Adams deserves top spot

John Adams' The Death of Klinghoffer was fated to be the high point of AK05, even if some writers seemed determined to leave it off their must-see lists. This concert performance of his opera was a courageous flagstaff for the event and an example for future festivals.

In the flesh, even without staging, Klinghoffer was phenomenal theatre. Monumental choruses evoked time, place and mood as effectively as any stage set. Interactions between characters crackled and ironic juxtapositions and overlays bristled.

With the cast, characterisations were more important than any pinpoint accuracy and, here and there, strange liberties were taken with Adams' notes. Not so with Jared Holt who, as the haunted Captain, delivered his often Sondheim-like monologues with panache. Nor with Jason Barry-Smith, whose finely nuanced navigation of Mamoud's testing lines was staggering. The splendid Wendy Dawn Thompson, in three roles, gave us a warmhearted Swiss grandmother, an Austrian woman who was all Sprechstimme bitchery and, flapping a feather boa, a campy Dancing Girl, with the women of the chorus behind her like a contingent of Ronettes.

On the terrorist side, David Hamilton, a familiar presence on our Bach Passion circuit, brought a twitchy energy to Molqi, while Zan McKendree Wright, as Omar, skilfully illuminated the various moods of her mercurial second-act aria.

David Griffiths' Leon Klinghoffer was powerfully sung, although too many words in his second aria remained a mystery. Anne Lamont-Low, as his widow, managed to make a throat infection work for her, investing her two key pieces with an almost unbearable pathos.

Mark Stringer's programme notes showed that the American conductor has a keen understanding of what Adams and librettist Alice Goodman were after. Musically, he showed that he could as easily stir up storms of double fortissimo from the NZSO as he could tease out shimmering, mirage-like textures. The many instrumental solos - from Robert Orr's Bachian flirtations to Vesa-Matti Leppanens Pierrot Lunaire peregrinations - were characters in their own right.

The singers of the combined Chapman Tripp Opera Chorus and Viva Voce were a central presence, although everything was not as confident as the opening chorus, with the women stronger than the men.

My only real complaint: Why were three choruses inexplicably deleted (the crucial Hagar and the Angel was the only one to be acknowledged), meaning that Adams' carefully woven score lost some of its inner connections?

Review

* What: The Death of Klinghoffer
* Where: Auckland Town Hall
* Reviewer: William Dart