Homesickness a spur for Lemalu

By WILLIAM DART


A few days ago, Jonathan Lemalu was playing Figaro on the stage of the Sydney Opera House. Today he is back in New Zealand and "it feels really cool ... I flew in over the normal Wellington route and felt like my whole childhood was sweeping over me".

Tonight, the bass-baritone gives the first of three performances in his Homecoming Tour, and Lemalu admits that homesickness is "one of the reasons this tour is happening.

"I've been working hard at my job and thought it was time to come home. I kind of hope I remembered to bring my voice."

Lemalu can't resist a joke and his deft comedic playing is something critics have been quick to point out, especially in his recent appearances as Papageno in the Glyndebourne's Magic Flute and, more recently, his Sydneyside Figaro.

"Mozart's the composer of the moment. I like the guy. He knew some things," Lemalu says. "I think the guy's a genius."

Although Lemalu has always professed Lied and song are his first loves, he is finding the lure of opera irresistible.

"I particularly love ensemble pieces. Standing up on your own in an aria can be pretty grim but with ensembles there is always an excitement because you don't quite know what's going to happen on the night."

Tonight, on the Aotea stage, he has the grimmest job of all, not only singing solo, but being Falstaff, Papageno, Mephistopheles and a host of other characters, while wearing a tuxedo.

"It's weird," Lemalu laughs. "The more I do the roles on stage, the more it is foreign to me. When I was young that was all I knew, singing these pieces as concert arias." Considering his achievements, he is a monument to humility.

Of his recent Figaro he admits "the more I get into it, the more I feel humbled by the music. You have to work and make this composer feel good."

He is also pinching himself to realise that next March he will make his debut at the Met alongside Gerald Finley and Samuel Ramey in Don Giovanni. Finley and Ramey are both idols, chief idol of all is Welshman Bryn Terfel.

"I've never met Bryn but I feel if I knew any more about him I could be related," Lemalu confesses.

"I'm lucky to have worked so closely with his pianist, Malcolm Martineau, and I feel I understand Bryn's way of making music."

Lemalu uses the word "luck" a lot, especially when he recalls working with conductors such as Rattle, Haitink, Marriner and Davis.

My initial mention of Colin Davis had him at a loss for words. "I did my first real opera with Colin, a Don Giovanni at the Royal College," Lemalu remembers. "How many college students have been lucky enough to do operas with Colin Davis and John Copley?"

His most recent collaboration with Davis was in the Barbican's Peter Grimes that has now made it to CD. "I had a very small role so I was able to sit there and soak it up. Colin has so much energy. He's kind of quirky, he hears things differently. Suddenly he'll prick up his ears and come up with a suggestion."

And there are more CDs on the way. The biggest news for Lemalu is signing with EMI for a three-CD contract. The first will be a collection of operatic arias with the NZSO under James Judd, which may or may not include some or all of tonight's offerings.

"The beauty of this project is that it's still being finalised," the philosophic singer says. "You have agents on two continents, a heavyweight recording company like EMI, James Judd, NZSO ... all these forces getting together. It's a question of choosing some things that fit in a kind of line.

"A lot of people would call this a prequel CD because it has what I'm doing now as well as what I might do in the future."

Tonight we will hear familiar favourites from The Magic Flute and Figaro, and the less expected Son lo Spirito from Boito's Mefistofele which caused a few ruffles when Lemalu sang it at this year's Proms - the whistling part was delegated to an orchestral player.

"It was a packed Albert Hall and the conductor, Mark Elder, was somewhat displeased that I was unable to whistle. But we did manage to find a double bass player in the Halle Orchestra who could. He's a Brazilian and they communicate by whistling."

It is here that Lemalu's Samoan heritage crops up and he finds a definite link between the songs he sings and the tales that are part of every Samoan's background.

"I generally just like telling stories, whether they're jokes or just what life's given me. And that's the way I learn songs."

As for singing itself, does he have any worries?

The big three are quickly summarised ("singing out of tune, forgetting words and not being able to do what I want to with my voice") but he is aware he is very much at the beginning of his career.

"I try to pace things. I'm in kind of an initiation period when I'm very much an unknown quantity but I have potential.

"As I'm constantly being judged on whether or not I will become a good singer, I'm really trying to look after the instrument.

"There's a lot of Mozart, songs and Handel in my career at the moment. These are steps that enable me to get artistic knowledge and integrity while I maintain what should be a 28-year-old voice. It's very mature for its age but I don't want it to sort of run off without me."

Performance

* Who: Jonathan Lemalu, with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

* Where and when: Aotea Centre, tonight 8pm