A budding opera singer from Cochrane took to the stage for the first time last weekend, with the hopes of one day joining the ranks of such musical greats as Maria Callas and Jessye Norman.
“It was a dream come true. It was my first time singing in front of a crowd,” said soprano Emily Rigaux of her performance with the Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra. “I got to sing and act, I had a big dress. It was just fabulous – every part of it.”
Rigaux, 21, was first introduced to opera as a child by her grandmother and remembers being enthralled by the youth version of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The Magic Flute.
“The Queen of the Night aria always sounds so cool,” she said of one of the most famous operatic solos in the world, adding when she later heard the fourth and final music drama in Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibulungen, known as the Ring Cycle, she was hooked.
“I remember sitting at the end of it going, ‘That. I want to do that,” she said.
Rigaux graduated from Cochrane High School in 2013 – the same year she was honoured with the Cochrane Rotary Youth Talent Festival’s Award of Excellence – and left soon after to pursue a music degree in Lethbridge, where the post-secondary institution offers an opera workshop program.
The group is an auditioned ensemble of about 30 young people and is given the opportunity to perform once a year with the city’s philharmonic.
Leading up to the presentation, Rigaux said she and her musical mates rehearsed as much as 15 hours a week to manage the rigors of the classical singing style.
“It’s a style that involves knowing how your body works and knowing when to let go,” she said. “You have to take deeper breaths than you normally do … because, if you’re going to hit high notes and hold them, you need power and support and a connection to your voice.”
Rigaux executed a series of scenes from Gilbert and Sullivan’s famous pieces The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado and H.M.S. Pinafore – of which she was cast as the captain’s daughter, Josephine.
“My part came on, I walked on (stage) and was like, ‘Yes,’” recalled Rigaux of the moment. “My parents told me that I just looked so happy being on stage. They said they’d never seen me happier.”
Rigaux said now that she’s had a taste of the limelight, she will continue to work toward her Master’s degree in Alberta while keeping an eye on the bright lights of New York City when she’s done.
“I’m aiming high,” she said with a smile. “The MET.”
