Skip to main content
Read page text
page 6
Front of House Young Artist of the Month ALYS ROBERTS Soprano We catch up with the young soprano ahead of Out of Her Mouth at the Spitalfields Festival Can you remember a specific moment when you knew you wanted to be a musician? What was your road into opera? I grew up singing Welsh folk songs, cerdd dant [vocal improvisation] and ‘unawdau’ [solos] at eisteddfodau, so music played a big part in my life, but a career as a musician just didn’t really ever occur to me. ‘Opera singer’ was never an option in the Careers for Wales drop-down list at school, and my only point of reference for a real life opera singer was Bryn Terfel (whose father sang in the same male voice choir as my late father). I was bribed into auditioning for the opera society in the freshers’ fair at university by the promise of a cupcake and everything after that has been a lucky accident. What about a singer’s life do you wish audiences knew? We are scared. In our current cultural climate, work opportunities for singers are rapidly reducing and a great number of us are being forced to leave the profession. The singers that audiences see on the stage make up a tiny cross section of the industry – we are the lucky ones. What can you tell us about the tour of Out of Her Mouth? Out of Her Mouth is a set of three biblical cantatas by Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, translated by Toria Banks for Hera, Mahogany Opera and the Dunedin Consort. Written by a woman, for women and about women, they are tiny operas in all but name, about love, marriage, tragedy and adultery. I’ll be singing alongside Carolyn Sampson and Anna Dennis, and working with director Mathilde López. As a neurodivergent performer, it’s wonderful to be involved in a project that has accessibility and diversity at its heart, for the performers and the audience members alike. What else is coming up for you? I’m currently working for Longborough Festival Opera as an emerging artist in their production of The Fairy Queen, as well as singing Yum Yum in The Mikado for Charles Court Opera. After that, fingers crossed. ON Out of Her Mouth will be at Spitalfields Music Festival on 9 July as part of a wider tour (23 June - 12 July, www.wearehera.co.uk/out-of-her-mouth) 6 July 2023 OperaNow www.operanow.co.uk
page 7
Gramophone, the authoritative classical music voice, has compiled a shortlist of ten ensembles which have made a particular impression on our critics over the past year, and we’re asking you, the music-loving public, to decide the winner. THE SHORTLIST BBC Philharmonic (UK) Berliner Philharmoniker (Germany) Chicago Symphony Orchestra (USA) Le Concert des Nations (Spain) Danish National Symphony Orchestra (Denmark) Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen (Germany) Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Finland) London Philharmonic Orchestra (UK) Orchestre de Paris (France) National Symphony Orchestra (USA) Listen to our selection of recent recordings from our shortlisted orchestras on Apple Music at gramophone.co.uk /awards and cast your vote by September 7

Page Text

View plaintext

Front of House Young Artist of the Month

ALYS ROBERTS Soprano We catch up with the young soprano ahead of Out of Her Mouth at the Spitalfields Festival

Can you remember a specific moment when you knew you wanted to be a musician? What was your road into opera? I grew up singing Welsh folk songs, cerdd dant [vocal improvisation] and ‘unawdau’ [solos] at eisteddfodau, so music played a big part in my life, but a career as a musician just didn’t really ever occur to me. ‘Opera singer’ was never an option in the Careers for Wales drop-down list at school, and my only point of reference for a real life opera singer was Bryn Terfel (whose father sang in the same male voice choir as my late father). I was bribed into auditioning for the opera society in the freshers’ fair at university by the promise of a cupcake and everything after that has been a lucky accident.

What about a singer’s life do you wish audiences knew? We are scared. In our current cultural climate, work opportunities for singers are rapidly reducing and a great number of us are being forced to leave the profession. The singers that audiences see on the stage make up a tiny cross section of the industry – we are the lucky ones.

What can you tell us about the tour of Out of Her Mouth? Out of Her Mouth is a set of three biblical cantatas by Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, translated by Toria Banks for Hera, Mahogany Opera and the Dunedin Consort. Written by a woman, for women and about women, they are tiny operas in all but name, about love, marriage, tragedy and adultery. I’ll be singing alongside Carolyn Sampson and Anna Dennis, and working with director Mathilde López. As a neurodivergent performer, it’s wonderful to be involved in a project that has accessibility and diversity at its heart, for the performers and the audience members alike.

What else is coming up for you? I’m currently working for Longborough Festival Opera as an emerging artist in their production of The Fairy Queen, as well as singing Yum Yum in The Mikado for Charles Court Opera. After that, fingers crossed. ON

Out of Her Mouth will be at Spitalfields Music Festival on 9 July as part of a wider tour (23 June - 12 July, www.wearehera.co.uk/out-of-her-mouth)

6 July 2023 OperaNow www.operanow.co.uk

read next page

My Bookmarks

Buy this Book
Skip to main content