Journey to Bartok's dark side

Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle offers human drama on such a scale that the audience will be forced to sit up and think.

A few days ago the Auckland Philharmonia was playing Haydn and Boccherini. Tomorrow the orchestra promises to transport us to the dark side of Expressionism in a presentation of Bela Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle.

With Hungarian baritone Ferenc Cserhalmi as the mysterious Duke, who better than our own Margaret Medlyn to play the unfortunate Judith?

Many spines have tingled in our opera houses thanks to Medlyn's no-holds-barred performances in Tosca and Parsifal but the role of Judith doesn't offer quite the same potential to chill and thrill as Puccini's Floria Tosca or Wagner's Kundry.

"In many ways, Judith is a one-dimensional character," Medlyn explains.

"She's certainly manipulative, but I haven't quite decided whether she is totally naive or just insensitive."

Musically, it's another matter and the soprano can hardly wait to hear her voice fitting in with what she describes as "the wonderful descriptive orchestral writing around it".

"It's going to be very loud, and I am looking forward to hearing close at hand the sounds of the orchestra which a recording can only hint at. In fact, one of my greatest privileges is to stand on the stage with an orchestra and be comforted or surrounded by that sound.

"It's like being on an armchair or a magic carpet and a completely different feeling from having the orchestra in the pit, which almost creates a barrier."

Medlyn stresses the human side of the Bartok opera, something it shares with the International Arts Festival's Parsifal earlier this year.

"I dislike those religious expectations of Parsifal," she says. "It's a deeply humanistic work. It's about human attitudes, some of which have somehow gone wrong. It's also about the reconciliation of gender, race and religion."

Philosophy aside, the biggest thrill of the Wagner production was singing alongside Sir Donald McIntyre.

"I felt honoured to be on stage with Sir Donald. It was a good lesson for all of us in that production, to hear artistry like that. To sit down and observe what he was doing, singing so economically, with such intensity and knowledge of the work. It was certainly a very good lesson for me."

Medlyn admits it can be lonely in this part of the world when you find yourself drawn to the big Wagnerian and Strauss roles. Anthony Negus, with whom she worked on Parsifal, has pointed her in the direction of Isolde - "her next big learn".

"Ideally, I like to learn my roles two or three years out and then leave them," she comments. "Don't ask me how it happens but somehow they cook. You come through. It's like alchemy. Your brain subconsciously works on the technique and the whole meaning of the role. I did that with both Kundry and Salome."

While some New Zealanders have now been able to catch up with Medlyn's Kundry, it's only Australian audiences who have had the chance to experience her Salome or her highly praised Marie in Berg's 1999 Wozzeck.

With fellow-Kiwis Barry Mora and Richard Greager in the cast, it was set in present-day Australia, with Berg's hero as a down-trodden police officer. The three New Zealand singers tried unsuccessfully to have it brought over the Tasman for a festival staging.

"I do wish they had done Wozzeck," she reflects. "I firmly believe that to grab an audience which is used to quite gritty theatre, we should be putting on operas which offer real human drama, operas that are going to touch people and make them think."

Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle is just such a work. Don't miss it.

* What: Bluebeard's Castle, by Bela Bartok

* Where and when: Auckland Town Hall, tomorrow at 8pm