THE NEW ZEALAND OPERA SOCIETY

NBR New Zealand Opera
St James Theatre, Wellington
Saturday 17 June. 

Review by Simon Tipping 

What an eyeful! This production is such a visual, fantastical feast that the eye threatens to overwhelm the ear at times. Gerald Scarfe’s sets and costumes are stunning. Colours and shapes riot and dazzle, and we are taken on a visual journey which encompasses Egypt, Mayan Central America, Japan and Polynesia, to name only the more obvious visual references in the opera. Scarfe’s fecund mind mixes all these influences up in one pot and pulls out whatever colourful and curious idea floats to the top.

Stephen Barlow Conductor
Margaret Medlyn Judith
Ferenc Cserhalmi Bluebeard

Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
Auckland Town Hall
25 May

Review by Neil Jenkins 

Bartok’s only opera Bluebeard’s Castle, if it is to be performed well, is a musical challenge. Only his ballet The Miraculous Mandarin can be thought of, in some respects, as a musical sequel to the opera. It has an individuality that comes perhaps from Bartok’s study of Hungarian folk music with its modal scales. These seem to rub off on the opera’s harmony as well as on its melody. Bartok’s key symbolism is unique, and in Bluebeard for instance, he gives melody lines to the baritone, but the mezzo-soprano is often faced with singing aggressive music against the prevailing key. The baritone’s musical entries can be in G major and the soprano’s reply will be in the pentatonic scale of A flat – a difference of one semitone.

Stephen Barlow Conductor
Margaret Medlyn Judith
Ferenc Cserhalmi Bluebeard

Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
Auckland Town Hall
25 May

Review by Garth Wilshere

This concert performance of Bartok’s masterwork, Bluebeard’s Castle was an imaginative initiative by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, in collaboration with the NBR NZ Opera and The Edge. I was very much looking forward to the performance but despite the laudable intentions of the organisers, and apart from the magnificent, involving performance of Margaret Medlyn, I was very disappointed with the whole presentation of what should be, a chillingly powerful piece. The major disappointment stemmed from the underwhelming vocal performance of the Hungarian bass Ferenc Cserhalmi whose projection and involvement in the music and drama was minimal. His stolid unmoving stage demeanour and lack of any interaction or even acknowledgement of Medlyn’s Judith, let alone the conductor, seriously diminished the drama, passion, emotion and power of the work.

Stravinsky’s operatic masterpiece The Rake’s Progress in the now over 30-years-old David Hockney production, which I was lucky enough to see when it debuted at Glyndebourne Festival Opera in the old house, gave the Melbourne Autumn Season of Opera Australia tremendous caché. The unique sets and costumes have held up magnificently; and if a production can assume the status of a museum piece, this one certainly should be preserved, for it was, and still is, a trend-setter.

NZ Opera is on tour, with a scaled down English language Don Pasquale. By a happy quirk of timing, it hit Dunedin last night, just two days before opening night of the University production of Carmen. Two operas in one year is a rare enough treat in this neck of the woods; two in one week is just plain bizarre. With the operatic drought which reigns here most of the time, it's tempting to feel so grateful for any relief that even a mediocre performance receives automatic praise, purely because it's better than nothing at all. However, this Don Pasquale is thankfully in no danger whatsoever of mediocrity — it's a beautiful show, and though it might be an oasis in our desert, I've no doubt it would succeed just as well in far lusher surroundings. 

Two delightful short New Zealand operas made up a celebratory last season of Sirius opera. Mrs Windermere and The Genteel Pigeons, with libretti by Jeremy Commons, the genius behind Sirius Opera, and music by John Drummond, were a celebration for the audience too, many of whom have attended most of Sirius’s Wellington productions. They showed their approval this time by filling the house for five performances, and by their appreciation at the end of the evening. 

Jamie Frater Homecoming Concert with Emma Sayers piano National Library Auditorium 7 April

Everyone at this concert was interested to note on the progress that bass-baritone Jamie Frater has made since commencing study with Margaret Kingsley at the Royal College of Music in London.

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.

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 Opera Factory, Newmarket, Auckland. Saturday 23 April
Review by Katherine Watts

This exceptional programme was the first “Gala Recital” presented in the new (ex-warehouse) home of Opera Factory. It proved a deserving and dazzling choice, as the two artists combined for a very generous evening of art song, leaving the audience wanting more. Sally Burgess appeared by courtesy of Christchurch Civic Choir, with whom she was to present a quite different programme of operatic numbers. Here she revelled in the more intimate recital form and gave us an eclectic selection ranging from Duparc and Canteloube to Rorem and Kern. She was accompanied with virtuosity and panache by pianist Rosemary Barnes.