"I woke up at 7:30. I started to warm up my voice at 9 until about 10, and then I went to the Met."
Aida Garifullina
“It’s important for me to warm up again in the dress. To keep the beautiful, low sound, you have to try to breathe against the corset. And also the dress gives you the feeling of the character you’re playing. So it’s very helpful.”
Aida Garifullina
Aida Garifullina
"Most of the time, I feel like a queen, like a diva. But when I put this dress on, the dress of the country girl, I need to change everything in me: the behavior, gestures, art of acting. I’m not Zerlina in my personal life, absolutely not. Every new role is a new challenge. “
Marc J. Franklin
"They’re so top level here. They try to do everything perfect. Even the costumes, for example. I had three costume fittings already, and today, they wanted to change something. I thought, ‘Do people really see these small details?’ I’m a perfectionist myself, so I love that way of working."
Aida Garifullina
"I love to do some breath techniques from yoga—not for relaxation, but to give me power. You need to wake up your body to get energy. All the muscles have to be engaged to help you breathe and support while singing."
"I was waiting for this contract for many years. I always wanted it, and now I’m here. It’s a very prestigious house. It’s just so different; it’s like another planet."
Marc J. Franklin
"Zerlina doesn’t really have a lot of experience with love. When Don Giovanni comes to her and offers her this love, she wants to try it out. At the same time, she has her marriage to Masetto that night. So she has a lot to play with here. She reminds me a little bit of Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze de Figaro. They are a little similar."
"The first aria is very playful, but the second is more dramatic, of course. She loves [Masetto], but there's something dark; her dark side is coming out."
Backstage at Don Giovanni
Garifullina's favorite part of the Met? "The stage. I love to be on the stage."
