'Manon' hits the mark

By HEATH LEES

AOTEA CENTRE, Auckland - So much about this NBR New Zealand Opera production is so right. Its director, Lee Blakeley, had warned that it was "stripped down to its essential elements" so out went the Parisian streets and landmarks that Massenet asks for.

Instead, there was a versatile arena of steeply raked gallery seating, reminiscent of the squalid mock-trials of the French Revolution, its arc stretching towards the audience, inviting - no forcing - our judgment.

In a nicely authentic touch, the singers buffoon about the stage before the performance begins, mocking and welcoming everyone's arrival.

Not so welcome is the Brechtian openness of the huge Aotea stage, with its top half just blackcloth, floodlights and open space. True, the blackcloth is suitably stark, but the floodlights dazzle eyes that would read surtitles, while the space above threatens to swallow the singers' voices.

This was an initial problem for the chorus, but the soloists rose to it magnificently. Never before has the Aotea stage boasted so many excellent singers in one production.

Majella Cullagh makes a great Manon, with a voice whose colour below and ring at the top gives the true sense of that real, Massenet-like ecstatic flight. Occasionally fluffed topmost notes were quickly forgiven, and her changing moods and bearing as the story unfolded from light to dark were thoughtfully done.

Tenor Justin Lavender has a gruelling role as Des Grieux, but he relished the large sweep of the lines, and the passionate range of the voice.

It's a thrill to realise that New Zealand singers made up 85 per cent of the principal cast. As Lescaut, Mark Pedrotti sings well, if somewhat subduedly, while Richard Greager struts and frets marvellously, looking as though Mr Handel himself has wandered over from London.

All five of the company's Emerging Artists were a positive delight, and the chorus, after a nervous start, filled the stage with choreographed movement and well-focused song. The central ballet is special; half-comic, half-touching.

In the pit, Dominic Wheeler works hard to make the Auckland Philharmonia alternately surge and relax into the living skin of Massenet's score. Gradually he wins out, but what wouldn't we have given for half a dozen more violins. Still, the most charming effects, like the antique minuet in the central act, were deftly caught.

We don't often get such operatic stature in Auckland. Don't miss it.