Can you introduce your role with Opera Holland Park this year?
I am playing Violetta Valéry in La traviata.
What aspects of Violetta’s character are you most excited to explore in this production?
Each time I have sung Violetta, I am struck by her selflessness and empathy for other people, especially considering the fact that she is treated appallingly by the men and friends in her life. She always finds the good in people, and that gives her a strength of character that is wonderful to play. In her weakest moments, she is caring for everyone else’s feelings for her, regardless of how low she is in her own physical and mental health.
You first performed Violetta at Opera Holland Park as part of the Young Artists Scheme in 2018. How does it feel to return to the role years on?
A total dream! It truly is a gift of a role for a soprano. You can play the fun and fizzy (albeit pretty sick!) Violetta at the party in Act I, then you move to the most lyrical part of the role in Act II where her dreams and hopes unravel before her eyes and she’s thrust into an impossible situation. You then have the drama of Flora’s party, followed very quickly by the stunning musical beauty of Act III. It’s a huge undertaking, and to have had this space of time between it, since beginning the learning of the role in 2018 as a Young Artist, then singing it in another company in 2022 and now returning to this production for OHP, feels like a huge full circle moment.
What are some of your favorite memories from your time as a Young Artist?
It’s 100% the Schools Matinee! Never have I felt like more of a rockstar, coming out for the bows to 1000 screaming schoolchildren!
Looking back at your journey in opera so far, what have been the biggest changes in your career since your days as an OHP Young Artist?
Opera Holland Park is where it started for me operatically. Before being offered the Violetta Young Artists role, I was in Follies at the National Theatre and was being very heavily tempted down the musical theatre route, with some opportunities that had arisen. But James offering me Violetta was the little push I needed to immerse myself fully into the operatic world, and what better role to learn to sing opera properly than Violetta?
Since then, I have sung Violetta for Opera North and I am just about to make my debut at the Royal Ballet and Opera in their production of Carmen, singing Frasquita. I am fully immersed in opera now (although I would never say no to some Rodgers and Hammerstein!).
I’ve managed to shrug off the terrible imposter syndrome I used to have sitting on my shoulder all the time and I’ve accepted myself into this classical world. My attitude towards myself has also changed. Life’s too short to worry about high notes or who likes you!
Do you have a favorite aria or scene in La traviata? Why does it resonate with you?
That’s an impossible question! It’s a masterpiece (apart from the final few notes of ‘Sempre Libera’!) If you did hold a gun to my head and make me choose, I would pick one of the very last phrases that Violetta says in the opera: ‘Se una pudica vergine’ (spoiler alert!). Even as she is about to take her last breath, she tells Alfredo to move on. If he meets another person, she wants him to know that she will be smiling down on them both from heaven.
I mean, first of all, what an incredible gift to give someone in your final breath. Telling them that you want them to find happiness again, even though Violetta has had the worst possible time (mainly caused by him!). The music in that moment reflects her character in a nutshell: it’s ethereal and builds to the most beautiful crescendo. I never get through the first few rehearsals of that scene without crying – so tell the OHP production team to have the tissues ready for me!
The opera’s three acts show Violetta in vastly different emotional states. Which act do you find the most challenging to perform, and why?
I’m going to say something that will be a bit controversial here…I love singing Act I, but I struggle a lot with the question I always get when I say I’m doing the role: ‘Are you going to do the Eb in the aria?’.
I’ll start off by saying that I do have an Eb in my vocal facility and that’s not the issue. It’s the fact that it’s not actually written in the score and yet in some places, it’s expected. Are we going to ignore the other 100,000 notes I’ll be singing?
I want every note I sing, in any role, to be sung for a reason and maybe I haven’t found a real reason for singing the Eb yet that doesn’t feel like ‘look what I can do’. I may do it, I may not, but I want it to be a decision that comes from a true and dramatically justified place.
From the brilliance of Act I’s coloratura passages to the raw intensity of the final scene, Violetta’s journey is both vocally and emotionally exhausting. How do you pace yourself to maintain the stamina needed for the role?
See above! Honestly, preparation is key. I’m already (in April) singing the aria through a couple of times a week, reminding myself of the corners I find tricky and also setting a roadmap of where I need to rein it in, have water placed strategically on stage – Violetta doesn’t leave the stage, really. It’s also about finding the mental stamina too. It’s a tough storyline and if you’re not focused in the right way, you can really tire yourself out physically.
This production is a revival from 2018 and 2021. Do you find it more freeing to step into a production that you already know, or more challenging not creating from scratch?
I do love creating a role and to have the dramatic freedom to react in a way I find honest. However, I know how brilliant Rodula Gaitanou (our amazing director) is and how much she cares about the story and I know she’ll give me that dramatic freedom if I feel something that was done before doesn’t quite suit my interpretation or feeling of who Violetta is.
Opera Holland Park is a canopied outdoor theatre. Do you find you must adjust your performance to suit the unique acoustics and atmosphere of an open-air venue?
I’m very lucky that I have sung at OHP for a good few years now and have also been with them since they changed the layout of the theatre. You learn to know where the ‘sweet spots’ are and sometimes you need to make slight adjustments when you come to the tech rehearsals.
I remember when I sang Violetta at OHP in 2018. It was the most amazing feeling, singing ‘Addio del Passato’ looking at a full moon poking through the gap in the canopied roof. And of course, the best duet partners, the peacocks!
What is your favourite Opera Holland Park memory?
Again, a difficult question, but it would be hard to top a moment in the last show I did at Opera Holland Park, Martin Lloyd Evans’s Pagliacci. There was a moment halfway through the show, just after David Butt Philip sang ‘Vesti la giubba’ where I walked through the audience to join him on the stage. At that moment, just the orchestra was playing and the lighting and atmosphere made it feel like we were in a 1950s soft focus movie. I completely forgot the audience was there and it went into this dreamlike state. That’s the incredible thing about the setup at Opera Holland Park. The intimacy of a piece can be captured so beautifully, in a way that many other theatres can’t do.
What is an opera myth that you’d like to see debunked?
I think that there are a lot of unfounded beliefs about opera only being for a ‘certain type of audience’. That’s not what I’m seeing nowadays. Productions are now pushing boundaries, telling stories that are relatable and really looking at the text, especially the new operas that are being written. I think the issue is, if we want opera to be for everyone, for all types of audiences, we need to fund it properly. With companies that are fighting for survival, if budgets get cut, the ticket prices have to go up and then it’s only accessible for the few people who can afford it. If it’s funded and invested in properly, it’s then not just a ‘luxury’. It’s a cultural necessity.
What is a piece of advice, musical or otherwise, that has stayed with you?
I have two pieces of advice that have stuck with me. The first was given to me by Martin Lloyd Evans when he was my acting coach at Guildhall. In a rehearsal room, tensions can run high and sometimes frustration can come out, perhaps not in the most ideal ways. Always have a toolbox with some patience and empathy in there, as you never know what people are going through inside or outside the rehearsal room.
The second was from the director Dominic Cooke when I was rehearsing for Follies at the National Theatre. If you make a mistake, ‘cancel and continue’. I actually use this in my day to day life now! If you make a mistake, leave it there and don’t let it affect the rest of your performance. 99% of the time, the audience will never know!
Interview by Holly Bancroft
