Classical review: Handsome hero revels in Calaf role

Thiago Arancam says honesty is needed when singing Puccini.

Thiago Arancam explains his approach to Puccini’s character and how he was helped by Placido Domingo, one of the great Calafs of his time.

Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's annual Opera in Concert has become a staple mid-winter highlight of the musical year, with presentations ranging from Das Rheingold and Elektra to Nabucco.

Next Friday audiences can be thrilled and chilled by Puccini's Turandot, touted as a savage, erotic fairytale with splendid music in a sumptuous, epic performance.

Music director Eckehard Stier returns to conduct a cast headed by Italian soprano Tiziana Caruso who, last year, undertook two seasons in Mexico City and Verona playing the icy Chinese princess who gives the opera her name.

Brazilian tenor Thiago Arancam, taking on the hero Calaf, has the striking Latin looks that get him on to the Shirtless Opera blog, as a bare-chested Cavaradossi. But official press photos are more flattering, and better focused.

The young Arancam was first inspired by a visit to Brazil by the great Luciano Pavarotti. "It was the early 90s," he says, "and eventually, after study at the conservatoire and the university, my passion became a reality."

Further studies at La Scala's Accademia in 2004 resulted in one of his more exotic overseas gigs, a tour to Abu Dhabi and Dubai with the La Scala Orchestra. Even more exotic was a production of Carmen last year in Beijing.

"It was completely sold out," Arancam says. "The audiences really enjoyed it but, with no copyright in China, everybody in the theatre seemed to be recording our performance on video and taking photographs. In the places where we might expect a burst of applause we didn't get any because they all had cameras in their hands."

Despite the frenzied filming, Arancam's two YouTube performances of Don Jose's flower song come from Colon Theatre in Buenos Aires and Sanxay's Les Soirees Lyriques festival.

Puccini has been good for Arancam. His 2013 performance in Manon Lescaut at Philadelphia had one critic praising him as owning the role of Des Grieux. He laughs self-effacingly when I quote the commendatory phrase. "It was easy," he says. "The character has such a young soul inside him. You've got to be honest when you're singing Puccini because he put everything into it. This means I can create a total in-depth characterisation, real flesh and blood." Calaf must be one of the bravest of all operatic heroes, risking execution for his love of the heartless Turandot and one suspects this is part of his appeal to the tenor. "He goes to her with such conviction," Arancam says. "He knows the danger and yet he has such incredible courage."

I had expected the name of Placido Domingo to come up at some point in our conversation and it does. In 2008 Arancam was selected to take part in Domingo's Operalia competition, and he carried off three prizes, coming top in the zarzuela category and as audience favourite, and runner-up for the main award.

He has sung alongside this man he so admires and, in 2011, Domingo himself was conducting when Arancam sang Pinkerton in Washington National Opera's production of Madama Butterfly.

Domingo's friendship was appreciated when Arancam undertook his first Calaf for the Royal Swedish Opera in 2013. "This man was one of the great Calafs of his time," he says. "And he was such a help in creating the character, not only when I'm singing but throughout the opera."

As for his star turn from Puccini's opera, the aria Nessun Dorma, Arancam laughs.

"It's like O Sole Mio," he says. "Everybody knows it, everybody waits for it to be sung in the theatre and, as a tenor, you're always being asked for it. It's one of the great pleasures in a tenor's life and I feel honoured to be doing it once again in New Zealand."

What: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra: Turandot
Where and when: Auckland Town Hall, Friday at 7.30pm