Conducter Natalie Murray Beale returns to Australia for OA’s Carmen

After conquering the UK and Europe - and teaching Cate Blanchett everything she knows about conducting - it’s time for Natalie Murray Beale to come home.

Australian conductor Natalie Murray Beale. Picture: Hana Knizova

After 20 years performing with some of the world’s best orchestras in some of the world’s greatest opera houses, you’re home to conduct Opera Australia’s Carmen. Is this the big Australian moment in your career? This will be my Sydney Opera House debut! It’s a great moment for me. Actually, when I was very young, I did do some work experience with the press department at the Opera House and on my last day, the boss said, “We’re not going to go out today. I’ve got something better for you. Run!” And up six flights of stairs I went, and they snuck me into a dress rehearsal for an opera, and just the sound of it affected me so much, something clicked inside me.

What was the performance? It was Les Huguenots with Dame Joan Sutherland! And I was tiny, maybe 13 years old or something. I’d heard opera on recordings, but I’d never stepped into that physical space, and when I heard it, wow. It was profound.

Is it a blessing or a curse to grapple with a well-known score like Carmen? It’s not a curse, it’s great. This music has been featured in movies we all know, even Tom and Jerry films. So there is that kind of osmosis. But more than that, all the rhythm of it, the immersion into the world of Spanish music, the dances, bull fights ... there is so much that has seeped into our consciousness.

How nerdy do you get with your research before any performance? Super geeky, almost obsessive. I think you have to be a bit obsessive about the detail – not just about the music, but also the culture of the time. Musicians are relying on you to know how all the parts are pieced together, but more than that, you have to have a point of view. That’s one of the greatest things I’ve realised in my career: that if someone offers me a piece, and I don’t have a strong point of view, I’m not going to do it. To take the lead, you need to have something important to say, and to share.

How did you end up as the musical consultant on the film Tár, effectively as the person responsible for teaching Cate Blanchett how to conduct? I knew Cate, I’d met her a few times in London, and she texted me one day and asked, “Can I talk to you about something?” She shared the script with me, and I mean, it all felt very natural. I met the director [Todd Field] and he wanted all the music in the movie to be shot live – no tricks. I ended up really being on board for the entire journey, right through to post-production.

How much of the Lydia Tár character’s physicality on the podium is like your own? Well, I don’t see it at all but my sisters have commented that they saw a bit of me in there.

Cate is such an incredible actor; she kind of developed a lot of her technique naturally. My eye was on making sure that, technically, everything was correct.

You’re a country girl from Wingham in NSW – and you’re related to another famous resident, the late poet Les Murray. What are your memories of him? When I went abroad, as a young woman, alone, I met him after a poetry reading and he invited me to dinner. He had a lot of incredible friends, you know, Russian artists and poets, people of real intelligence. I sat at this dinner table thinking it was a world away from where I was from, but there wasn’t a feeling that I couldn’t be there. He was very much of that point of view. He would never exclude anybody and was never snobbish.

What’s the one thing opera in this country needs to ensure it remains relevant to a new generation? I feel like there are stories and experiences I have that my colleagues overseas don’t understand. Opera shares stories that are universal, sure, but they’re foundationally European. It’s really important that Australian stories are woven through the medium, so that it relates to our culture, our people.

Carmen is playing at the Sydney Opera House until September 19.