Hitting the highest note in New York

by Dramelin 5:30 PM 0 comments

Crackling slightly down a transatlantic phone line, Audrey Luna has a pleasant, normal speaking voice.
But she`s only able to use it for 10 minutes.
Come Friday evening, these same vocal cords will unleash a note so dizzyingly high, so astoundingly rare, that archivists say New York`s Metropolitan Opera has never heard it in 140 years - at least, not since her last performance.
And like a world-class athlete on game day, she needs to conserve her strength.
Ms Luna is a coloratura soprano - the voice type capable of the highest notes - and specialises in thrilling, trilling vocal runs that pour out strongly even at their peaks.
Few people alive have the potential to reach the note now winning her headlines - the A above high C.
To put that in context, Christmas choristers singing the descant line of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing will usually hit a high A - some with difficulty.
Ms Luna`s note is a full octave - or eight notes - higher than that.
The opera showcasing this rarity is Thomas Adès`s The Exterminating Angel, a savage, surrealist piece based on the 1962 Luis Buñuel film of the same name.
Ms Luna plays Leticia, an opera diva who joins a well-off couple for a glittering dinner party.
Macabre twists unfold as the partygoers find they have entered a strange vortex - and are trapped in the house when the evening ends.
It`s a supernatural note for a supernatural story - and the Oregon native is hitting it twice a night.
So, how does she do it? Beyond the usual advice for better singing technique - things like watching your posture, not smoking, and avoiding air conditioning that can dry out the throat - freakish genetics must play a part, I suggest.
"I am not a scientist!" laughs the singer, "but it`s something I`ve been training for years.
I`ve always kind of wondered what the limits are to my voice, and it wasn`t until I met Tom Adès and I saw his score for The Tempest [in which she played the sprite Ariel in 2012] that I saw notes that I had never sung before.
"And when I was asked to actually do the role, I was like, `Is that something I can do, time and time again?` I found it was easy - it came easily to me.
Then, I guess he had to just write one step higher for this! He showed me on paper, saying, `this is the approach you would take`.
I said, `what do you mean, approach?! There is no approach - it`s just bang, out, sing the A!" What does she think about when she`s trying to hit that highest note? "Well, I`m off-stage because it is an off-stage laugh.
and there`s a lot of people around me.
It`s kind of claustrophobic backstage.
All the crew is there, all the singers are there because we`re just about to make our first entrance.
It feels like psychologically everyone`s there to do their job.
so it kind of takes the pressure off me, in a way.
Everything goes really quickly at that moment.
" Nature and nurture? The singer was just 10 when she started voice lessons.
"I stopped violin, piano, flute, dance - I stopped all of it!" she recalls.
"But that`s the one thing I held on to, because I loved it.
" "Queen of the Night was something I was singing far too young.
I was singing it behind my voice teacher`s back, at the time - she didn`t know I was doing it.
" The famous aria from Mozart`s Magic Flute, where the Queen of the Night throws a vocally spectacular temper tantrum, is out of range for almost all sopranos as it repeatedly runs up to an F, two notes below Ms Luna`s latest showpiece.
Nowadays, she is careful to protect her voice.
But if I`d been hoping to hear the secrets of her brilliance, they sound disappointingly like standard self-care.
On off-days, she goes on long walks or does some yoga.
"Rest is key," she advises.
"Seriously - it sounds silly, but sleep is the most important thing, I think, for an opera singer.
And not talking too much in-between show days.
"For me in this role, it`s like maxing out on the weights.
If you go to the gym and lift the very most you possibly can or something - that`s what singing this role is like.
It`s unlike any role I`ve ever seen - probably that`s ever been written.
It really does stretch the voice to its very limits.
" Any diet rules? A few, she says.
"The couple of hours before a show I`m not going to have any coffee, I`m going to stick to water.
I like my ginger tea!" New York`s Metropolitan Opera is beyond the reach of many, both financially and geographically.
A cinema trip may not be, though - and the Met`s Live in HD series will be beaming the 18 November performance of The Exterminating Angel live into movie theatres around the world.
You can find your nearest one here.
Spoilers: She thinks she`s got a higher note.
Despite the plaudits pouring in for her current vocal feat, Ms Luna is pretty sure she can go higher.
"I`ve sung a C above C - a couple of notes higher than the A, just in a practice room.
" Now she just needs an opera to put it in.