First Person: mezzo Stephanie Wake-Edwards on open dialogue and shared goals in the new show 'FEAST'

As a culture, we are obsessed with class. By fitting criteria, ordering ourselves, relating to a prescribed list, we find our place in the world, supposedly. I would hear people talking about it as a kid and think “what the hell does it all mean?”. Working, middle, upper middle, upper, new money, “oh they have cultural capital but not necessarily economic”. It all felt very confusing, but people seemed to talk about it a lot.

I grew up with music and books in the house. We were taken to opera scenes at the music colleges, rock concerts, jazz bars, the proms, pantos, plays… I also went to my local comprehensive just off London’s North Circular, where 56 languages were spoken, which had twice the national average of kids eligible for free school meals, and went into special measures the year I graduated. It was exceptionally diverse and I loved it. I had no idea that that was not representative of the rest of the country… until I went to university.

I was of the generation that benefited from free music lessons at school (something that has since been drastically and shamefully cut in my borough). I would sing my little heart out to Britney, Maroon 5 and the very best of early 00s pop, but I had this pathological need to fit in at school and had no desire to be involved with classical music. It wasn’t cool. It was cool to go out and drink and smoke and be generally quite disruptive. So I did, and I was. [Pictured below: Wake-Edwards in rehearsal with André Callegaro]Like most lost souls, I found solace in the music department. I found freedom of expression through the guy who taught me jazz singing when I was doing my GCSEs. I received enough validation from my teachers to know this was something I wanted to pursue. Thanks, guys.

I so wanted to understand people. I wanted to know why things were the way they were, why some of my friends who lived on the estate spoke ‘well’, and why some had massive semi-detached houses but didn’t sound posh. So I chose to study Sociology and Social Psychology. To be given the vocabulary to be able to articulate myself properly and understand social stratification was hugely empowering for me. And it was at university that I fell into and in love with performing and, ultimately, opera.

My first few weeks at university were jarring. People kept on mocking my accent and/or asking me where I went to school - as if they’d know my rough comp just off the North Circ. The concept of determining one’s social status or finding common ground, based on the assumption that those who study at ‘elite’ institutions have all been to a small pool of private or public schools was completely alien to me.

I think, as a young adult, I felt a huge sense of identity and pride in the way I spoke, so I chose to buckle down and not assimilate - fervently staying true to my London state school girl roots.

And that brings us very nicely onto the inception of FEAST.