BAKU / Trend Life — International competition laureate in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Verona, and Dresden, Zoya Tsererina made her debut on the stage of the Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre as Floria Tosca in Puccini’s Tosca, and the Azerbaijani audience literally showered the soloist with standing ovations…
In 2020, Zoya Tsererina debuted at the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia. Prior to that, she performed at Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, the Bonn Opera, Dortmund Opera, the Warsaw Grand Theatre, the Musa Jalil Tatar State Opera and Ballet Theatre, the Yekaterinburg Opera and Ballet Theatre (with tours in Thailand), the Nizhny Novgorod Opera and Ballet Theatre, the Mariinsky Theatre, and the Glyndebourne Festival. She has collaborated with conductors such as Robin Ticciati, Marco Boemi, Paul Esswood, Stefano Ranzani, Anton Lubchenko, Gintaras Rinkevicius, Miloš Krejči, Vasily Valitov, Oliver von Dohnányi, among others, and has toured in the USA, the Netherlands, France, the UK, and Cyprus.
– Can you call yourself a lucky person on your chosen path?
Absolutely! I do what I truly love. I’ve been lucky with roles, especially over the past five years.
– Your biography includes several transitional periods. How do you experience them?
They are links in the same chain. I graduated from choral conducting, and it still helps me — I understand music well and spend less time learning scores. For example, I learned the title role in La Gioconda by Ponchielli, which I performed in Bonn, in just five days.
As for the transition from mezzo-soprano to dramatic soprano — I even regret staying in the mezzo range for so long. But on the other hand, I understand that if it had happened earlier, I might have risked vocal fatigue.
– What is the voice for an opera singer?
It is an instrument, like a violin for a musician. It is something we refine throughout our entire lives. We take care of it very carefully — avoiding excessive strain and limiting speaking outside the stage.
– Do you always want to sing?
It depends on the music. Music is the decisive factor. Some works you want to sing, others less so. It depends on how close it feels to you and how much of your soul resonates with it.
– Is there music your soul would never respond to?
There are many roles offered to me. Sometimes I understand that a certain role is not close to me and I refuse it. Sometimes not because of the music itself, but because of how the voice “exists” within it.
When I have a choice, I choose what is best for my voice — the right tessitura, comfort for my soul.
– Do you ever accept “resistance roles”?
I try to avoid them right away — at the offer stage. I understand the vocal load and the energy it requires. The voice is not an unlimited resource — it must be used wisely.
I don’t aim to sing into “deep autumn of life.” I want to sing while my voice allows it.
– Opera involves many foreign languages.
I even learned a role in Tatar! The score was extremely thick. Before starting a new role, I always study the basics of the language — even using a self-study guide. It helps me enormously.
If I hadn’t chosen opera, I would have become a translator. I love working with languages.
– Are you curious?
Very. It is fascinating to discover new worlds, languages, and ways of thinking.
– Is opera part of that same curiosity?
Of course. Different composers, schools, aesthetics — opera is endlessly diverse.
– A foreign language is like an ice hole…
It’s more like the first shock. Then you realize you can swim in it comfortably.
For example, at Glyndebourne I was offered a role in Czech — while I was singing Turandot and Abigaille at the time. At first I hesitated, but then I agreed. It turned out the Foreign Princess in Rusalka was perfectly suited to my voice. That role became a turning point in my career — my “lucky ticket.”
– Is there a difference between Tosca in Baku, Kazan, or at the Bolshoi?
They are all different. I take something from every director I have worked with. There are no rigid constraints — I am given freedom to create.
– Relationships with new stage partners?
With experience, you quickly understand a partner’s nature. I am not a prejudiced person — I work with whoever is there, like water adapting to its form.
– Do you use feminine tools on stage?
Not deliberately. It happens spontaneously — I don’t consciously “switch on” femininity.
– Does opera allow improvisation?
Very much so. You can adjust tempo, phrasing, colour. Sometimes inspiration comes during performance itself.
– Do you want to become a stage director?
Sometimes I think about it. I watch many productions and collect ideas. But directing is a completely different level — it requires a different way of thinking.
– “Being a beautiful woman in opera…”
It certainly gives an advantage — it helps you feel more confident. Opera requires not only voice, but also visual presence. But the most important thing remains the voice and its mastery.
Sometimes, after the first notes, appearance stops mattering altogether — transformation happens on stage.
– Do you love the stage?
It is a complicated love… almost painful. Because it is work, and sometimes struggle. Some evenings everything flows, sometimes nothing works and you must search for solutions in real time.
– Is it magic?
Yes, but a mysterious one. You can never fully master it.
– How do you like Baku?
I am delighted! From the first moment I stepped off the plane — such kind people, such culture, such atmosphere. It is my first visit, and I am deeply impressed.
– And the theatre?
The acoustics are incredible — unlike anything I have ever heard. Perhaps only Teatro di San Carlo in Naples gave a similar impression. The orchestra, conductor, singers — everything is excellent. The atmosphere is inspiring and festive.