Lavender and Crane
Strolling round Weston Green one evening shortly before Christmas you may come across that quintessential scene of village carol singers enjoying a good singsong while collecting for charity. Yet listen more closely: they're rather good! Among them are at least two opera singers of international renown. This is, after all, Weston Green…
Justin Lavender and Louise Crane moved here from Wiltshire twelve years ago. Louise, born near Hampton Court, knew it would be the right place. Louise has been singing and performing since she was seven years old. At nine she started piano lessons, and when four years later her mother took her to a D'Oyly Carte opera, she knew what she wanted to do. And she's done it - joining the D'Oyly Carte as a principal contralto, and subsequently performing all over the world in a variety of roles and venues. Louise now sings with various companies including the touring group, Opera Della Luna, well known for their humorous slant on opera and operetta, including the Gilbert and Sullivan repertoire. She enjoys a parallel concert career with oratorio engagements all over the UK and abroad. Her teaching commitments include a weekly visit to the Birmingham Conservatoire.
Engineer's son Justin also knew what he wanted to do, and began studying nuclear engineering at Queen Mary College, University of London. But joining the choir for a performance of Britten's War Requiem, he was spotted by Britten's famous partner, the tenor Peter Pears, and under Pears' tutorship abandoned the atom for the stage. Residual hankerings after engineering are assuaged by his model railway. A highly acclaimed tenor, Justin has sung at Covent Garden, La Scala, the Sydney Opera House, the Berlin and Vienna State Operas and latterly, somewhat to his surprise, has begun to add Wagnerian roles to his repertoire. This year he's busy with the Welsh National Opera and with Elgar's centenary celebrations: Justin is a noted interpreter of 'The Dream of Gerontius'.
The pair met at a musical summer school where Justin was teaching. "An incandescent few days," Louise recalls: the opera is yet to be written. I was disappointed to learn that neither of them sings at home in the bath - another fantasy demolished! Married life among opera singers is by no means straightforward. It's not that they fight over the one grand piano in the house, but that their peripatetic careers can mean they might not see each other for considerable periods of time. So they have a rule: after three weeks of separation, one will go to visit the other wherever they may be, and someone has to be found to feed John, the cat. This has led to some epic journeys, of Louise to New Zealand and Justin by air, land - risking the overnight curfew in Vietnam - and small boat to the South China Sea where Louise was singing on the QE II, anchored for the purpose.
Earning your living in opera can be a precarious matter. The singer is engaged on contract and must learn and study the part thoroughly before rehearsals, for real depth of insight is needed to interpret and perform it well. This can mean language coaching: Justin, who has lately been learning Chinese, is the only Western tenor who can sing the Chinese version of Mahler's 'Das Lied von der Erde'! "Then you often have to relocate to another city or country during weeks of rehearsals, find accommodation and survive there, all at your own expense - you don't get your fee paid until after the performance," notes Justin, who is commuting mainly to Cardiff this year. And one gathers that there are institutions that can be shamefully late in paying. If you miss a performance because of last-minute illness, you don't get paid, and you can't get insurance for that. Health and fitness are important, and both Louise and Justin devote considerable energy to maintain condition. Louise is an active member of Colets where you may often hear her groaning on a Swiss ball, and she also runs a seven-mile course several times a week with yet another interesting resident of Thames Ditton, Inspector Karen Llewellyn of the Metropolitan Police Royal Protection Squad. Justin practises Tai Chi and rows a single scull in the Thames Newlands Rowing Club that has a membership of two (Keith Hardy being the other). They've rowed the length of the Thames, naturally.
Louise and Justin very much enjoy their work, and feel honoured to practise in an egalitarian tradition where the only aristocracy is one of talent. This talented pair also greatly enjoy living in Weston Green, not merely for its convenience to Cardiff, Sydney, Singapore and Riga but also for the tremendous set of neighbours they have in Newlands Avenue, all of whom participated in a great street party a year or so ago and some of whom form the body of those carol singers. An excellent focus for anyone studying the delightfully rich biodiversity of residents within the ambit of this magazine…
Our reporting staff