Dame Sarah Connolly fought hard to be an opera star. Now, she does battle for the arts. Jane McGowan listens in...
Dame Sarah Connolly has spent her life striving to make herself heard.
As an aspirant diva trying to batter down the iron curtain between choral and operatic careers, as a relentless champion of professional musicians, and, before all that, as a child pianist practising hard beneath her mother’s watchful eye, the much-lauded County Durham mezzo-soprano has rarely been silent for long.
“My parents were not particularly musical, but they were very supportive,” explains Dame Sarah, 60, a patron of the Surrey Hills International Music Festival, which returns this month.
“I think mum got to Grade Six piano, but she always listened to classical music and introduced me to a number of performers, including Dame Janet Baker – another mezzo-soprano. I remember being very interested in her voice. “I absolutely loved singing. I was in the school and church choirs, and I had lessons, but it was just somehow decided that piano was going to be my thing. I think I took the Grade Eight exam at the age of 11 or 12. And when I got into the Royal College of Music, it was as a pianist, with singing as what they called a ‘second study’.”
So far, so clear. It wasn’t long, however, before the young Sarah’s vocal talent came to the fore.
Sir David Willcocks, renowned conductor and composer, the then principal of the college, told his pupil in no uncertain terms that she was “going to be a singer”. “It was news to me,” she laughs.
“But he just said: ‘You are, and that’s it.’ And I thought: ‘Well, you should know!’” After graduation, she joined the BBC Singers and even toyed with the idea of a career in jazz before deciding to try and carve out a future on the operatic stage.
However, the transition from chorister to opera star was to prove somewhat trickier than she had thought.
“I had been with the Singers for five years and felt in danger of getting stuck,” she recalls.
At 31, it transpires, she was already seen as “quite old” to be starting out on a whole new musical path. “Auditioning to get on agents’ books wasn’t easy at all, as they only saw a choral singer. I had done amateur stage stuff, too, and I would say to them: ‘Why don’t you listen to what I can do instead of keep asking what I have done?’
“But they would just brush me off and say: ‘Well, the CV doesn’t look like this or that. Just go away and don’t come back.’ It made me very cross, and I began to ask them: ‘Why?’ I don’t know whether they thought I would be dead-looking or useless on stage or what. It made me pretty furious, actually.”
However, securing second place in an international singing competition finally caused the tide to turn.
“That sort of gave me the tick I needed,” she says. “Opera companies still found it hard to get past the idea of the choral singer, but they did start to take me more seriously.”
Her first job was with English Touring Opera. Even they, however, required convincing to “take a chance”. “But they were very glad they did,” laughs Dame Sarah.
“I am now a patron of the company.” Success followed success: an acclaimed debut as Annina in Welsh National Opera’s Der Rosenkavalier; Xerxes in English National Opera’s production of Handel’s Serse, directed by the multi-award-winning Nicholas Hytner; memorable seasons at Glyndebourne.
There was also a nomination for English theatre’s highest honour, an Olivier – another rebuke for those former detractors who had doubted her acting ability.
“As soon as I got on stage, I knew it was where I was supposed to be,” she says. “There is something magical about it – even just being in the wings. “I think when you enter a theatre, you make a pact to devote these three hours to what you do, and then you can deal with whatever else you have to face when it’s over. Even in the worst of times. When my mum died, I had a show to do on Tuesday, even though I had only buried her on Monday. I was in a very bad way, and I was also three months pregnant.
“But once I got to my dressing room and saw my costume hanging up, I knew it was the right place to be. Mum would have wanted me to carry on. She would have told me to get on with it. It actually came as a comfort – a release – that for three hours, it was all about the singing. That was very special.”
And so the list of accomplishments grew and grew, as performances at the Royal Opera House, the Metropolitan Opera in New York and Teatro alla Scala in Milan became routine. The awards also came thick and fast, including a CBE in 2010 and a damehood seven years later.
But in 2019, Dame Sarah was diagnosed with breast cancer. Again, she relied on her voice to get her through, returning to the stage just weeks after her chemo ended and her radiotherapy began.
“I was a little bit wobbly physically, but there was absolutely nothing wrong with my voice,” she says. “And I am self-employed: I needed the money. We don’t get sick pay. “My body felt odd, and it was very scary. My hair was just about one inch long, but I could still sing, and I did. “Radiotherapy knocked it out of me. I felt like I had climbed up a hill when I‘d only walked a few steps. It had burnt a very small part of the lung and, obviously, there was lots of damage to the breast tissue, which is still quite tender. I have to be careful how I hug people.”
Treatment is ongoing, she says, and she continues to take medication. “
Sadly, I cannot yet say it is now a distant memory,” she admits. Still, by early 2022, she began to feel that she could safely return not only to her full performance schedule but also to her other commitments supporting the stars of tomorrow.
“That’s something I am so passionate about, and it’s probably one of the reasons I received the King’s Medal for Music last year. We have to back the next generation, and since the Brexit vote in 2016 I’ve been more politically involved to support future artists.”
She has campaigned strongly to have arts subjects accorded the same weight and respect at GCSE as STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths), as well as for the rights of musicians, who have seen their earning potential slashed following changes to performance rules as a result of EU withdrawal.
“I spend a lot of time now lobbying politicians. What has happened is outrageous: our profession was rarely discussed during Brexit. “Classical music is hugely important to the UK. The last time I looked, it was worth around £4 billion to our economy. Anyone who says musicians don’t contribute to GDP [gross domestic product] is wrong. “Music in this country – like the other arts – needs support. I am not afraid to tell people that something has to be done. I’ve been very vocal about it and intend to keep making myself heard.”
Dame Sarah Connolly will be performing a selection of Baroque music with The English Concert and Harry Bicket at Guildford’s Holy Trinity Church on May 18. Visit: shimf.co.uk.
