2007 Profiles

 Jeremy Peaker | Claire Pascoe

Claire Pascoe Mezzo-soprano

Claire Pascoe studied with Julie Kennard and Clara Taylor at the Royal Academy of Music and joined Opera North straight from music college in 1996. She is now in her 11th year with the Company. "I auditioned in my final year and was lucky enough to be offered a permanent contract. I moved up to Leeds and haven't looked back"

Claire, who hails from Hartlepool in the North East, started to sing on stage when she was 12, taking part in school productions. With a love of music it was perhaps inevitable that Claire would perform in front of an audience. However, treading the boards revealed another side of Claire. "I loved music, played clarinet, piano, flute and saxophone, and so singing in the choir and being in the Gilbert and Sullivan light operas and musicals we did at school was just part of my musical life. Once I got on stage I realised I loved the acting side of things as well."

Surprisingly, given this early taste of performance, Claire didn’t plan to sing professionally, preferring to concentrate on academic success. However, her passion for music was not to be supressed for long. "I went to Durham University and read history, but while I was there I started to have singing lessons, and took part in lots of light opera, musicals and plays. I decided to audition for music college, amongst other things, was accepted and here I am!"

Claire counts The Barber of Seville, Cenerentola, L'Heure Espagnole, Carmen, La Boheme, A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Cunning Little Vixen amongst her favourite operas and loves listening all kinds of music, including Cecilia Bartoli, Suzanne Mentzner, Regine Crespin, Nina Simone, Kirsty Macoll, Audra McDonald, Wynton Marsalis and Itzack Perlman.

Claire is currently being kept occupied by her young daughter. "She takes up a lot of my time at the moment. But I love to read , love having people over for a meal and cooking for them; really enjoy going to the theatre and the cinema."’

The variety of being a chorus member holds a lot of appeal for Claire. "We sing almost every style, wear all kinds of costumes, inhabit so many periods of history and play so many roles - and this could be in the space of one season. Fantastic. Each piece and each season has it's own challenges. We can be challenged vocally, musically, physically."

Touring with the Company sees Claire performing in a venue she used to attend as a young girl. "I love going to Newcastle. It's a wonderful city, but I am a little biased as it'sthe closest to my home town and I used to go to the Theatre Royal a lot as a child."

Claire Pascoe (right) in The Thieving Magpie.

Posted August 2007.

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Jeremy Peaker Bass

First singing with Opera North in 1988 and a full-time member of the Chorus since 1995, Jeremy is full of praise for his fellow choristers. ‘They are so versatile as a chorus, and can adapt and change to most styles really easily. I know they are well-respected by the directors who work with them and that’s what makes it worthwhile - to know you are part of a respected team.’

Originally from Shepley, near Huddersfield but moving to Barnsley when he was just 10, Jeremy considers the latter his hometown. His first foray into performance as a youngster – prompted by his piano teacher Gordon Pearce - was edged with both glory and sadness. Jeremy won the Rose Bowl Cup at Pontefract Music Festival for singing, captivating audience’s hearts to such an extent that he was asked to sing again in the festival’s evening final concert. Unbelievably, in the interim, his voice broke. ‘I couldn’t sing a note, I was so upset and didn’t sing again until I was 17.’

With Jeremy working for the National Coal Board as a Colliery Stores Manager, Gordon Pearce continued to encourage his young charge, resulting in three scholarships at the age of 24. Jeremy opted for the Guildhall School of Music in London which, at the time, appeared ‘a big wrench after eight years to leave a secure job’. In retrospect, of course, it proved to be the right move: ‘I’ve never regretted it or looked back. It was the best thing that happened to me.’

Jeremy loves the big Verdi operas: Aida, Rigoletto, Otello, Nabucco, Giovanna D'Arco which are ‘so full of passion'. ‘I also love Puccini for pure romantic genius. Rosenkavalier has the best ending to an opera ever written and I can listen to that for ever and Wagner for sheer power.’ However, he admits that his real passion lies in the lighter repertoire, operetta and the works of Gilbert and Sullivan. ‘I shall always be thankful that I was able to play the roles I love for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and at the Savoy so I can say I am a true Savoyard.’

Life beyond Opera North offers little in the way of rest and relaxation - the self-confessed Doctor Who fan and car-lover operates his own company, Much Loved Productions Ltd, which performs one-night concerts up and down the country.

‘I much prefer comedy to serious opera. The comic operas are so much fun,’ says Jeremy. 'I've always liked making people laugh in comedy roles. I love all the old comedy greats such as Morecombe and Wise and Tommy Cooper to the great sitcoms of the 70's. There's always fun on stage, even with opera. My friend Anthony Baines Davis, who sadly died last year, probably provided most of them. Tony was always a joker and a fantastic impressionist. “Never let him have the beret” was a note on wardrobe files or Frank Spencer would be in the production. Anthony always sang the line Billy’s A Stammer in Billy Budd with his hand to his mouth and in the voice of Zippy from Rainbow.’

Many of Jeremy's best anecdotes are sadly unrepeatable. Yet there's always time for one more: ‘Peter Field who played Parpinol on roller skates in La boheme hit a nail while skating towards the wings once and made a rather undignified exit.’

Read the full Q&A with Jeremy Peaker.

Jeremy Peaker in The Marriage of Figaro.

Posted 2nd July 2007

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2006 Profiles

Gordon Shaw | Hazel Croft | Garrick Forbes | Nicola Unwin | Miranda Bevin | Susan Lees | Stephen Briggs

Gordon D. Shaw Bass

Gordon Shaw was born in Glasgow and never sang seriously until he was doing music for the Scottish version of GCSEs. 'I started out doing piano and recorder, but my teacher said, "Why don't you try singing instead of piano?" I said, "No way. There is no way I'm singing in public!" But the first time I sang solo in a concert, I thought: "Right. This is it !" That was when I knew I wanted to be a singer. Until then, I'd wanted to go into hotel/catering management. But when I discovered performance, I knew that was it for me.'

Gordon started his music studies at Napier University, but two family tragedies in his first months as a student led to him deciding to take a year out after his first year. During his time out, he worked at Oddbins ('I learned a lot about wine!') and auditioned for the Royal Northern College of Music, where he was accepted. He moved to the RNCM and stayed for a Bachelor of Arts degree and two years of postgraduate study, funded by the Peter Moores Foundation. He also sang in the Glyndebourne Festival Chorus both summers of his postgrad years. In the summer of 2003, after his second year as a postgrad, he auditioned for the Chorus of Opera North and won the place. 'I'm very aware of how lucky I am never to have been without work.'

'This spring when we were performing Arms and the Cow, in the last scene of Act One, there was a big chorus line. I was centre stage, doing my moves, and I thought, "This is what it's all about!" Even the sweat, the toil, if the costume's too tight or the hat's slipping – it's all part of the magic of live theatre. I really am a stage animal.' He's also taken solo roles in Opera North productions, playing the Innkeeper in Manon Lescaut and Second Soldier in Salome . He helps keep up his enthusiasm for singing and performance by working as a drag queen and judging karaoke three nights a week in Manchester. 'I love it. It reminds you just how special it is to sing for a living, and what it's about to have a real passion for something – not just to treat singing as a job.'

Shaw in La vida breve (centre).

Posted 25th September 2006

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Hazel Croft Mezzo-Soprano

When Hazel Croft was three years old, her parents took her to see The Sound of Music at the cinema. On the bus ride home, she sang every song word-for-word, and her father says now, 'We always knew, from that moment, that Hazel was destined to be a singer.' Hazel wasn't so sure, though. She sang in St. John's Church Choir in Roundhay, Leeds, but she didn't start taking lessons until she was eighteen years old. Her singing teacher encouraged her to sing in music festivals, and Hazel won several awards, including the Samuel Firth award at the Mrs Sunderland Music Festival Huddersfield. When she won the Firth award, she was offered a place at the Guildhall, but she turned it down. 'I enjoyed singing so much as an escape from real life - I was unsure how it would feel as a full-time job.' She took a job as a Human Resources Manager instead.

'It's funny how life has a way of sorting itself out,' Hazel says now. She continued to take singing lessons, married and had children, quitting the festival circuit but singing for fun in the West Riding Opera. After her first singing teacher died, Hazel started lessons with Llyndall Trotman, a member of the Chorus of Opera North. In 2000, shortly after their lessons began, a mezzo-soprano from the Chorus of Opera North left for a sabbatical year, and Llyndall suggested that Hazel audition for the job of sabbatical cover. She won the audition and was faced with a huge decision. 'It was a massive change. My whole family - my parents, my husband and I - had to all sit down together, like a board meeting, and think: Can we make this work?' Luckily, with the help of 'very supportive parents and my long-suffering, wonderful husband', it all worked out perfectly. She first took the sabbatical cover and then took a full-time job with the Chorus in August 2002.

'There isn't a day that goes by when I don't think how lucky I am to be here. I didn't go the formal route, but I got here in the end.' As well as singing in the chorus, Hazel has sung several roles onstage with Opera North, including Suzy in La rondine and La frugola in Il tabarro, and she will sing the role of Countess Ceprano this autumn in Rigoletto 'It is such a joy to come to work with such a wonderful group of people.'

Croft in La rondine and Il tabarro .

Posted 25th September 2006.

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Garrick Forbes Bass

Garrick Forbes is familiar to Opera North audiences not only for the numerous roles he has played onstage, such as Ghost of Samuel in Saul and Cappadocian in Salome, but also for his popular pre-opera talks. 'I think opera should be made accessible to everybody. I want to invite people in to enjoy what I enjoy. Opera gives a different perspective to life. I'd like to challenge people who only like traditional productions to see modern productions as well. They often breathe new life into what might otherwise become museum pieces - and opera has to live.'

Only a few weeks after leaving the Royal Northern College of Music in 1974, Garrick auditioned for Scottish Opera and was offered the job there and then, to start three days later. He stayed for five years. 'I had a wonderful time - I enjoyed every minute of it.' He first sang with the Chorus of Opera North in 1979 as an extra in The Flying Dutchman. He worked regularly with Opera North for the next several years but also worked as a television extra, doing a Guinness advert in the early 1980s, and singing at several festivals, including Wexford, Garsington and Buxton. In 1985, he was offered a contract in the West End to become one of the original cast members of Chess. 'That was a wonderful experience. Working in musicals is slightly different to working in opera - the temperament is different - and I had the privilege of working with immensely talented people in the field.'

After two years, he left to join the re-formed D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, but returned to the West End eighteen months later in Opera North/RSC's national tour of Showboat. Afterwards, a contract with Pavilion Opera took him around the world to Japan, South Africa, Jordan, Germany and France. 'Of course, I've washed dishes as well. Whenever I'm feeling despondent, I pull myself up and say, well, you could be washing dishes! Now I consider myself extremely fortunate to be holding down one of about 40 - 50 chorus jobs for my voice in the country.' He has been a full-time member of the Chorus of Opera North for eight years. 'I think it's the best job since sliced bread, and I'm very lucky to be in the profession.'

Forbes in La traviata.

Posted 24th August 2006.

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Nicola Unwin Mezzo-Soprano

Nicola Unwin grew up in Reading and has been singing 'as far back as I can remember.' She sang in Christmas plays in primary school, and started lessons at eleven years old. 'I knew from an early age, really, that it was very serious. Music just took over my life. From having started, I've never wanted to stop!'

She trained at the RNCM for five years of undergraduate and postgraduate work, then took a year to work freelance. During her freelance year, she taught singing in secondary schools, sang in the Garsington Opera Chorus and covered various principal roles there. She first started work with the Chorus of Opera North by joining in as an extra chorus member on Faust, then covered a sabbatical year, and finally continued straight on as a full member. She's been a Chorus member for three years now, covering principal roles and taking on roles of her own such as Gabrielle in La rondine 2006. Her favourite challenge so far came in Opera North's tour to Ravenna, when she was called upon at the last moment for Julietta. 'I had to cover two people at the same time on forty-five minutes' rehearsal. It was such a buzz. I loved it!'

Unwin as Gabrielle in La rondine (on left, in both pictures).

Posted 19th June 2006.

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Miranda Bevin Soprano

Miranda Bevin grew up in Lancashire and still lives there, commuting an hour and a half across the Pennines every day. 'It's a nice transition, really. It helps me shift between Miranda-the-opera singer and Miranda-the-mum.' On her drives back and forth, she listens to a wide range of music, from Ella Fitzgerald and Sammy Davis, Jr., to Meatloaf and Queen. It's an eclectic mix that matches her attitude towards music: a wonderful hobby that has now become her job.

She always loved singing, but never imagined doing it as a career until she decided to do music performance for A-levels - 'as light relief from the other subjects'. She studied piano and singing with Leah Marian Jones, from the RNCM, who convinced her to take music seriously as a career. With Jones's encouragement, Miranda auditioned for all the major music schools. By the time she took her A-levels, she had already been accepted at both the Guildhall and the RNCM. In 1997, within a year of leaving the RNCM, she was accepted as an extra chorister at Opera North, and she went full-time in 1999. She's played numerous roles within Opera North productions, including Yvette in La rondine and Chief Hen/Jay The Cunning Little Vixen. She's also covered several major roles, and when she covered the role of Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute - always her favourite role in the opera repertoire - she actually sang it in full performance for two nights. 'That felt like the pinnacle of my career so far.'

Bevin in The Cunning Little Vixen (far right).

Posted 17th May 2006.

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Susan Lees Soprano

Susan Lees planned to become a teacher when she first arrived at the Royal Academy of Music, but her teachers there convinced her to switch to a performance course. The change was a good one: she received the gold medal for overall musicality at the RAM and made her debut as a principal singer at Glyndebourne in 1972.

Susan was one of the youngest principal singers to debut at the Royal Opera House, in 1973, and she moved on to become a principal singer at English National Opera in 1974. As a principal at ENO, she sang a wide variety of roles, including Javotte in Manon and Second Boy in The Magic Flute. Problems with her eye-sight developed in her late twenties, though, and when Opera North was founded, in 1979, she decided to change career paths and take on a new career within the newly-created Opera North chorus.

'I've been very lucky to do both chorus and principal work,' Susan says. She loves the wall of sound that surrounds her when singing in the chorus-'there's a great excitement about being part of that sound'--and she's also taken on several principal roles within Opera North, including Flora in La traviata, Marcellina in The Marriage of Figaro and The Old Lady in Julietta. She's made lifelong friends in the Opera North chorus. 'It really does feel like one big family.'

As well as singing in Opera North's operas and concerts, Susan has had an extensive recital/oratorio career and has performed in radio and television work. She has her own agency, the Lees Artists Agency, and has run education workshops around the country as well as arranging concerts, operetta dinners and other musical events. She also maintains an intense schedule of teaching. Several of the child choristers in the 2005-6 production of Hansel and Gretel were her students, and in the last Opera North performance of The Magic Flute, two of the three boys were her students. 'It felt like coming full circle-my own first role at Glyndebourne and at ENO was as one of the three boys.'

Lees in La traviata (far left and far right).

Posted 18th April 2006.

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Stephen Briggs Tenor

Stephen Briggs was born in London but 'gradually moved Northwards'. At the age of eight, he became a chorister at King's College, Cambridge. It was an amazing but extremely intense five years, as the young choristers toured throughout most of the holiday seasons rather than spending the time at home with their families. 'To have thoroughly "done" Europe by the age of thirteen is quite an experience!'

While at choir school, he began to study oboe, and even by the time he applied to music colleges, he still hadn't decided whether to pursue a career in singing or oboe performance. 'Chance made the decision, really,' he says. Although he had already been accepted for joint studies in oboe and voice at both the Royal College of Music and the Academy of Music, he was determined to attend the Royal Northern College of Music. When he arrived for his audition at the RNCM, 'they were only prepared to hear voice auditions and not woodwinds!'

He first began to sing as an extra in the Chorus of Opera North in 1979, while still at college. He became a full-time member in 1980. The best parts of being in a professional opera chorus, for him, are 'the intense pleasure of being involved in a really good production of a fantastic piece' and the privilege of working with talented people. Dancing becomes more of a challenge as one gets older-but in One Touch of Venus, he found that Will Tuckett's choreography made even that aspect enjoyable.

When asked about his favourite places, Stephen says, 'I'm not a city person at all. My wife and I live in the countryside now, and our house is surrounded on three sides by fields and hills.' On top of his intense schedule of work, he is also a union representative for the Chorus. In his free time, he enjoys walking his dogs through the countryside around his house and cooking meals ranging from Indian to French cuisine.

As well as singing in the Chorus, he has sung numerous roles, including Abner in Saul, the Beadle in Sweeney Todd and Doctor Caius in Falstaff. On the lighter side, he enjoys listening to Barbara Streisand, and he continues to hope that the Orchestra and Chorus of Opera North will someday perform one of his favourite pieces, Shostakovich's Symphony No. 2.

Briggs in Saul and in Sweeney Todd.

Posted 9th January 2006.

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Vivienne Bailey Mezzo-Soprano

Vivienne Bailey has been singing as long as she can remember. 'At three years old, I was singing on the swings!' She started singing lessons at age seven with Pamela Cook and was a founder member of the Cantamus Girl's Choir in her native town of Mansfield before moving on to the Royal College of Music.

A founder member of the Chorus of Opera North, she loves the mixture of singing, acting and dancing that comes with life in a professional opera chorus. 'The greatest challenge, I think, is to explore new characters, building up your experience of portraying different types of people and keeping your voice in trim-like an athlete.' Showcasing a different kind of athleticism, her dancing skills have frequently been called upon by directors. In both Bizet's The Pearl Fishers and Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera, she never sang but remained on stage throughout the operas, portraying her character non-vocally as a dancer and an actress. She has also sung numerous parts, including the Shepherd in L'enfant et les sortilèges, Minerva in Orpheus, and both Second and Third Gentleman in Julietta, and she has covered roles including Suzuki in Madama Butterfly and Maddalena in Rigoletto.

When she isn't singing, she can often be found in flea markets and antique fairs, hunting for beautiful antiquated furniture and ceramics, which she then uses to decorate her home. 'I'm quite house-proud, really!' Her favourite tours with Opera North have been the foreign tours, which have given her an opportunity to explore different places. Working for Opera North 'isn't a nine-to-five job.There's always variation, and it never gets mundane!'

Her favourite operas are too numerous to list, but include La Bohème and Aïda; musical idols include Cecilia Bartoli, Bryn Terfel and Renée Fleming.

Bailey in L'enfant et les Sortileges (standing back row) and in The Threepenny Opera.

Posted 1st December 2005.

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