Stars at NZ Opera School in Whanganui highlight hard work behind success

Soprano Nikki Li Hartliep says there is no such thing as overnight success in the opera world. Photo / Debbie Macpherson

World-acclaimed vocal tutors at the New Zealand Opera School in Whanganui say having a God-given gorgeous singing voice does not mean automatically becoming a world-class opera singer.

Japanese-American soprano Nikki Li Hartliep and Australian tenor Glenn Winslade said an opera career was about the realities of hard work and dedication, emotionally and physically.

“For you will be constantly criticised - the realities are uncompromising and relentlessly tough,” Winslade said.

Hartliep agreed, saying it was all about focused preparation.

“There’s no such thing as an overnight success.”

Winslade said it took years of dedicated work.

“The reality is like you can’t go to the gym for a week and expect your body to be transformed. It doesn’t work like that.”

Last year Hartliep moved to the University of Waikato to work with the top young singers who had been accepted into the master music school TANZOS.

She sighed as she said there was nothing like it in her day.

“There was no opera school, no master programme - I call it a finishing school. These kids are very lucky.”

International vocal coach Glenn Winslade says it takes years of hard work to become a world-class singer. Photo / Rosie Knight

Winslade said preparing for the realities of opera was tough.

There was no social media, no mobile phones - “you were on your own”.

Both laugh when they say they did not come from musical families.

“No, I grew up in Alaska and we were far from musical or well off,” Hartliep said

Winslade said he had four brothers who were mad about sport. He was the only one who sang and when they had visitors he was “hauled up” to sing for them.

He laughed when he said one night a brother came to hear him singing in the Wagner opera Tannhauser.

When the audience applauded his performance, his brother told the person next to him to not stop clapping: “He’s my brother.”

Looking back, they agreed that pursuing a career internationally in opera was tough.

“Especially with the brutal agents,” Hartliep said.

“You only had yourself to rely on.”

But they said they would not have missed it for the world.

It was enriching, exciting and glorious, they said.

“It is a very special world.”