Siani Owen

Siani Owen always had one ambition – to sing in Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera. 

Five years ago she achieved this dream and joined the cast primarily as female swing. “I couldn’t believe it when my agent rang to tell me,” she says. “I was in Poland at the time singing with Martin Creed (the Turner Prize winner) and literally screamed down the phone in excitement! Everyone in the rehearsal space turned to look at me; I think they thought something dreadful had happened but no, I was so happy, this was what all my training had been for.” 

After a gap year assisting the drama teacher at St Bede’s Preparatory School in Manchester, Siani went to the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama to begin her degree in classical singing. While there she was spotted by Adrian Partington, who encouraged her to join the Welsh BBC Choir and gave her numerous engagements as a soloist performing all over the country. 

From Wales Siani then packed her bags and set off to London where she had won a place on Mary Hammond’s Musical Theatre postgraduate course at The Royal Academy of Music. While she was there she was lucky enough to be given the highly prestigious Countess of Munster scholarship and the equally highly regarded Ian Fleming award. 

After receiving a distinction and joining one of London’s top theatrical agencies Siani spent what sounds like a fantastic year gigging with Sir Elton John (at Wembley Arena, The Royal Opera House and the Royal Albert Hall, among others), and Martin Creed (in Poland, Berlin, Paris and London); she also took part in various new musicals and recordings. It was towards the end of this first year out of college that the call came about Phantom. 

Amazing costumes
Siani remembers: “At first I was unsure exactly what my role as female swing meant but was excited to discover I would be an understudy to all the smaller female parts in the show, so I had a lot of music to learn (four different harmonies for each song!) and six different sets of character ‘journeys’ during the show.” There were four weeks of rehearsals during which she had to cram in costume and wig fittings too. She adds: “The costumes were amazing; the show is set in the 1880s so the day dresses all had big bustles and were made of the most beautiful materials. Then there were the ‘Princess’ dresses used in the opening scene, which weigh three stone!” 

Siani obviously impressed the director for she was then given first cover Carlotta and she subsequently played the role for weeks at a time “Carlotta is the diva in the show and is Christine’s rival,” Siani explains. “It was such fun playing this vile creature although hitting the ridiculously high notes every night was sometimes rather scary, especially if I had a cold or sore throat. I had to make sure I was having regular singing lessons in order to keep my ‘instrument’ healthy and ensure I was using my voice correctly (it is easy to fall into bad habits without realising it until it’s too late!) especially as after the overture Carlotta appears on stage on her own and has to sing a big cadenza (an ornamental solo passage allowing for virtuosic display) without any orchestral accompaniment. In the moments before singing this I would have sweaty palms and knocking knees but afterwards it was a brilliant feeling – I guess I’m a born show-off!” 

Carlotta’s costumes were even bigger and better than those Siani had been used to before – the ‘Princess’ dress went and in came the ‘Queen of Carthage’ gown, weighing in an extraordinary five stone! “Thankfully, Carlotta is only on stage in this for a few minutes, so I never got backache, although it was hard to walk upstairs to my dressing room afterwards, so my dresser had to lift the train to help me!” says Siani. 

Over 1,000 performances
The trickiest part of the show was always a particular costume change. Siani explains: “As the curtain dropped on one scene I had to run towards the back of the stage behind the prop bed (visible to the audience) where a team of wardrobe and wig assistants would be there to whip off my gloves, skirt, top and wig and in 90 seconds put on another skirt, corset, jacket, wig and a fan! Oh, and if there was time left over I got to have a sip of water before plunging the bottle back into someone’s hands and walking round the bed in a calm and dignified manner ready to sing!” 

Siani speaks with such enthusiasm about her time on the Phantom of the Opera; she has over 1,000 shows to her name and not only were the shows themselves tremendous fun but the cast were also lucky enough to meet famous and sometimes inspiring celebrities who would watch the musical and come backstage to meet everybody afterwards. Siani was fortunate enough to meet greats such as George Lucas and Mickey Rooney not to mention Gerard Butler and Richard and Judy! She also got to work with the legendry Hal Prince and Gillian Lynne. 

It was clearly a wonderful time in her life, but sadly she missed home too much and working six days a week left little time to make the journey back to Manchester. She decided to move back here 18 months ago after a successful stint as the villain in Sleeping Beauty at the Mercury Theatre in Colchester, and set about her ambition to bring her skills to those who aspired to do what she had done. 

As well as now having a plethora of private singing pupils, she has done lots of work for the Manchester College and is also the Singing Teacher at Queen Elisabeth’s Grammar School in Blackburn. 

Siani doesn’t rule out returning to the stage and regularly performs in concerts around the region. However, for now she is delighted to be working with such enthusiastic and talented students and hopes that soon it is their names that are in lights.