Barytone Alexandre de Jong: “I’ve always liked projects off the beaten track”

You recently sang one of the title roles in Shostakovich’s operetta Cherry Town. How did you like the piece?

I like operetta, but I didn’t know Cherry Town before I was offered the part. I think many people in the West have never heard of it either. I know Shostakovich’s symphonies, but I had no idea that he had written “lighter music” as well. It was a nice surprise. I feel it’s a good mix of a light, fun operetta and that little “Shostakovich touch”, slightly darker than your usual operetta.

How would you describe the “Shostakovich touch”?

It’s hard to explain; I’m not a musicologist. But for me, there is a certain melancholy in it that I really like and that I feel is typical of this Russian Shostakovich style. A lot of brass as well. I like that it adds a darker edge to the operetta music, which can be frivolous and fun.

Have you listened to the recordings in Russian after you got the role?

Yes, but there is only one recording and the 1962 film: Moscow, Cheryomushki. The piece is rarely performed, and, funnily, the only recording is by the Residentie Orchestra The Hague, performing alongside the Russian State Symphonic Cappelle, and conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky. It’s sung in Russian by a Russian cast, and the language gives it a completely different flavour.

How does the English translation of the libretto change the work?

I think the production used the English version for a reason: to reach a broader audience, including families, and a Russian libretto wouldn’t have worked for what they tried to achieve. But some Russians who worked for the opera house also observed that some of the melancholy and colour of the original Russian version was lost in translation. One can make an argument for both versions.

Did you dig deeper into the context of Cherry Town’s composition?

I did, yes, because the music is rather straightforward, and I was curious to know more about the background and its deeper layers. It’s interesting how you form a perception of a work after you’ve read your lines and done your research, but when you arrive on the first day of rehearsals and hear the director’s concept and see the costumes, your perception changes. Some singers are complete opera nerds and know every interpretation, choice, or embellishment from the 1890s or 1930s. And then, there are those who have no idea what the story is about; they study the notes and rehearse for six weeks. To the audience, the end result may not be any different. In the end, it’s more about being open to the conductor’s and director’s ideas than about contextual preparation, which can help but can also be a burden.

What repertoire do you usually sing?

I sing quite a bit of contemporary and 20th-century music. I took part in the Young Talent program in Lyon for two years, and there, I sang in Billy Budd, Peter Grimes, Poppea, Andrea Chénier, Les contes d’Hoffmann and Louise. I also sang in Raskatov’s Animal Farm, and I often take part in the creations presented at the Opera Forward Festival. In the next Opera Forward production, Red Fox, the role of Jens has been written for my voice. In addition to contemporary music, I sing standard repertoire, but I don’t sing many operettas. I sang Fledermaus a long time ago, but operetta isn’t a very popular genre in the Netherlands, and it’s also not always perfect for my voice. The French operetta, for example, can be on the high side for my voice.

Do you particularly like the 20th-century and contemporary repertoire, or is it especially well suited to your voice?

I think it’s both. The music appeals to me, and I always welcome a challenge. I’ve never seen myself as the typical operatic baritone singing the iron repertoire. I would be delighted to, of course, but somehow I’ve always liked projects off the beaten track. I also enjoy singing in English; I’m really fond of the language.

Tell me about the role of Sasha in Cherry Town.

I really like the music written for my part; it has some of the most lyrical moments in the piece. I enjoyed playing a young, authentic character, and I did so with my very good friend, Nina van Essen, who played my wife, Masha. Nina and I are always on the stage together, and I feel our chemistry is really good.  Sometimes you play characters far removed from your everyday life, but Sasha is close to me as a person, my age and my preoccupations. As someone from the Netherlands who has lived in Amsterdam for a long time, I can relate well to people of Cherry Town. The housing shortage is one of the major problems in the Netherlands. Our country and our cities are small and densely populated.

The production required a lot of physical stamina. Was that challenging?

No, this aspect was not challenging for me; on the contrary. I have a background in music theatre and dancing, so I liked it. The casting crew knew the production was going to be physical; they knew Jakop Ahlbom’s work, and they knew there would be a lot of choreography, so they chose people who were up for that. What I found difficult sometimes was to convey my character’s narrative arc, given that all the spoken dialogue was cut out. It was challenging to help the audience understand who those people were, where they were coming from, and what their relationships to one another were.

Although yours was probably the easiest to convey because you and Masa were so obviously a couple. The vocal score is quite accessible, but comedy can be tricky.

The music of Cherry Town might vocally not be the most challenging, but performing in this production still taught me things. You have to take comedy as seriously as you would do with a dramatic piece. If you do a dramatic piece for six weeks, every day for six hours, it also affects your mood and your group’s mood, whereas comedy really lifts spirits. But comedy is tricky because timing is everything, and it’s easy to go overboard.  Luckily, in opera, the music dictates the tempo, and Cherry Town has been tightly choreographed. We were still able to improvise a bit, but Jakop’s whole concept is based on choreographed manners and slapstick moments.

Not to mention the Wes Anderson-like costumes.

Yes, the costumes are really wonderful and fun, and they really help define the characters. I haven’t heard Anderson’s name mentioned in relation to the costumes, but it was certainly intentional to create a highly stylised aesthetic environment for the production.

Did you like the result?

Yes, very much so. They got a really good cast of excellent singers, and we all took it seriously and prepared well. But we also had a lot of fun doing it on stage. When you work as hard as we did, you can really enjoy it on stage, and I think the audience feels it too.

Now that Cherry Town has wrapped up, what are your next steps?

I’m now preparing the title role of Red Fox by Du Yun, a Chinese-born American composer who won a Pulitzer Prize for her opera Angel’s Bones. The Dutch National Opera commissioned it, and Australian stage director Barrie Kosky will direct it. The story interests me because it deals with Alzheimer’s disease. I feel it’s a subject relevant to all of us, yet one we do not often see on stage. The opera is built on three duos, one of which is the grandmother-grandson relationship. I will play the grandson and documentary filmmaker, and Evelyn Herlitzius will be Anna, my grandmother. My character, Jens, is making a film project about his grandmother, who is dealing with Alzheimer’s, to learn more about her past. But along the way, we find out their relationship is quite troubled, and that Jens, through the film, tries to rewrite their shared history and manipulate the past. And there is a cunning fox who gets into people’s minds and shifts the reality of their memories. I can’t tell you more; you’ll have to come and see it.