VIVA VIVICA!(opera singer Vivica Genaux)

Who needs Carmen?

Dynamic mezzo Vivica Genaux has made her mark in Hasse, Handel and obscure Donizetti. This month, she takes on Romeo in Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi, at Minnesota Opera.

Although still not a household name, thirty-one-year-old Alaska-born Vivica Genaux has been catapulted in a few short years from an unknown novice -- she started singing professionally in 1994 -- to one of the most eagerly sought-after and admired young singers of her day. What's even more unusual is that she has accomplished this feat by remaining tightly focused on the Baroque and bel canto repertories, often bringing to life forgotten esoterica or long-neglected treasures: Selim in Hasse's eighteenth-century Solimano in Berlin; Muley Hassem in Donizetti's Alahor in Granata in Seville. At New York's Weill Recital Hall last March with Chatham Baroque, she uncorked a fascinating and obscure Spanish selection by none other than Handel. This month in Minnesota, Genaux performs Romeo in Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi, opposite Sumi Jo, and in April she makes her Paris debut in Hasse's Marco Antonio e Cleopatra.

Genaux is known best, however, for her sparkling rendition of Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, her debut role at the Met in 1997 (a last-minute substitution for Vesselina Kasarova), which she has performed more than seventy times around the world. She brings it to Berlin in February and March. Last spring she scored a triumph in the part at Seattle Opera, inspiring accolades from critics, who cherished her lithe agility, effervescent personality and, most important, flawless coloratura. The striking timbre of her voice is what distinguishes Genaux from the bountiful crop of today's rising mezzos. It's a rich color that is smoky yet warm, husky yet feminine, machine-gun quick yet smooth as silk. (One critic dubbed it "nut-brown.") It is above all an instantly recognizable sound, the hallmark of a true star.

At Dallas Opera in 1998, Genaux sang the title role in Ariodante. Despite the limitations of the cavernous hall, built as part of the Texas Centennial in 1936, hers was an astonishing performance, marked by exceptional musicianship and remarkably assured acting. And there was something ineffable that is rare indeed: a connection with the audience that was at once intimate and awe-inspiring. Genaux capped the evening with a heart-stopping rendition of "Dopo notte" that recalled a young Marilyn Horne.

Over the space of several months I had a chance to talk with Genaux about the challenges a mezzo-soprano faces in her chosen repertory. At the time we first chatted, she was preparing to return to the part of Rosina after having sung Arsace. "There's a certain amount of work entailed in getting it back into the voice," she says. "If it's a role I did before, it takes less time -- a week or so -- [to get] the voice and the muscles of the body accustomed to it again, so that you are not having to think all the time, `This is where I take a breath.' Your body just knows it, because it has been there before. I like to be as carefree onstage as possible, so I do a lot of preparatory work beforehand. I build the character through her relationship with others in the piece and its vocality. I always remember something I heard Frank Oz, the puppeteer, say, `Technique is your rocking chair.' If you've got that down, you can knit or read or whatever you want to, while you rock away. So the sturdier I can be for each of my roles, the more flexibility I have onstage."

The renaissance of interest in bel canto has been a boon to mezzos, as well as to countertenors (both of whom often fill the shoes of legendary castratos). "I am really grateful for the days when Rossini was first pulled out of the closet," Genaux says. "Callas, Sutherland, Bonynge. Marilyn Horne was the Callas for us mezzos. But Rossini practices have changed a lot since those years. There was a sensationalism in the music that has been toned down. Ornamentation has changed." There are also subtle differences in technique between early Baroque and bel canto. "When I was singing Hasse's Solimano in Berlin with Rene Jacobs," Genaux says, "I was scared a bit about doing it, because I knew that Rene was a famous countertenor and an expert in early music. I thought, I'll have to sing straight to him, and he won't like the way I sing. It was exactly the opposite. I sang the way I sing for bel canto, except that on sustained long notes I would have a straight tone, then warm it up at the end of a note. There was ...