Beating the blues with Katie Stevenson

At the end of a production run every opera singer enjoys some serious downtime.  I find Katie Stevenson, who has just finished her role as Flosshilde in The Rhinegold at ENO, using this time catching up with some domestic chores – a bit of touching up of paintwork in the home she shares with her partner, Nick, in south west London, before she takes her rescue American Staffie, Bruno, for a windy Thames walk.

Photo: Victoria Cadisch

How are the post show blues going?

“It always depends on the show I’ve just completed, to be honest,” Katie reveals. “I guess this one has a special poignancy to it,” she explains, “but yesterday I was really down in the dumps – I woke up exhausted, like I’d nothing more to give – and I was thinking what comes next? I had been booked to sing in the revivals of The Valkyrie and Siegfried, but with the shock ACE [Arts Council England] cuts last November, this has all been cancelled and they’ve had to let singers like me go.  It’s such a shock as I’ve really built my career at the Coli [the Coliseum], being a Harewood Artist [the ENO’s young artists’ programme] – it’s so much in my heart!  Thank goodness Nick was there to read my mood and be there for me.”

I confess to Katie that I attended the penultimate performance of The Rhinegold and comment on how exciting and uplifting the whole performance had seemed.

“Ah that’s great to hear, as that’s how it was for the cast, too. I was in the Richard Jones [stage director] production of the Walkurie last year, which still had a bit of a COVID cloud hanging over it with social distancing for the performers, so this production felt so much freer and it put us all in such a positive space. I so enjoyed the interactions we three Rhinemaidens could have, both vocally but also with our stage choreography with ourselves and with the fabulous dancers.”

I comment that social media had covered a speech made by the Music Director, Martyn Brabbins, after the final performance, referencing the effect the ACE cuts had had on ENO and the whole industry, but then managing to conclude on such an upbeat note of celebration for the final performance.

“Yes, I remember standing there looking out at the audience thinking, this might be the last time I ever experience singing on the Coliseum stage…  But it’s such a privilege working with Martyn. The most important thing a conductor can give a singer is confidence, and he never fails on this. Everyone has this preconception that Wagner always wrote everything ‘big’, but there are times when I’m singing and the orchestration is stripped back to the bare minimum of just a few strings, so as a singer it’s really difficult to know that you’re with the orchestra, but Martyn will always be there to guide you through tricky phrases like these.”

I’m really curious to know what got Katie into singing in the first place – was it a lightbulb moment, or an individual who made the difference? She’s got a really heart-warming story up her sleeve.

“I’m really looking forward to sharing a stage with DBP in front of a real audience.”

“I’m originally from Mansfield, just a regular mining town in Nottinghamshire, but crucially, when I was growing up,  also the home of a female youth choir called Cantamus – a brilliant organisation which has won competitions such as Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year - lead by the most amazing woman called Pamela Cook. And, cutting a long story short, with the help of school music teachers who recognised I had a voice, I became a member of the choir when I was nine. From there it was Pam who nurtured my passion, taking me and other girls to Nottingham to see Opera North’s Pinocchio with Victoria Simmonds and I was hooked.  Pam encouraged me to apply to the Royal Academy of Music. I was one four singers who got into the Academy that year, and two of us were Cantamus girls, with a further five or six girls from Cantamus who successfully applied to the other conservatoires - she was a phenomenal force of inspiration!”

Katie as Nefertiti in Akhnaten. Photo: Tom Bowles

From her years at the Academy, Katie was accepted for the ENO’s Harewood Young Artists’ Programme and found her nurturing home with the company, and has seen her share the stage with so many young opera singers. Including David Butt Philip. But not quite.

“Yes, I almost got to share the stage with DBP,” Katie tells me, “but COVID saw fit to intervene!  We were in the final throes of Rusalka rehearsals – in fact we’d just done the ‘Sitz’ and the whole world was shut down ­– but we’d had a great time working together up until that point, so I’m really looking forward to sharing a stage with him in front of a real audience.

“And the same for Natalya (Romaniw) and Ross (Ramgobin).  Natalya and I sang together when she was Madame Butterfly and I sang Kate Pinkerton in the ENO’s Madame Butterfly in 2020, and Ross and I crossed paths when we were at the Academy, so we’ll have a great reunion at the Gala next week.”

I’m itching to find out who’s the ‘Katie’ behind the ‘Mezzo-Katie’ – what makes her tick when the singing takes a back seat (if it truly ever does)?

“Well, I’m a slave to the gym, but that’s part and parcel of the opera life, just to make sure I’m fit enough to do my job. But I’m also a mad keen horse-woman.  I used to have a part share in a ‘ride’ in Richmond Park, but the stage life has been so full on recently I’ve put that on a back burner, but I love a hack whenever the diary allows.”

I push her a little more on the ‘out-of-hours’ activity, pointing out that her new head shots hint at more than a vague interest in fashion.

“It’s true I’m rather partial to a lush outfit, whether a stunning, vivid emerald green trouser suit with an overload of ostrich feather cuff trim, or a head-to-toe sequin evening gown.  Although I thoroughly enjoyed that photoshoot, especially the ‘dressing up’ element, I couldn’t say it comes naturally to pose for the camera, but that’s the job of an excellent photographer, isn’t it,” she admits with a appreciative chuckle. “Actually, I’m getting married at the end of the year and I can’t wait to start the dress hunt!”

Photo: Victoria Cadisch

So what’s in store on stage for Katie, given the devasting effect the recent shocking news to the operatic world has caused?

“For the immediate, I’m back with ENO covering Nefertiti in Akhnaten, then I’m singing Flosshilde again, this time in Göttedammerüng at Longborough in May and June.  Then there’s a bit of a hole, because of the cancelled operas at ENO.  But I’m not worried, I have plans to fill my time with learning some repertoire that has been nagging at me for a while, and I’m fit and lean for a jump in which could be just around the corner.”

Katie is one to watch, and will be a name for years to come, aided by one of the most positive outlooks on the operatic world in such uncertain times.  Catch her in Clapham next week.

Tricia Ninian