Jonathan Lemalu & the NZSO at the Aotea Centre

By WILLIAM DART

The Devil may or may not have the best tunes - Martin Luther certainly thought he did - but the horned one did provide Jonathan Lemalu with two brilliant arias on Tuesday night.

James Judd and the NZSO even searched out a suitably demonic overture with Liszt's Second Mephisto Waltz.

When Lemalu entered it soon became evident that this singer's Mephistopheles was a demon of many colours.

Gounod's Vous qui faites balanced charm with cynicism, laced with a prodigious laugh that allowed itself a few Kiwi inflections; Boito's Son lo Spirito chilled, with flamboyant whistling from violinist Gregory Squire.

Then it was time for the high seas with Wagner's Flying Dutchman. While the Overture was best when the strings were stirring up the waves, Lemalu's great Die Frist ist um brought the doomed Captain to life - so effortlessly that he might have been wearing a weathered greatcoat instead of the concert singer's tuxedo.

A more nostalgically inclined romantic hero was evoked when Lemalu soared through Prince Gremin's poignant aria from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin.

After interval, it was Mozart, setting off with Madamina, Leporello's list of lechery from Don Giovanni, Lemalu using his own programme booklet as prop. Perfectly pointed, this was comic with the expected edge, and the purest Mozartian phrasing.

Again it was the range of the characterisation that consistently took one's breath away, while the musical side was never less than exquisite. Lemalu would prove himself a Mozart man in three more numbers from Figaro, ending with an encore of the lilting Se vuol ballare which was a masterful mix of the sweet and sinister.

The crowd-pleaser was Papageno's Der Vogelfanger bin ich. Lemalu did some slick stage business with his pan pipes (diabolically tuned with a sharpened fourth), complemented by a richly humorous performance.

In the final aria of the programme, Lonore! Ladri! from Falstaff , beautifully supported by the orchestra, Lemalu put Verdi's old rascal right there on the Aotea stage.

Boito's words were fired out as if the bass-baritone had been born to sing them, dropping into basso profundo when it was time for those emphatic denials.

Perhaps you missed this wonderful evening? If you did, tune into Concert FM at 8pm tonight for the live broadcast of Lemalu's Wellington appearance.