Four times a lady

• Published in: Independent (London, England : 1986)
• Main Author: Ashman, Mike
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: London (UK) Independent Digital News & Media 24.02.1998
• ISSN: 0951-9467

It's amazing what three-quarters of a bottle of wine can do for a singer. Take the soprano Rosa Mannion, who tonight sings all four of the female leads in the ENO staging of Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann. She had wanted to be the next Florence Nightingale, but then "I went completely berserk and said `I want to audition for music college now.' " So it was that she was called up on short notice - she was having a barbecue at the time - to cover the famously difficult Constanze in Mozart's Seraglio for Glyndebourne. Then there was an unusual Mozart production. "One of my best friends in the whole world, Amanda Roocroft, and I were Fiordiligi and Dorabella in John Eliot Gardiner's Cosi. He wasn't just conducting it; he was directing it. And he had a major concept: the two sisters would be interchangeable. One could happily come out with what the other was thinking. And John Eliot wanted that in terms of singing. His original idea was, `I'll say to you in the wings, you're singing Smanie implacibili tonight - to Fiordiligi - and you'll be singing Come scoglio - to Dorabella' ". "We sort of took a deep breath and said, "Interesting . . ." - in absolute fear and terror as to whether we warm up to top Cs or not on the night. Then he changed his mind and wanted us to try phrase about. One would start an aria, sing a phrase - then the other would take over. We finally compromised: we would each have one phrase of each other's aria to sing. We enjoyed it, and worked out a few gags round it - and we've actually got that on the CD. Some people can't tell which phrase it is, which I think is fascinating."