_{Artist of the Week} 20 Qs for Alexander Hajek

What/who inspired you to sing?
Ariel from The Little Mermaid (Jodi Benson). I had just survived throat cancer and my mom took me to see it in theatres. A few dozen times. Bought the cassette to sing with in the car, and I haven’t shut up since.

Favourite place?
This morning, with her, having coffee.

Top 3 favourite operas?
Rigoletto, Eugene Onegin, Peter Grimes.

What’s your favourite opera house?
The Dresden SemperOper – an opera house so nice they rebuilt it twice.

Who is a singer you admire that is currently working?
May I please do one per part? Ambur Braid, Krisztina Szabó, Ryan Downey and Peter McGillivray.

Who is a singer you admired from the past?
Jon “shut up with your damn coughing” Vickers and Dimitri “thank god he didn’t see what has become of his country” Hvorostovsky.

What’s the strangest/funniest thing that has happened to you on stage?
Standing ovation for the role of Antonio (from Le nozze di Figaro) in a castle in Finland. It involved a slow motion sequence with a moose and a ladder out of the orchestra pit. The entire cast corpsed at some point, including the conductor and orchestra.

What is one surprising thing that you have learned in becoming an opera singer?
In all the schooling and institutions I attended, everything was quite rigid. Perfectionism was rampant and over-rehearsing in a non-unionized environment was borderline abusive. But once I was out in the “real world,” I was surpassed by the “slap it together” nature of professional productions. I had rehearsed a new production of Don Giovanni in Germany for several weeks. But opening night, I finished Leporello’s opening little arioso only to turn and see a complete stranger wander out of Donna Anna’s room wearing the Don’s costume. After he stabbed the Commendatore, we “met” for the first time offstage, and he said he was just flown in that afternoon to fill in. A lovely Greek fellow who didn’t know any of the blocking and asked if I didn’t mind shoving him around the stage. What can one do but laugh. The show must go on. And it went okay. We are often the last to know about changes to a production.

What’s your favourite movie?
Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Where’s your favourite coffee shop?
Kill Kill Coffee (2224 Dundas Street West).

What’s the downside of being an opera artist?
That your work is tied to your health. Bad congestion and a cough can ruin months of work. Someone sneezes on you on the TTC, nothing to them, but severe economic consequences for you.

Which actress/actor would be cast as you in a film about your life?
A younger hotter Harrison Ford or Jack Black.

What is the best advice you have ever been given?
“Don’t sweat the petty things and don’t pet the sweaty things” (George Carlin) and “Express, don’t impress” (Daniel Ferro).

What is the first thing you would do if you won the lottery?
Pay off all my friends’ debts and go buy some land up north in the wilderness to keep as a nature reserve.

The music industry is tough, and filled with rejection. How do you cope? Does it get easier? 
It is tough, but you just have to be tenacious. After an audition, just forget about it. Don’t fantasize about getting that part, don’t dream about living somewhere exotic for two months or all the riches. LOL. Just sing. And then forget. Move on. Also, I HAVE to sing.  If I had waited for the mainstream companies to start hiring again with any regularity, or an agent to call me with another potential offer, then my voice would have atrophied. Instead, I made my own opportunities and company Opera Revue (thank you Danie Friesen and Claire Elise Harris – y’all are the best). These in turn have led to more and more opportunities. Basically, don’t wait on industry gatekeepers, do something yourself in the meantime.

Were there any directors in the past that have really inspired you?
Up here is Tom Diamond and Robert LePage. Stephen Wadsworth down in the States. Rest in peace Edward Berkeley and Eve Shapiro. They inspired me enough to even start a bit myself (my directorial debut came last season at the Redwood Theatre with a production of La bohème).

What is the ultimate goal of opera?
To make you laugh and cry in a single sitting while restoring your faith in humanity.

When was the last time you cried at the opera?
I got completely blindsided by Sherrie Spelchuck singing some utterly devastating Butterfly at Philip Klaassen‘s Operatic Revelry in Ottawa. I was absolutely and embarrassingly sobbing. Check them out if you live in our nation’s capital. 

Which of your roles has had the greatest impact on your perspective?
Don Carlo (the baritone role in Verdi’s Ernani). I had never played such a “noble” character. His music is dead serious and vicious. And it was the biggest thing I had ever sung to date. While studying, I had wondered how I would ever be able to have the stamina to pull it off. Thankfully, I crossed paths with my current teacher Joel Katz. He patiently taught me the last bit of sacred technique I had been lacking to be able to sustain myself for a true Verdian role. And now, honestly, everything seems possible. It’s either for my voice. Or not.

Are you a perfectionist?
LOL – nope. Perfection is the enemy of good. But it’s good to chase perfection and just give yourself grace.

What’s the most important lesson you learned from childhood?
Just because some animals are friend-shaped does not mean they are friendly.