Verdi's il Trovatore is on the bill as Southern Opera's main production for its 2008 season. Armed with a multinational cast (singers from America, Russia, New Zealand and Korea, a New Zealand director and an Australian conductor), Southern Opera is poised to plunge into a world of love, revenge, bloody death and operatic mayhem. In short, an opera with everything, including, as Robert Thicknesse writes in Opera Notes, "full-blooded music at an unprecedented pace ... the story of power struggles among sacrilegious, vindictive, doomed erotomaniacs set in 15th-century Spain ... a mission statement for opera".
For Southern Opera's production, directed by Elric Hooper, Russian mezzo-soprano Elena Bocharova will sing the role of the vengeful gypsy Azucena.
"Elena has performed the roles of Carmen, Delilah, Dido and Amneris for companies including Dayton Opera, Opera de Paris, New York City Opera and San Francisco Opera. She is widely praised for her vocal assurance and beauty of tone and we are very fortunate to have engaged her."
American tenor Carlo Scibelli is Manrico. An established singer on opera's international circuit (and with a featured role in the Barbra Streisand movie The Mirror Has Two Faces), Scibelli has worked in many of the world's great opera houses in productions ranging from Madama Butterfly to Eugene Onegin. Scibelli was recommended by Neil Rosenstein, the international tenor, a colleague of Chris Doig and the teacher of the young New Zealand tenor James Rodgers, who will sing Tamino next year in a new Southern Opera production of Die Zauberflote.
"This is typically how singers are found: international contacts, international agencies, the beauty of YouTube and emailed music enabling a very quick response which can be vital in the competitive market of international opera" says Doig, executive chairman of Southern Opera.
New Zealand soprano Patricia Wright will sing the role of Leonora, with Korean Seung-Wook Seong cast as Il Conte di Luna. Doig was alerted to the baritone by Welsh tenor Dennis O'Neill. Further inquiries led to a recommendation by Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. With his pedigree highly recommended, no time was lost in securing the rising star.
"Seung-Wook is one of the world's best young singers. Kiri was most enthusiastic about his abilities and we are thrilled to be able to feature him."
Il Trovatore: Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch, September 30, October 2, 4, 7, 9; Regent Theatre, Dunedin, October 11. Conducted by Tom Woods and performed in Italian with English surtitles. Book at Ticketek.