In memory of Erin Wall
Two of our writers reflect on the career of Erin Wall (1975-2020), who sadly died on the 8th of October, aged 44.
Brian Bannatyne-Scott
I first met Erin in Victoria, on Vancouver Island, when I replaced, at short notice, the singer who had been booked to sing La Roche in Pacific Opera Victoria’s production of Richard Strauss’ opera ‘Capriccio’. This was the first performance of the opera in Canada (it was written in 1942) and was quite a big thing in that country, broadcast live on Canadian radio and featured in several newspaper articles. Erin sang the Countess, with a radiance that was exceptional, and was a delightful colleague. Strauss had a life-long affair with the soprano voice and some of Erin’s music was sensational, especially the final scene, when the Countess has to decide which of her two suitors, one representing words and one representing music, to choose as her husband. La Roche, the Theatre Director, based on the famous director Max Reinhardt, acts as the lynchpin between words and music, and makes her choice more difficult. Our scenes together were enormous fun, and I was welcomed warmly by all the Canadians (I was the only foreigner). We played during the Winter Olympics in 2010, which were taking place just across the water in Vancouver, and Erin was most helpful in explaining all those sports which Canadians love, especially Ice Hockey (or HOCKEY to Canadians!).
Since it was high visibility as a production, and Erin was already established as a soprano of the top quality, a representative from New York’s Metropolitan Opera came to see us, and we found ourselves little over a year later in New York, understudying the opera there. Erin was cast right away as Helena in Britten’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ at the Met, and soon her career was blossoming internationally. Her husband is the Artistic Administrator of the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, and they made a very impressive power couple.
She was a frequent visitor to the Edinburgh International Festival (see Kate Calder’s accompanying piece), and we met up on a few occasions here in Edinburgh. She had just had a baby when I first met her here, and I took Erin, the baby and her nanny for a sightseeing trip round Edinburgh in my car. It was a delightful day, and it seems hardly possible that, only a few years later, she has been taken from us. She would have been 45 on the 4th of November. Bizarrely we shared the same birthday 20 years apart.
She was first diagnosed in 2017 but refused to let the disease interfere with her singing. We all hoped it had gone away, but it returned recently in a more dangerous way. She kept posting on Facebook throughout the treatment, sometimes exhausted, sometimes exhilarated, and her posts were always candid and personal. She announced this year that there was no cure, but no one thought it would take her so soon. My last Facebook message to her a few weeks ago, telling her about the fantastic review in the Sunday Times for her Ellen Orford in the recent recording of ‘Peter Grimes’, elicited a great thumbs up response. At least she got to see that her work was being fully acknowledged at the highest level. Listen to her on this recording, and also, if you can, get her recording of Strauss’ Four Last Songs with Andrew Davis. In the company of Schwarzkopf, Norman and Janowitz, she stands up marvellously well.
Kate Calder
I’ve admired her singing since she was a finalist in Cardiff Singer in the World in 2003. She was a regular visitor to Edinburgh, making her last appearance here as a Norn in ‘Götterdämmerung’ in the finale to the 2019 Edinburgh Festival.
She appeared on that occasion with Andrew Davis and the RSNO, as she’d done memorably in Massenet’s Thais in 2011. I’d never seen Thais on stage, and in this Usher Hall concert performance, she sang without a score, soaring over the full orchestra, but also able to control a beautiful pianissimo. It was the kind of performance which made you wonder why this opera is so rarely heard. With Davis, she recorded the role in a CD released earlier this year, and you can hear the range of her voice in the link below.
She got a well-deserved standing ovation for Thais, and also after Peter Grimes in 2017 – many of the audience still in tears after one of the best performances ever seen in Edinburgh. Wall played Ellen Orford, perhaps the opera’s only sympathetic character, playing opposite Stuart Skelton. Her singing with the choir and orchestra, and in the quieter moments with Peter and the apprentice was impressive. In Edward Gardner’s production with the Bergen Philharmonic, all the singers (including the chorus) sang from memory, and the quality of the acting drew the audience in as much as the music. Wall’s stillness and grief were a key factor in the audience’s response to this complex work.
Again, we are fortunate that Erin Wall took part in a Chandos studio recording of this performance, highly commended when it was released last month. You can hear an excerpt in the second link below.
Peter Grimes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5TNF9Bp2E0
