How To Be - Annalisa Kerrigan, Soprano

The Age

Wednesday November 23, 2005

PAUL EDWARDS

WHEN I was 18, I was told by an industry professional that I'd never be a singer. Thankfully, she was wrong.

It started when I was three. I thought the piano sounded fantastic and I begged my parents for lessons. Being the size of a peanut, the only person that they eventually found brave enough to take me on was a Catholic nun. Sister Clare obviously had a very strong belief in miracles, so she propped me up on two telephone books and taught me to play.

Since then I have never stopped playing and singing: it's my work and my hobby, my meditation, my exercise and my love. As an overly intense child, I tackled Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata when I was 12, and then started singing lessons because I was sick of playing scales. I thought singing was going to be easy - silly me!

In comparison to piano, I didn't take singing seriously - for a pint-sized musical freak, my teacher, Margaret Fielding, was perfect because she encouraged my love for the art form but not the neurotic stress that often comes with it. That came later.

In Australia it's not easy to follow your dream if you're a musician. I worked with horses throughout my teenage years and when I finally announced that I wanted to be an opera singer, the common, incredulous response was "why?" To understand this, one has to remember that these were the days before the Three Tenors. Opera singers were widely and wrongly regarded as overindulged creatures with raging egos and empty bank accounts.

For six years I worked as a receptionist, a check-out chick, a picker and packer, a bargirl and a kitchen hand while studying at the University of Melbourne and Victorian College of the Arts. It was a dizzy time. I often slept in the car between jobs just so that I would make it to lectures.

I studied French, German, Italian (although I have since sung in Russian, Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese as well), history and theory of music, and many technical aspects of the art form.

I wasn't interested in competitions because it went against my democratic philosophy that everyone should have the right to make music and not be criticised for it. I was often told I was too small. I have since discovered that two of the best coloratura sopranos in the world are my size (152 centimetres and weighing about 44 kg).

I received my first standing ovation for a performance at the National Art Gallery for the Australian Wheat Board in 1994 and since then have received them throughout the world, including Ireland, Britain, Italy, France and Mexico. I performed with the college and in the Melbourne International Festival's L'Enfant et les Sortileges, as well as many other productions around Melbourne.

In 1996, I finally finished tertiary studies and decided to go to Europe. I left for Florence, planning to stay for three months. Six years later I was still there and having an absolute whale of a time, singing, modelling and hanging around with the European arty set.

I studied extensive repertoire, from antique arias to specialist coloratura works. People don't realise that most opera singers begin their career in their 30s because it takes that long for the voice to mature and then for the brain to catch up with it. Due to the fact that I get bored terribly easily, I also studied other "soft" repertoire ranging from House of the Rising Sun and Patsy Kline to the Beatles.

I was asked back to Australia to perform with Orchestra Victoria, and Carols by Candlelight and a contract with ABC Classics for a commercial recording - Waiting on an Angel.

I like performing in and producing my own concerts internationally, and corporate and charity entertainment within Australia. I can do everything from venue choice, ticketing, marketing, insurance, choosing the right repertoire for the audience concerned, musical arrangements, contracts, musicians, instrument availability, budgets, sponsorship, rehearsal schedules, flight and road transport details for musicians and their instruments as well as learning my own repertoire to perform. It's not easy but it's worth it as this way I can be based on two continents.

What you really need in this industry is the following: a thick skin, an emotive personality, stubbornness, intelligence, an obsessive work ethic, a decent technique and a supportive family and friends. Oh, and a good voice! I love what I do and I'm glad I'm not doing anything else. -- PAUL EDWARDS

Annalisa Kerrigan's launch and signing of her debut album, Waiting on an Angel, pictured left, is at Eat Drink Bento, Hardware Lane, Melbourne, at 6.30pm on 28 November.

CV

Born: March 18, 1972.

Education: Firbank, Melbourne Girls Grammar, University of Melbourne, Victorian College of Arts, Rossini Festival Academy, Foreign University of Siena.

Jobs: 1985-1990 horse training apprentice; 1988 St Pauls Cathedral; 1990-1996 odd jobs while a student; 1994 Australian Wheat Board; 1995 ANZ Bank, International Trade and Investment Outlook Conference; 1996 Melbourne Festival; 1997-98 European and British Institutes Florence; 1999 Australian Embassy Paris, Mozarteum Salzburg; 2000 Montalcino Tuscany, Acapulco Mexico; 2001 Rossini Academy Pesaro; 2002 Carols by Candlelight; 2003 My Fair Lady tour, Sydney Opera House with Aled Jones, Carols by Candlelight; 2004 Tullynally Castle Ireland, Australia House London; 2005 debut CD Waiting on an Angel, Optus, Think Pink, Oriental Hotel Singapore.

Career low: Not recording with Richard Bonynge when invited.

Career high: A 15-minute ovation at Tullynally Castle.

Influences: Horse trainer Norm Fisher taught me how to learn, my dad taught me how to work, my mum how to laugh, and my boyfriend how to love. Dame Joan Sutherland, Natalie Dessay, my professor in Italy Antonio Moretti-Pananti.

© 2005 The Age

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