The opera star who wouldn’t sing
It wasn’t until he was 28 that James Clayton kicked off the shackles of self-doubt and started his own vocal career. He shares his story with Dani McDonald.
Te Ko¯ kı¯ New Zealand School of Music voice lecturer James Clayton was too ashamed to sing in front of an audience growing up.
The Perth-born, now Wellington-residing opera star was teased and mocked whenever he practised, so he explored his musical prowess with the french horn for 20 years while mocking the opera singers and their exaggerated performances.
‘‘I always thought it was just so over the top, so melodramatic and it wasn’t until I started performing it and had to actually learn the roles and study it, I saw what composers had actually done and how they had matched up the music with the text that I started to really go, ‘wow, this is like a whole other level of music’, so you wouldn’t expect the average Joe Blow to get that,’’ he says.
It wasn’t until he was 28 that Clayton kicked off the shackles of self-doubt and macho expectations and started his own singing career.
Clayton is now taking on one of opera’s iconic roles, that of Carmen’s Escamillo. Presented by the New Zealand Opera and directed by Lindy Hume, the opera will debut at Wellington’s St James Theatre on June 1. The production opens in Christchurch on July 13.
Carmen, a southern Spanish love story written by French composer Georges Bizet, follows the love triangle between Don Jose, a naive soldier who is seduced by the wiles of the fiery gypsy Carmen and Escamillo - a prestigious bull fighter - who too is seeking the attention of Carmen.
It’s the third production of Carmen that Clayton has appeared in, for a total of 42 performances, but it’s the first time he will perform it in New Zealand.
Out of the nine principal roles in the cast for Carmen, Clayton is the only New Zealand-based singer whose voice is a perfect fit for the toreador.
‘‘It all goes round how your voice sits,’’ he explains. ‘‘My voice being a dramatic bass baritone is exactly where Escamillo lies vocally he has a lot of top notes but he also needs weight down the bottom. I’ve got a very long range and stage presence, because I’m tall.’’
Clayton will be playing opposite Georgian Nino Surguladze, as Carmen, and American Tom Randle as Don Jose.
Clayton first came to the capital five years ago for the opera Rigoletto, also directed by Hume, and discovered love at first sight.
‘‘I remember when we landed in Wellington for the first time... I was walking up the street and went to Mojos [cafe] and I was sitting there looking at the Beehive and the hills and I remember I just felt home.
‘‘I actually love the weather, believe it or not, I love the culture, I love the people, I love the geography. That’s probably enough. I just love the vibe of the place.’’
A master and teacher of singing, with a voice that penetrates every nook and cranny of the room, Clayton says the New Zealand singing culture is far more integrated into society than what it is across the ditch.
‘‘I feel like it’s the Polynesian influence,’’ he said.
‘‘There is such a thing in Australia, a stigma about singing being effeminate or gay. I didn’t sing for eight or nine years because I was teased. If people overheard me they’d make impressions of me.
‘‘I walk along the street here and there will be some Fijian guy singing at the top of his lungs with his headphones in and it just puts a smile on my face. I think that’s just fantastic. There’s not even a question of whether that’s accepted or not, he doesn’t even think about that, he just does it because its in his heart to do it.
‘‘It’s so different with Australia, here it’s synonymous with the sport - you’ve got rugby and singing, whereas in Australia it’s separated.’’
Opera has a great demand for male singers. Carmen, for example, is a male dominated cast.
‘‘There’s 35 vocal students at (Te Ko¯ kı¯ New Zealand School of Music) with just six guys,’’ Clayton says.
‘‘There are so many girls that want to learn how to sing – and when you get to the actual level of what we need, it’s the other way round.’’
Five questions for an opera singer: What is your dream opera to perform in?
That’s really hard because I’ve done a lot of them. I’ve done Falstaff, I’ve done Rigoletto. I’m very lucky the way I grew up in the company - I was offered things that weren’t too big but a bit of a stretch for me and I took that and rose to the challenge very early on. A lot of the ones I’ve done have been ticked off the list so what’s left for me now is Richard Wagna’s Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg - I haven’t even begun to study those roles.
What theatre do you hope to one day perform in?
I’d love to sing in Teatro La Scala, in Italy, just because it’s so famous, and just to sing in possibly the most famous opera house in Italy which is the birthplace of opera, just to go and sing where the art form was created would be fantastic.
What is your most embarrassing moment on stage?
During a show of Magic Flute in Perth there was a point in the end when Papageno and Papagena, two kindred spirits that don’t see each other until the end, finally meet each other and its a very baseprimal moment where they say, ‘let’s go now to the other room’. We undress each other, and I had these cotton period boxer shorts on, and in one of the rehearsals when I dropped my pants, the boxer shorts went down - lucky I had Bonds underwear on underneath. So the next time, during the show, I pinned the boxers to the undies, and the whole lot came down. That was most embarrassing.
What is your most favourite song to sing?
It’s hard not to say The Toreador Song - it fits my voice perfectly. If you’re singing correctly you should feel refreshed afterwards. You see a lightbulb moment with students when they are singing. You see the moment where they have that freedom, suddenly they’re inspired and they get back to day one of why they wanted to be a singer, and it’s important to keep dragging that out of them because they get bogged down with this assessment is due, that assessment is due.
Favourite shower song?
I love Adele and Robbie WIlliams. My wife and I snuck to the Basin Reserve (to watch WIlliams), we didn’t get tickets, we drove and parked and walked around the Basin and climbed the trees, and got busted by security. Bohemian Rhapsody is also my party trick. I sing the whole the thing right up to the top note at the end... because I can.
Carmen St James Theatre, Wellington – June 1-10, Book at Ticketek; ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre, Auckland – June 22 - 1 July 1, Book at Ticketmaster; Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch, Christchurch – July 13-22, Book at Ticketek.