Teller of tales, singer of songs

By WILLIAM DART

Jonathan Lemalu may be a hot property on the London music scene but his heart's still in the South Pacific. "I don't really feel that I've left New Zealand in many ways," the Samoan bass-baritone confesses. "I just don't live there any more."

Lemalu did leave us, three years ago, after his 1998 Mobil Song Quest victory - and, with the Mobil and a first place in Sydney's McDonald's Operatic Aria Competition behind him, the young singer continued to rake in the prizes in Britain.

Apart from various awards at the Royal College of Music where he was studying, there was the inaugural Llangollen Eisteddfod and, most recently, the Kathleen Ferrier Award ("a coming of age of sorts because that's seen as the premier award").

Not bad for someone who, in his own words, "kind of stumbled on competitions".

"Sure there's financial rewards and prestige but it's getting your name out there that's very important. You know your stuff, but you've got to get out there and see if people might like it and, who knows, a judge or two might like it too."

Ironically, Lemalu's most enjoyable win was one of the humblest - "coming second in a German song competition at College because the winner was German and the judge had said it was hard to choose between the two of us. I really felt authentic."

And the most nervous-making? "The Welsh one. I had a role in a small production of The Marriage of Figaro and they were reluctant to let me out of rehearsals. I literally had to beg them.

"I ended up doing a full day of rehearsals and then driving over to Wales for the quarter-final, waiting for the results and then driving back. That happened for the semi-finals and the finals.

"In the finals, I walked in, sang, came away with a win and had to wake up the next morning at 6 so that I could drive back. I turned up at the rehearsal with a mixture of relief and bravado and an extremely large chrome trophy!"

Lemalu has benefited from being one of the BBCs New Generation Artists, which has meant broadcasts (coming up next week in Britain is Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn with the BBC Welsh Orchestra) and the possibility of a commissioned work from American composer William Bolcom. And Lemalu's EMI album Songs has just carried off yet another honour - the Gramophone Debut Disc of the Year.

Contacts count in this game: "John Fraser, who produced the new recording, was my repertoire coach at College and the other link was that he'd done most of Kiri's albums, so the whole Kiwi connection was there."

On disc, Lemalu and pianist Roger Vignoles have Brahms and Schubert alongside Faure and Finzi. Lemalu feels something of "a crusading spirit" when it comes to Gerald Finzi: "I love the way he gets a relationship between text and music - to me he's the English Schubert. Anyone who can make words like 'perambulate' sound even remotely poetic has a real gift."

Lemalu is very much a words man; in Samoa he would have been an inspirational Teller of Tales and some of this gift informs his Lieder singing - certainly the Schubert Erlkonig that won him the Mobil four years ago was an electrifying experience, even from halfway down the town hall stalls.

It's an art that he's worked at, with a fine Winterreise in Wellington last March and done again at the recent Edinburgh Festival. A few weeks ago, Lemalu's Wigmore Hall Schwanengesang had Richard Morrison of the Times declaring, "The South Pacific is clearly right up there with Germany when it comes to producing stylish lieder singers."

"I'm very much into cycles and sets of songs," Lemalu explains. "I enjoy the journey. Even if it's just a selection of songs, you can string them together with whatever thread you desire.

"It's also having a big enough imagination to put it across while keeping things as simple as possible. Composers like Schubert and Mozart don't really need our help in finding the essence - they're helpful enough to give it to us. The gift of a great singer like Fischer-Dieskau was finding the simplicity of what was on the page."

But there's more to Lemalu than Lieder. By his own admission, he's "a bit of a stage animal" and his stage appearances are also getting raves. Fiona Maddocks described his voice as "glorious" and his person as "chubby-thighed and heroic" in a production last year of A Midsummer Night's Dream; and an enthusiastic Raymond Monelle identified "colourful tenor glints" when Lemalu played in Maria Stuarda at this year's Edinburgh Festival.

Edinburgh was a mind-blowing experience, with the singer tackling Handel's Jeptha, Donizetti's Maria Stuarda as well as Enescu's "totally bizarre" Oedipe virtually back to back. With Charles Mackerras conducting and soprano Barbara Frittoli on stage with him, Lemalu felt he was on his way: "These are the big boys and girls. These are what you are trying to become."

He's now looking at bookings for 2006. After debuts at Tanglewood and Ravinia this year, next year he's down for a Beethoven Ninth with the Chicago Symphony and a Mozart Requiem in Boston.

How difficult is it to say no these days? "There is always the temptation to take a gig because you mightn't be offered it again, but I'd like to think that I'm a little bit more in control of my career and able to make a few more decisions. If you're the current flavour then maybe you've got the options."

Studying now under the star-making Vera Rozsa, Lemalu is still "very much in the Mozart mode, getting through the standard operatic roles and trying to see where my voice lies".

Next month he makes his debut with the English National Opera as Basilio in The Barber of Seville, but he seems happier to talk about Leporello with the Australian Opera this summer.

"I was warned that everybody has a calling card and this role might be mine. I replied that was fine with me," Lemalu confides with a rumble of laughter. "I see Leporello as a fairly young, impressionable character, a little on the naive side, which fits in with me and my knowledge and experience of opera."

Lemalu leaves me with one of his most cherished memories, his involvement in Iosefa Enari's 1998 Classical Polynesia. "My character was the chief of the village and, at the very end I had this song thanking God for the day that had been. I do remember it as being very emotional. It brought back memories of Mum and Dad, of the simplicity of life.

"I do miss the lifestyle. It's a little driven over here and I kind of like the way that New Zealand seems to go about its business and enjoy life at the same time. It's hard to find the balance and I enjoy the regard in which music is held in New Zealand. It's like that social feeling that you get with your mates in the choir. You know more about the environment that you're in. People are just more relaxed whereas there are some extremely uptight British people around. Some people think I'm too relaxed but that's where I'm from and that's the way I am."

No doubt about it, Lemalu's Leporello would be well worth braving a Sydney heatwave for this January, and there's a bonus: fellow New Zealander Teddy Tahu Rhodes plays the Don.