Celebrity Soft Spot Carolyn Chard

This year the West Australian Opera celebrates its 50th anniversary and at the helm is Carolyn Chard, general manager for nearly two decades. Carolyn worked in arts management across multiple platforms in Perth before discovering opera. She shares a glimpse of the inner workings of the company and why 'music is the strongest form of magic'.

What music gets your heart racing?

Dance music with a heavy beat, the kind you feel in your body on a dance floor.
Beautiful music, music that speaks to your soul  (too many to name plus depends what mood I am in; today maybe Parsifal overture, Mahler 5; tomorrow I would name others). Some renditions of Ave Maria just melt me; at other times I dissolve listening to Nick Cave’s Into My Arms.

What calms you down?

Massage
Walking on the beach
Beautiful music

What do you sing along to?

‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams (although you don’t want me to).

This year WA Opera celebrates its 50th year. The company has been collecting stories and memories from past cast and audience members. What have you learned about WA Opera from these?

That there is an appreciation for the company and a memory bank that is very personal and individual to many patrons; that the company has made an impact on collective memory. The stories are all on the website and worth reading at waopera.asn.au.

Carolyn with the ‘hero image’ marketing team

What is the role of an opera company in a city like Perth?

To present the artform in a beautiful theatre, to maintain the tradition of grand opera in an isolated city.

You walk something of a tightrope balancing traditional repertoire with bold contemporary repertoire like new works by Richard Mills and Iain Grandage. How do you navigate the responsibilities of expanding your audience while also retaining traditional subscribers?

It’s a risk every time and actually hard to navigate or balance through the level of risk you are willing to expose the company to. How do you measure what that success looks like? Is it financial success at the box office? Artistic success? What if you have one without the other? Is it still worth the investment event at the cost of forgoing other work?

The WA Opera team is a small family. International singers often talk about the warm welcome they receive when performing here. What is special for you about your team?

I try to engender a caring culture where we welcome and look after people, Many years ago a theatre director pointed out to me that we trade in human emotion, that’s our widget, our product. It means that we have to look after that carefully and that boils down to looking after people. I work with some wonderful, committed, energetic and enthusiastic people who love the company and the theatre, who have a passion for opera and who take great  pride in our singers, our chorus, our creative colleagues and WASO musicians.

In your other life (before opera) you were in banking and fashion design. You worked in management roles for Barking Gecko and Deckchair before heading into opera in 2001. What was the appeal of opera?

At Wesfarmers Centenary Dinner with her daughter

I studied fashion design. I worked in banking. I promoted bands, events and DJs in clubs during the dance music and rave scene in the eighties and nineties (The Prodigy, Blackbox, Kevin Saunderson, Dream Frequency, Sasha). I did the arts management degree at WAAPA and moved into theatre management at Deckchair Theatre and Barking Gecko Theatre (during this tenure we established the Awesome Festival). I worked with Black Swan Theatre, Perth Theatre Company and Kulcha. I met Richard Mills when we co-produced the Britten children’s opera Noyes Fludde/Noah’s Flood and he encouraged me to consider the management role with opera. He taught me much about the artform and engendered a passion for producing and presenting opera. I worked with my Australian opera colleagues at Opera Conference and was invited to a dual senior management position with Opera Australian based out of Sydney and Melbourne offices. I was invited to resume the general manager’s role with WAO when my successor moved to the CEO position with WASO.

What are you proudest of in your years with WA Opera?

I have worked in opera now for almost two decades, in two stints as General Manager with this company split by a few years with the national opera company based out of both Sydney and Melbourne. I am proud of presenting and producing two of Richard Mills’s works, both new operas with the Perth Festival – Batavia, which was commissioned by Opera Australia as part of the Centenary of Federation and first presented in Melbourne in 2000, and The Love of the Nightingale which was part of the Wesfarmers Arts Commissioning Series. Both operas were composed and conducted by Richard Mills and both directed by Lindy Hume. They had a special rapport which translated well on stage. On opening night of Batavia in Perth the CEO of Opera Australia turned to me and shook my hand and congratulated me on getting the work into the theatre and onto the stage (it was a production that I had been told ‘would not fit the Maj’ and, with my clever Production Manager Mandy Farmer, we found a way to store some of the scenery between Acts in containers on the street)

You are one of a very few women heading up an arts company in WA. Any ideas why there aren’t more women in management roles?

Sometimes it just cyclical – there have been times when the four major companies in WA have been headed by women. Right now three of the four majors have women leaders (Nat Jenkins at Black Swan and Jess Machin at the ballet while my predecessor Craig Whitehead heads WASO).

WA Opera's first mainstage production for the year is opera Tosca which opens on March 28th with Antoinette Halloran in the title role, Paul O’Neill as Cavaradossi and Teddy Tahu Rhodes returning as Scarpia. Perth audiences last saw Tosca in 2011. What does this New Zealand production by Stuart Maunder have to offer?

Stuart is a wonderful colleague with great insights into character and story as well as understanding the music and the genius of it. For this particular season Stuart and I actually negotiated a production swap – he has enabled us to present the New Zealand Opera production of Tosca which he directs and I have enabled him to take the WAO Lindy Hume production of Carmen so effectively we swapped productions.

Teddy has sung Scarpia here for me before and I am so pleased that we have Antoinette in her debut with this company – and in role suited so well to her – and also delighted to welcome Paul O’Neill back after many years in Germany (he left as a young man and has returned, with his beautiful family including four children, to make his home base in Western Australia again)

Mark Applebaum says music should be above all else be interesting. What do you think is the most important role of music?

I think music should make you feel. Or just ‘does’ make you feel.

I love a quote from Marilyn Manson that ‘music is the strongest form of magic’.

I mentioned the song ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams and there’s a quote from Rusty Rueff contemplating why that song become such a global hit; he said ‘I think its because at the time the world was looking for something…we were recovering from a recession, war and many other things…and we needed a movement of hopefulness that allowed us to stop the madness for a moment and pick us up. Will it be timeless? Maybe for the generation who were in the heart of the trouble. Maybe they will reflect back on this time and remember this song and make it timeless’.

Where did you learn the skills to manage an opera company?

I did the three-year arts management degree at WAAPA which, some twenty five years ago, included foundations of law, economics, human resource management, marketing, business management in the main ECU stream as well as full involvement in arts campus life doing front of house, publicity, ticketing and so on. Before that and after that it was about learning on the job. Plus I think you need a natural aptitude for the skills required. You need to have a passion and love for the work each day. The hours are long and there is no corporate paypack so it’s usually an intrinsic reward we chase.

You were involved in the #artsmatters push to get arts into the pre-election political debate. What’s it going to take to get arts on the radar of our major political parties? 

The central premise of that campaign is very simple; that the arts matter. The arts matter to all of us. We all need to lead on this. Everyone is impacted by the arts. It’s up to each of us to engage, promote and participate in the arts, all arts: performing arts, visual arts, literary arts, music, film, design, libraries, dance, comedy, circus, puppetry, mime, books, magazines, apps, games, fashion, writing, singing, dancing, acting.

With a new state government we have a fresh start to engage. I want everyone to get the message that so many others articulate better than me:

Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life

 (Pablo Picasso)

Art is the only serious thing in the world

 (Oscar Wilde)

If we, citizens, do not support our artists, then we sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams 

(Yann Martel, Life of Pi)

Running through Melbourne streets to an Opera Australia meeting.

What do you have a soft spot for?

I love words and music. Two of my favourite quotes are from The Little Prince: ‘The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart’. And another, which to me applies not only to music but to values I hold true like kindness and truth and love, is: ‘And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye’.


Thank you to Carolyn Chard for participating in the Celebrity Soft Spot series. Tosca opens on March 28th. For more information go to WA Opera. 

Celebrity Soft Spot Jon Tooby

Cellist Jon Tooby has been building Perth's chamber music scene for decades. This weekend the fisherman, carpenter and conductor is launching a new spring chamber music festival in his favourite hills community. Tooby has extensive networks with WA's best chamber musicians and a reputation for connecting the audience to the music. Which is perhaps why Tooby is promising "This festival will have it all!"

What music gets your heart racing?
Chamber music gets my heart racing, particularly Brahms.

What calms you down?
Getting away fishing up in the North West

The Darlington Spring Festival kicks off this weekend – what was the inspiration behind this new festival in Perth?

The Spring Festival is just a slightly more condensed version of the hugely popular winter series. I guess it was to bring us closer to our audience over one weekend and to play in a few different venues.

As festival director you seem to have gone to some effort to match the right performers with the perfect venue. For example Sara Macliver’s angelic soprano in the cathedral acoustics of Guildford Grammar Chapel, and the intimacy of string quartet in the quaint St Cuthbert’s Anglican Church. How important is the venue in a chamber music concert?

The space in which we perform is hugely important. One of the things which we pride ourselves on in our performances is in bringing our audiences closer to us and to really share in the magic of the music with them. We are blessed as chamber musicians to have this never ending supply of exquisite repertoire and as much as we love to immerse ourselves in it as players it is totally enhanced when you can bring others along for the ride.

The repertoire looks very appealing on paper: string quartets by Janacek, Mendelssohn and Haydn; Baroque motets by Dowland and Vivaldi; staples such as Schubert’s Trout Quintet and Brahms’ Sextet in G minor, and Argentinean favourites Piazolla and Golijov. What do you hope the audience will experience?

This festival has it all, starting with a full program of string quartets including works by Haydn, Janacek and Mendelssohn. This really is the purest form of chamber music as we know it - what a way to start. Then we have Sara Macliver join us in the stunning Guilford Grammar School Chapel in what shall be a night of special magnificence. With the wonderful acoustics of this Gothic architectural masterpiece combined with the music of Brahms, Vivaldi and Dowland it is sure going to be a night to remember. Our final concert is presented with a sumptuous lunch at the Darlington Estate Winery. It will be a celebration of fine food , wine and of course amazing music. Here we present probably the most iconic chamber work The Trout Quintet among other tasty musical treats.

The Darlington Trio: Tooby with Semra Lee-Smith and Graeme Gilling

You are taking part as a performer too – playing cello for all three concerts. How are you preparing?

We have a pretty busy rehearsal schedule this week, but I’m feeling confident it’s going to be a terrific weekend. We have an amazing team of very experienced musicians, for me the best available. Not only are they all fabulous players in their own right but they are also passionate about performing chamber music together. We really all have a lot of fun.

Mark Applebaum says music should be above all else be interesting. What do you think is the most important role of music?

For me personally I think all the arts but especially music have the power to transform people, to take people to special places and to unlock held emotions and dreams. Yes I think music has to be interesting but only in as much as it can have this effect on people.

Tooby performing Brahms Piano Quartet in G minor with Brett Dean (viola), 

Natsuko Yoshimoto (violin) and Jonathon Anur (piano).

You have a soft spot for Darlington – you have been making chamber music up there for 12 years since the launch of the Darlington Chamber series. What is the appeal of this hills suburb?

Darlington is special to me partly because I grew up here but also because I love it for the sense of community. It is a very artistic community, many fine artists and musicians live in Darlington and it is just far enough away from Perth to feel like you’re in the country but not totally isolated. I used to go to chamber music concerts here in the 70’s and some very fine ones too. It’s a funky place with funky people.

Your love affair with the cello began at the age of seven and has been sustained through 18 years with the WA Symphony Orchestra, studying at the Royal College of Music and over 200 concerts with I Cellisti. Why the cello?

 I think all musical instruments attract certain personalities and I think most cellists are quite smug in the fact that they almost blindly believe there is no better instrument on the planet than the cello. In terms of the sound, colour and the texture range is immense and really I don’t think anything can get closer to replicating the human voice. The repertoire is endless and you get to sit down in a relatively comfortable position. I could go on but you might feel ill.

Tooby conducting Etica ensemble

More recently you have ventured into conducting, studying with John Hopkins, Richard Mills and Richard Gill. You founded and directed the new music ensemble Etica. Do you have plans to further pursue a career in conducting?

Conducting is very important to me and I will continue to work towards a career in it . Orchestras are amazing and I feel after 30 years playing in the profession I have a good understanding of what makes them tick. Clearly though, there is more to it that just being a good musician, something which I’m working on.

Do you have a partner/significant other/pet?

I have a wonderful wife, Penny Reynolds who is a soprano. Also two fabulous daughters, Laura 15 and Rosie 17. We laugh a lot together. Oh yes I also have a black cat Sandy, a dog Barney and a horse named Kat.

Where did you learn the skills to juggle a diverse freelance career that includes performing, directing, teaching and conducting?

I love my life with all it’s diversity. I am also a Builder/Carpenter and when I’m not conducting , playing cello or teaching you might find me up a ladder somewhere replacing someone’s ceiling or building a deck.

Do you have a soft spot for anything else in life or is it all about the music?

 I love fishing and every year I go away with my brothers on a pilgrimage to Quobba or Dirk Hartog Island, 30 years and counting.

Thanks Jon Tooby for taking the time from your busy rehearsal week to participate in the Celebrity Soft Spot. 

Darlington Spring Festival

Concert 1 Saturday 22nd 11am: Darlington String Quartet perform quartets by Mendelssohn, Haydn and Janacek

Concert 2 Saturday 22nd 7pm: Sara Macliver and ensemble perform Vivaldi: Nulla in Mundo pax Sincera; Brahms String Sextet in G minor; Dowland: Come Again, Weep You No More; Respighi: Il tramonto; Golijov: Lua Descolorida

Concert 3 Sunday 23rd 12pm: Schubert's Trout Quintet, tangos by Piazolla and a duet for cello and bass by Rossini served with lunch.

Tickets can be purchased at the door but are nearly sold out so probably better to pre-purchase at the Darlington Post Office or Mundaring Bendigo Bank Ph: 92956411.

Introducing Ollie Cuneo - the composer!

Ollivier-PhillippeCuneo is well known around Perth for his conducting and violin playing. Less well known is the blossoming of his composing career. Cuneo has been based in Paris since 2012 and is back in Perth this month for the premiere on Saturday of a work commissioned by the Fremantle Chamber Orchestra.

Le Verre Siffleur is named after the cafe at the end of Cuneo’s street and pays musical tribute to French cafe life including an elegy to the victims of the 13th November terrorist attacks. It was commissioned by the FCO after the enthusiastic reception to Cuneo’s opus one Between Two Moons which the orchestra premiered in February.

The premiere of Le Verre Siffleur has taken on extra potency given the Nice truck attack on Bastille Day last week. When we spoke Cuneo was still in shock from the news of the tragedy. He explained how Le Verre Siffleur expresses musically the way life for French citizens has permanently changed.

Le verre siffleur cafe

“We try to go about life as usual but it doesn’t feel the same. This is reflected in the music at the end of the work where there is a forced joyfulness, an out of kilter waltz with five beats in a bar. There is not the same naivety or innocence anymore.”

The piece is a mix of old and new much like the environment Cuneo experiences every day in Paris. It is scored for a Mozartian orchestra with two oboes, two horns and strings and draws on Cuneo’s research into the art nouveau architecture on his street and the correlating music from the early 20th century. Cuneo fused ideas from Strauss, Mahler, Stravinsky and Puccini to evoke the changing moods and scenes of cafe life. A chord from Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortileges inspired the elegy at the heart of the work.

 

Cuneo’s composing career is a new addition to an already flourishing conducting career that began with a young artist residency with Opera Australia and has included work with

various Australian opera houses and orchestras. Cuneo conducted the Pearl Fishers with WA Opera in 2009.

Ollie Cuneo in conducting mode

Cuneo currently teaches at the Conservatoire Gustave Charpentier where his work involves arranging and creating operas with school children. From there it was a small step to writing his own music.

“As a conductor you study so much music in order to understand a composer’s thought processes,” he explained. “You have the vocabulary, you just need to play around with it and search for something to say, for an original voice.”

A big part of his inspiration came from observing the innate imagination and creativity of his two daughters. Watching them play inspired Cuneo to channel his own creativity and begin to compose.

“We need to prioritise that creativity in children and adults. It is a crucial way to keep culture as a valued part of what gives a community meaning and cohesion. It is so important to keep creativity an active part of life.”

Le Verre Siffleur will be performed by the Fremantle Chamber Orchestra at 2pm on July 23rd (Perth Town Hall) and July 24th (Fremantle Town Hall). The program includes symphonies by Mozart and Haydn plus Hoffmeister’s Viola Concerto performed by Sally Boud. Tickets can be purchased here or at the door.

The article copyright The West Australian newspaper 2016.

Celebrity Soft Spot Janet Holmes à Court

Janet Holmes à Court is a true renaissance woman. She has a background in science teaching, a career as an extremely successful business woman and an interest in art which spans music (Chairman of WASO board), fine art (Holmes a Court collection), architecture (Ambassador to Venice Biennale) and theatre (founding patron of Black Swan Theatre). She is an advocate in the community for health, conservation and education and is also a devoted grandmother.

What music can bring you to tears?

Anything! Beethoven can bring me to tears. His works always remind me of my mother who thought he was the greatest! One of my earliest memories was seeing my mother weeping into the kitchen sink as she listened to the final movements of a Beethoven piano concerto. I realised then the power of music to move. Richard Tognetti playing The Lark Ascending by Benjamin Britten certainly can bring me to tears.

What music gets your heart racing?

Hearing the orchestra tuning up. This is a very exciting time for me. Hearing and seeing 84 or 100 musicians – or however many are needed for tonight’s concert - settling down and preparing to perform for us, the audience. I love the excitement of this – then the arrival of the Conductor to take charge. Let the music begin!

What do you sing along to?

Me singing along would not be pleasant for anyone. I’m more of a finger tapper. Having studied piano for many years, I tend to “arrange” the music I am listening to for piano, and play silently on my knee. I find it extremely difficult to sit still in concerts.

Your highly successful business Heytesbury (now owned and run by your son, Paul) has had interests in horse breeding cattle, wine production and engineering contracting. For decades you were known as the richest woman in Australia. But perhaps your greatest legacy is your involvement with the arts world. Where did your love of arts come from?

 The “richest woman” tag was always a ridiculous statement and was never made by me.

Because Robert died without a will, his estate (which included masses of debt) was divided in intestate proportions i.e. ⅓ to me ⅔ to my 4 children. I was never the richest woman in Australia! My love for the arts was fostered by my parents.

This month (May) the Holmes à Court Gallery at Vasse Felix is opening a new exhibition titled Rachel Coad – RETROspective. What motivated you to open the gallery initially? And what is the appeal of Rachel Coad’s work to inspire this new exhibition and residency?

Almost ever since Robert and I started to collect art, I dreamt of having a gallery. We always considered the collection to be private/ public; that it was something to be shared. A public gallery such as LWAG and AGWA cannot possibly show all its works. Neither can it show its works in spaces that are not perfectly climate controlled. Their duty is to preserve, as well as educate, stimulate, amuse and display.

We are never careless with our works of art, but we are able to share them with others in spaces NOT environmentally perfect for the purpose. This enables people in many more places to enjoy the works. For example years ago we had an exhibition of works in the old Masonic Hall in Dalwallinu. There are now works on loan to King Edward Memorial Hospital, Government House in both Perth and Hobart, Perth Modern School, Kings Park, John Holland Offices, the Art Gallery of Western Australia and so on. These are all places where a broad audience can see and appreciate them.

Holmes a Court Gallery Vasse Felix

In 2000 I opened a gallery in East Perth. For ten years we held exhibitions and hosted Artist in Residence programmes, Day of Ideas discussions, artist’s lunches, seminars, etc. In 2010 I enjoyed hosting six 300^th Birthday parties for a Cappa violin I own which was made in 1710. In the East Perth gallery we exhibited works from the Holmes à Court Collection and works by artists from elsewhere who were NOT represented by galleries here in WA. The gallery in East Perth was complemented by the gallery at Vasse Felix. When the East Perth building was sold the gallery at the winery became the sole space for exhibiting and running residencies. It also happens to have pretty wonderful acoustics, so serves as an excellent venue for musical performances for example the Australian Chamber Orchestra Festival in December each year.

Many artists whose works I admire have been Artist in Residence during the time I have operated galleries: Brian McKay, Stuart Elliot, Helen Britton, Leslie Meaney, John Parkes, Clyde McGill, Ben Pushman, Thomas Hoareau. Next on the agenda is Rachel Coad. I have become a great fan of Rachel and her work ever since seeing and purchasing a painting at Perth Galleries several years ago. She and her partner Chris have become great friends. Rachel’s portraits are exceptional descriptions of their subjects. One feels one is looking into the souls of the people she paints – capturing their inner selves. I love her technique, her palette, her empathy with the subjects. Apart from the Harrier JumpJet her subjects are ordinary Australians, many of whom are deceased.

 ABC interviews Janet about her interest in Aboriginal art.

Also this month in Venice you will be involved in la Biennale di Venezia as part of the International Architecture Exhibition. What will be your participation here?

I have the great privilege of being the Commissioner for Australia for the Venice Architecture Biennale. This will be my 4^th Biennale. It is a wonderful role. I sometimes joke that I am Commissioner for parties and thankyous, but that is to diminish the role. The Commissioner is a member of the committee which sifts through the many applications and chooses the Creative Director of the Australian Exhibition and then oversees the development of the exhibit. As there is no funding from Australia Council for the Architecture Biennale – they don’t consider Architecture to be art - the funds for Australia to be represented in Venice must be raised by the Australian Institute of Architects. The Commissioner is intimately involved in this fundraising. Funds come from various governments (sadly NOT that of WA), philanthropists, sponsors and the profession. In Venice itself, the “thankyous” and parties and opening speeches begin!!

You are a member of the boards of nine different organisations including chairman of two. (Centenary Trust for Women, Australian Major Performing Arts Group, Australian National Academy of Music, Australian Urban Design Research Centre, Chamber of Arts and Culture WA, New York Philharmonic International Advisory Board, Rio Tinto Community Investment Fund, Chairman - Australian Children’s Television Foundation, Chairman - West Australian Symphony Orchestra.) Where did you learn the leadership (diplomatic, political, psychology!) skills to work with diverse groups of people toward a common goal?

Possibly my three years as a high school science teacher helped.

You are the recipient of multiple awards including being made in 2007 a Companion of the Order of Australia in recognition of your “service to business, particularly as a leader in the construction, wine and cattle industries, to the advancement of Western Australia's musical and theatre culture, to the visual arts, and to the community.”

What part of your life are you most proud of?

I don’t sit around thinking about what I’m proud of – but I am delighted and relieved that all four of my children are happily married, are not on drugs, and haven’t killed themselves or anyone else in a car accident. And that they are all useful contributing members of the communities in which they live.

So much of your time and money goes into championing the arts. Why do you believe the world of the arts is so important?

This is the worst question to ask me. To me, the Arts are as important as breathing – essential for life and a big part of it. I once asked my great, and sadly now deceased, friend Brian McKay what Art was. “Something that moves you in a way you can’t explain,” was his reply.

A work of art which captures our attention may be extraordinarily complex – as is the response it evokes. There are so many possibilities that we might decide that the mystery is after all unfathomable and had best be left alone. Or we may ask – what is it in us as humans that leads us so insistently to seek out encounters with paintings, plays, poems, novels, works of sculpture, dance, music? What is it in them that so engages us, brings us so much satisfaction, and what is the nature of our satisfaction?

Research shows us that people in hospital rooms with a window onto a view have faster rates of recovery. If there is no window, a painting can have the same effect. Children who are exposed to classical music in utero and in their childhood develop better and faster neuron connections than those who are not. The Venezuelan El Sistema project (a version of which WASO is operating in two schools in the Kwinana region) which exposes children to orchestral music performance, has had a remarkable effect on reducing crime and antisocial behaviour throughout Venezuela.

There has been some crippling government funding cuts recently to the Australia Council resulting in the demise of the ABC Symphony Australia Young Performers, an award you have supported with your patronage for many years. What are your thoughts on this?

Naturally I am very disappointed that this has been discontinued.

What is your perspective on the health of the arts scene currently in Australia and WA in particular?

There is music in Perth 365 days of the year. Think of it. We have the WASO, ACO, UWA, Musica Viva, Fremantle Chamber Orchestra, WAAPA, Ellingtons, Fremantle Arts Centre, St George’s Cathedral, etc, etc. Sadly, the theatres in Perth are dark a great deal of the time. The State Theatre Centre was built by the Government at a cost of more than $100m, but the theatre companies are not funded sufficiently to occupy the spaces for much of the year.

You have a soft spot for the WA Symphony Orchestra, where you have been chair of the board since 1998 – when did you first discover our state orchestra?

My parents took me to concerts of WASO from age about 8 or 9. I remember hearing   Sir John Barbirolli conduct, the violinist David Oistrakh, pianist Claudio Arrau, etc. I am privileged to have started my association when I was so young.

        Janet shares her memories of WASO on YouTube.

I know you have four children – are there any grandchildren?

Four  children and seventeen grandchildren. Fortunately my youngest son, Paul and his wife Zara have chosen to live and bring up their 5 children in Perth. That is a blessing for which I am truly grateful.

What is your favourite place in Perth?

Wherever I happen to be is my favourite. If I’m home, it’s here. If I’m at a concert – it’s Perth Concert Hall. If I’m at the Heytesbury Stud – it’s there. If in Kings Park – it’s there. If in Boranup Forest – it’s there. I have a passion for Darlington, the Sunken Garden in UWA and Gnaraloo on the Ningaloo Reef.

Do you have a soft spot for anything else in life or is it all about the arts?

I have a soft spot or many things – family and friends, music, theatre, visual arts, architecture, the environment, the bush, construction, wildflowers, the night sky in the southern hemisphere, colours of the ocean, good food and wine.

Richard Tognetti plays The Lark Ascending

Thank you Janet Holmes à Court for making the time for Celebrity Soft Spot. For more information go to the Holmes a Court Vasse Felix gallery website or to Heytesbury. Or keep an eye out for Janet at a concert or theatre show in Perth!

Celebrity Soft Spot Emma Pearson

Emma Pearson studied voice at the University of Western Australia and the Australian Opera Studio. She was principal artist at the Hessisches Staatsheater in Wiesbaden Germany from 2005-2014 and her schedule now includes Opera Australia, Opera New Zealand, Minnesota Orchestra and City of London Sinfonia.  Emma was in Perth last year singing Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro and is back at WA Opera this month for The Riders, a new opera based on Tim Winton's novel.  There are rumours we may be able to woo this hard working and incredibly talented soprano back to Australian shores - read on for more details!

What music gets your heart racing? 

There are definitely heart racing moments in The Riders, "The Storm" in particular is fun and wild. An electric guitar solo wouldn't be out of place!

What calms you down?

Relaxing music, I look forward to albums by the cellist Sol Gabetta and singer/songwriter Laura Marling. I saw Simone Young conduct a wonderful Lohengrin at Zürich Opera last year, now I love listening to "Mein lieber Schwan" remembering that feeling Klaus Florian Vogt created with his voice.

What do you sing along to? 

Wade and I spent many hours driving around Germany, Switzerland and Italy so we were always singing in the car, usually Mumford & Sons, Rufus Wainwright or Dave Dobbyn. 

This month you are singing the role of Jennifer in The Riders, an opera by Iain Graindage (composer) and Alison Croggon (librettist) based on the novel by Tim Winton. It is a very WA affair! The soprano, composer and novelist are from Perth and The Rider’s protagonists are from Perth. Is this the closest association Perth has ever had to opera?!? 

Pearson singing the Queen of the Night aria

Yes the entire cast (a part from Wade my New Zealand-born husband) grew up in or now live in Perth. The two girls sharing the main role of Billie (Rosanna Radici & Mia Beattie) are very smart middle-school music students at M.L.C. Richard Mills based his opera Batavia (2001) off the coast of W.A., but I think this is the first time anyone has sung lines such as "The blow of Perth sunlight striking up from a white beach" operatically! Tim Winton has given us reminders of experiences this cast and this audience all know so well. "A sniff of eucalypt, and memory rushes in like a fever." We have to thank Alison Croggon for all that she has incorporated in the libretto. West Australians can be very proud of this piece.

The opera opens with Scully in Ireland waiting for his wife and daughter to arrive from Perth. Only his daughter gets off the plane so the opera follows the journey of Scully searching Europe for his missing wife. The opera could be taken as a warning not to chase elusive hopes from the past. Is it a dark story? What can the audience expect?

It's a dark story in that it explores what happens when we suddenly lose the most valuable thing in our lives. The audience will see Scully go through the stages of grief, dragging his daughter through dangerous places to find Jennifer. The hunt for her is gripping but his daughter Billie's singing will melt your heart and it is also is really uplifting when you see that in the end, Scully has the strength of character not to look for his love anymore. We see him evolve. Before Alex (the painter) kills himself, he sings to Scully, "Sometimes the only end of something, is the end you make." 

The Riders are from celtic mythology, terrifying, faceless horsemen who try to drag us back to the past. At the end of the opera Scully sings "Every night they'll be here...but I'm not waiting with them, not in life, not in death, not any more." Our director Marion Pott's idea of Billie carefully blowing out one of the three symbolic candles burning in their window, always has me reaching for tissues at the end.

You are playing the role of Scully’s missing wife Jennifer. Is she a heroine or an anti-hero?

It is a really interesting character and I have tried to understand her point of view even though at first, to be honest, I sided with Scully. Because in the book, Jennifer comes across as unbelievably selfish and delusional about her artistic potential. But the question why she really runs away is always left unanswered. In the opera Marion, Iain and Alison have given Jennifer a more sympathetic voice, she represents people who value high-achievement and self-discovery over romanticism and family obligation.We are assuming she is still pregnant when she runs away. Iain has written her music beautifully so that the audience will be more sympathetic towards her. She doesn't feel a bond with her daughter or husband anymore, only suffocation. Some of my friends feel she is a heroine, someone who remains true to herself, no matter the cost. 

How did you prepare for the role? 

I started by reading the book and Iain sent us an early version of the score months ahead of time so we could start tinkering. I like starting ahead of schedule on modern opera roles so that the intervals and rhythms become second nature and you can just concentrate on singing technique, realistic movement and your part as a reliable cog the whole machine.

How are rehearsals going? 

We end a full run of the opera passing a box of tissues around, it's pretty moving! Brad Cohen is there every day refining our diction, style, tuning. Marion Potts is changing some aspects from the original Melbourne production to suit His Maj's stage and incorporating our ideas if they fit with the style of the piece. A great luxury! Iain has been here and has shown us more than the notes on a page can. If only Verdi was still able to do the same for his operas! James Clayton is singing this enormous lead role superbly.

Where did you grow up and what led you into opera? 

I grew up on a rural property in Wanneroo, my Dad grew and exported wildflowers. We moved in to Wembley in my final years of highschool at St Mary's A.G.S. I studied classical singing at St Mary's, loving Lieder and baroque music, but wasn't very keen on opera until I saw a Deborah Warner production of Britten 's Turn of the Screw at Covent Garden in 2002.

From where I sit opera singers have a grueling job. To be successful singers must have not only natural vocal talent and years of technical training, but also the tenacity to learn at least five languages, be an outstanding actor and maintain excellent physical health. All the while working late nights, travelling lots and engaging with seriously psychologically challenging roles! How do you do it?! 

You have to put yourself first, like Jennifer! Or find a partner with similar values. And have very understanding parents.  It also helps, a lot, to have a dual passport. It is an itinerant lifestyle, you have to be prepared to live away from loved ones for months at a time. I was lucky to have an intense self-improvement period at the Australian Opera Studio, be touring operas at 23 and then fall into a safe job at a German opera house at 24. I slowly added international destinations to my workload with mixed results!

Pearson and Wade Kernot

Your husband Wade Kernot is principal bass at Theatre St Gallen in Switzerland. What are your tips for managing a long-distant marriage? 

After 5 years of travelling to see each other we are now both freelancing and can even work together on operas occasionally (like The Riders). Now we travel together more often. Skype was our lifeline, we always talked through everything we were experiencing and held the same future goals in our heads. 

You finished working in Wiesbaden in 2014 and the State of Hessen awarded you the honorary title of “Kammersängerin” - the youngest opera singer to have ever received this title. Since then you seem to be much in demand around Australia and in Europe. Why did you opt for a freelance lifestyle and what is the plan for the next stage of your life? 

While I was very grateful for the nine years of salaried income at Wiesbaden, I started to get run down trying to branch out into other opera companies, keep up with family in Australia and NZ and try to start my own family. It was burning the candle at every end. I reached a point where the freelance work was enough to live on, so that when our Intendant retired in 2014, I decided not to take a "Fest position" in another company and finally move in with my husband in Switzerland.

When I last interviewed you in 2006 you had a soft spot for the role of Adele in Die Fledermaus. What is your dream role now?

Haha that is a funny reminder! I suppose it was 10 years ago. I sang my dream role last year, Violetta in La traviata for Opera Queensland. I also had a wonderful time singing Hilda in Henze ' s Elegy for Young Lovers recently. It was very challenging music but a funny/tragic Miss Haversham-type character role. I would love to perform that opera again in English (text by W. H. Auden) one day.

Opera is such a huge part of German culture where it holds intellectual and political sway. What do you feel the art form has to say to Australians, where opera isn’t so mainstream?

It is human nature to enjoy stories, escapism and live music. These days it's also rare to hear live music with your own ears, free of microphones and sound engineering. Come to the opera to be soothed or moved and hear the power of the natural human voice. I was watching a Katy Perry concert on the plane recently and with the sound down it was basically opera just without a story line. The desire for the grandeur and spectacle of our artform is still there. The main difference with Australia and Germany is Australian parents don't take their children to symphonic concerts, theatre, ballet or opera, as often. Our children become adults who are unsure of what to expect inside formal performance venues, like an adult going to church for the first time. 

Where are you spending your spare moments in Perth? 

I am trying to keep up with the changes in this lovely city since I left in 2003! I am intrigued by Print Hall in St George's Tce, Gordon 's Garage in Gordon St and love Bivouac and Sneaky Tony's in Northbridge. On weekends I visit my parents at their home in Dawesville- it's so peaceful there and the beaches from Tim's Thicket to Miami are great.

What’s it going to take for us to woo you back to Australia? 

A small male child might make an appearance in our lives in August, we hope! He will definitely make us settle down near family for a while.  

Do you have a soft spot for anything else in life or is it all about the music? 

It's mostly languages, music, art and cheese sandwiches with me these days. I have a soft spot for public libraries, big and small. I'm compiling a mental list of the vinyl albums I want to own once we settle down. I'm also trying to be a better cook and baker, thanks to the all inspiring TV show Great British Bake Off. 

Watch Emma Pearson in her debut at Opera Australia singing Queen of the Night in David Freeman's The Magic Flute.

Thank you Emma for making time for Celebrity Soft Spot. The Riders opens at His Majesty's Theatre on April 13th. For tickets go to WA Opera.  To listen to more from Emma Pearson go to https://m.soundcloud.com/emma-pearson or her website http://www.emmapearsonsoprano.com.