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With the demands of family, acting, opera and gym workouts, not to mention management disputes and periods of acrimony between the pair, somehow 17 years have passed since Tears for Fears last recorded an album together. “Her answer was: ‘Mama goes to the office and Papa goes to the gym.’” One day at preschool, his eldest daughter was asked what her parents did. I was very much the stay-at-home dad, because my wife has a career and is very busy.” With little in his Los Angeles home to suggest a successful career in music – no gold discs on the walls, or awards on the mantelpiece – Smith realised that, while he might not need such reminders to know who he was, his identity was mysterious to his children.
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“You still write music, but you do other things. The life of the “semi-retired” musician is a strange one, Smith reflects. “I went in there and I fucking nailed it,” he recalls of his performance of Giordani’s Caro Mio Ben in a suite at the Savoy hotel that winter. He took the audition seriously, practised diligently, sought out an opera coach near his home in the West Country. “I’m thinking: ‘This was meant for me.’” he says. Orzabal, who had sung opera in the past, felt the stars were aligning.
CULT ANIMOSITY SHOWS NO LETTING UP TV
Meanwhile, back in England, Smith’s bandmate Roland Orzabal had received an invitation to audition for the reality TV show Popstar to Operastar.