Sixty years ago, the soprano legend Birgit Nilsson gave a rare outdoors concert on the Tennis Center Court in Båstad, Sweden, not far from her home. In August, a tribute performance of Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera will be performed with Joyce El-Khoury as Amelia. The Swedish music magazine OPUS met her in Helsinki for a conversation about priorities, crying at work, stage fright, spirituality, and her third return to in Sweden.
Text by Johannes Nebel, Photos by Heather Elizabeth Media
FINLAND MAY BE the land of a thousand lakes (although later counts show closer to 190,000, so it is clearly a bit of an understatement), but Helsinki in a wintry, slushy March doesn’t offer much in the way of picturesque scenery. On this Saturday, it’s raining, giving the cityscape which is already partly gray, a heavy touch of brutalism.
A text from Joyce El-Khoury lights up my screen: ”Let’s meet at the stage entrance at 3:30 PM.” The promenade runs along Töölö Bay and passes by the Musiikkitalo, the Music House, the esteemed Sibelius Academy, and the Finlandia Hall, which I pass on my way to the Finnish National Opera. I’m about to meet the celebrated soprano, making her debut as Amelia Grimaldi in Verdi’s beautiful (yet somewhat painfully slow-moving) drama Simon Boccanegra. The fact that it is not my favorite opera doesn’t really matter – I look forward to interviewing El-Khoury, who has performed about 30 leading roles over the past decade. The Lebanese-Canadian singer has one of the most acclaimed voices in the bel canto world in many, many years. I am in good time, but those extra minutes, plus a few more, are all spent trying to find the right place. The National Opera in Helsinki is a large white-gray colossus with facades resembling bathroom, actually more reminiscent of a swimming pool than an opera house, and the staff entrance is well-hidden enough that I don’t find Joyce El-Khoury, who is waiting at the door.
THATS JUST GREAT … seven minutes late, I’m thinking as we greet each other and take the stairs up to the opera’s nearly empty canteen. Joyce brushes off my apologies. She is welcoming, cheerful, and offers coffee. She wears a graceful blue and black coat with golden embroidery that swirls as she walks. The strongest impression remains her direct approach and great openness, which will characterize our conversations (there will be more than one). That, and the story of where the singing probably came from. Joyce El-Khoury’s most important pieces of her life puzzle are her family in Ottawa, Canada – and her roots in Lebanon.
”My dad has a very beautiful voice but never did anything with it. But my grandfather, who lived with us when we were in Lebanon, sang in the church in Machghara for over 35 years. And I’m not talking about ”la la la’ … he was the Singer in the church, whom everyone looked up to.”
”A bit like Pavarotti’s dad?” I say, thinking of the YouTube clip with the baker Fernando Pavarotti and his son Luciano when they sing César Franck’s Panis Angelicus in their home church in Modena.
”Yes! Grandfather had a fantastic voice and was deeply religious. His name was George, but everyone called him Kyrie Eleison – people would shout it on the street when he walked by. Singing was associated with pride. No one talked about becoming a singer, least of all me. I loved singing as a child, but I envisioned myself working as a nurse or doctor.”
DESPITE THAT MAGNIFICENT tenor voice, Fernando Pavarotti never managed to become a singer – a paralyzing stage fright stopped that thought. That same kind of fear also lingered with Joyce during her upbringing.
”When I was twelve, I was at a summer camp where I was supposed to sing in our little closing show: I was supposed to hold a doll and sing a lullaby, but I forgot everything, even the melody, and I ran off the stage. It was traumatic, and for a long time, I couldn’t forget the feeling, which really scared me.”
”But I really loved singing! When I was at a Lebanese festival a few years later, I heard a singer who made an enormous impression, and I thought ’I want to do exactly that!’. At the same time, I was incredibly tired of being scared, and decided that it had to stop. I started taking lessons, and the stage fright disappeared gradually. When I met my second singing teacher in Ottawa, he believed in me with such conviction that I had no choice but to start believing in myself.”
BUT THE IDEA OF working in healthcare and with people remained. Joyce had worked part-time at a hospital for several years with children.
”I really struggled with the decision of whether I should dare to pursue singing. I remember a conversation in the car with my father, who said, ’You have a gift that is rare. Your mother and I believe you should follow your heart and sing’. My father is an engineer and has been involved in building almost all the major roads in Beirut and Lebanon, so I thought if he tells me to do this, there’s a reason. I got a push and support that was not something to take for granted.”
The El-Khoury family moved from Lebanon to Ottawa, Canada, when Joyce was six. A decade later, she began the music studies that would lead to the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at The Met in New York. Knowing Puccini inside out and having a lot of tenacity gave Joyce the courage to send an email directly to one of the world’s great conductors, Lorin Maazel. An email that, with equal parts timing and courage (from both the soprano and the conductor), came to open the door for the still very inexperienced Joyce El-Khoury.
”I had heard that he was going to stage Puccini’s triptych at his new opera festival, Castleton Festival, so I emailed him and got an audition slot. I sang O mio babbino caro and got the role of Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi right then and there. It was unreal.”
With her first role ahead and a stomach full of butterflies, she suddenly received an offer to also be the cover for the lead role in Suor Angelica. When the regular soprano became ill, it was the young Joyce El-Khoury who had to step in, making a double debut: two roles in one evening, with Lorin Maazel conducting.
”Yes, and that evening changed my life,” El-Khoury reflects thoughtfully. After the substitution, he invited me everywhere he needed a soprano. And so it all began. ”The strange thing was that Angelica was a role I had studied note for note a year earlier, without any concrete thought. I was going through a very difficult period in my life, and learning the role was a healing process for me.”
Joyce El-Khoury preparing for her entrance as Donizetti’s Anna Bolena in Bilbao, 2022.
JOYCE EL-KHOURY
YOU COULD SPEND a lot of interview time and large chunks of text going through all the successes and roles and stages. The praise has poured in, and El-Khoury’s voice, technique, and presence on stage constantly attract attention. I am struck by how she sounds more like a mezzo or even alto when she speaks, and that traces of this find their way into her soft, almost creamy soprano voice. A voice she now masters the most challenging bel canto roles with, and one that consistently floors audiences and critics alike. But it is actually not her great artistry that makes one captivated by her story. Becoming successful is one thing, an artistry that invites others is something else entirely. Previous interviews paint a picture where a large part of her upbringing was marked by both bullying and exclusion, which affected self-esteem and confidence. Step by step, singing and opera became an important tool for expression, but also for handling and processing negative experiences. Today, her empathy and closeness to emotions are reflected in a generous pay-it-forward effort, where she devotes a lot of time to students and people who want to sing more or better, not least students from her old homeland Lebanon.
”Everything started after the catastrophic explosion in Beirut on August 4, 2020. I was at home in lockdown and saw the terrible news images of what had happened and made a post on Instagram where I wrote ’I love you all, and I love Lebanon, and I suffer with you. Today I have decided to offer free singing lessons to anyone who wants them’. And I really meant it.”
”I had time and wanted to do it. I gave lessons to everyone imaginable: singers who had singing as a hobby and others who just wanted to try it out, but when it became too much, I started prioritizing those singers who actually have a dream. Who want to get somewhere.”
”Was that what you did during Covid? Did it never become too much for you?”
”No, I loved it and chose to see it as something positive about the whole lockdown. I never get to be home, so I took the opportunity. It has also led to me traveling to Lebanon to meet the students I worked with online. Some of them are really fantastic, and the challenge is to find a way to help them move forward. While in America and Europe there are countless paths to choose from, there is none of that in Lebanon. I have tried to give my students knowledge to bridge the gap and give back some of what I have been fortunate to receive.”
”Do you feel you learn from it too?”
”Absolutely, I often confirm my ideas and techniques when I verbalize them for others. Then, when I sing myself, I can think on stage in the middle of everything: ’Now I’m doing exactly what I just taught!’”
El-Khoury exudes an almost insatiable ambition, great dedication, and has a gaze steadily fixed on the horizon.
”Yes, I am ambitious. At the beginning of my career, I was really like a hungry lion, but now there are other things I also want to do. I am working on recording an album for Lebanon that has nothing to do with me, but that has to do with Lebanon. So today, my ambition includes other people. Not just my career.’
”Are you singing Lebanese music on that album?”
”Yes, I sing songs that are known to the Lebanese audience. It will be in a sort of chamber format with double bass, violin, piano, accordion, and clarinet. I sing in Arabic but do not try to be an Arabic singer; I do it my way. It is my favorite project right now – my little baby.’
The role in Helsinki in Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra is the latest of several role debuts in a short time. Just before the assignment in Finland, Joyce El-Khoury sang in Canada at the opera in Montreal. Then she portrayed Queen Christina in the newly written La Reine-garçon, which became one of the most demanding roles she has ever sung.
Joyce El-Khoury experienced one of the greatest challenges of her life as Queen Christina in the Montreal Opera’s La Reine-garçon in February 2024.
”Vocally, it was super tough. The orchestration was enormous, and it was heavy for my little voice,’ says Joyce El-Khoury. She falls silent and massages her larynx. ”But it was nothing compared to the emotional aspect. That role became one of the most intense experiences of my entire career. I immersed myself in Christina’s life, which was characterized by not being able to be who you are.’ ”I literally cried while singing the role. Every night.”
”Can you really sing and act on stage while crying?”
”I know, it sounds crazy, and I probably looked like a minor disaster. But I couldn’t hold back the tears, as I felt I was channeling something bigger than I can explain. Not long before, I had done Norma for the first time, so I really have something to compare it to. Singing Christina and entering her world… it took me two to three weeks to recover. When we started rehearsals here in Helsinki, the crying could just come over me, as I was still processing everything. But we must use our pain that we all have, for something good; otherwise, it has no meaning.”
OUR TIME IS UP, and Joyce El-Khoury has to go to makeup to prepare for tonight’s performance. Our interview, which hasn’t even touched on the upcoming summer visit to Båstad, will have to wait until the chance to continue the conversation – this time via video – comes a few days later.
So, the opera then? Well, Simon Boccanegra is full of beautiful music. It is long and not exactly action-packed and certainly something special for the Verdi connoisseur, but despite the orchestra sounding good and the soloist team being competent, this may not be a role for a personality like the one I just met. El-Khoury is electric and the definite highlight of the evening, but the performance we experience has too few focal points to channel the soprano’s enormous capacity.
The interview, which has taken more time than expected, continues a few days later, then via video call.
“How do you feel about life as an opera singer? Moving from place to place and never being home?”
“That’s nice of you to ask. I am quite introverted and enjoy being alone, which you are a lot in my job. The first 10 years, I wanted nothing more than to travel and sing everywhere. Today, not least after being away for 18 months, I really hunger for more balance. I want to be able to have coffee with my sister or spend time with my parents. It has been incredibly intense with all these new roles in a short time, so when I’ve been home, I’ve had to spend almost all my time preparing for new roles. I want to plan more based on where I can be social at home.”
”But you must have some breaks sometimes? What does a completely free day look like for you?”
”I try to sleep because I don’t always sleep well at night. I love to read, walk a lot, and enjoy discovering the surroundings. I listen to music, have video calls with the family, and I like to cook.”
”How do you feel after the production ends? Do you feel empty, or do you look forward?”
”Over the past year, I have hardly had time to feel anything because it has been constant. This summer, I have Tosca in Tokyo, which I know. Then I have to learn Aida. After that, I have Medea, and I must learn that too,” she says, suddenly looking as if she cannot see how that balance will be achieved in any foreseeable future.
JOYCE EL-KHOURY HAS sung in Sweden a few times and considering that she sings on the world’s great stages, it is perhaps a bit unexpected that it has been on the outdoor stage at the Birgit Nilsson Museum in Västra Karup, rather than, for example, at the opera in Stockholm. But the connection is not entirely unexpected: the former CEO of the Royal Opera, Bengt Hall, has managed to get El-Khoury to guest at the Birgit Nilsson Days, this year for the third time in a row.
Last year’s Birgit Nilsson Days ended with Tosca with Michael Fabiano as Cavadarossi and Joyce El-Khoury in the title role together with the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra.
”I am starting to feel a little Swedish,” she laughs. ”I love singing there; it’s just such a heavenly place to be. I got a tour of Birgit’s farm, and it feels completely unreal that she became such an enormous superstar who walked around in her rubber boots and picked potatoes when she was home. It’s that balance again,” she interrupts herself. ”I think we all have a need to hold on to who we are. I often wonder what place little Joyce gets. She’s still here within me. At the same time, there’s Joyce, the international…’
”Ah, you can say it – superstar.’
”No, I wouldn’t say that, I say singer. I would never call myself a star.’ ”How do you feel when others say it?’ ”It really makes me uncomfortable, and I also don’t like the word diva. It bothers me when people call themselves and each other diva. I don’t even know what it’s supposed to mean. I guess it means a person who is very aware of their enormous value and uses it against their surroundings. It has become synonymous with female singers, and it feels superficial. All it does is create more distance. We artists must remember to be humble.’ ”Do you remember when you heard Birgit Nilsson for the first time?’ ”Yes, it was when I was studying music in Ottawa and worked part-time in the music library. When I was responsible for closing, it often happened that I stayed behind and put on records just to listen. When I heard Birgit, I remember thinking I would never become an opera singer. Her voice was so penetrating and powerful on the recordings!’
OUR DISCUSSION turns back to the concept of the diva. Joyce isn’t done and clarifies:
”There comes a point in an artist’s life when you are experienced enough to know what works, what you need to communicate something to the audience in the best way, and then, of course, a misunderstanding can arise. If a singer says, “this is the tempo I need to breathe properly” or “I want the clothes this way so it looks good,” some may think, “she’s difficult, or a diva.” But there is, of course, a huge difference between trying to create good conditions and someone who is superior and bossy.’
”How do you feel about expressing your needs and opinions around productions?’
”What I do now, which I didn’t do when I was younger, is to suggest improvements. Today, I have not only more experience but also the confidence to share my artistic ideas. For me, it has become increasingly important to collaborate – I want the conductor and director to collaborate with me. Today, I am sure that different perspectives are better than just letting one side decide everything.’
”How do you see your future? You are an incredibly sought-after singer today. Are you where you want to be?”
”That is a complex question that I have thought about a lot recently. I can say that before I started, when I was studying, this was my whole life: just this my dream. I wanted to sing opera, I wanted to sing Verdi, I wanted to sing Norma, I wanted to travel the world, I wanted to share this music with people! I loved music and singing, and I still do.’
”… and now you have exactly that life.’
”I have that life, and I don’t want to change it. Singing is a part of my identity; it is a part of how I express myself as a human being. For me, singing is the gift God gave me. I love what I do and don’t want to sing less, but as I said: I want better balance, which includes a normal life. It’s that strange dichotomy that exists in this job, that you are mostly at work alone without family and friends. How do you translate your life into your art if you don’t live a life?”
We meet via our screens that successfully create a portal between the apartment where Joyce El-Khoury lives during her time in Helsinki, and the living room I am sitting in, in Sweden. Suddenly, she becomes silent, seemlingly considering if she should say this or not. She continues:
”Recently, I have had a clear awakening. It is so strong that I have concretely begun to experience God in the people I meet and see around me. It is something that has fundamentally changed me.”
She continues cautiously, without sounding embarrassed. ”… I suppose you never thought the interview would go in this direction.”
GRANTED, I did not expect the conversation to be about Joyce El-Khoury’s personal faith. ”I certainly want to know more. Is it about God for you?”
”Yes, I went through a long and difficult period a couple of years ago and was looking for something that could help or … that could mean something. I felt close to burnout and sought meaning in everything and began to read the Bible, listen to others’ experiences of faith. I started meditating and thinking about life whether it is called Christian or not. In the end, it is about love for me, and it has come to change everything. It has even changed how I sing. I have never talked about this publicly. This is the first time I mention it.”
”It has been like a bit of a shock. Even though I grew up in a Christian home, it was not at all as a practicing Christian. I thought, what is this? This has no meaning for me, does it? But when everything felt most hopeless and dark, I put my hope in maybe believing in something – God and Jesus – could help me, and for me, faith has become like a plant: I feel that I have to water and nurture it, in the same way, I do with my voice.”
We have come to the end of the interview, and Joyce El-Khoury wants to summarize:
”I have been singing since I was three and have been singing professionally for fifteen years. When I go on stage today, I am much more aware of what my colleagues are doing, and what they need. I am aware of what the audience expects from what I have ’borrowed’. It feels like a gift to share it.
”Today, it is no longer about hitting the high note or that I didn’t come in the right second or forgot to pick up the knife the way we rehearsed. All those are just details. I have received messages after performances from people in the audience who said they had recently lost someone close, and they hadn’t been able to cry until there and then at the opera when they heard us sing. Then I feel that is what it’s all about. I have done my job.”
Six Short Questions With Joyce
1. My favorite sound…
It sounds a bit odd, but it’s actually when the orchestra is tuning. There’s something magical about that sound. I associate it with such anticipation.
2. Food I cook…
I love making Lebanese meatballs, kofta.
3. My favorite drink…
My parents own a coffee company, and my dad, who handles roasting and blending, usually sends me coffee on my travels. Besides being incredibly delicious, it has become a way for me to remember them.
4. Current favorite singer…
My friend Corinne Winters is absolutely incredible. And even if she weren’t my friend, I would be just as impressed.
5. If I woke up and could play any instrument, I would want to play…
I would choose the oud, the Arabic lute.
6. A future plan I have…
I want to start a music festival in Lebanon, and later perhaps also a music school.
