An Interview With Ying Fang
Ying Fang (Dario Acosta)
One might have to ascend to heaven to find a voice lovelier than that of Chinese soprano Ying Fang, who possesses the sound of a seraph with the shimmer of a polished pearl. She has firmly established herself as one of the world’s leading interpreters of Mozart, having sung nearly every Mozart role in her fach, and she was kind enough to answer some questions about that, singing in the street, and Mimì in La Bohème. Read on!
Given Ying’s prowess in the Classical style of Mozart, it may surprise you to learn that her 2013 Met debut was in Shostakovich’s The Nose: not a composer one typically associates with lyricism. However, Ying’s role — Madame Podtochina’s daughter — had “the most beautiful vocal lines in the opera,” she says. Besides, she “loved the production,” and “being on that Met stage was overwhelming—I remember singing into that gorgeous velvet-red auditorium and feeling like it was like a dream.” She hasn’t done much other ‘modern’ opera, but it’s in the works. “I can’t share details yet, but stay tuned.”
Ying and Emily D’Angelo in La Clemenza di Tito (Jonathan Tichler/Met Opera)
I first saw Ying at the Met in 2018, when she displayed her comedic prowess in the role of the evil stepsister Noémie in Massenet’s Cendrillon, but it wasn’t until the following year, when she was Servilia in Mozart’s horrifically underrated La Clemenza di Tito, that I realized that she was actually a fairy sojourning on earth. “Mozart’s music is heaven to me,” Ying says. “His imagination, purity, virtuosity, passion, innocence, and darkness are so rare and unique. Singing his music requires one’s voice to be in top form. It’s like a balm for my voice.” That Clemenza remains the single best operatic performance I have ever attended, and I envy the random strangers who heard Ying accidentally start singing in the street, as she was wont to do at the time. “I probably still do — and I love it!”
Ying in Le Nozze di Figaro (Marco Borggreve/Dutch National Opera)
Ying’s repertoire is varied and vivid, from Glück to Bellini to Mahler, but if she has a signature role, it would likely be Susanna, the witty maid in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, whom Ying names as the character who is most like her in real life, although “I always try to find something in each role that resonates with me.” Susanna is “smart, fun, reliable, strong, sympathetic, and she’s got real guts! I hope I can be as amazing as she is.” It’s a particularly special role for Ying because when she says “opera found me,” it was through “performing scenes from Le nozze di Figaro during my undergrad, and I had the best time!” Ying even finds resonance in roles outside her repertoire, such as Mimì in La Bohème, who Ying thinks is often misinterpreted. “She’s often seen as fragile and a victim of fate, but I see her as resilient: living alone, surviving in the city by herself, not leaning on men. She walks into Rodolfo’s life when she feels love, and leaves when she knows it’s over; both take tremendous courage.”
Ying and Peter Mattei in Don Giovanni (Karen Almond/Met Opera)
In 2023, Ying opened the Met’s new Don Giovanni as Zerlina, which was also broadcast in HD. It was her first completely new production at the Met; she calls the experience “Wonderful!” before elaborating that “Working with [director] Ivo van Hove and the whole team to bring this piece and Zerlina to life was fascinating. Being part of the creative process is always inspiring as you can put your ideas into the big canvas painted by the director.” Ying’s character Zerlina is a peasant whom Don Giovanni almost seduces on the day of her wedding to Masetto. She might not quite be a social climber, but “I think Zerlina grabs opportunities when she sees them. She knows her way with Masetto, and Don Giovanni is certainly a man out of her reach in her social circle. With Masetto storming off with jealousy, her interest in Giovanni is part revenge and part seizing an unexpected opportunity.”
Ying in Fidelio (Karen Almond/Met Opera)
If Ying weren’t an opera singer, she says, she would be “a designer or painter. I love colors, patterns, and hands-on creative work.” It’s especially fitting, then, that hers was the only colorful costume in her most recent Live in HD this spring, when she sang Marzelline in Fidelio, Beethoven’s only opera. Fidelio is an ode to freedom and marital love, but Marzelline, the jailer’s daughter, is left without a happy ending because she’s fallen for the heroine, Leonore, who is disguised as a boy named Fidelio. When Leonore’s identity is revealed at the end, Marzelline is heartbroken, despite the best efforts of the sweet and earnest but (to her) unappealing Jaquino. She is mostly ignored in the finale’s general jubilation, but Ying isn’t too worried about her. “She’s still young! With time, she’ll bounce back and be the bubbly Marzelline we love. Probably not with Jaquino, but with someone even better!” It’s a relief to know she won’t have to lower her standards. Sorry, Jaquino.
Despite scoring her first Girl of the Golden Met Award nomination in 2024 for her luminous performance in Glück’s Orfeo ed Euridice, Ying won’t be singing at the Met this season (although she will be at Carnegie Hall in March). However, her Fidelio will be shown for free tonight, August 24 at 8pm, outside the Met as part of their Summer HD Festival. If you miss that, you can catch the red-eye to Tokyo in October to see her Susanna, but the Fidelio screening aligns exactly with what Ying thinks we need to do to keep opera thriving: “Bring more young people to the opera and make it accessible: online, on TV, free neighborhood screenings.” Reassuringly, she has “faith in music, beauty, live theater, and the arts — they are treasures for humanity. Opera includes all of the above and is about both preserving tradition and exploring new ideas. It holds our past and our future. I have faith for the future of opera!” With that future in Ying’s hands, I have faith too.
