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W<\/span>hen Measha Brueggergosman\u2019s book, Something Is Always On Fire<\/em>, came out in the fall of 2017, she had barely turned forty, a very tender age for anyone to pen a memoir. But then the soprano isn\u2019t just anyone<\/em>. \u00a0Simply put, Brueggergosman has cramped a lot of living \u2014 and singing \u2014 in those forty years.<\/p>\n When I mentioned this to her in our recent chat, it elicited a burst of laughter. \u00a0The soprano has been singing professionally half her life, in an unusual career that crosses many artistic boundaries. Not too many can claim to have sung the Olympic Hymn to open the Winter Games, or to have received an honourary doctorate before hitting the big “four-o”.<\/p>\n But among all her triumphs, there have also been hard times.\u00a0 She almost died from a dissecting aorta ten years ago, requiring emergency surgery on the day of her scheduled Four Last Songs<\/em> with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. She also suffered the heartbreak of losing the twins she was carrying, and a gut-wrenching divorce from her high school sweetheart, Markus Br\u00fcgger.<\/p>\n Through it all, Brueggergosman was nothing if not resilient, sustained by her strong Christian faith and an innate sense of hope. Born Measha Gosman in Fredericton, New Brunswick to parents Ann and Sterling Gosman, descendants of African American loyalists on her father\u2019s side, who escaped to Nova Scotia, the soprano grew up in a loving Christian home and sang in the choir of her local Baptist church. She took singing lessons as a teenager, and later at the University of Toronto with famed teacher Mary Morrison.<\/p>\n Her career trajectory has been brilliantly atypical. At twenty, she already turned heads in creating the title role of Beatrice Chancy<\/em>, a new Canadian opera by James Rolfe, based on the story of a young slave girl who kills her abusive father who is also her master. After that big break, she moved to Germany to study with Canadian soprano Edith Wiens, went on to win a slew of competitions, and embarked on a parallel career in both classical music and pop culture.<\/p>\n In 2015, Brueggergosman appeared in the documentary television series Songs of Freedom<\/em>, detailing her journey of discovery regarding her African heritage. These songs have since been released as a CD. Through it all, she has maintained her classical music career, singing in concerts and opera, as Jenny in Kurt Weill\u2019s The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny<\/em>, Giulietta in Les contes d\u2019Hoffmann<\/em>, and Sister Rose in Dead Man Walking<\/em>. Her upcoming Elettra in Idomeneo<\/em> is her first opera in Toronto in eight years, last as Vitellia in La clemenza di Tito<\/em>.<\/p>\n Having followed her career from the very beginning, it\u2019s clear that her life, with all its triumphs and tragedies, help inform what she does onstage. With her in town for rehearsals, I took the opportunity to reconnect with her.\u00a0 I\u2019ve interviewed her several times,<\/em> although not in recent years. There\u2019s a lot of catching up to do. We met in a restaurant near the rehearsal studio at the Elgin Theatre:<\/p>\n A belated congratulations on the publication of your book!\u00a0 I enjoyed reading it\u2026it\u2019s obviously written from the heart.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s the only way I write. I\u2019ve written enough that people come to me for \u201cmy voice.\u201d \u00a0Writing it has been a really beautiful process. My editor Jennifer says the more specific it is, the more universal it will be, even when I thought at the time \u2013 \u2018this isn\u2019t going to be relevant\u2026it isn\u2019t going to be helpful. It\u2019s shameful or embarrassing\u2026 I couldn\u2019t possibly share that.\u2019<\/p>\n Showing your vulnerabilities in your book makes you more human, don\u2019t you think? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n And it renders other people freer to be human too. That\u2019s what I want in the book.\u00a0 But in the thick of it, in the book tour, when you are forced to go back and relive all those things\u2026<\/p>\n Let\u2019s talk about your opera career. You know, I first heard you as Madame Lidoine in Dialogues of the Carmelites, the student production at U of T.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n U of T!? \u00a0Oh my goodness… Just got a letter from the alumni association asking if I want to come to the reunion, which I realize was 20 years ago when I graduated.<\/p>\n Now that you are revisiting Elettra eleven years later \u2014 your last was April 2007 \u2014 how does it feel<\/em><\/strong>?<\/p>\n I hadn\u2019t done her in between \u2013 I\u2019ve done the arias but not the role. Coming back to her now, it\u2019s easier for me to play the fact she\u2019s been betrayed, rejected, tossed aside and overlooked. I\u2019ve experienced all those things since then. I think there\u2019s a depth to your adulthood that comes with having kids [Her sons Shepherd Peter and Sterling Markus]. It helps me understand what a real loss would be. You know it\u2019s one thing to go through a divorce, it\u2019s another thing to contemplate the safety and health of your children. They are both kind of terrifying, but for different reasons.<\/p>\n In other words, you\u2019re saying now that you\u2019ve had eleven more years of living, you\u2019re bringing more of yourself to your role?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n You know, the dissecting aorta, the loss of the twins, the birth of two children, my divorce, all of this is in the book. But I feel I am winning. I could cry for the joy of it that I\u2019m still here. It\u2019s with that commitment to joy and peace that\u2019s in me that I can move fearlessly forward.<\/p>\n I remember when you had the surgery.\u00a0 I was expecting Four Last Songs that evening at the TSO! Monica Whicher filled in for you<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n God bless her! I\u2019ve only had to cancel twice in my career. One was Simon Rattle for Porgy and Bess<\/em> with the Berlin Philharmonic, because my newborn, Shepherd Peter\u2019s passport didn\u2019t go through. The other time was Four Last Songs<\/em>. You see God\u2019s hand moving, and he\u2019s making the way for you even when you struggle to stay energetic and healthy, in the centre of your experience. It\u2019s easy to be tossed to and fro by the winds of ___________ (insert your distraction). I know this too will pass, as the only constant is change.<\/p>\n I mentioned in my review of your book that you\u2019ve cramped a lot of living into forty years! Not too many people would have enough to write a memoir at age forty\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n [Big laughs] I wrote it when I was 39, praying that I\u2019d get there, knowing my life up until that point was incredibly full, sometimes tragic, and super triumphant. When the dissecting aorta came, I thought \u2013 \u2018if this is it, nobody can say I was lazy!\u2019 There are worse things than dying young, like not using the time you have. That, and apathy are worse than dying young.\u00a0 In the hospital, I knew I had lived as much as anyone could possibly live. People think I\u2019m confident, but I\u2019m just confident in Jesus \u2013 it\u2019s my choice to put that much stock in how He moves in my life. It makes me more courageous and loving.<\/p>\n Tell me \u2014 what is it like having a career and raising children, as a single mom? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Here they are! [She shows me the photo of her two boys on her phone] They just love each other. The point is to teach them what they have in each other. I\u2019m trying to instill in them the idea that their lives inform each other, and they\u2019re going to be the longest witnesses of each other\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n Are they with you all the time?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n They are with me most of the time. When they are not with me, they go to Markus, whom you\u2019ve met\u2026<\/p>\n Yes, I remember! I went to your recital in Wigmore Hall in London. He looked the wrong way crossing the street and got hit by a car! \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n He went to make photocopies for my pianist, looked the wrong way and got hit. I\u2019ll never forget it \u2014 that feeling when you heart sinks and you think you\u2019re going to throw up?\u00a0 Like the moment when I found out when my twins weren\u2019t going to survive, it\u2019s that kind of feeling in the pit of your stomach, when everything pours out of you. But you can\u2019t submit to the shock, not when so much is at stake [the Wigmore Hall recital]. I sang it like my life depended on it, while my husband was in the hospital. My life has made my job that much easier. It\u2019s never going to be as hard as getting divorced, as losing the babies. In the grand scope of what life batters you with, I\u2019m so thrilled to have this job. There\u2019s an immediacy in the joy you experience in classical music\u2026it\u2019s right there. If you can divorce yourself, pun intended, from getting bogged down in the minutiae of how difficult it is, you\u2019ll realize that you have the best job in the world.<\/p>\n You must be incredibly busy, what with the career and motherhood<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n You know what I\u2019ve learned from all this? Being busy is probably not what you should focus on. You should focus on going from task to task. Yes, these tasks never end and some of them you don\u2019t want to do, but I\u2019ve watched him [Markus, her ex-husband] emotionlessly go from task to task, see it accomplished, even if you heart is not in it. A lot of parenting is that \u2013 being present, answering questions that come fast and furious sometimes!<\/p>\n Where do you call home these days?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Deep, rural Nova Scotia. No distractions, barely an internet connection. For all the joy that comes with this job and how much sensory overload that comes with it, when we go to Falmouth, I live on my own lake; I don\u2019t even answer the phone, the number is unlisted. I don\u2019t feel the pressure to be more involved.<\/p>\n I noticed that you have a Carnegie date coming up. Michael Tilson Thomas wrote a piece for you?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n I was with him throughout much of the process of his writing it for me. The text of Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind<\/em> is by Carl Sandburg. MTT [Michael Tilson Thomas] started writing it in the \u201860s. He was looking for a singer who can intersect all the styles he grew up with \u2014 jazz, Klezmer, R&B, opera, combining the lyricism of Debussy with the improvisations of James Brown. MTT dedicated it to Stravinsky and James Brown. We took it to LA Phil and to Philadelphia, and we workshopped it with the New World Symphony down in Miami. MTT has composed hundreds of songs, but this is the first vocal piece that he has let see the light of day.\u00a0 He used to play this piece at parties, and twenty-seven minutes later!\u00a0 It\u2019s a tour-de-force and not easy, but I love it so much!<\/p>\n I know you\u2019re singing Giulietta these days, but didn\u2019t you used to sing Antonia [in Les contes d\u2019Hoffmann]?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Yes, I used to sing all three [Olympia, Antonia, Giulietta]! \u00a0Gerard Mortier, God rest his soul, offered me all three in Madrid. I didn\u2019t want to live in a city like Madrid, chained to my apartment, living like a nun, just because I was singing all three parts! The glory of singing all three love interests was not enough to have me sacrificing my time in Madrid\u2026will I still be able to party? [laughs] Olympia was easy enough to let go \u2013 there are coloratura specialists out there who sing this high, fast stuff, a specialization I have zero interest in!<\/p>\n A final question \u2014 what advice would you give to a young artist starting out, wanting a career?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n There\u2019s nothing that replaces a good technique; and knowing as many languages as possible. Do not get distracted by the repertoire you want to sing; focus on knowing your own body, your own voice, and creating your own compass. Get informed by people at least fifteen years older than you; not colleagues your age. You know, if you don\u2019t have a spiritual life, develop one \u2014 singers more than anyone else need an active and healthy inner life.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Want more updates on Toronto-centric classical music news and reviews? Follow us on\u00a0<\/i>Facebook<\/i><\/u><\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>or\u00a0<\/i>Twitter<\/span><\/i><\/u><\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0for all the latest.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In an intensely personal interview, the one-and-only Canadian soprano Measha Brueggergosman shares her thoughts on her dramatic life and career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":59618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[25164,29,43],"tags":[2175],"yst_prominent_words":[11027,7138,6715,27942,27943,27946,9946,10167,24536,27944,11877,6886,8798,8646,10620,6640,27945,10395,6741,11459],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/03\/Measha-Brueggergosman.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-fvy","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59616"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59616"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64780,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59616\/revisions\/64780"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59616"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=59616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}LUDWIG VAN TORONTO<\/i>
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