Nights of music, days of work for chorus singers

By BERNADETTE RAE

They are classically trained singers. They can commit both musical scores and screeds of words in foreign languages to memory. They must be able to move with grace. And act. They have to wear strange costumes and makeup - even the baritones, the "real men". They get paid a token for long hours of rehearsals. And they get tested to see if they are up to scratch - or it's into the corner and extra rehearsals on command.

"They" are the dedicated members of the Chapman Tripp Opera Chorus, the backbone of the National Business Review NZ Opera's new production Viva Verdi, a zany celebration of the maestro's music, conceived and designed by Tracey Collins and Bryan Caldwell.

Arts on Monday spoke to three of the unsung singers who don't usually spend time in the limelight.

By day Malcolm Campbell occupies the smallest shop in New Zealand, a tiny cubicle on Auckland's Lorne St, just big enough for his chair, his workbench and a modicum of shelves. He is a watchmaker.

But by night, at least in the months leading up to a new opera production in the city, Campbell sings.

Hours of preparation go into those staged moments, when the pageant of music and massed voices, costumes and greasepaint, sets and stories blends to transport audiences into another world.

First comes the score to be studied and familiarised, says Campbell, who has sung in opera choruses in Auckland since the days of Perkel Opera - often taking other roles, some bigger and some smaller, as well.

As Perkel Opera metamorphosed through various forms to the present National Business Review NZ Opera Campbell has been there, a fine tenor voice through Carmens and Turandots, Pearl Fishers, Manons and many, many more.

With the arrival of the score come the printed words - in French, Italian, German, rarely English - to be committed to memory. Then rehearsals begin, three times a week initially, for between two and a half and three hours of intense vocal work. Two or three weeks out from opening night, with the opera in production stage, rehearsals are daily, with some marathon sessions requiring time out from watch-repairing.

"It really is pretty intense," Campbell says. "It is a big commitment."

Chorus members receive payment - but the amount is small.

"I do it," says Campbell, "because it is a burning interest. And because it is such a diverse thing from my main job. It takes a lot of energy, it is my form of exercise. It certainly keeps the lungs working well, and in my sort of job you need that.

"And it has become my social life, too."

Of his chorus role, he says, "I will be doing it as long as they have me. The voice is still going strong - different now, at 58 years of age, but still working."

Jack Watson, a special education teacher in the learning support department at Avondale College, is 43 and has been "singing all my life".

It became serious when he opted for the music course as part of his teacher training. His teacher advised him to go further. "So I auditioned with NZ Opera. My first show was La Boheme with Kiri Te Kanawa."

"Rubbing shoulders with the big guns - especially appearing on stage with them with the music blasting up at you from the orchestra pit and the audience out there in the darkness is a definite thrill," he says.

Watson is hooked on the camaraderie of the chorus. "I certainly don't do it for the makeup you have to wear. I hate that!"

Kate Blazey first sang in the opera chorus six or seven years ago. The date might be a little hazy but the opera, La Traviata, is still clear in her memory.

Blazey is a soprano and a part-time phlebotomist - a modern day and scientifically trained "vampire", taking blood samples at a diagnostic laboratory in Avondale, on Thursdays and Fridays.

"There is a very high standard," she says of the chorus work. "We also get tested around the fifth or sixth rehearsal, in groups of four or five, to make sure we know all the notes."

There is a special bond among singers, she says of the appeal of the opera chorus.

Blazey confesses to being quite conservative in real life and loves the excuse to "break out" on stage.

"You certainly step outside your own boundaries, at times," she says. "But if no one knows who you are - you can do it!"

According to Blazey food is one way the chorus deals with potential stress.

"We eat ourselves silly!" And then there is all the hilarity that seems to emanate, locker-room style, from the male chorus members.

"The baritones are always trying to put the tenors down. Baritones hold that tenors aren't real men! A newsletter comes out every performance night - full of the most preposterous rubbish, usually. Every little bit of gossip is amplified and elaborated out of all proportion.

"There is every sort of mischief going on all the time."

* Viva Verdi! by the NBR New Zealand Opera plays at the Aotea Centre this week.