Page 101 - Aldeburgh Festival 2022 FINAL COVERAGE BOOK

“Basically my voice went much lower after having had two children [Raphael and Anastasia] in

the past two years,” Bevan says. “Anastasia was born only in January this year. So we thought it

would be wise not to programme things that went too high.”

Is that voice-drop typical after pregnancy and childbirth? “For some women, yes,” Bevan says.

“On the other hand, some soprano colleagues have said to me, ‘Oh, my voice went higher,’

which was rather annoying. My voice is going back up again now, but very slowly. Ryan wrote
a wonderful Magnificat setting for me, which was the first thing I sang when I came back, a few

weeks ago in Bergen, and he basically had to transpose my part down a fifth. I said: ‘I’m not

sure I can sing a top C on my first time back.’ ”

How is she restoring her top notes? “I have two wonderful singing teachers who have taught me

all about the science that goes on in your body when you are singing,” she says. “It’s stuff I

didn’t know before and didn’t want to know, frankly, because I had always just sung naturally,

since I was a little girl. After I had the children, though, I realised I couldn’t get everything back
to how it was by myself, because I had never consciously analysed what I had done. So for the

first time in my life I’ve had to learn real technique.”

Bevan and Wigglesworth in the auditorium at Wigmore Hall, London