<<  -- 5 --  Tess Crebbin and Sissy von Kotzebue    BEN HEPPNER

MV: Do you find that you are now more lyric than dramatic, or more dramatic than lyric?

BH: I have always considered myself lyric even though mostly I sing dramatic repertoire I always try to consider myself lyric and try to find the lyric phrase. I don't embrace the title 'heldentenor' because I don't believe that I am necessarily that way. I have a large enough voice for it but it has always been a little lyric and it has a soft grain to it. But, of course, with age, the really secure singing is starting to come in and that is helping immeasurably. Tristan was wonderful for helping me improve my singing. Interestingly, people would think it would kill you but I took it as a challenge to try to overcome things: bad habits you have or weaknesses in your technique. I see it as an opportunity to learn more about singing and to fix things, which every singer has to do.

MV: Did you have a special mentor?

BH: I did. I worked with a teacher in Canada, an American by the name of William Neill. His wife Dixie Ross-Neill is a wonderful coach and I have worked with both of them. Now I work with many different people, including David Cyrus in Covent Garden, London.

MV: You are called the best living interpreter of roles like Florestan, Stolzing and some others. How do you feel about that?

BH: I think one of the goals in my life was not that I wanted to sing here or there but that I wanted to be the finest interpreter of few roles. I am not the person who feels that he has to sing everything and to have sung more roles than anyone else or to have more popularity. I wanted to know for myself that I have a couple of roles where I would be the first telephone call. I wanted just a handful of those. I wanted to concentrate on quality rather than quantity.

MV: And how does it feel if people call you the finest singer of this role or that?

BH: It doesn't bother me but I think I guard against believing it. I think the moment you start believing it then it's gone because tomorrow I need to sing better than I did the last time. If you don't continue to refine your craft, singing, you start falling behind and I don't want to do that.

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