‘Don Giovanni is pure evil’: Seljan Nasibli on her fascination with Mozart’s opera

Don Giovanni is brutal but funny. It’s tragic-comic. No one other than Mozart can do it so well – opera soprano singer Seljan Nasibli tells Christine Manby

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Growing up in Baku, Azerbaijan, soprano Seljan Nasibli didn’t know much about opera but she was passionate about music from an early age, pestering her parents for piano lessons before she was five. Having mastered the piano, she turned to the violin. It wasn’t until she moved to England at the age of 15 that she discovered her best instrument might actually be her own voice.

“I wanted to sing jazz, but my music teacher told me I had an operatic voice,” she said. “I hadn’t listened to much opera before then. When I told him, my father bought me a series of Naxos CDs. That was the beginning.” Despite buying those CDs, Nasibli’s father was not enamoured with the idea of his daughter pursuing a career in opera.

Although her family had misgivings, Nasibli studied singing at the Royal College of Music, going on to debut at the Carnegie Hall’s Kurt Weill Recital Hall and win the Debut Concert Hamburg International Competition. Then she was offered her first leading role, playing Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, with the Westminster Opera Company. Nasibli was 24 years old and she argued with her teacher about whether she was ready for such a big part. Brushing her teacher’s doubts aside, Nasibli joined the company for a summer season at a chateau in the south of France and her fascination with Don Giovanni was born.