Rising opera star Mary McCabe knows how to make an entrance. The soprano from Downpatrick sweeps into the downtown café, with a bouquet, looking dramatic. She can’t wait to talk about her new role, Tatyana, in Northern Ireland Opera’s Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky. “It’s a dream role and it suits my voice. The character is so beautiful, she’s a bit of a daydreamer and a wee country girl at the start who wears her heart on her sleeve, that I can relate to.” Our heroine falls head over heels for Mr Onegin and writes to him, declaring her love in a famous aria. “I sing for about fifteen minutes in act one, she’s pouring her heart and soul into that letter and I can relate to that too. It’s really passionate and she just has to tell him how she feels even though she’s just met him.”
How McCabe feels about her first lead role is equally heartfelt. “I was elated. I’ve been waiting for this moment all my life and have to pinch myself. It’s amazing, to be taking on a major role in the Grand Opera House with Northern Ireland Opera.” The excitement is also about sharing a stage with some big names in opera. Mary is thrilled to be cast opposite Yuriy Yurchuk. “He is an excellent Onegin, has played him before and is very tall so I shall have to lean up to him.”
Rehearsals for Northern Ireland Opera’s new production start in the mid-August – McCabe is looking forward to working with some familiar faces from the principal cast: ‘I had the privilege of working with Yuriy Yurchuk on La Traviata back in 2022 when I covered the role of Violetta. Sarah Richmond (Olga) and I have performed many times throughout the years at various concerts and Jenny Bourke (Filipevna) taught Sarah and myself at Queen’s University when we studied for our undergraduate degrees. Carolyn Dobbin and I both appeared in the film ‘Old Friends and Other Days’ directed by Cameron Menzies, who will also be directing this production.’
Asked about the qualities that make a good opera singer, McCabe says theatrical skill is important. “I think you need to act and sing to be a convincing opera singer, otherwise it’s just pretty music. You want to engage with what is a large audience.” The singer’s musical hero would be Maria Callas whose voice she fell in love with – “I remember hearing her on a record at home when I was young, and that was it”.
Opera can be a big scale, extravagant art form, but McCabe says that it accurately reflects the emotional side of life. “In my life, with the ups and downs of tumultuous relationships, I find it relatable. ”
Mary was lucky that her school discovered and fostered her talent. “ My father wrote country music but we weren’t really into classical music as a family. At the Convent of Mercy, they did a music test to discover your ability and I started to play the ‘cello when I was eight.” Singing came later. “I would sing along to recordings and could sing high. I took lessons from the age of fourteen and my teacher, Nuala Murray, told me I had something special and should concentrate on it.” This was a surprise to Mary McCabe’s mother, who when her young daughter said she wanted to be an opera singer, retorted ‘Don’t be silly, dear, you have to have a voice’. She had, and has, as audiences can hear when she makes her debut.
It is hard work and McCabe reveals that she sings around three hours a day, practising work and perfecting technique. She is now nearly “off copy” with Eugene Onegin and wants to enjoy the rehearsal process. One thing the singer has to watch is catching a cold. “I’m an expert on coughs and colds and on the bus, listen to anybody coughing near me, thinking ‘Is that a sick cough or are they just a smoker?’”
McCabe is a linguist and studied French and music at Queen’s University, gaining a first. She is also able to read and write Russian. She joined NI Opera when it was founded in 2010. “I was in the first intake of young singers, then under Oliver Mears.”. When not training, McCabe relaxes down the gym. She listens to music and her mixtape includes Celine Dion and Whitney Houston – “all the pop anthems”, she says with a laugh. But Edith Piaf remains her favourite chanteuse in another genre.
Future ambitions include playing Mimi in La Boheme and Violetta in La Traviata, a role she understudied when NI Opera put it on in 2022. “La Traviata was the first opera I ever saw, in Zeffirelli’s film version, with the brilliantly cast Placido Domingo. It gave me a deep love of the art form. But I also love acting and would like to do some if I have time.”
But you will have the chance to experience Mary McCabe’s exceptional talents in Eugene Onegin when she takes to the stage in her debut role in front of her home town audience in Belfast’s Grand Opera House. As she says, being an opera singer requires total dedication and is ike the life of a top athlete as you live for your calling. “It’s like the aria in Tosca, Vissi d’arte, about living for art or like the life of an athlete. You’ve made so many sacrifices, financial, family, but it’s worth it, as I am doing what means the world to me.”
Jane Hardy
