Changemaker and soprano Abigail Kelly has worked with Streetwise Opera in some of the boldest projects we’ve done over the last year: Unseen, the Streetwise Sessions livestream during lockdown and Carmen Goes To The Opera. I wanted to catch up with her to discuss how we can help make opera more inclusive and diverse. Here’s an edited transcript of our conversation.
RT: Last time we met you were at the Nottingham Playhouse, working with Streetwise Opera. You were revisiting opera classics in a way that called out sexism in opera. How was that experience?
AK: It was fantastic, with all the interesting different challenges that we had during the production. What I really loved was that by the time we got to the dress rehearsal and the performance, myself and the Streetwise performers really got to the core of it, questioning why female characters in opera tend to have a little bit of a raw deal. Just looking at people’s lives and looking at the options that were thrust upon them, as characters written from a male point of view, was a really interesting thing to be able to do. And long needed to do.
RT: Before that you were involved in Unseen, a project that celebrated classical music and opera by black or African musicians. We were studying artists like Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Ignatius Sancho, George Bridgetower, and listening to exciting folk music from the Caribbean and Africa. What did this experience mean to you?
AK: It meant the absolute world to me. It’s something that I’ve always been very interested in promoting. I’ve always loved exploring my own cultural heritage, and singing Caribbean folk songs and African-American traditional spirituals. But I wanted to put that together into something and give it out into the world in a more meaningful way. I think being able to go and explore the historic content of these pieces of music was really great. I really enjoyed it.
RT: Last November you performed some of that repertoire at the Royal Opera House. How did that go?
AK: It went ridiculously well, actually. The Royal Opera House offered me the opportunity to do a Live at Lunch, and I had planned to mix some Mozart, Puccini and folk songs. Unfortunately, my voice was not very happy with me at that point in time, and my wonderful accompanist suggested we take out some of the pieces, so I just did the Caribbean folk songs, the traditional African American spirituals, and an aria from Chevalier de Saint-Georges’ The Anonymous Lover. It was the first time I performed that aria out in public. And it just went down a storm. The Royal Opera House invited me back, so I did it again just a couple of months ago. And it was just glorious. There is definitely an audience out there that are very supportive of these pieces.
RT: It’s great to hear that went so well, and that companies like the ROH are making bold programming decisions. What else can opera houses and companies do to make opera more inclusive and less problematic?
AK: That is the million-dollar question, isn’t it? There are many things. The most important one is to be open, listening to audiences: new audiences, existing audiences. That openness and that conversation is really important. I would like to see operas that are written and developed by people from a wide range of backgrounds. That’s where we get the interest in the different stories, but that’s also where we get to realise that people’s lived experiences are really similar, even if you’re from different backgrounds. Even if you have different attitudes in life, your lived experiences can be so similar. And just because it’s a story that maybe isn’t in your cultural heritage, or in your background, it doesn’t mean that you can’t understand and appreciate the sentiment and the story behind it all. Opera companies are doing lots right now, and discovering the pros and the cons.
RT: What can we do about attracting younger audiences to opera. A lot of children and young people get the most basic music education at school, and then they go to the opera or a classical concert and they don’t really see themselves represented in the musicians or the music on stage.
AK: Yes, that is very true. In order to preserve the audience for the art form going forwards, we have to make sure that opera isn’t seen as something that’s alien or unattainable from an early age. There are, however, lots of opera companies that take the operatic sound into schools and perform mini-operas for children. I’ve been involved in lots of operas for children and young people with additional educational needs or disabilities. I think where the gap comes is when we get to that upper year group, the teenagers. That’s where I think maybe opera companies could just get in there a little bit more. How to do that? I want to find out, and I want to explore that. It’s about going and speaking to those young people. And finding out about why they might think opera is stuffy or whatever, and what they think are the barriers to opera. We need to listen to them, and find out what those barriers are and talk to them and see if we can create something together. I think when you’re part of a creative process as well, like the performers at Streetwise Opera, you have total ownership over the art form and I think that’s what’s missing as well for young people.
RT: You’ve mentioned several times that we need to listen to audiences. Do you think the more traditional opera audiences worry about these issues of inclusion and diversity ? What can we do to convince them that there is other opera beyond Mozart or Wagner?
AK: I would hope that lovers of the art form would embrace lots of different types of opera, and be encouraging of the emerging artists, including the composers, librettists, directors that are coming out. I hope that they are really encouraging of that as lovers of the art form. But I really don’t know. I think that the onus is on the houses and the companies, to drip feed some interesting bits of new, diverse opera. Companies are doing it. You have the Royal Opera House with the Linbury Theatre. And I feel that can really be a good link: this is core rep but this is wonderful, have you thought about coming to see X, Y and Z that we’re also putting on? If we can, as an industry, take our pre-existing audience on that same exciting journey with us then that’s great. There is this preconceived idea that modern opera is challenging to listen to. And I don’t think that that is the case, really. I know some composers at the moment who are writing operas that there’s a tune in there and you’re humming it all the way back home after you’ve seen it, and it just sounds beautiful and glorious. But it’s just not given the chance because some people don’t really want to be challenged, they want to go out, and listen to the thing they know and like and have a good time.
RT: We both work with opera, an art form that at times can be sexist, racist, elitist and problematic, yet we love it to bits. Why do you think that is?
AK: Because the music just sings to you. It kind of gets your heart, it grabs you and then just gives you a big bear hug and it’s so powerful. I think that my experiences within the operatic world have been great. I’ve been very grateful and very fortunate to have the experiences that I’ve had. I think the music itself, as well, just kind of makes you want to just keep going, no matter what’s going on elsewhere and otherwise. And that’s what it is for me, it’s the music. It’s the technique of being able to sing like that. It’s the fantastic collaboration between singer and conductor and orchestra and director and set and everything. It’s just so epic. And it’s also such a wonderful way – I mean, there are opera companies that bring normal, regular, everyday people into these huge operas, and I don’t know if there’s any other art form that can open its doors to the public in the way that opera does. It really is tremendous.
RT: What’s keeping you optimistic and excited about the future of opera in Britain?
AK: There are loads of fantastic composers out there right now, who are really probing what opera can be, and what stories they are wanting to tell with their music. There are fantastic librettists who are doing extraordinary things. That’s what I find really exciting. These new voices, these partnerships. There’s an openness and a willingness from the gatekeepers to open the gates or to at least be a little bit more open to possibilities within the operatic world, and I find that very exciting as well. I just really hope that they are held accountable and that they actually do open the gates when the time comes. I understand all the constraints that everyone’s under, but yes, I find that quite encouraging.
