Australian opera singer Sarah Sweeting is putting on a concert in her home town of Guisborough. Viv Hardwick reports.

A LEADING opera singer in Australia, Sarah Sweeting, who was born and raised in Guisborough, North Yorkshire, is returning to the region to stage a concert at Gisborough Hall Hotel, Guisborough, on November 17.

After developing a successful career in the UK, including seasons with the Royal Opera Company at Covent Garden, Sweeting is now principal mezzo with Opera Australia at the Sydney Opera House.

She is returning from her home overlooking the Sydney Harbour Bridge to visit family and friends for a month. She agreed to takes part in Peter Sotheran’s classics section of the Kirkleatham concert series in support of the town’s Sir William Turner’s Almshouses.

Sotheran decided to move the event to the larger Gisborough Hall Hotel and boost ticket sales, which are also helping the Rotary Club of Guisborough and Great Ayton charities. Sweeting will be supported by the White Rose Singers, under their musical director Caroline Scales, and joined by special guests Bill Greenwood (baritone) and Alan Phelps (tenor).

The singer is currently appearing in Opera Australia’s production of The Mikado, and says of the Sydney Opera House: “It’s an amazing place to work. Every time I go to my ‘office’ as I like to call it, I look up at that big blue sky, then that iconic Harbour Bridge that was made near my North Yorkshire home and then at that crazy, romantic, totally bizarre opera house and feel really excited. Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is performing in one of the shows on there at the moment and I think about all the amazing singers who have sung on that stage and I feel privileged to be there.”

Her links to the North-East include singing the role of Pitti Sing for the Carl Rosa Opera Company, which is run by Middlesbrough’s Peter Mullopy, in 2001 “Peter Mulloy’s production was authentic Gilbert & Sullivgan, very charming, with sets and costumes from Mike Leigh’s movie Topsy Turvy and based on the original production. This Opera Australia production is a lot “sillier” although it also came from London. It’s set is more modern day, the men are more like Japanese business men and we girls are all dressed as little Japanese school girls. I’m picking my nose and playing with a yo-yo most of the time,” she says.

Sweeting has started rehearsals for Peter Grimes, her first Benjamin Britten opera, but is most excited of all about heading back to the North- East. “My family hardly ever get the chance to hear me sing, as they’re always telling me, so it will be a real gathering of the clan. I’m so excited to be going home again – you can take the girl out of the moors but you can’t take the moors out of the girl.

And it will be wonderful seeing all my family and friends,” she says.

On return to Australia she’ll be on tour in the role of Flora in La Traviata.

Asked about her nickname Swami Sweeting, she says: “Well some of the singers know that I teach the Art of Living course which includes yoga and meditation and started to ask if I could teach them. Now I’ve got them doing headstands and chanting in the wings before they hit the stage.

“Well not exactly like that, but they all say the breathing practices they learnt have made a big difference to their singing, and controlling their nerves.”

■ Sarah Sweeting Concert, Tuesday, November 17, 7.30pm. Gisborough Hall Hotel, Guisborough. Tickets: £10, 01642-477200 with a credit card, or from Gisborough Hall (personal callers only). By post: (cheques payable to Sir Wm Turner’s Hospital) Concert Bookings, 1 Sir William Turner’s Court, Kirkleatham, Redcar,TS10 4QT