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Mindham Fine Jewellery photo

The Measha necklace with prasiolites, diamonds and gold, $20,200 Cdn., by Myles Mindham

Measha and Myles

Big, explosive jewelry designs for an operatic voice to match

(Nov. 17) Rising opera star Measha Brueggergosman has a voice that has been described as expressive and voluptuous.

The same could be said for Myles Mindham’s jewelry.

No wonder the collaboration of these two artists feels so right.

Brueggergosman, the award-winning Canadian soprano who is achieving acclaim on stages around the world, has been wearing pieces from Mindham Fine Jewelry in Toronto for several seasons now.

But this new collection designed with Brueggergosman in mind came about after Mindham saw her performing with the Opera Atelier in Mozart’s Idomeneo.

“She was screaming away as Elettra,” Mindham recalls. “I looked at the earrings she was wearing - my yellow gold drops - and thought they are way too small for her. They might seem big to the average gal, but on Measha, who has this incredible voice and presence onstage, they were invisible. I thought why don’t we do something big and explosive.”

Mindham went to his safe and pulled out seven lime prasiolites that had been waiting for just the right use, then settled down to sketching out an expansive necklace. The breastplate-sized piece has a sensual array of yellow gold ovals dotted with the large green stones and 168 one-point diamonds. The oval gold links are a reference to the O in opera. The motif also appears in earrings and chain link necklaces, both of which are punctuated with large, raw amethysts and chalcedony.

Rings in the Measha collection are overscale, too. One features a 72.73 carat amethyst held in a loose, basket-like frame. Another features a 66.86 carat citrine.

“The designs seem wild and random, which I like,” Brueggergosman remarks. “There’s a real freedom and fluidity of movement in them.”

Brueggergosman will be wearing the Mindham jewels for all of her performances worldwide.

“When I met Measha, I said to her, ‘You are totally authentic. Why are you wearing faux jewelry?’ ” Mindham recalls. He also admonished her for wearing fake pearls on the cover of her first album. “Your voice is real, your personalilty is real, your career is real, but those pearls aren’t,” he said. “And anyone who has real pearls knows it.”