Andrea wants to sing for her supper

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Opera singer Andrea Creighton is preparing to live the life of a starving artist in a Paris garret - in principle, at least.

After three years of study at the Paris National Opera, "now comes the really scary part" as the 27-year-old Lower Hutt soprano tries to get a job on Europe's stages. It's an ambition she's had since the age of 8.

Back in New Zealand for a short break, Creighton has just enough money for another three months in her tiny Left Bank studio apartment.

Alone in a foreign country when she returns next month, she will do whatever auditions she is offered, hoping desperately to get a break before the money runs out.

Starving in a garret?

"I am La Boheme," the one-time Mobil Song Quest winner cries dramatically, clasping hand to heart in the family garden, before admitting to a love of comfort food and chocolate fish.

"I can't do the starving artist."

She has supported herself through private concerts - including a stint on a luxury cruise liner around Egypt's Lake Aswan, and in a Venetian palazzo where Mozart once composed - and with prize money won in the 1996 quest.

But she admits it's a struggle: "I am completely borderline."

Creighton is "stressed" about the challenge that lies ahead, having seen fellow singers crack under the strain.

"Having talent or something special at this stage is a given ... it's just who can hold out.

"I'm not even a fish in the big pond yet. I'm the emerging amoeba life form."

She has understudied major roles at the Paris Opera, including the Infanta in Der Zwerg, and performed smaller roles in operas such as Carmen and Parsifal.

After her third year, the director drew her aside and told her she had a healthy voice and, in opera tradition, needed to make her name elsewhere before the Paris Opera could hire her back as a fully paid professional.

Creighton has one engagement in France, but not until 2002. She is returning to Wellington for the Festival of the Arts on March 14 and 15 and also for a solo recital on March 12.

In September, she'll be back for Die Fledermaus.

Eventually, she'd like to be based in New Zealand or Australia, but as a struggling young singer trying to carve out an international career, she has to be within travelling distance of the auditions throughout Europe and the United States.

"It's just something I have wanted to do ...

"I just hope to God I can earn my living out of it." - NZPA