Deva's Divas

Belle Voci is their name... Italian for beautiful voices. But one half of the Chester operatic duo once feared her beautiful voice may have deserted her forever.

- Howard Bradbury

BELLE VOCI are truly on song. Sophie Rohan and Emily Burnette have singing engagements booked in for years into the future. They are a much-loved feature of opera dinners in Cheshire restaurants and farther afield. They’ve performed at swanky establishments such as the Royal Automobile Club in London and this month launch their first CD.

Belle Voci’s formula of popular opera songs and youthful glamour has proved such a hit as wedding entertainment that the pair have now set up an agency, taking on six other girls to meet demand, with plans to add boys to their books next year.

It’s a remarkable success for Sophie and Emily’s two-year partnership. Even more remarkable that just before they forged that partnership, Emily feared her singing voice had gone forever.

The pair, both 25, grew up vaguely aware of each other on the Chester singing scene. Sophie attended The Queen’s School, Chester, and started singing lessons aged 11.

‘The first time I realised I wanted to pursue it as a career was when the Queen’s did a production of My Fair Lady. I was 15 and playing Eliza,’ said Sophie.

‘I wasn’t sure exactly which path to take; it was a toss-up between going down the musical theatre route or going straight to a conservatoire and doing some opera, which I didn’t feel I was ready for, so I went to London and did a course at the London School of Musical Theatre.’

Emily came to singing aged eight as a chorister at Chester Cathedral.