 |
|
|
“I
was so pleased to meet Mercedes Sosa”
|
She
has fifteen CDs recorded so far. She was still
a student when she began listening to tango, before
her professional singing debut. Today, passionately
committed to tango, she visited Buenos Aires to
present her latest two CDs:”Concierto de
Anna clásica” and “Concierto
de Anna moderna”. In June she is going to
sing at the Carnegie Hall in New York –
tangos, of course. Born in the north of Japan,
on the island of Hokkaido, “where it’s
cold and snow falls.”
Anna Saeki is the paradigm of Japanese beauty,
in love with our city’s music. She has received
generous praise from maestros like Leopoldo Federico,
Horacio Ferrer and Nicolás Ledesma, who
accompanied her at Torquato Tasso. “I came
to Argentina, on the one hand very enthusiastic
about the launch and sales of the CDs, but on
the other hand also very nervous because I was
to undertake a show for the first time. Luckily
lots of people came and I was treated very warmly.
I sang some versions in Spanish and also in Japanese,
numbers like “Alfonsina y el Mar”
for example, and I also felt very honored to sing
alongside the maestro Raúl Garello. I feel
very grateful. When I sang at the Teatro De La
Rivera with the Orquesta de Tango de la Ciudad,
someone told me there was a man who was weeping
with emotion while I was singing the tango about
the Rosas Amarillas and Sin palabras... I was
very moved to know that.”
- Do you know what Mercedes Sosa represents for
us?
- Yes, of course, she’s a great singer.
When I decided to sing “Alfonsina y el mar”
in Japanese, what had most attracted me was hearing
Mercedes sing it. I love her voice and her warmth.
- Why, being a television
presenter, did you decide to change direction
and leave such a successful career?
- My debut was as a singer, but at the same time
I did jobs as a television presenter and as an
actress. I currently have a lot of work abroad:
Paris, New York, Hawaii, Germany, so the time
I have left to be in Japan is very short.
- Are you returning to Japan
now?
- Yes, but before that I’m stopping over
in New York, for a couple of interviews and I
also have to rehearse with the people who are
going to play with me in Japan in April, because
that’s the month when I celebrate my 20
years as a singer. In June I’m going to
sing at the Carnegie Hall in New York, only tangos.
- What feelings inspire
you to feel so identified with tango?
- When I began I didn’t understand Spanish,
but then I realized that the music goes the language.
What most attracts me is that passion, that melancholy
with which tango is played. I’m not porteña,
I’m not Argentine, but the numbers speak
in some way or another about love and that feeling
is in all parts of the world.
- Tango is feeling. Are
you content with your emotional life? Are you
happy, do you have things still waiting, have
you found the great love of your life, or do you
feel that you still have to live these experiences?
- I’m very happy now, but there was a time
when I suffered a lot. But thanks to that suffering
I arrived at this point, and I’m now surrounded
by a good team, with people who are dear to me,
my fans... I’m very content. I have no children.
I’m very taken up with my career. It’s
like... I’m married to music and tango,
I’m fine that way, my family is all the
team that surrounds me.
- Is there a tango that
you feel is yours because of its words and music?
”This tango is mine, this tango is me”?
- Hmmm... (She smiles and thinks). There are numbers
that people ask for, for example “El día
que me quieras”. Garello told me “Sin
palabras” and “Sur”, but I’m
also very fond of Piazzolla, and my fans want
me to sing “Balada para un Loco” or
“Chiquilín de Bachín”.
But the first number that touched me was “Nostalgias”,
the same as “Malena”.
- What final message would
you like to leave for the Argentine readers?
- I’d like to thank all the public for the
way they have welcomed me. I’m very happy
to have met Mercedes Sosa and I’m also very
moved because she herself told me she sang a number
called “Luna” in Japanese to record
a CD. I hope to return at the end of the year
or in 2008. |
|
|
|
|
