Passion for performing

Jud Arthur

''Falling into opera'' isn't what Jud Arthur would recommend, but it worked for the former Dunedin farmer, equestrian, farrier and professional rugby player. Having worked for Opera Australia for the past 10 years, he is looking forward to returning to Dunedin to sing in Verdi's Requiem with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and the City Choir Dunedin, on June 27.

Rugby, showjumping, farming and opera would seem to have little in common, but Arthur says the passion, dedication and attention to detail required are similar for all of them.

Since he was a child he's had a passion to be a performer, to put himself out there. It's something one of his daughters, Millijana, shares and it drives him mad, he says.

''Years ago I was ignorant enough to think the way I'd done it [getting into opera] was fine, and I suppose I have managed to do it, but really it does put you behind the eight ball not being able to sit down at the piano and teach yourself a role and not being able to sight-read something, or know the languages or dissect a role really well. I've learnt that and I'm at a place now where I can teach myself stuff, but I'd still be better off if I had a music degree,'' he said.

''I'm incredibly fortunate that I was blessed with a particularly good instrument and a voice type that's reasonably rare. Had I been a soprano they would have said 'bring us the next soprano who knows how to read music and can do things so we don't have to spend time coaching them'.''

A commanding stage presence and a look that many directors are after also helped, he says.

At school, he was always singing and in choirs, and even had singing lessons from Vincente Major as a teenager. Then he got into other things, playing rugby in Italy for three years, which helped his Italian, farming, showjumping and shoeing horses, which he still likes to keep his hand in with.

While recuperating from a knee injury in the early 1990s, when he was about 30, he took more singing lessons and was persuaded to sing in the chorus of Dunedin Opera's production of The Pearl Fishers. His talent was recognised and he sang the lead role of Angelotti in Tosca.

His singing teacher, Vincente Major, retired and Arthur started working with Margaret Gardiner, whom he refers to as his ''musical mum''.

''Without Margaret I wouldn't be a professional singer, that's for sure. She put in hours and hours teaching me my roles bar by bar and polishing me up to go away and do roles I'd been offered.''

For three years he learned his trade singing many small roles around New Zealand, including Zuniga in Carmen, Marchese d'Obigny in La Traviata, Count Monterone in Rigoletto and Zaretski in Eugene Onegin.

Then he auditioned for Opera Australia and was given two roles, the speaker in The Magic Flute and Angelotti in Tosca. He turned down the offer of a full-time contract because he still had a farm in Dunedin. However, he changed his mind, sold his farm and joined Opera Australia in 2003. If he hadn't sold it he would probably have returned after a few years, he says.

As a member of the ensemble he sings 70 to 100 performances a year over two or three different operas. It's a busy schedule, performing in one, rehearsing another and learning a third all at the same time, he says.

From next year he will be freelance, which will give him the opportunity to accept offers to sing in oratorio and for other companies.

''I turn down an awful lot of concerts and opportunities. I've been asked to do the Messiah in Dunedin for the last four or five years and just haven't been available to do it.''

He is looking forward to singing the Verdi Requiem with the NZSO in Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland.

''If I could pick one oratorio I've enjoyed learning and look forward to performing, it would be the Verdi Requiem. I love Verdi. It suits my voice and is more like an opera than a traditional oratorio. It's a sensational piece; absolutely gorgeous,'' he says.

He will also enjoy catching up with friends and showing the city to his partner, soprano Taryn Fiebig, who will join him for part of the tour.

• Members of the City Choir Dunedin will be joining the NZSO's tour, augmenting the Auckland Choral and the Orpheus Choir of Wellington with 60 singers and the Christchurch City Choir with 80. Here in Dunedin it will muster 140 voices.

According to NZSO head of artistic planning Melissa King: ''Verdi's Requiem requires enormous vocal forces, so the addition of the City Choir Dunedin's strengths in each centre helps to achieve the sheer power of Verdi's masterpiece. The NZSO wanted to offer a grand performance of Verdi's Requiem so the Dunedin City Choir was invited to tour nationally with the orchestra in order to complement each city choir, in honour of its 150th anniversary.''

See it, hear it
The NZSO, conducted by Pietari Inkinen, will perform Verdi's Requiem in the Dunedin Town Hall on June 27 at 6.30pm. It features Lisa Harper-Brown, soprano; Margaret Medlyn, mezzo-soprano; Rosario La Spina, tenor; Jud Arthur, bass; and the City Choir Dunedin.