RISING STAR Great artists of tomorrow
‘I didn’t think I’d be a singer when I was little,’ says Soraya Mafi. ‘I was a dancer.’ And so she might have been until, as a teenager, she began to have issues with her back. ‘I couldn’t manage the intensity of the training anymore. But I started doing well with singing, and got a few solos at school.’
Mafi entered a local music festival in Lancashire, and was invited to compete for the Junior English Song Prize, which she won. The prize was a bursary to spend on singing lessons. ‘My mum got in touch with the Royal Northern College of Music junior department to see if they’d hear me sing. I never looked back.’
That said, during her undergraduate degree, she suffered a serious setback. ‘The doctors discovered that I had a cyst in my vocal folds. I had to have an operation to have it removed, and afterwards I completely lost my voice. I think I was scared of using it.’ Any thoughts of quitting? Not a bit of it. ‘I couldn’t give up. I knew I was always going to be on stage – it’s what makes me happy – so I didn’t allow myself to wallow or be negative.’
Mafi surrounded herself with ‘the right people’ who could help her return to singing, including a voice coach who specialised in vocal trauma. Now, returned to full vocal health, she views this period as a blessing in disguise. ‘I’m far more informed as a singer now than I would have been if I hadn’t had those problems.’
Since she moved to London, Mafi’s career has taken off. While still completing her opera course at the Royal College of Music she won a role in Grange Park Opera’s production of Poulenc’s Les Dialogues des Carmélites. ‘I was very busy! I’d be rushing from college assessments to professional rehearsals,’ she remembers, ‘but it gave me just the right amount of pressure at the right time.’ Now, she is preparing to play Mabel in Mike Leigh’s production of The Pirates of Penzance
‘I couldn’t give up, so I didn’t allow myself to wallow or be negative’
at English National Opera. ‘She is such a joyous character to play,’ says Mafi, ‘very sure of herself, grounded, and feisty. This is exactly the kind of role I want to be performing right now.’ Interview by Elinor Cooper; The Pirates of Penzance runs at English National Opera from 9 February to 25 March