NZ baritone star adds to list of conquests

By ANNAROSA BERMAN

At the final dress rehearsal of Opera Australia's production of Don Giovanni, which has just opened at the Sydney Opera House, the tall, dashing New Zealand singer Teddy Tahu Rhodes made his entrance in a pair of snug black leather underpants, knee-length boots and a black overcoat. Don Giovanni was chasing a woman in a nightgown.

For once, an opera singer's fabulous voice went unnoticed - for a few minutes at least, as the audience gaped at his fabulous legs.

In the world of opera, where voices mature late and it's not unusual for 50-year-olds to sing the parts of much younger characters, it helps to look like a Tommy Hilfiger model. Yet few would deny that Rhodes' by now well-known five-year transformation from Christchurch accountant to international acclaim and the position of one of OA's brightest stars, has been fuelled by the quality of his voice - a gorgeous, full-bodied baritone.

Speaking to the 36-year-old on the steps of the Marrickville Town Hall in west Sydney, where he rehearsed for the production, there was no trace of the lecherous Don Giovanni's cynicism: if the Rhodes charm was apparent, so too was a hefty dollop of modesty.

Also in evidence was Mozart's score, which Rhodes was scrutinising as I sat beside him. "Studying the music without opening your mouth can help you sort things out much better," he explains.

From a vocal as well as a dramatic perspective, "Don G" has been a challenge, he says. "He is such a complex character you have to be thoroughly prepared and totally focused to sing the role."

Unlike many opera singers, he does not feel he gets too little guidance from directors. "Our egos are large enough that we sometimes think we get too much direction," he laughs.

Though familiar with Mozart, having played Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro and Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte, and with a collection of Mozart arias about to be released on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Classics label, Rhodes still finds the composer daunting. "The music is so beautiful but it's very exacting. Any flaws in your technique are immediately apparent, in my humble experience."

And he laughs again, his opinions frequently qualified by the "humbleness" of his experience.

Shyness is something Rhodes has had to overcome in establishing himself as an actor. "You can't let your inhibitions get in the way."

Making his American debut in September 2000 with the San Francisco Opera's world premiere season of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking, Rhodes played the convict Joe, Sean Penn's role in the film. "We had to do some very awkward stuff in that production; simulate a rape, for example," he remembers. "We went through a long process of private rehearsals and in the end I'd managed to put some distance between myself and the part."

It clearly worked, with the San Francisco Chronicle describing Rhodes as "ferociously gifted". This year he will repeat the role for State Opera of South Australia in the work's Australian premiere.

Rhodes' calendar is full. In March he will sing the part of Dandino - the role in which he made his 1998 OA debut - in the company's production of Rossini's La Cenerentola.

Rossini, too, exposes singers, says Rhodes. "He wrote a lot of colloratura, so you need the technical ability to sing a lot of notes very quickly."And then there's the difficulty of having to be funny: "Comedy is hard; you have to be real for it to work."

In May, he will take the role of the Pilot in the world premiere of an opera based on Antoine de Saint Exupery's classic The Little Prince, for Houston Grand Opera (HGO). The work will be the first opera from British composer Rachel Portman, who won an Academy Award for best film score for Emma and garnered nominations for Chocolat and The Cider House Rules. The Little Prince will be played by a boy soprano and the company's music director Patrick Summers will conduct.

Next year Rhodes will work in another Jake Heggie world premiere, based on the Graham Greene novel The End of the Affair, for HGO. (He's the affair.) Learning contemporary opera, which seldom offers audiences (or singers) tunes to hum, can be excruciatingly difficult. "It's very hard at the beginning because you have no idea what the composer is going to do next. But once you lock into it, the style gets easier. When I was doing Andre Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire for Austin Opera last year, at first it just seemed unattainable. But suddenly you find you've got it."

How long does it takes to learn a part? "Don G took a year."

Yes, he's had some hair-raising experiences, though not too many. "I've forgotten a line from time to time. You make something up very quickly."

Although he dislikes listening to himself on CD ("It's torture"), he would like to continue recording. Besides the Mozart arias, his recording of Messiah, with Antony Walker and the Orchestra of the Antipodes, came out on CD and DVD on the ABC Classics label just before Christmas.

As we've already seen, he's heavily booked for the next two years (apart from his Australian and Houston commitments there are also house debuts with the opera companies of Dallas and Washington), and Rhodes regrets he will not be appearing in New Zealand in the foreseeable future. "You have to be offered something," he laughs.



While he has made Sydney his home, he misses his Kiwi friends and the beauty and isolation of New Zealand. He will "always" back the New Zealand cricket team when they play Australia and he is clearly pleased to be working on Don Giovanni with compatriot Jonathan Lemalu, who makes his OA debut as Leporello in the production.

There's also the link of his middle name, strangely incongruous with his European appearance.

"Oh golly," he sighs. "It's a Maori name. Obviously I'm not Maori. But it was the name taken by my family when they came to New Zealand in the 1850s. We've had it ever since and I love it."

While he'd like to crack the European scene, Rhodes says he doesn't have high aspirations. "I enjoy working with the people I already work with and I'm always surprised by the next thing I get. I just want to keep improving."

Besides the Mozart operas, his OA repertoire includes Demetrius in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Belcore in L'Elisir d'Amore, Silvio in I Pagliacci, Escamillo in Carmen, the Herald in Lohengrin and Harlequin in Ariadne auf Naxos. He has also appeared in concert with most of the major Australian orchestras.

If the big Romantic operas he'd like to do in future offer better parts - and remuneration - for tenors, there's "absolutely no way" he could ever be one. "I have enough trouble being a baritone."

Indeed, even when he talks, Rhodes' voice has the rich, decadent quality of a dark chocolate with a heart of double cream. One has to wonder if the former accountant's clients actually listened to what he had to say about their tax returns.

* Don Giovanni runs at the Sydney Opera House until March 22; Rossini's La Cenerentola opens on February 28 and runs until March 27.