Former Cantabrians Simon O’Neill and Teddy Tahu Rhodes are singing together for the first time in twenty years this week in Christchurch.
They play two of the greatest roles in all opera: Cavaradossi and Scarpia, in New Zealand Opera’s production of Puccini’s Tosca, both returning to the Garden City in the midst of highly successful international opera careers.
The opera might have been described by musicologist Joseph Kerman as a “shabby little shocker”, but audiences all over the world would vehemently disagree.
New Zealand Opera's Tosca Photo: Supplied
The music is some of the most sublime in all opera, and the story of Floria Tosca’s dilemma when faced with giving in to the advances of the powerful Scarpia in order to free her love, Mario Cavaradossi, has extraordinary resonance with today and the #metoo movement, with its exposure of abuse and the use of sexual power.
Rhodes and O’Neill say that physicality, in more than one way, helps tell the story and that Scarpia and Cavaradossi are very demanding on the body.
“It’s very athletic. It’s visceral,” O’Neill says. “You have to be fit … not just vocally. I try to give that with all my performances. [I think] “that’s a good work out, I’ve dropped … three kilos in that performance”!”
Teddy Tahu Rhodes in Tosca Photo: Supplied
Both performers were brought up in a generation that was expected to be versatile and tell the story through both movement and voice. Rhodes finds he gains the energy he needs from the orchestra. “One of my favourite [things is the] first rehearsal with the orchestra,” he says. “The full orchestra creates its own energy.”
Tosca is also a physically demanding role for the woman who plays the diva Tosca, who throws herself off the battlements in the final scene.
However things don’t always go to plan. According to David Morriss, in 'The Book of Heroic Failures' it’s said in one production Tosca threw herself off the side, but instead of landing on mattresses and boxes, she landed on a trampoline, causing her to bounce up and down.
“We all have hilarious stories,” O’Neill says.
For Rhodes, the most “cringe-worthy” event of his career (other than the odd wrong note) was being “unceremoniously dumped off the back of a horse … in front of 5000 people” while appearing in a live stadium performance of Carmen on the North Shore.
For O’Neill it was a little more serious. He was performing in Puccini’s La Bohème alongside Rhodes in Christchurch and was so unwell he didn’t know if he was “Martha or Arthur”. He had to be replaced and ended up in hospital. “It was more than rough, it was horrific,” O’Neill says.
But out of it came some good. An Australian tenor was called in to take his spot. He heard Rhodes sing, and went back to Opera Australia to tell them they had to see the young Kiwi. “I proudly wear as a badge of honour [that] I’ve given him his career,” O’Neill laughs.
New Zealand Opera’s Tosca, 8-16 March, Christchurch
