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Lesley Garrett's 20 Operas to See Before You Die is a season of operas, running every Monday night on Sky Arts at 8pm from February to June, featuring a selection of the most significant and seminal operas. Introduced and contextualised by Lesley Garrett, they include both classic and contemporary performances of everything from Mozart to Wagner.
Sky Arts have provided Sky Learning with some insights into the world of Lesley Garrett so read on and be inspired by the world of Opera………..
What are your tips for an opera newcomer who is about to sit down and watch the opera season for the first time?
"First of all, what you have to do is remove any preconceptions you may have absorbed throughout the years about opera.
What you should be hoping to experience is a very powerful drama supported by music; look to experience a multimedia extravaganza.
The reason why opera is so contemporary is because we are living in an audio-visual world and it’s the original audio-visual art form.
You don’t just get a fabulous score, wonderful orchestra playing and wonderful singing; it is also a visual feast.
People like Chagall and Hockney have designed operas in the past. When the curtain goes up and before anyone has sung a note you might get to see a wonderful work of art.
It’s a layered experience: first you may hear an overture, a wonderful orchestral experience, and then the singing and acting will start. It builds up, it’s like an onion, it has so many layers.
It’s an extraordinary multi-faceted art form the like of which you will never experience again."
What’s your favourite opera?
"Gosh! There are so many. I think my favourite is La Bohème, that’s the perfect opera. It’s got the most wonderful melodies, it’s a fantastic book, the drama is just... amazing.
It has interesting historical context for an opera. I like that in an opera. TB was the AIDS of its time; Puccini was incredibly modern, writing about a modern scourge, he was great like that.
He was the first person to write an opera about cowboys. When he was writing that opera we forget that at that moment the west was being won, it would be like writing one about Afghanistan now.
A bit like Nixon in China, which is another opera which I wish was on the list. Puccini was a very contemporary writer. It may seem quite historical to us now but if you imagine what it was like at the time it was very, very edgy.
He managed to be edgy and tear your sole from your body with the beauty of music. I think La Bohème is the opera every first-time opera-goer should see."
What is the most inspiring place you have ever performed in?
"No-one has ever asked me that question before… I think… Wembley Stadium was amazing, it blew me away. I helped close the Wembley Stadium. Such an emotional FA Cup Final.
I sang at the NSPCC’s The Final Ball held on the pitch that evening and I sang Abide With Me. Elton John and Jools Holland were there with me. Jools came on before and Elton after."
Who would be in your dream opera cast?
"It would be people from the past. I would have loved to have sung with Mirella Freni and Jussi Björling. Bryn Terfel is top of my list even though I have already sung with him.
You know it’s like singing… you are singing with a god when you sing with Bryn. It’s an extraordinary experience. Tatiana Troyanos would have been a wonderful mezzo to have sung with.
I also like singing with people I respect enormously who aren’t opera singers. I have sung with Annie Lennox. I did a concert with her, she fits the bill."
Do you have to have a special voice to sing opera?
"You have to have a classically trained voice. It takes seven to eight years to learn to sing opera and you continue to train for the rest of your life. I have lessons every week. It’s a source of some worry that a lot of singers are fast-tracked these days. Certain singers who sing opera to popularise it haven’t had sufficient training. They are going to ruin there voices and need to realise it’s a life’s work.
That’s what makes opera singers and operas so extraordinary. If you were to hear an opera singer first hand you would literally be blown away. I spent seven to eight years learning to project my voice un-amplified to the back of a 2,000-seat theatre. If you come and see opera at the ENO or Covent Garden they are large venues and we sing without microphones. That takes a lot of training.
It’s very athletic. It’s like training to run a marathon, opera is the biggest race – the longest and the biggest and that’s why I was drawn to it. That’s why I’m not a pop singer or a musical singer, although I have done all of those things. Opera is the most extreme sport in the sport of singing. Opera is the sport where you jump out of a helicopter with a snowboard fastened to your feet and you are expected to land at the top of the mountain and get to the bottom still standing. That’s what opera is."
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Want to hear more? Click here to hear excerpts of all the operas, courtesy Sky Arts Music