The Living Arts Arts Council puts case for opera revival

Press, 9 May 1978, Page 32

The Living Arts Arts Council puts case for opera revival

A three-year programme for a revival of opera in New Zealand has been suggested in a special report to the Government by the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council.

The council says there are no convincing reasons why New Zealand should stand aside from opera, while it promotes other forms of art.

But it proposes a gradual immersion; rather than a sudden plunge into the rocky financial waters of opera promotion.

The council’s three-year plan starts modestly, but ends with the establishment of a full company. By the end of the third season, according to projected costs, it will have cost the Government a total of $344,530 in subsidies.

In the fourth year the scheme would require a subsidy of $250,000, and in the fifth year $300,000. The scheme envisages a touring company of singers, paid by retainers or salaries, a small group of core musicians who would tour with the company, and extensive use of regional orchestras. Although the management of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, is sympathetic, the report says, it would be able to make its orchestra available only rarely. This would best be for special seasons, during which New Zealand singers of international renown might be attracted to sing with the company. The report continues: “The co-operative response of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra to the Council’s initiative so far is significant for the project. The emphasis of the project must indeed be on co-operation not only with broadcasting, but" also, for example,

with choral groups, with the New Zealand Ballet, and with supporters’ organisations. The smaller touring groups still in existence must also be considered: in some sense they take the place, at least ad interim, of an opera school. “There is a role for cooperation with the Australians, too. The arts council does not believe that, exciting as the 1976 tour was, the responsibility of presenting opera in New Zealand should be left to the Australian Opera, but it has received valuable offers of co-operation from the Australian Opera, in terms, for example, of lending scenery and costumes, seconding expert personnel, and extending the contracts of international artists.

“For artistic reasons, as well as practical, the arts council prefers a step-by-step approach towards the objective described. A company of the type envisaged must be developed over a number of years and its standards built upon. It is, however, important that its first presentation is opera of a high standard, so that after all the discouragements of recent years, the venture appears attractive to audience and artists alike.

“It is of equal importance that the venture, once started, has a credible prospect of continuance. The plan involves commitment for a number of years, and finance must be available to ensure this. Only so will the artists — the core of the enterprise — be devoted to it; only so will audiences benefit. Another collapse would probably be irremediable.”

The initial steps proposed by the council are the appointment of an artistic director next Decem-

ber, auditioning and planning in January and rehearsals in February for an opera season in March. This season would consist of 12 performances, all in Auckland and Wellington. In the second season, two all major performances would be in Auckland and Wellington, but a two-month “piano tour” of both islands is also proposed. Stage three calls for a total of 40 major performances in Christchurch, Dunedin, Auckland, and Wellington, and two twomonth “piano tours.” By then the nucleus of an ensemble company would be formed, the musical director would have been employed virtually for the year, and several singers would have been employed for almost a full year. The company would be “fully operative” from the fourth year. The arts council says it believes there should be a revival of opera in New Zealand because there is an audience (75 performances by the former New Zealand Opera Company attracted total audiences of 65,000), and because the council has, “in terms of its statutory duty, the obligation to seek to make it available to New Zealanders.”

Extra funds should be made available so that the arts council can restore the findings of opera in a way that does justice to it as an art form, the report says. There is no doubt that New Zealand has the talent. “New Zealanders are well aware of the achievement of international stars like Mclntyre and Te Kanawa and Begg. The nascent Australian companies are using New Zealanders to a striking degree. “There is a strong case for an opera venture here that will give substantial employment to New ZeaLatidscapes An exhibition of New Zealand landscapes, stilllifes, and drawings from Europe by a Christchurch artist, Co Jansen, will open at the Nova Gallery next week. Jansen is a Dutch-bom naturalised New Zealander. The main theme of most of his 24 oil paintings is the timelessness of nature, particularly in contrast to the “petty efforts of mere man.”

Although he was a professional artist in the Netherlands, Jansen embarked on another career when he settled in New Zealand, and painted only in his spare time. He fulfilled a childhood dream when he arrived in this country’ with his wife and two children in 1950. At the age of 11 he had seen a film on New Zealand. and captivated by the landscape, had decided that he would emigrate here if he ever left the Netherlands. Most of the work in his exhibition was painted within the past year. But eight of the drawings were done in Europe more than 28 years ago.

land singers. It will reveal talents yet undeveloped; n will develop the talents of those who remain here, now sadly undervalued and in some sense a wasting asset; and it will attract back to New Zealand, for shorter or longer periods, singers whose careers are partly or wholly international.

The standard attained by the old New Zealand Opera Company at its best, and intermittently by others since, gives the council reason to think that opera of a high •standard can be presented in New Zealand. It is, however, not certain that this will long continue to be the case unless a new initiative is taken soon. Artists leave the country, discouraged; those that rein a i n , remain inexperienced. Assets, in fact, are wasted,” says the report.

Scholarship Mark Seeker, a 22-year-old Christchurch pianist who is at present studying accompaniment and ensemble music at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, has been awarded the 1978 Ernest Empson Scholarship by the Christchurch Civic Music Council. For the last five years he has been studying at the School of Music of the University of Canterbury, where he was awarded the Alabaster Knowles Prize, the Dr J. C. Bradshaw Prize, the Michael Toovey Memorial prize, and a senior scholarship. He won a diploma for pianoforte performance, and gradu a t e d with firstclass honours in composition. In 1973 he gained L.T.C.L. in pianoforte and A.T.C.L.- in violin, and in January of this year he was notified that he had been awarded a Royal Schools of Music associated board scholarship. He left to take up his studies in Manchester soon afterwards. Playbox The Riccarton Players once again are producing a “Children’s Playbox” during the school holidays. This time a cast of six, under the direction of Peal Carpenter, will perform various stories, including “The Little Red Hen,” “The Elves and the Shoemaker,” “The Tiger Who Lost His Stripes,” and a

Winnie the Pooh story. The production is in the Wharenui School hall, and the dates are May 13 to 20. String seminar A n internationally known string teacher, Paul Rolland, will be in Christchurch tocay and tomorrow to run a seminar

for teachers and students. Paul Rolland has directed music workshops in Europe and the United States, and was in charge of the Illinois string research project, which produced a series of films and books now used by teachers round the world. At the seminar, which has been arranged by the Christchurch Conservatoire and the Christchurch School of Instrumental Music, he will discuss his ideas and demonstrate his techniques, using his films and books as illustrations. Teachers from as far south as Invercargill will attend the seminar. The final session tomorrow night, a Bach lecture-recit-al, will be open to the public. Guitars Another series of afternoon recitals has been announced. The Christchurch classical guitar society has arranged a series which will be held each month, on the second Sunday, in the C.S.A. gallery. The first will be held next Sunday. Both local and visiting guitarists will be featured in the series.