From lullabies to opera
Sun Herald
Sunday March 27, 2011
IT IS hard being an opera diva and the mother of a five-month-old baby and four-year-old son. But Silvia Colloca says she needed the extra challenge of performing in Orfeo ed Euridice."Don't get me wrong, I love family life," said Colloca, 33, the Italian-born wife of actor Richard Roxburgh."I'm the Italian mama 100 per cent. I love all the boys in my life so much. But I think it's good for all of them, including Richard, that I've got something else that's not just family life."Colloca, a mezzo-soprano, sings the role of Orfeo, the grieving husband of Euridice, whose attempts to rescue her from the Underworld are thwarted.An actress and trained opera singer, she said there were few opportunities for singers in Sydney compared with London or her home town, Milan."I found it really weird that there was only one professional opera company in Sydney, which means that basically 99 per cent of opera singers are out of work," she said.Orfeo ed Euridice is short by operatic standards, running for 105 minutes, but Colloca sings for almost its entire length."It's been a very difficult journey to put the role into my vocal cords because I sing from start to finish," she said. "I never leave the stage. I'll have to hide water bottles behind furniture so I can drink a little."Juggling motherhood with performing is no easy task but Colloca said the parenting skills Roxburgh showed towards baby Miro and his older brother, Raphael, were far superior to those shown by Cleaver Greene, the barrister he portrays in ABC1's Rake."No, no, he's amazing - a good nappy changer," she said.Roxburgh, 49, does not get up in the middle of the night, "but I'm breastfeeding", she said. "If he did, he wouldn't be much help."Colloca said she had never dated an actor before she met Roxburgh on the set of Van Helsing eight years ago."I still remember the second he walked in the room. It was a massive attraction. God, I wasn't expecting to be so entranced," she said."I made the right decision marrying an Australian."After years of shuttling between London and Australia, the couple live in Avalon, on Sydney's northern beaches. But Colloca said it was tough being so far away from her family in Italy."I had a baby five months ago and my family hasn't met him yet and it really pains me every day."Orfeo ed Euridice plays at the PACT Theatre in Erskineville from March 31 to April 3.Culture Page 34
© 2011 Sun Herald
