Daniel Sumegi

5 Questions for Daniel Sumegi

Ahead of his performance as Bluebeard for Opera Australia, the bass tells Limelight about the challenges of the role, singing in Hungarian, and his casting as Wotan in the upcoming Ring Cycle.

You sang in concert versions of Bluebeard’s Castle in Australia in 2012 and 2013. Are you excited about returning to Bartók’s opera for Opera Australia?

Oh, yes, absolutely. It’s such an amazing hour of music.

How challenging are the vocal lines?

Well, it has a lot of challenging rhythmic sections and time signatures but in terms of the notes and the range of it, it’s not too extreme. What’s extreme, certainly in the concerts I did, was the size of the orchestra,...