell:   Ah yes, sure.

* * * * *

BD:   Let me ask you about very early music. I read that you have done a little bit of Handel?

Wixell:   Yes, just the one opera, Alcina. I sang Ruggiero.

BD:   Does the music of Handel really speak to us in this day and age?

Wixell:   I think so! Baroque music is my favorite music when I’m driving. I always have baroque music on, or the popular Rondò Veneziano. It’s a group of Italians that imitate Baroque music. I don’t think it’s real Baroque music, but it sounds like it, and it’s very happy and relaxing to listen to, with a little beat under it.

Rondò Veneziano and is an Italian chamber orchestra, specializing in Baroque music, playing original instruments, but incorporating a rock-style rhythm section of synthesizer, bass guitardrums, led by Maestro Gian Piero Reverberi [photo at left], who is also the principal composer of all of the original Rondò Veneziano pieces. The unusual addition of modern instruments, more suitable for jazz, combined with Reverberi's arrangements and original compositions, have resulted in lavish novel versions of classical works over the years. As a rule in their concert tours, the musicians, mostly women, add to the overall Baroque effect wearing Baroque-era attire and coiffures.

The orchestra's first decade of albums included only entirely original compositions in the style of the baroque rondo, 'a musical composition built on the alternation of a principal recurring theme and contrasting episodes'.

In later years, in addition to many new and original albums continuing Gian Piero Reverberi's own unique Rondo style and tradition, Rondò Veneziano also brought their fusion of classical and contemporary instruments to a small number of albums dedicated to some of the great composers of the classical and baroque tradition.

In an interview, Maestro Reverberi said on the sound of Rondò Veneziano, "Rondò Veneziano's music is first of all positive. Also when it seems to be sad, it's never sad. It's always positive in a sense that at the end there's always a good future. So I think that also the reason of the success it that it's music where you don't have to think negative or to feel negative or if you feel negative it should be something that brings you to think positive."

The orchestra has produced 70 albums since its founding in 1979.

BD:   Would you sing some more Handel if you were asked?

Wixell:   Yes, why not! I have to go back now and do some concerts again. I stopped for a while, and haven’t been singing Lieder. They have asked me now, so I will. Maybe in a concert I’ll put in some Handel.

BD:   What about some Monteverdi (1567-1643) or Cavalli (1601-76)?

Wixell:   No, I haven’t really done that. There are some Italian songs, of course.

BD:   Scarlatti?

Wixell:   Yes, Scarlatti and things like that, but not really a lot.

BD:   How do you balance your career with opera and concerts?

Wixell:   In the past I did more concerts, but the more you are singing in heavy operas, and you are singing opera most of the time, I find it very difficult to just make a concert in between. You need to cut out a month when you concentrate on singing Lieder because you have to use some sort of another voice and another approach. You have to get away from the operatic habits. It’s possible, and many people do it, but I found it better to really cut out the period if you can, and concentrate on doing a few concerts or song recitals during that time. I used to sing Dichterliebe of Schumann, and Schubert Lieder, and Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch. For the voice, it’s very good to take a break now and then.

BD:   Does it revitalize the voice?

Wixell:   Yes, I think so.

BD:   Does the size of the house make any difference?

Wixell:   That is a question that is very often asked, and it’s very interesting. It’s very individual. Just the other day, a young singer asked me how to do it, and what I thought about that. I’ve never really thought about it, and this one in Chicago has marvelous acoustics for the size of it [3600 seats]. I think the Met [4000 seats] is a little too big, because as I’ve been sitting there in the audience, I have difficulties getting involved in the opera, because it’s too much around you. It’s hard to concentrate on what’s going on. I think a house over 4,000 is not too good.

BD:   Have you sung in Drottningholm?

Drottningholms Slottsteater was built in 1766 at the request of Queen Lovisa Ulrika. The theatre is constructed of simple materials and the auditorium is playfully decorated using paint, stucco, and papier mâché. The wooden stage machinery is operated by hand. It includes wind, thunder and cloud machines, as well as traps and moving waves. About 30 stage sets have been preserved, all decorated with themes from 18th century repertoire. It seats about 400 people.

The first golden age of the theatre was initiated by King Gustaf III in 1777. Up to his death in 1792, when the theatre was closed, the repertoire included Gluck’s latest works, opéras comiques, French classical dramas and pantomime ballets.

When the literary historian Agne Beijer walked through the door in 1921 he discovered a sleeping beauty, untouched since the end of the 18th century. After replacing the ropes, thorough cleaning and the installation of electricity, the magnificent theatre was reopened. Now the machinery could once again perform changements à vue, i.e. open scene changes in front of the audience. In 1991 the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO designated the theatre, together with Drottningholm Palace, the Chinese Pavilion and the surrounding park, as being of international cultural heritage significance.

Today the theatre offers new productions of 17th and 18th century operas and attracts audiences from all over the world every summer. Since 1979 the Drottningholm Theatre Orchestra has performed on period instruments, and the repertoire includes works by Haydn, Handel, Gluck and Mozart, as well as Rameau and Monteverdi.

Wixell: Yes! There are smaller houses with not so many seats where you have to work much more, and that comes with experience. You have to always project, and if the house is good, you can open more, or you give more, and then the house takes it. If you have a small house and it’s a bad acoustic, then you have the feeling that you have to give like hell, and you only kill yourself while nothing more comes out. For that, you have to control it and just sing normally. Then it usually comes out, but there are those difficult houses which really don’t give you anything back, and you have to work more. It is not always necessary that you work more in the big house and not in the smaller house.
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BD:   Do you then purposely avoid singing in those houses where you have to work too hard?

Wixell:   No, not really! It’s very often that you come to a point when you can handle those situations, and it’s not a problem anymore. But it’s a question of routine and experience, and the ability to find that out. The best is to find a colleague who you know how they sound in a house, and listen to them in a different house. You go out and listen, and if he sounds quite normal, and his sound is coming out, you know you have to do exactly the same.

BD:   You just sing the way you are taught, and rely on the technique? [Vis-à-vis the recording shown at right, see my interviews with Samuel Ramey, and Ann Murray.]

Wixell:   Yes, yes, yes, and do not panic even if you come in and you have a feeling it’s like singing in a sack. Just make it up here in your head. Thinking about singing is not quite fifty per cent. It has nothing to do with the intelligence, but you have to prepare things up here mentally.

* * * * *

BD:   Are you good audience?

Wixell:   I’m not running all the time looking at performances. It’s not very often that I can attend an opera.

BD:   On those rare times you’re watching a part that you know, do you breathe with the singer?

Wixell:   Yes, and I see this especially in other singers who are not sitting there enjoying the performance. They’re thinking of details, or things that disturb them while they’re watching, and then they wonder why the performers did that, and so on. Probably it is better for singers to go to orchestra concerts or operas they don’t sing, and really listen to the music.

BD:   Do you enjoy being a singer?

Wixell:   Yes, very much so.

BD:   This comes across. You seem to put a little extra in your part, and we can sense that you enjoy being on the stage.

Wixell:   Yes, you have to. It would be terrible if you found it boring, or you just feel you have to do it. It’s important really to make it an art, and try to get as much out of it as you can.

BD:   Do you enjoy all the make-up, and the costumes, and everything else?

Wixell:   It’s sewn together. What is very good and very marvelous with opera is that it’s such great teamwork. It’s one of the biggest ventures you can think of. You have big orchestra and chorus, you have all the stagehands and the whole machinery. You can’t do it without all of that, so it’s quite interesting.

BD:   Is there enough opera going on today?

Wixell:   In this country, there isn’t very much compared to Germany. There, every little city has an opera house playing ten months a year.

BD:   Are there too many singers around?

Wixell:   Yes, there are quite a lot.

BD:   Are there more singers than there are opportunities to sing?

Wixell:   I don’t know that, really. It’s not only that I like to be a singer, and I go to the house and say, “Here I am!” Many times many a singer has to wait, and has to audition many times before they get a position. It’s a hard [life]. It’s a competition, really.

BD:   Do you enjoy being a wandering minstrel? Does the travel bother you at all?

Wixell:   No. You get used to it. It was a little confusing when I started, but now it’s like coming home wherever are going. You know the place, you know where you are, and you usually know where you’re staying, and have some friends. I look forward to being back to Chicago again in 1984.
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BD: We look forward to your return!

Wixell: Thank you.

* * * * *

BD:   I want to ask about one other role, Posa in Don Carlos.

Wixell:   Yes, I have sung it, but unfortunately I have never done it in Italian. I did it in Sweden in Swedish.

BD:   Would you sing it in the original French?

Wixell:   Ah, no! I don’t think it sounds right. I prefer the Italian, and I studied it in Italian, and then they couldn’t make up their minds in Berlin. It was still a production in German, so I sang it in German. That wasn’t fun at all. I hope to have enough energy to get back and learn it, because it’s a marvelous part.

BD:   Is there any role that you’ve sung in several languages?

Wixell:   Yes, usually many. I’ve done works in Swedish, German and Italian. That’s because I started in Stockholm, and at that time, Sweden did a lot of operas in Swedish. But later on, they have been doing most of the Italian repertoire in Italian, and also Wagner in German. There are just a few operas they kept in Swedish, like The Barber of Seville and The Magic Flute. The jokes come out easier in your own language. Now in Germany, and in almost every house all over the world, works are done in the original language.

BD:   Who are the great Swedish composers?

Wixell:   We had some marvelous composers, but we never had anyone who did much for the opera. We had Wilhelm Peterson-Berger [1867-1942] who wrote some operas, but they are gone and forgotten.

BD:   Why?

Wixell:   They were maybe not good enough, or they were very heavy stuff very much influenced by Wagner. He did one called Arnljot, about the Viking coming home from abroad. There’s some beautiful music in it. Peterson-Berger did a lot of beautiful songs. They are more folk tunes. Another marvelous composer is Ture Rangstram [1884-1947]. He wrote a lot of beautiful songs from the poet Bo Bergman. So we have a lot. I was asked to do a concert in London where they are having a Swedish week, or something like that, with young Swedish singers and a couple of older established Swedish singers. [Laughs] So they asked me, and I’m going to sing some Swedish songs. We also have Hugo Alfvén [1872-1960]. [His Swedish Rhapsody is very well-known everywhere. Wixell then mentions doing concerts with Gösta Winbergh, and Nicolai Gedda, and Helena Döse in various venues... some appropriate and some not!] It’s a big ice-hockey stadium, and it holds I don’t know how many thousands.

BD:   Do you like having audience behind you?

Wixell:   No, they didn’t do it. The first time, we made a ring in the middle, but now they have it on one side, so they have a little less audience but it’s better for the concert.

BD:   Do you like the new designs of the opera houses?

Wixell:   I prefer the older ones. They are more like the way the opera should look like. [Both laugh]

BD:   You have been very gracious and very kind to spend this time with me today. Thank you for coming to Chicago, and look forward to your return in Arabella.

Wixell:   Yes. I love doing Mandryka. It’s a great opera. I’m particularly happy that Kiri Te Kanawa will sing it with me here. Has she been here before?

BD:   At the Symphony, but not with the opera.

Wixell:   So it’s going to be her debut. We’ve done it together now in several places including San Francisco and London.

BD:   Who will be the conductor?

Wixell:   Sir John Pritchard. He did it in London, and he’s a marvelous Strauss conductor.

BD:   I chatted with him at the radio station, and we have cats there. One was asleep on a high shelf in the room where we were talking, and when it awoke it plopped down on the desk. Pritchard played with it during the rest of the interview! [Both laugh]

Wixell:   Oh, he likes cats!

BD:   Thank you again.

Wixell:   Thank you!

See my interviews with Paul Plishka, James Levine, David Stivender, and Ashley Putnam

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See my interviews with Edith Mathis, and Peter Schreier

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Gluntarne (Modern Swedish: Gluntarna) is a song cycle for baritone, bass, and piano with lyrics and music by Gunnar Wennerberg. The songs were composed during the years 1847–1850 and depict contemporary student life at Uppsala University in 30 songs, Gluntar.

During this time, Wennerberg was active in a cheerful student society in Uppsala called Juvenalerna , which, among other things, devoted itself to singing Bellman*, excerpts from popular operas, and quartet singing. By the late 1840s, however, the singers in the society had thinned out as members finished their studies and moved, and there was a need for songs for a smaller ensemble, which Wennerberg undertook to fill. The new songs were performed among the Juvenals as they were written, with Gunnar Wennerberg himself as the Magister, Otto Beronius as Glunten, and with Eugène von Stedingk at the piano. They were enthusiastically received. The impact was eventually greater than anyone in the Juvenal circle could have imagined. Within a few years, the collection had made Wennerberg famous, and several publishers were queuing to publish them.

Gluntarne is designed as dialogues between two students, Glunten (bass) and Magistern (baritone). They combine a wise singing style reminiscent of Bellman, with advanced parts of voice singing, counterpoint, and elements of recitative and arioso. The songs are mutually different. Some are simple songs with verse and chorus, others are long alternating passages with a theatrical character. The singers have different roles. Glunten is the younger student, a little more naive and thoughtless, and Magistern is older, more educated and more refined by student life. The name Glunten came from the fact that one of the singers in Juvenal came from Dannemora, later the original Glunten Otto Beronius, and was used to be called that after the Uppland dialect word glunt, which means boy or lad.

When the songs were published in a collection, Wennerberg sorted them into a 'chronological' order, so that the first ones are about how the singers meet, become members of the Juvenal Society, etc., and the last ones about how Glunten graduates and leaves Uppsala. However, this is not the order in which they were written.

*Carl Michael Bellman (February 4, 1740 – February 11, 1795) was a Swedish songwriter, composer, musician, poet, and entertainer. He is a central figure in the Swedish song tradition, and remains a powerful influence in Swedish music, as well as in Scandinavian literature to this day. He has been compared to Shakespeare, Beethoven, Mozart, and Hogarth, but his gift, using elegantly rococo classical references in comic contrast to sordid drinking and prostitution — at once regretted and celebrated in song — is unique.

This conversation was recorded in a dressing room backstage at Lyric Opera of Chicago on October 25, 1982. Portions were broadcast on WNIB in 1985, 1990, 1991, 1993, and 1996. This transcription was made in 2025, and posted on this website at that time. My thanks to British soprano Una Barry for her help in preparing this website presentation.

To see a full list (with links) of interviews which have been transcribed and posted on this website, click here. To read my thoughts on editing these interviews for print, as well as a few other interesting observations, click here.

* * * * *

Award - winning broadcaster Bruce Duffie was with WNIB, Classical 97 in Chicago from 1975 until its final moment as a classical station in February of 2001. His interviews have also appeared in various magazines and journals since 1980, and he continued his broadcast series on WNUR-FM, as well as on Contemporary Classical Internet Radio.

You are invited to visit his website for more information about his work, including selected transcripts of other interviews, plus a full list of his guests. He would also like to call your attention to the photos and information about his grandfather, who was a pioneer in the automotive field more than a century ago. You may also send him E-Mail with comments, questions and suggestions.