Singing for your supper is one thing - but how about singing at your supper? Arias with your a la carte? A little more Carmen with that chocolate mousse, anyone? Opera and food have made a tasty twosome ever since Don Giovanni invited the statue to dinner - and in the 12 months or so since it was founded, The Drawing Room Opera Company has created work for four young Irish singers out of the public appetite for its particular combination of easy listening and gourmet eating.
The company is the brainchild of Ray Twyford, who - despite a more acoustic musical background as a singer-songwriter in the folk tradition - realised that, if carefully balanced and presented in a congenial environment, upmarket music and upmarket food could be used as the basis for a very laidback evening indeed. He suggested as much to the Grey Door restaurant in Dublin's Pembroke Street, which has since become his base of operations; he also hosts evenings in Luttrellstown Castle, Adare Manor and Flemings Restaurant in Cork.
As a business proposition it makes a lot of sense; this kind of event has an obvious appeal for the corporate entertainment sector but, with a small number of musicians involved, prices can be kept low enough to interest private customers as well. But even Ray Twyford confesses that he has been slightly taken aback by the success of his own idea: his four pre-Christmas events sold out almost instantly and he is now busily organising Drawing Room Opera evenings, not just for 1999, but for well into the new millennium.
"We seem to have arrived at the right time, all right," he says, beaming. "We're currently looking at more venues but we have to be careful, because the ambience is very important - this is not a large-scale show like a cabaret or a concert. If you lose the intimacy, you lose that special something." That "special something" kicks off with a champagne reception, followed by the first two courses of a three-course dinner. When the main course has been cleared, the singers sweep into action; during a break in the programme, dessert is served, followed by more music.
The operatic fare on offer is as light as the pastry - a sequence of appetisers from Carmen, a little Mozart sorbet, a tiny helping of Tosca and a frothy-but-fun concoction of comedy numbers to finish - and all cleverly chosen so that diners won't be disturbed by, say, the discovery of a distraught diva about to stab herself at their elbow just as they're about to tuck into a raspberry coulis.
But what's it like for a singer to work under these, to put it mildly, unusual circumstances? Liz Ryan, soprano, and Eoin Lynch, baritone, have been singing with The Drawing Room Opera Company since it began and both are adamant - it's enjoyable, it's profitable and it's an opportunity to perform in public at a time when performing roles for young Irish singers are extremely hard to come by.
"One thing about being so close to the audience is that you don't have room for nerves," says Owen Lynch. "You've just got to get out there and sing." "We've been singing full-time for years," says Liz Ryan, "so we're used to entertaining audiences - intuitively, we're quite good at picking up signals as regards whether people like something or whether you've got into their face. In this situation you really are very close to people, and you have to be quite careful that you don't offend sensibilities."
Even in her slinky Carmen incarnation, Liz Ryan must have managed to avoid doing just that, for she can't recall any negative vibes from diners. "Of course, if they're very quiet it's almost worse because you get nervous if they're not reacting. But we've done shows where they were all very quiet and I wondered if they were really enjoying it - and then, people came up to us afterwards as usual and said how much they liked our singing."
For many people, says Owen Lynch, the sound of an operatic voice at close range is a revelation. "Obviously there's an element of suspense about the whole thing - to a certain extent, you can see people wondering `are they going to hit the high note?' - but mostly they're amazed. Usually they'll say something like: `God, you have such a big voice and you only a whippet of a lad' - and they often put their hand on you to see are you really as slim as you look'." Hmm. Don't shoot the piano player? Don't touch the toreador, more like.
The Drawing Room Opera Company can be contacted at 01-2982219.
