Two great opera stars in a week for Auckland audiences

Auckland audiences were treated to two great singers within a couple of days of each other last week.

The APO in their Four Last Songs concert featured Measha Brueggergosman singing Strauss’s great song cycle, while the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra had the Gala Evening with Bryn Terfel.

Strauss’s Four Last Songs come at the end of the period of great German music, and while the songs are something of a requiem for the composer, they are also a meditation on the downfall of Germany and the end of its romantic period.

However, the mixture of the depressing and the defiant can also be seen as a celebration of the eventual resurrection of the man as well as that of the country.

Measha Brueggergosman managed to capture the sense of life slowly ebbing from the body and contemplation of death with the occasional vision of tranquility. Her shimmering gown seemed to mirror her shimmering voice shot through with light sparkling against the dark.

At times she allowed the music to overwhelm her voice as though overcome by the forces of death and despair, only to then rise above the music.

Throughout the songs her voice had an introspective quality, the music providing a forest or lake in which she wandered, her aching despairing voice emerging as though striving to find new life.

Her voice had a superb quality of emotional expression matching the emotional quality of Strauss’s music, always able to complement the power and delicacy of the music.

Most of the Bryn Terfel concert featured major operas and musical items, including the great Rogers and Hammerstein Oklahoma.

Most impressive

His most impressive works were the Wagnerian arias from Tannhauser, Das Rheingold and Die Walkure.

Here he demonstrated his remarkable control, inhabiting the stage as his personal domain with each of the songs given their own special quality.

His singing of Abendlich Strahlt Der Sonne Auch from Das Rheingold demonstrated his powerful voice taking on an aggressive quality. He provided a sense of the journey and discovery, with his few minimal gestures adding to the drama.

Singing Wotan’s Farewell and Magic Fire Music, his voice seemed to float on the waves of music carried along by its power. Terfel gave the work all the pathos and heartbreak of the affectionate father mixed with the curse of being a god.

His singing of Oh What a Beautiful Mornin from Oklahoma was a demonstration that the American musical has produced some memorable tunes and shows. That the audience responded with enthusiasm was an indication of their high regard for such works. 

He really engaged the audience with a couple of numbers, notably Boito’s Son Lo Spirito from Mefistofele, where he gave the devil a comic dimension with his farm boy whistle which had the audience responding in like manner.

His singing of Ar Hyd y Nos – All through the Night, which morphed into Pokarekare Ana, provided as much subtly and emotion as he had to the Wagnerian arias and folded the audience completely in his hands.