Born: December 13th, 1963
Died: January 5th, 2023
The opera singer, actor and businesswoman Carol Anne Lowe has died aged 59. An acclaimed mezzo-soprano, Lowe also became well known for her role as the Brazilian housekeeper Francesca da Silva in the RTÉ soap Fair City.
The fourth of five children of Henry (Harry) and Anne Lowe, she grew up in Drimnagh in Dublin where she attended Our Lady of Mercy Secondary School.
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Her parents were both from inner city Dublin: her father grew up in the Tenters and her mother was from Pearse Street. Lowe inherited her musical talent from her mother, Anne, who sang with a Dublin showband in her youth and, although untrained, could hold an audience at family gatherings with her rendition of Ave Maria.
Carol Anne’s early love of music was nurtured by her parents and she joined both school and parish choirs. But because of the strength and quality of her voice, she was sometimes asked to mime instead of sing so as not to outperform the other singers.
Her musical career started when her father brought her as a teenager to the legendary singing teacher Veronica Dunne, who immediately took her on as a student at the College of Music in Chatham Row, Dublin. While there, her voice flourished and she won many awards in feiseanna and musical competitions throughout the country, including the Nancy Calthorpe and Gervase Elwes awards.
Lowe’s first professional engagement was in 1980 as a chorus member in Speak of the Devil starring Rosaleen Linehan and Des Keogh at the Olympia Theatre. In 1983 she played Aline, opposite Tim Ryan, in the Rathmines and Rathgar production of The Sorcerer at the Gaiety Theatre. And in 1986, at just 23, she won the Lombard and Ulster Music Bursary which was broadcast live on The Late Late Show.
The prize of £15,000 was the largest music bursary at the time and enabled her to continue her tuition in London with voice coach David Harper and later with the acclaimed Hungarian voice teacher Vera Rózsa.
Lowe went on to have starring roles with the Dublin Grand Opera Society and the Rathmines & Rathgar and Glasnevin musical societies. These included the Cherubino in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, Mother Marie in Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites, Mercedes in Bizet’s Carmen, La Contessa in Verdi’s Rigoletto and Flora in Verdi’s La Traviata.
She also appeared in The Pirates of Penzance and as Josephine in Noel Pearson’s production of HMS Pinafore at the Gaiety Theatre. This was later recorded as a Christmas special for RTÉ Television. She also appeared many times at the Cork Opera House and at the Wexford Opera House (now the National Opera House) and was a regular performer at the National Concert Hall with both the National Symphony Orchestra and RTÉ Concert Orchestra.
David Agnew, former oboist with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, remembers his first encounter with Lowe. “She can’t have been more than 17 or 18, yet she had magnetic stage presence, a mane of jet-black hair and sparkling dark eyes. You could sense someone who had found exactly what she wanted to do and where she wanted to be,” he said.
Lowe returned to live in Dublin in the mid-1990s but went on to have an extensive international career and performed regularly in Hamburg’s famous Musikhalle in Germany. She also gave many recitals in London, New York and in South Africa and was cast in the first English performance of Robert Stolz’s Blumenlieder in the Royal Room at London’s Covent Garden.
In 2003, Lowe set up her company Blue Moon Communications, where she worked with senior business and government personnel as a business strategist, executive coach and mentor. She was a powerhouse of energy and dedicated much of her time to this work until illness slowed her down.
In 2004, she joined the cast of Fair City as the Brazilian housekeeper Francesca da Silva, the love interest of garage mechanic Ray O’Donnell, played by Mick Nolan. She appeared in the soap until 2006 and during this time, in true operatic fashion, romance blossomed in real life as well as on set for the two actors.
Lowe joked that she had lived 12 lives, travelled the world and met interesting and famous people, yet she ended up finding her soul mate in Nolan, who had grown up just two streets from her family home in Drimnagh. They moved in together in 2006 and celebrated their wedding in November 2021.
When Covid limited her work with clients, Lowe set up programmes for young people and offered free online coaching and mentoring. Her friends and colleagues remember her for her sharp wit, charm and generosity, but mostly her kindness.
Carol Anne Lowe is survived by her husband, Mick Nolan, her sister Jeanette, and her brothers, Henry and David. She is pre-deceased by her parents and her sister Barbara.