Local voices centre stage in new lineup

By WILLIAM DART


Alex Reedijk, general manager of New Zealand Opera, looks back over his company's 2004 season with some pride: four productions that did "surprisingly well considering the competition brought about by the strength of the New Zealand dollar".

The company's 2005 schedule, launched last night, may offer "seduction, scandal and self-sacrifice" - but there is less opera.

Although Reedijk himself puts Katya Kabanova and Boris Godunov among his personal favourites, the two 2005 mainstage productions are Mozart's Don Giovanni and Verdi's La Traviata.

On the positive side, both will have a healthy quota of local singers.

July's Don Giovanni, with Paul Whelan as the Don alongside Conal Coad's Leporello and Patricia Wright's Donna Anna, sounds enticing.

"We have a maxim that where practical and possible we will cast New Zealand singers," says Reedijk.

"The three criteria are them being suitable, available and affordable, and if they meet the first two, the third probably follows."

October's Traviata has Russian soprano Elvira Taykhova playing Violetta, Rodney Macann as Germont and an Alfredo as yet undecided.

Recalling some of the shaky casting this year, I ask Reedijk whether it's the perennial tenor problem.

"You know the one about the pot of gold and a rainbow?" is Reedijk's reply. "It's an ongoing challenge."

Casting is already done for the company's most enterprising venture, February's concert version of John Adams' The Death of Klinghoffer.

One of the most controversial operas of all time, it is based around the hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise liner by Palestinian terrorists in 1985.

"It's a good piece for our Auckland chorus," says Reedijk. "It's got such lush, gorgeous music.

"The opera was relevant when it was composed and will resonate just as loudly in 2005 without being polemical or banging a drum."

With a strong New Zealand contingent, including Jared Holt as the Captain and David Griffiths as Klinghoffer, it is on the programme for the AK05 festival.

"It has been planned, unplanned and replanned," laughs Reedijk, "but we are excited that we held hands with the NZSO and AK05 and found a suitable project."

Bad news for the regions - touring is on hold until 2006 and the company will be taking stock this year after last year's Barber of Seville and this year's Cosi fan Tutte.

Admitting that Cosi "didn't lend itself to the jolly formula that worked with Barber", Reedijk wonders whether "we need to consider making our touring vehicles for the regions only".

Also in development is local opera.

But it will be at least 2006 before we see a local work capitalising on the 2003 success of Michael Williams' The Prodigal Child.

"We are talking to two composers at the moment but it's a long-term project. It can take two years for the libretto and music to be married and then it's got to be workshopped, tested and robustly pushed around until finally it makes its way to stage."

Next year will also see some fine-tuning in the interests of affordability and accessibility.

An $83 mid-price ticket has been instigated and there will be midweek matinees, "because there's certainly a whole body of people in Auckland who will come to a matinee providing it's in daylight hours. It's all to do with the going-out experience rather than the opera experience."

Reedijk, who claims to be trying to make it "a bit cooler, easier and sexier to come to the opera", is also aware that the company is dealing with a core audience that is aged over 40.

And will we ever see the likes of Boris Godunov again? Quite possibly, if the newly-created New Zealand Opera Foundation is successful.

"We've been running at full revs in terms of sponsorship, benefaction, donations and fundraising," says Reedijk.

"The foundation's job will be to encourage folks to think of us when it comes to estate planning. In 10 years we hope to have something like $10 million that will give us some capital to tackle the Borises of this world."