KEY POINTS:
Even conductors get the Medlyn sisters mixed up. Both highly regarded New Zealand opera singers with long and impressive CVs, Helen and Margaret are frequently muddled in people's minds and even the occasional newspaper report. But look beyond the obvious commonalities - a shared upbringing and, broadly speaking, the same career - and it's difficult to find much in common.
Helen, with her shock of black hair, is an avid talker who punctuates her chatter with raucous cackles of laughter - perhaps a hangover from her recent role as the witch in Hansel and Gretel. Margaret, on the other hand, is quieter, more serious. When she speaks her tone is well modulated, her words considered and carefully measured - just as they must be when she performs such power roles as Aida, Salome, Tosca and Turandot.
Both sisters started out as mezzo-sopranos but Margaret shifted to the higher soprano voice "because [she] always had a greater top, as we say, which is a terrible double entendre," says Helen, who is given to making jokes when reflecting on their respective talents.
Because she didn't become a classical opera singer until her early 30s, Helen feels something of a Johnny-come-lately in comparison to Margaret, who was on the trajectory towards being a leading lady right from the early days when studying music at the University of Auckland. Yet, as Margaret points out, Helen, with her background in light opera and plays, has "a huge amount more stage experience than I have".
The sisterly pecking order is further underscored by the conventions of opera; the reality is that sopranos get the bigger parts while mezzo-sopranos are frequently cast as witches, nurses or wise elders. "I've just had little, tiddly roles," says Helen, who describes herself as a character, rather than a main player, someone who typically lands the comic roles. "It's kind of like: 'wheel Helen out if it's got a laugh in it'," she says.
Earlier this year, in the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's concert version of Salome, Helen played Herodias, Margaret's character's mother, and she simultaneously discovered some real life emotion in the throes of her performance. "I had this moment where I have to, as her mother, kind of look at her as this young girl, and be very proud of this daughter of mine," says Helen. "But it's really funny ... I'm sitting there like a little smug person and yes, part of it is acting the smug mum but part of it's actually [being] the smug sister."
Sibling pride, indeed family pride, is a recurring theme among the Medlyns. Their mother and father, Irene and John, now aged in their 80s and living in Te Kauwhata, have two noticeboards filled with photographs of their daughters. "They're very proud of us," says Margaret.
"Yeah, they are," agrees Helen. "You know, we could sing Baa Baa Black Sheep and, particularly Dad, I think, would just go: 'ooohh, you're fabulous'."
Born in Falmouth, Cornwall, the sisters, then aged 5 and 3, along with their parents, immigrated to New Zealand in the early 1960s. Fancy dress parties were held en route on the Rangitata and their ever-resourceful mother would fashion costumes for the girls from rudimentary items such as crepe paper. Margaret was Little Bo Peep; Helen, Puss in Boots. Little did the ship's crew and passengers suspect that these two pint-sized contestants dressed up as storybook characters would eventually dominate the concert platforms and opera stages of their adopted country - and the world.
Growing up in West Auckland, the girls attended Henderson High School. "Margaret was always in the first stream of school and I was always in the second," Helen says. "We were very boring."
Gathering around the piano for a singalong was a beloved Friday night ritual and classical music records were a familiar soundtrack to everyday family life. It was an opinionated household. Margaret and Helen recall a father who would listen to the Ride of the Valkyries at high volume with fire blazing and the lights off. The story goes that their mother, who "couldn't stand" Wagner, had to leave the house every time it was played.
"We're both Westie chicks," says Helen. "And I have a pair of white boots on as we speak." But Wellington-based Margaret, who spent her 20s in England, seems perplexed by the term for anyone who hails from West Auckland. Helen attempts a translation. "Essex girls, it's the same as the British thing," she says. "You know, it's a derogatory thing but I'm really proud to be a Westie chick."
While Margaret headed overseas to forge a career in opera in Britain, Helen remained in New Zealand and eventually trod the boards at Auckland's Mercury Theatre, performed in Auckland Theatre Company musicals and sang with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and the Auckland Philharmonia. Her sheer versatility would become a hallmark of her career. A self-confessed Jill of All Trades, Helen, in conjunction with pianist Penny Dodd, created and performed in a series of cabaret "hell shows" that combined opera, musical theatre, jazz and "a bit of comic stuff. It's an indulgence, I suppose, because it's 90 minutes of just us having fun, really," she says.
Helen, who received an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Award in 2002, is full of admiration for the fact that Margaret is learning Czech for her role in New Zealand Opera's upcoming season of Janacek's Jenufa, in which Helen will also perform. "I've got seriously about 12 lines and I'm still kind of struggling away with them," says Helen. She credits her sister with "this amazing ... aptitude ... to apply [herself] to a task." Margaret responds wryly, "I think that's panic, actually." But she admits she has spent "hours and hours memorising Czech."
There's a mutual support system from which they each derive strength. They attend each other's performances whenever possible and also stay in close contact with text messages. "Supposedly being a diva is a glamorous life but it's just like any other job that has its ups and downs," says Helen. "And so if I'm struggling with either a role or an illness or something - and the same for Margaret - then we kind of buoy each other up."
And in such a small industry it's nice to be able to trust each other's discretion absolutely. According to Helen, it's also about "having someone to sound off [to], railing against somebody and that person understands you and you know that it won't go any further." Margaret agrees, adding, "And understands what dick-weeds you get sometimes ... directors, or conductors or, for that matter, colleagues. It's someone who you can vent to without repercussions really because you do have to be careful who you speak to."
There's the very clear sense that Margaret has a backbone of steel, a backbone that's helped her single-mindedly carve a successful career in the disciplined and exacting field of dramatic opera. She's earned the right to be disparaging about performers who are part of the so-called 'park and bark brigade'. "They roll them on and they sing and they get rolled off. So they don't act. They might wave their arms around," says Margaret. "A lot of singers are like that." Not the Medlyn sisters though.
"Neither of us is interested in going on a stage and just making a pretty noise," says Margaret, who has performed for many prestigious companies - including the English National Opera, Covent Garden, Vienna State Opera and Opera Australia - and sung with the NZ Symphony Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony and the Malaysian Philharmonic.
"What Margaret is is a dramatic soprano," says Helen. "It's a very specialised soprano voice. It's a real meat-in-the-sandwich voice ... it's beauty and Wellington boots." Margaret adds that anyone attempting to sing these sorts of roles before the age of 40 would probably wreck their voice.
Although they are in their prime for opera singing, both sisters are critical of the ageist attitude that pervades their world.
"It's a perception of the management that the public want to see younger, prettier, sexier women doing roles," says Margaret. "I'm slightly exempt from that because the roles I sing require usually a huge amount of vocal stamina." Helen tells how female singers' ages in biographies and programmes typically get frozen for a good few years at a suitably youthful age. "And both Margaret and I go: no, I can't be fagged with that," she says. It's an admirable stance that is unfortunately somewhat diluted by a subsequent request not to publish their ages in this article.
Being an opera singer is a demanding career. Margaret estimates that this year she will spend a total of two-and-a-half months away from home. She recalls one three-year period in which she was away for the equivalent of eight months each year - and utterly "fed up". Helen thinks she will be out of Auckland for more than four months of 2008. Without her own home, she lives an itinerant lifestyle even when not on the road by variously house-sitting or staying with friends. "I'm used to living out of a suitcase," she says.
They may not be rock stars who drain the mini-bars and trash hotel rooms but their respective behaviour on tour is idiosyncratic nonetheless; Helen religiously rearranges the furniture so it is oriented towards the sun while Margaret, hypersensitive to chemicals and keen to keep her voice in top condition, requests that housekeeping wipes down all the surfaces in her room with plain water to remove every trace of cleaning product.
It's paramount that professional opera singers take great care of their primary tool of trade and the Medlyn sisters won't do anything that may compromise their voices - such as singing if they're unwell or over-singing. "You certainly don't let directors make you sing it over and over again," says Margaret. Helen agrees, adding: "You don't have to be nasty about it. You just say: look 'Darling, I'm not going to sing today."'
So were these women always destined to be opera singers? "We were never going to be brain surgeons," says Helen. "Excuse me," says Margaret. "I was always going to be a doctor. Then I got sidetracked into singing in the first year of uni."
Exactly how anyone mixes up these two women is something of a mystery. One hour spent with them in a hotel suite in downtown Auckland is more than enough time to fathom their distinct personalities.
"We're very individual beings even though we are sisters," says Helen. Quite.
* Helen and Margaret Medlyn perform in New Zealand Opera's production, Jenufa, in Auckland from September 20-27 and in Wellington from October 11-18.
Helen Medlyn
Musical training: No formal qualifications "the school of life"
Type of singer: Mezzo-soprano
Favourite role : The "Hell Shows" and the witch in Hansel and Gretel
Wish list role: Carmen
In her spare time: "I'm a lazy old bones, a total and utter lazy bones. If I'm not working and I don't have to work, I loll around a lot."
Lives: Based in Auckland but of no fixed abode
Family: Never married, no children
Fascinated by: Harley Davidson motorbikes
Reads: Science fantasy
Margaret Medlyn
Musical training: Bachelor of Music, University of Auckland
Type of singer: Soprano
Favourite role : Salome
Wish list role: Electra, Isolde, Lady Macbeth
In her spare time: Teaches at the NZ School of Music, the NZ Opera School and privately
Lives: Kelburn, Wellington, in her home of about 15 years
Family: Married [to Roger Joyce], two children [Jess, 22, Tom, 20]
Fascinated by: Everything medical
Reads: Books on neuroplasticity and teaching methods.
