25 August 2005
No offence to the chaps who sing in the Australian Rugby Choir, but how many of them can really hit the high notes like opera singer Sara Carvalho does? "There's no sopranos", Sara says with a laugh. And she should know.
Carvalho, 24, a lyric coloraturo who emerged from five years' study at the ANU School of Music with a Masters degree and played the part in the "Jane Eyre" opera in Canberra this year, is the assistant Music Director of the Rugby Choir. Music Director Andrea Clifford, who is with the Royal Military College Band and plays piano, clarinet and arranges music, has been away for a month or two at a corporal's course in Victoria. So Carvalho has stepped into the Director's role to whip the 30 or so all-male members of the Choir who attend rehearsals each week into shape for a concert at the Wesley Uniting Church in Forrest on Saturay night 27 August.
"They're a bit cheeky", Carvalho says, who grew up in Canberra and lives on the southside. "I think they like the fact that they have a young opera singer directing them". She has had the assistant Director's job for two years now and steps into the top role whenever Clifford is away. Clifford will be back for Saturday's concert and Carvalho will step aside. She'll be there though. The program is entitled "Night at the Opera", so how could she miss it?