Opera Exposed: a working session

Opera Exposed: a working session

A new opera programme created by Dame Malvina Major has offered rare training in the spoken word for young New Zealand singers this fortnight in Parnell.

The fruits of their labour will be showcased in a free public session with Stuart Maunder, General Director of New Zealand Opera, at 5.30pm on Friday 28 July at The Opera Centre, NZ Opera’s new HQ.

Six singers from across New Zealand have taken part in the programme: sopranos Oriana Kershaw, Katherine McIndoe, Madison Nonoa and Sophie Sparrow; tenor Filipe Manu and baritone Clinton Fung. Two additional singers – soprano Natasha Wilson and baritone Jonathan Eyers – were given scholarships to attend Patricia Hurley’s Italian for NZ Opera Singers Masterclasses and Concerts in Italy as part of the programme.

The Dame Malvina Major Foundation Opera Studies Programme has been run in association with New Zealand Opera with the generous support of the Greenlea Foundation Trust. Singers receive two weeks of intensive coaching from international tutors with a focus on recitative training – a style of delivery used in operas in which singers adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech.

Dame Malvina says that learning recitative is a common omission in opera training and is hard to practice in isolation as often it involves a conversation between two or three people.

“Recits are hugely important as they are the sung conversations shared between performers before and after their arias, duets and quartets. The aim is to help these singers learn recitatives and their importance in an opera, and to help ensure their pronunciation – no matter what language the opera is in – is 100% correct.

The evening will conclude with drinks and nibbles. All welcome, but as places are limited, RSVPs are essential to communications@dmmfoundation.org.nz byWednesday 26 July.

Opera Exposed: a working session
5.30-7.00pm, Friday 28 July
The Opera Centre
69 St Georges Bay Rd
Parnell

http://www.dmmfoundation.org.nz/28-july-2017-opera-exposed-a-working-session/

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