English composer Peter Maxwell Davies was a radical spirit in 1969, exemplified in his Eight Songs for a Mad King — a stark, confrontational dramatisation of King George III's mental meltdown and a half-hour virtuoso turn for a baritone who can hurtle from Handel to hysterics in a flickering second.
Opera review: Eight Songs for a Mad King
Robert Tucker in Eight Songs for a Mad King. Photo / Jeff McEwan
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Yet throughout this sometimes harsh cabaret, the uber-energetic baritone projected an intense humanity until he sloped offstage, muttering, to the whip of a pursuing bass drum.
The double performance — one inside, the other from outside, wearing headphones — ingeniously sustained an entire evening from just one short work as well as adding new and thought-provoking context.
Distanced outside, we realise that a message scrawled on the window is very much for us, as are the last song's opening lines. With plate glass separating us from the drama, our sightlines punctuated by the occasional passing scooter and bicycle, illuminated by a few roving headlights, it was a moving and eerily topical experience.
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With five more performances, this is a must-see.
What: Auckland Arts Festival and New Zealand Opera, Eight Songs for a Mad King
Where and when: Ellen Melville Centre, until Thursday, March 19
Reviewer: William Dart
