“Sometimes women play and act stronger” than men

Zoriana Kochbler explains the latter. “A great woman! She lived by the motto: It's not bad to fall down. It's bad not to get up again. This is also the motto of my life. What Alma Mahler went through. She was left with nothing so many times. She kept getting up. She wrote great music. But “I'm sure she was ridiculed in her time. This also applies to Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann. At that time, women had to apologize for what they did,” Köchbler describes.

Kochbler has always worked with composers personally, as Sofia Gubaidulina, Hanna Havrelets and Bohdana Frolyak emphasize and mention. Kossfler does not want to leave the operas “Gogol” by Lera Auerbach and “Orlando” by Olga Neuwirth without mentioning them in a conversation about composers. What is your experience with female conductors? “I've often worked with female conductors. It was often more difficult than with men,” says Kochbler, explaining why: “We think we have to compete with men. It's in our heads. We always think it's “We have to prove ourselves. We have to fight for our way in the world.” This means that men are often softer than women.

This sometimes also applies to female musicians. “Sometimes women play and act more aggressively. They sing softly, but if you look at pianists, violinists and cellists, most of them are very masculine in their style. Almost aggressive. The same applies to female conductors. The movements are often very sharp. My personal observation is These women often lose their femininity. This is unfortunate. I believe that a woman should remain a woman in every profession. “As a singer, she is allowed to retain her femininity,” explains Kochbler.

It reminds us of the great careers of female singers from the past. These often end up in the registry office or in the church: “If they get married, their career is over. Unmarried women have always been allowed to do much more than married women. It was like that everywhere. Solomiya Krushelnytska, a famous Ukrainian opera singer, has made a career in Italy and around the world. It was the first Madame Butterfly designed by Puccini and the first Salome and Electra at La Scala in Milan. She was a great singer. When she married the mayor of Viareggio at the age of 38, she was no longer allowed to practice her profession because married women were not allowed to go on stage as opera singers. “It's terrible,” says Kosfler. He gives examples from the past.

Injustice

“Equality has not yet been achieved everywhere,” Kochbler continues. However, she is optimistic, and asserts: “I am one of those who say that the cup is half full,” and explains her position with examples that can affect every woman. “In the past, women had much less rights to marry.” “And we can also live in partnership without losing our credibility because of it. Women are allowed to marry women and adopt children. This list could go on and on, of things we were not allowed to do even 25 years ago. We cannot imagine that in the 1970s it was Women must ask their husbands for permission if they want to pursue a profession.

“Women could not become writers, composers or artists” – or they had to use male pseudonyms. “Today we are amazed that something like this exists. For me, this is a sign that we are making good progress.”

However, there is room for improvement when it comes to wages. “It still happens that women earn less than men for the same work.”

The fact that, as a professor of solo singing at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg, she currently teaches only students is merely a coincidence: “I have eight Valkyries in my classroom at the moment. But I will also accept men in my singing class. I do not believe in a girls’ boarding school. To be mixed.”