Tricia Ninian talks to David Shipley, the ever-youthful bass with extended shelf life
David Shipley in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg for The Royal Opera in 2017. Picture: Clive Barda
David Shipley and I haven’t met before so it it’s fortuitous that our shared state of post-workout glow provides something of an ice-breaker. He confesses to having been on a run now that he’s back in his North London home having just returned from Glasgow and Edinburgh with Scottish Opera singing Nick Bottom in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. David tells me he lives within spitting distance of the Emirates Stadium, so I have to ask whether he’s an Arsenal fan (having been a Gooner my whole life) – more ice-breaking, here: “Well I can’t confess to being fanatic about the team, but I guess I’m more of a general sports fan. However, actually it’s F1 that really excites me, and I’m already pumped up for the start of the season,” admits David. OK, introductions made; let’s get stuck into some opera talk now!
As with our soprano and mezzo-soprano friends, I’m keen to find out how David got sucked into this operatic life. “I’ve been immersed in music my whole life, but initially mainly church music. My dad (Stephen Shipley) was for many years the producer of BBC Radio 3’s Choral Evensong so Cathedral life seemed to be the norm for me. He was also Precentor at Ely Cathedral and my brother was a chorister there. For me, having been a boy chorister at Lichfield Cathedral I was really lucky to go to Shrewsbury School which had an absolutely top notch music department (I even dabbled a bit with the French Horn there). Then for my gap year, I spent the time as a choral scholar at Wells Cathedral before going onto first the Royal Academy of Music and then to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama on the opera course.
“Actually, despite his working life being pretty exclusively church music, my dad has always not only loved opera, but has a considerable knowledge of the whole genre, so I guess that was where the passion started for me,” admits David. “In fact, I think where it really started in earnest for me was my first ever visit to the Royal Opera House – about 17 years ago – to see Sir David McVicar’s famous production of Die Zauberflöte. After that, I knew I had to ‘do’ opera myself.”
The Covid issue always has a way of entering the discussion for singers of the world and David is not one to be left out of this. “The last two years have been really tough for all singers and even now, it’s still a case of we’re all still walking on eggshells. Will the production go ahead? Will I go down with Covid? There are enough uncertainties for the singer’s life without these extra hazards to negotiate.
“I’ve got to a point in my career – which is a real privilege, I guess – where singers at the start of their careers will seek me out for advice. Sometimes it’s about repertoire and what’s being demanded of them, but I sometimes feel that the colleges are missing a trick by not putting enough emphasis on some of the other more human hurdles that can trip up a young singer. Things like how the peripatetic life affects relationships – friendships or your personal life. I’m hugely in admiration for colleagues who combine the operatic life with, for example, having a young family.
“And on top of this, this is a super-competitive world, so each individual has to build their own resilience to cope with the ever-present possibility of rejection. Now, this is possibly one time where I can rest a bit easier than some – being a bass, I have a in-built longer sell-by-date than other voices. Those poor sopranos and tenors who spend a fortune on expensive creams in a quest for eternal youth…! In fact, I once didn’t get a part because I looked too young – ha!”
But, of course, the rewards for the successful few, are what drives them on. David explains, “I must admit, that after two years of such uncertainty, it was such a privilege to get back into a full opera, singing with colleagues, with a full orchestra behind you – A Midsummer Night’s Dream was such a joy. I do know how fortunate I am!”
We’re drawing our chat to a close, as David is dashing off to the Opera House for the ‘general’ of Peter Grimes, currently the hottest ticket in town. But I have to ask him about his choice of repertoire for the Gala. “Oh, I have to sing some Die Zauberflöte – it’s still in my bones since that first experience as a teenager. But I’m also going to sneak in a Rogers & Hammerstein number. It’s one from a recording I have by Bryn Terfel – ‘A fellow needs a girl’ from Allegro. It’s such an uplifting number, in fact it’s my go-to for when I’m asked to sing at friends’ and family’s weddings.”