Trials and triumphs for expatriate tenor

Press, 4 January 1980, Page 4

Trials and triumphs for expatriate tenor

Disposable napkins are much more expensive in New Zealand than they are in West Germany, a Christ-church-born lyric tenor from the Hanover State Opera found in the city yesterday. Richard Greager was in town th do some shopping with his father, Mr Neil Greager. and called into “The Press” during the afternoon, ne was ouymg a pushchair and the napkins for his son, Andrew, aged 16 months, and looking a little the worse for the Christchurch weather. “It was like this when I left Hanover,” he said, looking out at Cathedral Square, “but it was the middle of winter there.” Richard Greager was in Christchurch on New Year’s Day with his English-born wife,-. Rosemary (a nurse), and his son, to spend 10 days with his parents at Diamond Harbour before leaving for Sydney to sing in nine performances of “Lucia di Lammermoor” with Joan Sutherland and the Australian Opera Company. He has been principal tenor of the Hanover Opera Company for three years, and has just been engaged to sing with the Australian Opera as well. He and his family will alternate between three months in Australia and three months in Hanover for the next three years. They have rented a house in Sydney for the period, and have one in Hanover as well. Mr Greager has been offered twice as much work as he can handle, and is booked until 1982 Mr Greager said that Germany was the most operaconscious country in the world, with “every city worthy of the name, with a population of about 100,000 or more” having an opera house in which operas, operettas, ballet, and straight theatre were..;; performed. Hanover has a population of 600,000. He has heard that . East

Germany is the same as West Germany in this respect, “but I have never had the guts to go through the gate.” “Everybody says that if you go and" sing for them there they are very appreciative audiences, and verygrateful that you have taken the trouble to cross the wall to sing for them,” Mr Greager said. The Germans evert have opera on Christmas Day, apparently a long-established tradition. “I had a premier on Christmas Day,” said Mr Greager. “A dreadfully long, boring opera by Richard Strauss called ‘Die , Frau ohne Schatten.’ It started at 6 p.m. and finished at 10.45 p.m.” They stayed? “Oh, yes. The Germans thrive On it. It is part of their culture. Everyone there knows all the Mozart operas." Mr Gregger said that France and Italy also followed opera enthusiastically, but they did not give it as much- State support ‘as the Germans. . ? Mr Greager grew up in Christchurch and began singing as a child. One of his first engagements was at the age of 10, when he sang in the “Broadcast to Schools” radio choir as a treble. ■ He,continued to sing as a treble at Christchurch Boys’ High School until he became a tenor, and Clifton Cook began to teach him. When he. left school he worked in the Bank of New Zealand and sang with Christchurch ' ' operatic groups, and with the Royal C h r i s t c h li r c h Musical Society’and the Christchurch Harmonic Society as, a •soloist. He was third in the Mobil Song Quest at 18. and in 1968 went to Australia to further his singing studies in Melbourne. In Australia he sang “all over the country” arid won the three ■ big aria competitions, the “Sydney Sun,” the “Melbourne Sun” arid the Canberra Shell.

Mr Greager went to London in 1973 to the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, and spent a year there singing “small roles” before joining the Scottish Opera and singing leading roles for three years-. He went to Hanover three years ago as first lyric tenor. A lyric tenor has a lighter voice than a dramatic tenor, and sings more Puccini, light Verdi, and Mozart, whereas the dramatic tenor performs more Wagner and heavy Verdi. Both types of tenor were scarce — the good ones could be counted on one hand, Mr Greager said. In fact, there were only two he thought worth naming, Luciano Pavarotti and the Spaniard, Hose Carreros. So tenors were in demand, and Mr Greager said that he had a secure future, “or as secure as any sort of singing profession could be.” He would like to return to live in this part of the world and sing in New Zealand, but it will depend on how things go in Australia. “I would like very much to come and sing here but it is a question of being able to arrange it,” he said. “Every Australian and New Zealander is almost beholden to come back and sing in their country, but as a singer you just cannot develop without going to Europe for the experience.” . Mr Greager said that about “eight or nine” New Zealanders were singing in opera houses in Europe and Britain, including Barry Mora, from Wellington, a baritone with the Frankfurt Opera, and Patrick Power, a tenor, also from Wellington, who was in Munich. Noel Mangin sang “all over the place” and Kiri te Kanawa was “top of the pops at the moment.” Mr Greager said that he did not know what qualities made a good tenor, “just as nobody knows why so many good singers ' came from New Zealand. Some say it is the climate, but nobody knows for sure?’