Month: August 2025

Nota Bene’s melodious and heartwarming Wedding of Liesl and Duncan

Posted on by Peter Mechen

Nota Bene Choir presents:

THE WEDDING OF LIESL AND DUNCAN
7:30pm,16th August, 2025
Wesley Church, Taranaki St., Wellington

Liesl – Barbara Paterson (soprano) / Duncan – Robert Tucker (baritone)
Friends and Guests – Nota Bene Choir
Pianists: Heather Easting / Emma Sayers
Music Director – Maaike Christie-Beekman
Devised, Written and Directed by Jacqueline Coats

Order of Service:
WELCOME – Liesl’s family, friends and  guests in the Old Hall

J.STRAUSS Jnr. – Champagne Chorus (Die Fledermaus) – Liesl, with Choir
HAYDN  –  Die Beredsamkeit (Eloquence) – Choir
LEHAR  – Vilja Lied (Die Lustige Witwe) – Liesl, with Choir
SCHUBERT – Der Tanz – Choir
SCHUMANN – Lied der Braut – Liesl – solo
BRAHMS – Sehnsucht – Choir
BRAHMS – Wie bist du, meine Königin – Duncan, solo
SCHUBERT – Schicksalslenker, blicke nieder – Duncan, with Choir
HAYDN – Die Harmonie in der Ehe (Harmony in Marriage) – Choir
SCHUBERT – Trinklied – Duncan – solo

Guests are invited to be seated in the Church

THE SERVICE – Entrance of the Bridal Party
WAGNER – Wedding March from Lohengrin –  Choir
BRAHMS – Liebeslieder Waltzer
1. Rede, Madchen, allzu liebes (speak, dear girl) – Choir
Exchange of Vows
2. Am gesteine rauscht die Flut (the tide rushes on the rocks) – Choir
3. O die Frauen, O die Frauen (O women!) – Tenors and Basses
4. Wie des Abends schöne Röte (the evening’s beautiful red) – Sopranos and Altos
5. Die grüne Hopfenranke (the green hop vine – Choir
6. Ein Kleiner, hübscher Vogel nahm den Flug (a small, pretty bird took flight) – Choir
7. Wohl schön bewandt was es (my lover no longer sees me) –  Liesl
8. Wenn so lind dein Auge mir  (If your eyes are so gentle) – Choir
9. Am Donaustrande da steht ein Haus (By the Danube stands a house) – Choir
10. O wie sanft die Quell – (Oh, how gentle the spring) – Choir
11. Nein es its nicht auszukommen (No, it is not possible..)- Choir.
12. Schlosser auf, und mache Schlosser (Locksmiths, up and make padlocks!) – Choir
13. Vogelein durchrauscht die Luft (Birds fly swiftly through the air) Sopranos and Altos
14. Sieh, wie is die Welle klar (Look how clear the waves are!) Tenors and Basses
15. Nachtigall, sie singt so schön (Nightingale, you sing so beautifully) Choir
16. Ein dunkeler Schacht ist Liebe ( A dark pit is Love!) Choir
17. Nicht wandle, mein Licht (Do not wander, my Light) Tenors
Exchange of Rings
18 Es bebet das Gestrauche (The bushes tremble) Choir
Pronouncement and Celebration
MENDELSSOHN  (arr. Nota Bene) – Wedding March

“The Wedding of Liesl and Duncan” – a fertile music-theatre brainchild of director Jacqueline Coats, which makes creative and heart-warming use of the manifold skills and attendant enthusiasms of musicians belonging to and associated with Wellington’s Nota Bene Choir.  Readers expecting a conventional review of a group  performing a first-half programme featuring a collection of operatic solo and choral items, followed by a second-half presentation of Brahm’s Liebeslieder Waltzes might wonder at encountering, first-up, this introductory  plethora of detailed information that could take as long to read through as the actual review itself! I hope the method in my madness at offering this storehouse of elaboration to begin with “sets the scene” for the effusion of delightfully theatrical, and even in places intensely dramatic entertainment which  elevated much of the music’s otherwise divertissement-like status into far more connective musical tissue.

Brought into play was a real, infectious sense of a nuptial occasion by (a) the choice of venue, in Wellington’s Taranaki Street Wesley Church, and (b) the theatrical method of incorporating the audience into the actual celebrations. So it was that we were all invited at the outset to join the bride’s family, friends and guests into one of two gathering-places capaciously provided and linked by a corridor (I suspect each simply “filled up” followed by the other, leaving, incidentally, very few spare seats!). At each place was a pianist (ours was the versatile Heather Easting, while the other would have certainly enjoyed the equally capable artistry of Emma Sayers) – after being welcomed by the indefatigable Jacqueline Coats and enjoying some soothing strains of firstly Bach and then Pachebel on the piano, there subsequently appeared suitably-attired guests and friends of the couple to be married, along with the major participants, Liesl (Barbara Paterson) and Duncan (Robert Tucker) who alternated between both of these places, by turns recounting for each of the groups some of the history of their meeting and subsequent engagement.

This “getting to know” first the bride and then the groom was accompanied by the first “Welcome” bracket of songs, beginning with a spirited “Champagne Aria” from J,Strauss Jnr’s “Die Fledermaus” sparklingly (ahem!) delivered by the bride and guests. I found a lot of the spoken commentary from all the characters difficult to make out in that acoustic, sitting as I was at the far end of the group – but I could hear enough to decipher salient detail, such as information pertaining to the non-arrival, thus far, of the groom – a droll chorus (“Eloquence” by Josef Haydn) suitably commenting on various apposite kinds of character traits! To my great pleasure we heard next the ravishing “Vilja Lied” from Lehar’s “Die Lustige Witwe” most plaintively sung by Paterson (with lovely dynamic control of those ecstatic high notes) and echoed by the chorus. Schubert’s “Der Tanz” followed, after which Liesl introduced, a mite confusingly, both her “adoptive’ and “real” parents, in tandem with Schumann’s lovely “Lied der Braut”, Liesl’s solo here blending affectingly with the following “Sensucht” by Brahms, for the choir.

Consternation reigned as Duncan (Robert Tucker), the Groom, suddenly turned up, effusively pressing his suit with another Brahms song, “Wie bist du, meine Konigin!”, beautifully and pliantly delivered here by both singer and pianist. We got some semi-confessional “history” from the singer of a previous relationship and an existing offspring (too much information?) associated with the beseeching “Schicksalsenker” by Schubert for tenor and choir, which captured all hearts, before the groom was off again, “looking for Liesl!”, to the strains of Haydn’s satirical “Die Harmonie in der Ehe”, all boisterous good fun for the choir! Duncan returned, jubilant, and in a time-honoured gesture to blokedom, launched into a Schubert “Trinklied”, extolling Baccchus, “Plump Prince of Wine!” – the wedding was definitely “on!”

The preliminaries having been addressed and given their due, we were enjoined to be upstanding and take ourselves via some of the way we had already come to the church for the ceremony. Our director-cum celebrant fulsomely welcomed our presence, reminding us that before things went any further we needed a bride! –  and so we had the lump-in-throat enchantment of the expectantly fresh-toned “Wedding March” from Wagner’s Lohengrin as Liesl and her escort came down the aisle to the altar.

The bride being thus delivered and the groom suitably prepped, our celebrant took the opportunity to “set the scene” with the help of the composer of the aforementioned “Liebeslieder Waltzes”. I had listened to these songs perhaps once before and remember at the time thinking them somewhat underwhelming as regards the “must hear again” department – but what a difference here, brought to life via the bright and sparkling Nota Bene voices, Maaike Christie-Beekman’s exuberant direction, and our duo pianists’ by turns incisive and melting playing  – how wonderful for these songs to be given such a vibrant theatrical and even dramatic context! Each one seemed to “possess” its different character, imbuing the normally threadbare three-four trajectories with tangible on-the-spot representations as well as tying together their unifying flow in the larger scheme that held the whole evening together so successfully.

If we had thought the marriage “done and dusted” by then, we were in for a few (almost soap-opera) surprises! –  from the beginning, the celebrant touched on the potential “will it happen?” travails of a relationship, underpinned by the first song’s “Rede, Madchen, allzu liebes” (Will you, who rouse passion, relent?”) to which the groom, Duncan, reopened his “confessional” doubts, spurred by the choir’s “Am gesteine rauscht die Flut” (The flood rushes onto the rocks), and the age-old bachelor’s refrain “O die Frauen, O die Frauen” (further elaborated here as “I’d have been a monk were it not for women”). It was time for Liesl to enjoy some affirmation with the soprano/alto voices’ beautiful “Wie des Abends schöne Röte” (How the evening redly glows).

As the vows begin, so do the doubts arise, darkly harmonised by “Die grüne Hopfenranke”  (like a creeper stuck in the ground) from the choir, the celebrant suitably agitating and the mothers appearing to give their daughter solace (all superbly theatrical!). Liesl isn’t much  comforted by the idea of a pretty bird being caught  -“Ein kleiner, hubscher Vogel nahm den Fug” (Christie-Beekman brings out so much more flavour from the choir’s voices in these places than I previously recall!). The bride remains unmoved at first, remembering how “it all seemed much easier when we were young” – “Wohl schön bewandt was es”, and now…….The choir quickly moves to comfort Liesl with “Wenn so lind dein Auge mir” – reassured by gentle eyes, she takes her bouquet as the next song quickly capitalises on the mood –  “Am Donaustrande, da steht ein Haus” , sings the choir, breaking through the impasse of doubt as if shattering a barrier of glass! Liesl completes her vow! – triumph!

To the strains of “O wie sanft die Quelle” the couple waltz to the moving waters!  Just when it all seems plain sailing comes another cloud – “If any person knows of any reason, etc…..” From the ranks of the choir a man steps forward and confesses his secret love for the bride! – Pandemonium! The Choir erupts with “Nein! – es ist nicht auszukommen!” (No! It’s impossible!”) The couple run away from the tumult as the choir angrily declaims “Schlosser! Auf, und mache Schlösser” (Locksmith! Up, and make some locks!). but peace is soon restored and the errant suitor is dismissed, as the sopranos and altos sing of birds rushing through the air to their rest  (“Vögelein, durchrauscht die Luft”) and the tenors and basses extend the peace further with “Sieh, wie ist die Welle klar” .

The nightingale sings, and the world seems to stand still – “Nachtigall, sie singt so schön”  intones the choir – Liesl is firmly on the side of love and helps steer Duncan through his “dark night of the soul” memory at “Ein dunkeler Schacht ist Liebe” (Love is a dark pit”), though he’s lost for words at this, the last fence! “Boys, you gotta help me out, here!” his whole aspect is saying, and the  tenors come to his aid with “Nicht wandle, mein Licht” – a beautiful reassurance of a homecoming, AND of the appearance of the rings – where? – here! – no! – yes! – with the choir giving the final and  clearly affirmative “lift” to the rhythms and tones of “Es bebet das Gesträuche” – (as the bushes tremble with the birds’ flight, so does my soul with desire and fear at the thought of you!).  As the couple sign the register and their union is pronounced, so does Mendelssohn’s Wedding March sound and resound as Liesl and Duncan are resplendently (and deservedly) acclaimed! What a journey, and how richly bedecked it all proved, proclaiming Jacqueline Coats’s vision as transformational and the response of all of the performers, conductor, singers and players, something to truly savour in the memory.

A Masked Ball – Wellington Opera’s presentation of perilous concealment

Posted on by Peter Mechen

Julien Van Mellearts (Renato) and Jared Holt (King Gustavo)
photo – Stephen A’Court

Wellington Opera presents:
Giuseppe VERDI – Un Ballo in Maschera  (libretto by Antonia Somma)

Jared Holt – Gustavo, King of Sweden
Julien Van Mellearts – Count René Anckarström (Renato), the King’s secretary
Madeleine Pierard – Amelia, the Count’s wife
Natasha Te Rupe Wilson – Oscar, the King’s page
Kristin Darragh – Ulrica Arfvidsson, a sorceress
Samuel McKeever – Count Ribbing, a conspirator
Morgan-Andrew King – Count Horn, a conspirator
Lila Crichton – Judge
Daniel O’Connor – Cristiano, a sailor
Chris Anderson – Amelia’s servant

Director – Jacqueline Coats
Set Design – Michael Zaragoza
Lighting Design – Rowan McShane
Costume Design – Lee Erihäpeti Williams

Conductor – Brian Castles-Onion
Wellington Opera Chorus (Director – Michael Vinten)
Orchestra Wellington

Opera House, Wellington
Friday, 8th August 2025

Wellington’s beautiful Opera House was the venue for the latest offering from the city’s eponymous opera company –  Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera, which opened on August 6th – I attended the second Opera House performance two evenings later, conscious that the production had had already garnered a good critical response.

Amongst the intriguing advance publicity for the work were references to the production’s use of classical archetypal elements presented in the ancient Greek myth of Artemis and Actaeon, the famous “hunter becomes the hunted” story. The opera’s Prelude accordingly depicts the drama’s monarch, King Gustavo of Sweden, with a pair of hunting dogs, cleverly mirroring this theme at the work’s end with a depiction of the King at a “masked ball” wearing a pair of stag’s antlers, thus symbolising the victim he was to become of a conspiracy amongst his courtiers.

The masks of course underpin another defining motif of the work, that of concealment, one emphasised in a programme note by the production’s director Jacqueline Coats, and given obvious emphasis in the opera’s final definitive ball scene, but also throughout the story in different ways.

Permeating the drama, of course, were the dominant themes of the King’s covert love for Amelia, the wife of his best friend Renato, in tandem with the conspirators’ plot to assassinate their monarch. And various intrigues enriched the action, such as Gustav’s and his courtiers disguising themselves for a visit a fortune-teller who had been threatened with banishment. This in turn led to a midnight tryst between Gustav and Amelia, and their affair’s eventual discovery by Renato, engendering the latter’s secret alignment with the conspirators to bring about Gustav’s end.

From the beginning the drama’s musical fabric was wrought of magic by Orchestra Wellington under conductor Brian Castles-Onion’s direction, the latter never missing a beat or a turn of phrase denoting an action or emotion by his players and singers. The chorus, representing both “allies” and “enemies” of the king, acquitted themselves sonorously as befitted their intentions, the result of Wellington Opera chorusmaster Michael Vinten’s always expert coaching  – Jared Holt’s King Gustav replied regally and graciously as the loved-cum-hated monarch, a foil for the initially more workmanlike tones of Julien Van Mellaerts’  Anckarstrom (Renato), the King’s secretary,  whose opening canzone “Alla vita che t’arride” was solicitious and dignified as suited the occasion.

Natasha Te Rupe Wilson (Oscar) – photo, Stephen A’Court

Some of the scene’s most consistently-engaging singing came with Natasha Te Rupe Wilson’s portrayal of Oscar, the King’s Page – the voice and theatrical deportment were a real delight in places such as her defence of the fortune-teller, Ulrica, in her ballata “Volta la terrea fronte alle stelle”, rebuffing the condemnations delivered here somewhat jejunely by Lila Crichton’s Judge. In conclusion Jared Holt was able to generate plenty of devil-may-care energy in his “Ogni cura si doni al diletto”, inviting his courtiers to join him in donning a disguise and visiting the fortune-teller’s lair!

Scene Two, while vividly wrought by the orchestral introduction, seemed to visually fall short of Kirsten Darragh’s vivid descriptions in her “Re dell’abisso, affrettati!”. Nor did the chorus’s “O come tutto riluce di tetro”  reflect “how luridly everything glitters” –  here,  more ice-cold than lurid and infernal, as if this Ulrica was Erda out of Wagner’s “Ring” instead. As with the ensuing scene’s supposedly “campo abbominato”, I thought it all too brightly- and cooly-lit to reflect the “dark and infernal” aspect of the words, though the singers did their best. Ulrica’s palm-reading realisation that the man whose future she was predicting was REALLY doomed  was tellingly conveyed by Kirsten Darragh, especially the idea of the killer being his friend! Jared Holt did well with the rebuff of this in his “Ề scherzo od è follia”, his “laughing” tones adroitly conveying his public incredulity at the prophecy.

Madeleine Pierard’s Amelia rose above the discrepancies evident between the scenario of her gathering of the magic herb and her descriptions of it – her opening “Ecco l’oriddo campo ove s’accoppia al delitto la morte!” made me wonder whether the valiant scene-shifters had actually got the right “piece” out on the stage! – hardly suggestive of a place of execution such as a gallows, and with the scene itself surely needing to be darker to reflect Amelia’s terror and loathing (“m’empie di ricappriccio e de terrore!”). She and Jared Holt worked hard at their love-duet that followed without, I felt, recapturing the exhilarating charge of their “Tosca” the previous year here in Wellington, their kiss here far from any kind of “caution abandoned” quality suggested by their words.

By contrast, the arrival of, firstly, Renato to warn the King of danger, and then of the assassins themselves was superbly staged, the overt menace of the latters’ concerted torch-lit aspect making the mordant “comedy” of their discovery of Renato with his wife on a “nocturnal moonlight stroll” all the more delightful – their “laughter”, relished enormously by the audience well aware of the subject couple’s acute anguish, proved a highlight of the evening!

Madeleine Pierard (Amelia) – photo, Stephen A’Court

No less riveting was the subsequent exchange between vengeful husband and sorrowing wife, Madeleine Pierard’s “Morro, ma prima in grazia” as deeply-felt and moving as Julien Van Mellearts’s “Eri tu” was by turns impassionedly angry and deeply grief-stricken. And two more voices to impress in the following “plotting” scene were those of the conspirators, Samuel McKeever as Count Ribbing and Morgan-Andrew King as Count Horn – a resoundingly dark-toned duo!

Rivalling these two scenes in impact here was the splendid finale, launched by the brief appearance of the antler-clad King and the appearance of the masked revellers at the ball, the singing and choreography of the chorus again outstanding. Interactions between Oscar (another superb song-and-dance cameo from Natasha Te Rupe Wilson) and Renato over the mystery of the King’s identity further heightening the tensions created by the masked conspirators closing in on their prey with Renato in the van ready to strike, unaware that his victim had already proclaimed Amelia’s innocence by giving her the freedom she desired (touchingly expressed here, at the end, by Jared Holt’s mortally-wounded Gustav.)

No other art-form conveys so many different emotions in simultaneous ferment so exquisitely and heart-rendingly. Given some production aspects that didn’t resonate with me, I still found myself, along with the rest of this evening’s audience, warmly appreciating and acclaiming this “A  Masked Ball” as a feast of compelling theatrical action and music-making.