One of the planet’s most acclaimed and loved opera singers hails from right here in Canada. Fredricton, New Brunswick born soprano Measha Brueggergosman has toured the world and amazed audiences in opera and concert performances. On October 27th she released Christmas – an album of holiday songs. The singer performs in Alberta for three dates as part of a tour behind the album: November 22nd at Festival Place in Sherwood Park; November 27th at the Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre in Medicine Hat; and November 29th at the Eric Harvie Theatre in Banff, the place where the concept initially began.
"I was invited by the Banff Centre to do a concert in July, 2013," she says. "They gave me carte blanche of the facilities and Aaron Davis, who co-music directed the album with me, we decided to start thinking about a Christmas album. As I go deeper into non-classical projects I think I still like to maintain a foothold on pre-existing repertoire, and Christmas music seemed like a good intersection. Maybe that sounds more clerical than just gee, I love Christmas music. Because we started conceiving the album in July we were only interested in picking songs we could live with for a long time that, to us, had compositional and musical merit, and that we felt we had something to say in arrangements and interpretation.
"It is great because it is a renewable resource but it is also, for me, a repetoire that touches a large portion of the population and a time of year that varies from person to person. I celebrate Christmas in the Christian tradition with my family. We also wanted to acknowledge that there are people for whom it isn’t a Christian holiday, or people for whom Christmas isn’t a time of joy or peace or celebration. The tune I co-wrote with Royal Wood ("Let Joy Reign") addresses that. It can be a very difficult time for people, and we didn’t want to not serve them in this album simply because the banner of Christmas has some preconceived notions, when it is more varied than we think."
Recorded in Madrid, Spain and Claremont, Ontario in the spring and summer, it was an odd time to be thinking about Christmas Carols when the sun was blazing outside.
"I wouldn’t say that we focused on getting into the merry spirit," Brueggergosman says. "We sketched out the rough ideas and, in the spring of 2014, I was singing at the opera in Madrid for four months. So Aaron and our producer, Michael Phillip Wojewoda, came to Madrid and we started working in this tiny apartment. We kind of came together with songs we like, and wherever we intersected we started throwing around ideas. Aaron and I have worked together for close to a decade so we have a shorthand when it comes to arranging and figuring out where a tune is going to go. I have never worked with the concept of demos – in classical music you show up and sing it. So I was like press record this will probably be a take that we keep. There are a lot of takes on the album that are original that we recorded in Madrid. A couple of months later we lived in the chalet out in the Ontario countryside. I had heard about people who lived in a house and recorded and ate together. For me this album represents a methodology of album making that I had never been privy too. My friends like Jann Arden and Leslie Feist and Ron Sexsmith – who create from scratch and need as conducive an environment as possible to do their work. I felt richly blessed to be given this kind of freedom and space to embark on this kind of project. It represents a time that I knew we were really trying to serve the music and say what we wanted to say. The result is this album."
Brueggergosman was on the line from Utrecht, Holland where she was preparing for an opera concert. She has adjusted to the differences in performing in a concert setting as compared to a traditional opera.
"In a concert I can choose what I get to wear. In opera I have to be in a specific place at a specific time, and wearing very specific things. The repertoire – whether it is a classical concert like I am doing here in Holland or opera, which I was doing in Madrid – it is a different life. You settle in with opera. I am looking around my hotel room and have two suitcases that look like they have thrown up. I am not an unpacker; I just throw everything on the floor to find things and then I am out the door. In opera you take an apartment, you set up shop for two or three months. The daily grind is like having a job where you go to the same place every day. When I do a concert I have to make sure I get enough sleep, that I get enough vocal rest between rehearsals. And the show and the audiences are also different. The operatic audience is there for a different journey from the concert audience. The concert has a ‘greatest hits’ feel to it."
The Christmas tour will feature a band, which is a recent addition to her solo career.
"It is still as challenging and I am invested just as much. The energies are just redirected in ways I have not had to exercise before. In opera, you don’t have to think about repeats or key changes or arrangements or how long a solo is going to be. It is preconceived – you are the vessel there to bring it to life, but it had a life before you and will have a life after you. The thing that I really respect about non-classical live performance is it can’t be the same twice. In classical music, that score and the notes are the same once I put it back in my library. But I can look at a score of a song and know what the notes are but realize, if I see this chord sheet, it is not indicative of what our version of that tune sounds like. Depending on the day – how Aaron plays his introduction, what my monitors are doing, what hall we are in – it can be very different. It has been humbling to have been able to experience this amount of variety in one lifetime all under the umbrella of being a singer."
When the tour wraps up December 20th in St. Johns Brueggergosman will celebrate Christmas with her family, including husband Markus and two-year-old son Shepherd. Seeing the holidays through the eyes of her son and nieces and nephews brings the singer back to her own holiday memories.
"[Shepherd] is two, so neither Christmases are ones he will remember. But my siblings’ kids are older and I see the effect Christmas has on them. For my sister, brother and I, it is still very fresh in our memory the excitement you have waking up at the crack of dawn. We have strong traditions and adding the Swiss component to my family is a whole other set of traditions. Wild game and everything celebrated on Christmas Eve, and lit candles on the tree. It is a whole other kettle of fish celebrating Christmas in Switzerland. It is nice to have that breadth of experience. Es Ist Ein’ Ros’ Entsprungen is really a tip of the hat to my Swiss-Germanic Christmas experience. For anybody who likes the holiday you are regressed to a time when you, yourself, were feeling this excitement. I still feel it because I know my family will be in one place and the dynamic that creates. My family is 16 strong, and I have now moved to the country in Nova Scotia, so we can make as much noise as we want."
Brueggergosman is instantly likeable and talking with her is like catching up with a friend. She asked about Mayor Nenshi and chatted a bit about her trip early in the interview. On stage – whether hosting a Juno awards gala dinner, performing a concert, or judging Canada’s Got Talent she is both charming and hilarious. It seems to be a trait among Canadians. Artists like Jann Arden, Michael Buble, Dallas Green, and Tegan and Sara are known as much for their sense of humour as their stage presence.
"That is a group I am extremely proud to be a part of! I feel like we are willing to tell the truth and sometimes the truth is hilarious. In its devastation it can be a real head scratcher and belly acher, and make us feel that much closer to each other. If there is one thing these artists have in common it is a desire for a sense of intimacy with their public, and there is real humanity in a sense of humour. I would think that humour is probably rooted in the very genuine humanity of what it means to be Canadian."
Brueggergosman has had many challenges in her 37 years. She lost over 160 pounds, nearly died from a dissected aorta, lost twin children, and had a year-long separation from her husband (they reconciled prior to the birth of her son.) Through everything she has faced her struggles head on, coming through stronger.
"It is funny, in the same way that somebody who does not have to follow my schedule and [would] look at mine and think it is totally insane, I would look at the life of somebody else and think wow that is tremendously impressive or something I can’t relate to, but am inspired by. I feel like we are all superheroes in our own realm. I am trying to carve out an existence that allows me to learn and expand. That, sometimes, is done from hardship. Sometimes you have to come to the realization that you are morbidly obese and you have to do something about it. Sometimes your aorta explodes and there is not much you can do about it, but you feel like your body has betrayed you. Who hasn’t struggled through a relationship, or grief, or loss, or all of these things that – if I am asked a question, and am in a unique and humbling position that sometimes the words that I say can reach more than a few people – I think it is very important to impress upon people that they are not alone. It never feels ok or is a joyous thing to lose babies. There is no benefit to being part of that club. It is just horribly painful.
"When you come out, the other side, it is a part of being human – that we can decide how we feel about things... I have my son Sheppard and we long to continue growing our family. The only genuine truth in this life is nothing lasts forever – good or bad. Finding the balance between helps me weather the storm. I remain rooted in my faith, and my family, and in the fact that I have people that love me despite my myriad of flaws... There have been storms and laughing and crying, anger and ecstasy. The extremely good and extremely bad have to be tethered by a core of consistency. Otherwise, you are just going to be tossed to and fro, and always wonder where up is."
