THE NEW ZEALAND OPERA SOCIETY

Sirius Opera: Impersonating Maurice (John Drummond) and The Daughters of the Late Colonel (Dorothy Buchanan) both with librettos by Jeremy Commons, directed by Jacqueline Coats with piano accompaniment by Hugh McMillan.

Where: The Wellesley, Thursday evening, 31 March 2005

One of the most satisfying opera productions inspired by Jeremy Commons over recent years was a 1999 triple bill of pieces based on Katherine Mansfield stories, The Mansfield Stories, all three set to Dorothy Buchanan’s music. They were produced in the framework of the Third Composing Women’s Festival, in Victoria University’s Adam Concert Room.

Composer and librettist felt that The Daughters of the Late Colonel was the least effective of the three on account of budget constraints that obliged them to update the setting from Edwardian times to the 1940s, so that less elaborate costumes could be used.

Accordingly, this new production was staged with sets and costumes in Edwardian style: the most striking aspect was the costumes of the two sisters, and of the maid too for that matter (sung by Olivia Fraser). The sisters were in tight-fitting black satin (costumes: Sharon Matthews); and they were the more arresting through the stylish and vivid performances by Madeleine Pierard and Ellen Watts.

At the first performance on 31 March both Pierard and Jamie Frater, who also sang in The Daughters, were announced as finalists in the Lexus (formerly Mobil) Song Quest.

The other opera, Impersonating Maurice, was cancelled at last year’s planned double-bill production because of illness. It is a more slender work, a slightly dark comedy, set to John Drummond’s agreeable music, about a young doctor who mistakenly opens a letter from a young woman addressed to an unknown previous occupant of his rooms, and assumes the role of the disappeared lover who has evidently dropped the girl, Flora. Philip Roderick, the unethical doctor, lacked a little in confidence and sang as a somewhat geekish, unworldly fellow; which in fact worked quite well. Flora however, from Ellen Watts (who sang in both operas), was rather more at ease. Both voices exhibited a fast vibrato that was common the early 20th century, when the piece was set.

In the first half the interaction between the doctor and Flora, who materialises to read her letters, is dramatically weak; but interest increases sharply when she turns up and the doctor is confronted with the real world.

Highly supportive piano accompaniment in both was from Hugh McMillan, and Lynne Scott’s piano accordion lent a dash of period colour to The Daughters.

The latter, with its droll, ironic libretto, was set by Dorothy Buchanan to music of considerable rhythmic – good use of 20s jazz idiom – and emotional variety, and melodic interest; it presented a more convincing little drama right from the start. Pierard was vocally and dramatically rivetting, while Watts as the younger sister offered a clear contrast: neither can free herself from the stultifying influence of the dead father. Jamie Frater sings in polished, rotund tones the role of the unctuous parson while Olivia Fraser acted and sang with accomplishment as the maid, though some of music was set rather too high for her comfort. While this was the more satisfying work and the more persuasively performed, the whole evening, interspersed by the usual fine meal, rated among the most enjoyable.

This was the thirteenth of the annual productions of salon operas from Jeremy Commons and he announced that the next, in 2006, would be his last. In an environment where New Zealand works are mounted with such reluctance and with such laboriousness by larger companies, the example of Sirius Opera, and its success in attracting funds from generous patrons, is an example to be emulated. Ideally, it should be taken up by another similarly-motived enthusiast.

(derived from the review that appeared in The Dominion Post, 2 April 2005)