BRENDSTAR EMMA SHAPPLIN

The Voice of an Angel

The French diva, whose sophisticated appearance and graceful voice successfully blend the beauty of classical music and the passion of rock to create an authentic musical expression, leaves audiences breathless all over the world. We recently had an opportunity to discover Emma Shapplin`s charms in the flesh during “Roman Night”, held at the famous ancient Viminacium archaeological site, in what was her first performance in Serbia.

Text: Katarina Spasojevic, November 2008

 

She is indeed an angel, judging by her divine soprano, extraordinary beauty, not to mention her name. Emma Shapplin, one of the most popular neo-classical divas of today, was born over thirty years ago as Marie-Ange (Maria Angel) Chapelain in a south Parisian suburb. As a mischievous girl, she readily joined her two older brothers, playing football and scampering up trees together. However, endowed with an angelic voice, Shapplin, whose long-awaited performance in the surroundings of the ancient town of Viminacium was keenly anticipated, reveals in an interview for Brandomania that she has adored music since her childhood. Even then she knew that music would shape her life and career in spite of her parents` opposition. They wanted Emma – as she started calling herself in her late teenage years – to become a clerk or something less risky, and to settle for a comfortable life. However, it wasn’t to be. By the age of fourteen, Emma had already started taking solo singing lessons and was secretly daydreaming about performing Mozart`s arias.

HARD ROCK AND NEO-CLASSICISM

It is interesting that you actually started your career in a rock band Nord Wind, and that it wasn’t until later that you finally decided to devote yourself to classical music?

Nothing has actually changed. I still love rock music and that artistic sensitivity is very dear to me. Hard rock is, simply, pleasing to the soul and that is perhaps why I try to form a happy marriage between classical and modern rock music. As far as singing is concerned, I believe that a classical musical education enables a performer to excel at different forms and styles – to freely sing absolutely anything at all. I also think that pigeonholing music into certain genres – classical, pop, rock – is, in fact, wrong. There is only good and bad music.

 

How did your very unique style come about and why are you convinced that Old Italian that you sing in best reflects your musical aesthetics?

The creation of one`s own musical expression is a process linked to the maturing of an artist as a person. A certain taste in music and a special sensitivity, which entirely complement my life experience, formed the basis for creation, for making music. I try to be original and unique and it is up to the audience to decide if I’ve been successful. Singing in Old Italian is, for me, a natural connection between traditional classical music and modern stylistic expression, both of which are interlaced in my work. That choice was simply a question of intuition, feeling. That might be why it’s difficult to explain precisely why that language is the most suitable.

I am convinced that the inspiration for all kinds of art should be life itself – mine or someone else`s. Human experience is inexhaustible, it can be both good and bad. That is how the creative process of thinking and reflection turns a basic idea into an art form – a song, a sculpture, a painting – and makes us nobler every time!


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