By GILBERT WONG
"This is the vocal hour of the soprano Jillian Anderton, whose inner connection between sensitive dramatic and musical expression was as convincing as it was moving." - Dortmunder Zeitung
Anderton, daughter of Alliance leader Jim Anderton and ex-wife Joan Caulfield, is local talent made good, after joining the
Dortmund Opera Theatre last August. Right now she's on stage solo in The Diary of Anne Frank, by Russian composer Grigeri Frid.
The city, an hour's train journey from Dusseldorf, serves the Ruhr industrial heartland.
Over the phone, Anderton switches back and forth between German and English. "It's a fine city and a company that is known as innovative."
Director John Dew is known for selecting little-known works.
The result is a challenge for the company and a critical success, though audiences can be nonplussed, says Anderton. In public, Dew has used the word "philistines," which has not endeared him to the punters.
Best of all, Anderton is busy rehearsing six operas this season.
"It makes a change. Even in Australia it wasn't easy to be working all the time," she says, recalling roles with the Australian National Opera.
But for a city of 400,000 with other major opera houses only a short train ride away, the fact that Dortmund Theatre exists is a sign of public and local government acceptance of the value of the art form.
Yes, Anderton misses New Zealand, but not the precarious existence of a professional opera singer here.
