MARCH 7 2020 LISTENER 49
a friend looked for small collaborative
projects. After he encountered the solo
baritone role of Maxwell Davies’ work,
his initial delight changed to alarm when
faced with the virtuosity and huge vocal
and emotional range required.
He recalls thinking, “Whoa! I don’t
think I could ever do that.” But he
returned to the work many times,
developed his understanding of the many-
faceted role and was more than ready to
take on the challenge when approached
by NZ Opera last year.
De Mallet Burgess came to his New
Zealand role after setting up the innova-
tive company Lost & Found Opera
in Perth and serving as its
inaugural artistic director. That
company’s mission was to pre-
sent unusual operas in “found”
venues. NZ Opera, which has
often struggled to attract large
enough audiences to meet its
budgets, gave its new gen-
eral director a “mandate
for change”.
“I’m particularly
interested in the interpretative possibilities
offered by staging operas in non-tradi-
tional performance spaces,” de Mallet
Burgess says. When considering other
works to pair with the Eight Songs for a
full evening’s entertainment, another idea
occurred to him. “What about letting the
audience hear it twice, once in close prox-
imity to the performer, right in the room,
and once from outside, looking through a
window, listening on headphones? Does
the brain do something different?”
Eight Songs for a Mad King will travel to
three venues, in Wellington, Auckland
and Christchurch, each allowing for an
inside-outside experience. Audience size
is restricted to 100 people a night, 50
inside, 50 outside, swapping over at
the interval. “The work is site-spe-
cific,” says de Mallet Burgess, “and
because it’s out of the opera house,
we’ll attract people who are up for
something different – as
well as some of thosewho like their opera with red carpet and
interval drinks.”T
he production is set in the present
day. King George is transformed
into a corporate leader, whose
kingliness, Tucker says, comes “through
having authority and power”. The set is a
boardroom and the “inside” audience are
members of the corporation. “By taking
the piece and playing it firmly in today,”
says de Mallet Burgess, “we distance
ourselves from the historical specifics
and look more at the way the world is
now. When does one stand up and say,
for instance, ‘This is not right’, within a
power structure?”As director, he acknowledges the ethical
issues associated with portraying mental
illness on stage. Advice was sought from
mental-health organisations about the
marketing language for the show. George
III was originally thought to suffer from
the blood disorder porphyria, but recent
research suggests that his illness was
possibly bipolar disorder. His “incessant
loquacity” as described by witnesses is
consistent with the manic phase of the
psychiatric illness. In the opera, the mon-
arch declares, “I am nervous, I am not ill,
but I am nervous.”
De Mallet Burgess talks about the
increasing anxiety many people experi-
ence in contemporary life. “We’re offering
the audience an opera that enables them
to reflect on our human condition.” And
is he finding contemporary relevance in
this portrayal of mental instability in high
office? “I feel quite strongly that when
you present things subtly, audiences draw
their own parallels between a work and
what is happening in the world.” lEight Songs for a Mad King, by Peter Maxwell
Davies, NZ Opera, with baritone Robert Tucker,
director Thomas de Mallet Burgess and Stroma,
conducted by Hamish McKeich; New Zealand
Festival, Wellington, March 2-7; Auckland
Arts Festival, March 11-19; Christchurch at
Tūranga, March 25-29.“We’re offering the
audience an opera that
enables them to reflect on
our human condition.”Baritone Robert
Tucker: initially
thought, “Whoa! I
don’t think I could
do that.” Below,
with (left) Hamish
McKeich and Thomas
de Mallet Burgess.Sir Peter Maxwell
DaviesGA
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