Marvic Monreal, Maltese mezzo-soprano of international success discusses her career highlights during the past year with TheJournal.mt.
Marvic Monreal grew up in Zabbar and pursued Tourism studies at the University of Malta. She worked for Air Malta as a ground hostess, and later as a turn-around coordinator before taking the leap to try music and singing as a profession. That’s when she started studying at the Royal Academy of Music seven years ago.
“I always loved music, dance and performing arts in general but I never imagined this would be my career. Later when I grew older and started singing and training more seriously as I felt that this is my calling.”
Marvic is currently working at Oper Frankfurt and tells us that the most exciting part of her job is meeting new people and meeting old colleagues in different places, however it is much harder than it seems. Traveling can be exhausting and having to sing straight after travel and finding the energy to carry out the job is certainly not a walk in the park.
Through her hard work, Marvic’s international success has enabled her to become an ambassador for Malta overseas:
“It is always a joy to share my background and my upbringing with my colleagues wherever I go. I have to say my ‘Maltesims’ usually go down very well with my friends. I love sharing my culture and story, food and traditions.”
My ‘Maltesims’ usually go down very well with my friends. I love sharing my culture and story, food and traditions.
These past two years have been super successful yet at the same time, complicated and hard for Marvic, as this year would have been her Royal Opera House debut in London as well as her debut at Oper Frankfurt. Regrettably due to COVID-19, her Royal Opera House Debut – and everything she worked towards for the past seven years – had to be postponed. This experience took a toll on her morale, but also served as a lesson and instilled resilience more than ever before.
Marvic’s success over the past year was featured two key highlights. First one was the recording of “Sacred Music from St John’s” with Joseph Calleja, Christian van Horn and Sondra Radvanovksy together with the MPO. Marvic studied and learnt the Verdi Requiem which is one of the masterpieces by Verdi, a piece every mezzo soprano looks forward to put their teeth in:
“Singing it for the first time with such an incredible cast was even more so special, I don’t think it can get better than that. I’m very grateful to have the support of Joseph Calleja and the BOV JC Foundation.”
The second one was the recent project with the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra where it featured world renowned soprano Diana Damrau. Both experiences were immensely nourishing for Marvic’s artistic growth, as no lessons or coaching in life teach you as much as when you are singing side-by-side singers of such calibre.
Marvic had a warm and encouraging message from local artists and musicians who aim to achieve international success in their own field:
“Follow your gut, find time to reflect and have alone time to understand what you want from your life. This career requires your 1000%, it can be very draining but also very rewarding. If this is your calling – go for it. Keep your feet on the ground. This industry is volatile and cutthroat, but breathing art for a living is a wonderful thing.”
