This Week 21/07/2002

What a week!

Roger Tirazona’s powerful voice has delighted many Maltese audiences. He talks to Ramona Depares about his experiences on stage

Ever since I was nine years old I’ve been in love with music. Family support, of course, has been invaluable. I come from a highly musical family – the singer Georgina is my aunt, for instance – and their influence has definitely rubbed off on me.

I still remember my first public performance. It was in the Iljieli Mediterrani festival, at the Argotti gardens. To tell the truth, I felt right at home from the beginning: after all, it was almost a family affair, there were so many relatives taking part in it! During that first role I felt no fear in front of the public: on the contrary, I enjoyed every minute of it. Of course, today that my roles carry more responsibility I do get a bit nervous. The public obviously expects a lot more from me today than when I was nine, my roles are definitely more demanding and it can get scary, especially if you think about it in terms of ‘letting the audience down’.

But as for actual stage-fright, thankfully I don’t suffer much from that. I’ll only get nervous if I know that I’m not well prepared for the role. In fact sometimes I worry about the lack of tension prior to a performance but I guess that’s just the way I am.

When I’m performing, it is the audience that attracts me most. Does this mean that I am an exhibitionist? Perhaps. But more than that, it’s the fact that I am creating something that is part of myself, giving it to the audience and they are appreciating it that gives me a high when I’m on stage. I believe that the character of a singer comes across from the way he performs, I can tell if a performer is shy, warm, outgoing or whatever through the way he acts on stage. You have to look at a theatrical performance the same way you would at a painting.

The audience is probably the most important element in any production. If you keep them entertained, the people will respond but you have to give them something, make an effort. What I don’t like about the local entertainment scene is the way we depend a lot on festivals of the competitive sort. Performers are primarily colleagues, secondly competitors. And even then, the element of competition should not be allowed to over-ride everything else. This is one of the reasons why I enjoy doing theatres more than taking part in festivals. With theatre it is always a team effort, whereas with festivals your primary responsibility is always towards the composer and the author, who have shown their faith in you and are counting on you to show off their song. This obviously creates unnecessary pressure. Festivals do have their own importance but I believe that we should give more importance to entertainment for its own sake, without any element of competition – and to deviate the attention from the Eurovision, of course.

Actually it is easy to see why the Eurovision appeals to the Maltese audience so much. It evokes feelings of patriotism, although I must say that people tend to overdo it. This can be seen from the exaggerated clapping during the festival on Saturday night.

In reality, every singer has his or her own different style, their own particular kind of talent. The competition in Malta is intense and this is why I believe that it is important to market myself in the right manner. You look at what you do best and you focus the attention on those points. It’s only natural to dream of making it big, especially abroad. But few people who are not involved in the scene realise just how difficult it is. To break into a big station, such as MTV or VIVA, is simply impossible. They have some twenty new albums to choose from every week. Which means that even if you get together the finances to actually put together your album and go abroad to promote it, you are only one of the scores of other hopefuls. And foreigners tend to have better financial back up than we do, anyway. Which renders the chances of a Maltese musician making it abroad very low indeed. This is why the capacity to enjoy Music for its purely artistic side is so important: an artiste cannot just base himself on fame or success, the love of music is much more important.

My favourite genre is musicals. I love all the classics. A part I particularly enjoyed doing was that of Adam in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Very macho… I like most Rogers and Hammerstein stuff, as well as more contemporary works. Les Miserables is another favourite, though it’s never been done as a complete musical here. Of course, being a singer is not all about the joy of performing: you have to memorise your lines as well! I’m a very aural kind of guy, the more I hear something the faster I’ll remember it. So what I normally do when a production is on the cards is listen to the part on tape for as often as I can, even in the car! And I also read out aloud a lot, that way memorising comes a lot easier. Mistakes do happen, of course, as everyone will tell you. I still remember one particular incident in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers when one of the others failed to come out on cue and I ended up literally inventing the lines. I could feel the cold sweat breaking out while I waffled on and on. But the most important thing is that the show goes on.

Future ambitions? I’ll be taking part in an Evenings on Campus concert towards the end of August. I’m also doing work as a recording studio engineer and learning all about mixing, equalisation, recording etc… I’m taking a proper course on that, because having the right knowledge is essential.

Beyond that, music and theatre will remain a major part of my life, of course.