"Establishing your reputation is no small task," says Caitlin Hulcup. But this year has seen the mezzo soprano make a considerable impression on the international opera scene.
Hulcup had been singing the aria Dopo notte from Handel's opera Ariodante at auditions around Europe. "I was auditioning with it all over the place and not getting any joy." Eventually, she secured a concert engagement for the Boccherini Stabat mater in Paris with Les Talens Lyriques and conductor Christophe Rousset. "A year later, I got this call from them saying ‘how well do you know Ariodante’? They remembered that I'd sung Dopo notte at my audition. I told them I did know one of the other arias and I could learn the rest. They said ‘Anjelika Kirchschlager has broken her leg’, though it turned out it was a badly torn ligament."
So in March, she hastily flew to Paris to cover Kirchschlager in the title role of Ariodante at Théatre des Champs-Elysées. "I had about two weeks of production rehearsal. We were on the floor, I had no score. I had to absorb it in two days; all these coloratura runs. Nearly drove myself crazy with those. I was blocking it because it was a new production. It wasn't a case of you stand here and over there. It was ‘let's discover what's going on in this scene’. And then Angelika came and she was able to do all six of the performances in Paris."
But Kirchschlager contracted laryngitis just as the tour of Ariodante headed to London and Madrid. "I'd gone home to Berlin by then and I got the call ‘you need to fly out tonight’. The next day I had a short rehearsal and then 'you're on'. I had never sung it from the beginning to the end before. A bit terrifying but I did it; I kept my head. It was such a demanding piece that I didn't have time for any other business in my head because I had to focus on what I was doing."
She also had to put out of her mind the fact that most of the London audience arrived expecting to hear the popular Kirchschlager. "I think when you go on in that situation, you have a bit of a battle to win the hearts of people who've come to hear somebody else." But she quickly earned the audience's approval. "They wouldn't stop clapping after Scherza infida. That's never happened to me before. I was overwhelmed but I knew I had more to go, that aria's only half way through the opera. I kept focused on what was coming next."
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| Caitlin Hulcup in the title role of Ariodante in Halle [Photo: Gert Kiermeyer] |
The tough English critics were similarly impressed. The Times called her "a magnificent Ariodante". The Independent described how "this young Australian held us all spellbound", and The Daily Telegraph hailed her as "ready for a major career". According to The Financial Times, "She rode the fearsome coloratura of her great Act 1 aria with aplomb. In Scherza infida she wrung our hearts, while Dopo notte showcased her open-heartedness as well as her brilliant way with the da capo decoration". The Evening Standard added "Her stage presence is radiant, her voice rich-toned but flexible. She detonates her vocal fireworks with brilliance and deserved her rapturous applause."
The next day friends sent her the reviews by SMS as she waited at the airport for the flight to Madrid. She was so overwhelmed that she missed her flight and had to scramble to find another to deliver her there for the following day's performance. To her relief, she arrived in time and her reception in Madrid was as warm as it had been in London.
As a consequence of covering Kirchschlager in Paris, Hulcup has been asked back to Théatre des Champs-Elysées next year to sing Meg Page in Falstaff. And word of her efforts reached Germany, which led to her appearance as Ariodante at the Halle Handel Festival in June. "They do a great festival there. It's very well attended by people from all over, so it's wonderful to be part of it," she says.
Performing the work of Handel in the city of his birth was a special experience. "During the rehearsal period, when you wander round the city, you get a feel for the place and think ‘he walked around here’. There's this enormous statue of Handel in the main square and you think ‘I better do justice to his music’. I went to Händel-Haus where he grew up. It's got a great exhibit about his life, so I got to know Handel a little better than I had before."
There was a buzz about her performance in Halle, though she modestly attributes the show's success to its English director Stephen Lawless. "He drew the threads together. It's not easy with a new production, when you've got four hours to block, to think about how to keep the drama alive from the beginning to the end, and I think he really achieved it. He made our jobs that much easier to keep the audience's attention." She will visit Halle again in February for the return season of Ariodante.
Hulcup was born in Melbourne, but grew up in Perth. She had violin lessons from the age of 11 and enjoyed singing in choirs. "When I went to university, I had to decide if I would study voice or violin. I chose violin because I had this idea that I could wait and see how my voice developed. I loved chamber music and had a string quartet." The quartet won a scholarship to the Banff Center for the Arts in Canada, then disbanded while there. "I had to think about what I wanted to do next. If it wasn't going to be quartets, what would it be?" She returned to Perth and filled a vacancy in the viola section of the WASO. "I decided to have some singing lessons with Molly McGurk and just see how it would go. I'd never given singing the possibility of being my main thing until then."
For two years, she divided her time between playing with the WASO and singing in the chorus of WA Opera. "When you've been playing from the age of 11 and at 25 you think, well, I might not do that any more, it's a big change. But playing the violin taught me a great deal about intonation and rhythm and music itself. I always feel comfortable singing with an orchestra because I've played in orchestras, whereas I know some singers feel quite intimidated by the big sound an orchestra produces. Sometimes I miss the wonderful repertoire that's been written for the fiddle and I do feel a bit guilty that it's still sitting there in its box."
Her singing progressed rapidly. She became a Young Artist with WA Opera in 2000, then moved to Melbourne to study with Anna Connolly at the VCA. Connolly helped her prepare for the Young Performers' Award, in which she won the Vocal Final. The next year, she won Opera Foundation Australia's Covent Garden Scholarship and headed to London for intensive coaching at the National Opera Studio. Two years later, she won the Vienna State Opera Award. During her four months in Vienna, she covered several roles and was cast in some supporting roles. "I went on first in Bellini's I Puritani as the Queen, then in Traviata as Annina and Electra as one of the maids. It was good they used me rather than just have me waiting in the wings as a cover."
Shortly after, she signed with London agency Askonas Holt, which represents artists such as Angela Gheorghiu, Sumi Jo and Magdalena Kozená. "They could see that a big house like Vienna Staatsoper could use me. The agents can promote you as having done those roles. It's just getting off the blocks as a singer that's the hard part. It's a combination of good fortune and being prepared."
Despite increasing opportunities overseas, Hulcup is happy to make the long trip home to work. After singing Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro for Opera Queensland two years ago, she was promptly invited to return for the current season. Last month she sang the role of Hänsel in the company's production of Hänsel und Gretel. "I was pleased to come and sing this difficult role. It was a lively production and I got to run around a lot and just be a little kid. It was great. I had a Yo-Yo and there was lots of really fun stage business," she says.
When working in Europe she enjoys the company of other ex-pat singers she encounters. "I meet so many wonderful Australian singers all around the place and I'm always surprised at just how many there are. I think growing up as a young singer in Australia you don't realise that these others exist. There are other Aussies out there trying to do the same thing, break in and have a career as a singer. There's quite a few of us and we need to realise we're a kind of community."
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