By - 3 Mar 2011
"There is nothing quite like a live performance, in a beautiful venue, with talented performers and glorious costumes. Nothing. It’s enough to make you pledge to get out more, and go to more things, even things you know nothing about, because the experience of being part of an audience when the cast and crew and musicians are getting it right – well, it can’t be beaten."
By Kate Hannah 3 March 2011
Read this review on Thread.co.nz
"Last night, the opening night of the Auckland Arts Festival and
the premiere of Georg Friedrich Handel's 1738 opera, Xerxes, was
one of those evenings when the stars in the ceiling of the Civic
aligned and a perfect night out took place.
The Civic, a triumph of Orientalism, was a sublime location for
this production, an opera set in Persia in the mid-4th century BCE;
the Moorish arches and Abyssinian lions of the theatre's interior
interplayed beautifully with Trelise Cooper's costumes, and
provided a context for 18th century London's fascination with all
things 'oriental' and 'exotic' - like the story of a Persian King
who famously falls in love first with a tree, then with his
brother's girlfriend, and then back in love, rather quickly, it
seems, with his cross-dressing murderous ex-fiancée.
New Zealand Opera's production of Xerxes is the first time one
of the famed Baroque composer's operas has been staged in New
Zealand; what made this production possible was the involvement of
the inventive period orchestra the Lautten Compagney from Berlin
and their musical director Wolfgang Katschner - the use of Baroque
instruments by these talented players gave an authenticity and
spirit to the charming music.
Another necessary puzzle piece for the staging of Xerxes in New
Zealand was the recruitment of two counter-tenors - the
delightfully foppish Tobias Cole in the title role, and William
Purefoy as the handsome, faithful Arsamene. Handel's original score
was written, as was the style then, for the male leads to be played
by castrati.
Fortunately we live in slightly less brutal times, and are content
to search out approximations of the male sopranos that were all the
rage in 18th century London. (To the relief of all men reading
this, I'm sure.)
Cole and Purefoy were perfectly cast and costumed - the dandyish
king in his purple velvet dress uniform embroidered with an ornate
peacock, glorified by his general for a victory he has not even
fought in, singing a falsetto love song to his tree; contrasted
with the brooding and Byronic Prince Arsamene, recently returned
from war, in his boots and breeches and dark colours, his coat
subtly emblazoned with a lion.
Arsamene's travelling clothes - the ones he assumes after his
brother exiles him - were my favourite: boots with a subtle cream
tassel; brown velvet breeches and a long coat with a Victorian
version of an Indian Paisley shawl fashioned into a cloak over the
top.
This outfit exemplified Cooper's costuming - a magnificent
pastiche of her own loves - military details, flouncy shirts,
ornate embroidery in an Indian style, sans culottes and the
Incroyables - into a highly visual plethora of colour, texture and
meaning.
Atalanta, cleavage heaving, is in Kelly green, exemplifying her
jealousy and spite; Romilda's gorgeous mustard dress and pink and
turquoise opera coat are much more modest, signifying her fidelity
to Arsamene despite her sister's plotting.
The Opera Chorus, in outfits very reminiscent of the sans
culottes in Les Misèrables, celebrating their King's triumph and
the triumph of love. Tiffany Speight, playing Romilda, was gorgeous
- an expressive face and an intelligent singer who was beautifully
flattered by the costuming and makeup.
So while, like many, I'm sure, my previous knowledge of Handel was
restricted to The Messiah and his Water Music, I'm now won over to
his opera - a slight and unimportant tale of love and unrequited
love, told through music in a way that, inexplicably, is as
transformative as the most serious and solemn of films or plays
that I have seen.
Franco Zefirelli, the Italian director famous for his 1968 Romeo
and Juliet, described opera's power - "I have always believed that
opera is a planet where the muses work together, join hands, and
celebrate the arts" - an axiom that seemed most apt last night when
the cast, director, assistant director, conductor, set designer,
costume designer and lighting designer joined hands and took their
bows in front of an appreciative audience.
So if you're not up to anything tonight - go to the opera. Tickets
available from The Edge."