The Star: July 06, 2017

The Star 37
Theatre/Arts
Latest Christchurch news at www.
Opera singer on path to greatness
.kiwi
Thursday July 6 2017
• By Georgia O’Connor-Harding
AN EMERGING opera singer
is one step closer to achieving
her ultimate dream of one day
performing at the Metropolitan
Opera House in New York City.
From the moment Elisabeth
Harris, 30, scored a free ticket to
see Giacomo Puccini’s Madama
Butterfly in her early teens, she
knew the dramatic life of opera
was for her.
“Opera is ridiculous. The
things that happen in three
hours, it is just over the top, but
I love that, I can’t get enough,”
she said.
Nearly 20 years later, the
mezzo soprano, who grew up in
Opawa, will travel to the United
States in September to train
under former leading New York
City Opera company singer Ruth
Golden at the Manhattan School
of Music.
Harris is currently based in
Wellington where she runs her
own music teaching business.
She will hold a special farewell
concert in Christchurch on
August 20, featuring some of her
favourite opera pieces, including
music from Carmen and
composers Benjamin Britten and
Wolfgang Mozart.
The show will feature performances
from singer Ingrid
Fomison-Nurse, pianist Anna
Maksymova, 13-year-old violinist
Justin Hodges and soprano
singer Jayden Walker.
UPCOMING: Elisabeth Harris at the New Zealand Aria competition in Rotorua with the Auckland
Philharmonia Orchestra.
With a love of fashion and
picking up quirky pieces online
and at op-shops, Harris does not
look like your typical traditional
opera singer.
“There are so many opera singers
trying to make it, you have
got to have a point of difference,
and if I am remembered as the
girl with the crazy hair, so be it,”
she said.
Harris’ endeavour to complete
her Masters of Music overseas
has been nearly two years in the
making after she deferred her
acceptance to the Manhattan
School of Music to raise further
funds and be with her terminally
ill father.
Her father Geoff was diagnosed
with early-onset Alzheimer’s
disease and died just before
his 55th birthday in December.
“I am sure he would be happy
I am following my dreams . . . it
was a bit of a problem for him
initially having a daughter on the
stage but he got his head around
it,” she said.
While Harris said she inherited
her father’s sense of humour,
he was quite shy and didn’t like
to be the centre of attention,
which made for an interesting
combination when his daughter
first wanted to be on the stage.
But she has fond memories of
the last recital she performed for
her father at The Piano last year.
“He still remembered me and
was so happy for me and what I
was doing – it was really exciting,”
she said.
She said it would be fabulous
to be up on stage at the Metropolitan
Opera House, and
her main goals are to become a
professional opera singer, keep
teaching and possibly start her
own young artist programme.
•Mezzo to Manhattan
will be held from 2pm on
Sunday, August 20, at Knox
Church.
Door sales cost $30.
To book, phone Lynne
Havenaar on 960 4090 or
email info@operafoundation.
co.nz
To support Harris on her
trip go to givealittle.co.nz/
cause/mezzotomanhattan
Ali Harper delights audience with her Songs For Nobodies
Songs For Nobodies by
Joanna Murray-Smith,
directed by Ross Gumbley,
The Court Theatre.
Reviewed by Barry
Southam
IT TAKES a class performer
to stand alone on a stage for
an hour and a half and keep an
audience captivated.
Ali Harper does just that with
Songs For Nobodies.
Her rendition of Edith Piaf,
the little sparrow, was top
drawer. Although Piaf’s rough
edge was not quite there, it was
still a very recognisable version
of her famous forebear.
Again, a full-throated Come
Rain Or Shine brought back
memories of that gutsy singer
Judy Garland, who could always
belt out a number.
Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit,
was a good contrast to Ain’t
Nobody’s Business If I Do and
Patsy Kline’s performance
at the Soldiers and Sailors
Memorial Hall in 1962 was
well reproduced, providing the
largest selection of the night,
including the classic Stand By
Your Man.
To complete the quintet
of famous singers, there was
the challenging Vissi d’arte
from Puccini’s Tosca by Maria
Callas on board the Christina
somewhere in the Mediterranean
on August 3, 1957. It was given
the full volume treatment, no
easy task.
The range of styles is
formidable but Harper
handled the transitions with
apparent ease, seeming just as
comfortable with jazz as
with opera or country and
western.
Musical director Richard
Marrett should be well
pleased with the results of
their collaboration, as should
writer, Australian Joanna
Murray-Smith, who only gave
permission for the rights for the
play to be performed in New
Zealand if Harper undertook the
demanding role.
12th - 22nd July
LAF LYTTELTON,
34 Oxford St
Tickets: laf.co.nz
TOP DOG THEATRE
presents
THIS IS
bloody
funny
UP ‘N’ UNDER
by
JOHN
GODBER