Into the unknown: soprano Aoife Miskelly makes her debut with Vache Baroque in Pergolesi’s rarely performed opera, L’Olimpiade

Vache Baroque in 2021

Vache Baroque‘s Summer opera production this year will be Pergolesi’s L’Olimpiade, his 1735 setting of a libretto by Metastasio that clocked up more than 50 different settings (including one by Vivaldi from 1734 which was performed earlier this year by Irish National Opera, see my review). Vache Baroque’s production takes place in the grounds of The Vache, a 17th-century house in Buckinghamshire. The production will be directed by Laura Attridge and conducted by Jonathan Darbourne with a cast including Nazan Fikret, Natasha Page, Bechara Moufarrej, Shafali Jalota, Frances Gregory, Robert Forrest and Aoife Miskelly. I recently met up with Aoife, during a break in their rehearsals, to find out more.

Peergolesi’s L’Olimpiade was written for the Carnival season of 1735 at the Teatro Tordinona in Rome, becoming one of the most admired settings of Metastasio’s libretto. The work was the composer’s penultimate opera, he died of tuberculosis in 1736, leaving his Stabat Mater, composed in the final weeks of his life, as his best-known work. Apart from performances in Italy in 1937 (for Pergolesi’s bicentenary), the opera’s modern performance history dates from 1990s, since when it has cropped up surprisingly infrequently.

Before being asked to sing in L’Olimpiade, Aoife had no experience with Pergolesi’s opera, but she did see Irish National Opera’s production of Vivaldi’s setting of the libretto. She calls the opera a lovely discovery, a work full of beautiful arias. They are giving it in a mix of Italian and English, the Italian arias will be performed with new English spoken dialogue by Laura Attridge based on the original recitatives. The mix of language does not bother Aoife and she thinks that it makes the opera nicely accessible. Most of the characters have stunning arias and she finds it interesting that the work is so little known. Perhaps the fact that it has four soprano roles has something to do with it. Pergolesi’s writing for the soloists is a mix of lyric and coloratura, this latter is a challenge as, like Vivaldi, Pergolesi’s vocal music is very instrumental.

Vivaldi: Bajazet – Aoife Miskelly, James Laing – Irish National Opera in 2022 (Photo Kip Carroll)

This will be her first time performing with Vache Baroque, and her first time working with Jonathan Darbourne, and Aoife comments that so far, rehearsals have been enjoyably relaxed. The opera performances will be out of doors, though under a canopy (for performers and audience), but the staging will also be using the whole grounds. When we chatted, they had not been on site yet, so that was excitement to be looked forward to. She also adds that it is a privilege to be able to go into a stately home and have it as your office for the duration. The festival will include a relaxed performance of L’Olimpiade, she and one of the other singers are thinking of bringing their toddlers along! Of the other singers in L’Olimpiade, she has worked with Frances Gregory before and the two were in Longborough Festival Opera‘s production of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo in 2023 when Aoife was Euridice.

As the performances at The Vache take place out of doors, the singers will be miked. She has had experience of this before, when she sang Donna Elvira in Jack Furness‘ 2021 production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni at Nevill Holt [see my review], commenting that you just have to trust them. You cannot listen to yourself and you have to trust your technique, it is very different to performing in a closed acoustic.

Aoife enjoys the challenge of learning new music, finding it refreshing and she comments that she would not want to be singing Elvira, Despina and Zerlina all the time. Also, learning a new piece not only presents a new challenge but helps you discover more about your own style. She enjoys having to adapt as she moves from Baroque to Classical to Modern, and this versatility helps stop her being typecast. Modern repertoire can often be taxing on the voice and she finds that it is good to have a mix.

Mozart: Don Giovanni – Aoife Miskelly, Sean Boylan – Nevill Holt Opera 2021 (photo Lloyd Winters)

After graduating she took a fest contract at Cologne Opera, where they liked you to stick to roles in your fach. This can present challenges, she mentions being asked to sing Musetta and Eliza Doolittle in alternation, but it also enabled her to experiment. So, when she returned to the role of Musetta (in Puccini’s La Boheme for Welsh National Opera in 2022), her first role after the birth of her baby daughter, she knew it and knew that it worked for her, though in the main Puccini is not a composer whose roles suit her voice.

She is now freelance and her husband is a theatre and opera director, so the two are having to start balancing work with childcare as their daughter is now two. Having been able to spend the last couple of years together as a family, her daughter is now starting kindergarten and the Autumn will be a test as Aoife will be abroad for six weeks over the Christmas period when she is performing in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Lausanne.

This Autumn, Aoife is singing Bird in English Touring Opera‘s production of Judith Weir‘s Blond Eckbert, directed by Robin Norton Hale and conducted by Gerry Cornelius. ETO’s Autumn tour of Blond Eckbert opens at the Hackney Empire on 5 October, but the production debuted at the Aldeburgh Festival this Summer. This was not Aoife’s first experience of the opera as in 2023 she sang Bird in a production of Blond Eckbert in Potsdam for Potsdamer Winteroper, directed by her husband, Joe Austin. This was only the second time the two had worked together, and the performers in Germany were a very UK-based team. In Potsdam, Judith Weir’s opera was presented in a double bill with Mozart’s version of Handel’s Acis and Galatea. She found it lovely to be able to revisit the opera for ETO, something that does not happen a lot with modern repertoire. Coming back to the role of Bird, she found it fitted her more neatly. She has been finding the ETO rehearsal room a nice environment, commenting that many of the singers were parents. She adds that opera can have a reputation for singers being divas, but she finds that nice environments such as that with ETO are more the case.

Judith Weir: Blond Eckbert – Aoife Miskelly – English Touring Opera 2024(Photo: © Richard Hubert Smith)

She had a wonderful time in Potsdam, in fact, the whole family did partly because they had a wonderful German nanny. She has also found ETO a lovely company, providing lots of information that is helpful for parents. The German fest system is, however, far less childcare-friendly; when she was in Cologne, you only got your rehearsal schedule a day in advance. And she commends SWAP’ra for their work encouraging UK companies to be more parent and childcare friends.

Over Christmas, Aoife is singing Helena in a production of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Opera Lausanne. This will be her first time staying in Switzerland and she is lucky enough to be able to stay with her cousin. The production is a classic, directed by Lauren Pelly. She has worked with many of the cast before, and Hermia is played by Heather Lowe; the two met when they were both in Opera North‘s 2017 production of Rimsky Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden, and they have worked together most Autumns since. But Aoife has not sung the role of Helena since 2016 when she took part in a production directed by Antony MacDonald that travelled to Japan, with Japanese Puck and the fairies performing in Japanese.

Aoife Miskelly

Pergolesi’s L’Olimpiade – Vache Baroque
31 August, 1, 7, 8 September 2024
Jonathan Darbourne, music director, Laura Attridge, director
Aoife Miskelly, Nazan Fikret, Natasha Page, Bechara Moufarrej, Shafali Jalota, Frances Gregory, Robert Forrest 

Full details from the Vache Baroque website.