Kate Royal is on the move. The soprano, who comes to
Cal Performances April 13 as part of her first U.S. recital tour, is getting a serious taste of life on the road. Our first attempt at a phone interview hits a glitch — due to a scheduling change. It turns out that she’s on a plane, instead of in New York, at the appointed time. The next morning, I catch up with her in Vermont; later that evening, she explains, she’s singing at Middlebury College.
“It’s a bit overwhelming,” says Royal, who will make stops in Montreal and Vancouver before arriving in Berkeley. “It’s one day on, then a day of travel and a concert. It’s tiring, but quite exciting, too.”
Royal, 28, is a fast-rising talent who seems uncommonly clear about where she’s been and where she’s headed.
Born and based in London, Royal has made only limited U.S. appearances thus far. But she’s already been proclaimed an artist to watch in opera houses and concert halls throughout Europe. In recent seasons, she’s sung Mozart roles, including Pamina (in
Die Zauberflöte), Ilia (
Idomeneo), and the Countess (
Le Nozze di Figaro); the title role of Monteverdi’s
L’incoronazione di Poppea, and Miranda in Thomas Ades’
The Tempest. Concert performances include Wagner’s
Das Rheingold with Simon Rattle in Baden-Baden, and Mozart’s
Zaide with Charles Mackerras in Edinburgh.
Royal’s eponymous solo-debut recording on the EMI label, released last fall, was named
Gramophone’s CD of the month in October 2007, and one of the best discs of the year by
Opera News. The singer was hailed as "a major voice."
Beyond Good Looks
Royal’s coltish good looks are a marketing department’s dream, and more than one reviewer has made note of her “sexy” tone and “model” appearance. Yet in conversation, she’s refreshingly down to earth. She’s also smart about music, the choices she’s being asked to make, and the future she’s planning.
The CD, which you can listen to
in full or sample at Royal's
MySpace page, avoids the usual Mozart-and-Puccini mix favored by first-time recitalists. Instead, Royal, accompanied by Edward Gardner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, sings a beguiling program of Strauss, Stravinsky, Canteloube, Rodrigo, Delibes, Debussy, and Ravel.
Royal says she’s pleased with her choices on the CD. “I was given free rein with it,” she explains, “and I chose music that was important to me. I also wanted very much to show that I am a recitalist. That was my main goal, so I included a lot of songs originally composed for piano.”
Her Berkeley recital, accompanied by pianist Roger Vignoles, will include some of those songs, including selections from Richard Strauss’
Madchenblumen and Canteloube’s
Chants d’Auvergne. Works by Rodrigo, Granados, and Debussy complete the program.
We talk about the difference between singing recitals and opera, and I mention that many singers come to the Bay Area in an opera role first, before appearing in recital. Is she glad to be doing it the other way around? “Yes, absolutely,” says Royal. “Recital work is equally, if not more, important to me. I get so much out of it, and I think it’s important for a singer to have both experiences. I feel more and more that I’m a concert singer, a recital singer, and that opera can sort of come in between that.”
This tour, she notes, gives her a unique opportunity. “It’s a lovely chance to build a program and repeat it again and again. So often, you work toward a concert, and then it’s over. You never get a chance to improve it. On a tour, you can go so much deeper into the meaning of the pieces.”
Royal made her opera debut during the 2004 Glyndebourne Festival. She was understudying the role of Pamina, and when the soprano singing the role took ill, Royal, then 25, stepped in. (She reprised the role earlier this year at Covent Garden.) Debuts in Paris, Madrid, and Edinburgh followed.
Over the next two seasons, Royal will sing the role of Ilia (with Europa Galante), and return to Glyndebourne to sing her first Micaela (
Carmen). She’ll assume the title role of Handel’s
Susanna with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants; a Donna Elvira (
Don Giovanni) at Glyndebourne, and her first Anne Trulove (
The Rake’s Progress), at Covent Garden, are also on the schedule.
Next month, she’ll appear as a soloist with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic in Paul McCartney’s
Ecce Cor Meum. She sang on the EMI recording of the ex-Beatle’s oratorio, and performed the work at Carnegie Hall.
McCartney Moments
Royal says McCartney is a great friend. “We got to know each other through this project, and he was there throughout the entire process,” she says. “It was a very different project for a classical singer. When we premiered it at Carnegie Hall, the atmosphere was just so different than the ordinary classical concert. He was fantastic, very clear about what he wanted, but he also admitted that he’s not a classical man, and he needed to understand about how my voice worked. We spent a lot of time finding the sound that he wanted.” On the same program, she also sang some of McCartney’s pop songs, including
My Love, arranged for string quartet. “It was great,” she says. “If the melodies are good enough, they can be transported into any genre.”
Critics are already comparing Royal’s pure, focused tone to singers such as Kiri te Kanawa and Victoria de los Angeles. But when I ask her about her singing idols, she says “Eileen Farrell. Hers is a voice that I love listening to again and again. I’m fascinated by the fact that she sang both jazz and opera — and was incredibly good at both.”
That said, Royal insists she has no intention of becoming a crossover artist — “I’m not one of those singers who wants to make a jazz album” — but she does enjoy pop. When she’s traveling, her iPod is filled with Stevie Wonder, Kate Bush, and Joni Mitchell. “A lot of my friends aren’t particularly into classical music,” she says. “When I was making my CD, I used them as a benchmark. I’d say ‘How does this sound? How does it make you feel?’ I wanted them to be able to put it on and just let the music wash over them.”
Royal grew up listening to pop and jazz — her father was a singer-songwriter “who worked in the business and wrote songs for other people.” Her mother, a dancer, taught ballet, jazz, and tap. “I got a pretty strong sense of music and theater and dance and performing and creating,” she says. “When I started finding my voice, it felt like a kind of combination of all those things.”
Originally she thought she’d pursue dance. But Royal fell in love with opera at a performance of
The Rake’s Progress. “I felt that my voice came and sort of tapped me on the shoulder,” she says. “It sounds like a cliché, but I did feel it was a calling.”
She studied at London’s Guildhall School of Music (where she met her voice teacher, renowned bass-baritone Rudolf Piernay), and the National Opera Studio. In 2004, she won the Kathleen Ferrier and John Christie Awards, and started as an understudy at Glyndebourne soon thereafter.
“I was lucky,” she says. “It was just good timing. Lots of elements came together which created a push for me.”
Asked if she ever thinks she’s being pushed too hard, Royal says no. “I haven’t felt that,” she says. “I make my decisions very carefully, and I certainly say no to an awful lot of things. I’ve learned that I need my holidays — I need whole months where I’m not singing and not rehearsing. I’ve learned how long it takes to prepare for an opera role. These are things you learn as you go along.”
What about new roles? Does she feel pressured to go in any particular direction? “Tempting things come along,” she allows. “But if you take on something too big in an important venue, it can be very damaging to your career and your voice. Of course I’m ambitious. But I’m not in any hurry. I’d love to sing some Strauss roles — the Marschallin, Arabella. That’s my ideal repertoire, but I’m just not at that stage yet. I’m very happy where I am at the moment. I’m not looking to sing heavier roles right now — I’d be happy singing Mozart for the rest of my life.
“I’m someone who likes to have everything planned and set, but I’m learning to say, ‘We’ll see what happens.’ ”