Focusing only on career is very stupid. Today you have a voice, but tomorrow it can disappear. Today you are an artist loved by everyone, but tomorrow you are unnecessary and rejected by no one, – says opera tenor Mihails Čuļpajevs, who after ten years of working at the Latvian National Opera is rapidly developing his international career. Since his brilliant debut at the Finnish National Opera (as Narabot in Richard Strauss’ operas Salome in the new production in February 2022) his sonorous, nuanced lyrical tenor and bright acting have already been appreciated by audiences in Germany at the German Opera in Berlin and the German Opera on the Rhine in Dusseldorf, in Austria at the Theater on the River Wien in Vienna, at the Santiago Opera in Chile and at the Swedish Royal Opera in Stockholm. “It just happened that the tenor Mihails Chuļpajevs became an undoubted star of the opera, who passionately and sensually sang the role of the hot-blooded lover Adorno,” – this is how the Latvian singer’s performance in the most recent historical drama of Giuseppe Verdi was evaluated in Helsinki Simon Bocanegra in a new production at the Finnish National Opera. After singing ten performances in Helsinki, Mihails Chuļpajevs arrived in Latvia, where we will see him in Gaetano Donizetti’s comic operas on May 23. Love drink in a new production at the Latvian National Opera. It will be his debut in the role of Nemorino, which only a couple of years ago the singer named as one of the most desired in the future.
“There is no hurry. You have to manage to live,” he says, working at an amazing pace himself. The night after the last performance in Helsinki, he rushed to the airport, landed in Riga shortly before sunrise, and on the same day started working on the rehearsals of the new production at our Opera House.
How has your life changed?
This is my first experience living “out of suitcases” for a long time. I haven’t been home for almost a year, since July 2023, when I went to Chile.
And what is life “out of suitcases” like?
Many think it is very romantic and beautiful. I can say that it is really very interesting, but until now. Constant traveling and heavy workload is extremely tiring both physically and psychologically, but it is an interesting experience.
Read the entire conversation in the magazine On Saturday In the issue of May 3 – 9! You can subscribe to the magazine’s content in both printed and digital format on our new website HERE!
