 "I like travelling, performing at new places and meeting new people from the public. When invited to Serbia to perform at Viminacium, I examined the offer and accepted it with pleasure. On my repertoire are songs from my two albums Carmine Meo and Etterna, music from the movie Red Planet and several classic arias. This represents my career thus far. I am now working on a new CD, to be released in 2009, but songs from that album are not yet ready to be performed in public", said Emma Shapplin, a young French soprano, before her performance on August 30th in the Imperial Mausoleum of the ancient Roman town Viminacium, near Kostolac.
The Emma Shapplin concert is the first within the Opera Balkanica Project, conceived to promote the route of the Roman Emperors, as announced by archeologist Dr. Miomir Korać, until recently assistant to Minister of Culture in the Ministry for the Protection of Cultural Heritage. The idea of the project is to organise concerts next summer by world-known artists at well-known Roman sites in Serbia; Sirmium, Viminacium, Felix Romuliana and Mediana.
The concert named "Roman Night" opened after a 20-minute delay with music from the movie Red Planet and the song Spesso, Sprofondo in the Imperial Mausoleum in Viminacium as part of the Opera Balkanica Project. During the 70-minute long concert, Emma Shapplin performed with an orchestra conducted by Ognjen Radivojević and the RTS Choir. Young Belgrade composer and pianist Aleksandar Simić performed several compositions, some solo and some, like Reprendo mai piu, with the famous singer who also performed Puccini’s aria O mio babbino caro. Simić performed his compositions Remember and for the first time Memory of Tango and Tango for Her dedicated to Emma Shapplin, who thanked him by throwing him a kiss. The best material from the famous singer’s repertoire came, as is usual, at the end of the concert; for an encore Emma Shapplin and the RTS Choir played Spente le Stelle.
During the performance, scenes from the everyday life of ancient Romans were projected on the video-beam behind the orchestra, as well as impressive pictures of Viminacium’s mosaics. Production of this music event was signed by Srđan Radosavljević.
The spectacle ended with an impressive fireworks show.
This exceptional music event could not be spoiled by the chilly wind that blew all evening. However, what did spoil the impression were the archeological excavations between the stage and the audience, so that VIPs seated closer to the stage and performers couldn’t see what was going on. Organizers expected some 500 people could be seated in the VIP area but it appeared that their number was significantly higher. Moreover, because seats were not numbered, a considerable amount of confusion arose among honourary guests.
On the other hand, the ordinary audience placed on an elevation outside the VIP area was able to follow the spectacle marvelously on the video-beam, and even had a better view of the stage than those physically closer to it. Though a cold wind caused many a spectator to shiver and clatter, Emma Shapplin proved her high professionalism, singing her repertoire in three superb dresses (white, red and green) that practically mocked the cold.
"Emma was excited after the concert, which was really very beautiful and lasted as long as it should have, and I hope that the audience was pleased. I met Emma in Paris and we realised that our sensibilities match, that we love a mix of classic and modern sound, so we plan to continue our collaboration", said pianist and composer Simić.
The idea for the concert in Viminacium came from Dr. Miomir Korać, an archeologist. He managed to get several thousand people to come to the site, even those who would have otherwise never visited an archeological site (the Northern Gate, Thermal baths and the Mausoleum), ensuring along the way that eminent figures from the world of business, politics and culture became donors to the archeological excavations. It is well known that VIPs contributed RSD 12,000 as a donation while firms were free to decide on the amount they would contribute. Miomir Korać succeeded because of this excellent idea to combine science, history, art and, which is for us very important, economy. It is known that several Roman emperors were born on the territory of present-day Serbia, that history was created along the Danube River and that it can prove important, among other things, for tourism.
Miomir Korać heard Emma Shapplin for the first time when he visited the ancient town Caesarea in Israel, and he decided that he wanted to organize a similar event in Viminacium. A month before the concert he led her to the site and Emma Shapplin spent three hours there instead of the planned half hour; she tasted wine and dishes cooked according to Apicius’s recipes from antiquity. The French singer left the Mausoleum, where the stage was set, with tears in her eyes." "When the Serbian delegation visited my team in Paris in May, they brought all sorts of promotional material (books, DVD, brochures) from Viminacium in order to show me where I would be performing. They brought me a gift from Dr. Korać, a hand painted copy of a fresco from Viminacium. When I visited the site in July, I felt as if I already knew it. The music I perform I describe as Emma’s music. I like my music to be original, inspirational and modern. I don’t like when they say that I belong to the neo-classic school or actually when they label my way of singing. My greatest ambition is to reach as many people as possible with my music. An artist’s work grows and matures over time, and in this sense every next album should be better than the previous one", Emma Shapplin said in a discussion with Belgrade journalists, adding:
"Until now I didn’t know much about Serbia, but I have made an attempt to learn more about your country so as to be relaxed and close with the audience in Viminacium. When my new album is released next year, I hope to be back to sing again for you."
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Classic, rock and modern sound
In the life of Emma Shapplin nothing pointed in the direction of her becoming a singer. All of that changed the moment she heard Mozart’s Magic Flute. At the age of 14 Emma began attending singing classes with a once famous singer who was then in quite advanced age. Soon, however, the young French girl lost the support of her parents and she stopped attending classes. She then joined a heavy metal band that asked her not to sing but to scream, and she began to smoke so as to make her voice coarse. Though she later decided to acquire a formal music education, Emma Shapplin decided that her choice shouldn’t be only opera. "I knew that I had to find my own expression and use my voice in my own way," she said. Eleven years ago she made her first album Carmine Meo, which sold two million copies. The debut effort was followed by the album Etterna, and her voice was also used on the soundtrack for the movie Red Planet. The third CD of Emma Shapplin is being recorded in Caesarea, Israel. | | 
