Kieran Carrel – Mein Seelenort: London - Deutsche Oper Berlin
Kieran Carrel – My happy place: London
Kieran Carrel is as multi-faceted in his singing career as London, his city of choice. And without London he would not have become an opera singer
The place I feel most contented in is London. Not any particular area or square; the city as a whole. It’s not just the visual aspect; it’s really dynamic and bursting with culture wherever you go. If I had to compare it to a human being it would be an elderly person with youthful verve, someone a little eccentric but cool and on-message and with the wrinkles and folds of lived experience. It’s a great place to be catapulted into life.
When I was nineteen, I moved to London to study at the Royal Academy of Music. Previous to that I’d been on a course in Cologne. I’m half British, half German, and spent most of my formative years in Germany. I wasn’t happy in Cologne. I was chucked out of the college after a semester for failing an aural training exam, and it looked like my dream of becoming a singer was over. A dark time for me, but then I was accepted by the Royal Academy and even got a grant.
For the first time ever I had the feeling of being really appreciated as a singer. I’ll always associate that with London. I loved studying and living there, and I really flung myself into it. My day began at 8am, I’d be doing History of Music in Chinatown at 9am and then it was off to Marylebone, seminars at the Academy until late afternoon, attending plays, concerts, operas every evening in the West End, walking back home through the hip areas. You’d think it was exhausting, but I never got tired.
At the Academy I began to lean towards cultivating a broad knowledge of sub-genres: concert performance, lieder, opera… My background was in the kunstlied, oratorios; my passion for opera came late. I was 17 when I saw my first opera: Rossini’s LA DONNA DEL LAGO at the Royal Opera House in London. The tickets were a gift from my father. I suddenly knew what it felt like to be hit squarely between the eyes by an operatic voice.
My teacher in London backed me in the direction I was taking. One day the Head of Vocal Studies asked me: »Would you be interested in performing at Wigmore Hall?« The Wigmore? The High Temple of chamber music? The great pianist Graham Johnson was looking for a soprano and tenor to make up a trio, so suddenly there I was, up on that legendary London stage singing Schubert’s »Hochzeitsbraten« in an ill-fitting dinner jacket that I’d picked up on the hoof – a rather silly work, if I’m honest.
I gradually got into the acting side of things. I’ve never stopped wanting to really get into what makes my characters tick. Why that is, I’m not sure. We attended drama classes as part of the course, but we studied the basic craft, not Shakespeare. Anyone who’s had to act out a colour or been fed the Chekhov or Lecoq methods knows it’s not that easy. But I was getting increasingly positive feedback. Shortly before I moved to Berlin I sang the role of Rinaldo in Haydn’s ARMIDA. I really tackled the psychological challenge head-on, portraying a knight torn between his feelings and his sense of duty.
At the Deutsche Oper Berlin I’ve got a whole raft of parts which I can really go to town with, acting-wise. One such role is Count Almaviva in Rossini’s THE BARBER OF SEVILLE. In Katharina Thalbach’s production the part is physically quite stressful, with me constantly moving around and changing my clothes. It’s a lot of fun, and audiences are really into it. I’m also looking forward to playing Alfred, the singing teacher in Johann Strauss’s THE BAT, another comic role, which I’m mugging up on at the moment. But I love doing serious characters, too. With Erik in Wagner’s THE FLYING DUTCHMAN you’ve got a huntsman trapped in a welter of emotions and looking on as he makes the same mistake again and again. Quite a complex character profile.
For a long time I was telling myself: Opera? That’s not you. Not until I got to London did I realise what an amazing art form it is, how it blends acting, music, sets and costumes into a creative whole - and realise that I could make my way in that world.
