On song for opera debut

The Opera Otago production of The Marriage of Figaro features (from left) Joel Amosa (Count Almaviva), Maia Vegar (Countess), Helene Holman (Cherubino), Grace Park (Susanna) and Kawiti Waetford (Figaro).

Opera singers learn to produce a sound that can cut across orchestras and fill an entire hall - all without a microphone or amplification.

However, it is a slow process, according to Kawiti Waetford and Maia Vegar, two third-year voice students at the University of Otago who hail from the Far North. Along with other students, recent former students and young musicians from the national youth orchestra, they are making their opera debut in Opera Otago's production of The Marriage of Figaro, which opens this weekend.

Vegar (21) comes from Rawene on the Hokianga Harbour and Waetford (21) from Whangarei, where they both went to high school.

They have known each other since they were 14 or 15 as they had the same singing teacher, Joan Kennaway, and took part in singing competitions and in Opera North. In last year's Otago Daily Times aria competition, Vegar came first and Waetford second.

Waetford has loved singing since he was an infant and performed in kapa haka groups.

But the turning point for him, he says, was when his mother and grandmother took him to see The Phantom of the Opera when he was 6 or 7.

He was given a tape of the music which he listened to all the time.

"I wanted to start singing lessons so Mum took me to see Joan Kennaway, who was a singing teacher and the heart and soul of Opera North," he says.

Vegar sang in church, played guitar and wrote her own songs then moved to musical theatre.

"Someone suggested I give classical singing a go and I realised I liked it and it became a passion," she says.

Both had considered training in musical theatre, but were influenced by a master class in Whangarei given by Judy Bellingham, senior lecturer in voice at the University of Otago, who also directs the New Zealand summer singing school.

Waetford and Vegar attended the school in 2009. It opened their eyes to the world of professional singing and they met many influential people, such as Prof Terrence Denis and Isabel Cunningham, of the University of Otago.

Both decided to study classical singing rather than musical theatre, which is about dancing and acting as well as singing.

If you have a classically trained voice, you can sing anything, they say.

Waetford is mentored by the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation and last year had the opportunity to attend the Solti Te Kanawa Accademia di Bel Canto in Italy.

The prestigious school offers free tuition to 13 young singers from throughout the world. Waetford was the youngest and felt apprehensive to begin with.

However, he says the experience made a huge difference to his work, and in particular to his Italian, an important language for singers.

The arias and ensembles in Opera Otago's production of The Marriage of Figaro will be sung in the original Italian, although the dialogue will be in English.

Both singers grew up bilingual: Vegar speaking her mother's native Finnish, and Waetford Maori. They think that helps them with the pronunciation of the languages they have to sing in.

"I think bilingualism is key. If you already have that internal dual voice and context of one language and another, it's easier to build another. You have an extended palette of sounds," Waetford says.

When they have graduated from Otago, both young singers hope to study overseas and make careers as opera singers.

Vegar has her sights set on the Sibelius Academy in Finland, while Waetford has not yet decided where he will go - maybe New York, he says.

The Marriage of Figaro is a comic opera by Mozart, in which Figaro (sung by Waetford), Count Almaviva's valet, is to marry Susanna, the countess' maid. However, the count is trying to delay the marriage so he can seduce Susanna himself.

The countess (sung by Vegar) is upset by her husband's infidelity, although her page boy Cherubino harbours a hopeless love for her.

Bartolo, the countess' former guardian, also wants to prevent the marriage of Figaro and Susanna and force him to marry his housekeeper Marcellina (sung by Judy Bellingham) as he has defaulted on a loan.

The wily Figaro, the archetypal trickster, manages to overcome all the difficulties with cunning plans that include mistaken identities, hiding in wardrobes and other trickery, and all ends happily.

"Mozart imbues the music with everything you need as a performer," Waetford says.

"All the musical cues he gives you determine how the character feels, thinks and acts on stage.

"Because we are not used to being on stage while singing we feel we don't know what to do on stage, but if you just feel the music and go off the cues the music gives you, the music should lead the way.

When Figaro's thinking you can hear it in the music; when he's composed you can hear it in the music; when things go off the rails you kind of hear it in the music as well."

The pair are relishing working with Prof John Drummond, who is directing the opera, and musical director Andrew Crooks, a former Otago graduate now working as a music coach and conductor in Berlin.

"These people are full of knowledge and teaching us every day. We are learning so much and we are all working so hard to make this a good show," Vegar says.

See it
Mozart's Marriage of Figaro opens at the Mayfair Theatre on June 30 for a four-night season. It will be accompanied by a group of musicians, many of them members of the NZSO National Youth Orchestra.