Grange Festival’s King Lear: The opera stars who’ve swapped singing for Shakespeare

Begley’s career trajectory – he is playing the Fool – has been an unusual one: he comes from what he describes as “a theatre family” and spent 10 years as an actor. “It was in my genes. I started in wardrobe, and then I did stage management. When I was 25, I became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company for three years. In fact, that’s all I ever wanted to do; the singing was really a complete accident.”

Once he had changed course, Begley went on to enjoy a long and highly successful international career as a principal tenor, from which he retired just three years ago, “so having come from a straight theatre background, this is something I’ve always wanted to do”.

As Goneril, the production can boast another Wagnerian star: leading dramatic soprano Susan Bullock, acclaimed worldwide for such roles as Brünnhilde in Wagner’s Ring and Richard Strauss’ Elektra. She may not have appeared in a spoken play since she was involved with productions at school and university, “but I’ve never really stopped acting: opera singers do it the whole time. To be honest, this project doesn’t feel that different to doing an opera: the only unusual thing is that we’re not singing.”

“As with learning an operatic role, the text is absolutely paramount,” she continues. “Obviously in this instance we don’t have notes or tempo markings or dynamic markings; so we have a lot more freedom in terms of pitch and colour, whereas in an opera it’s all set in stone in the score.”

‘This project doesn’t feel that different to doing an opera: the only unusual thing is that we’re not singing’ – Susan Bullock

The approach has been to be much more flexible. “You can say a line one way, and when you repeat a scene, you can try it at a higher pitch, or a slower tempo” – “or a different accent, or with a different stress”, adds Begley.

As a former actor, he agrees that the two genres are closer than some people might imagine. “I’ve always wanted to do this, because in the public mind, opera is for the elite, and the theatre’s another world – but I don’t think we’re that far apart at all.”

Bullock has known Warner for many years – since they were both contracted artists at the Coliseum. What was her reaction when she was first approached for the project? “We’ve often talked about doing a play. We’d mooted all sorts of ideas, so when Keith said: ‘Look, we’re going to do King Lear, would you be interested in Goneril?’, I just snatched his hand off.”

An additional bonus is that her real-life husband, heldentenor Richard Berkeley-Steele, is playing Goneril’s husband Albany, “so we have to leave the domestics in the rehearsal room”. She’s also excited to be working once again with Tomlinson, “because we’ve done Rings together, and that Wotan/Brünnhilde vibe is quite similar, so there’s a lot we can draw on”.

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As for Tomlinson, what made him decide to take on one of the most daunting roles in spoken theatre? “I suppose I’ve always been up for a challenge. If I were playing it safe, of course, I wouldn’t do it, but it’s an adventure and an experiment.”

The rehearsal process has been thorough. “The interesting thing”, says Begley, “is that everybody came so well prepared, as they would be for an opera. We rehearsed on Zoom for about a year – text exploration and analysis.”

For Bullock, “it’s an ever-evolving process, that will continue to evolve. Unfortunately, unlike normal theatre productions, we don’t have the luxury of previews, so we’re straight in at the deep end; but you can see people growing and developing and finding new things.”

‘In the public mind, opera is for the elite, and the theatre’s another world – but I don’t think we’re that far apart at all’ – Kim Begley

Tomlinson agrees that there are many parallels to working on an opera, “even down to the muscles and the breathing – the physical support – but equally just investigating the text, where there’s been lots of work on the nuts and bolts. Then there’s the imagination involved in letting the character develop in your own mind, and so it slowly generates.”

“Ultimately,” he says, “the huge difference is that when you come to rehearse, there is no music. One of the skills of an opera singer is to use the music so that the performance looks convincing, even though you are acting through stretches of music on a bigger timescale than you would do in normal life. In opera, there’s a lot of sustaining one particular thought or emotion, whereas in a straight play it’s moving more quickly; the pulse of the piece is kept going by the text.”

Tomlinson says he has enjoyed the experience so far. “It’s work in progress. We’re into our fourth week of rehearsals, which are going very well. Keith is on great form, and we have a wonderful cast with lots of strong personalities. I’m learning all the time.”

He is nevertheless fully aware of the scale of the task in hand. “Of course it’s a risk. It’s wonderfully invigorating, and I’m enjoying it enormously, but it is a huge challenge – my goodness, it’s King Lear… So I’m not under any false impression as to the enormity of the task – and I’ve done a lot of enormous tasks in my career. This is equivalent to a Wotan, or a Hans Sachs.”

King Lear is at the Grange Festival from July 14-17