24 hours with Elena Kafkalia
A new Spice Girl?
The four sopranos. Opera singers from four countries have got together to bring the genre to a younger audience
Walking towards me, she looked every bit the member of a girl-band; feisty, dressed in a light blue cardigan and a pair of shiny blue trousers with a quick handshake. And there was something in her eye and the tone of her voice that suggested she was also something to do with opera. Contradictions? No, Elena Kafkalia is one of four members of the first opera girl band, known as Milan.
Milan consists of four sopranos from four different countries who perform a unique fusion of opera and dance music. The products of Spain, Wales, Germany and Cyprus have put their heads together, mixed up their musical influences and come up with a single, which is out now and an album, coming soon. “We are introducing something completely different to the music business and we are also hoping that opera can be appreciated by a younger audience as well, if we give it to them in an unusual manner,” remarked Elena, “we are the Spice Girls of opera.”
That may sound a bit odd but modern music and opera have been mixed in the past and some songs have met tremendous success, going on to become hits. “I am well aware that some people will find our music awful, feeling that we would be better to leave opera to be classic and pop to be modern,” Elena said, “but then there could be a chance that what we are trying to do will succeed.”
Most of the songs from their debut album are cover songs, including ‘Habanera’ and ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, Liverpool’s football anthem. Although the girls have recorded an album, it’s merely a stepping-stone towards a bigger record company and even a contract. “The whole point is to get a big deal,” Elena said, “and the only way to do that is to record an album and send it out to be heard.”
Despite being on the verge of realising her dream, Elena and the other girls are also living a far from glamorous life, but she declares this is temporarily. “At the moment we are all living with our manager, Malcolm and his family in Plymouth,” she said, “so, we all wake up together at 8am, have a quick light breakfast with no caffeine, to preserve our voices and head to rehearsals by 9:30am.”
Elena grew up in Limassol, leaving in 1996 to study music in the UK. “I finished my studies at the Royal Hall University and then came back to Cyprus where I continued my studies in theatre,” she said. Before Elena circled an ad in a paper looking for sopranos to form an opera girl band, she was giving piano lessons and playing at hotels. “That only went on for a couple of years until I decided to move back to England and try my luck there,” she explained.
Although Elena’s days are now spent rehearsing from 9:30 in the morning until 6 in the evening, with a quick sandwich break in between, she wasn’t thrown in the deep end, as I first thought. She has worked with DJ John Michael Tsiros, lending her voice to the cover song of ‘Killer’, which stayed in the KissFM charts for six weeks. The pop/opera sensation has also won the international award ISC for ‘Darkness’, a track she recorded three years ago.
“But my life is completely different now,” she added, before joking, “we now have make-up artists and hair stylists. But even if I wasn’t part of the band, I would definitely be composing or looking out for something interesting.” But it is a dream that demands sacrifices. “Being in bed by 10 o’clock because we are knackered, just goes to show that we are working hard and determined to make this work,” she said. Is it time for a new version of the Spice Girls? Maybe.
Check out Milan’s website: www.milan4.com . where you can also hear the girls’ songs and pick up a copy of their single.
