MILAN, ITALY — What does it take for someone to turn one of opera’s biggest heartthrobs into a modern-day sensation? For American soprano Nadine Sierra, it took years of intensive study and fearless gumption to take on one of the art form’s most daunting tasks. After studying at Mannes College of Music in New York, she has carved a remarkable path in music, performing at venues such as the Metropolitan Opera (MET), the Royal Opera House and the Paris Opera, among others. But there’s more to the story.
On a brisk afternoon in Milan, I make my way to the famed La Scala theatre. As I approach the building’s upper foyer, two-foot-tall posters of various productions, featuring trailblazing soloists from past epochs, greet me opposite the courtly hallways. Fresh from her interpretation of Juliette at the Teatro Real in Madrid, where she starred in Roméo et Juliette, Sierra greets me with immediate friendliness and warmth. It must feel surreal, I think, to bring your skill to such a scale, but this is far from her first time navigating the pressures and triumphs of a major production on the world stage.
Nadine Sierra. Photo: Brescia e Amisano © Teatro alla Scala
For the past decade, Sierra has consistently demonstrated an ability to soar through beautifully complex arias that tell a story. Her career trajectory makes her approach all the more compelling. Growing up utterly besotted with opera thanks to her maternal grandmother, who hailed from Lisbon, had a beautiful singing voice and wanted to become an opera singer herself, Sierra soon zoned in and began the hard work.
Her latest role sees the soprano playing Violetta in Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata, under Michele Gamba’s baton—the Italian conductor known for his poetic and rich storytelling—returning to conduct in Milan following the success of Rigoletto in 2022. The production was conceived by the formidable Liliana Cavani in 1990, with set design by three-time Academy Award winner Dante Ferretti and costumes by Gabriella Pescucci. It is by far the most frequently staged production of La Traviata in La Scala’s repertoire, accounting for a third of all performances of the opera. By the evening of September 26, the opera will have been staged a total of 300 times since its debut in 1859, six years after the opera’s world premiere at La Fenice theatre in 1853.
For Sierra, the challenge is to elevate Violetta’s familiar story into a visual and emotional experience unlike anything audiences have seen before—a role that has become particularly close to her heart.
“It’s a role that has shaped me immensely,” she says. “It was the role that allowed me to dive into something about myself, about the way I sing and about the way I sing words, by colouring certain ones and giving the vocal acting meaning.”
It helped Sierra discover those aspects of herself on a deeper level.
“I had an idea of it when I was younger, but the moment I started looking at Violetta, it really helped me to discover exactly what that is without sacrificing the health of my voice and mind, because I’m also a singer who doesn’t just sing.”
In fact, Sierra draws on her own life, emotionally recalling the things she has lived through and the pain she has experienced, whether with her family or in personal relationships.
“I take all of that information and I utilise it for the stage, theatrically, which is an active method, actually,” she says. “Violetta really helped me get deeper into that. And I’m so thankful for that, because since then, it has kind of developed me in many other roles, not just in this one, so it’s been a very nice evolution for me.”
Nadine Sierra. Photo: Brescia e Amisano © Teatro alla Scala
So I cannot help but wonder: how does Sierra compare Violetta with the other roles she has taken on throughout her career?
“Actually, they are comparable to each other, because I feel like every woman that I play, in almost every opera I play, they’re always dealing with the same patriarchal issues and systems as well,” she freely admits. “Their lives are sort of being directed and controlled and expected by the men that surround them: Lucia, Gilda, even Tosca, Amina, all of them. I mean, they’re all kind of going through a similarity with each other,” she says.
“The differences are that Violetta, maybe compared with the younger girls that I mentioned, is a more experienced woman. She’s probably older and not a teenager. So, these little things could shape their differences, but ultimately they’re all making so many sacrifices of themselves as women who cannot really live freely in the world that they’re born into.”
It has been a few years since Sierra prepared for this role, having first sung it at the age of thirty-three.
“Now I’m thirty-eight, so I’ve had at least five years to prepare and to engage with the role,” she reflects. “The first conductor I worked with in this particular role was Zubin Mehta,” she says, explaining that “Zubin and I went through the role beautifully, and I’ll never forget this. It was in Firenze, just after the pandemic, so there were still some limitations we had. But I could fully be immersed in that working environment, and I’m taking those lessons with me even now, at this time at La Scala. It’s very important, because of course, La Scala carries such significance, especially with operas written by Verdi.”
Amid a climate of uncertainty, political tension and downturns that shape the course of our present times at a ferocious pace, Sierra’s vision is packed with soulful optimism – all while believing that opera can act as a vessel for positive change in the world.
“Anything that connects people, with peace and no violence, is the saviour of this world right now,” she concludes. “The arts in general bring about hope and beauty, and things I think sometimes we’re forgetting in our lives daily. Because so much of what we’re fed by what’s happening in the world every day, sometimes you even wonder, is there hope? Have we lost hope of finding reconciliation with each other and unity again?
“I do think that the arts are a reminder that actually life and we [humans] are a lot simpler than we’re making all of these things out to be,” she opines, pausing momentarily. “I really think that when I get the chance to come to a theatre and sing, I’m reminded of the beauty that human beings can create and share with each other, and thank God for that. It’s a gift.”
by Chidozie Obasi