Crossover is the name of the game for Amy, Hayley and Julia. Together they form “Bella Popera” a soprano girl group whose repertoire ranges from standards like ‘Nella Fantasia’ to a new arrangement of Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball.”
Natasha Barbieri: When did you ladies meet and first begin singing together?
Julia (Bella Popera): It’s been about 2 years now since we met for the first time. Because I had very specific criteria as to selection, and also in respect of the direction in which I wanted to take Bella Popera, it was absolutely vital for me to make sure that the people I would be working with would be a good fit. Not just musically, but in terms of the working arrangement between us. Because, at the end of the day, you know you are going to be spending a lot of time together. So in order to achieve this, I advertised and auditioned extensively – and I have to say that I am absolutely delighted to have found both Amy and Hayley. The three of us work well together – both on and off stage. We instantly clicked as a trio from the moment we first met, we knew from then on that this was going to be the start of something special. Two years on, and we’ve been lucky enough to have performed in wonderful venues with incredible audiences and received overwhelming feedback. We are extremely grateful for our journey so far and are excited for the future.
Natasha Barbieri: Do you remember the first time you were exposed to classical crossover?
Julia (Bella Popera): I auditioned for a place to study musical theatre at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London about 7 years ago. I remember going to my audition purely as a ‘pop’ singer. In fact, I had exclusively prepared three pop songs (Maroon 5, to be precise!). Understandably, the audition panel wanted to hear more versatility in my vocal range, and asked whether I could sing in a more classical style. Much to my delight, I got offered a place at the wonderful theatre school and that was exactly where my classical crossover journey began. Through my love for pop, as well as the inspiration of a fabulously talented classically trained singing teacher, I fell in love with opera. I would never have imagined that by the end of the year, ‘pop’ singer Julia would be belting out Bizet’s La Habanera and the Flower Duet in front of a live audience. It only felt natural from then on, in conjunction with a classical training, to combine my passion for both musical genres. I didn’t want to just go strictly classical, I tried to broaden the scope and I like to think that’s exactly what Bella Popera achieves – a unique blend and fusion of contrasting styles. It’s safe to say that my passion for classical crossover has only grown since then.
Natasha Barbieri: What has been a favorite modern piece that you have given a crossover twist?
Julia (Bella Popera): ‘Havana’ by Camila Cabello was one of the first modern hits to which we chose to give a classical twist. We arranged original three part harmonies, and it instantly felt like a perfect fit. We also created operatic harmonies to chart-topping hits by Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran and Adele. But I have to say, out of all the modern covers we have released, my personal favourite, and the most ‘out there’ cover for a classical crossover trio: Miley Cyrus’ ‘Wrecking Ball’. We had a blast in the recording studio and the song went down a storm in the crossover community! And just recently we released a pop opera cover of Despacito, by Luis Fonsi, an exciting collaboration with the talented Canadian group Volare Tenors.
Natasha Barbieri: You experiment with many styles but do you have any elements you try to apply across the board?
Julia (Bella Popera): Our shows are extremely dynamic and versatile – with repertoire ranging from Boogie Woogie, Pop, Rock, Disney, ABBA, Motown, and much more. The common thread that links these contrasting styles is our innovative three part operatic harmony arrangements – creating a unique sound intended to wow audiences with classic hits in new and innovative ways. These contrasting styles come together in one big fusion of carefully crafted crossover arrangements. Another common thread which we always incorporate into our recordings and performances is the fact that Bella Popera is very much multilingual, and we love to incorporate a variety of languages in each of our performances. That’s because I grew up bilingually in France and studied in Spain, Amy has fallen for Italian and Hayley is also a keen French speaker. We like to think that this gives us something of a USP (unique selling point) because we always go out of our way to incorporate these different languages into our repertoire – perfect for international audiences.
Natasha Barbieri: Would you say that you each have different roles in the group?
Julia (Bella Popera): Absolutely. We all bring different, but entirely complementary, skill sets to the trio. Hayley is Bella Popera’s top soprano and graduated with a Master’s degree in Music (Performance), so arranging music and harmony parts comes incredibly naturally to her. Come to our shows and you will definitely catch Hayley playing the piano in a few numbers. Amy is our wonderful mezzo-soprano, having also trained at Italia Conti and more recently graduating with a BA (Hons) in Theatre at the Guildford school of Acting. Amy is a natural talent, gifted in acting, singing and dancing as well as being an extremely versatile vocalist. I am so grateful to be able to work with such wonderfully talented girls. I majored in vocals at Italia Conti and have a business degree from Lancaster University, so I like to incorporate these skills into Bella Popera and I am the overall manager in charge of the strategy and direction of the group. What is so interesting about working together is that all of these different roles and approaches fuse and merge together incredibly well.
Natasha Barbieri: Tell us a little bit about your new collaboration with Volare Tenors.
Julia (Bella Popera): It’s a crazy world of social media nowadays. Volare Tenors contacted us via Instagram, and we immediately knew this was going to be a good fit. We decided to release a classical crossover rendition of Despacito – starting off more operatic and ending with a blend of classical and pop. This was a huge collaboration in terms of writing charts for six part harmonies for tenors and sopranos and making it our own. We went out of our way to find attractive locations both in Edmonton, Canada and London and if you look at the video, it’s not immediately evident that these were filmed on two separate continents because of the effective editing. We loved every second of this collab and are looking forward to similar projects in the future.
Natasha Barbieri: What are some of the things you hope to accomplish together as a group?
Julia (Bella Popera): We will continue to perform at luxury events, corporate events, festivals and would love for the Bella Popera brand to become more widely known which, I’m happy to say, is already happening. We’ve grown from just a few followers to almost 20k across Facebook and Instagram. We’ve got exciting live performances coming up and we are hoping to release our own album in addition to touring internationally. We are so excited to share our unique style of classical crossover music and hope to see you all at our concerts very soon!
Thank you Julia for introducing us to Bella Popera!
Please connect with them online at: bellapopera.com
