OPERA DIVA NOT ALL TALK

The Evening Chronicle -- Gordon Barr

Forget any notions of female opera singers being big-built, stuffy divas. Showbusiness Reporter Gordon Barr meets one who is anything but ...

New Yorkers are known for their zaniness. And they don't come much zanier than Christianne Tisdale - in a nice way, of course.

She arrives in Newcastle for the first time today with Opera North and has already been brushing up on the local dialect.

"I love England, I love the fact that each region has its endearments. So you have Yorkshire which is `luv', the one up in Newcastle I understand is `pet'. And these endearments are for strangers. We don't have those in New York, we don't talk to strangers unless they're looking for directions," she says in her broad Big Apple drawl.

"It's really funny, we don't do that despite the fact that I think New York is one of the friendliest places in the world and there is not a more helpful group of people in the world."

Christianne, who spent Easter back home in the USA, is playing the role of Molly in Opera North's working of the Broadway musical One Touch of Venus.

But she's suffering somewhat on the day we speak. "I've got a terrible cold. I never get sick, and I got sick last Monday in New York and we had a performance in Norwich Thursday and all I could think of was `what if I cancel now? I could stay home an extra 9 days'. I travelled 17 out of 24 hours to do this show in Norwich and it came off like a dream. Came off like a dream, went home next day, sick as a dog again. Adrenaline is a wondrous thing."

This is Christianne's first time with Opera North, which is at the Theatre Royal this week. "What a great group of people, so talented, so adventurous.

"I had heard about Opera North for years but I hadn't sung opera in over 10 years. My role is certainly not operatic - I actually feel I offend with some of the sounds I am making. But Opera North has a great reputation for doing what I'm going to call edgy work.

"They're not at all afraid to take risks, and I love that. And it's one of my first grown-up roles. I won't say how old I am but I tend to lead much younger roles.

"Two summers ago my understudy was 14 years younger. It had me in hysterics. But it was lovely.

"One thing about working over here, though - I'm not used to tea breaks. They say, `right, tea everyone' and I think, `do I have to drink tea? How does this work?'. We have what we call Equity breaks. And I like the British men. I would like to be a Viscountess, I think that would be nice."

Christianne talks for Britain too, and has had an array of non-singing jobs to help pay the bills throughout her career. "I worked for my brother, that was strange. The one thing I trained at was legal proofreading, which is looking at legal documents for mistakes.

"I got out of opera school at 25 years old, not many people are going to hire you unless you are of an extraordinary vocal talent and I was not, so I went into legal proofreading and became a legal assistant and did grad school and it paid the bills and then I worked for a notorious firm on Wall Street for a while and that paid the bills and then I was tired of doing other things to pay the bills. I realised opera wasn't it for me so I swapped over into other aspects of performing and it's been easy-going every since. Haven't had to pick up a pencil, go down to a courthouse or anything!"

Talk for Britain? You were warned. But she can also sing like an angel too, as can be heard on her CD, Just A Map - A Lullaby To The World, in which she sings lullabies in more than 12 languages, from Spanish and Russian to Farsi and Irish Gaelic, with a portion of the proceeds donated to charities dedicated to peace and human rights awareness.

"It was so much fun and it's actually made a profit!"