Q&A

When did you start singing?
As a pro­fes­sional at 19 thanks to being chucked out of the Guild­hall. I always sang as a child.

Why did you start singing?
I simply loved it. I grew up with no tv and only clas­sical music played at home. My par­ents were won­der­ful at tak­ing us to opera. I saw Suth­er­land, Price, Gobbi and so on at a very young age. I decided to be a singer at age 6 after see­ing Tur­an­dot at the Met star­ring Nilson, Corelli and Freni.

Which singer inspired you most when you were young?
I heard a lot of Suth­er­land as my father was Aus­tralian, and of course I was entranced by Cal­las. I also adored Björling and Fischer-Dieskau.

Which singer do you most admire?
Stratas, Cal­las, so many. I’m lov­ing Kaufmann these days but aren’t we all?

What’s your favour­ite role?
Sev­eral for dif­fer­ent reas­ons. Lulu, because it was a break­through role for me. Gilda because it was heaven to sing. Vixen because my father died dur­ing it, I found her life enhan­cing and 20th cen­tury is where I live musically.

What role have you never played but would have liked to?
Maria in West Side Story. The role that took my focus off opera and onto music­als. I got the role in the West End but for vari­ous reason didn’t do it. Fate led me in another dir­ec­tion and instead I cre­ated the role of Cosette in Les Mis­ér­ables in the ori­ginal production.

What’s your favour­ite opera to watch?
I find opera hard to watch but I love One­gin, and operas by Brit­ten, Janáček, Puccini.

Who is your favour­ite com­poser?
Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, Brit­ten, Puccini, Shostakovich..

Who is your favour­ite writer?
I don’t have one. I tend to read a lot of history

Who is your favour­ite dir­ector?
David Pount­ney, David McVicar.

Who is your favour­ite actor?
I don’t have a favourite.

Who is your favour­ite dan­cer?
Lynn Sey­mour was hugely inspir­ing to me. Karen Kain. Anthony Dowell.

What is your favour­ite book?
I read mainly history.

What is your favour­ite film?
As a child Olivier’s Richard III. Toot­sie makes me laugh. I enjoy any­thing in long frocks.

Which is your favour­ite city?
Don’t have one.

What do you like most about your­self?
Humour. Imagination

What do you dis­like about your­self?
Not sure where to start!

What was your proudest moment?
Tak­ing two months off from Phantom of the Opera to make my North Amer­ican début as Lulu.

When and where were you hap­pi­est?
As an 8 year old in Italy I saw a glit­ter­ing beetle fly­ing and felt over­whelmed with hap­pi­ness. I was aware of the moment and remem­ber it so clearly even now

What or who is the greatest love of your life?
Cheese.

What is your greatest fear?
Being old, alone and frightened.

If you could change one thing about your­self, what would it be?
My depress­ive nature.

What do you con­sider your greatest achieve­ment?
Being a pro­fes­sional singer for 32 years.

What is your most treas­ured pos­ses­sion?
My animals.

What is your greatest extra­vag­ance?
The upkeep of face and body!

What do you con­sider the most over­rated vir­tue?
They are all over rated.

On what occa­sion do you lie?
Never. No wait, that’s a lie.

If you hadn’t been a singer what would you have liked to be?
His­tor­ian or Pope.

What is your most marked char­ac­ter­istic?
You’d have to ask someone else.

What qual­ity do you most value in a friend?
Humour, kind­ness, loyalty.

What qual­ity do you most value in a col­league?
The same.

Which his­tor­ical fig­ure do you most admire?
Too many to list.

Which liv­ing per­son do you most admire?
Mandela.

What do you most dis­like?
Cruelty. Abuse of animals.

What gift would you most like to have?
To fly and travel in time.

What’s your idea of per­fect hap­pi­ness?
I don’t know… Extraordinary.

How would you like to die?
In my sleep after a stonk­ing piece of cheese.

What is your motto?
Same as Churchill’s: Keep Bug­ger­ing on.

Rebecca Caine — a biography

Rebecca Caine was born in Toronto, Canada and stud­ied at the Guild­hall School of Music, London.

Uniquely, her career has been divided between Opera and Musical Theatre, mak­ing her West End debut at 19 in the role of Laurey in Oklahoma! She then sang the role of Eliza in My Fair Lady on the National tour. While mak­ing her debut at Glyn­de­bourne as Amor in L’Incoronazione di Pop­pea, she was asked to join the Royal Shakespeare Com­pany where she cre­ated the role of Cosette in Les Mis­ér­ables. After a suc­cess­ful West End run she joined the ori­ginal cast of Phantom of the Opera to play Christine oppos­ite Michael Craw­ford. She then returned to Toronto to repeat the role in the Cana­dian première of Phantom. Dur­ing her run in Toronto she joined the Cana­dian Opera Com­pany to make her highly praised North Amer­ican debut in the title role of Lulu.

Other work with the Cana­dian Opera Com­pany includes Vixen ( Dora Mavor Moore Award),  Pam­ina, Despina and Micaëla. Else­where, roles include Pam­ina (Glim­mer­glass); Pam­ina, Musetta, Susanna (Eng­lish National Opera); Ophelia in Ham­let, Aminta in Il re pastore, Anna 1 in Seven Deadly Sins (Opera North), Bal­kis in L’incontro improv­viso (Nice); Vixen (Spo­leto); Viol­etta (Opera North­ern Ire­land), Clo­miri in Ime­neo (Han­del Opera Soci­ety) Mary Turner in Of Thee I Sing, Leila in The Pearlfish­ers (Atlanta Opera) Mar­guer­ite in Faust (Opera Fest­ival of New Jer­sey), Musetta ( De Vlaamse Opera) Hanna in The Merry Widow (Opera Hol­land Park), Mrs Coyle in Owen Win­grave (Chicago Opera Theater), Susanna (Scot­tish Opera), Despina (De Vlaamse Opera, Scot­tish Opera) Juli­etta (National Theatre of Prague), Adina (New Zea­l­and Opera).

World premières include: the title role in Jezebel with the Toronto Sym­phony, an Ora­torio by Robertson Dav­ies and Derek Hol­man; L.A. Lola in Opera North’s Play­ing Away,  by Howard Brenton and Bene­dict Mason; Fotis in the Cana­dian Opera Company’s The Golden Ass, by Robertsonn Dav­ies and Ran­dolph Peters; 6 female roles in  Psappha’s pro­duc­tion of Mr Emmett Takes a Walk, by David Pount­ney and Peter Max­well Dav­ies; Math­ilde at the Edin­burgh Fest­ival, by Conor Mitchell; and Intol­er­ance, a one woman opera, writ­ten for her by Conor Mitchell and Mark Raven­hill, at the Tête à Tête Fest­ival, London.

Miss Caine’s broad­casts for Radio 3 include Can­dide, One Touch of Venus, Trouble in Tahiti, The Tele­phone, Fri­day Night is Music Night and con­certs of Bern­stein, Porter and Kern.

Her extens­ive cab­aret career has included Jermyn Street, Laud­er­dale House, Sydmon­ton, (New­bury Spring Fest­ival), Exeter Fest­ival, Cliveden, Theatre Barn, Bux­ton Fest­ival. She recently made her US cab­aret début at the Halsted Centre in Chicago and gave the first per­form­ance at the new Telus recital hall at the Royal Col­lege of Music in Toronto.

Rebecca has sung with the Orquesta Sin­fonia de Bar­celona, The Hague Phil­har­monic (Lulu Suite under Daniel Hard­ing), Toronto Sym­phony, Scot­tish Cham­ber Orches­tra , Liv­er­pool Phil­har­monic and the BBC Con­cert Orchestra.

Her record­ings include Les Mis­ér­ables (ori­ginal Brit­ish cast), The Phantom of The Opera (Cana­dian album), Any­thing Goes, the track Every­one is Doing Some­thing Without Me on Future Sound of London’s album Dead Cit­ies, Babes in Toy­land and Mr Emmett Takes A Walk. Her own solo album is called Lead­ing Ladies.

After appear­ing with the ori­ginal cast of Les Mis­ér­ables 25th Anniversary con­cert, Rebecca  appeared in Tête à Tête’s acclaimed pro­duc­tion of Salad Days at The River­side Stu­dios as Lady Rae­burn fol­lowed by Three Phantoms con­certs with John Owen Jones and Earl Car­penter nation­wide. Recent work includes  the role of Ottavia in Mark Ravenhill’s con­tro­ver­sial Baroque/Jazz ver­sion of The Coron­a­tion of Pop­pea at The Kings Head. Con­certs in the UK with John Owen Jones and in Canada with Michael Bur­gess and her own Cana­dian recital tour with Robert Kortgaard.