Meet Luke Gabbedy…and see him perform in Madama Butterfly

The Handa Opera’s Madama Butterfly is currently nightly on Sydney Harbour, necessitating two casts to perform on alternative evenings.

Luke Gabbedy is one of the two baritones who sing the role of Sharpless,  the American Consul in Nagasaki who has to break the news to Cio-Cio-San [The Japanese word for “butterfly”]  that B.F. Pinkerton, a Lieutenant in the United States Navy, whom she married before he went back to sea, was returning three years later. Sharpless was unable to complete the news…and that Pinkerton had married again in the U.S.

Luke, 47, studied at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts before gaining a bachelor’s degree in music from the UWA Conservatorium of Music.

When he is performing Sharpless, he will always be under the watchful eye of his wife, Emma, who is a full-time member of the chorus.

A conversation with Luke:

JW:  When did you first realise that a career in opera was for you?

LG: When I was still studying at university, I thought I might be gifted and talented enough to be good enough. Probably my second or third year at University, when I was studying classical singing, I thought I might have what it takes.

JW: Are there any other members of your family who are musically inclined?

LG: My father’s very musical but mum, unfortunately, isn’t the best. My dad used to play the piano, and he was quite musical. More of a pianist rather than a singer.

JW: So you grew up with your own accompanist?

LG: He was more of a piano bar musician who played standards and rock and pop. Not really classical. He was probably not good enough to accompany opera and leader and stuff, but that’s okay. He went around Europe for a couple of years as a young man playing piano at night and going skiing during the day.

JW: When did you actually join Opera Australia?

LG: My first engagement was as an extra chorister. Backstage. I didn’t even make it to the stage of the Flying Dutchman in 2003. So my first performance was actually not on stage.

JW: And I was I was going to ask you what are your memories of your first performance.

LG: We just sang off-stage in the stairwell. And then they brought us up for bow at the end of the performance. The stage was completely in the opposite direction of what I thought where the audience was! I didn’t know backstage very well at all. So when we went up the stairs to bow I thought we had to turn right but you had to turn left so I was quite disoriented.  The curtain calls were quite funny.

JW:  You are performing three other operas this year, Rigoletto, The Tales of Hoffmann and Götterdämmerung. Is there one which will be a new experience for you?

LG: Hoffmann. It’s just a  small role. It is like a glorified chorister and not a big part.

JW:  Tell me about Rigoletto.

LG: I have sung the title role and I have sung Marullo probably 50 or 60 times. I know that role very well.

JW: The Opera on the Harbour has been going since 2012. How many of them have you appeared in?

LG:   This has been the fourth? I have done Carmen twice, in two different roles and I have also appeared in Turandot.

JW: With Opera Australia. You’ve travelled the country. Where is home?

LG: I’m Sydney Roseville in Sydney My wife Emma is in the full-time chorus with Opera Australia. We love living there with my son from a previous marriage.

JW: Who do you consider to be the top baritone in the world today?

LG:  I wouldn’t know. I don’t listen to much opera as I am performing so much of it. I was lucky enough to attend a recital by Bryn Terfel a couple of years ago when he was last in Australia. I’ve only listened to singers live.  I don’t trust recordings.  I know what recordings can do for people they can make them sound a million dollars or they can make them sound not so great.

JW:  You said you don’t like to listen to opera. So what do you listen to?

LG: I prefer listening to pop and rock music in the car just to just to relax.  I listen to a lot of recordings for my research and practice and so forth. So between that and then performing I’m on the opera scene every day.  I like to relax with something with some music. It’s a bit more simple and easy
like this thing to the standards that my father used to play. I enjoy listening to a radio station that plays the music of when I was a kid on so forth. It focuses on the 80s and 90s and then sometimes some 60s and 70s, sort of basically pop and rock songs. And that’s how I like to relax.

JW: Do you actually have a favourite role look?

LG: Gunter in Gotterdammerung. I’m going to do it for a second time. It was always a dream to sing Wagner. It’s the one substantial role in the ring cycle that calls for a high baritone. I’d love to sing the to sing Don Giovanni a role that I haven’t performed for opera Australia.

JW: And do you actually have a favourite opera?

LG:  The Ring Cycle. You could spend a whole life studying it and still not scratch the surface. It’s just this never-ending pot of interest.

JW: Pavarotti claims he has never sung the perfect opera. Do You agree with him?

LG: Oh, absolutely. Of course, you’re always striving for perfection but it’s not attainable. That’s one of the great things about classical music You know you are striving for perfection but you’re never going to going to attain it. It’s like golf. It’s impossible to play the same round again. What I really enjoy about performing live is it’s an immersive, interactive experience with the audience and that what they’re getting that night is something unique truly unique. Every night is different. And that’s what I enjoy.

JW: Have you had a very embarrassing moment when singing?

LG: I had performed the Mikado in one season ten times. This is the eleventh. In the second number,  when I reached the second verse I just completely lost the words. They didn’t come at all I was seeing gobbledygook and I had the conductor yelling out try out their correct words.  So just didn’t didn’t help at all. And then the gents’ chorus and Kanen Breen staring at me in horror about what I’ve done. But that’s probably the worst one or the most obvious. I still remember Kanen Breen’s face. I’ll never forget it. It was hilarious.

 

Opera Australia’s Madama Butterfly on the Harbour until April 23

Bookings:

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