A date with Kilkee for Cara

DESCRIBED as the superstar of her generation by The Irish Times, soprano Cara O’Sullivan is celebrating 21 years in the music business.
She has been lauded by critics around the world will be singing at St Senan’s Church in Kilkee on Friday, July 22 . “I would have performed in Ennis a couple of times, I’ve been to Kilkee visiting friends but I’ve never sung there. It’s a long time since I was in Kilkee and I loved the atmosphere there. It’s a lovely destination, I loved it down there and I’m really excited about the chance to sing in the church. The performance is going to be a one-woman show I created for a tour in Southern California, this is where it originated from.”
She is being brought to West Clare by the Kilkee Civic Trust and said she is familiar with Tom Byrne, who is involved in the Trust. “Tom is involved in the Munster Rugby Supporters Choir and I’d be one of the solo singers with the choir for pre-match entertainment in Thomond Park. I’d do the Fields of Athenry, There is an Isle, The Banks, Slievnamon, you name it, I belt it out! The last thing before they come out is Stand Up and Fight.”
The performance in Kilkee will be a celebration of her career to date. She will be accompanied by Ciara Moroney on the piano.
“It’s slightly special in that it’s just me with the piano. I’m 21 years in the industry and this one-woman show’s style and content marks the 21 years of my trawl through various countries, various concert halls and opera houses. The vast majority of it will be to do with songs and arias and some lovely tunes that I’ve picked up and learned over the years, but also I have stories and anecdotes of things that happened. In my job you’d want to retain a good sense of humour. Sometimes you could end up in a barn or shed changing and sometimes you could be in a grand castle in a beautiful bedroom. There’ll be anecdotes and a bit of a laugh, nothing too serious.”
Over the years, she says she has always observed audiences and going from place to place has left her with lots of stories. “It’s really a trawl through my working life and some of the sometimes sad and sometimes hysterically funny things that go on in my line of work. I would be fairly observant of stuff that goes on and you would be amazed at what people do sitting in an audience, you have no idea. They think I can’t see them but I can, I can see everything. I can see people falling asleep, I see them eating, drinking, I see them picking their noses.
“I store up all these stories. There was one famous one I was in a sacristy and the sacristan was a bit of a huffy Joe. I’d be very conscious about a concert in a church and I’d be very circumspect and careful about what I’d do and what I’d say. The Blessed Sacrament is in a room put away or in a safe or something because they usually take it out of the Tabernacle. This particular night, I was in a tizz to get out because your man was really starting to bother me and I felt I was really in the way and almost blasphemous for being there at all in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. I packed up everything and I tore out the door. This other man came after me, he had his hand in a fist and he asked me to open my hand and he put my knickers into my hand. I’m a big girl but it was a small knickers! He said imagine if the priest saw that in the morning. I said don’t mind the priest, if the sacristan saw it he’d need to be defibrillated! Ever since I’m paranoid, I sweep the place and I make sure I don’t miss anything,” she laughed.
Cara burst on the scene in 1990 after winning a TV contest, long before You’re a Star or the X Factor. “I won an RTÉ competition, The Musician of the Future in 1990. It was live on TV and it was years before all this reality television and these competitions that they have going on. At the time it generated a huge audience, the ratings were huge for it because there weren’t that many competitions at the time. There was an awful lot of interest and it really put me on the scene when I won it. RTÉ were incredible, they gave me an awful lot of work and it put me on the map very, very quickly in a very unexpected way and it hasn’t stopped since.”
Over the years, she has travelled far and wide but now, she doesn’t like to be away from home for too long. “When I was away for long stretches and I used to be away for up to four months, I found that very difficult. My daughter would have been very young at the time and I found it very hard. I don’t envy any young singer taking off. I know it’s very exciting in many ways and you are building your craft and the foundations of your career but it can be very hard work and I don’t miss that. I don’t do it now, I’m too old too tired and too talented,” she says, laughing.