From left: Paul Whelan, James Ioelu, Natasha Te Rupe Wilson, Eliza Boom, Amelia Berry and Oliver Sewell.
From left: Paul Whelan, James Ioelu, Natasha Te Rupe Wilson, Eliza Boom, Amelia Berry and Oliver Sewell.
Frances Wilson's Auckland Opera Studio has done so much to support our country's exceptional vocal talent.
Tonight, its Opera Gala Concert, showcasing eight singers at various stages of their careers, was a very welcome celebration.
As MC, Jack Bourke smoothly provided theatrical context for the stream of solo arias andensembles. Although mostly standard repertoire, Stravinsky and Britten updated us to ... 1951. How nice it would have been to have edged a little closer to 2022, and maybe feature a New Zealand opera.
A few hearts would have been melted by Eliza Boom's beautifully poised "Un Bel Di" from Madama Butterfly, while "No word from Tom", from Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, was just one of Natasha Te Rupe Wilson's deft and elegant character sketches.
Oliver Sewell's resounding launch of a Der Rosenkavalier sequence was not the tenor's sole triumph and Paul Whelan, the most seasoned singer of the evening, taking on Wagner, flourished a voice to make rafters ring in Valhalla.
Natasha Te Rupe Wilson.
Early on, Samson Setu caught the shifting moods of Verdi's jester Rigoletto in a dramatically articulated "Pari siamo".
After a Bell Song that needed a mite more suppleness, Amelia Berry was a radiant heroine in an extended extract from Lucia di Lammermoor, especially in duet with Sewell. For 20 precious minutes, town hall was transformed into opera house.
Similarly with the Rosenkavalier set. This placed Christine Orjis alongside Wilson and Boom in as serene a trio as one could wish for.
An encore of the full company adding operatic heft to Robert Wiremu's juicy arrangement of "Whakaaria Mai" and brought a standing ovation after the Act II sextet from Don Giovanni provided another opera house moment, centred around the impeccable comic timing of James Ioelu's Leporello.
At one point MC Bourke introduced pianist Somi Kim as the orchestra of the evening. She was all that and more; the demanding introduction to Der Rosenkavalier became a virtuoso recital.
What: Opera Gala Concert Where: Auckland Town Hall When: Sunday Reviewer: William Dart
