Svetlana Portnyansky
For most musicians, getting a few nasty letters goes with the territory, but the letters that one Russian performer received went well beyond the normal celebrity/fan correspondence.
“I came to receive hate letters, dangerous letters that said, “Go away to Israel, get out of this country, this country’s not for Jews,” says Svetlana Portnyansky, a Moscow-born singer, who, with Israeli tenor Yevgeni Shapovalov, is playing the Toronto Centre For The Arts on June 26.
The reason for the vile letters was not just because Portnyansky was Jewish – it had as much to do with when she started her career as her religious beliefs.
“[When I started] it was just the beginning of Russia’s revival of Jewish culture. I was part of the first wave. It was very moving for all Jews because we didn’t hear songs and music for years.”
When Portnyansky says years, she’s not talking about a few, she’s referring to decades.
“Stalin assassinated the Jewish actor and musician Solomon Mikhoels in 1948,” she says. “Since then, and until 1988, the Jewish theatre was closed.”
It was around the time that Jewish theatres started to open again that Portnyansky’s career took off. But as the hate mail suggests, her first few years were trying.
“In the very beginning of the revival, it was a struggle between old times and new times,” she says in her thick Russian accent. “The new times had open doors and windows, but the old times hated Jews and they tried to close doors and not let us do what we wanted to do. It was a very dark time.”
Although Portnyansky found work all across Russia, she knew that she would eventually need to leave her country.
“We didn’t see any future ahead of us. I didn’t know what to do and what will be, so when I received an invitation to the States I decided to stay there forever.”
Portnyansky’s invitation to the United States brought her to New York, and she soon moved to Los Angeles. It wasn’t until 1997, six years after she left Russia, that she returned to her homeland.
She noticed that a lot had changed since she’d left Moscow, especially the attitude toward Jews.
“It’s a different country. I look at my hometown and I can’t recognize it,” she says. “I see people have stopped hating Jews, they’ve opened a lot of Jewish schools, Hebrew facilities, synagogues, and there are a lot of Jewish events.” However, she can’t shake some of the uncomfortable feelings that still linger.
“It’s still remaining Russia, culturally, ideologically. I still find it strange. In my eyes, I look at it like a tourist.”
Since moving to the U.S., Portnyansky’s career has blossomed. She’s travelled across the world, and played shows with famous artists such as Debbie Friedman and Lionel Hampton and released four albums.
While her musical day job technically began after she graduated from the Moscow conservatory, Portnyansky’s first voice lesson was from her father.
“When I was a little kid, my father played piano professionally,” she says. “He was a very good piano player and I used to hear music, especially classical music since my early childhood. He sang, too, and we sang together. I soon started to repeat everything I heard and then I understood that I liked it. In high school, I decided to be a singer.”
Despite all the resistance toward Jewish musicians in Russia, Portnyansky’s desire to perform Jewish music never wavered.
“I found myself in Jewish music. This music fits me, the tune, the melody, the sense of music. I took it very closely, it’s in my blood.”
To develop her repertoire, Portnyansky studied to become a cantor in Los Angeles. It was in these classes that she learned Hebrew, and her current set list incorporates many cantorial tunes.
Portnyansky says that she’s not just trying to convert fans to cantorial music – she’s hoping to raise awareness of Jewish culture in general.
“The more I travel around the world, the more people know me. There’s a sense of me being an international Jewish ambassador of culture and music. It unites people with different languages,” she says.
Of course, Jewish culture doesn’t only include cantorial music. Portnyansky sings Broadway songs, originals and other Jewish hits. With almost 20 years of experience behind her, she has an extensive oeuvre, so picking what to sing on tour is a challenge.
“When I choose what to sing, I first of all have to like the music, words and arrangements. When I like it in my concert, I’ll put it on CD. Sometimes I’ll ask advice from my friends, because I have a pretty big repertoire, but I’m trying to make it wider and more interesting.”
Don’t expect Portnyansky to pick up a guitar and jam to Israeli rock ’n’ roll though. There’s not enough room for her to improvise.
“I don’t find it interesting. I like my own arrangements and I like improvisation. When I can’t [change it], I can’t do anything interesting.”
