WHERE SHE'S BEEN: After finishing her studies in Bratislava, Kozená joined the company of the Vienna Volksoper. She recorded a disc of Bach arias, and to her surprise it was picked up by Deutsche Grammophon. "I wanted to offer it to some small company in the Czech Republic -- I mean, I didn't have any big ambitions." Although this album still awaits a U.S. release, Kozená can be heard on recordings of Gluck's Armide and Rameau's Dardanus, both conducted by French baroque guru Marc Minkowski, and Bach cantatas led by John Eliot Gardiner. She hypnotized audiences and critics when she took the lead in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice at the Châtelet in Paris in 1999, also under Gardiner's direction. She also attracted attention in a Christmas concert that same year, appearing alongside Andrea Bocelli. "Andrea was very, very sweet, and he doesn't behave like a star at all."

WHERE SHE'S GOING: A New York recital debut in May 2001 is one of the many exciting dates coming up on her calendar. Recordings of Handel cantatas and more Bach are in the works, as well as a disc of arias by Mozart, Gluck, and their Czech contemporary Josef Myslivecek. "He wrote about 20 operas, but he's totally unknown. I like very much to represent unknown music, to find things that nobody knows."

ON HER RAPID RISE: "If somebody told me five years ago that I would record for DG and work with people like Simon Rattle, I would have said, 'Are you crazy?' So of course it was a challenge, but I try to be very careful not to sing things that are not right now for my voice. And I'm not afraid that it went too fast; I think it's good, because maybe in five years I will be in the position to have a family. It's often a big problem for women singers, exactly at the time they really need to work and they have the best chances, they want to have children too, and then there's a big decision."

WHAT TO LISTEN FOR: Of Love Songs, Kozená says, "The first idea, of course, was to record Czech things because I am Czech, and I think I should represent this music if I have the chance. Second of all, I was thinking particularly about Bohuslav Martinu, because he is almost completely unknown, and his music is simply wonderful. Actually, this is the first time they have Martinu at all on the DG label, so it's sort of my private victory!" Given the album's title, is there a typically Czech attitude toward love? "I don't think that the Czech people feel love differently than Americans! But maybe the Czech view of love is sort of melancholic -- it's never happy, or you suffer all the time." Kozená's album is anything but depressing, however. She and distinguished pianist Graham Johnson find equal beauty in the lyricism of Dvorák and the folk-inspired spontaneity of Martinu's and Janácek's miniature-scaled songs. Don't miss Martinu's Songs for a Friend of My Country, a recently rediscovered song cycle that Kozená premiered in concert and now on disc. "Two or three years ago the head of the Martinu Society found this music at a castle in southern France. Nobody knew about it before, so it was a very nice discovery."

HOW TO BECOME A MEZZO-SOPRANO: "Actually, I started as a real alto -- I really had a very, very low voice when I was a little bit younger, but then if I wanted to sing nice roles and so on I had to work on my high notes. Otherwise I wouldn't have any good repertoire! Now I actually feel more comfortable a little bit higher, but it really depends on the style. I can't sing Mimi [in La bohème], but I can sing soprano in Bach cantatas. I have quite a bright color even though I still consider myself a mezzo, and I can sing high notes, but I can't do it every day and five hours per day!"

WHO INSPIRES HER: "I knew Julia Varády from recordings, but I recently heard her as Vitellia in La Clemenza da Tito, and I can't imagine it done better." Kozená also cites Bryn Terfel and Mirella Freni, and among fellow mezzos, Frederica von Stade and Teresa Berganza. Conductors have inspired her, too. "From Marc Minkowski I learned that baroque music isn't just about singing without vibrato and doing the right ornaments. He is very concerned with the meaning of the words -- so if the word is 'ugly,' he also wants an ugly sound. I didn't dare to do that before."

WHAT SHE LISTENS TO FOR FUN : "I love jazz very much. When I want to rest, I listen to Ella Fitzgerald or Louis Armstrong and other older jazz. I also like old rock groups like Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, and the Rolling Stones -- so let's say sort of the 'classics' of those styles too."

WHAT'S A DIVA TO DO DURING THE COLD WAR: Kozená's homeland has been through enormous political changes in her lifetime, especially during her conservatory years. Czech musical life has been affected too. "First, we can finally travel. If the socialist regime stayed like it was, maybe now I would be in the National Theater in Prague, or maybe not, and that's it. After the Velvet Revolution, it was a great chance for music because we could get recordings, and we had the chance to study abroad. For me, it's such a long time ago; I'm used to living in a sort of democratic country already for more than ten years. On the other hand, in some ways it wasn't so bad, because we could keep a sort of Czech identity in our music. I also can't say that socialism was that bad, for example, in education. The conservatory was very strict, and I really, really learned a lot. I profited from the things I learned, and I could study free of charge, and now I can use it abroad. So actually, I would say that I am very lucky!"

--Scott Paulin

August 18, 2000