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Ali McGregor
 This year's Fringe Festival sees the welcome return of former Opera Australia soprano Ali McGregor with her new show Midnight Lullabies. Perhaps better known for her regular appearances on ABC TV's 'Spicks And Specks', McGregor has garnered great reviews both locally here in Australia and in Europe for her work where the UK's Sunday Times described her as "A slender, doe-eyed man-eater made of the finest Dresden china."
Following feted performances at last year's Fringe Festival with Opera Burlesque, McGregor returns to further extend her incredible abilities to interpret a song - be it written by 19th century lieder expert Hugo Wolf, Tom Waits or Leonard Cohen.
Talking from Victoria while she prepares for an appearance at a country-based music festival, McGregor explains that Midnight Lullabies is basically built around 'night songs' - not only those that settle and reassure, but those which also bare the darkest night of the soul.
"The show opens with an a cappella version of Summertime which starts in the higher operatic octave that Gershwin wrote it in and then I come down and do it in a more jazzy style. It's a great starting point for the show and it shows the audience the boundaries of just what they will get in my show," she claims.
McGregor explains that although there are some lullabies presented here, the true inspiration for the show actually came from material that resonated with her. "I love a good song and I don't care where it comes from - what genre - whether it be classical or by Radiohead or The White Stripes," she states. "I'm trying to sing a bunch of songs and I am trying to break down these genre barriers that exist so strongly for many in music. I mean, don't get me wrong, I am not trying to reinvent the wheel or anything, I just love a good song and I also love lullabies and not just those for babies. There are some traditional ones like All The Pretty Little Horses but you are more likely to find a song to sooth you when you wake up at four in the morning, I think."
A great example of this lies in the ingenious inclusion of Hugo Wolf's Das Verlassene Magdlein. McGregor is quick to explain that she is not "Interested in 'popping up' opera at all." Whilst Wolf remains one of the most concentrated and difficult of all lieder writers (classical songs set to poet's lyrics), what McGregor correctly explains about him is that he is successfully "able to marry the words to the music so well, that he really encapsulates exactly what the poet is trying to say. And when you look at a Tom Waits song or something by Leonard Cohen - and I see similarities between Wolf and them in some ways...I just wanted to explore that in a show."
In the case of Leonard Cohen, McGregor explains that as far she is concerned "as a poet he makes a good singer and when you listen to him, he is a better poet than he is as a musician. Some of his recordings have very simple arrangements but for me, because of the lyrics, Cohen is pure gold. Hallelujah, I won't touch. Jeff Buckley's version is sublime and has an operatic quality to it so I feel that I can't bring anything new to it really, but Dance Me To The End Of Love, I can. The poetry is far from simple here while the music really is, so you can place emphasis on the poetry and make it really shine."
As well as experimenting with repertoire and genres, Ali McGregor's Midnight Lullabies gives McGregor a chance to "get practice at finding my own voice - in using my chest voice in the pop material. Whether it is guided by a sound that I am trying to achieve, or a technique that I am using. Here it's raw - coming straight from my heart. I don't think too much about the technique and go into autopilot even when I'm singing something operatic. In fact, I must admit Midnight Lullabies has made it surprisingly easy for me to find my own voice."
Ali McGregor plays at the Garden Of Unearthly Delights as part of the Fringe Festival on Sat 24 March, Mon 26 March and Tue 27 March
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