Opera review: Dido and Aeneas

Auckland singer Amy Jansen as Dido in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas.

The challenge of putting on Dido and Aeneas is usually to find a suitable short opera to complete the evening. Last night, at Te Uru Waitakere, there were no such worries.

Thanks to Frances Moore's radical staging, Purcell and Nahum Tate's tune-filled tale of ill-fated love and wicked witchery made for inspired musical theatre.

This was opera-on-the-move, as we followed the singers and players through the various gallery spaces, beginning and ending around Michael Parekowhai's celebrated piano.

Alex Taylor's reworking of Purcell's overture, starting with plaintive bassoon and viola and ending with an Allegro bustle that leapt at us through meaty piano chords, launched an hour of unfailing invention with a postmodernist bent.

Taylor had described this as "a rollicking hoon of an adventure" and his score wore its borrowings easily, from Stravinsky and Beyonce to Klaus Nomi and Bill Evans.

Te Uru's Portage Ceramics display served as Witches' Cave, with viola, bassoon and electric bass setting an eerie backdrop for a gowned Taylor, as Sorceress, to corral his malevolent sisters.

If the musical treatment sometimes smacked of the circus, a cast of four singers brought their characters to life with touching detail and observation.

Amy Jansen mixed vulnerability and strength as the doomed Dido with Tamsyn Matchett a deliciously pragmatic Belinda.

Ella Smith completed the female trio with style.

Rhys Hingston, when he was not seconded into the witches' coven, was a noble Aeneas, his powerful farewell resounding through the gallery foyer.

"Harm's our delight and mischief all our skill" the witches cackle at one point, and the vocalists showed skill dealing with some of Taylor's musical deviousness.

Matchett, in particular, tenaciously held onto her line in "Pursue thy conquest, Love" while the band pursued in another key.

The lack of an independent chorus was a minor issue. The singers (with assistance from vocalising instrumentalists) wore their choral caps with valour. However, after Jansen's beautiful parting lament, the equally lovely closing chorus suffered from first-night straggle.

Reservations, however, are miniscule. Go west and catch this extraordinary musical and theatrical adventure, which runs until Saturday night.

What: Dido and Aeneas
Where: Te Uru Waitakere, to Saturday

- nzherald.co.nz