Powerhouse heads for opera house

By CHRIS RATTUE

There are three good reasons to head Omar Hasan Jalil's way at interview time with the Argentinian rugby team.

For a start, you won't lose too much in translation, and can actually gain a lot as Hasan Jalil charms his way along in not-too-broken English.

Secondly, the 46-test prop is no stranger in these parts, having played two seasons for Wellington plus every match for the Brumbies in 1998, their poorest season.

And thirdly, an opera-singing prop is too good to be true when it comes to rugby profiles.

The 33-year-old Hasan Jalil is not alone in having an unusual "other" occupation in the famed Argentinian front row.

Hooker Federico Mendez is a winemaker. Prop Rodrigo Roncero, a doctor, has even given up rugby opportunities to continue his studies. But opera singing takes the cake.

Hasan Jalil is about to leave Agen to join another French club, Toulouse, where he will continue to train as a singer.

France, where he came under the guidance of a singing teacher, has been a boon to his hopes of a later career in opera. He has already sung in three small productions in the south-west of the country.

Hasan Jalil's dream is to take his baritone voice to the 120-year-old Metropolitan Opera House in New York. If the dream comes true, he will be in either Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, or Verdi's Rigoletto.

"Opera is hard work. We have to learn a lot of different things, not only to sing," says this son of a deli-general store owner, whose family came from Syria.

"A few months ago I thought I'd finish the rugby and go to Europe or New York for singing lessons, but I changed my mind and continued to play.

"Going to Toulouse is a good opportunity for me and my girlfriend to live in a big city, and for me to sing as well."

Where did this voice come from?

"My father doesn't sing, not very well, anyhow," he laughs.

"My mother loves to paint and she just sings at home. But my whole life I sing, for friends, in the after-match functions, in school, in university choir.

"I love to sing because I feel such an energy and it is very good when people recognise it if you perform well.

"I get nervous, it is really new for me and I don't yet have the experience. I have to think a lot of things to stay relaxed. Yes, the voice is okay, the body, yes. It's very hard though.

"Whatever will be will be, but I dream to be inside the New York Metropolitan."

Hasan Jalil treasures his time with Wellington, for the rugby experience and especially the friendships.

It was in the capital, though, that he watched the Pumas from the reserves bench as they crashed 93-8 in 1997. A week later he played in Hamilton, and four years later in Christchurch, both heavy defeats. Late in 2001, he was part of an almost-famous day for the Pumas, when a last-gasp Scott Robertson try denied them victory in Buenos Aires.

This rushed trip to New Zealand is not ideal, and suggests another heavy defeat looms.

Hasan Jalil says: "To play Wales on Saturday and fly out the same day is strange. Recovery was on the plane. When I arrived I was really sore, but it was not so bad the next day.

"We want to play very well and concentrate for 80 minutes. It doesn't matter the score."