Dame Sarah Connolly: Celebrating Song

Dame Sarah Connolly: celebrating song

Since graduating from the Royal College of Music in the 1980s, mezzo-soprano Dame Sarah Connolly has gone on to perform at some of the most prestigious venues and events in the classical music world. Upbeat talks to the opera star about finding her voice and her latest release, Come to Me in My Dreams – a stunning song collection that pays homage to 120 years of British composers who either taught or studied at the RCM.

Dame Sarah Connolly

Christopher Pledger

You came to study at the RCM in the 1980s, but can you tell us a little about your early musical education growing up? Was this the career path you always had in mind?

I knew my destiny involved music making from around ten years old. I had passed Grade 5 piano with distinction and the die was cast. I was also composing a lot of piano pieces in the style of my favourite composers, Debussy and Mozart. I loved listening to pop too, especially soul, David Bowie and rhythm and blues. I’d worked out how to play them all on the piano -- to the delight of my friends!

At home, dad played opera on his record player all the time, anything from Mozart through to Britten. He proudly talked about the production of Tosca he saw at La Scala in the

1950s, and he loved Britten’s War Requiem. Mum preferred chamber music and the intimate artistry of Hermann Prey, Dame Janet Baker, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Daniel Barenboim’s piano recordings. By the time I went to the RCM I was familiar with many of these artists – it was a bit of a golden age!

You studied piano and singing at the RCM and ultimately decided to follow your voice, but do you still sit down at the keyboard?

I don’t practise the piano anymore but I accompany myself learning repertoire and try to play as much of the score as I can to get the feel of the piece. That’s a great advantage because I can sense the geography quickly. I can also transpose and read a figured bass, which has proved very useful in early music operas that haven’t been edited or transformed into official vocal scores. I had thought I’d become an accompanist, never a solo pianist, but Sir David Willcocks – my principal at the time – persuaded me to become a singer.

How did your career and your voice progress after graduating?

After graduating I joined lots of professional choirs and took part in live radio shows like Friday Night is Music Night as a soloist and chorister. It was a lot of fun, but my confidence as a singer wasn’t great. Even after leaving the BBC Singers aged 29, I was aware my technique needed taking in hand. I noted who the best singers were and who taught them. Most were taught by Gerald Martin Moore. He gave me what I needed, and he’s still my teacher. I was also working a lot with Philippe Herreweghe as one of his regular mezzo soloists. He helped me understand Bach from an

authentic 18th-century perspective. I eventually made my opera debut as Annina in Welsh National Opera’s Der Rosenkavalier at the age of 31, which is considered very late!

Come to Me in My Dreams is available now on Chandos Records

Looking back at your journey, what advice would you offer current RCM musicians aspiring to become professional singers?

When you’re ready to hit the professional world and auditions, imagine your talent is a business project. Be objective about what you need to fi ll your toolbox. If it’s a different kind of technique, fi nd the teacher who can help. Singers could take language coaching and try to get basic conversational skills in French, German and Italian. Build a profi le based on the music YOU love rather than what others tell you -- banish the words ‘ought to’ and replace them with ‘want to’. You will only make an impression if your heart and soul are free to interpret the music you want to perform.

You’ve performed in some of the most prestigious venues and events in the classical world, from Glyndebourne to the Proms, but where have you most enjoyed taking to the stage?

The Last Night of the Proms was an adrenaline blast the like of which I have never experienced. Wisely, I prepared very well for all four of the items I was performing, so at least I wouldn’t be too worried about word recall. I’ve also loved working with Sir David McVicar, wherever it has taken me, and performing at Wigmore Hall is always so special.

Over the years you’ve been the recipient of a number of accolades and honours, from a DbE to Royal Philharmonic Society Singer of the Year, but what would you say has been the most personally rewarding moment in your career so far?

It’s always when younger singers tell me that I have shown them, through recordings or live performance, that I sing the truth with the music. This gives them the courage to be truthful, and to open up the repertoire, whether Baroque or Mahlerian.

You will only make an impression if your heart and soul are free to interpret the music you want to perform.

Tell us a little about how your latest CD came about – why did you feel moved to recognise an RCM connection?

I might be biased, but to me it’s fairly obvious that the majority of famous British composers studied at the RCM. I spent a lot of time in the RCM Library as a student, soaking up the standard and unusual mezzo repertoire.

Sleep, dreaming and twilight appear to be dominant themes throughout the album. Do you find lullabies lend themselves to the English art song?

There’s a dark psychology to British poetry, largely because of two world wars. The composers responded to this and I believe this shaped the style of English song. Britten’s lullabies are all dark in meaning and many of the songs on this disc are openly expressing loss of some kind.

The album offers 29 carefully chosen songs across a 120-year time span. How did you select the pieces? Were there any that resonated with you in particular?

There were so many songs to choose from but I tried to stick to music that I liked and that suited me rather than what I ‘ought to’ include. See? That dreaded phrase! Some people tried to steer me towards cheerier choices but I decided to embrace the melancholy and then things fell into place. Ivor Gurney has always fascinated me, both as a person and a composer, so his songs take pride of place.

I was thrilled to discover Rebecca Clarke’s beautiful Cloths of Heaven and Muriel Herbert’s Lost Nightingale. I got to chat with Muriel Herbert’s daughter, the writer Claire Tomalin, because of this disc. Mark-Anthony Turnage’s gift of a song, Farewell, was written especially for the album, and it was the icing on the cake. As was discovering two Britten songs languishing unsung and unloved in the Britten-Pears Foundation Library!