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Friday, November 14, 2008, 07:32
That's because the Opera North production of Of Thee I Sing is a fortuitously topical show that pokes light fun at the whole US political process, as well as providing Bibi with a few show-stopping musical highlights.
"We were watching the campaign speeches and it was hilarious how similar they were to the ones in the show," says Bibi. "We have a big election campaign scene and were noticing how they went about their speeches so we could steal all their techniques. It's pure performance so we don't have to exaggerate very much."
Of Thee I Sing was one of the Gershwin brothers' most successful Broadway musicals but is seldom performed these days.
"I had never heard of it," admits Bibi. "It was written in 1931 poking fun at the elections then in the midst of the Great Depression. So it's not perennially topical but Opera North likes to dig out shows that have been overlooked and produce them when the time is right. And, although it may not be well known, it has really great numbers that are well worth digging out. It's really nice to bring it to the front again."
In the show, the presidential candidate John P Wintergreen sweeps to victory but immediately causes a furore when he marries Mary, the homely American, and not the French starlet he had pledged to make First Lady.
Bibi, who plays Mary, says: "They organise a beauty contest as the president needs a wife and the winner will marry him. I'm the Miss Moneypenny figure. I arrange the contest and this southern belle, Scarlett O'Hara type, is the winner but, before the president meets her, he discovers I bake the most fabulous muffins and falls in love with me on the spot."
With its background of the Wall Street Crash and the Depression era, the show's themes are far more relevant again now we have entered another slump.
"It's more topical than anyone dared hope," says Bibi. "It's all suddenly alarmingly true now. It's highly entertaining, a black satire on the banks but quite light-hearted so we hope we are not destroying anyone's morale by doing it."
Bibi came late to classical singing having no formal training until she was 18.
"I met with a classical singing teacher and, by literally my second lesson, said 'I'm going to be a singer'. I had never seen an opera until I was 20 so I had no clue that's what I would do. But once I had found Schubert and Mozart it felt comfortable. It was a combination of discovering the music and a whole world of great musicians out there. I felt comfortable in that world."
Bibi's husband Justin Doyle is a conductor at a concert series, although an accident nearly ended the romance before it began.
"I was on my push bike, going about 30mph and got run over," says Bibi. "I couldn't do the first concert but, even though slightly concussed, I still did the second."
Despite the accident she impressed Justin who eventually proposed on top of Primrose Hill after midnight mass. He had an armful of roses, had chosen the ring and had some champagne just in case Bibi said 'yes'.
"It was two in the morning, very romantic, very cold but we still sat there drinking champagne," says Bibi.
She's now glad that she shares her life with someone in the same business.
"It's such a vocational thing, none of it is a 9-5 job, so it's very difficult for anyone else to understand this curious obsession," she says.
Bibi's now hoping that audiences love Of Thee I Sing as much as she does, especially as Opera North will be staging the show's sequel next year.
"I grew up singing jazz rather than classical music, including Gershwin, so I love it," she says. "It's a real dream to be doing it on the stage."
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AMERICAn DREAM: Bibi Heal and William Dazeley in Of Thee I Sing.
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