Main cause of stress
It can get stressful before a production opens. You have 200 or 250 people working on a production, all different characters with different personalities so trying to keep everybody happy can obviously cause stress. Expectations are high, critics are waiting to write about the show and the audience is waiting to see it.
My most stressful production was when the performer singing Aida's part got sick on a Saturday, 24 hours before the show. Not many people sing the part so, on Saturday night, with all the agencies closed, I had to try to find a replacement. The replacement flew in about one hour before the performance started. It aged me about five years but she did a very good job.
I've worked on productions - not in this country - where the singers just didn't show up. In one case, a tenor had completely forgotten about an afternoon show on a Sunday and was in the swimming-pool. He couldn't be reached so we had to send the audience home. That's one of the worst situations that could happen.
Coping with stress
I am quite a calm person by nature and I try to stay calm because if you get nervous, you make others nervous. That's not a good idea, when you are working with so many people.
I find the best way to stay calm is to go into the studio and do an hour of a work-out. Physical exercise is calming.
Temperamental opera singers
Yes, some people can be very difficult to work with so we try to keep the divas away. Theatre work is hard enough without difficult people. They affect everyone. Rumours spread quickly so the difficult ones usually exclude themselves.
Opera Ireland's season of The Silver Tassie and The Flying Dutchman opened on Saturday at the Gaiety Theatre.
In conversation with Alison Healy