THE LAST OPERA SINGER

“You are born an artist or you are not. And you stay an artist. The artist is always there…” -Maria Callas

That’s how I met her. She was listening to Maria Callas. On a tape deck. Callas had been dead about three years. But her tessitura voice still blazed forth. Bizet’s “Carmen Habanera”. The old 1962 version. She was singing along.  In the hallway of the music music school, on a windy September day. She could give Maria Callas a run for her money. Any day.

She was unique. She was true blue. With a laugh  so musical you’d think she was going to break out into song. Any minute. She kinda did. Any opportunity.

During opera season we were deep in rehearsals. But it was before rehearsal that she shone. She would sing in the cafeteria. A place crowded with musicians and students. We would all have cheesecake in front of us. She would sing and conduct our cheesecakes. 

She liked to sing snippets from forgotten opera singers…like Elda di Veroli’s aria  that  Norina sings  in” Don Pasquale”. “Quel guardo, il cavaliere in mezzo al cor trafisse…”(“that look, pierced the knight in the middle of the heart..” )…..then she would laugh and eat cheesecake. 

One time, in the dregs of the music school, she burst out  with Freddy Mercury’s favourite gospel  number “Somebody to Love”. She sounded more like Aretha Franklin then. Acoustics made her voice ring out.

They were amazing times.  They were  incredible times. 

I played for her  numerous concerts. Violin to her Voice. She taught me how to improvise.She was easy going. Relaxed.  She always had fun with it. And she showed us all how to let it all go.

“I’m going to be the last Opera Singer!”  she said back then and laughed.

The bravest one to get up and sing “Respect” by Aretha Franklin in the Inner Harbour one Sunday. She loved an audience. They loved her.

When she got married, I was there. Roses galore and she looked like a queen. Then she moved away. I didn’t hear from her for years.

I tracked her down  some twenty years later. She was still singing. She was still music. She had a daughter. I saw her once  since then. Her laugh still sounded like music.  She sang less opera. 

She chose to sing “Chain of Fools” by Aretha Franklin, on my doorstep. I  think the neighbours heard her. There was applause from down below our hill….

Long distance was never a roadblock. On our phone calls she would still laugh and say: “I’m still the Last Opera Singer”. 

She said that the last time we spoke. Then she was gone.

She loved to sing  “Made in Heaven” by Freddie Mercury, so sometimes I turn it up loud and let it  go: 

“Made in heaven, It’s all for to see. It was really meant to be…”. That was Sue. She was all that and more…….

Photographs 2021