Need for others keeps 73-year-old Tiger going

Eduardas Kaniava, a prominent Baltic baritone singer, professor, ex-Seimas member and one of the Three Baltic Tigers (together with  Lithuanian opera soloists Virgilijus Noreika and Vladimiras Prudnikovas), when asked about any setbacks in his nearly 50-year career, seems puzzled for a second and then exudes a broad smile, vehemently shaking his head. “I have had none of that. I have been as happy as a lark in my life,” he maintains. Thousands of tours worldwide, professional acknowledgments stretching from the rigid Soviet times to the bliss of performance in contemporary times, Cambridge’s Person of the Year in 1992, a holder of the Gediminas 3rd degree Order and Lithuania’s Honored National Artist are just a part of his prosperous professional legacy. The 73-year-old Kaniava sat down with The Baltic Times to talk about his career.

You stepped down officially from the stage two years ago. Do you not miss it? How does feel to be a retired man?
Let me correct you – I have not stepped down from the stage yet. Well, two years ago, after performing Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto at an opera theater, I admitted to its audience that it was my last performance. The press caught it and promulgated it all over. However, I cannot cut singing off just yet. For example, last year I performed over 50 concerts, both in Lithuania and abroad. I am intending to extend my career yet.

Being a 73-year-old man, you seem very exuberant and agile. What keeps driving you?
When I want to boast a bit about my exuberance, I say humbly, “I am short of time.” When someone is short of time, it means that the person is necessary to others. When you feel necessary, it is the strongest dope that keeps you running, regardless of age.

During the Soviet times, usually all the kids would enroll in school choirs, as there simply were not too many other post-curriculum activities to do. However, only a few kids, including you, have conquered the grand stage. Who was the first to predict your bright musical future?
To be honest, back then, I never thought that one day I would be a singer, moreover, an opera singer. When I was a kid, I had only one dream – to become a surgeon. I can admit my academic performances at school were not extraordinary, so my chances to enter the Academy of Medicine were more than bleak - enrollment competition was extremely high. However, I was so determined to pursue my dream that I tricked everyone a bit. First, after finishing secondary school, instead of trying to enroll in the Academy, I entered the Veterinary Academy, where I took courses in Histology and Anatomy. After the completion of the first year, I was intending to transfer to Kaunas Medicine Institute. However, my bright star had arranged things quite differently for me. Back then, the Veterinary Academy in Kaunas was famous for its distinguished men’s chorus. The conductor, Andrius Kairys, after a brief test of my voice, asked me to join. One day we went for a concert to Vilnius, where after a solo performance of the composer Svedas’s song White flowers, the then-Lithuanian legendary singer Kipras Petrauskas pulled me backstage and prophetically uttered, “You are not supposed to run after cows’ tails; you have to sing.” Thus, after a year in the Veterinary Academy, to the big surprise of my friends and family members, I became a freshman at Vilnius Conservatory. Soon after that I was invited to sing at the National Opera Theater in Vilnius.

You always emphasize the wonderful star alignment in your life that has brought you so much bliss. However, can you recall any setbacks and disappointments in your life?
Well, indeed, my pole-star has always been shining brightly ahead of me. I could not be happier as I am. However, considering the complexity of my profession, I could not fully avoid temporary setbacks. Thus, due to my damaged vocal cords, I had to put my singing career temporarily on hold. The trauma to my vocal cords, back in the ‘70s, was a result of my extensive tours in Australia and New Zealand. To be exact, in three and a half months, I had 95 concerts there. Now it sounds insane to me. It served as a stark reminder that it is not good to strain yourself, even if you are doing what you really love.

Back then, considering the tightness of the Iron Curtain between the East and the West, you were lucky to go back and forth, performing all over the world. It is not a secret that the KGB (National Security Agency of the Soviet Union) observed all Soviet artists abroad and often made them its secret informers. Did you feel any KGB presence back then?
I have no doubt it was behind us. However, to be frank, personally, I have never felt its presence or any other kind of interference, as I strictly stuck to my concert schedules and scheduled meetings. It has never tried to contact me, asking me for some favors. However, I am convinced that KGB agents did speak about me with others. Back then, if anyone traveled abroad, particularly to the United States, Australia and New Zealand, it was a common practice that KGB agents observed artists, and, no secret, some artists were made to work for the service. Besides, what seems important from today’s perspective, I was then an Honored Soviet Artist. I believe that the status also somehow shielded me from those people.

The title - Honored Artist of the Soviet Union - sounds obsolete nowadays. However, just twenty years ago it was a big thing, giving its holder lavish privileges. Can you recall them?
Well, I would not say that I basked in lavish privileges because of the title. Certainly, there were some, like the privilege to ride in a train’s VIP carriage, or the possibility to stay in better hotels. However, in terms of money, the title did not add anything to my royalties.

Does Lithuania today pay adequate respect to its distinguished artists?
Honors for Honored Soviet Artists were a significant part of the system. Since today the system is gone, we cannot expect similar honors for artists in today’s Lithuania. It honors its best artists in other ways, for example, naming National Culture and Art winners. Interestingly, nobody has stripped us of those Soviet titles. Often, in different periodicals, I am still being called an Honored National Artist. Certainly, the word Soviet is scratched out in them.

You have heard the most intense applause and picked up tons of bouquets as a sign of acknowledgment of your talent. However, have you ever experienced any fiascos?
Well, besides the vocal cord trauma, which followed my tours in Australia, I can recall a solo recital in the resort town of Yalta, Ukraine, which I had just one month after the Australian strain. Just having started the concert, I felt all of a sudden that my vocals cords were too rusty, obviously, not recovered completely from the trauma. I managed to pull through the first part of the concert but then, still on stage, I said to myself, “That it is.” I just cut off my performance, leaving the audience stunned. Trust me, it was a very awkward feeling that I cannot forget even today.

Can you recall some more misunderstandings from your lengthy career?
To be honest, I cannot, even if I tried very hard. They say that there are many intrigues among artists and performers but, to be frank, I have never experienced them. Since in my life I had an opportunity to know what it means to be a politician, I can say, assuredly, that any intrigues, if they exist in art, are like those of kindergarteners, compared to the intrigues of politicians.

What opera performance or role would you not accept? Have you ever refused to sing?
Throughout my long career I have been offered hundreds of different performances and roles. However, there were several occasions when I refused to take them on. As a real professional, I always want to pick myself what performance suits me and which does not. I am convinced that every real artist and performer has to do that. For me, doing that is a big sign of real professionalism. God forbid ending up in a performance which is foreign and far. It is nothing out of the ordinary that a theater’s and a performer’s interests differ. It happens often that a theater wants to lay a performer at its door. The artist has always to step up and say “no.” Thus, sometimes, throughout my career, I was proposed a role that required a strong bass. I refused it, as my voice cannot go that low. As I say, I cannot perform something that is against nature. No one, including opera singers, can go against it.

How many languages can you sing in?
If I needed, probably I could sing in Chinese as well. However, singing is not a mechanical thing that requires a certain tuning. Singing is all about perceiving and empathizing your role and performance. Therefore, from that standpoint, I can sing in English, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian and some other languages. I have sung in many different languages throughout my life on the stage. However, if I did not speak the language that I sang in, I would always write down the meanings of the words of the song, always above the unknown words. Believe me, I have never been a singing parrot - I always know what I am singing.
You and your counterparts, two famous Lithuanian opera soloists, Vladimiras Prudnikovas and Virgilijus Noreika, are known as the Three Baltic Tigers. Why are you three called by that name? Is the name a part of your marketing?
Well, the history goes back twelve years, to 1998, which was the year of the Tiger. Back then, just before the New Year, three rather serious and famous Lithuanian opera soloists, Prudnikovas, Noreika and me, came up with an idea to joke a bit. Therefore, for the New Year’s concert, we prepared a very playful musical program, starting off with an Italian opera and suddenly switching to a Lithuanian folklore song. By the way, all the billboards had advertised the concert as live. Thus, before its start, in Vilnius Sports Hall, the announcer, Sigitas Jacenas, walked on the stage and told the audience in an emphatic voice, “Today you will hear the tigers’ concert…[a play on words – live (concert)in Lithuanian means tikras, which sounds like tiger, tigras in Lithuanian]. There were more interesting coincidences in that year. At Kaunas Zoo, a tigress had three tiger cubs, indeed a very rare happening. We were invited to pick up their names. That is the story of the Three Baltic Tigers.

However, admitting the notability of the Three Tigers, it fades away just over the borders of the three Baltic States and perhaps Russia. In that sense, no other trio can muscle in with the most famous trio - Three Tenors, including the Spanish singers Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras and the Italian singer Luciano Pavarotti - who sang under this banner during the 1990s and early 2000s. What or who could catapult the Three Tigers on the world stage – money, marketing or the name of another country?
Neither money, nor somebody’s influence will put a performer on the top. If someone wants to get to the very top, he or she has to employ an extremely good world-famous manager. Unfortunately, in Lithuania, speaking of music and performers, we do not have any internationally known and respected manager. Interestingly, world-wise, no performer, no artist and no singer receive international acknowledgement until he or she is recognized in the United States first. Once you perform in Carnegie Hall, a concert venue in New York City, the fame will carry you throughout the world. However, not vice versa. To go back to your question, the Three Tigers have never had a good and internationally acknowledged manager. Therefore, people outside the Baltic perimeter did not have a chance to listen to us. However, individually, each of us has sung on the most respected world stages. We still keep performing together. For example, in November, our trio had 15 concerts in Lithuania. Considering we are not youngsters, that is a lot.

Do you see many illiterate singers on Lithuanian TV that are shown as aspiring stars? Do you have the jitters then?
To be frank, I see many illiterates on our TV. And, yes, they exasperate me. I like to repeat that singing is a craft. A man who seeks a singer’s career, despite his or her ambitions, goals and possible acknowledgments, must get a certain apprenticeship first. Any kind – attend a vocal studio or hire a professional teacher. Sadly, I see many people on TV that have no idea about tunes. Obviously, they, being sheer amateurs, do not deserve to be on a TV Talent Show. However, our TV, or, as I call it, a magic box, needs any kind of stars and it serves as their machinery, regardless of the quality of the TV product.

What are you involved in nowadays besides concerts?
Despite my solid age, I am happy to be still necessary for others. I keep giving concerts, a lot of them. I give lectures at Klaipeda University. Recently, in Klaipeda Musical Theater, I was elected as a chairman of Art Board. Besides, the Theater has invited me to work as a theater teacher. I am very happy being able to sing, to teach and to be among people. It is what gives me strength and exuberance. Do write - the Tiger has not ceased singing and will be around for a while.