Mr. Leiferkus revisited his native country quite recently for a master class at Moscow's International Singing School. The daily Vedomosti used the occasion to interview him for a spectacular story of his routine and an outline of ambitious plans.
The star has a close schedule ready for several years ahead. Thus, he will appear as Alberich in "Das Rheingold" when the Metropolitan produces Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen" in a 2009 endeavor. As for his nearest prospects, Sergei will shortly appear in Berlin to make a Shostakovich record for the Deutsche Grammophon. He is coming to Moscow again, September next, for a concert in memory of Father Alexander Men, renowned preacher and theologian, on the 15th anniversary of his martyr death.
The singer is not nostalgic about the Mariinsky, where his entire Russian career proceeded. He was never engaged in a single production throughout the years before emigration, and did not earn a kopeck-he was formally on the company, and that was all. So the news of his dismissal, in 1994, was no thunderbolt. He had a working record of twenty-five years by that time, enough to go on pension, which he did.
Leiferkus settled in Oxford fifteen years ago, and never has wished a better home. "Motherland isn't the birthplace but the place where you belong, where your heart feels at home, and where the language you like best is spoken. In fact, I have long been thinking in English. But my family always speaks Russian, and we have the archetypal Russian home. We are Russifying the people next door, little by little, and they have proved very able pupils," he laughs.
Sergei will appear in a project of great interest in Tokyo, next spring-a production of Johann Strauss' comic opera, "Die Fledermaus". He makes it a point never to lock himself within the operatic limits. A singer ought always to extend his repertoire and attract ever-wider circles of music-lovers. That's especially important for young performers. They are to try their hand at every genre. That is his conviction.
"There's no victory without a good fight before. You ought never to assume you have attained everything you can," is Sergei Leiferkus' motto.
