THE NEW ZEALAND OPERA SOCIETY

New Zealand Opera School, Royal Wanganui Opera House, 13 January

The traditional final concert of the annual opera school at Wanganui becomes more stylish and accomplished every year. The style this year was attributable to input from director Sara Brodie who managed the disposition and choreography of the singers throughout the concert.

This was no series of static aria deliveries, one hand on the piano, uncertain gestures with the other. The evening was divided into two Acts and each was broken into scenes with a theme. All singers participating in each scene remained on stage after singing, contributing in varying ways, as onlookers, as actors, participants and occasionally as chorus.

Linking things narratively were the founder and director of the school, Donald Trott, and assistant director Ian Campbell; they offered cryptic, sometimes just a one-word, characterisations of each aria, pretending a linking story.

The show began with a clarion-voiced karanga from Kararaina Walker, who later sang Zerlina's aria, ‘Batti, batti', with great spirit and a good ring on her high notes. Indeed, Mozart dominated this scene, though it was Rossini's Figaro that Brendan Casey impersonated in ‘Largo al factotum': outstanding, in a voice that sounds pretty settled. Most engaging perhaps was the duet from Così fan tutte, ‘Prendero quel brunettino', sung by Megan Corby and Georgia Jamieson-Emms (the latter also carried off the dangerous Queen of the Night's aria from Act II of The Magic Flute). From The Marriage of Figaro Lynley Snelling sang Cherubino's ‘Voi che sapete' and Evelyne Bourton, ‘Porgi amor'.

Men were rather scarce at this school: a common dilemma. Stephen Chambers, in the second scene, of Italian arias, sang a most impressive ‘Dei miei bollenti spiriti' from La Traviata, with a voice of fine focus and good strength, not quite matched yet by acting skills. 

Apart from Chambers and Casey, who reappeared in the vividly enacted Rigoletto Quartet, there were Laurence Walls with his seedy ‘La donne e mobile'; also from Rigoletto, Jennifer Little sang Gilda's ‘Caro nome'; then, in the great Quartet, we were surprised by the Duke - a talented, warm-voiced tenor, Derek Hill (who will have been seen as Pinkerton in the Hamilton Garden's production of Madama Butterfly in February) who later sang ‘Nessun Dorma', as if he seriously meant every word.

This was the first time the school's concert had involved every one of the participants, and each gets a mention here. There was Olivia Fraser singing ‘O quante volte', Juliet's aria from the Bellini opera, almost sotto voce, with a delicious, tremulous quality: it's difficult to sustain its long slow lines but she did. Morag Atchison knew how to connect the notes and the meaning in Doretta's aria from La Rondine; Madeleine Pierard, with her well-founded, dramatic voice, using tasteful, but agile decoration, sang Rosina's ‘Una voce poco fa', which might well have followed Casey's earlier cavatina from Figaro.

Alice Collins got to welcome us back after the interval with Elizabeth's heroic apostrophe to the banquet hall of the Wartburg castle, ‘Dich teure Halle', her voice coping well, with thrust and character, and Bruce Greenfield's piano creating all the colour and force needed. Kate Bright captured Charlotte's heart-broken ‘Va! Laisse couler mes larmes' from Werther and Penny Watson offered a less familiar mezzo aria from The Queen of the Spades' Polina - Liza's friend, in a voice of warmth and individuality. Sarah Wood impressed with Monica's Waltz Song from The Medium and Julia Hill in ‘O mio babbino caro'.

Claire Barton ended the set, bringing the house down with a vivid rendering of ‘Cruda sorte' (L'Italiana in Algeri) - Bartoli territory - with a fine line and pulse.

The final scene included two Turandot arias. Apart from the ‘Nessun dorma', Sarah Walker sang Liù's pathos-filled aria, ‘Tu che di gel' with superb passion; and finally, Allison Cormack commanded the stage with that epitome of despair, ‘Pace, pace, mio dio' (The Force of Destiny), with all the force and finesse of a fully-fledged diva.

The evening ended with the whole ensemble - 22 singers - in the Champagne scene that ends Die Fledermaus - a reminder perhaps that Sara Brodie will direct Hawke's Bay Opera in that piece in mid year.

It was a brilliant performance, both visually and musically, with Pierard and Aitchison as Rosalinde and Adele, respectively, over an energised chorus, Greenfield again creating a pseudo-orchestra.

Pianist David Kelly contributed in like vein: Claire Caldwell and Catherine Norton were also supportive accompanists.This 11th school marks the consolidation of an institution of great importance to singing in New Zealand. English vocal coach Paul Farrington proved a most popular and inspiring teacher, different indeed from Virginia Zeani, but already signed for 2007. The whole enterprise is a huge credit to founder and still director Donald Trott and assistant director Ian Campbell.

The clashing of the Wanganui school with the National Singing School in Napier, every other year, continues to present problems. But perhaps less intractable might be the idea of an opera festival based on this gem of an opera house, in one of the few New Zealand towns with the attributes of a European-style festival centre. A collaboration between the opera school, Wanganui's own opera company, the local polytechnic, the city, and with cooperation from the two major professional companies ought to be more than just a dream. It could easily become a summer opera mecca for the whole of Australasia.