Bay of Islands Festival
By Tara Werner
"Those kids are having a good time up there," exclaimed a six-year-old in the audience. She and her friends were watching a group of other children from the Kaikohe area gleefully participating in the Auckland Dance Company's performance of Harbour Dance.
Mary Jane O'Reilly's choreography seemed to be a total hit with young locals, and most of the adults appeared to enjoy themselves too.
The Bay of Islands Festival is now in its eighth season, with nearly 40 events during March, culminating over Easter.
Spreading the performances for such a long period and in venues throughout the north must be an administrative nightmare, yet the policy has worked.
The austere Northland College hall might not be the most salubrious environment for contemporary dance, but it was quickly apparent that O'Reilly's attempt at involving the community in the theme of Harbour Dance was highly successful.
The work itself, a wonderfully evocative interpretation of the human events and natural elements associated with a New Zealand harbour, used the eight adult dancers with elegant and sparse effect.
This multi-level dance may be somewhat repetitive in sections, but there were many striking moments, especially those depicting birdlife, to Hirini Melbourne's gentle and soulful music. The various waves of immigration to these shores - Maori, Polynesian and Pakeha - was beautifully communicated through movement, using Jonathan Besser's organ score to maximum effect.
Besser's music also featured in a relaxed concert titled The New Romantics at the Duke of Marlborough Hotel, with Auckland musicians including Miranda Adams (violin), Bridget Miles (clarinet), Anne Rodda (cello) Paul Hewitt (drums) and Besser himself on piano.
Many of the pieces had an attractive bitter-sweet flavour that reflected Besser's Jewish heritage. But whether his salon-type compositions can sustain a two-hour concert is open to conjecture.
Chamber music of an entirely different kind featured at the Kerikeri Memorial Hall in a concert by American mezzo-soprano Caterina Secchi, accompanied by pianist Bruce Greenfield.
Secchi is a dramatic mezzo with a big sound that could fill any venue. Her voice does not have the mellowness usually associated with mezzos, in fact it was rather guttural, even raspy. But she made up with sheer emotion what she lacked in lyricism.
She is most at home with large roles such as the gypsy Azuncena in Il Trovatore or Dalilah in Samson and Dalilah, and she sang their arias with practised ease.
And she was truly in her element with composers such as Mussorgsky, singing a powerful interpretation of the Songs and Dances of Death.
Northern festival a yearly treat
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