18 Opera Interview Soprano Corinne Winters on Pagliacci Corinne Winters, who hails from the USA, is one of the most remarkable artists of today’s opera world, winning the Oper! Award for Best Female Singer in 2025. This season, she will make her house debut with Dutch National Opera as Nedda in Pagliacci, a role she is very much looking forward to. “Late nineteenth- and early twentiethcentury operas such as Pagliacci have three-dimensional female roles and stories about relatable characters in all kinds of situations,” says Winters. “I really love exploring these stories, which can be so mundane in one sense but also incredibly human. Expressing something that everybody in the audience can relate to, each in their own way, is what I absolutely adore about this repertoire.” “Nedda is definitely one of those fascinating women – a performer with a fiery personality. But she is torn between the various men in her life, who each want to claim her for themselves. There is her possessive and violent husband and her young lover, as well as the people she works and travels with, all relationships where different power dynamics are in play. Nedda is a free spirit, full of passion and energy. She dearly wants to express herself, but feels stifled and she’s looking for a way out. Women have found themselves in situations like these for millennia, with no escape. It’s part of women’s collective consciousness: we all know how this feels to some extent. It’s timeless yet also incredibly relevant.” A full lyric voice “The late nineteenth- and early twentiethcentury repertoire suits my voice very well. The lyricism and timbre that I have suit the more melancholic music of that era. My voice has a richness of colour, and I also have enough power in my high notes to be able to cut through the orchestra. I have what I’d say is a full lyric voice, rather than a dramatic one, but I can turn on the required edge or dramatic quality when I need it. My stage presence also suits this repertoire: I give everything and I really like the complex, rich characters of this period.” Edgy or traditional “I love all kinds of productions. What’s important for me is that the directors stay true to the work while still showing a new side to the opera, a new colour or flavour that we maybe haven’t experienced in that particular way. I think that’s the mark of a great production: it may be incredibly edgy and different or it may be more traditional, but it needs to tell the story uniquely and truthfully.” “When I start in a new production, I always try to stay open-minded. The worst thing that can happen in a rehearsal room is to say no straight away, rejecting things before you even try them. That really snuffs out the inspiration and imagination in the room. Keeping the spirit of collaboration and creativity is key, because that’s when people feel safe to explore and that’s when great art is made.” Singer Corinne Winters feels drawn to stories that are both mundane and deeply human, such as that of Nedda in Pagliacci, a free spirit who feels stifled. “Nedda’s story is timeless yet also incredibly relevant.” “ A production must stay faithful to the work and also show something new”
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