VIEW PROFILE: Patricia Symon

Life isn’t a dress rehearsal

Patricia Symon, known as Trish to her friends, has spent a career performing at the highest level on the world’s biggest stages. In her career Trish reached a level that many try and fail to achieve and she is now helping prepare Bridport’s abundant crop of young talent to follow in her footsteps.

Despite a dream career, Trish has had a difficult private life losing both her mother and younger sister to the hereditary illness Huntington’s Disease and suffering seven years of abuse at the hands of her first husband.

Now preparing for retirement in Loders, Trish shows no signs of slowing down working as Vocal Coach on the latest production from Bridport Musical Theatre Company and producing her own Christmas Cracker show to be performed in Loders next month. She tells TOM GLOVER her story.

PROFESSIONALLY Trish Symon has lived the life that many of the young people she works with dream of. However, her success didn’t come without sacrifice and it was a road of immeasurable highs and tragic lows.

Having lost both her mother and younger sister to the terminal hereditary illness Huntington’s disease, Trish soldiered on constantly moving forward in fear of the life sentence that she had a 50/50 chance of inheriting.

“I always thought of myself a bit like ‘Road Runner’, with Huntington’s disease as the big ugly monster trying to catch me,” said Trish.

“I was going hell for leather into life and nothing was going to stop me. I’m not a particularly shy person at the best of times but this made me determined to take every opportunity I could find and I think that probably drove me more than my contemporaries.”

Trish’s father mysteriously disappeared in 1958, listed as “missing, presumed dead”, leaving her increasingly ill mother and elderly grandmother to raise Trish and her sister.

“It has left me thinking that people shouldn’t waste their talent,” she said. “There’s no dress rehearsal you’ve got to do it now because you don’t get a second chance and you don’t know what’s round the corner, so enjoy it.”

Raised in Aberdeen in the early 50s, Trish played her first role as a munchkin in a stage production of The Wizard of Oz aged four.

Trish was first recognised for her “sweet soprano voice” at age seven, when she played Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady.

Not only gifted musically, Trish was also blessed academically and finished secondary school two years ahead of her peers.

This left Trish with a choice at 16 to train as a music teacher, a cookery teacher or to chase her dream of performing by studying for a performer’s diploma in Glasgow.

“My mum never said don’t do it and till this day I thank her for that,” she said.

“She must have had her reservations, I was so young, going 300 miles away and living in digs but she never said no.

“She came with me to the interview and somehow arranged to pay all fees. I worked part time throughout to help with costs.”

At 19 Trish had graduated from Glasgow with two diplomas in performing and in teaching, the equivalent of two degrees.

On the advice of her singing teacher she applied for a scholarship in Italy working with the vocal coach of La Scala, Milan. Despite the language barrier they bonded over their mutual love of music and Trish returned to the UK a year later and joined the Scottish Opera.

When the Scottish Opera faced financial ruin a year later she joined a friend in London and promptly landed a principal role in The King’s Rhapsody, with Russell Grant, shortly followed by a pantomime run playing Cinderella.

Having realised it was the fun of performance as much as the art of singing she enjoyed, Trish applied for the English National Opera, The Royal Opera House and a role in Gone with the Wind at the Drury Lane theatre.

Trish auditioned for all three on the same day and was offered an immediate five-year contract as chorister and junior principle with the Royal Opera House, where she spent the next 26 years.

It was after landing this contract that Trish, now married, discovered her mum’s illness. Her mum eventually spent ten years in hospital before dying at the age of 61. Her sister developed the illness even earlier in life and sadly died by suicide at the age of 36.

As well as trying to establish herself at the opera house Trish regularly flew back to Aberdeen to care for her mum and sister, and to make matters worse Trish was also suffering regular abuse at the hands of her violent husband.

Despite the tragedy in her private life Trish loved her new role with the opera house, working with the likes of Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Kiri Te Kanawa.

Trish recalls one event which cemented her love in opera.

“I remember touring America for the first time with an opera called Turandot,” she said.

“A Welsh singer called Dame Gwyneth Jones was playing the lead and she stood up and sang the big aria in rehearsal and everyone just gasped because it just made the hair stand on end. It was like pinging crystal, just one of those magical sounds. On opening night we did 30 curtain calls and there was a standing ovation for 25 minutes, it was just a huge success.

“None of us forgot it, that was the pinnacle moment when you think I’m so pleased I’m part of this. It makes you feel alive. It’s a very satisfying art form to sing, you give of yourself and when it’s done properly the audience know it’s something special and they give you the accolade which makes you want to do it again and again.”

After separating from her first husband after seven years of abuse, Trish met Kenny and re-married in 1978. Despite trying to put him off, fearing the potential fate that hung over her, he persisted saying: “I accept you as you are, you won’t get it and we will have a normal life’, he has been an absolute rock,” said Trish.

This year, aged 61, on hearing her eldest nephew, 36, has now tested positive with Huntingdon’s disease, Trish decided to take the predictive test and was told it was negative, meaning neither she nor her son and daughter will develop it, 38 years after her mother was diagnosed.

Her love for Kenny was so strong that she even turned down advances from one of the world’s biggest opera stars, known to her as “Plastic Domino”.

“Placido Domingo had an eye for the ladies,” said Trish.

“I was about to run on from the wings and do my solo part, all my colleagues were on the stage and I’m waiting anxiously to go on and then I hear this Spanish voice behind me saying ‘Good morning, Patricia, you are looking particularly lovely today’.

“He said ‘I fly to Hamburg tonight, you will come with me, we will make love and you will fly back with me here for rehearsal on Monday morning, what do you say Patricia?’

“Unfortunately none of us realised that the microphone was on in the prompt corner and the entire theatre heard his naughty proposition. What’s worse I just said what popped into my head which was ‘I’m terribly sorry I can’t, I’ve got my boyfriend’s sausages to cook for his tea!”

When the Royal Opera House closed for re-development in 1999 Trish began a career in supporting work for TV. Among her various roles Trish has played a bingo hall receptionist alongside Paul O’Grady, a disbelieving audience member in Houdini biopic Death Defying Acts and even Pat Butcher’s body double in Eastenders.

Three years after leaving the opera house though Trish returned, this time as a professional actress, the only former singer to return as an actress in the opera house’s famous history, beating 147 women in her audition for Franco Zefirelli’s production of I Pagliacci.

At around this time Trish also began her own private vocal coaching business. Through her tuition Trish has worked with West End stars, X Factor contestants and “Grease is the Word” finalist Jennifer Harragay.

Most recently Trish spotted Camilla Kerslake on TV, a former student who is now managed by Take That’s Gary Barlow and recently appearing in Les Miserables at the O2 arena.

This year Trish moved to Loders with plans of retiring but after watching Bridport Musical Theatre Company’s production of Anything Goes Trish soon found herself getting back involved with theatre.

“I was blown away by the company,” said Trish.

“I could see that they needed a little bit of tuition but the talent was definitely there and I thought I would like to be involved with this in some capacity.”

After meeting with company Director, Dave Swaffield, Trish was offered the position of Vocal Coach and has since worked on Showstoppers and 42nd Street.

Trish is currently working with the group on Showstoppers 2 as well as organising her own Christmas show to raise money for the group.

“I wanted to say thank you to Loders village where I now live and give something to the community for welcoming us so warmly, they have been very supportive and helpful.

“A Christmas Cracker will be something a bit unusual, as we have a swing version of Jingle bells, a sing-along Sound of Music, a riotous version of good King Wenceslas, quiz and raffle prizes plus refreshments afterwards. I have three terrific singers from BMTC, Richard Chubb, Emma Foulsham and Lauren Glover and I’ve got the wonderful Terry Lunt as the MC.”

A Christmas Cracker will be performed on Saturday, December 4th, 2.30pm at Loders Village Hall. Tickets from the Loders Arms, and Jean on 01308 427091. Showstoppers 2 will be next April, at Bridport Arts Centre.

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