Irish opera star’s delayed debut
Irish opera star Orla Boylan is looking forward to performing for the first time in Christchurch next week – some seven years later than she originally planned.
The 45-year-old soprano will play the eponymous role of Tosca during NZ Opera’s season of Giacomo Puccini’s near 130-yearold work at the Isaac Theatre Royal.
Speaking to Stuff on her arrival in Auckland for rehearsals last week, the effervescent Boylan says she was on the verge of signing on the dotted line for a show in the Garden City in 2011 when the devastating February earthquake struck. Then, when she joined the NZ Opera to play Floria Tosca for the first time in 2015, Christchurch was left off the schedule – something the company are now putting right with this special, fourperformance season.
Boylan says Tosca is a role that she was drawn back to because ‘‘she’s such a strong woman and very passionate’’. ‘‘She’s just somebody that I’m sympathetic to – let’s just say.’’
While Boylan says opera singers ‘‘never choose roles – roles are offered’’, she says she has enjoyed appearing on the world’s leading opera stages playing characters like Turandot and is excited about what’s to come in
2018.
However, when she was younger, Boylan seemed more destined for field work than stagecraft. A career in science beckoned before singing took over. When asked if she still retains an interest in the former, Boylan admits ‘‘my botany days are long gone’’, but she has definite plans to try out any ‘‘nice walks around Christchurch’’.
She’ll also be passing on tips to any budding local singers at a public masterclass during her stay.
Frank in her views, Boylan says she’s not a fan of the rise of opera in cinemas as she believes it destroys the illusion by showing behind-the-scenes (‘‘live opera is so much better because you can focus on a performer ‘on the precipice’ and giving it their all’’), and admits that one of the biggest changes in recent years has been the need for individual singers to take responsibility for their own self-promotion via social media and websites.
One recent move she has certainly welcomed though is the establishment of the Irish National Opera.
‘‘We hardly ever got the chance to perform at home and now it’s their job to get us regularly back there again. I think things are in fine fettle at the moment and I’m looking forward to singing my first Aida with them at the end of the year.
❚ The NZ Opera season of Tosca will be held at Christchurch’s Isaac Theatre Royal from March 8 to 16. Orla Boylan’s Public Voice MasterClass is scheduled for The Piano at 4pm on March 13.