Where did you begin your musical training?
I started singing as a chorister in St Edmundsbury Cathedral choir at the age of nine and never looked back. It was a fabulous training and I will never forget it – or a lot of the repertoire, which comes back amazingly quickly even now. I sang at school too and was hugely encouraged in my musical aspirations by many people around me at the time. I read Theology at King’s College London – I have a Bachelor of Divinity and Master of Theology (my other passion) – and studied singing part time at the GSMD with Dorothy Richardson, and later worked with the late Elizabeth Ritchie and Meribeth Dayme. I now study with David Coussell, who is essentially a coach, but he’s built up my technique by working within the repertoire and I owe an awful lot to him. He pushes me without ever being nasty like some singing teachers we’ve all encountered!
How did you get interested in opera?
After I’d had the singing bug for a while, my mother bought me a record of Gilbert and Sullivan selections, and that was the beginning of a long relationship with G&S which has lasted to the present day! As a teenager I knew all the female roles off by heart and sang them along to the recordings many times over. The first opera I saw was A Masked Ball, and, prophetically it seems, the scene that struck me the most, and which I can still visualize, was Ulrica’s scene. I remember some family friends taking me to the Opera House to see a recital by Marilyn Horne too when I was in my mid-teens. I wish I could see it now, as I’d appreciate it so much more than I could possibly have done then!
Which singers do you admire?
Cecilia Bartoli every time. I love her coloratura technique and style, her fabulous range, and her refusal to conform to what people might think she should be singing. All that nonsense about whether you’re a mezzo or a soprano, and which roles you therefore should or shouldn’t sing drives me nuts! She sings whatever she wants to sing and gets away with it. I love that nerve and I love her flamboyant girlishness. She’s my ideal – a real diva with guts!
I was also taken by surprise a few years ago to find that I rather like Andreas Scholl. I’d never been a great fan of counter tenors (mezzo role thieves that they are) but I heard him on the radio singing ‘Venga Pur…’ from Mitridate and thought he, and the aria, were wonderful. So I adopted the aria into my own repertoire and bought the album Heroes. Since then I’ve enjoyed Wayfaring Stranger, his album of folk songs, and seen him at the Wigmore Hall. I would love to see him in an opera now, Rinaldo, perhaps, or Gulio Caesare.
My rosta of favourite singers also isn’t complete without Maddy Prior of Steeleye Span. She has such a great mezzo voice, really evocative and flexible, and very, very musical. I have a real longing to front a folk rock band like Steeleye and I’m determined to do it some day. I’ve sung some arrangements of their stuff, particularly Tam Lin, which is a long ballad about a girl who saves her lover, Tam Lin, from being taken captive by the Fairy Queen, but it’s not the same without the electronic instruments. My friend, Angie Grayson, is a marvellous keyboard player, so that’s all taken care of. Now we need acoustic guitar, bass, percussion and – ideally – a really mean fiddler. Anyone out there?
What have been your favourite roles?
Carmen without a doubt. It was a dream come true to sing my first proper full scale Carmen with orchestra last year. It’s such an amazing role to sing – the music is so comfortable, but – wow! – that character! Carmen is my alter ego, but braver than me; so completely ready to be her own woman and prepared to die for it. I wish I could really get to the place that she’s in, but the next best thing was to try to really become the character in the opera.
Other roles… Well, definitely Donna Elvira. I can understand all that angry, despairing passion – she is emotionally a prisoner to Don Giovanni, although everything tells her that she should let go. And Mi Tradi… that’s one of the arias of all time. I could sing it everyday and not tire of it. Cenerentola, because I enjoyed being a good girl for once, and was thrilled to discover that I really could sing Rossini coloratura. And Sesto in Tito (my favourite opera). Poor Sesto – his heart broken at every turn, and all he wants is to be affirmed by those he loves. I could sing Parto from a hospital bed; it’s in my bones for life now!
I love trouser roles, but I won’t put my hair up or flatten my bosom! I love the irony of being a curvy girl playing a man…
What roles would you like to sing in the future?
I’d love to sing Cenerentola, Carmen and Elvira again. There’s still more I can bring to them. And I want to really explore the Donizetti and Bellini roles, which are just right for my voice. I admit I’d love Auzucena and Amneris too, although David C. would be horrified at the suggestion! I’ve sung the mezzo solos in Verdi’s Requiem at the Fairfield Halls, and would love to do that again, and I’m very keen to be the Angel in Dream of Gerontius.
I’m singing Rosina in Barber in June which is marvellous - she’s going to be a hot Rosina, with a dash of Carmen in her - and I’m singing a big chunk of Gluck’s Orfeo again in July for the Clapham Festival of Music and the Arts along with the whole of the Principessa from Suor Angelica.
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Who do you sing with regularly?
I sang with soprano Nancy Mathis for three years, and in that time we had some classic partnerships: Fiordiligi and Dorabella; Susanna and Cherubino; Ilia and Idamantes; Vitellia and Sesto; Euridice and Orfeo; Anna and Elvira. Our voices were perfectly balanced in weight and timbre, and temperamentally we were ideally suited as a stage partnership. I miss her so much now she’s gone back to Arkansas. I sing a lot with Carole Watson, another soprano, and we get on well because we’re both unflappable, but expect high standards of others and ourselves. And my tenor pal, Mick Pardoe, with whom I’ve shared lots of stage time: Nicklaus and Hoffmann; Sesto and Tito; Idamantes and Idomeneo; as well as lots of concerts and lighter shows. I’m sad we haven’t had a proper Carmen together yet – but one day someone will want us both at the same time I’m sure!
Tell us about Porcupine Productions.
Porcupine Productions is an opera and concert company that I manage with David Hoyland and Philip Haste, with a lot of loyal support from Christine Aldridge. We do everything from Abba arrangements to Gluck! Versatility and flexibility in all things, along with a real entrepreneurial spirit is the essence of Porcupine. David H is wonderful – he gives so much time and expertise, and he is a fabulous composer. I’ve sung in premiers of his work, which is such an honour. We go to Grantham in Lincolnshire a lot – my parents live there – and we have a great following there. We’re a close knit team and bring new people in very slowly and usually only after I’ve worked with them in other companies, so we know we’re not getting any potential prima donnas! We’ve made the odd misjudgment, but we have a central core of singers who’ve worked together for up to 10 years, which says a lot, I think.
David and Philip wrote A Christmas Opera in 2002 which we premiered at David’s church, St Simon Stock, in Putney, and recorded last year. The CD will be launched later this year, and hopefully the opera will be revived several times by different companies, not just Porcupine. It’s a really special piece. Carlyon Viles has also been setting Phil’s libretto of Cinderella, which is an enormous project, hopefully to see the light of day in 2005, with Beatrice Freeman as Cinderella, Mick Pardoe as the Prince, and myself as Dandini. Although we’ve avoided looking for sponsorship so far, we’ll probably have to bite the bullet on that one for Cinderella!
Do you have a favourite opera and opera composer?
La clemenza di Tito is my favourite opera of all – it has everything as far as I’m concerned and invites so many different interpretations. It’s particularly dear to me as I wanted to sing Sesto for a long time and it was such a joy when I got to do it, I wish I could do it at least once a year now! And Mozart is always my favourite opera composer, though any of the bel canto composers would come very close. I love the dramatic melodies of Verdi, and the theatrical idioms of Puccini. Listening to Puccini is like listening to Les Miserables which makes me feel quite emotional.
Is there anything you’d like to see change in the world of opera?
I think I’d just like to see more people open up to it and find out how wonderful it is. I have had the privilege of introducing several of my students to opera, young teenagers who have never been before and who have been really thrilled by what they see and hear. Whether they will go on to see productions that I’m not in is another matter, but it’s a great start.
What are your plans for the future?
To keep singing till I drop! My friend, John Dawswell, who’s singing Basilio in Barber with me next month, is not far off 70 and still singing new roles. I know it’s not so easy for a woman to do that, but I hope I get somewhere near it, even if David has to write them for me! I want to sing in New York, and travel to Italy and Israel, and to do lots of writing, and I would like to be truly free in my heart and spirit before I’m old enough to regret I didn’t get there earlier.
Any hobbies?
I don’t have separate hobbies really, almost everything I do is connected with singing or my work with Religious Studies A Level at the exam board, teaching, writing or speaking at conferences. However, I do love to write other things as well, and I am looking forward to seeing Madison’s Song, my first (and perhaps only!) novel coming out this summer, under the pen name, Kay Plowman. It’s about a singer (a mezzo, of course) who falls in love with this pretty awful guy – a really self-obsessed conductor – just as she’s making her big break at Glyndebourne. He gives her a terrible time, but it all comes right in the end. I think it’s quite a funny book, though Madison cries a lot in it! I’ve got in a lot of my singing experience in it and I have to admit that I’ve been influenced by many people I know, and it was great fun to see them emerge partly as themselves and partly as the characters who developed through the novel. There’ll be something specific about the book later on this site when it’s finally available for sale.
I’ve worked on some poetry, including a song cycle based on the story of Bathsheba (in 2 Samuel), which I hope David will set for mezzo and bassoon some time in the future. As for pure relaxation, I love the seaside and the sea and could sit on a boat all day in the blazing sun and come back bright red all over and consider it a day well spent! I enjoy the bingo at Clarence Pier in Southsea very much… And as for massages, facials, pedicures, manicures… just bliss!
View Sarah's page HERE.
Sarah's new book, Madison's Song, is available on Amazon,
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1844262804/026-3674882-1376421
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