A Singer’s Life Pt20
Over the course of a long career, I have worked in many theatres and opera houses, ranging from the small and almost intimate to the great cathedrals of international opera. I am often asked which my favourite theatre is, and I usually give an equivocal answer, often depending on where I am and who is asking. I don’t propose ever to answer the question (another similar is “what’s your favourite opera?” A subject for another day!) but I thought it might be interesting to write about some of the magical places, in which I have sung.
I shall start with my homeland – Scotland. I am frequently asked, when abroad, how often I sing with Edinburgh Opera, the assumption being that our capital city must have an opera company of its own. It is with some shame and sorrow that I have to explain that there is no Edinburgh Opera, and that opera in Edinburgh is reliant on visits from Scottish Opera, some travelling companies and the Edinburgh Festival. For much of the year, there is no live opera here in Edinburgh, and although we have a very good theatre in the Festival Theatre and two other options in the King’s and the Playhouse Theatres, there is very little activity for a local artist. My own experience is also sadly lacking, as, after I finished my contract with Scottish Opera in 1985 (see previous articles), I have never sung an opera in Edinburgh, except a visit to the Festival Theatre as Polyphemus in Midsummer Opera’s “Acis and Galatea”. With Scottish Opera over 35 years ago, I sang in both the King’s (which is a wonderful Edwardian treasure, now much faded, but which is due to be restored if money can be found) and the Playhouse (originally built in 1929 as a super-cinema and converted into a theatre, seating 3,059). I have several memories of the Playhouse, the most exciting being when I was singing Nourabad, the High Priest, in Bizet’s “The Pearl Fishers” in front of the largest seated audience in British theatrical history. Every seat was taken. I don’t know if that record is still intact, but it was quite special at the time!
The Theatre Royal in Glasgow, opened in 1867, became Scottish Opera’s official residence in 1975, and was my home for 3 happy years. It is a lovely theatre, albeit with quite a dry acoustic, and it was always a pleasure to sing there. Being part of a real living and breathing Scottish company, full of Scottish singers, players and staff was a marvellous experience for me, and under the guidance of Sir Alexander Gibson, and the wise management of John Cox and Sarah Playfair, it was a great period. I have been invited back recently, after half a lifetime, but have been unable to sing due to illness and a pandemic but hope one day to return. It was certainly not my decision to be absent for so long!
We used to tour to His Majesty’s Theatre in Aberdeen (another Edwardian jewel), and over the border to Newcastle and Liverpool. I have sung many times with Opera North, based at the Grand Theatre in Leeds (a beautiful place, opened in 1878 as a multi-purpose arts centre and converted into an opera house and hub of Opera North - initially itself a northern offshoot of English National Opera - in 1978), and have enjoyed my time there immensely. It still feels like a local repertory theatre despite the international stars it employs, and one is made to feel very at home. They also travel to Newcastle (the gorgeous 1837 Theatre Royal (rebuilt after a fire in 1901), located on the elegant Grey Street), and their tour takes in the Theatre Royal, Nottingham (1865) and the Lowry in Salford, Greater Manchester, which opened in 2000, a controversial venue?
Cardiff is the home of Welsh Opera, where I have never appeared and so our tour of the British theatres moves to London, where I have been lucky enough to appear frequently at both the London Coliseum (home of ENO) and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, home of the Royal Opera and the Royal Ballet. I made my debut at the Coliseum in 1987, singing Monterone in Jonathan Miller’s iconic “Rigoletto” by Verdi. This was one of the most famous recent productions of any opera (sung in English, as mentioned previously) and was premiered in 1982, with John Rawnsley in the title role. Miller set the opera, not in mediaeval Italy, but in 1950s New York, in the grip of the Mafia, and it works wonderfully. The work’s most famous aria (‘La donna e mobile’ – women are fickle!?) starts with the tenor putting a nickel in the jukebox!
The Coliseum is right in the heart of London’s theatreland on St Martin’s Lane and opened in 1904 as a Variety Hall. Designed for big crowds, it seats 2369, but has a great acoustic, and looks fabulous. With its great globe standing proud above the roof, it can be seen for miles, and I can’t describe my thrill at walking there one evening in November 1987, seeing that marvellous globe, and thinking, boy, I’m here, in the West End of London! I sang many times at the Coliseum and enjoyed some success. There were multiple performances of ‘Rigoletto’ and lots of Commendatores in ‘Don Giovanni’. I sang a Deputy, and the Grand Inquisitor, in ‘Don Carlos’, and a Master and Pogner in ‘The Mastersingers’. It is a great theatre, although, due to its position, accommodation backstage is sadly cramped, and facilities lacking. I believe it’s better now, but the drawback of being in the centre of London, between two streets, means that options for expansion are very limited.
That was not the case at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, as between 1997 and 1999, a £213 million restoration took place. The original 1858 facade, foyer and auditorium are all that remains (frankly the most important bits, especially the auditorium) and the rest was modernised into the best opera house in the world (in my opinion). The theatre seats 2256 in a space which is both gorgeous to look at and also to sing in. The sight lines are very good, and the facilities for refreshment and relaxing for the audience second to none. One leaves the auditorium and immediately you are in the magnificent Floral Hall with its high ceiling, bar, upper bar served by escalators and lifts and cloakrooms. It is indeed a theatre fit for a king or a queen, although our present long serving Majesty has little interest in opera and has not been seen for many years. The Royal Box on the far right as you look at the stage is actually a terrible place to view an opera, but dates from a time when it was more important to be seen than to see. I have occasionally sat in the box myself and can vouch for the fact that you see very little of the stage, especially stage left. I mentioned in an earlier article how my wife and I used to sit/stand in the Upper Slips to the right and left under the ceiling when we were students, at a low price, You could see very little but you heard everything. The Royal Box is remarkably similar in sight lines and acoustic, but it’s not where you would want to be to enjoy the spectacle. For example, The Royal Box at La Scala, Milan, is right in the centre of what would be the Grand Circle, with the best sound and the best view! Mind you, the old Italian royals were perhaps more interested in Opera!
The backstage facilities at Covent Garden are magnificent. There are splendid, large, comfortable dressing rooms, equipped with a piano in each soloist’s room, with a view out over Covent Garden Piazza. There is a superb artists’ restaurant on the top floor with views over London, and an outside patio where you can relax on a nice day. There are extensive workshops, costume and make-up departments, rehearsal rooms, a chorus room and of course, on a separate level but accessed from the main building, the whole facilities for the Royal Ballet. It is quite funny occasionally when one strays from the singers’ floors, or one is in the queue at the downstairs coffee bar or in the restaurant, as these tiny women and short but muscular men mix with the opera singers, as well as the normal sized management and other staff!
Behind the stage, there is space for two full operatic sets to be stored and moved about, reached easily from the dressing rooms by lifts which are fast and frequent. It is quite wonderful to work there, and I consider myself very fortunate to have had many contracts there both as major understudy or singing roles on stage.
It is also fabulous to sing in the auditorium because, large though it is and filled with comfortable seats and well-carpeted, the acoustic is perfect. I believe it has been enhanced to a certain degree since the refurbishment, but you never have to strain or bellow (although some singers do!).
An interesting coda to this story is that during the restoration work in the late 90s, the seats in the auditorium were replaced, and the redundant but still rather splendid chairs went a-begging. An eccentric millionaire in the Cotswolds, Martin Graham, bought some of them and put them in his converted chicken barn. He built a faux Palladian facade, and added various facilities, and so was born Longborough Festival Opera. Martin had discovered opera, and Wagner in particular, in his teens in rural Gloucestershire and had nurtured a crazy plan to build a new Bayreuth there. Although not exactly Wagner’s holy shrine, Longborough has developed into a major summer festival. I was there at the beginning, as Wotan in the cut down version of the Ring by Jonathan Dove which I had premiered 10 years earlier with CBTO. It was a runaway success and we added a couple of operas a year until we were able to perform the whole Ringlet as an entity. Martin kept improving the facilities (except backstage?) and eventually expanded the orchestra pit to fit in a complete Wagner orchestra. I had moved on by then, as my voice isn’t high and robust enough to sing the full Ring Wotan, but I shall always be grateful to the Grahams and the Privetts (director and Brunhilde) for giving me the unbelievable opportunity to sing the greatest of roles and, of course, the part my mentor Hans Hotter had made his own. I am only sorry that Hans didn’t hear me, but I received great reviews (all the nationals came to Longborough – Martin was most persuasive) and I treasure one in a prestigious German opera magazine which described me as “ein fabelhafter Wotan” (that’s “fabulous” in English!).
I must complete this round up of British opera theatres, with a nod to two superb summer venues that keep opera going in the months when the great houses are on holiday.
Firstly, there is Garsington Opera, which was founded in 1989 by Leonard Ingrams at Garsington Manor near Oxford. Following Leonard’s untimely death, the opera moved to the Wormsley Estate in the Chilterns, the home of the Getty family. A purpose-built theatre dominates the estate near the family manor and a delightful lake, and not far from the full county sized cricket ground. Less than an hour from London, but as rural as could be imagined, it has developed into a major summer venue with top singers, directors, and conductors. I sang Arkel in Debussy’s ‘Pelléas et Mélisande’ there in 2017, with the Phiharmonia Orchestra conducted by Jac van Steen and directed by Sir Michael Boyd. It was a fantastic experience in a gorgeous place.
The most famous of all British summer opera houses is Glyndebourne. Located not far from Lewes in Sussex, it was founded in 1934 by John Christie and opened with Mozart’s ‘Marriage of Figaro’. The original theatre was a little gem perfectly suited to Mozart with a capacity of 300 and gradually expanded over the years to hold 850. I never sang in the old house but spent a jolly summer there early in my career as an understudy for the role of La Roche in Strauss’ ‘Capriccio’, which later became one of my signature roles, singing it in Germany, Canada, and covering it at the New York Met. In 1994, a completely new theatre opened at Glyndebourne, replacing the old one and seating 1200. It is a splendid building with a lovely acoustic and the whole complex of rehearsal rooms, dressing rooms, restaurants, bars, picnic areas, lawns and lake are near perfection. The high standard of performance has been maintained since the earliest days, and, still owned by the Christie family (Gus is the present incumbent), the Festival thrives. I sang there in the autumn of 2018 in Brett Dean’s marvellous opera “Hamlet” when the summer production played in the theatre and went on tour to various provincial cities in England.
Future articles will reveal great foreign theatres I have worked in but next - WINE!
