Is there a stereotypical opera singer?

There are lots of presumptions around most topics, but I think there are few topics with more presumptions surrounding them than opera singers and classical music. Opera singers can be stereotyped as everything from very quiet and conservative to flamboyant and confident.

I admit that I have been guilty of holding the preconception of opera being old fashioned and boring, something I think I can partially credit to my grandparents for after associating it with what I felt was their old fashioned tastes.

I interviewed Ellie Beach, a trained opera singer as well as pianist, in order to gain an insider’s view around this topic. In many ways Ellie fits the stereotypical opera enthusiast and singer, particularly due to her upbringing; she is white British, living in a desirable area, and going to a respected all girls grammar school, very much fitting the middle class mould. She recognises the negative preconceptions surrounding this high-brow art form, agreeing with me that ‘it’s seen as quite stuffy by lots of people’. Ellie is, in my opinion, as far from stuffy as a person can be; she is quirky, unique and always thinks outside of the box. So what was it that brought Ellie to the ‘old fashioned’ world that is opera?

Was it Ellie’s upbringing that initiated her passion for music? Can an upbringing really have such a profound effect on a person? Ellie’s parents are, in her words, ‘not musical at all. It was never really something they were proponents of, they never pushed me into classical music’. It was when her godmother gave her piano lessons that she realised Ellie was a natural singer, and then gave her singing lessons. From then Ellie was always keen to practice at home, something she thinks her parents did not really understand. I wonder if this potentially helped encourage Ellie into pursuing it; it was always her choice and never an obligation or chore.

Both Ellie and I agree that opera is an intellectual interest; there is a certain level of intelligence required in order to be able to access this lavish art form. Not only is there the long duration of an opera, but also the language barrier requires additional concentration. Even for a professionally trained opera singer, Ellie will admit that ‘you do have to be switched on for two to three hours while you’re watching it; it’s not something you can just go to on a whim… It’s a very intense thing to watch.’

In my mind, her extravagant and extraverted personality broke my, arguably closed minded, perception of a classical musician. Yet having spoken to Ellie, I now feel that this is a very naïve perception. She claims that ‘Most musicians that I’ve met are more creative types … a lot of my friends are actually really extraverted.’ Ellie believes opera has an ‘element of flamboyance’, and hence it attracts flamboyant people, both as participants and in the audience; ‘it’s all really ‘eccentric people that like opera because it’s such an eccentric art’. This is much more fitting to her personality than the introverted and quiet school girl so often associated with particularly young opera singers.

I think the key message Ellie has shown here is the importance of breaking down these social barriers and expectations; art forms such as opera should be available to all, including young and old, introverted and extraverted. 5