Opera Otago launched its 70th anniversary year in style with Arias at Dusk, an innovative take on operatic arias.
Led by a youthful creative team of director Sam Kelly, musical director/accompanist Cameron Monteath, and choreographer Tobias Devereux, Arias at Dusk combined superbly-performed arias with illustrative dance to create a thoroughly entertaining show.
Opera Otago assembled a top-notch group of singers to perform the Arias at Dusk pieces, including mezzo soprano Tessa Romano, mezzo soprano Claire Barton, soprano Rhiannon Cooper, soprano Erica Paterson, and tenor Teddy Finney Waters.
Accompanied with skill and sensitivity from the piano by Monteath, the singers’ voices floated out from different points around Hanover Hall, including upstairs, adding interesting variety to the sound.
In turns, the singers gave spellbindingly beautiful performances of nine individual arias by Korngold, Donizetti, Britten, Rossini, Puccini, Lalo, Dvorak, Mozart, and Gounod.
Dancers Amelia Leaper and Carys Beddow helped bring the the words’ meaning to life, depicting the full range of emotion in a lovely performance.
All five singers then came together to perform an achingly beautiful rendition of Humperdink’s Evening Prayer, as a fitting finale to a wonderful showcase of music and dance.
All in all, Arias at Dusk got Opera Otago’s 70th anniversary year off to a great start.
