Olveston
Friday, April 10
On Friday, an early evening recital of classical music was presented in Olveston, the early 20th century, 35-room ‘‘English country house’’ which is now one of Dunedin’s treasures.
Original owners the Theomin family regularly held musical evenings in the drawing-room and the atmosphere and ambience of 100 years ago remains.
Entertaining this time were three University of Otago award-winning alumni, with a selection of opera, art song and musical theatre favourites, accompanied by Sanaz Rezai, international pianist now residing in Dunedin.
Baritone Kieran Kelly, sopranos Rong Zhang and Phoebe Rose Osborne began with a trio Soave sia il vento from Mozart’s opera Cosi Fan Tutte.
Zhang followed with a strong, dramatic delivery of Je dis que rien ne m’epouvante, from Bizet’s Carmen. She then contributed a beautiful Chinese song in her own language, translated as Three Wishes of a Rose.
Kelly translated and recounted the amusing storyline of Abschied — a German song by Wolf, before he acted out the comical tale of a colossal nose and a man tumbling down stairs, garnished with superb piano accompaniment from Rezai. He followed with Gounod’s Avant de quitter ces lieux from Faust, again matching face and body language to text with impressive operatic technique.
The singers chose their favourite songs and arias and it was no surprise when Osborne sang two all-time favourites — Si, mi chiamano Mimi from Puccini’s La Boheme and Song to the Moon, by Dvorak.
The trio combined for Lloyd Webber’s popular All I Ask of You and The Phantom of the Opera, then concluded their programme with the popular Italian song O Sole Mio.
Indeed this was an enjoyable musical evening in the surreal ambience of Dunedin’s beautiful Olveston Historic Home.
