Christchurch soprano Anna Argyle is one her way. The 23-year-old has won acclaim on the competition circuit, has an emerging artist internship with New Zealand Opera, and last week performed her first lead role in Southern Opera’s production of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. Laura Caygill tracked her down before opening night.
Anna Argyle is not one to be in your face, but sometimes the fates work to put her in that position. Like when her phone is broken. “I was in Ballantynes and my friend rang me to wish me luck,” the young soprano says down the phone line, just home from a morning about town. “This woman came up to me and said, ‘Excuse me, you do know your phone’s on speaker-phone?’ I said to her, ‘I’m really sorry if I disturbed you, my phone’s broken.”
Argyle has spent the morning at the Rita Angus exhibition at the Christchurch Art Gallery and “mooching around” Ballantynes with her Mum, having coffee and taking things easy before her big debut. “It’s felt like this week’s gone really slowly,” she says, her voice ringing with the tone of someone who wants to relax but cannot quite get there – things are simply far too exciting.
For the New Zealand Opera intern, tonight is Christmas morning – only she already knows what she’ll be getting. Tonight she will tread the boards in Gianni Schicchi. It’s her first lead role in an opera and she’s excited. “This has been amazing for a first role,” she says. “It could not have been better. It’s been amazing working with people like Martin Snell and Mark Hadlow. He’s treated us all like equals and we’ve just had so much fun. “I’m looking forward to people seeing it,” she adds, quickly trying to take the attention away from herself.
Being comfortably confident in her apparent talent is something Argyle has only recently settled into, which seems strange considering the high praise her associates heap on the singer. The Australian twang of Virgilio Marino, playing Argyle’s lover Rinuccio in Schicchi, drips with admiration for his co-star. “She’s just lovely. She has beautiful presence on stage, and in the role she’s playing she has that really sweet, innocent, country Florentine quality. At such a young age she just has a very easy soprano. It’s uncomplicated and it’s quite easy flowing. It’s not hard work for her. But that’s what it’s all about – making it as effortless as possible and making it to the ear as smooth and legato as possible. Especially with the aria.” The aria he is referring to is Schicchi’s most famous number, O MioBabbino Caro, made famous by the great diva Maria Callas. Argyle has big shoes to fill. “But you can’t worry about that,” says Marino.
And true to form, Argyle is keeping Callas’ empty shoes, lingering stage right though they may be, firmly out of sight: “Lots of other people have sung it before me and I feel really special to be singing it.” She already has the bonus in singing it in English, not the Italian in which Callas made it famous. “I love it in both,” she says, as if not wanting to offend either language. “It’s probably a lot more beautiful in Italian, but it fits with what we are doing in English. It’s harder to sing in English. You’ve got to have really clear diction or you lose the story. It’s really important and vital for the plot that people hear what’s being said.”
Southern Opera’s executive chair Chris Doig has every faith in her abilities to claim the aria as her own. “There’s something very unique about her sound,” he says. “And she’s a lovely, lovely girl. She’s the reason behind Southern Opera – the day she’s singing her first recital in Covent Garden.” Just in case we missed his enthusiasm, he adds: “Anna Argyle, in my view, has the potential to be the next great New Zealand singer.”
Does Argyle know she is thought of so highly? It seems she knows, but is yet to fully believe it. It took her a longer time than some to even decide singing would be her chosen career. A choir girl from a young age, she began singing lessons in secondary school and then learnt from Dame Malvina Major at the University of Canterbury – but it was an honours degree in history that took her focus first. “I still remember the time I decided to take it more seriously,” she says. “When I finished doing honours in history I thought, ‘What will I do?’ I just decided to do honours in singing last year. “This being my first opera it’s a special time to reflect on that time. I feel incredibly lucky that I was given the opportunity to be in this opera. “I suppose I’m beginning to have more confidence in my voice, but it’s quite hard being a soprano because there are so many. I’m just going to do my own thing.”
Her own thing involves completing her Dame Malvina Major Emerging Artist internship with New Zealand Opera, and taking her voice to Europe. She has hopes of winning a coveted scholarship to get there. “I’m hoping to audition at the end of this year, probably for schools in the UK, and also in opera studios in Europe. I think auditioning in person gives you an advantage.” For now, she’ll settle for the excitement of having her mum and younger sister see her first big show. A nap is calling, and then she has notes from a dress rehearsal to go over before the big night. “This will always be incredibly special,” she beams.