This month New Zealand is hosting one of the oddest operas I’ve ever seen. Well, not so much the actual opera (the Italian Girl in Algiers, by Gioachino Rossini), but its production.
The original opera is an opera buffa, or comic opera, written when Rossini was 21. The music is highly accessible, the cast an interesting line-up of oddities, and plenty of scope for tomfoolery. But this year’s New Zealand Opera production was something else.
The story has sort-of been transported to a modern-day setting, or at least, more modern than the original. It seems to have got stuck in the 1960s or ’70s, but even that isn’t quite right. And all sorts of strange things happen. The hero sings a touching solo and then schmaltzes into the camera. (He did that very well, and not just once.) The heroine’s eyes flash at a startled audience with high drama. And the corpulent, over-upholstered Mustafa, the Bey of Algiers, the villain of the piece, fair drips with, well, corpulence and villainy.
The whole thing is over-the-top but, oddly, it works. It is highly entertaining. There’s no time to be critical of the singing and the orchestra – there’s too much going on and much of it is quite bizarre. Like when three beach beauties come bouncing onto stage on swiss balls while three of the leading characters are deep in conversation. And when the drinks trays float across the scene with invisible waiters. Still, I must not to give too much away. It is enough to say that technology plays a significant role in this production.
Cheesiness notwithstanding, the quality of the music cannot not be faulted. Kiwi mezzo-soprano Wendy Dawn Thompson has a voice and attitude that totally suits the role of the feisty Isabella, the Italian girl. Conal Coad’s bass is full and meaty, while I found Warwick Fyfe’s lovely rich baritone a pleasant surprise. Poor Christian Baumgaertel’s tenor struggled for volume but it is apparently one of the most demanding tenor roles, and he made up for it with his delightful cheesy camera suck-ups.
So, if you read this and the opera is coming your way, in Wellington or Auckland this month, in Scotland in October of this year, do go. Even if you’ve never been to an opera before (especially if you’ve never been before), be prepared to suspend belief and go and see it. Do!