MUSIC, MANIPULATION & MADNESS New Zealand Opera’s general director Thomas de Mallet Burgess waxes lyrical on his upcoming productions The Human Voice and Eight Songs for a Mad King, and the future of opera.
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hat can you tell us about the creative setting of The Human Voice? The Human Voice takes place in a hotel room, and the audience are brought into close proximity with the character, who is undergoing a profoundly emotional rollercoaster of a journey: a separation with her ex-partner. As the audience listens to that conversation, they’ll realise that she’s lying, and the ex-partner is lying. The audience are stuck in the middle trying to deduce the situation, and they’re so close they viscerally experience the unfolding emotion. The significance of the hotel room becomes clear over the course of the opera. Particularly what a lonely place a hotel room can be. These elements knead together in the performance. Using these alternative spaces is a way to give something fresh to
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our loyal audience, and also possibly a way of interesting a new audience that we’re keen to meet. The size and scale of The Human Voice allows us to take it to places we otherwise wouldn’t reach. It’s two shows per night, two different sopranos, one pianist, and one person who is the manager, box office operator and everything else. And what about Eight Songs for a Mad King’s location? Eight Songs for a Mad King is a very different work again. The Human Voice was written by Francis Poulenc whose music is beautiful, heart-breakingly beautiful at times. Sir Peter Maxwell Davies is more of a bad boy. He was in his time the enfant terrible of music. The work is deeply uncomfortable for other reasons. It’s exploring the mental condition of a king, someone with a huge degree of power. The
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RIGHT: THOMAS DE MALLET BURGESS – DIRECTOR, NZ OPERA. PHOTO: GRANT TAYLOR