Reviews

Xerxes the perfect tonic

16/03/2011

PUBLICATION: Wotzon Wellington
REVIEWED BY: Heather McDonald
WHERE: St James Theatre, Wellington, 15 March 2011

With the horrors of Christchurch and Japan constantly in our thoughts at the moment, some light entertainment in the form of a night at the opera is a welcome distraction.

If you’re going to The NBR NZ Opera’s latest production of Handel’s Xerxes, you’re in for a treat. As I discovered at the opening night at the St James Theatre, Xerxes achieves that perfect mix of beautiful music, great costumes and gorgeous singing.

It’s the fantastic storyline filled with drama and plot twists that really carries this production. Welcome to a world of unbridled desire, love triangles, spectacular tantrums, misunderstandings and disguises that is in many ways similar to last year’s successful production of The Marriage of Figaro.

Handel’s opera is set in Persia in 480BC and based very loosely on Xerxes, King of Persia. King Xerxes (Tobias Cole) is quite taken by his younger brother Arsemane’s girlfriend Romilda (Tiffany Speight), and decides to pursue her – despite the fact that he has a fiancée, Amastre (Kristen Darragh), who is understandably furious and dresses up as a man in order to spy on him. To complicate matters, Romilda’s sister Atalanta (Amy Wilkinson) is on the pull and quite fancies Arsamene (William Purefoy) so will do anything to get Romilda and the King together so she can have Arsamene to herself… whether he likes it or not.

One of the drawcards of this production is the costumes designed by Trelise Cooper, and they really are a talking point. The abundance of embroidery, jewels, vibrant silks, beading, ruffles and high heeled boots was just fabulous. Cooper’s newest flagship store opens on Lambton Quay this week, and it was great to see her there in person last night.

We’re pretty lucky to have the Lautten Compagny, one of the world’s most renowned early music orchestras, providing the music in this production. It’s not often that we get to hear baroque music as it would have sounded when it was written. Before the show started we were also reminded that the Lautten Compagny are also holding a benefit concert for Christchurch on Thursday, also at the St James Theatre.

But back to the opera.

The two male lead roles, Xerxes and Arsamene, are pitched so high that they are commonly sung by females. But in this production there are men playing both roles, so were treated to not one but two countertenor voices (the highest male voices in opera). It took a bit of getting used to and I felt it detracted from the characters’ masculinity, but it was definitely beautiful and the opening aria ‘Ombra mai fu’ (recognisable as Handel’s ‘Largo’) was sung with feeling by Tobias Cole.

Cole’s King Xerxes struts around like a peacock, as the beautifully embroidered peacock on his coat probably signifies. But I’d also liken him to a magpie, such is his weakness for shiny objects of desire. I suspect the order of things he loves goes something like this: Himself, followed by his beloved plane tree, followed by whatever pretty thing catches his attention (in this case Romilda), followed by… his fiancée. That’s right – he has a fiancée! That wee detail tends to get forgotten until she reappears in the final scene and he realises what a complete noddy he has been.

Tiffany Speight’s Romilda is unwavering in her love for Arsamene and boy, when she gets fired up, you better watch out. And Amy Wilkinson was great as the cunning and saucy Atalanta, while Kristen Darragh (fresh from singing the national anthem at Fill The Basin) was an emotionally wounded Amastre.

Some of the funnier highlights for me were Stephen Bennett’s Elviro, whose turn as a flower-selling maiden was plain hilarious, the General’s joyful jig as he expressed his joy about the upcoming nuptials, and the many extreme facial expressions that Tobias Cole brought to Xerxes which alone were worth of an Oscar.

From the vibrant costumes to the use of lighting, colour is a strong theme throughout. As pretty much everyone stays in the same costumes and set changes are minimal, the action flows quickly and dances along at a merry pace making it easy to follow and impossible to get bored.

I left the theatre after the show feeling pleasantly uplifted – the perfect tonic!

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Did you know?

Early opera resembled the atmosphere of a race course - chatting, food, laughter and loud comments were the norm.

During all our opera performances an English translation of the libretto is projected on screens above the stage, so you can easily follow the story.

If you are 25 years old or under you can purchase $25 tickets at the venue box office before any performance.

The world's longest opera is Wagner's The Ring Cycle, lasting over 14 hours plus intervals. That's 18 hours at the theatre.

The world's longest applause lasted for 1 hour and 20 minutes as a standing ovation. The opera: Otello starring Placido Domingo.

On average, an opera will last between 2 and 3 hours, with one interval in a two act show, and two in a three act show. Operettas and musicals tend to be shorter.

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