This Limerick Life - Peter Walls
Shoppers in Limerick on a Saturday afternoon will be familiar with the sight – and sound – of Peter, who lives in Murroe. A singer of opera and 'popera', as he calls it, he is delighted to be following his passion. Especially as he came to it late at a time when he admits he was running out of options
About two years ago I lost all my accounting clients in the same week. All for different reasons, some my fault, some not. I found myself in financial trouble and unable to get a job. I had been urged to sing by family and friends before so at that point it seemed like a good time to take the jump. It's easier when you have fewer options!
I think I always envied my older brother and his life, a little at least. Dessy has been a musician and performer all his life and when I turned 50, he literally pushed me out on the floor to sing at the White House in Kinsale, where he had a resident gig! Although it was some time before I actually made it my career, that was the event that most influenced me.
My first voice coach once dressed someone as a gorilla to take their mind off the training. Ron Iles in West Cork was more like a psychologist than anything else. Everyone thinks they can't sing, or have an idea of how well they can sing and I'm going to get you out of that, he would say. So he does mad things to get people past their fixed notions. I regularly go to Maire Keary Scanlon here in Limerick and she is very good. My father was best friends with her father before either of us were born. I knew her when she was four, but when my dad died the families lost contact. I didn't see her for 40 years until my brother was looking for a producer and someone mentioned Dave Keary. Ireland is such a small country.
When I lost my clients it was terrifying, but I kind of denied it. You know the way you say you're alright, you let on everything's ok. Then I couldn't pay my rent and I got kicked out of where I lived, so it was scary. I literally thought, 'where am I going to go?' If I didn't have a sister to come down to in Murroe, I don't know what I'd have done.
When I came to stay with my sister at the back of Glenstal in Murroe, I needed a place to stay. I had intended to leave after a month or two but I'm still here - I think that says more about the people here than it does about me.
To get a second chance is amazing. I'm over the moon about it and about singing on the street. People's response to it is just great. It's invigorating
The hope Nella Fantazia reflects for mankind lifts my heart. The song is Gabriel's Oboe put to words and I sing it a lot on the streets and every time I do, I cry inside. The music was written by Ennio Morricone as part of the score for the movie The Mission which in 1986 won several awards at the Cannes Film Festival for how it depicted the elimination and annihilation of a beautiful and innocent tribe of South American Indians known as the Guaranee. They were slaughtered in the 1750s in the name of profiteering and slavery and Nella Fantazia I think for me represents the possibility that maybe some day we can rise above our petty squabbling and live in peace and harmony together as we were always meant to.
Opera and classical music are in danger of losing relevance in the modern world. On the street people from all walks of life like what I do and I am always amazed and delightfully surprised by how many different kinds of people love Nessun Dorma when I sing it. I am not an opera 'purist' and what I sing is more properly known as popera reflecting the less obscure works.
The costs of a night at the opera have become totally prohibitive for the 'ordinary man' On mainland Europe both now and historically the 'less well off' have been able to attend the operas. It can cost anything from 40 to 80 euro here in Ireland. This is a great pity as opera is something people from all walks of life, regardless of income, love and enjoy.
I have been welcomed into Murroe, where I rent a house, like a long lost member of the family. Everywhere I go I meet people who love and enjoy life, even when times are hard, and singing on the streets is a joy I cannot properly express.
Some people ask me why I'm not in the concert hall and I answer 'because of this conversation'. I love the aliveness of interacting with people on the street and nowhere in all my travels are the people more cultured than in Limerick. Maybe I'm biased but it sure feels that way! Although getting started is for some reason a nervous experience, I always walk away uplifted.
I had an uncle in politics once and I think watching how he was misunderstood lead me to resolve never to take on such a crazy job. I don't know how they do it! It seems impossible to win no matter how dedicated you are. There's always somebody knocking you. I think this government is doing its best considering how tough times are and if they asked (which I'm sure they won't) I'd say stick with it and maybe spend more time canvassing at front doors - maybe one day a week - don't always wait for election time to 'come say hello'
Be grateful for everything is my philosophy. If you can remember that, then you find you stop criticising others. I believe we were never meant to fight with one another. People are at their best when they're just paying attention to one another. The trick is to remember it, I do forget!
Check out 'Peter Walls singer necktie' on YouTube or see Peter on Thomas Street
Interview: Kevin Corbett
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Monday 21 May 2012
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