By Joyce Morgan
Above the noise of a Philadelphia bar, Latonia Moore took a call on her mobile last month. What was she doing, her agent wanted to know.
''I said 'I'm out with my friends having some shots. What's up?''' says Moore.
''I wanted to come to Sydney just to see the Opera House. Now I'm getting to sing in it.'' … soprano Latonia Moore will star in Opera Australia's upcoming Aida.Credit: Dallas Kilponen
The lead in Opera Australia's production of Aida had just dropped out. Was Moore free? The US soprano had six days to get organised, on a plane and down to Australia.
If the speed with which she walks and talks as we head down suburban Marrickville Road during a rehearsal break is any guide, such a race to Australia would not faze Moore. She is as exuberant as the bright yellow flowers on her one-shouldered top.
Moore is poised to step into the title role in Graeme Murphy's production following the withdrawal of Italian soprano Norma Fantini. Moore's operatic star is rising internationally, yet her manner is more earthy jazz singer - the musical form in which she initially trained - than imperious diva.
''Lat-ah-nia,'' she says as we meet. ''Kinda like lasagne.''
This is the second time this year Moore has stepped into the title role of Aida at short notice. She made her unplanned debut at New York's Metropolitan Opera in March with just over a day's notice when the principal took ill. Her debut was the final night of the production and broadcast nationally. The otherwise fearless Moore admits she had a rare bout of butterflies when she stepped out of the Met's wings.
''I was like 'holy crap what am I doing here - 11 million people are going to be listening to me','' she says.
Her powerful but velvety voice prompted a standing ovation.
Houston-born Moore grew up in a musical family and sang as a child in the church choir. Her oldest sister - who she insists has the best voice in the family - was her first teacher.
''I learnt a lot of basic singing from her,'' she says. ''She'd take us in the bathroom and say 'come on we got to harmonise', she'd make sure we were singing in tune. That was my first training, singing in the bathroom when I was five.''
At high school, she sang in jazz clubs when she was too young to legally buy a drink. She was part of a jazz choir drawn from around the US that performed at the Grammy Awards, opened for Gloria Estefan and worked with Santana.
Moore's first experience of opera was as a 13-year-old channel surfing the television. She alighted on what she realised years later was Pagliacci - but found the experience a turnoff.
''There was a clown who had a big knife in his hand and he's stabbing some chick,'' she says. ''I'm just like, man, I don't know what' s going on. And I changed the channel … Another time, I was surfing the channels and I saw this Asian girl with a kid next to her, just standing there doing nothing. I was like 'what is this crap?' It was the humming chorus from Madama Butterfly. But I had no idea.''
Growing up in the '80s, her biggest musical influences were Guns N' Roses, Def Leppard, Metallica, Pat Benatar, Black Sabbath and punk rock. Even now she is more likely to listen to Bjork, Radiohead, Kimbra, Goldfrapp - and a daily dose of the Beatles - than opera.
At college, she majored as a jazz performer but was required to take classical voice lessons. When her teacher suggested she try singing opera, she was appalled. Park and bark opera just wasn't for her.
''I said 'ugh, I don't like it. Clowns killing people. Just standing there doing nothing. This is not my kind of thing', ''she says.
He convinced her to join the opera chorus for one semester. She agreed and loved it. Ironically, the opera she studied was Pagliacci.
As Aida, Moore is the Ethiopian princess disguised as a slave girl, a woman torn between love and duty.
''I like when anybody is torn. That's the characters I'm drawn towards, people who have a secret that they have to keep. I love that she has to pretend that she's not the princess of Ethiopia. I really play that up, having to watch how you stand - so your posture is really good but it can't be too good or they'll know you are of noble birth'.''
She likes the physicality of Murphy's production, in which she will appear until August 6. At 33, there are many roles Moore hopes to eventually sing, including Tosca, Manon Lescaut and Rusalka. She would also like to appear in Eugene Onegin. Having appeared in Otello, Faust and Madama Butterfly - her favourite opera - Moore believes there is greater willingness to cast black singers in European operas.
''But there's something about doing the Russian operas that hasn't quite gone over yet,'' she says.
As she returns to rehearsals in Marrickville Town Hall, Moore says she has yet to step inside the Sydney Opera House.
'There's a few places I've always wanted to go. I wanted to go to Machu Picchu and I went. I wanted to come to Sydney just to see the Opera House,'' she says. ''Now I'm getting to sing in it.''
Aida opens at the Sydney Opera House on July 17.