Note Perfect: A Conversation with Galway Soprano Helen Hancock
Photography by Frances Marshall
Hi Helen! You have performed both nationally and internationally. What do you believe is the most magical aspect of creating or performing music?
Having the power to change how people feel. The audience comes in after a day at work, a day caring for someone or a day of minding kids, and you have the power to lift their spirits and change their mood.
The music I sing explores so many big human emotions. I always introduce my music so the audience know what I am singing about. Maybe it is that they connect with it emotionally, maybe it helps them release a stuck emotion, maybe it makes them feel less alone in what is going on in their life right now. Sometimes you get a feeling of interconnectedness in the entire room which is incredible because you feel like you are holding it in your hand. You live for these moments as an artist, as it elevates the music making to a new level.
What is one surprising thing about being an opera singer?
The thing many people do not realise is the level of training that goes into becoming an opera singer. It can take up to eight years or more to develop
the level of technique to sing over an orchestra without any amplification! What you are seeing is human creation at a very high level.
Can you share a recent concert that left a lasting impression on you?
German cellist Alban Gerhardt performed with pianist Hugh Tinney at
the Cellissimo Festival in Galway 2024. I just loved his very chilled out way of chatting to the audience.
What art forms that inspire you?
There is nothing like an Irish air on a tin whistle at a graveside. So plaintive, with the sound being blown away by the wind.
Is there a film that resonates with you or that you enjoy watching again and again?
I absolutely love Hidden Figures – a movie about the untold story of the three African-American women who helped win the space race while breaking through racial and gender discrimination at work. It’s that “women doing extraordinary things” idea. It made me angry, it made me cry and it hugely inspired me.
“That silence at the end before the applause when time is suspended is one of the most special things for the audience and the performers.”
What moment in your musical journey stands out as particularly significant?
Abingdon Summer School in 2019, which was a weeklong residential course in Oxford. One of these weeks when you leave the world outside and go into a bubble. We had top class tutors and the singers were all
supporting each other.
I sang The Last Rose of Summer in an evening concert and that I think was the first time I emotionally left the room in a performance and where I know the audience came with me. The silence at the end lasted several seconds – and that silence at the end before the applause when time is suspended and where the energy is just held collectively by everyone in the room is one of the most special things for the audience and the performers.
What do you listen to when you need to get into the creative zone?
I was reared listening to the piano and I am a total sucker for Baroque music, specifically Bach’s keyboard music. His Italian Concerto is a good example. It puts my head back together when the world gets too much.
Helen perfoming at King House, Co. Roscommon and Triumphant after a performance in Ennis Cathederal alongside the Coole Music Youth Orchestra.
Have you read any books lately that you’d recommend?
I am a huge fan of Irish author Maggie O’Farrell, I love all of her books, especially Hamnet. I have always been an avid reader. As a child I always had a vivid imagination and I loved writing imaginative essays at school.
I often fantasise about whether I have had past lives of my own and what they might have been like. This is all part of the imagination you have to cultivate as a singer to bring musical scores to life. Maybe this is why I am obsessed with historical fiction, it helps bring historic music to life.
What is your advice to someone curious to start listening to opera but feeling daunted or intimidated?
If you are happy to go to a musical theatre show there is no reason not to
try a live opera! Irish National Opera have a full season every year – several are sung in English and for those in Italian or in German, there are live subtitles, so you won’t be confused by the action on stage. The sets and costumes are lavish and the plots vary from the ridiculous to the existential – there is something for everyone.
Helen will perform at Thoor Ballylee on the 20th of June. Tickets are available here.
Delivered straight to your inbox every month.
