Medlyn woos the critics

Adelaide has established itself as Wagner's home Down Under after glowing reviews of Elke Neidhardt's Parsifal, writes HEATH LEES.

Moving ... thrilling ... superb." At a time when Aussies are being tight-lipped about their transtasman cousins, New Zealand soprano Margaret Medlyn is gathering armfuls of superlatives from Australian opera reviewers.

Last weekend in Adelaide, Richard Wagner's final, four-hour opera Parsifal appeared for the first time on an Australian or New Zealand stage, and Medlyn sang the part of Kundry, one of the most difficult female roles Wagner wrote.

First appearing as a wild and demented creature, Kundry later transforms herself into a sexy siren, only to reform herself in act three as a kind of Mary Magdalene, meek and penitent.

Not one role but three, each calling for relentless musical intensity that can erupt in sudden shrieks at the top, and the next second writhe in the deepest of moans - musical torture that can ruin weak or unprepared voices, but provided no more than an undulating breeze for Medlyn's fullest of flights at last Saturday's premiere.

The success was a shared one. English conductor Jeffrey Tate - the city's musical patron saint, since he forged Wagner's four-opera Ring there three years ago - was in charge of an expanded Adelaide Symphony Orchestra that would have been happy to lie down and die for him.

Some of the wind and brass players nearly did, since his tempi were surprisingly slow in places, notably the second act, where the long instrumental phrases test the players to the limit. But overall, Tate's touch and shaping were masterly.

No one knows how much Adelaide paid to get Poul Elming, currently the world's star Parsifal, having chalked up more than 130 performances of the role so far.

His commanding yet agile tenor lent so much professional weight to the others that the company's courage in going for the best was more than vindicated.

Elming's performance helped to fire up the other two major roles - an unusually young-looking Gurnemanz in Manfred Hemm, and an Amfortas whose unmitigated anguish often becomes too much of a bad thing with singers who stay only on the surface of the character.

In the case of Jonathan Summers, the depth of his grasp was wonderfully matched by his repertoire of wide vocal colour.

Nowadays, Wagner operas are often marred by directors who are desperately trying to find ways of updating the works, but too often damage their spirit or destroy their message. In a recent interview with the Herald, Adelaide's director, Elke Neidhardt, had already admitted that she wanted to lift the work into this century, yet her abiding concern, she said, was simply "to tell the story".

In particular, Neidhardt insisted that the usual, obsessive holiness of Parsifal and his pursuit of the Grail needed to be lightened up.

"Parsifal with the jokes included" was her description, and the first-night audiences loved the jokes she had found, some of them tasteful, some of them downright - and enjoyably - vulgar.

When the curtain opens on Klingsor, act two's evil magician, the sexually aggressive angle of the huge spear caused the raising of a number of eyebrows from purists, but brought loud guffaws from the rest of us.

When Parsifal watches the feast of bread and wine, he's pushing through the ranks and generally being a nuisance, instead of simply standing respectfully back for half an hour, which is more typical. After the love-feast, the knights whisk their gowns off and appear ready to go down to the pub, now that the serious bit's over.

The really unforgettable fun came in the synchronised swimming routine created for the Flowermaidens' scene by Neidhardt and her skilful design aids.

Leaving the traditional staging of Wagner opera behind in favour of Busby Berkeley choreography and Esther Williams' 1940s films was just the kind of freshness and near-frivolity she had promised, and it worked a treat.

It also brought in its wake memories of the well-documented story of Wagner himself shouting "Bravo!" to the Flowermaidens while the over-solemn audience, not recognising the composer's voice, shushed him loudly.

Now that Adelaide has paved the way to Parsifal the other Australian companies will no doubt follow the lead, as they are currently doing with various concert performances and plans for a Ring to rival Adelaide's.

The South Australian city is miles ahead though, with its first all-Australian-cast Ring already on the stocks for 2004 and drawing great interest.

Literally running Rings round the other centres, Adelaide has now established itself as Wagner's Australasian home, and in the process has become a Mecca for New Zealand singers who, like Margaret Medlyn, have the potential to go far, but find few opportunities to sing Wagner in their home country.