KEY POINTS:
PERFORMANCE
What: Beethoven's Fidelio
Where and when: Auckland Town Hall, Friday 8pm
The world knows Simon O'Neill is a young tenor to watch out for. When the New York Times commented that "the clarion-voiced tenor Simon O'Neill was a formidable Florestan", reviewing his Covent Garden performance, it joined the many other reviews in the New Zealander's CV that scramble for words to do justice to his talents in hard, cold adjectives.
Big talent. Big man. And O'Neill is aware of both. "I am going to see a dietitian. Can't die young," says the 36-year-old. His friends , American opera stars Deborah Voigt and Ben Heppner, are offering advice and support.
"Ben said, 'Get rid of the tummy'," O'Neill says, "he was straight up with me."
O'Neill has been close to the American tenor since covering for him at New York's Metropolitan Opera. "It's an honour," he says. "The Met is very intelligent in growing the new generation and I hope they consider me as part of it."
O'Neill has also secured roles in his own right, ranging from Don Jose in Washington and Rodolfo in a number of American houses to Mitch in the Viennese production of Andre Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire at the Theater an der Wien.
He returns to London to play Siegmund in the new Covent Garden production of Wagner's Ring. "I've been upgraded," he laughs. "I do the first two and Domingo does the other two. My conductor is Antonio Pappano and my Wotan is Bryn Terfel. I can't believe I'm on the top shelf, single malt; I have certainly graduated from on tap."
It was Pappano's baton which guided O'Neill as Florestan two months ago.
"He's terrifying," is the answer when a asked what the high-flying conductor is like to work with, "but he is also so kind. He wants more than you feel you can give which is a good thing ultimately. He wants more legato, more tone, more piano, more dolce, more depth, more declamation.
"He is with you all the time."
Tomorrow Auckland can experience the O'Neill phenomenon when he heads the cast of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's concert version of Fidelio, alongside Erika Sunnegardh's Leonore.
"When you are singing Fidelio," he says, "you are aware that there are millions of people in the world in Florestan's situation.
"It might be a writer who has written something in a political rag. He has been in prison for a long time and now people want to get rid of him. And we live in that time now."
The musical demands of Florestan, apart from stamina, include its vocal range.
"You need to have power and resonance as well as a real ping in the voice. But you also have to have depth. I don't know how many layers of paint or varnish there are, but I'm only up to the first or second."
Stamina is not a worry. "I sing huge amounts a day when I am doing a role like Lohengrin.
"When my darling wife comes home from her job as a lawyer, I don't usually sing in the house because it gives her a headache. I sing during business hours, from 9.30am to 5pm."
Practice will be a priority with the bookings ahead including an Otello with Riccardo Muti and, stretching to 2016, a possible Tristan at La Scala and Houston.
But, in the meantime, tomorrow night in the Town Hall, O'Neill promises to be a Florestan to remember.
