Who’s afraid of big bad opera?
RED! principals Robert Tucker, (Wolfie) Catrin Johnsson (Granny) and Natasha Wilson (Red).
WC Fields cautioned people in show business to “never work with children or animals”. When composer Lucy Mulgan was offered the opportunity to create an interactive opera for children, however, she “jumped at the chance”. Children, she says “are at the heart of RED!”.
And so they were, from the moment my grandchildren and I took our seats in Wellington’s Michael Fowler Centre, faced with hundreds of local schoolchildren seated in a raked arrangement behind the stage, chirping and fidgeting like a flock of birds as they and the audience waited for the action to start.
RED! is based on the story of Red Riding Hood with a contemporary twist. The central character, played with marvellous personality and vocal agility by soprano Natasha Wilson, is the Red of the title. This role of a spirited red-headed child, bullied because her hair-colour makes her different and determined to be true to herself, carries the vocal weight of the production. Her Mum was given a sympathetic portrayal with lovely singing by mezzo-soprano Catrin Johnsson, who also played the role of Granny with a marvellous humorous talent, flinging off all inhibitions to demonstrate the probable source of her grand-daughter’s feisty attitudes.
The opera is, of course, a comedy and the big bad wolf becomes a mock-scary Wolfie. The first scheduled performances had bass Jonathan Lemalu rehearsing in the role, but a Level 2 postponement meant he had left the country before this NZ premiere. Fortunately, Robert Tucker was available to bring his vocal and theatrical talents to the stage as the vain and comical Wolfie.
That postponement also required a move from the Opera House to the MFC, an overly spacious environment with a dry acoustic for voices. At times it was difficult to hear all the words from the soloists, detracting just a little from the underlying messages of the tale.
Granny (Catrin Johnsson) and Wolfie (Robert Tucker) face off in the theatrical highlight of RED!
Director Jacquie Coats, however, made highly inventive use of all the spaces available. Clever staging moments had a member of the orchestra popping up to hand a plate to one of the actors and Red’s cloak becoming a straitjacket for Wolfie. The theatrical highlight for my party was undoubtedly the boxing match between Wolfie and Granny. The fragile grandmother of the original fairytale rendered Johnsson’s donning of boxing gloves and her aggressive wide-legged “bring-it-on” stance doubly unexpected and hilarious.
Mulgan is a bass player and brought her experience in popular genres to a clever and light-hearted score. The songs for the children’s chorus were witty and engaging, the adult arias appealing and nicely constructed. The well-paced work is just 45 minutes long and in the central section the children of the chorus became composers themselves, exploring sound effects to evoke the flora and fauna of the New Zealand bush. Mulgan has a strong collaborative practice and worked on the development of RED! with Barefoot Opera in the UK for the work’s premiere there in early 2020. Although she was unable to be in New Zealand for this production, that development work and her virtual sessions with the New Zealand team undoubtedly contributed to the success of this remount.
RED! was jointly produced by NZ Opera and Orchestra Wellington and conducted by the versatile Brent Stewart, who skilfully held all the musical forces together with his usual good-humoured style. A chamber-sized orchestra of Orchestra Wellington’s musicians was seated in front of the stage and underlined both the action with colourful harp and percussion timbres and the emotions with a soulful violin solo from leader Monique Lapins.
The cast, chorus, orchestra and directors of RED! received a great ovation from the delighted audience.
Opera like this is clearly for everyone. For the participating children from five Wellington primary schools, it must have been an unforgettable learning experience and their whole-hearted performance showed how much they were enjoying it. The kids in the audience were also delighted. RED! was a highly successful project and one that must be re-staged in other parts of the country.
RED! composed by Lucy Mulgan, jointly produced by Orchestra Wellington and NZ Opera Wellington, 4 August 2021. Brent Stewart (music director) Jacqueline Coats (director) Natasha Wilson (soprano), Catrin Johnsson (mezzo-soprano) Robert Tucker (bass) Chorus: Kelburn Normal, Holy Cross, Miramar North, Newtown and Northland Schools.
You can watch the film of RED! on YouTube from 8pm Friday February 25, 2022. The viewing link is here