SOPRANO CELINE BYRNE
She has performed for popes and presidents in some of the world’s most famous venues, but soprano Celine Byrne says having a child did more to advance her career than anything else
Ireland’s foremost soprano Celine Byrne sits in front of a lit-up mirror in a Bord Gáis Energy Theatre dressing room, with a hairdresser teasing her chestnut locks and a make-up artist perfecting her lipstick. ‘I’m fabulous,’ she says, mock-theatrically, because the Kildare-born opera singer enjoys sending herself up.
She is wearing a Zara dress bought in Russia, having flown in the night before from St Petersburg, where her face adorned a huge billboard advertising Tosca at the Mikhailovsky theatre. ‘I felt very important,’ she trills, tongue-in-cheek again.
Celine may move in lofty circles, having sung for popes and presidents, but she grew up in a typical, rural Irish household – footing turf, squabbling with four siblings and oblivious to classical music. Even now in her local pub in Caragh she is requested to ‘sing something normal’.
‘Then when you do sing Country Road or something normal they’re almost disappointed because they think, “I was expecting something with a bit more wow factor”.’
So now she wants to make opera more accessible to Irish people because many of us still think it’s only for an elite, boasting healthy collections of elbow-length gloves and tuxedos. How will she do that? ‘Through the medium of myself,’ she says, with more gesticulation and eyelash flutters. To this end, Celine is involved in three very different productions in this theatre over the coming months: her Christmas Gala on December 15, playing Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music from December 19 to January 6 and reprising her operatic role in Puccini’s Tosca in March.
‘So if people see me in concert and people see me in a musical they might think, “Oh, sure, look, we’ll go and see her in the opera. We know her, we know her work.” I want them to see that opera is just another art form.’
Isn’t there any snobbery towards musical theatre in the opera world? ‘To be honest as an artist I felt that some people had raised eyebrows at the fact that I’m doing The Sound of Music,’ she concedes. ‘But I love performing. The fact that opera is the field I’m most known for doesn’t mean I should be ostracised from other performance experiences. The Mother Abbess is usually played by someone who is classically trained,’ she argues. ‘And my favourite thing to do is give concerts because I love connecting with people in a more personal way. When I’m not playing a role more of my personality can come out.’
And there’s a lot of personality. Celine is straight-talking, no-nonsense and her only nod to diva-esque behaviour is refusing to give away her age. ‘I’m not telling you the ages of my children because then you’ll be able to do the maths,’ she adds. She married her childhood sweetheart, fitter fabricator Thomas Deans, who is now a stay-athome-dad, and they had their first son when Celine was just 19. Noel is now studying Business at Griffith College Dublin.
‘My firstborn changed my life. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. I knew I was good with people so I thought I might be good at nursing. Then I fell pregnant and decided, “I’m having a baby and he’s number one. But I also need to know what I want to do with my life.” When I think about my mom and my grandmother who stayed at home with the children... of course I wanted to be a mom but at the same time I wanted to do something with my life and follow my dream.’
So Celine took a year out while pregnant and enrolled in singing lessons. Now she has a Masters in Music from the Royal Irish Academy of Music where she was trained by the legendary Dr Veronica Dunne, who once said: ‘If singing was an Olympic sport they would be dope-testing Celine Byrne’. Her degree is from the Conservatory of Music and Drama in Dublin, where she was awarded the college Gold Medal for excellence. In 2007 she won the Maria Callas Grand Prix in Athens. But perhaps even more impressive than the accolades is the fact that she and Thomas expanded their family during this time.
‘I had two more babies when I was studying,’ she says, of Ciana and Cillian, now in Transition Year and sixth class respectively. Celine was at home and ‘the constant’ in their children’s lives while Thomas went out to work. Now their roles have reversed because her operatic contracts can take Celine abroad for months at a time.
‘I never left my babies, not for one day when they were smaller. Then when they went to school that’s when I took up more work. And now that they’re a bit older I can work a little bit more and
“IN MY LOCAL PUB I’M ALWAYS REQUESTED TO SING SOMETHING NORMAL!”
put more time into my work because I know that they’re at home with their dad. I can’t do what I do unless there’s a constant at home for the kids. I don’t feel that I’m not seeing my children taking their first step or their first this or that because I’ve done all that. I just have to worry now that I’m away for the first heartbreak. I’m not looking forward to that. That’s the one I’m dreading – argh!’ she cringes, recoiling in her seat. ‘We’ll see when it happens.’
Celine herself had a tough adolescence, suffering with undiagnosed depression for a decade until her mid-20s. ‘Now it doesn’t define me so I don’t want it to be the only topic of conversation. It’s something that happened in my life and I’ve developed the skills to help with that. Obviously, as well, I haven’t chosen the best profession if I have mental health issues. It was Gay Byrne who made me realise this,’ she says, of her time as a guest on his RTÉ show The Meaning of Life.
‘He said to me, “What’s difficult in your job?” And I said, “The difficulty is sometimes that you’re on stage and you’ve given 100%, you’re getting the applause from the audience and then you go back to your hotel and you’re on your own. And it’s very lonely because you’ve got that high and then it’s a bit of an anticlimax.” And I remember saying it in such a way that I thought the response was going to be sympathetic. And Gay Byrne turned around and said, “Well, that’s the job you chose!” And it was a kick in the a*** I suppose. I pondered on it afterwards.’
She still loves the job despite its ups, downs and uncertainties. ‘I’ve got contracts until 2020 so at least I know until 2020 I’ll be able to pay the mortgage. In 2021 I don’t know where I’ll be or what I’ll be doing but that’s the way it is.’
Whenever she finds herself feeling anxious, Celine prays. She believes God has a plan for us all. I remark that she is very open about her strong faith at a time when it isn’t trendy to be religious.
‘When you say you’re open about that, it’s not like something for me that’s a taboo subject. Why should you hide what you are or who you are? I wouldn’t. Life’s too short. You could be dead in the morning. You might as well just enjoy it and be who you are.’
She describes her faith as ‘a personal relationship you have with Christ, with God, with Jesus. And my religion has helped me a lot in my life. The same way mindfulness and meditation would help somebody else, or sports and going for runs and walks. For me it was prayer. That’s it. Each to their own. Happy days.’
Celine’s closest friends are from secondary school and the local musical society she performed with as a teenager. But her professional life involves
“IN THIS DAY AND AGE YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO BE A DIVA, PEOPLE DON’T TAKE THAT C**P”
schmoozing and her Instagram page has a picture of her at an event with Mumpreneur and jeans designer Pippa O’Connor. ‘I used to teach her singing lessons,’ she reveals. There’s another snap of her with Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger. ‘She’s lovely, she’s a great singer, a great performer. She is exactly the same on and off stage. I met her a couple of times. But then I sang with her here in the 3Arena when I did a concert with her and Andrea Bocelli.’
Of the blind, Italian tenor she says: ‘He’s grand. We work together and that’s it. There’s no cups of tea or cakes or chats.’
Is there ever? ‘No. Because I met Obama of course as well and everyone was going, “What’s he like?”’ she says her College Green concert performance before the then American president’s historic Is Féidir Linn speech in May 2011.
‘Well, first of all he’s gorgeous but that’s all I can say because, as I say, you meet these people but you don’t have long conversations with them. Like, the longest conversation I’ve ever had with anybody would be Jose Carreras but that’s because it was a conversation over eight years,’ she quips, having toured extensively with the Spanish tenor. ‘So we got to know each other really, really well.’
Celine has sung on some of the world’s most prestigious stages, including the Royal Albert Hall in London and Carnegie Hall in New York, but is dismissive of questions about what that must be like. ‘I live by the motto, “you’re only as good as your last performance”.’ Hasn’t she ever had the feeling, ‘I’ve arrived’? ‘I have had that moment but it wasn’t through my eyes but through my father’s eyes. I sang at the semi-final at the GAA and I knew I’d made it,’ she laughs. ‘I’ve done a few of them, I sang at Croke Park a few times. My father was like, “I saw you! You were great!”’
Mariah Carey is said to sleep with 20 humidifiers in her bedroom to keep her voice in shape but Celine is more low maintenance. ‘The main thing for looking after my voice is to keep hydrated and get enough sleep.’
And unlike Beyonce with her stage alter ego Sasha Fierce, Celine does not seem to have very different public and private personas. ‘I’ll go
shopping in the supermarket and the kids will want something they shouldn’t have like sugary drinks and they’ll say, “Ah, come on” and I’ll say, “I said NO!” My husband will tap me on the shoulder and say, “I hope someone from your concert doesn’t see you shouting at your kids telling them to put back the coke.”’
For the country’s most feted soprano, jetting around the world to perform alongside household names, family life is a great leveller.
‘I don’t have any preconceived notions about myself. I’m aware of the fact that I have a level of success that means I have great job opportunities both at home and abroad. But I’m also aware of the fact that when I come home from staying in my nice hotel or my nice apartment I still have to clean the toilets the next day and take out the ashes. I do have to slip into the role of Mom as well,’ she says, before musing: ‘I think in this day and age you can’t afford to be a diva anyway because there’s always somebody else that can sing just as good as you, maybe. People just don’t take that c**p and I don’t blame them.’