They had the courage to start. They dared to dream. Hello. I'm Roseanne Meo. As a judge for the AMP scholarships, I'm thrilled to be helping courageous NZers pursue their dreams. One of those dream chasers is opera singer Amelia Berry, a 27-year-old from Porirua. With an AMP scholarship, she's made it to New York, ready to break into the intensely competitive world of opera. (PLAYS NOTES, SINGS SCALES) There's nothing that I really enjoy more than getting a role and learning it and then getting into the rehearsal room and going through that whole process. The work that I do between gigs, the day jobs, all the practice all pays off when I get to step into that rehearsal room and start a new show. It's so exciting, and I'm very lucky that I'm able to do what I love when I get into that room. (SINGS) Warming up is definitely important. You know, it's like an athlete. An athlete warms up their muscles before they go and do whatever athlete-y thing they're doing. (LAUGHS) I know nothing about sports, but I know they warm up. For a singer, it's the same thing. We have tiny little muscles. Our muscles are much smaller, but they're still very important. I'm a soprano, which is the most common voice type in opera. I'm aiming to become an international opera singer. FUNKY MUSIC Porirua, to me, does seem like a really small town. It is slow, but sometimes slow is actually quite nice. You don't have to bust your arse so hard here. It's a lot more chill, and I actually really really like that. And that's what I tell people in New York when they ask me about home. I say that NZ in general is really chilled out and this area especially. That's one of the reasons I love coming home to it, cos I feel like I can breathe here. I can stop for a second and just chill and relax and hang out, which is something that I don't really get to do often over there. I think I used to cringe a bit sometimes, you know, when you see people walking round with no shoes on in the supermarket. I was like, 'Oh no, put some shoes on!' But now I just see it as a part of the place I grew up, and I just think that it's kind of quaint. (LAUGHS) So all this waiting around, is that going to affect, you know, you wanting to do those auditions that you were going to do and...? Um, well, I think at least with the agent auditions, it's something that I can, um, contact them... Yeah. ...when I get back, so` so I don't necessarily, um, have to have a date for those ones, but it has meant that I've had to give up on other auditions. The good thing about living in New York is that everyone comes to New York to hold auditions, because it's such a big, you know, centre of everything. So I can audition for a company that's based in, like,... Yeah, yeah. ...Arizona or something,... Right. ...but they come to New York to hold auditions, and they also hold` hold them in their own state, but` but` Ah. OK. So if you live in New York, then you don't have to travel for auditions much. Mm. So, you know, even though New York's quite an expensive city to live in, it means that I don't actually have to travel around. You've gotta have something to` to show originally. Mm. Mm. You can't just walk in off the street or walk straight out of school having done nothing and then expect people to hear you, so you have to have done stuff, which I have. So I've got, you know, a few roles on my CV now, which is great,... Yeah. ...and, um, I think that'll at least, kind of, get my foot in the door, and then it's, sort of, I guess, up to me to sing pretty. What's happening with boys? You had Sam ages ago. Is he, kind of`? We're not talking about this! Is that`? Are you not`? Do you not`? You don't have time for boys,... Nah! Nah! No! ...with all your busy schedule? No! Come on! Nah! Oh, I think you should. It's about time. You're 27. No, I don't. Nah. Opera never did anything for me. All those screechy` Oh, you can't understand what they're saying. It really, to be quite honest, didn't do anything for me. So I've had to learn to like it, and I do. For somebody who's` Without the heel, she's actually quite short. I think she's like 5'4" or 5'3", or something. For that sound to come out of this little person, really, is quite amazing. ALL SING IN MAORI As a young child, she'd just use any opportunity to sing to anybody who would listen ` or not. Trapped in the car with her, yep, she'd sing away. If she wasn't going to sing it to somebody else, it would be her toys and whatever as well. # Ma Ngati Tamariki! # I've been there as a supportive mum, as` as I've` Yeah. That's my role, and that's what I want to do, of course, cos I love her heaps. You know, I'm a teacher. Not amazing pay. Um, I brought the kids up by myself. She's totally passionate about what she's doing, what she wants to do, and I admire her heaps for that. Just seeing her do what she wants to do, come hell or high water, when times are hard and when they're not so hard and when she gets things like this amazing scholarship. That's just gonna help her so much. # ...o Porirua! # Hi aue, hi! # So this is probably about the spot that I used to stand when I used to sing barbershop here at Tawa College. I was in the front row. I graduated to the front row. So, yeah, this is where we'd do all our spirit fingers and our singing and all that. (LAUGHS) I think that a lot of the time in high school, I didn't feel like I really fit in. I felt that I wasn't really very cool or, you know, in the cool group. And I think that, for me, doing the music and the drama was a way for me to be someone else, really, and I could pretend that I was confident. Kia ora! She was quite naturally gifted, in the sense that once she tried singing, she was successful. She took, you know, lead roles in our productions and solos in the choir and that sort of thing. But, obviously, the hard work it takes to be at the top of your game from the small start at school, she's` she's obviously gone on to do that herself. OPERA MUSIC (SINGS OPERATICALLY) When I was a kid, the first movie that I remember watching was The Sound of Music, and I just watched it religiously, over and over again, and I used to sing the songs from The Sound of Music all the time. I actually think that Julie Andrews was my first singing teacher, cos used to try and copy how she sang. I was just obsessed with her as a kid and still am, cos I think she was the one that got me into the whole singing thing. (SINGS HIGH NOTE) First time I'd heard her sing that classical singing, I just sat there, and people came up to me and go, (GASPS) 'Wasn't she wonderful?' And I went, 'Yeah.' It was just, 'Whoa!' You know? Chills up my spine. (SINGS OPERATICALLY) I think it was a huge step when she wanted to go to New York to further her training. There wasn't anything much left in NZ for her, because she'd got as far as she could go, and NZ's such a little place. She knew she had to go somewhere where there were some really high-quality tutoring, and for her to take that step was huge, and I really admire her for that. I guess the hardest part about leaving NZ is always leaving family. Christmas without family for me is actually really hard. Our Christmases growing up were always just such a happy occasion. I really miss that, being in New York. APPLAUSE GENTLE PIANO MUSIC Today, I'm singing in a recital for a pianist. His name's Jeremy Chan. He's from Australia. His teacher at the Manhattan School of Music was a great supportive coach for me while I was at the school. He cast me in an opera and was wonderful to me and was always such a huge supporter of my work, and so when he asked me to sing on Jeremy's graduation recital, I said yes, because, you know, he's given me a lot, and I wanted to give something back to him, and I also really enjoy meeting and working with new people. I'd never worked with Jeremy, and I think it's great to find people my own age to work with, because, you know, you never know where those collaborations could lead. (SINGS OPERATICALLY) Sometimes you're offered opportunities that may not pay very well or may not pay at all, and, you know, you weigh that up with, 'OK, well, who am I working for? Who could I meet? 'Who could be in the audience?' There are all sorts of things that you can do just to basically put yourself out there. I think that's one of the important things to do here in New York, because there are so many people, is just be willing to say yes and do things, um, and to be seen, really. The minute I saw her when she was a student here, I thought, 'This girl's got something special.' Just by her look. She has an opera singer's look. And then when I heard her sing, I thought, 'Ha! I wanna work with her.' (SINGS OPERATICALLY) The thing about Amelia that's so special is that she is such a perfectionist about everything that she does. She's very meticulous. She's very hard on herself, I think, in terms of perfection. And I find that so appealing. (SINGS OPERATICALLY) I think Kiwis in general are pretty go-get-it people. I guess it's the DIY culture. (LAUGHS) But also, I've made those sacrifices that a lot of singers here haven't. They haven't had to move countries and, you know, move to a new culture and make new friends and meet new people. (SINGS OPERATICALLY) She's not just a singer with a beautiful voice. She's a beautiful woman. She's an excellent musician, excellent with languages. Her scruples are so high in terms of what she exacts from herself. That, to me, is a rare student. There must be something in the water in NZ that produces these people with high scruples. Many singers don't have that same set of scruples. I'm not saying it's only NZers, but for me, as a teacher, as a mentor, I desire that so much in my students, and I don't get it that often. I'm very proud to have come from NZ, but I felt, before I came to New York, that I had reached the pinnacle of what I could do at that point in time. I'd already been an emerging artist with NZ Opera, I'd already gone to university, had graduated, and for me, I just didn't feel that there was anything else I could do without going overseas. New York's just so much bigger. There are so many more teachers. There is more knowledge. There's more competition. New York, it's an amazing city to live in, and I love it, but it's not an easy city to live in. People think, 'Oh, you're in New York. How amazing! That must be amazing! Oh! I'd love New York! 'I've always wanted to go there, and it's so amazing.' And she actually knows what it's really like. She did struggle. She couldn't afford to eat at times because it was just so expensive. Being a little bit alone there. It's actually good for the soul to figure out what it's like to struggle a bit, whether it's surviving in New York or whether it's learning your lines at the drop of a hat. I think she likes that challenge. I live in Washington Heights. It's not The Bronx, but it's uptown Manhattan, and I really like it up here. I like that it's not the middle of the city, that there are less people here. I like coming home and it being just a little quieter. It's never quiet in New York, but, you know, it, sort of, feels more like I can breathe up here. I have to practise at home. You know, I don't want to go and pay for a studio somewhere. That's just an extra expense. So I just` I practise here. And no one's ever complained. In New York, people expect that there's going to be noise, and as long as you're not being obnoxious, I don't think people mind. I work at the gift shop at the Metropolitan Opera. When I'm not doing that, I'm babysitting. Basically, that's what I do in between gigs, and I'm just hoping that at some point the gigs get closer and closer together, and I have to do the in-between stuff less and less. The cost of living here in New York is very high, especially when you factor in singing lessons. So when I get paid for a gig, that money there is my cushion. It's pretty scary sometimes, and you're like, 'OK, well, if I don't get a gig soon, 'then I don't know what's gonna happen.' So, yeah, it's pretty hard. So, today is Monday, and that means that I'm here with Leo. So, I get up at about 5.45 every Monday morning to make it here on time. And then I'm with the kids for five hours. BOTH: Whee! We generally just hang around, play with trains, have play dates ` go to the playground. (LAUGHS) And then I go to my other job at the Metropolitan Opera Gift Shop. A while ago I tried to figure out exactly how much money I'd spent on singing, including school lessons and things, and I think I probably hit about $180,000 before I just stopped counting. (LAUGHS) So that's a lot of money, and it's every week. I have a singing lesson every week. Audition fees are very expensive. You pay the company to hear you. There's recording fees, because you need to send out recordings first. So there's a huge cost involved just to be able to get to this point, and just to be able to audition. Having a master's in singing is not one of those degrees where you get it and then you go out and start earning a hell of a lot of money. You continue for years to put in a lot of money. But I think it's such a rewarding career, and` and I love doing what I do, so I, kind of, don't think about the money. At least I'm paying for something that I like to do and that I'm really passionate about. Getting the AMP Scholarship was important for me, because it showed that people in NZ believed in what I was doing; that what I was doing was interesting to them, was worth supporting. So to get such a widely publicised scholarship, for me, that's fantastic, but also I'm happy that that kind of brought opera into the eyes of the general public, because that's something I feel passionate about, is` is sharing what I do. Whee! Whee! (SINGS OPERATICALLY) Almost. Almost, but when you take the breath, I need it with more energy. OK. You know, if you were on the stage, you would've turned around and looked at the audience... Yeah. (LAUGHS) ...and you would've gone... (SINGS NOTE) Yeah. So when` the breath has to be activated in the` what you're gonna say. OK? Yeah. OK. Since I got back to New York, I've been taking weekly lessons and basically just getting my repertoire ready for audition season. (SINGS OPERATICALLY) < Yes! Yeah, the highlight of my week is having my singing lesson and having that hour to myself to just focus on what I came here to do. My teacher, Nikki Li Hartliep, she's fantastic. She is just such a supportive, positive person. Feed through the vowel. OK. As a singer, I'm a perfectionist. We all are, you know, because you're always being told, 'No, this needs to be better.' And you yourself are always thinking of what you can do better. Nicky does all that in a really positive way. She's never negative about it. She's always just so kind and warm, and she's been a really great teacher and a really great friend to me as well. OK. Don't go on from that. It was so good. She's incredible. She is one of the fastest singers I've ever had the privilege of working with, as far as telling her something and that she can` If she doesn't immediately fix it in our session, she has it done by the next. She just needs information, and she takes it and runs with it. I think that to make it here in New York, or anywhere, really, you have to have a lot of self-belief. If you don't believe in what you're putting out there, nobody else is gonna believe in it either. And it takes a lot of courage to keep going and to keep putting yourself out there and motivation, I guess. You know, knowing what you want to do and then going out and trying to do it. (SINGS OPERATICALLY) Right. We're gonna go back and do the whole thing again, and you're gonna give me all words. Oh, yes. OK. You're gonna talk to me, OK? All words. (SINGS OPERATICALLY) In this industry, you get told 'no' a lot, and it's not necessarily because you're not good enough. It could be because they need a different voice type or they need a different body type, or the next person was better, or not even better, but more suited to the role than you, so there's that resilience and that knowledge that it's not` it's not you, it's them, you know? (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) So let's start that whole phrase again. Words, words, words, words. OK. Build some tension for us. OK. Make us pay attention. You know what's coming. We don't. OK. (SINGS SLOWLY) OK. Build some, like, drama. (SINGS OPERATICALLY) She has a unique sound. She has an incredible stage presence, a magnetism about her, as a person and as a performer. There are a lot of NZ opera singers that have made quite a mark on the international opera scene, and Amelia has the potential to be one of those. (SINGS OPERATICALLY) (CONTINUES SINGING) The audition season in America is late fall going through winter. Various companies from all over America will come to New York to hold auditions here. As long as I feel that I've done a good job when I come out of an audition, then I'm OK with the end result, whatever that may be, you know? If I come out and I think that I've done a great job, then I probably have done a great job. And if they don't want to hire me, then that's absolutely fine, as long as I know that I have presented myself well. The best thing that I can do to help myself get the big break is just to be prepared and to keep going to lessons and to keep working on my own and to keep building those contacts and going to the auditions and basically taking every opportunity that is offered. Every time I sing for NZ Opera, I feel like I'm coming back with more, you know? I feel like I'm coming back with a better voice, with` with more technique, with more stage presence, and so every time I come back and sing in NZ, I feel like a better singer. So, the magic flute is, basically, a fantasy story. Mozart is one of my favourite composers, and I'm not just saying this because I'm doing the show, but I really love his music. I just think his music, kind of, stands the test of time, and it's clever and beautiful and witty. He knows how to be funny, and he also really knows how to play the drama. So he's a huge favourite of mine, and it's always a huge pleasure to sing his music. I'm First Lady. Uh, there are the three ladies in this show. The conductor came into our room in Wellington one night. He said, you know, 'All of the great singers in the world have sung one of the three ladies.' And then he just left. (LAUGHS) You know, it was like a drop-mic moment. (LAUGHS) And it's true. You look at all the great sopranos, and almost all of them have sung first lady. I have been pretty successful so far. I've worked really hard to get where I am. When I made my debut with NZ Opera, that was a huge stepping stone for me, and was really encouraging that going to New York and` and going to study had been the right decision, because, you know, they hired me straight out of my master's programme, and, you know, a lot of singers who are graduating master's, at that point, weren't singing for a national company or for any company, really, so that for me was a marker of success. And it really inspired me to keep going. (SINGS OPERATICALLY) I would definitely consider myself to be successful. There's more success that I could have, but so far, the fact that I've kept going and not given up, I think that's successful. ALL SING OPERA Amelia has a real opportunity to be one of 'the stars', because she's the complete package ` beauty, brains, talent. There's no guarantees in this business, but she has the real possibility of being somebody that we need in the opera world today. So it's very exciting. Yeah. She's got it all, so... She doesn't realise it sometimes, but she does. (LAUGHS) # They think that they are going to stay, # but there's no way! # # Oh, no! # # Oh, no. # # Oh, no! # I don't think that there is ever an end to the hard work of being an opera singer. New roles to learn, therefore new languages, new characters. My voice is changing all the time, and so there's never an end to the hard work, but for me, that's not a bad thing. That's an amazing thing that I'm really excited about. ALL VOCALISE I would like to think Amelia can make a living out of singing opera. That's the whole idea, ultimately. That's what she's heading for. And, yeah, actually, I think she can do it. That was fantastic. Oh! As always. Thank you. Aw! You're so cool! (LAUGHS) They pay you for the high notes. People wanna hear high notes. That's what companies pay for. Yeah. So I'll sing as many high notes as I possibly can. (LAUGHS) Captions by Philip McKibbin. Edited by Alana Drayton. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2016