THE NEW ZEALAND OPERA SOCIETY

Royal Wanganui Opera House. 12 May
Review by Lindis Taylor

Since the production of La Bohème seen in early May at Wanganui was a co-production between Opera Hawke’s Bay and Wanganui Regional Opera, basic production elements were in common: the director, and the set and costume designer. The musical director at Wanganui, however, was Michael Vinten. All the singers were different, apart from the Marcello of Phillip Rhodes.

The 850-seat theatre was comfortably full at the last of the four performances, and I gathered that the previous performances, too, had been well attended.

First the orchestra: one of the things that has happened with all the provincial orchestras I’ve heard in the last year or so has been their raised performance standard, typically at a level that would have astonished audiences ten years ago; they rather impress me now.

Last year I found the Hawke’s Bay orchestra admirable, and the Wanganui Regional Opera Orchestra was no less impressive, even though it was a pick-up band, basically drawn, I gathered, almost entirely from the Wanganui/Manawatu region. It reflects the steady rise in the level of practical music teaching in schools, community colleges, polytechnics and, where they exist, universities.

While it might be progress at the supply end of the music market, we are still faced with a steady decline in the exposure of school children, even those taking music as an option, to classical music of any kind, and that is giving rise to a very serious crisis at the demand end of the economic equation.

One of the great advantages of a production of this sort, using young singers, is verisimilitude. We are not presented with an out-of-condition, 40-something year-old, with a hoity voice, trying to be a flighty 18-year-old girl; or a balding, portly gent with a well-worn, middle-aged voice indulging in student antics. None of the six young people was of inappropriate age, vocal colour, or appearance.

Phillip Rhodes sang an excellent Marcello, with a voice that fitted the role perfectly: young and boisterous, and his acting flair made his relationship with Musetta, as well as with his fellow students, totally realistic. The Rodolfo, Jack Bourke, was a little less polished, though his tenor voice is a well-trained instrument. His intonation was suspect at times however, and he did not seem particularly comfortable in the role. His tendency to leap onto tables at almost every appearance seemed at odds with his generally sober demeanour.

Both female roles were highly successful. Deborah Wai Kapohe seemed a born Mimi, evincing a fey charm, a vulnerability, a real capacity for love; her distinctive voice quickly embodied a convincing Mimi. Scarcely less well cast was the Musetta of Marla Kavanaugh; she threw herself into the role with almost frenzied impulsiveness at her first appearance in Act II. It is certainly not an easy part, having to be the immediate centre of attention.

She did almost too well and one was a little bemused at her excesses: the most thick-skinned Alcindoro would have been embarrassed by her. Her later appearances were less flamboyant; her voice was always bright and accurate.

Act II is also the main opportunity for the chorus: many a larger city would have been proud to have fielded such an excellent children’s chorus, from St George’s College, under Jeanette Jones. The adult chorus was hardly less accomplished; both in their singing and in generally purposeful movement, they were coached effectively by Roy Tankersley.

The rest of the student quartet measured up to their demands very well. Geoffrey Hughes was Colline; his sort-of afterthought aria, ponderously sacrificing his coat when it is all far too late, did not quite come fully to life, though he sang and acted very well throughout. Likewise, Brendan Casey fulfilled the role of Schaunard, both vocally and through clearly directed acting.

Baritone Paul Lyons had been a fine Benoît in Act I and reappeared as a thoroughly discomforted Alcindoro in Act II.

If the chorus coaching was in other hands, the coherence of the singing as a whole was the work of repetiteurs Bruce Greenfield and Louise Clark. And the integrity of the entire musical fabric – singers and intrumentalists – was eventually the work of Michael Vinten who maintained good momentum, balance between pit and stage, and saw to the production of more orchestral felicities that might have been expected from an essentially ad hoc ensemble.

The credit for the production’s success histrionically belonged to the gifted Sara Brodie whose sure and resourceful hand was always in evidence, making lively sense of every scene. Again, Vanya Cocker’s sets and costumes created a convincing situation: the 1890s, using Van Gogh’s evening café terrace scene at Arles in Act II. Traditional, though perceived through a contemporary eye and sensibility.