(birds chirping)
- Hi, I'm Katerina Burton.
I'm a soprano.
And this is actually my first year as a Cafritz young artist
at Washington National Opera.
I grew up in Ocean City, Maryland,
and that is three hours away from the nearest opera house.
I got into music because I actually started
as a figure skater and my mother and I
would skate to routines from "Carmen" and "Tosca."
And so that's how I got into classical music.
But I didn't actually start singing opera
until I was in high school.
I had no idea in high school
that I wanted to be an opera singer,
but I did know that I loved music.
I wanted to be a storyteller.
Eventually, I would love to play Tosca in Puccini's "Tosca,"
because I love the story.
And I just think it's a glamorous and beautiful show.
When I'm not singing, I love to read,
and I also love hanging out with my dogs,
and I also still go ice skating whenever I can.
It's a family activity that me and my mother
still do to this day.
My guilty musical pleasure is actually not guilty at all.
I love listening to Nina Simone.
I listen to her albums all day long.
(gentle playful piano music)
♪ Come in quest'ora bruna ♪ (How the stars and the sea)
♪ Sorridon gli astri e il mare! ♪ (smile at this dark hour!)
♪ Come s'unisce, o luna, ♪ (How your brightness, oh moon,)
♪ All'onda il tuo chiaror! ♪ (is united with the waves!)
♪ Ah! amante amplesso pare ♪ (Ah! It seems like the embrace)
♪ Di due virginei cor! ♪ (of two pure hearts!)
♪ Ma gli astri e la marina ♪ (But the stars and the sea,)
♪ Che dicono alla mente ♪ (what could they tell)
♪ Dell'orfana meschina? ♪ (to the mind of a wretched orphan?)
♪ La notte atra, crudel, ♪ (That dark, cruel night,)
♪ Quando la pia morente sciamò: ♪ (when the pious, dying woman exclaimed:)
♪ Ti guardi il ciel! ♪ (“Heaven is watching you!”)
♪ O altero ostel, soggiorno ♪ (Oh lofty abode,)
♪ Di Stirpe ancor più altera, ♪ (home to of a more exalted race,)
♪ Il tetto disadorno ♪ (I did not forget)
♪ Non obliai per te! ♪ (My bare roof for you!)
♪ Ah! solo in tua pompa austera ♪ (Ah! Only through your austere splendor)
♪ Amor sorride a me. ♪ (does love smile on me…)
♪ S'inalba il ciel! ♪ (Dawn has arrived,)
♪ Ma l'amoroso canto ♪ (but my lover’s song)
♪ Non s'ode ancora! ♪ (is still not heard!)
♪ Ei mi terge ogni dì, ♪ (He wipes the tears from my eyes each day)
♪ Come l'aurora la rugiada dei fior, ♪ (just as the dawn)
♪ Del ciglio il pianto. ♪ (wipes away the dew from flowers.)
- I'm originally from Fairfax, Virginia.
I grew up speaking Japanese
and I've always been really conscious of my German heritage.
I always had an interest in languages growing up,
and I think that's what ended up driving me towards opera
in the end.
Yeah, I started piano
allegedly because I asked to have piano lessons.
I don't really remember.
And I got into opera from a study abroad
I had in Vienna where I just saw operas almost every day.
I really fell in love with it and ended up here.
I really cherish all of the performances that I've given
in the past, especially in this pandemic era.
I think, they've all been really special.
But my very last recital that I gave
as part of my graduate degree,
I performed Poulenc's "La Voix Humaine,"
and coached through it all with the singer
and we staged it together,
put together the set and everything,
and it was such an amazing experience.
And the piece also had a special meaning for me personally.
And it was a real joy to be able
to bring that to my friends.
When I am not playing the piano, I love going outside.
I love hiking.
I used to live in Utah and it was so great
to be able to hike in the mountains,
which we don't have as much of here.
But I love camping, biking, things that get me outside.
I also love to read, play board games, video games.
When I don't listen to opera, I listen to Japanese music.
I actually never listened to American music growing up.
So it's kind of a bit of an outsider
in my American friend groups.
My favorite composer is Ravel,
and I really love his "L'enfant et les Sortileges."
I've been working on Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro"
and that has really been fun to learn.
And I'm really looking forward
to just expanding my repertoire.
- So I grew up in Herndon, Virginia,
which is actually not too far
from where we're recording this video.
I was really lucky to grow up here because the arts funding
in public schools around here is actually pretty good.
My parents were also very enthusiastic
about getting me into classical music at an early age.
I actually started piano lessons at age six,
but don't ask for me to play piano now,
'cause I certainly cannot.
And I also played in the band, I played euphonium.
But I hadn't had any opera in my life
through that entire period.
Later in high school,
I found myself thinking of this one episode
from "The Simpsons," where Sideshow Bob goes to Italy
and sings part of the aria of "Vesti La Giubba."
I just sort of got in my head
and I went and found the episode.
And then I did some research
and found out where the aria came from.
And I rented a physical DVD from Netflix back in those days.
And I was hooked from that point.
So I also went to undergrad around this area
at George Mason.
And for one concert, the orchestra wanted to do
the coronation scene from "Boris Godunov,"
and they had me do the solo.
And right now it's certainly premature
for me to do the full role,
and it was certainly premature then,
it was really an amazing experience to be on stage
with such a large orchestra and the full chorus behind me
and have all that amazing music
just fall away for a few bars for my solo
and then come crashing back in.
When I'm not singing, I enjoy lifting weights,
making cocktails, and recently I've started getting
into video editing.
Lately, I've been actually developing a habit
of listening to Bach cantatas while I play Xbox.
Well, since you asked,
I actually have done some recent projects
with a fully staged production of "The Telephone"
and more recently, and re-imagining
of Percival's King Arthur using green screen technology
and illustrations from the set designer
of Lyric Opera of the North.
Some of the roles that I'd most like to sing
are kind of similar.
I'm really interested in singing someday Blitch,
Athanael from "Thais," or Claggart from "Billy Budd."
And I kind of feel like these characters
are somewhat similar, because they're unable to control
what's going on inside of themselves,
so instead they try to control the world around them.
And I find that to be
a really interesting type of character.
(dark dramatic music)
♪ Ves’ tabor spit. ♪ (The whole camp is sleeping.)
♪ Luna nad nim polnochnoy krasotoyu bleshchet. ♪ (The moon above it with midnight splendor shines.)
♪ Chto zh serdce bednoe trepeshchet? ♪ (Why then is my poor heart trembling?)
♪ Kakoyu grust’yu ya tomim? ♪ (With what sadness am I tormented?)
♪ Ya bez zabot, bez sozhalen’ya vedu kochuyushchie dni. ♪ (Without cares or regrets I lead my days in wandering.)
♪ Prezrev okovy prosveshchen’ya, ♪ (Having rejected the chains of civilization,)
♪ ya volen tak zhe, kak oni! ♪ (I am as free as they are!)
♪ Ya zhil, ne priznavaya vlasti sud’by kovarnoy I slepoy. ♪ (I lived despising the power of cruel and blind fate.)
♪ No, bozhe, kak igrayut strasti moey poslushnoyu dushoy! ♪ (But, God, how the passions play with my susceptible soul!)
♪ Zemfira! Kak ona lyubila! ♪ (Zemfira! How she loved me!)
♪ Kak, nezhno priklonyas’ ko mne, ♪ (How, in the silence of the wilderness,)
♪ v pustynoy tishine ♪ (leaning toward me tenderly,)
♪ chasy nochnye provodila! ♪ (she spent the night hours!)
♪ Kak chasto milym lepetan’em, upoitel’nym lobzan’em ♪ (How often with a gentle whisper or an intoxicating kiss,)
♪ zadumchivost’ moyu v minute razognat’ umela! ♪ (she could dissipate my sadness!)
♪ Ya pomnyu, s negoy, polnoy strasti, ♪ (I recall how, with tenderness and passion,)
♪ sheptala mne ona todga: ♪ (she would whisper to me:)
♪ “Lyublyu tebja! V tvoey ya vlasti! ♪ (“I love you! I am in your power!)
♪ Tvoya, Aleko, navsegda!” ♪ (I am yours, Aleko, forever!”)
♪ I vsë togda ya zabyval, kogda recham eyë vnimal i, ♪ (When I listened to her words, I would forget everything)
♪ kak bezumnyy, celoval eyë charuyushchie ochi, ♪ (and madly kiss her intoxicating eyes,)
♪ kos chudnih pryad’, temnee nochi, ♪ (the strands of her wonderful hair, darker than night,)
♪ usta Zemfiry. ♪ (Zemfira’s lips.)
♪ A ona, vsya negoy, strastyu polna, ♪ (And she, full of tenderness and passion,)
♪ pril’nuv ko mne, v glaza glyadela … ♪ (would lean toward me and look into my eyes …)
♪ I chto zh? ♪ (And now?)
♪ Zemfira ne verna! ♪ (Zemfira is unfaithful!)
♪ Moya Zemfira ohladela! ♪ (My Zemfira has grown cold to me!)
(light playful piano music)