Olga Peretyatko talks about creativity and herself. Olga Peretyatko: Over the years it becomes more and more difficult to find sincerity in oneself Olga Peretyatko biography family

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In the restored production of Vincenzo Bellini's opera "The Puritans" at the Metropolitan Opera, which premieres on April 17, Russian soprano Olga Peretyatko will appear on this stage for the first time, singing the role of Elvira.
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Olga Peretyatko: “I go on stage like a bullfighter at a bullfight”

Opera singer Olga Peretyatko. Photo: D.Rabovsky

Production of the opera I Puritani by Vincenzo Bellini almost forty years agoat the Metropolitan Operathe great Luciano Pavarotti and Joan Sutherland sang. In the restored production of this performance, the premiere of which is scheduled for April 17, soprano from Russia Olga Peretyatko will appear on this stage for the first time, performing the role of Elvira.

This is an unusual family alliance within the walls of the Met - the alliance of a singer from St. Petersburg and her husband, Italian conductor Michele Mariotti, who made his debut at the New York theater a little earlier than his wife, last season, conducting productions of “Carmen” and then “Rigoletto.” Together with Olga Peretyatko, famous singers Lawrence Brownlee (Arthur) and Mariusz Kwiecien (Richard) will appear on stage.

Olga Peretyatko has already sung Elvira at the Lyon Opera and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris. She first came to the attention of world opera lovers in 2010, performing the main role in Robert Lepage's production of The Nightingale and Other Tales to music by Stravinsky at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and on other stages.

Olga Peretyatko was born in St. Petersburg and began her musical career at the age of 15 in the children's section of the Mariinsky Theater. She studied in Berlin. She has won several awards at international competitions and festivals. From 2005 to 2007 she sang at the Hamburg Opera. She has performed in Berlin and Munich, Venice and Pesaro, Toronto and Amsterdam and in many other theaters around the world.

2014, apparently, is a very important stage of prestigious debuts for you. You have already sung Gilda in Rigoletto at the Zurich Opera House, you will sing Martha in The Tsar's Bride at La Scala, and in a few days you will appear on the Met stage for the first time as Elvira...
We think a little differently. Seasons: from September to July. This season is really very important for me, starting with the Salzburg Festival and Gilda in Rigoletto in Verona. There is no time to relax.

Olga Peretyatko. Photo from the sitemetoperafamily.org

The role of Elvira in “Puritans” was sung by Anna Netrebko at the Met about seven years ago. Have you heard her performance? How do you generally rate Anna as a singer?
We know each other. They even sang once on the same stage, at the Mariinsky Theater in 1995-96. She sang Michaela in Carmen, and I sang in the children's choir. Anna was already a big star then. We all adored her.

Has the adoration continued over the years?
I love Anna very much. I like what she does. There are few singers who perform so many roles during their career. Its performance can be used as an example. And before Anna, this part in “Puritans” was sung by Joan Sutherland and Edita Gruberova, who are my vocal idols. My passion for singing began with Sutherland. I remember her vinyl record with a purple cover, where individual arias were recorded. I listened to her to death. And she fell in love with the coloratura soprano, deciding to move in this direction.

You started out as a mezzo-soprano?
I sang as second alto in the children's choir. Do you hear how deep my voice is? They told me that I was a mezzo-soprano, and I was happy. I wanted to sing Delilah, Lyubasha. Then I found my teacher, who told me: well, girl, your voice is beautiful, but you are not a mezzo. I was terribly upset. I spent three days in deep depression. And then I calmed down and decided: well, we’ll work towards the soprano.

Your father Alexander Peretyatko sang at the Mariinsky Theater. You probably came to opera under his influence?
My father still sings in the Mariinsky choir. And now I’m making a global career for the two of us.

You lived in Lithuania for some time...
My parents, unfortunately, divorced then. From '87 to

For 1994 I lived in Lithuania, in a small town, then it was called Snečkus, and now Visaginas. It is famous for the Ignalina nuclear power plant, which was closed after heated discussions. I remember interesting people lived there, engineers, scientists - educated, well-mannered. I managed to do everything - I studied at a music school, and at a mathematical gymnasium, and went to karate. This is only possible in a small town where everything is nearby.

What belt do you have in karate?
Red. I really enjoyed working in the section. Actually, I should have been born a boy. I never liked dolls, saucepans, well, what girls play with. I have always liked martial arts, cars, speed, technology, computers. I'm a tech freak. Taking something apart and putting it back together is mine. I am very grateful to the time when I started playing sports: I can still concentrate. This is important: in the art of opera, the one with the stronger nerves wins.

Olga Peretyatko as Elvira in Vincenzo Bellini's production of La Puritani at the Metropolitan Opera. Photo: Ken Howard, AP

What do you have in mind?
You go on stage at the Metropolitan, and four thousand spectators are looking at you. And the audience of the Arena di Verona is up to 18 thousand. Can you imagine? You go on stage and feel like a bullfighter at a bullfight. It is unknown who will win. You convince yourself that you don’t need to think about how important it is. Otherwise you'll go crazy. You're just doing your job.

Your career has taken off lately. Does knowing success help?
I wouldn’t say that everything is happening so abruptly. I have been working systematically since about 2006. So success is the result of my constant efforts.

Your husband is conductor Michele Mariotti. How did you meet him?
We met in the summer of 2010 in Italy, at the Pesaro Opera Festival. He conducted Rossini's Sigismund, and I sang in the same production. We had nothing then, I was married to another man. Three months later, Michele and I met again, during which time I learned Italian. Passion was ignited and we have been together ever since.

Can I ask about children?
You see, this is one of the unattractive aspects of our nomadic life - there is no time to have children. Every month you are in a new city, in a new country. To combine career and family, you need to be a top manager. But I am a positive person and I never make guesses. What will be will be.

How did it happen that your husband is conducting the performance of “Puritans” at the Met? Did you somehow calculate this in advance?
It was a funny story. I signed a contract with Met for another, much more modest batch, back in 2009. Time passed, my reputation grew, and, in the end, Peter Gelb (director of the Metropolitan Opera - O.S.) offered me the role of Elvira. I agreed, and then in a conversation with my husband I found out that he would be the conductor! And this has happened to us more than once. Michele and I have different agents, they offer us contracts, and at some point our plans coincide. It’s just wonderful - we will be together this time. Before this we had not seen each other for two months; Michele worked on the production in Chicago, and I sang in Switzerland and Italy.

Olga Peretyatko and Michele Mariotti. Photo from the site colta.ru

How do you think European opera traditions differ from American ones?
The organization at the Metropolitan Theater is ideal, working is a pleasure. Twenty people are dedicated to making everything comfortable for you. Everything works like clockwork. The rehearsal process is convenient for singers. American brand - huge halls with excellent acoustics. If you have a good voice and the right technique, you can sing without tension, you don’t need to strain or shout. The only negative is that rehearsals start at 10.30 am, which is very early for me. When the performances start (and they are mostly evening) - naturally, I hope - I’ll sleep off.

Olga Peretyatko Photo: Ivan Kaidash/"Snob"

She has the perfect figure of a fashion model. Jet black hair flowing over the shoulders. Slavic clearly defined cheekbones and stern, unsmiling eyes. Before each performance, she always eats a piece of meat. “You can’t go on stage hungry,” explains Olga, “otherwise you won’t last three acts.”

Great opera artists have their secrets and professional secrets. Someone breathes using a special technique. Some remain silent for days on end, giving their cords a rest, while others sing before the performance so loudly that the crystal in the theater chandelier begins to ring. And Olga Peretyatko silently eats steak. I imagine her performing sacred acts in absolute silence. No side dish or extraneous, distracting conversations: a woman alone with a piece of tenderloin. Filet mignon. Medium done. And even better with blood.

I think there's something incredibly exciting about it. Just like the way she goes on stage, rustling the long train of her Yulia Yanina outfit. How he glares at the conductor, how he joins the orchestra, how he hits the highest and most complex notes without visible effort, as if he barely touches the switch with his beautiful hand and - voila! It immediately becomes light. No wonder one of her most famous albums is called “Russian Light”. This is exactly how Olga Peretyatko sings. There is light in the voice, and a whirlwind in the eyes.

She is, of course, Carmen. Temperament, dark, dark-haired beauty, some kind of inner rigidity and cat-like flexibility. I see her dancing barefoot, like Elena Obraztsova once did on the Bolshoi stage. I hear the guttural cry of L’amour est un oiseau rebelle, and all this French love languor, and burning jealousy, and the recitative of curses, and death with the taste of real blood from Jose’s fake dagger. It seems that Georges Bizet composed all this especially for her. I can imagine how stunned Olga was when the vocal teachers said that they should forget about the legendary gypsy for now. Her voice is not yet ripe for habanera. Olga’s voice is still light, high, transparent - a lyric soprano. Her range is from Lyubasha in The Tsar's Bride to Adina in Elixir of Love. All the heroines of Rossini, all the queens of Donizetti, all the nightingales of Alyabyev, Stravinsky and Rimsky-Korsakov - this, of course, is her. And the first, instant association is the purest nightingale trills. Olga even had a dream. If mezzo-soprano roles cannot be performed yet, shouldn’t she prepare a special album consisting entirely of arias and nightingale songs? But the bosses of Sony Classical, after consulting, decided that this was too bold a project that did not promise them sales and commercial benefits. Let Olga sing Gilda or her Rossini better. A proud woman, she did not argue. She is hiding, waiting for her “nightingale” hour.

The life of an opera singer has taught me that there is no need to fuss. That is, at first, perhaps, it is necessary - to learn the most complex parts in three days and three nights, to agree to risky substitutions at the last moment, to undertake any experiment so that they will notice, hear, and remember her complex, almost unpronounceable Ukrainian name.

Olga is sure: fate itself will lead you where you need to go. For some reason, I once brought her together with Anna Netrebko on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater, when she was still singing in a children's choir, and Netrebko was already a rising star. And today, to the question: “How was it?” Olga replies with a dazzling smile: “We adored her.” In the music world in the West, it is not customary to tease colleagues. The prima donna must be flawless, like Caesar's wife. In addition, Olga is sure that all bad thoughts and words come back to you.

- This is my karma. As soon as I say something wrong, or even think, I immediately get a ricochet on the head.

Since childhood, her idol was the great Joan Sutherland. A voice from a black vinyl record called to transcendental distances and unattainable heights. Only angels can sing like that. At some point, the divine soprano materialized in the form of a tall, majestic lady who sat on the jury of the opera competition in which Olga participated for the first time. Then she became a laureate in the “children’s” group under 23 years old. Two years later, Joan appeared on her horizon again. This time in the stalls at Meyerbeer's opera Semiramide, which her husband conducted.

“We were seized with wild panic when we found out that Sutherland herself was in the hall. After the performance, she came to us backstage and said a few encouraging words. I really regret that I didn’t hear her live. But from the recordings today I can imagine what a huge, simply incredible voice it was. After all, she started with Wagner and only then switched to the Italian soprano repertoire. No one else had top notes like hers.

Olga pronounces this with the inimitable intonation of a professional, capable of soberly assessing the capabilities and work of another. And although she resolutely rejects any parallels with Sutherland, some factual similarities in life plots are obvious: the transition from mezzo to lyric soprano, husbands as conductors, success in Rossini’s operas. It seems!

Olga Peretyatko Photo: Ivan Kaidash/"Snob"

But at the same time, Olga herself is least inclined to admire and rejoice at her triumphs. On the contrary, no matter what you talk about, it wasn’t right, it wasn’t right, it wasn’t ideal.

- Is it ever ideal? - I ask. - When could you say that it worked!

- Never to myself. I remember Rolando Villazon once told my colleague during rehearsals: “Enjoy yourself while you are young and brash.” This is a special state when you have nothing to lose, no one knows you and, by and large, no one expects anything: if you sing, it’s good, if you don’t sing, it’s also not a disaster. When you go on stage with this feeling, then, strangely enough, a lot of things happen. There is such a frantic rush of adrenaline, unimaginable freedom appears that you forget where you are, what you are. The wave carries you. But this cannot last long. Once you have already reached a certain level of fame and skill, you need to confirm your success every time. They look at you differently, they listen to your voice completely differently. You feel this wary, impregnable hall, which you can no longer take with one jerk, pressure, courage. And a lot more is needed.

- What exactly? What's most important?

- Sincerity. Over the years, it becomes more and more difficult to find it in yourself. Yes, of course, you should try to sing as if this was your last performance or last concert. But at the same time, the thought still haunts you that life is long and there will be a lot of things ahead. And somehow you need to be able to calculate strength and emotions. In fact, this is what you never stop learning throughout your life.

Olga loves multi-thousand halls. The very thought that thousands of eyes are looking at her is an incomparable stimulus for her. This was the case at performances in the Arena di Verona, where 20 thousand people applauded her, and this was the case at the grand concert on July 14 in Paris, where she sang a duet from Delibes with the Latvian diva Elina Garanča against the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower. And this combination of rough iron and the most tender female voices made a stunning impression. Then it was watched by 4 million people around the world. The point here is not only some kind of gigantomania. Olga is simply not a chamber singer by nature. Despite all the meticulous care in finishing each batch, she does not strive to be a virtuoso of small forms. She feels cramped in the concert space. She loves space and scope. She knows how to tame the orchestra and choir with her voice. She's good at it. She would like boots and a whip. And everyone strives to dress her in the kokoshnik of “The Tsar’s Bride” or Rosina’s apron.

By the way, she sang “The Bride” for the first time not just anywhere, but at La Scala. It was a special experience. A theater where they don’t know your face and don’t want to remember your name. Why on earth? You're not Maria Callas! A theater where from the first minutes everyone tries to show you your place - no further than the entrance. Where you have to prove to everyone around the clock - from the chief conductor to the last costume designer - that you are worth something and can do something. And at the premiere, they might get bogged down, angrily knocking their heels on the floor, and you’ll stand there with a plastered smile on your face, not knowing how to behave.

— Did you manage to stand at the Callas point, where they say the best acoustics are?

— There are two of them: Callas point on the left and Tebaldi point on the right. At Tsarskaya we were not allowed there. Mitya Chernyakov built his mise-en-scène in such a way that we sang in the background all the way, but when I was invited to Rossini, I, of course, rushed there in the hope that finally everyone would hear how wonderful I am.

- Is it really the best sound?

“You can’t really understand it from the stage.” From my own experience I can confirm that the acoustics at La Scala are very uneven. But when you go on stage, you shouldn't think about acoustics. For what? You already have enough problems. You still sing the same everywhere - both at the Arena di Verona, and at the Vyborgsky Palace of Culture, and at the Bolshoi Theater. The Germans have an expression that in Russian literally sounds like “the voice is sitting” or “the voice is not sitting.” If you have caught your point, if you feel the resonance and exist internally in some kind of correct balance, then you can be heard from everywhere. You don't have to choke or scream with all your might. On the contrary, it only gets in the way. But life has taught us: if everything is not to your liking, it’s inconvenient, it’s uncomfortable, then you’re doing something wrong. Think, sort out your voice and condition and start all over again.

Olga Peretyatko Photo: Ivan Kaidash/"Snob"

The lifestyle of an opera diva today is different from what it was 50-40 years ago. The pathos of grand entrances, limousines and complex images has long gone out of fashion. For what? Previously, one suitcase was enough for Olga, now, if the tour lasts for several months, she takes two with her. Her whole life is in them, passing in endless transitions from one airport terminal to another, in an intricate labyrinth of hotel corridors, in the hermetic silence of faceless, identical rooms, which she knows how to inhabit and make like home for at least two nights. Berlin, Munich, Vienna, Madrid, Brussels, New York...

-Where is your house?

- Everywhere. There is a house in Pesaro, but my husband and I spend no more than a month a year there. There is also an apartment in Berlin. But I forgot the last time I was there. Nomadic, solitary life. There is no other one and is not yet in sight, so we must try to be at home everywhere.

Olga’s husband, Italian Mariotti, whose last name she took for herself, is a successful and sought-after conductor. From the very beginning, they both decided that each had their own career. No one ever puts forward conditions that the wife must sing or the husband conduct. If it works out, good; if not, you can always take a plane ticket and fly for two days to the city where your other half is touring.

- But no family routine, we have been married for five years, and these spontaneous romantic weekends together are like gifts of fate.

Happiness is rarely planned. Recently, when Olga flew to Moscow, it turned out that someone had mixed up the dates and she had a whole free day without rehearsals, which she could spend without getting out of bed. For her this is real luxury. But she is not able to lie for a long time, looking at the TV or the ceiling. I covered myself with Rossini's scores and my own notes about the legendary conductor Alberto Zedda, and began to prepare for the lecture. She came up with the idea that at her evening as part of the Grand Festival of the Russian National Orchestra she would not only sing, but also talk. An evening of memories and at the same time a concert of those arias that she once prepared with the maestro. She likes to teach, she likes to show. She always knows how to do it. Over the years, I could become a great teacher. Olga already has several students.

- I only have girls for now. And I work exclusively with voices in my range. Here I am sure that I can be of help. In our business as doctors, the main thing is to do no harm. How many broken destinies I know, hopelessly lost voices. After all, this is such weightless fragility - the human voice.

All that remains is to ask what would make her most happy right now.

“I miss Peter very much, I haven’t been home for so long.” If it were possible, I would pack up right now and fly away for at least two days.

- Is the house still there?

- And there too.

Administrators of the most famous opera houses around the world spent a long time learning to correctly pronounce her funny Ukrainian surname. And they learned - the work schedule of the Russian opera star is scheduled several years in advance: Olga Peretyatko is one of the most sought-after opera singers.

She is a rare combination of youth and beauty, hard work, strong character and a unique soprano.

On stage since age 15

Olga Aleksandrovna Peretyatko is a native St. Petersburger, born on May 21, 1980 in the city also called Leningrad. Her father is a baritone, sings in the choir of the Mariinsky Theater, so from early childhood he introduced his daughter to music. The first musical performance that the future opera singer Olga Peretyatko listened to at the age of 3 was “Faust”.

Soon little Olya sang everywhere - both at school and at home, and then she herself began to appear on the stage of the famous Mariinsky Theater as part of the children's choir. She graduated with honors from the Music School at the N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory with a degree in choral conducting. Olga Peretyatko was unable to enter the vocal department of the conservatory, but she did not stop singing.

First teacher

Gogolevskaya performs wonderfully as a soprano on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater, where she works, and has taken part in productions of other theaters. Connoisseurs appreciate the strength and special timbre of her voice, which they call Wagnerian - it is in the operas of this composer that it is especially expressive. She is also respected for another type of creative activity - she leads a vocal class at the People's Philharmonic, which is open in the Vyborg Palace of Culture in St. Petersburg. Olga Peretyatko was also her student.

After listening to the future star, she advised changing the direction of voice development - instead of mezzo-soprano, strive for a higher and lighter register. After the initial training in singing technique, Larisa Anatolyevna recommended that the student continue her studies. With the advent of the new century, Olga Peretyatko entered the Hans Eisler High School of Music in Berlin. She came to the German capital as a tourist, and the decision to undergo an initial audition with a vocal professor was spontaneous, but successful.

The beginning of a dizzying career

In Berlin, the next leading teacher for Olga was the Canadian singer Brenda Mitchell. Classes and consultations with her and other masters continue to this day. Singer Olga Peretyatko began performing after her third year of study in Berlin, after successfully participating in a number of international vocal competitions. The most significant was the Operalia, held under the patronage of the great Placido Domingo in Paris.

She performed her first roles on the stages of the Deutsche Oper in Berlin and the Hamburg State Opera, in operas by Handel and Mozart. The young singer’s performance in the play “Journey to Reims” at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro (Italy) in 2006 attracted the attention of the world’s leading opera directors and theater managers, and offers of cooperation poured in from all sides.

The stage is the whole world

The singer's career quickly gained momentum, typical of a global superstar. In her arsenal, the best classical roles for soprano are complemented by works from different countries. Among them are Stravinsky's opera The Nightingale, staged in Toronto, New York, Lyon and Amsterdam; she sang the role of Adina from Donizetti’s opera “L’elisir d’amore” at the Lille Opera and at the Easter Festival in Baden-Baden; She sang Gilda from Verdi's Rigoletto at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, as well as in Madrid, Vienna, Paris, Berlin and New York.

Among those with whom the singer collaborates are the greatest personalities from the world of music. She shared the stage with Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras, Rolando Villazon and other vocal stars. She sang to the music of orchestras conducted by the legendary Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, Mark Minkowski, Lorinn Maazel. The performances in which the singer participated were directed by the famous Claudia Solti, Bartlett Sher, Richard Eyre and others.

Personal life

The Italian city of Pariso is an important place for the singer. Success at the festival held there played an important role in launching her brilliant career. Giacomo Rossini, to whom this festival of music is dedicated, is the author of many operas in which Olga Peretyatko sings brilliantly. Her husband, Michele Mariotti, a conductor in demand by many theaters on the planet, was born in this city, and this is where they met.

The wedding also took place in Parisot in 2012. Young celebrities live in Berlin, but their busy work schedule does not allow them to be together in their home. Only when they happen to work on the same project do they get the opportunity to spend more time together. Such an opportunity was the performance of “The Puritans” at the New York Metropolitan Opera, restored in the spring of 2014. In the previous version, the part of Elvira was sung by Joanne Sutherland, whom Peretyatko considers one of his idols.

Star of a new generation

Olga Peretyatko, whose biography as a singer began in the 21st century, is distinguished by a rare combination of qualities that make her a star of a new level. This is a unique voice and an excellent international vocal school, passionate emotionality and artistic talent. In addition, he speaks several European languages and has a professional attitude towards his own visual image. This is the key to today's and future creative success.

Have you wanted to become a singer since childhood?

I dreamed of being either a singer or a doctor, although I was interested in everything. My dad works at the Mariinsky Theater, but my mother, who has nothing to do with music, did not let me get bored: there were dances, a mathematical gymnasium, karate, and much more.

Did you start your vocal career in a choir?

I sang in the children's choir of the Mariinsky Theater - but it didn't reach adults. I remember how in one of the “Carmens” in which I participated, Anna Netrebko appeared as Michaela.

Did she play a role in your development?

To be honest, I didn’t think about a solo career then. I just enjoyed being on the Mariinsky stage and the energy. Today people keep comparing me to her, calling me the second Netrebko. Of course, I learn from her, watch what and how she does on stage, and admire her ability to work.

In St. Petersburg you studied with Larisa Gogolevskaya, one of the best Wagner performers. Did she teach you to sing Isolde and Brünnhilde?

She gave me a vocal technique that allowed me to perform any part. I knew about Gogolevskaya, but I didn’t think that I would meet her as a teacher. When I decided to take up solo singing, my dad said that the easiest way to start was in some cultural center. I went to the Vyborg Palace of Culture, closest to my house, where I unexpectedly met Larisa Anatolyevna, who became my first singing teacher. We began very serious lessons, during which she opened my upper register: during one of the chants, I unexpectedly took E-flat of the third octave.

Why did you choose to study at the Higher School of Music in Berlin and not at the St. Petersburg Conservatory?

I tried to enter the conservatory, but they didn’t accept me. True, I sang in poor condition and suspected that I would not pass. But it’s like water off a duck’s back: that means it’s not mine, so next time. I carefully prepared for Berlin: I had to learn seven arias. There I studied with Canadian teacher Brenda Mitchell, who gave me such training that I can now sing for hours without getting tired.

"If there are envious glances,
I prefer not to notice them"

What was it like for a Russian girl in Berlin?

Nobody helped me, it was hard at first. Sometimes there was not enough money for food: the budget was ten euros a week - I ate potatoes and pasta. Therefore, I sang wherever possible - in hospitals, in hospices, and participated in all student projects, even for forty euros per concert. All this gave me tremendous experience. After the third year, I realized that it was time to go on stage. In Hamburg I was hired as a trainee troupe, I worked for two years, performing two large roles. Then the vocal competitions began. The first took place in the Austrian town of Deutschlandsberg, and the great singer Joan Sutherland sat on the jury. I arrived there at random, without any connections, took the third prize and left all happy and full of confidence. In 2006 there was a “Debut” in Hamburg, at which I received the Mozart prize - a rather large sum.

That’s when you improved your financial situation?

Well, yes. Except for what I spent on regular auditions in different theaters. And that year I ended up at the Rossini Academy, which played a huge role in my destiny. There I met maestro Alberto Zedda, to whom I will be grateful all my life. He offered me Desdemona in Rossini’s Othello - and away we go! And the Rossini Festival in Pesaro, where I sang in this opera, is a big showcase, which hundreds of music critics from all over the world come to see, and singers have no opportunity to make a mistake: it’s either hit or miss. In 2010, I sang there in Rossini’s Sigismund and that’s how I met my future husband, conductor Michele Mariotti.

You and your spouse are artistic individuals. How do you get along?

Our union is based on love and equality. It happens that we argue, including about music, defending our position, since both are stubborn. In general, of course, we are not bored. We love to cook together, go to the movies, and play tennis. You can easily find us if there is a sea nearby.

Is the competition between opera divas getting on your nerves?

What's the point of looking for enemies? If there are envious glances, I prefer not to notice them. There is competition everywhere, but I don’t know any inflated figures in the opera world. Gloss is glossy, but when you go on stage, your face from the cover cannot be seen from the gallery, and you have to prove by singing what you are capable of. There are four thousand people in front of you, and you can’t tell them about contracts with a cool record company. You must have strong nerves and a strong character.

Do singers, like ballerinas, also have tears invisible to the world?

A lot of things are invisible. It's not just flowers, fans and chocolates.

Is your schedule full for a long time?

I know what I will do in 2017. This amuses me, because let's at least live until tomorrow.

In 2007, at a competition sponsored by Placido Domingo Operalia in Paris, Peretyatko received the second prize. Managed to work with world-famous conductors Mark Minkowski, Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel. At La Scala she plans to sing in "The Tsar's Bride" directed by Dmitry Chernyakov. Her solo album is a success La bellezza del canto, published in 2011 by Sony Classical.