The story of the Japanese soprano
Born in Tokyo in 1988, Aya graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts obtaining a Master's degree in Opera Performance. She then participated in Mariella Devia's masterclass in Tokyo in 2011. She moved to Italy on a Japanese government scholarship and continued her studies at the “Arrigo Boito” Conservatory in Parma. In October 2014, Aya Wakizono was admitted to the Accademia Teatro alla Scala; during her studies, she made her debut at the Piermarini, in the role of Angelina in La Cenerentola for Children. During the same period she is also Meg in Falstaff at the Royal Opera House in Muscat.
“I was born and raised in Tokyo, where I studied singing thanks to my parents, who were theater enthusiasts, but of prose. I have always loved theater, movies and musicals very much. I grew up with Julie Andrews and Barbara Streisand movies. As a child I wanted to be a doctor, but one day I wondered if my passion for theater could not become my real profession instead. I sang out of passion and played the piano with a private teacher.
I decided that I wanted to become a singer in musicals and learn the vocal technique required of actresses in this genre. I started taking private lessons; one day I went to see La traviata, performed by Renée Fleming, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and fell madly in love with opera. My life changed...
I enrolled at the Tokyo University of the Arts and then continued with a master's degree in Opera Performance. In 2011 I had the opportunity to take a masterclass with soprano Mariella Devia and it was the first time I had heard an “Italian opera voice.” I fell in love with the Italian language and its operatic repertoire, so much so that I decided to move to the Bel Paese.
I obtained a scholarship from the Japanese government and entered the Conservatorio “Arrigo Boito” in Parma, where I studied for a year. Then in 2014, I entered as an effective student at the Accademia Rossiniana.
One day, a Japanese pianist friend of mine informed me that there was going to be an audition for the La Scala opera singers' training academy and that the students would then have the opportunity to work at the Milanese theater-the productions of La Cenerentola and Il barbiere di Siviglia in Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's staging were especially announced.
I then presented myself for the selections and to my great joy passed them. I remember that in the commission I was faced with Luciana D'Intino, whom I knew from her great fame. In the first stage of the selections I sang “Una voce poco fa,” from Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia. I went on to the next stage, which was held at the Teatro alla Scala, and I brought the final rondo from Cinderella.
It was the second time I had entered La Scala. The first had been when I was attending university and had come as a tourist to Italy. I saw Macbeth. From that day I began to dream of being able to perform on that prestigious stage myself - which I had only seen from the gallery.
Shortly before I was admitted to the Academy, I was given the opportunity to participate in the 2014 Pesaro Opera Festival for Il viaggio a Reims in the role of Marquise Melibea, and it was a wonderful experience.
I owe everything to the Accademia Teatro alla Scala and the Accademia Rossiniana. They allowed me to make myself known artistically and to be able to learn from the most prestigious teachers in the world.
I still remember the first time I played the role of Rosina at La Scala in Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's historic staging. Every mezzo-soprano dreams of working in this production! It was 2015 and with us in the role of Figaro was the great baritone Leo Nucci, while the part of Basilio was entrusted to another extraordinary performer like Ruggero Raimondi. It was an opportunity not only to be able to work alongside world-recognized artists, but also to learn life lessons from them. We had the opportunity to live every day alongside our lifelong “idols.”
When you enter the Academy then, you are allowed to attend all performances of La Scala, not only opera productions but also ballet performances and symphony concerts - a wonderful opportunity.
I was practically living in the theater! I would finish my classes at the Academy around five o'clock in the afternoon, run straight to the theater to have dinner in the cafeteria, and then go into the auditorium to attend the evening program. And it didn't end there, because immediately afterwards I would stop in some hall to study for the next day.
This allowed me to get to know all the people who work to keep this incredible machine running: from the lady who served in the cafeteria to the cleaning guy, from the machinists to the toolmakers to the administration staff. Very different people, but all in love with the place where they work.
A lot of people really do move behind the scenes of a show, and when the theaters were forced to close, because of the pandemic, I could only think back to all those I had met who suddenly found themselves without their “special place.”
With the Academy experience over, I spent three years dense with commitments and full of personal successes, I was able to study new roles and deepen my repertoire. So many opportunities to work in important productions: Il barbiere di Siviglia in Bologna and Florence, Mercadante's Francesca da Rimini in Martina Franca, directed by Fabio Luisi, a concert with Pretty Yende at the ROF, La pietra del paragone at the ROF and in Cagliari, I Capuleti e i Montecchi in Verona, and experiences in many other theaters - I owe a lot to my agent, Saverio Clemente of In-Art.
I have not been idle even in the first months of this strange 2021, singing in Le nozze di Figaro in my hometown, Tokyo, and for a concert at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. So I continue to cultivate my dream of living through music!
At the Academy, then, I also found love, clarinetist Ettore Biagi.
But that's another story....
Header photo: Aya Wakizono in Dior's signature costume in The Touchstone, directed by Pierluigi Pizzi - 2017 photo (c) Amati Bacciardi
