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Handel's rarely performed opera Oreste will light up the stage of Mercury Theatre this weekend, directed by the iconoclastic Benjamin Henson in his first opera outing. The show will showcase many young opera talents alongside the NZ Barok orchestra, which performs on original baroque instruments. Renee Liang interviews Frances Wilson, who started the Auckland Opera Studio many years ago to nurture Auckland's opera scene.

Why did you start the Auckland Opera Studio?

When I returned to NZ in 2000 from nearly 32 years away - first in London and then in USA - mainly New York, one of the first things I noticed was the need to help recently returned overseas singers.

Firstly - there were the very well trained and talented singers who had spent up to 10 years studying and working overseas - whether it be Germany, USA or England.  At the time in NZ’s opera history there was not much support for these returnees. Most of them returned because of visa issues - or family reasons.

Singers are like athletes - constant revising and coaching or teaching is needed. These singers returning at that time were not wealthy - after all, they were involved in the arts, and secondly, most were trained in the opera world which is the most expensive art form of all - involving all the creative and musical art disciplines.

So, together with my good friends and great art patrons, Gillian and John Peebles, we decided to form this Opera Studio - where tuition and coaching and performing opportunities were all free.

Now, there are many more opportunities to perform for these returnees, so our focus then turned to the young ones just emerging from the universities with their music degrees.  Life and tuition overseas is now horrendously expensive for these promising young ones. Therefore, the idea was to work intensively with them - technically and musically, and prepare them to hopefully win competitions and prize money and help them to develop to a stage where, when they arrive at these overseas institutions, they are quickly noticed by the staff as being talented and well prepared - thereby making the process through the ranks of the hundreds of fellow students faster, more successful and quickly-noticed by the “gossip-machine” of the talent spotters in the singing world.

At a certain stage in their development the best teacher is the stage. Our mantra is not to present those not yet ready - and I emphasise the “yet”. But those who are advancing beautifully, we provide performance opportunities which have been preceded by a good deal of technical and stylistic help in the rehearsal period. So they appeal on the stage delightfully ready to really engage their audience with their vocal and dramatic skills

Why did you choose Oreste for the Auckland Opera Studio's 2016 offering?

Oreste has never been performed in New Zealand.  It is a mighty powerful fast-moving drama telling the story of the Greek mythological characters Oreste, Hermione, Pylades and Iphigenia from the play by Euripides written between 414 - 412 BC. Great music and lots of action!

Tell me about some of the artists involved.  Who is well known and who do you think audiences will 'discover'?

We have six performers:  

Oreste - Stephen Diaz, one of Australasia’s top Countertenor. The coniscenti here know him well.  

Hermione - Rebecca Ryan, returned from 13 years in London. A fantastic singer - NZ does not really yet know her - she will be the “discovery” of the cast.  

King Toante (the villian) - James Ioelu, graduate of Auckland University, Manhatten School of Music and winner of a place (20) at the most prestigious London Opera Studio.  In NZ for a few months and we happily grabbed him for the role.

Ifigenia - Madison Nonoa, one of NZ’s top young sopranos - everybody’s favourite - third place getter in the important Lexus competition and winner of the prestigious “Most Promising Singer” award.

Pylade - Filipe Manu, tenor, second place getter in the Lexus competition and well-known throughout NZ as one of the top young talents. He and Madison will be leaving these shores for overseas study in the near future.  They have already worked and performed in Italy and London and we expect great things for both of them.

Filotete - Kalauni Pouvalu, graduate of Auckland University.  A future Wagnerian tenor he is a member of the already well-known and admired Operanesia group. A talent to be followed and watched. This is his second role in an opera - he plays the Captain the Guards.

You are working with Benjamin Henson, who is well known as a theatre director in NZ. This is his first foray into Opera though. What have been some of your discoveries together?

Benjamin Henson came highly recommended and so we met and had a long talk. I liked his mind and energy. I could tell he was sensitive and innately musical. And, indeed he has proved to be a rock - finely tuned to the singers’ needs and inspirational in his method of subtexting every sentence in a hundred different ways. He is efficient, funny and kind. He is very polite and makes the singers feel important and secure.  A great find for us and those in the singing world.

Tell me about your partnership with the NZ Barok orchestra.

I know the NZ Barok from being a part of the audience. I always loved their sound, their energy and their precision. Therefore it was logical to ask them; a real Baroque orchestra and the only one in NZ to have all members play on early instruments. As far as I was concerned their presence and playing could only further enhance the performance!!!

I find it intriguing that you are performing the arias in the original German but doing your own translation of the recit into English. Why did you make that decision?

The arias are sung in the original Italian. The melodies and words are so beautiful in the Italian language. The arias comprise only about two sentences repeated - each one. So they will be surtitled. The recitatives are a different matter - the storyline is told here - fast and furious. Audience participation is then hindered by the fact they cannot understand the words which are numerous. So - we sing the storyline (recites) in English to ensure the audience’s attention is not diverted from the stage and the lovely arias maintain their beautiful Italian sounds. This seems to be a good solution for a non-Italian speaking audience. My mantra is - this is as much for the audience as for the singers - each element has to be cared for!

What is next for the Auckland Opera Studio?

We are already thinking about next year and have had inquiries from a couple of our lovely ex-members of AOS who are resident overseas about roles for them next year. We shall see where that leads us.  

Please come and give yourselves a real treat at the Mercury Theatre, August 20, 7.30pm or August 21, 5.30pm.  Handel can be great entertainment.

Frances Wilson

Frances is a world-renowned veteran tutor, vocal instructor and director of Auckland Opera Studio (a charitable trust), with past students including Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Dame Sister Mary Leo. She’s worked previously as a personal vocal coach to Virginia Zeani, who is regarded as one of Romania’s legendary musical voices.
 
From a young age Frances has been involved in singing, and worked with and continued to study, coach and play for many great names in singing across the world in London, Adelaide, Melbourne, Indiana and New York. Since then Frances has been captivated by the journey of young singers into their professional careers. Frances herself received a Scholarship to Royal Academy of Music London in 1964, and is now dedicated to providing opportunities to aspiring young singers through the Auckland Opera Studio, where she is studio director.
 
Frances was one of the primary founders of the small organisation in the early 2000’s, established to provide free professional coaching to graduate students.