Acis and Galatea: at Auckland Town Hall

By WILLIAM DART

Jennifer Ward-Lealand is a woman of many faces; Isobel on Shortland Street, Boadicea in Xena: Warrior Princess, along with her star turn as the imperious and ambivalent dressmaker Dorothea Brook in Peter Wells' and Stewart Main's film Desperate Remedies.

On stage, she's been a stylish Marlene Dietrich for audiences in Auckland and Tauranga, and 10 or more years ago, was a lissom soprano alongside Don McGlashan and Harry Sinclair in The Front Lawn.

These days she's singing Handel, breaking into snatches of aria as she talks about the joys of directing NBR New Zealand Opera's production of Handel's Acis and Galatea.

This seriously catchy masque was Handel's most frequently performed work in his lifetime. It's a triumph of artifice as it tangles the shepherd Acis, the nymph Galatea and the monster Polypheme in an unholy Arcadian triangle.

Yet Ward-Lealand never considered this was merely a quaint museum piece. Initially there were a few concerns - "Okay ... so Acis gets turned into a fountain ... uh-oh" - and she decided early on that "when it came to the huge rock that crushes the hero, I wasn't going to do amateur pantomime with a polystyrene boulder".

Says Ward-Lealand, "I wanted to move away from that potentially cheesy mythical thing to something that's more real. It should really matter when Acis dies and Galatea sings that fabulous aria, Must I my Acis still bemoan. I had to relate to these characters as human beings."

For Ward-Lealand, Acis and Galatea is "all about being parted and huge desire. We've all felt the intense pain in our lives of being parted from someone".

And Handel has had his part to play in conveying these emotions. "I fell in love with the music," says Ward-Lealand, "although it's a totally different feel from Verdi or Puccini. In terms of drama I had to find a narrative for each performer to sustain arias which might run for six or seven minutes.

"In the end it's all about story-telling and when the music is added it all gets heightened. I know that from having been a performer in loads of musicals. I'm aware of the energy and the level it needs to be played at."

One of the unmitigated pleasures of the project was working with the Chapmann Tripp Opera Chorus. "The piece deserved more than a chorus in black standing up when they sing and sitting down when they're not. They're involved all the time. The women try to pull Galatea out of her lovesickness, the shepherds try to make Acis stay up on the hill."

The instrumental talents of the New Zealand Baroque Ensemble were also a delight. "Usually when you've been rehearsing with a piano, it's a shock to the system when the orchestra comes in. This time it was seamless. They made all these lovely mellow sounds from their instruments and gave me so many surprises in the best possible way.

"They're so skilled. I was fascinated by the oboists playing those big long runs that seem to go on forever, taking a tiny breath and then launching into another run. The control was incredible."

Working with Rhona Fraser, who plays Galatea, brought back memories of the old Mercury Theatre. "I was acting there when Rhona was in their opera productions. There was a real company feel to the place as it was full of actors and singers. Here was a 700-seat theatre doing Turandot and Butterfly and it seemed to tick over quite nicely. You just don't get that anymore. I'm sure if it did exist it would be the perfect venue for some wonderful music theatre."