No Autographs, Please! is a deeply personal, refreshingly frank and entertaining autobiography by soprano Katherine Wiles, a full-time member of the Opera Australia Chorus since 2007. 

Wiles’ chorus career spans an astonishing collection of over 60 operas and hundreds of performances, as well as understudying major roles, recordings and solo engagements in concert. Fans of Opera Australia will recognise Wiles from some of her solo roles, which include Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Valencienne in The Merry Widow.

The lives of the chorus, these essential members of any opera company, are rarely if ever chronicled. What Wiles achieves extremely well is a reveal of the life and work of this ensemble – the men and women with a tremendous capacity to learn their parts from memory in different languages, then act, dance and sing, often clad in swathes of period costumes and heavy makeup. While soloists have the luxury of a few days’ break between performances, chorus members are back at work the next day, rehearsing another production before readying themselves for a different performance that evening.

This breeds a special intimacy and collegiality which Wiles illustrates vividly through her many anecdotes....