Range Rover

Some singers can’t wait to find their vocal niche. British soprano Judith Howarth has been looking for 20 years and is content to continue waiting to spot hers.

“My voice still seems to be developing,” said Howarth, 36 and one of four vocal soloists with the Royal Opera Orchestra of Covent Garden, which makes its North American debut tonight in Costa Mesa. “I feel I still haven’t really fallen into a fach [vocal category] I’m going to settle in.

That helps explain why she continues to take on a range of vocal demands.

“Last year, I did an awful lot of Strauss. I just recorded a Strauss album of songs with orchestra. In between, I’ve sung [Donizetti’s] ‘Le Fille du Regiment’ and [John Adams’] ‘Nixon in China.’ . . .

“I do believe in fach. I just don’t feel that my voice is settled down yet. It’s still growing. Since I’ve had two children, my voice has gotten richer than it was five or six years ago,” she continued. “I still manage the coloratura. Now I like to call myself a ‘lyric coloratura.’ ”

She envisions even more musical explorations.

“There are still quite a few roles I’d like to do,” she said, citing among them Donizetti’s Lucia, Rossini’s Semiramide, Puccini’s Cio-Cio San, Mozart’s Konstanze and Berg’s Lulu. “But nothing definite is planned at the moment. I certainly haven’t fulfilled all my ambitions, thankfully. But I do want to get better and better. What I’m doing, I can do for many years, but I still can improve on that.”

In the orchestra’s two programs tonight and Thursday, Howarth will sing excerpts from operas by Verdi, Puccini, Leoncavallo and Gounod. The other singers, all under the direction of Edward Downes, are soprano Rita Cullis, tenor Gywn Hughes Jones and baritone William Dazeley.

The native of Ipswich was brought up with music. “My parents are ministers in the Salvation Army, so I sang a lot in the services we had.”

She began studying voice seriously when she was 16,

Please see Howarth, F9

Howarth: Little Use for ‘Wacky’ Stage Directors

She began studying voice seriously when she was 16, attended the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and joined the Royal Opera House of Covent Garden in 1984.

“The singers I used to listen to and still do and admire,” she said, “include Mirella Freni, Montserrat Caballe and Joan Sutherland. Except for Caballe, I’ve sung with them. I will be doing [Giordano’s] ‘Fedora’ with Mirella in Washington next season. Her whole personality is just wonderful. She was just all over my children. She’s just a nice lady, a treasure.”

Though she has worked in contemporary opera (she’ll go to Brooklyn in December to repeat “Nixon in China”), Howarth has managed--”not deliberately,” she said--to avoid working with what she called “wacky” modern stage directors.

“I don’t think I’ve been involved with anything I didn’t want my name associated with. . . . A few years ago I heard friends talk about doing crazy things in warmup sessions. They would arrive and be told, ‘Pretend you’re a rabbit. Now pretend you’re a rabbit attacked by an eagle.’ Actually, I haven’t been asked to do anything I haven’t agreed with.”

The Royal Opera Orchestra’s 12-plus city tour, which started last week in Manchester, England, was possible because its home, the Royal Opera House, has been closed since July 1997 for what is expected to be a 2 1/2-year renovation. (Related story, F1.) Meanwhile, the Royal Opera and its sister company, the Royal Ballet, are performing in various London venues and on international tours.

After the concerts in Costa Mesa, the orchestra moves to Santa Barbara and Palm Springs, then heads east to end in New York on March 29.

The tour gives Howarth a rare chance to sing in the U.S.

“I hardly ever sing in this country. I do a lot of work in Europe, where I have an equal amount of concert work and opera. Concert work is a lot easier. Spending two or three days at a time in Europe is no problem. Opera means rehearsing for a month. At least, when I’m doing that in Europe, I can come home for weekends.”

That makes it easier to include time with her family than during this transoceanic jaunt. Neither her 5-year-old daughter, Caragh, her 8-month-old son, Connach, nor her husband, Scottish tenor Gordon Wilson, are with her on tour.

“It’s too punishing a schedule,” Howarth said. “Sometimes we’re in a different venue every night. I do try to take my son, but not on this tour. There’s so much travel. Sometimes, we’re six hours on a [plane]. It doesn’t seem fair to him. . . .

“I do wish I could could spend more time with my family, but a lot of people can say that. That’s the only downside.”

Another challenge is trying to excel at every performance. “At times it’s difficult,” she said. “You’re not [always] feeling 100% and still have to deliver the goods.

“But singing is my No. 1 hobby. . . . I feel it’s a wonderful job. I meet fantastic people. I go to wonderful places. I have a happy life, a very happy family life, which does come first and foremost. . . . I do consider myself to be very lucky to be doing a job I absolutely adore.”

* Judith Howarth will be one of four soloists singing different programs by the Royal Opera Orchestra led by Edward Downs today and Thursday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. 8 p.m. $15-$55. The concerts are sponsored by the Philharmonic Society. (949) 553-2422.