Tahu Rhodes tackles Mozart in Hobart

By WILLIAM DART

Teddy Tahu Rhodes is yet another of our prime operatic exports.

Next year he opens in Houston as one side of the eternal triangle in Jake Heggie's new opera, The End of the Affair, and in August, he is in Adelaide, playing Joe de Rocher in the Australasian premiere of Heggie's first opera, Dead Man Walking.

Australian-based Rhodes' first solo CD is a collection of Mozart arias with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. Four operas are represented, including Cosi Fan Tutte, reminding one that Rhodes was Guglielmo in Ira Siff's zany production for Canterbury Opera last year.

The three Cosi extracts come off well, and it's a clever touch including both Non siate ritrosi and its brilliant alternative aria, Rivolgete a lui lo sguardo, which Mozart wrote for the great Francesco Benucci.

Rhodes is confident and full-voiced in this wonderful showpiece, particularly in the demanding middle section but there are moments when familiar music needs more vivid characterisation to make up for the absence of the full theatrical experience.

Figaro just doesn't seem to be his usual sly self in Se vuol ballare, although Rhodes has the mock military air of Non piu andrai down to the last taradiddle. Don Giovanni's Champagne aria sounds stressed and, at the other end of the tempo spectrum, a rather sedate Deh, vieni alla finestra is flat.

Papageno's artless numbers in The Magic Flute serve Rhodes better, especially the well-known Birdcatcher's Song, which has a lusty swing to it. The aria in which Papageno laments the lost Papagena, noose in hand, is so touching that one wants the music to continue so the amatory problems of the poor man are resolved.

The venture has been lustrously recorded in Hobart's Federation Concert Hall, barely three years old and making a name for itself as one of Australia's finest venues.

The balancing of singer and orchestra is spot on, and the Tasmanian musicians under Ola Rudner contribute some instrumental selections, including a passionate account of the K546 Adagio and Fugue.

* Mozart Arias and Orchestral Music: Teddy Tahu Rhodes and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (ABC 472 826-2)