- Title: Operatunity-The Winners Story
- Date: 16th December 2003
- Summary: On Saturday March 1st, 2003, Jane Gilchrist and Denise Leigh shared the lead role in Verdi's Rigoletto at the London Coliseum, with English National Opera. This kind of experience is a magical one for any professional performer, but Jane and Denise were not professionals. Instead they were the winners of Operatunity , Channel 4's critically acclaimed arts series that set out to find raw opera talent. For Jane and Denise, the high glamour of the occasion was in sharp contrast to their daily lives - Denise (who is registered blind) is a housewife looking after her three children, whilst until recently Jane, a mum of four, worked on checkouts at her local Tesco. Operatunity: The Winners' Story takes up the story from the very morning after the night of their lives. The difficulty for the two singers once the dust has settled is not how much their lives have changed overnight, but how little. "From one extreme to the next, " says Jane pointedly in her rented apartment in London "from opera singer to dish washer", she continues, while clearing up after the breakfast she has just cooked for all her family a matter of a few hours after her Coliseum triumph. Several nervous weeks follow where both women worry that their careers are not taking off. Candidly she admits: "I'm not working at all at the moment and unfortunately had to sign on last week." Thankfully their prayers are answered when record company EMI Classics step in and offer them a recording contract. They begin recording six weeks later - at Abbey Road studios directed by Paul Daniel with the prestigious orchestra of English National Opera. For Jane and Denise this creates its own set of particular problems. They have not had any professional coaching for a long time, they are singing in three or four different languages, they're in a recording studio for the first time and they are required to sing arias which have been chosen by the record company. Operatunity panel member and opera singer and teacher, Mary King is more aware than most of the mountain they have to climb: "I'm hoping they get there in time. It's a very scary proposition." Never shying away from a challenge, Jane and Denise throw themselves into the task with great gusto. There is also another thrill for Denise. She is invited by Beatles producer Sir George Martin to sing in a gala concert for the RNIB and meet the Queen, Prince Philip and Price Edward. Asked what she is most scared about, Staffordshire lass Denise jokes, "calling the Queen 'duck'" To get the girls match fit Mary King is hired by EMI to lick the women into shape for the gruelling recording schedule. They must record the album in just three days. Soon the day arrives and Jane and Denise are at Abbey Road ("pinch me", says Jane). A mixture of awe and nerves make the experience particularly charged for both of them. An emotional Denise confides "I expected it be more sterile than this. I didn't expect it to get to me" she says in tears not for the first time that day." After the thrill of the recording, Paris beckons. Jane and Denise are invited to deliver a singing performance to the great and the good of the classical CD buying world at a sales conference. The road from obscurity to opera recording artists has been an extremely tough one, yet for Jane and Denise this is merely the first step on a much more arduous journey. As Mary King notes: "It's hard graft, nobody can hold your hand. In the end you have to do it yourself. You have to desire it and you have to put in the time." Denise Leigh and Jane Gilchrist Operatunity Winners , the CD, is out now. It has already been pitched into the top five in the Classical charts.
- Description:1 hour follow up film on the Operatunity winners,Jane Gilchrist and Denise Leigh.
- Broadcaster:Channel 4
- Collection: Channel 4
- Genre:Entertainment
- Producer:Diverse Ltd.
- Programme Episode:Episode 1
- Transmission Date:16/12/2003
- Rights:Worldwide
- Decade: 2000s