From anthems to arias, Jud Arthur is a man for all occasions - even gardening, writes Shane Gilchrist.
However, he has a decent enough excuse for his delayed response. Surprisingly, it has nothing to do with his increasingly busy professional singing career. Rather, the New Zealand-born bass-baritone has been engaged in his own version of Mucking In.
"I'm at a working bee for a friend who has had a bit of bad luck," Arthur explains from Sydney, where he lives with his wife and two daughters.
"There are about 20 of us doing up her backyard while she's in hospital.
"There's a lot of soil and rocks and bricks being lifted," he said.
"It's been a pretty full-on couple of days so this conversation has come at a good time."
Gardening endeavours notwithstanding, Arthur has been enjoying a brief holiday of late - a break that is about to end.
He leaves his North Sydney home to sing at Ranfurly's Jazz 'n' Jocks event tomorrow night before performing at the Southern Sinfonia's "Last Night of the Proms - More Rugby Mayhem" concert at the Dunedin Town Hall next Thursday.
Not surprisingly, given Arthur's passion for the sport, he hopes to attend a couple of Rugby World Cup matches while in New Zealand.
"I'll be heading down and trying to get a ticket, for sure."
On his return to Sydney, Arthur will resume work with Opera Australia, singing in La Boheme and Don Giovanni before he embarks on an opera version of American author John Steinbeck's classic novel, Of Mice And Men, which opens in Melbourne in November.
He then performs in Puccini's Turandot in the new year. In fact, Arthur's diary for 2012 is fairly well booked. For a professional singer, that's a good thing.
"It's pretty comforting knowing I've got work. I've even got work booked for 2013. It's all ongoing, which is nice."
For the Southern Sinfonia event next week, Arthur will sing a wide range of material, from Italian arias and choruses to Proms favourites Land of Hope and Glory and Rule Britannia.
"I'm pretty familiar with a lot of that stuff. Rule Britannia is the only thing I have to learn, but that shouldn't be too hard."
After a knee injury ended a promising career as a professional sportsman, which included playing rugby and basketball for Otago, representing New Zealand in showjumping and spending three seasons at the Mirano rugby club in Italy, Arthur returned to his homeland and successfully auditioned for Opera New Zealand at the age of 27, despite having had no formal training in opera or classical music at the time.
Now a principal artist with the national opera company of Australia, his roles have included the Bonze in Madama Butterfly, Banquo in Macbeth and Ramfis in Aida.
He is also an in-demand concert artist, having performed with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and Royal Melbourne Philharmonia, among others.
Concert and oratorio engagements include bass soloist in Handel's Messiah, as well as performances of Berlioz's L'Enfance Du Christ, Mozart's Requiem and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at the Sydney Opera House.
In addition, Arthur has also sung the New Zealand national anthem at major sporting events as well as at corporate conferences and community events.
But despite Arthur submitting a proposal to sing the national anthem at the Rugby World Cup, his approach was declined by the Australian company that won the contract for what is termed "match enhancement".
It had "other ideas", Arthur says.
See him
• The Southern Sinfonia, in association with the British High Commission, will present "Last Night of the Proms - More Rugby Mayhem" on Thursday, September 22, at the Dunedin Town Hall at 7.30pm.
• The Ranfurly concert, part of the town's Jazz 'n' Jocks event (which includes rugby in Cromwell), is being held tomorrow night; Arthur will join a selection of local jazz entertainers in performing at establishments around the town.
• Arthur will also join Friends of the Opera on Sunday at 2.30pm at St Peter's Church hall, Hillside Rd, South Dunedin, for "An Afternoon with Jud Arthur".
