A Fresh Start!
Back to the Beginning…
If the soprano Noëmi Nadelmann could ever find the time to
write her memoirs, there really would be only one option for the
title: A Fresh Start! Subtitle: Back to the Beginning!
Noëmi Nadelmann is constantly on the road, on the search and
always looking to make things right – she is Swiss, after all –
and she always wants to make things better, wants to move
things ahead, wants to get down to the bottom of everything.
With enchanting serenity she’ll correct things and make them
good. Correct and very, very good, as the critics have praised
since Noëmi Nadelmann first came into the public eye.
For her audiences, it’s love at first listen with her beautiful
voice—and love at first sight with her. How could it be
otherwise with such a woman of modern grace, who is so
chillaxed and charming? Before La Nadelmann was La
Nadelmann, she was always pleased by admiration, but it was
never her goal to go looking for it. She is a creator. She uses
her talents, skills, and instincts from the onset – for quality, for
substance, for relevance.
From the beginning, the small Noëmi has breathed art. Her
mother, Rachel, is an actress, and her father, Leo, is a pianist
and highly respected composer. Noëmi has always been an
artist through and through, ever since she took singing lessons
at a young age in her hometown of Zurich. She soon expanded
her horizons, enrolling at the University of Indiana Bloomington.
After mastering American English and absorbing everything the
culture had to offer, she was ready to return to her cozy, native
Switzerland. In 1986, La Nadelmann’s country already had an
offer to lure her back—the honor to be a season member of the
International Opera Studio at the Opernhaus Zurich. This is
internationally acclaimed, and was a smart move on the part of
Switzerland.
With that, the standard was set! Noëmi will never leave her
bond with success behind. It will forever be a part of her
extensive baggage, which she will carry with her to the opera
stages and concert halls of the world, to realize what she is and
could be!
“La Nadelmann is phenomenal. In many ways,” says Berlin
director and theatre producer Frank Alva Buecheler, and he
should know. “I’ve known Noëmi for twenty-five years, believe it
or not, since I guest directed in St. Gallen and she, still quite
the young soprano, had her stunning, ravishing Gerschwin
program: ‘I got rhythm, I got music’. Soon thereafter we were
able to work together. I can see it now: all of Lucerne stuffed in
the Stadttheater der Atem when Noëmi, wearing an
extravagant red, rose-petaled ball gown made by the brilliant
costume designer Hannelore Nennecke, took the stage… no,
she didn’t just enter the stage, she commanded it. Just as she
did with the audience. She had already found the role of her
life: Noëmi Nadelmann is the modern diva, per se!”
This has been particularly true since her 1987 “kickoff” as
Musetta in Puccinis LA BOHEME at the legendary Teatro La
Fenice in Venedig. There, Noëmi burst from the ranks and won
the Baroque gold—but she never lost her voice thereafter!
From the very beginning she has had her very own timbre, one
that is elegant and sensual, combining warmth and intelligence.
You can hear in her every note that Noëmi knows what she’s
singing, and she feels the balance as she sings it—without ever
losing the soul of the music.
The musical world discovered this quickly. On the other hand,
some critics found Ms. Nadelmann too light a soprano,
someone not fit for the larger opera houses and more difficult
roles. As if the lighter roles are so easy… Oh,
misunderstandings, envy, and jealousy sprung up around the
stage, a stage that represents the world. What does that mean
for the world? Noëmi asks herself just that during occasional
solitary hours in anonymous hotel rooms. Although, Noëmi
would certainly not be “La Nadelmann” were she so easily
bothered. She has no time for that, and is far too bright. She
looks ahead—always towards a fresh start! Onward! Upward!
Vienna, Munich, Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Tel Aviv…
and always back to Zurich.
She judiciously chooses her roles: lots of Mozart—Pamina,
Fiodiglia, the FIGARO—Countess, Donna Anna, Donna Elvira,
Handel‘s Alcina and Arminda, Donizetti’s Adina and Maria
Stuarda, Micaëla, Kurt Weill’s Jenny in MAHAGONNY, and
larger figures of classical operas and musicals, most notably
THE MERRY WIDOW, Hanna Glawari, Lisa, Rosalind, THE
GYPSY PRINCESS, Countess Mariza, Cole Porter’s Lilli in
KISS ME KATE, Magnolia and Julie in Jerome Kern’s SHOW
BOAT, just to name a few!
The show goes on and on and on. Nadelmann continues to
sing season after season, continuing forward, her goals clearly
in mind, hand-in-hand with chance and luck. She’s always
commanding a sense of new beginnings.
If her contemporaries gather during the summer months to sing
in performances and open air festivals, they’ll earn a small
fortune, as Noëmi gives her voice the respite it deserves. She
puts on the brakes, takes a little time off—and gives her voice
some space. 25 years of an international career as a lyrical
soprano allows fresh starts into new vocal horizons.
Thus sings Nadelmann the roles of Leonore in FIDELIO,
Norma and Marie in WOZZECK. Her performances of Mimi,
Madame Butterfly, and Tosca brings Puccini’s three charismatic
female characters into the 21st century, and her portrayal of
Strauss’ Salome left ripples in the world of music, as did her
iterations of the larger-than-life Wagner women, Elsa,
Brünnhilde, and Elisabeth, and her embodiment of humanity in
playing the poor Aida.
In addition to Noëmi’s operatic work, she has committed herself
equally to concert, song, and chamber music, which has
already been briefly touched upon. Whether with opera or
concert performance, Noëmi Nadelmann is constantly
interested in the presentation of human drama, both tragedy
and comedy, and everything in between. This is what inspires
her as an artist. She never holds herself back from performing
in a wide variety of entertainment!
Noëmi has also sung the national anthem at the Bundesrat in
Bern for the beginning of the parliamentary session. “If that isn’t
a federal accolade!” Commented her friend Buecheler, “Of
course Noëmi got the Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart prize, and all
the others. And her fans shower her with at least a thousand
giant bouquets. In fact, many, many music lovers have given
Noëmi their hearts. But that hasn’t made Noëmi at all haughty,
as often happens to stars, but rather grateful. And I stand my
ground in calling Nadelmann a charismatic, modern diva:
Despite her success she has remained a person. Through her
success she found time to do much good for people, she’s
always been there for others. When her daughter took up
studies in London, she made time to help set up the room,
mattress, microwave and all… you should see how proud she
is of her young fashion design student! The next moment she’s
holding master classes for international professionals and
being a TV judge for the Swiss talent show Music Star. Then
she records an album (My Blue Piano) with compositions by
her father—wild, beautiful stuff, music that most would never
dare to touch…
Then she once again has the chance—which is seldom—to
ready another chapter in her fairy-tale life as a singer: Noëmi
stands for the first time in front of the choir, needle in hand. The
men and women study her, and they are enthusiastic. In a
flash, the Nadelmann choir tours throughout Switzerland,
carrying her namesake. Her return to the public eye is
underway, and she has quickly become a respected
conductor—another fresh start, a new beginning!
What comes next? La Nadelmann’s career’s chief witness from
Berlin says: “Noëmi’s smartness has my deep admiration! She
is smart to never allow herself to be weighed down by the
international circus of classics, by labels and agents… rather,
she looks forward, towards the successes of today and
tomorrow, thinking of herself and her artistic mission, combining
both into one, in a way that goes hand-in-hand with her private
life—now that’s what I call a 21st century diva! And… the best
is yet to come. This is certainly true with Noëmi, who is still so
young. The unretouched photos of Christiane Roncaglio, which
can be seen here on the website, make it obvious!”
Noëmi Nadelmann has achieved success. She has also found
happiness. But her greatest joy is to share her gift with her
audience! She is already leading herself and her fans in new
directions… always a fresh start!
“…and in every beginning lives a little magic” wrote a Swiss
poet in Switzerland. This magic lives with La Nadelmann in
Zurich and surrounds her wherever she goes.
Lin Loewenstein
English translation by Christian Persico
Post script… but far from being an epilogue! Oh, no. It’s early
summer 2014, and Noëmi is back in Berlin. She is rehearsing
Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s monumental opera Die Soldaten
under the direction of Calixto Bieito. During a free evening in
the much-admired restaurant “Cookies Cream”: Noëmi is
radient and younger than ever. Champagne is bubbling.
Glasses clink. La Nadelmann can hardly hide her excitement…
but of course, she stays true to her native Zurich and beloved
Europe! And America! She will soon spend a large part of the
year in Sydney… Waiting for her there is a very, very nice
private occasion, and significant artistic appeal. After all, it is a
new continent waiting to be conquered! Australia, Asia… places
where her Operas are already known, will be won over by her
beautiful songs! Noëmi is yet again at a new beginning – La
Nadelmann in a fresh, new start… What a character! What a
woman! Mazel tov!