‘I do get more nervous at home, especially when my husband is in the audience – as he’s my teacher and coach and he’s tough!’
BEHIND THE VOICE
Christchurch soprano Amanda Atlas sung her way around the world before settling back in New Zealand. She tells Cityscape about her upcoming performance of NZ Opera’s The Human Voice in her home town.
W
here has been your favourite city to perform? Definitely New York. I travelled there to work as an apprentice artist not long after I finished my Masters in New Zealand, and the thrill of being in such a huge city, surrounded by incredible artists, with the opportunity to see some of the greatest singers in the world was just so stimulating and exciting. What’s been a highlight of your career? Definitely entering from the rafters in the enormous Arts Centre Melbourne State Theatre, dangling on a swing, while the thundering Opera Australia orchestra played ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ when I performed Siegrune with OA in their 2016 Ring Cycle. Terrifying and utterly exhilarating. What’s it like performing for a home audience? Actually, nothing is better. I’ve been lucky enough to sing on three continents, but singing in a city or country where you don’t really know anyone doesn’t hold a candle to singing to an audience where there are people who have known and supported me since I was young. To be honest I do get more
nervous at home, especially when my husband is in the audience – as he’s my teacher and coach and he’s tough! But that adds to the excitement. What’s exciting about The Human Voice? The exciting challenge in The Human Voice is that it’s a one-woman opera. There are no other characters on stage with me. It is a one-sided monologue – a woman on the telephone with her ex-lover. However, the pianist really acts as a duet partner rather than simply an accompaniment. The ‘orchestra’ represents Elle’s ex, and his replies to her, but it also represents the telephone, her emotions, her ever-changing situation as she grapples with both her reactions to the unseen man on the telephone and her decisions as to what she is going to do. It’s an incredible challenge, but such a rewarding one. You’ve performed this opera before overseas. What’s being done differently in the NZ Opera production? I last sang this opera in Nashville, USA, in a large 1200-seat theatre with a full orchestra. This NZO production has been stripped right down to the bare essentials: a woman, a piano, and a hotel room. The audience will be right up close and personal – no remove of a well-lit stage or an entire orchestra between us. What’s one thing people probably don’t know about opera? You can wear jeans to the opera if you want to! Opera can seem inaccessible. The fancy clothes, the foreign language, the stereotypical ‘fat’
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lady singing in breastplate and horns. But the reality is completely different. What’s your fondest memory of Christchurch? I loved going to the Botanic Gardens with my grandparents and feeding the ducks on the Avon. Doesn’t get much more Christchurch than that! Though now I take veggies when I feed the ducks with my daughter – no more white bread. Tell us about your first public performance: My dad was an Anglican vicar, and I grew up singing at church – such great training! Every year the Christmas Eve midnight service started with a soloist singing the first verse of ‘Once in Royal David’s City’, and I remember doing that when I must have been about seven. If you could invite any three people living or dead to a dinner party, who would they be? I would invite Jessye Norman, my favourite soprano, for her genius and warmth. Meryl Streep as she’s been my favourite actress since I went to see The French Lieutenant’s Woman when I was way too young as it was the only movie on in Invercargill that day. And John Oliver as he never fails to make me laugh amid all the insanity that is American politics. The Human Voice The George, 17, 18, 20, 21 October nzopera.com
Read our full Q&A with Amanda at cityscape.co.nz
