Meet Anna Gomà | Multidisciplinary Opera Singer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Anna Gomà and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Anna, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Before starting my own projects I found myself caught between two worlds, similar in some ways and very different in most of them. I have studied acting and then opera singing in the conservatory. On the one hand, I wanted to work in the opera world but on the other hand, I didn’t want to lose the playful spirit of theatre. I spent some time trying to figure out what to do, trying to bring more realistic acting to opera performances, but I felt like something was missing. I wanted to feel the audience from close up, live opera experiences from another place with less rigidity. So I decided that one of my activities would be to bring opera to new audiences, combining it with other arts which are not usually found in opera and in different contexts, without abandoning the big opera theaters. I like to combine both because one pushes me to be better by singing and the other reminds me my essence and my roots. I think they complement each other well although this was not always perceived that way.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I studied acting first and I was “pushed” to study singing. In a way, I feel that thanks to life and the people surrounding me, I found my real place. For me these two arts are inseparable: I don’t conceive of singing without acting, without conveying. In performing, I try to bring both disciplines as high as possible. That isn’t always an easy task because when singing you cannot use some very useful acting skills since you need to let your breath be at the service of the voice and you cannot “lose control”: singers have less margin than actors.
I find myself at the beginning of my career as a creative and as a singer and sometimes I feel that it will stay like this forever. In a way, I think it’s a positive sensation, because it means you are always ready to learn, to improve, to try new ways of creating. The most important thing is to learn from your mistakes or things that didn’t go 100%. I always try to analyze what I did, how I organized everything, how I communicated with the team and how can I improve. One of the most challenging things is that our world is always in a rush and high quality art is done by time. I overcome these challenges by constantly improving my singing technique so I have more freedom acting, I analyze the movements that are not good for the voice and try to achieve the same but with an alternative… Sometimes the process is slower but the result is much more impressive.
By creating my own performances, I’m obsessed with the message I want to give, the journey that it has to be for the audience, that they feel more than they understand. We are in a world where everyone wants to understand and we sometimes forget to feel; when I do my own performances feeling is the way to understand it.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I live in Madrid but I spend a lot of time in Barcelona, so I would divide the week into some days in Barcelona and some in Madrid. First I would do a walk in the Gothic Quarter to see how history has influenced the architecture of Barcelona, then have lunch in the Fishers’ neighborhood to finish visiting one of the most unknown buildings of Gaudí (Palauet Güell) and then a jazz concert in Jamboree. We will spend one day visiting Gaudí’s buildings and park finishing off this Catalan modernism tour with a concert in emblematic Palau de la Música. One day around Barcelona is also needed to visit Colonie Güell and eat a Paella in Sitges next to the sea. In Madrid we cannot avoid eating tapas in Cava Baja, visiting Prado, watching the sunset in the stunning Riu’s Hotel Terrace, drinking a vermouth while discovering Rastro, walking around the writers’ neighborhood, drinking something in Sala Equis, enjoying a zarzuela in Teatro de la Zarzuela or being lighted with Sorolla’s paintings.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to dedicate it to: my mother who, despite having some doubts in the middle of the process, never quit and believed in me unconditionally and to my teachers Coral Morales and Josep Buforn.
Some strong influences for me were Peter Brook’s books, Peter Gadish, Calixto Bieito, Nicola Beller Carbone and all my friends who support me and keep listening to my ideas (Juan, Ashley, Oriol, Jordi, Núrias…)

Website: https://www.annagoma.com

Instagram: @annagoma.mezzo

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/annagomamezzosoprano/

Youtube: @annagoma

Image Credits
Tyler Barker
Juan González