(288 Pages, Echo Publishing)
I guess there are some people who might view me as being something of a cultural philistine, as while I have attended many hundreds of gigs over the years, been to some great musicals (the highlight surely being seeing Topol in ‘Fiddler on the Roof’), and reviewed literally thousands of albums, I have never attended a ballet or opera performance. I am not sure that is going to be any different in the future, but I do know this memoir has totally changed how I think of the performers onstage who are not in the lead role. Here we have the story of Katherine Wiles, who like any serious singer envisaged herself as one day having her name up in lights, but instead ended up taking a different path, namely that of being in the chorus. Katherine is a full-time professional opera singer, something of which she is very proud (and often says how lucky she is), and rightly so as this book lays bare not only the antics she has got up to over the years, and the amusing things which have taken place, but the sheer hard work and dedication she has put in to become a master of her craft.
As I said earlier, I have never studied opera even though my mother was a fan and took part in various productions before I was born, so I have only a passing knowledge of some of the pieces Katherine references, but lack of knowledge did not have any adverse impact on the enjoyment of this book due to the pace and the way she writes. The book never takes Katherine too seriously, providing plenty of light-hearted comments here and there, yet never denigrating the hard work which goes into maintaining her career. I had not previously imagined that singers would have to undergo language coaching to ensure they sang lines in the correct manner in a language they may not speak, or how many operas they may be working on at once, or even what impact the costume may have on their performance or just how physical much of this is. I came away feeling that Katherine had opened the curtain just a little for us readers to understand how a shy little girl from Hamilton, New Zealand, found herself performing on one of the world’s most iconic stages, the Sydney Opera House? I certainly have a much better understanding of what singers in the choir go through, and highly recommend this book which is a very good read indeed.
