Vienna (OTS) – Next week she will sing the opening of the Vienna Opera Ball: world opera star Elīna Garanča was a guest in Ö3’s “Breakfast with Me” today (Sunday, February 4th). She spoke to Claudia Stöckl about jobs after her singing career and Anna Netrebko’s attitude to the Ukraine war.
Stop when it’s best? The opera megastar will have one of her most beautiful performances when she opens the 66th Opera Ball next Thursday. Nevertheless, audience favorite Elīna Garanča spoke about quitting in Ö3’s “Breakfast with Me”: “I’ve been thinking about the end of my career for a long time. I am a realist. Ten to fifteen years is a really great career for a singer, 25 years of career – as long as mine has lasted – is already a super extra and everything that comes after that borders on a miracle. I still enjoy it, but my knees hurt. We stand on the sloping stages for a very long time during every performance. And I notice that singing the same parts over and over again is less fun for me. And I have accumulated so much experience, I enjoy passing it all on to young people.” Does she already have a time to say goodbye? “Not specific yet. I’ll probably be singing for a few more years,” says the 47-year-old, but she already has “Plan B to Z” for the time after her active career: “I have so many things that interest me. For example, we did a major renovation of our house in Malaga in the summer. I chose all the tiles myself, all the curtains – so if singing doesn’t work out anymore, I might work as an interior designer. Or in Spain, where we live, there are only terrible cakes. I could bake the Latvian cakes there and start a small business.”
Parts of this year’s Opera Ball opening are dedicated to Ukraine and the Ukrainian war was also a topic for Claudia Stöckl in Ö3’s “Breakfast with Me”. Elīna Garanča also made a clear statement about Anna Netrebko’s attitude: “Anna distanced herself from the war, but not from Putin, for whatever reasons. From my point of view, because she doesn’t live in Russia, but in Vienna and is Austrian. But at the end of the day, it’s her attitude and morale that she has to go to sleep with every night. Inner morality is precisely what makes us toss and turn through the night or not.” And Elīna Garanča further justified her criticism on Ö3: “For me, some things are incomprehensible because I am also from a small Latvia that was occupied twice , I grew up in the former Soviet Union and I know what goes on there and how it feels as an occupied country. In principle: singing hymns of praise for the people in power in such a situation is unimaginable to me.”
Hitradio Ö3 reports on the “Ball of Balls” in the Vienna State Opera. Ö3 reporter Martin Krachler looks behind the scenes of the opera ball and reports on the social event the day after (Friday, February 9th) in the Ö3 alarm clock. The highlights of the evening and the best photos are also available to click through on the Ö3 homepage (oe3.ORF.at).
The “Vienna Opera Ball 2024” live on ORF 2 and 3sat
This year too, the entire main evening on ORF 2 and 3sat is dedicated to the glamorous climax of the ball season on Thursday, February 8th. From the arrival of the guests and their entry onto the festival stairs to the opening of the Young Women’s and Young Men’s Committee to the midnight quadrille: the TV audience will again experience all the highlights live from the Vienna State Opera from 8:15 p.m. The TV evening will be hosted by Mirjam Weichselbraun and Andi Knoll, Teresa Vogl and, for the first time, Marion Benda.
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