Opera New Zealand is bouncing back into the
black. Heath Lees looks at the planning and productions that have made this possible.
Jonathan Alver, Opera New Zealand's artistic director, is back in town, preaching good news. After a troubled time last year, with quality productions bombing out at the box office, good news is something the company could do with.
Having shed nearly half its staff, including its general manager and marketing manager, ONZ has cut its productions this year to two "potboiler" programmes, La Boheme in April and the double act of "Cav and Pag" (Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci) in August. Some of its outreach programme may be threatened, too.
But Alver is determined to spread light amid the encircling gloom. With undisguised satisfaction, he announces that the set and costumes for last year's Macbeth - designed and produced in Auckland - have been bought by Minnesota Opera in the United States, which will mount it in February next year, then rent it on to other opera companies, with a percentage flowing back to ONZ.
"We've always looked on our productions as commodities that are limited to Auckland," he says, "but we're realising that the market is much bigger than our audience. There is something left to sell after the performances have finished."
Macbeth was not just a lucky hit. A few years ago, the opera company in Los Angeles bought Alver's Lucia production and is mounting it in May. Australian interest is also being shown in the new La Boheme.
Alver hopes that this year will at last see closer cooperation with other opera companies in New Zealand.
"There are three companies in this country, all putting on opera - all of them trying to do the same thing. But we haven't been doing it together. It makes sense ... for us to share in so many areas, and now a dialogue has begun."
For the rest, Alver is focusing his good news on the upcoming Boheme. One of the posters advertising it has a full-length shot of a nude woman lying seductively on her front. I suggest wickedly that maybe Opera New Zealand is using sex to get back into the black. Alver starts back in horror. "Oh no," he says, like the choirboy he once was.
"If you look, you will see that there is also a book there. The naked woman is a student, who has been reading. And the colours show that it's really an Impressionist naked woman. She is, in fact, an artist's model." Silly me.
More seriously, Alver insists that this forthcoming Boheme will be memorable.
"Of all the operas, Boheme is the one that has to make you cry but this depends on the main soprano role of Mimi. She must be young, beautiful, sexy and have the love of the audience from the minute she comes on stage."
Alver's build-up is a prelude to an announcement of who this Mimi will be. But he hasn't finished yet. He explains first that the typical ONZ season is for frequent performances over a short period, which puts huge strain on the voice - especially a young voice, which is exactly the kind he wants for Mimi.
So he has decided to double-cast the role of Mimi and share it between two of New Zealand's most attractive fledgling soprano voices - Deborah Wai Kapohe and Jenny Wollerman.
A smart move, this. In the first place, of course, young singers are not so expensive, so the company gets to breathe more easily. Each performer will be singing every four nights instead of every two, so they get to rest in between. Since they offer the same type of performance, few of the audience should be upset about having to choose. Some people may come twice.
What's more, each singer has strong links with Auckland.
Some years ago, Jenny Wollerman understudied for Kiri Te Kanawa in the ONZ production of La Boheme at the Aotea Centre. Deborah Wai Kapohe was one of the first Young Artists to be given an award by the Aotea Centre Performing Arts Trust.
For both, it's like home ground and a heaven-sent opportunity to sing Mimi with a professional company.
Alver's good news is that 1999 will be a hit year financially and a time of recovery. Beyond that, he isn't saying too much. He knows that, by the end of the year, the best news for the company will be that the money is back in the bank.
Pictured: Jonathan Alver
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