The Barber of Seville is a fun, fast-paced opera, with much laughter and giggles and many breathless moments of vocal talent. Two such vocal talents are brother sister duo Jane Ede and David Parkin, who play Berta and Don Basilio respectively.
We chatted to the siblings about their joint casting and found out who can hold the longest note.
So… brother and sister opera singers! Who started first?
Jane started first, she took the more usual path by studying a music/acting degree straight after school and then studied at a Conservatorium, before being fortunate enough to get her first job with OA straight out of the Conservatorium. Dave took a more unusual route in that he studied engineering and worked in IT for some years, while keeping singing as a hobby and performing in university productions before winning a singing competition and joining OA seven years ago.
Was it easier practicing and developing your skills with each other to work with?
It’s great having a sounding board in the company, we run ideas past each other and give each other encouragement and advice.
The Barber of Seville is your first opera on stage together. What is that like?
We’ve been cast together in two previous shows- Rigoletto and The Magic Flute, but never shared a scene before. It has been really fun to be onstage together, particularly in a comedy.
Are there many other brother sister roles in opera? The only reference I could find was in Strauss’ Elektra with her sister Chrysothemis (who is soprano!) and brother Orestes (who is unfortunately a baritone, sorry David… )
There are a few pairs of siblings in opera, like Sigmund and Sieglinde from the Ring cycle, Maddalena and Sparafucile in Rigoletto and Blanche and the Chevalier from Dialogue of the Carmelites. They tend to be soprano/ tenor or soprano/baritone combinations and it is probably good we wouldn’t be cast in those roles as it never turns out very well! Bass/soprano duos tend to be father/daughter, which could be a bit weird.
Barber is quite a fun opera, is it more exciting to be in these light-hearted operas or the heavy dramatic ones?
It has been great fun to be in such a comic opera, something slightly different happens every night. Dramatic operas are quite cathartic as you can pour all your emotion out, but the comic operas require a lighter touch and a lot of concentration as everything is timed to the split second.
Jane you were also in last years The Marriage of Figaro. Despite having two different composers the story is connected. Is it interesting to be in the prequel now and do you find your performance would have changed knowing the characters of Marriage?
I did think of Figaro a lot in rehearsal for Barber, and although I am not playing the same role in both operas, it is fascinating to see how the characters develop and change. The two composers have an entirely different musical style and that affects the stories and characters a lot.
If you could each perform any role, what would it be?
Dave: the Commendatore in Don Giovanni was one that I always wanted to do, and I was lucky enough to perform it in 2011. Now I’d love to perform King Phillip in Don Carlos in the future.
Jane: I have always had my eye on Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes and I think I would definitely have to have a go at Tosca one day.
And finally, if you both competed in a game of “who can hold the longest note” (in your respective range) who would win?
Dave, definitely, he’s got the bigger lung capacity, but I might pip him on volume if I picked a sufficiently high note!
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Jane and David will be onstage in The Barber of Seville, playing at the Sydney Opera House until the 22nd March. For more information visit www.opera.org.au
You can read Kat’s review of The Barber of Seville here.
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