NewAfricanWoman Issue 49 - Flipbook - Page 80
THE ARTS | OPERA MUSIC
She got a Fulbright scholarship to study music
and later gained entry into the famous Royal
Opera House’s Jette Parker Young Artists
Programme.
This mollified her parents even more — if someone else believed in financing her education,
they reasoned, there had to be some talent
there.
“Music kept me happy, kept challenging me.
I felt like I was never coasting and the results
were always pleasurable.”
Singing came about by accident — literally.
She broke her left ankle playing soccer, which
meant she had to find another extra-curricular activity. She joined the choir because she
had heard it was an easy grade and she already
knew how to read music. It was there that she
discovered that she really enjoyed it.
“I sang alto in choir because it was the most
difficult line to read. At the University of Michi-
gan, I started training as mezzo because I really
couldn’t sing that high. Once I started to sing
high during my undergrad, my teacher said
‘actually you’re probably a soprano’. I suppose I
just grew into my natural voice.”
The main characters in operatic drama are
generally played by sopranos and tenors. As
such, they are also the most stress-inducing
roles, she says.
Francesca appearing as Suzel in Mascagni’s romantic
comedy L’amico Fritz at London’s Royal Opera House.
78 l New African Woman l March 2023
Photography: Clive Barda/ROH.
No such thing as a finished article
When will she peak? She definitely still feels
she’s improving but believes that there is no
such thing as a finished article.
“As I get more experience, as my voice ages, as
my body ages, it will just be a constant work
in progress…That was hard when I was a young
singer, to know that there’s no finish line. But
it’s also what I like about it. It’s always challenging me, so I’m never coasting.”
At 31, Chiejina is still young in her industry. She
estimates that sopranos don’t reach their peak
until they’re in their 40s. And even then, you’re
still practising numerous hours a week.
Chiejina describes herself as an opera geek.
In her spare time, you will find her watching
past operas on YouTube. To this day, she says,
watching and listening to opera brings her
emotions that nothing else does. “Opera is so
dramatic on its own. The range in which sopranos sing really strikes to people’s core. I know
when I hear a lot of sopranos sing, I get chills.”
We met in Covent Garden, a stone’s throw from
the Royal Opera House. It was a little after
the tennis star Serena Williams’ retirement.
Williams was seen as an inspiration to so many
young Black girls but opera is still very much
a White environment and also seen as the
preserve of the privileged.
She acknowledges that opera does have its
issues when it comes to diversity, and, also, she
adds, it had its #metoo moment, although it
was not as public as in other industries.
As for her own role models, she says that the
spark and catalyst for diving in and pursuing
a degree in music was hearing black sopranos
on YouTube. I heard Jessie Norman first, then
I heard Marilyn Horne, who is not Black but
was one of the Leontyne Price and seeing their
faces and features, I just thought, I could be at
home here if I play my cards right.”
Getting more young Black women to join her
industry is definitely something she would like
to spend more time doing. But she pushes back
when I put it to her that the industry is seen
as old-fashioned and parochial. “We strive to
uphold the tradition [of opera] but we’re always