My Cotswold Life: Sarah Connolly
Cotswold-based mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly is performing at Wycliffe College this month to help raise funds for her daughter’s school. Interview with Katie Jarvis; photography by Antony Thompson
Opera superstar Sarah Connolly has been described as a national treasure. But whenever she takes to the stage, there’s always one particular critic she has to please: her eight-year-old daughter, Lily. “She came to the dress rehearsal of Der Rosenkavalier at the London Coliseum recently, and noticed that I was laughing in a scene with John Tom (the great Wagnerian, Sir John Tomlinson). I’m a terrible corpser!” Sarah says.
Lily also loves her music, a talent that is encouraged by her school, Wycliffe College. The college is raising money for a new electric organ and, as its Patron of Music for 2012, Sarah will be giving a fundraising concert in the chapel on March 10.
Where do you live and why?
I live high up in Selsley village (near Stroud) in a house that was the village post office until 1920. When we went to view it, my husband, Carl, walked into every room and saw problems; I walked into every room and saw charm! But I wasn’t worried because I know Carl’s ability; he’s very practical and hands on. He’s also very good at looking after Lily. I do the mummy-girly stuff and he does the discipline. Whenever I walk in from being away, I intervene at my peril!
How long have you lived in the Cotswolds?
I moved here gradually from London in 1998 and settled totally in 2000, but Carl was brought up in the area; his parents were the principals of the Cotswold Chine (special school) in Minchinhampton. When I met him, he was living in Stow-on-the-Wold in a hut. I thought it was quite cute until I realised there was no loo! His friends thought it was hilarious that he was marrying an opera singer. He’s from a totally different culture – a Wynstone’s boy into reggae music.
What’s your idea of a perfect weekend in the Cotswolds?
Lily and I would go for a nice walk – usually Selsley, Rodborough or Minchinhampton Common – or get into the car and drive to Uley Fort, overlooking Stephen Fry’s former prep school. In the evening, we’d get a curry in from the Balti on the Bath Road – there’s only one place that does excellent curry for us and we always get the chicken korma. Then, on the Sunday, we’d have a lie-in, get the papers, light a fire, and then go for a pub lunch at the Black Horse in Amberley or the Crown in Frampton Mansell. I certainly wouldn’t say I lead a glamorous life in Stroud; perfection, for me, is all about not having to take off my wellies when I go into a pub!
If money were no object, where would you live in the Cotswolds?
I quite like the idea of town houses in villages. There’s a lovely one in Minchinhampton that used to belong to the Trollope family, which would be somewhere I could indulge my taste and make things more modern; I don’t like chintz. What we’ve done here at home is to slightly update the Cotswold style but keep with natural materials – it’s lovely to have wood, and stone floors.
Where are you least likely to live in the Cotswolds?
In an ultra-modern brick house – I like houses that have got a history – or in a housing estate, or next door to someone. I make a lot of noise, being a singer. I’m lucky, at my flat in London, that people around me don’t seem to mind. In fact, the lady next door is a singer as well!
Where’s the best pub in the area?
The Crown at Frampton Mansell. They do good food and you can go for a nice walk afterwards. In New York, my pub equivalent would be to go for brunch – the Boathouse in Central Park or Café Luxembourg.
And the best place to eat?
If I’m going for posh, I’d say Le Manoir (aux Quat’Saisons, Oxford). Carl and I are planning to have our 50th there. Our birthdays are six months apart.
Have you a favourite tearoom?
I like Mills Café in Stroud and the Kitchen in Minchinhampton.
What would you do for a special occasion?
Champagne, always. And I keep a bottle of nice white wine in the fridge: I like impromptu and I like surprises. I think that’s the reason why I like acting so much; I try to focus on it as much as on the singing. Acting is about living in the present and about accepting what people give you – seeing how well you respond to them. One of the exercises theatre directors do is to throw a ball and see what your reactions are like.
What’s the best thing about the Cotswolds?
Little villages nestling in amongst the valleys.
… and the worst?
The weather, when it’s wet and windy. I could do without grey skies.
Which shop could you not live without?
Stroud Waitrose. Before I go away, I tend to do a bit of a bulk-cook, which I’ll freeze – soups, bolognaise sauces, stews. I do one opera job abroad a year and then I’m away for a month. In the last few years, it’s been New York; this summer, it was Aix-en-Provence. Carl will always join me for a week or two, with Lily, which is where her school is so understanding.
What’s the most underrated thing about the Cotswolds?
An awful lot of people don’t know about the Cotswolds at all. Americans tend to have heard about them because there’s a lot of marketing done over there, but Europeans have no idea; I have to say I live “chez Oxford” or “chez Bristol”.
What would be a three-course Cotswold meal?
Cream of parsnip soup with homemade chicken stock and garlic; a side of beef or leg of lamb from Stroud Farmers’ Market, with roast potatoes; and a fruit crumble.
What’s your favourite view in the Cotswolds?
From Painswick Beacon.
What’s your quintessential Cotswolds village and why?
Bisley: it’s the aspect of the roofs – the higgledy-piggledly look of the place. There’s something charming about almost every house you see.
Name three basic elements of the Cotswolds.
Skies; Cotswold stone tiles (I once did a concert in Selsley Church to raise money for Cotswold stone tiles; now I’d like them on my house!); Green grass, flecked with autumn colours, on a sunny day.
What’s your favourite Cotswolds building and why?
Not one building but a collection: I love looking down on a village and seeing how it’s evolved. Villages have characters.
What would you never do in the Cotswolds?
Go out in the cold and the wind, especially under a grey sky. Cold, strong winds have an adverse effect on my lungs; I have to be very careful. It’s not very sexy but, if I have a show coming up, I often wear scarves in bed! Our bedroom windows aren’t very well sealed.
Starter homes or executive properties?
I get upset when starter homes are built irresponsibly, but I love the way Stroud has taken care at the bottom of Selsley Hill to created affordable homes sensitively. When Lily is older, she can either live in my flat in London, or she can sell it. I don’t know how other people manage.
What are the four corners of the Cotswolds?
Hidcote; Selsley; Lechlade;Tetbury. As far as singing is concerned, the four corners of my world are New York; Dresden; Norway; Aix en Provence.
If you lived abroad, what would you take to remind you of the Cotswolds?
I wouldn’t want to live abroad but I would take photographs of the family and the house. I like to taking pictures myself – changing seasons, flowers emerging. When we got our cats, they’d never seen a tree before, and I took loads of pictures of them. We’d just got them as kittens when I was due to perform at Glyndebourne, so I asked Louise Flind, George Christie’s daughter, if I could stay in one of the cottages and bring the cats. She said, ‘What a bizarre request but why not!’
What would you change or banish from the Cotswolds?
I’d like to add more performing arts. Lily will often ask me, “Why do you have to keep going away, mummy?” And the answer is that, apart from the odd summer festival in Tetbury which is only a week, the Three Choirs and Cheltenham Festival, there is no work for me around here.
One day, I’d like to set up a festival here in Selsley; it’s a work-in-progress that Susan Edwards, who lives up the road, and I are thinking about: a competition where all schools can compete, with a choir performance at the end of it. But my lifestyle is so itinerant, at the moment, that I can’t contemplate it.
What’s the first piece of advice you’d give to somebody new to the Cotswolds?
Buy a pair of wellingtons, a thick, waterproof coat, a scarf and a hat.
And which book should they read?
A good set of walking maps and a pub guide.
Which event, or activity, best sums up the Cotswolds?
I’d like to mention the recital I’m doing for Wycliffe. A few years ago, I was asked to give a master-class to the prep school, which is unusual because the bodies of 11-year-olds haven’t really started to grow. I imagined they’d understand almost nothing about technique but, to my delight, Fiona Stone the singing teacher had really taught them the basics of breathing and support.
Singing is clearly a big deal at Wycliffe, so I was delighted when the school asked if I would be patron of music for 2012, which would incorporate raising money for a new organ. At the moment, they’ve got a broken-down pipe organ in their chapel, which barely functions though they have services every day. They can’t afford the hundreds of thousands needed to replace it so they’re going to buy a £30,000 electric organ instead. I’ll be performing a huge mixed bag, with Handel arias in the first half, and Gloucestershire composers in the second; for the encore, I thought I’d sing Rule Britannia, with audience participation. I’ve also asked that the children are involved in the programme.
If you were invisible for a day, where would you go and what would you do?
I’d sit in on one of my daughter’s classes and see what goes on. Just like me, she’s very sensitive to what people think of her. I shouldn’t mind what critics say about me but I do, good and bad; I don’t read them anymore.
To whom or what should there be a Cotswolds memorial?
Ivor Gurney and Herbert Howells should have the same recognition in Gloucestershire that Edward Elgar has in the Malverns. Herbert Howells has a window in Gloucester Cathedral and I think Ivor Gurney should have one dedicated to him, too.
The Cotswolds – aspic or asphalt?
Preserve them. Crafts, particularly, need to be passed down.
What attitude best sums up the Cotswolds?
Friendliness and welcome, especially from the real locals.
With whom would you most like to have a cider?
Ivor Gurney: I’d like to have met him before he got gassed and damaged by the war. He was an odd man – a loner – but I think we’d have found a way to communicate. I did a dissertation on him at the Royal College of Music and there are many questions I’d like to ask him, such as why he found song his outlet. I always include him in any English song repertoire; his music is so haunting.
Sarah Connolly will be performing at Wycliffe College Chapel on Saturday, March 10 at 7.30pm, in aid of the college chapel organ fund. Tickets, including drinks and canapés, are available from Jessica.Gray@wycliffe.co.uk, 01453 852822.
For a full schedule of Sarah’s concerts, visit www.sarah-connolly.com
