Bass has gunner role firmly in sights

By ANNAROSA BERMAN


Ask New Zealand bass Jud Arthur to talk about his role in John Haddock's new opera, Madeline Lee, which opens at the Sydney Opera House on Friday, and he starts singing snippets that describe the character of Ben, a gunner on the flying fortress Madeline Lee which went down in the Libyan desert in 1943.

That it's possible to hum tunes from Madeline Lee shows it is not the kind of work audiences have come to expect from contemporary opera composers.

"It's very beautifully written and gorgeous to sing," Arthur says.

Haddock, a repetiteur with Opera Australia, "really understands how the human voice works".

Nevertheless, learning a new work is a challenge.

In the absence of CD recordings and DVDs, Arthur took the score home and banged his part out with two fingers. After that he had weekly coaching sessions with Haddock.

"It would have been far more difficult without him," he stresses.

Being the first singer to perform a role has the advantage of having no benchmark comparisons.

"However badly I might sing it, there will be nothing with which to compare my version."

Running at over two hours, the opera tells the story of an air force major who, sent to investigate the wreckage of a World War II bomber found in the desert in 1963, discovers it is a plane he once commanded. Gradually he is forced to confront memories he has suppressed for 20 years.

Director Michael Campbell, who co-wrote the libretto with Haddock, took a workshop approach to staging the work, a new experience for Arthur.

"The first week we sat around a table and talked, breaking up the libretto and discussing the characters," he recalls.

"I had reservations about that method because I like to get on the floor and do it, but in the end I enjoyed it - it's been more collaborative than anything I've done. We even chucked a baseball around with [conductor] Tom Woods."

In November Arthur will sing the part of Comte Des Grieux in Opera Australia's Melbourne production of Manon.

He shared the role with fellow Kiwi Conal Coad in Sydney earlier this year. As a father (his daughter Lucia is 18 months old), Arthur says the experience has influenced the way he plays the role of the old man.

"I now understand the love a father has for his child and I can bring that mentality to the role."

As if to illustrate the point, he hauls out his mobile phone to show a video clipping of his daughter. "Bye!" she says, after a few seconds. Her father cracks up laughing, then blushes and puts the phone away. "That must be so boring for you," he apologises. (It wasn't.)

Next year he will make role debuts as Chelio in Prokoviev's The Love for Three Oranges, and the Duke of Verona in Gounod's Romeo and Juliet.

He is also looking forward to singing the role of Colline in OA's new production of Boheme, to be directed by Simon Phillips. And he will cover the role of Zaccaria in OA's 2005 production of Verdi's Nabucco.

"It's a hugely demanding role and although I'm not hoping someone will get sick, I would love to be able to sing something that's vocally that challenging."

He describes the other roles he has lined up for 2005 as vocally well within his capabilities.

"It's a matter of trying to improve on what you've done before, with the help of experience, technique and languages."

An accomplished sportsman (he played rugby and basketball for Otago and represented New Zealand in show jumping), Arthur learnt Italian during a rugby-playing sojourn in Italy.

When he first encountered OA Italian coach Renato Fresia-Verdino, he was told, "You speak with a bloody Venetian accent."

His French has also improved. "When you're permanent staff you have access to the company's coaching, which is extremely helpful."

Yet becoming a full-time employee in the Sydney company has had its down side. When he started working for OA in May last year, Arthur had been self-employed for years, working as a farrier from his farmlet at Mosgiel, near Dunedin, breaking in and grazing horses and going away singing - mostly in New Zealand - when the opportunity presented itself.

"Now I get a schedule at the start of the week, telling me you're here and here and here. It took a little getting used to."

It took a while to feel at home in Sydney, too.

At this stage there are no plans for testing the waters in Europe or the United States. "In the short term I want to establish myself as a principal bass with OA and do all the major repertoire. My ideal is to be constantly challenged artistically, and to be able to provide a comfortable lifestyle for my family."

Arthur would also like to be able to do at least one opera a year in New Zealand. "Funding problems make it difficult to plan, but if something comes up that's artistically satisfactory I'd be very interested to perform in New Zealand."

He still works part-time as a farrier to "get my horse fix".

Horses are "a disease", but one that's less time-consuming than participation in team sport. "These days when I have a free moment I take my daughter to the park."