Introducing Kieran White
New Palace Opera’s Tom Rakewell
In December, Kieran White’s Tom Rakewell will lead us from a spring country garden to the locked wards of Bedlam. Our hero’s deal with the devil doesn’t quite go as he hopes in New Palace Opera’s concert performance of The Rake’s Progress.
Kieran is a British tenor who is fast becoming a sought-after soloist in mainland Europe. He created the role of Henry Arnold in Finney’s A Kind Man (pictured right). New Palace Opera spoke to him.
When I opened the score to tackle my part, I remembered that I knew the choruses extremely well, they are engrained in me as they are so hard. I sang them at the Edinburgh International Festival in the Usher Hall. So I’ve been in a performance before, I’ve watched other soloists sing in front of me while I’ve sang from the rafters.
Tom Rakewell is a character who most young men can relate to: he’s a bit of a Jack the Lad in the beginning of the opera, he says at the beginning that when he goes to London, London will be his and he will just call for his lady to join him.
He is super naïve but also full of ambition, and that’s very relatable to a lot of young guys who, to make a lot of money, they have to leave their families and their safety nets and go off to the big city.
I am a country boy myself, and coming from a farming family, there was something set up for me at home if I chose to stay at home. But my family thought that sending me off to boarding school, to learn music and to become a chorister would be a better use of my time. So I ended up going to the city, even though that small city was Wells. I remember going to London for the first time and the tube doors closing on my head, I had no idea what was going on.
The whole opera is very relatable and I can identify with Tom. I also recognise that through his naivety, he is super-easy to persuade. We don’t see Nick Shadow for long before Tom completely changes his mind over what he’s going to do in life and follows Nick, all guns blazing, to London. And all of this is out of Anne Trulove’s control, she really loves him, but there’s nothing she can do but to be there.
He’s easily led, but then most people are, to some degree or other. You put your trust in people all the time, sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t. I think that’s reality.
Tom’s vocal part is super-challenging and is absolutely gorgeous. I’ve been enraptured by this sweet character, which is strange bearing in mind what I just said. But his music is so sweet, atmospheric and completely exposed. When he’s singing alone, it’s got an improvised baroque feel to it and as a baroque singer, I really relate to that.
It’s good to be back with New Palace Opera. It was great to be able to create a role, written by Jonathan Finney, who was also conducting the opera in front of me. It was a new experience for me, to be the first person to get your hands on some music. And I believe that he wrote a little bit for me, once he’d heard me. I look forward to being back and singing again with Nick Morris [Nick Shadow], it should be a lot of fun.