OrphEus, a dance opera - the stand-out of the whole Arts Festival for me.

Maybe a little premature to say that, as we still have one show to go, but I can’t imagine anything topping this.

Ok, so has anybody heard of Michael Parmenter? I’d put him in the top 5 ever of New Zealand choreographers. We’ve seen some amazing works by him before, so OrphEus was top of our list of must see shows, this festival.

But first – to digress for a moment – if you haven’t spotted my contest post on 10 truths and a lie, go and check it out. There are still some excellent possibilities that nobody has voted for yet.

The story has two parts. The first part covers Orpheus marrying Eurydice, and then going away to travel with the Argonauts. As their harpist, he keeps their rowing rhythm constant, but also provides a distraction when the Sirens try to lure them away. He returns from a successful voyage to find his wife dead.

In the second half, he travels to the Underworld to try and bring Eurydice back, although he is ultimately unsuccessful.

Image source – OrphEus website

There were a number of elements that made this show so special. First, the music. The musicians were baroque trio Latitude 37]( https://www.latitude37baroque.com/) and four other baroque musicians. The combination of harpsichord, baroque violin, viola da gamba and traverso flute was compelling and beautiful.

Here’s a piece by Latitude 37 from Youtube. Although the piece of music is a different style, it will give you a little bit of an idea of their sound.

They were accompanied by vocalists Aaron Sheehan (a renowned American tenor), Nicholas Tolputt (Countertenor, a bit like a male alto), Jayne Tankersley (Soprano), William King (Baritone) & Sid Chand (Support Tenor).

Here are some Youtubes of some of them, so you can see how excellent they are:

Aaron Sheehan:

Nicholas Tolputt:

I couldn’t find Jayne Tankersley on her own, but she’s the blonde in this group:

Are you impressed? We haven’t even got to the dancing yet. Before that I have to mention the other soundscapes by AV and Sound Director David Downes. Again, excellent, and perfect for the mood of certain scenes.

But, oh the dancing. Contemporary is my favourite form of dance, and Michael Parmenter is such an artist. The fluidity, athleticism and emotion he brings to the genre is simply flawless. In this production, the combination of the baroque music, the classical vocals and contemporary movement come together to create something truly special.

This first trailer has Parmenter talking about his vision for OrphEus, but you also see some dancers rehearsing.

This trailer gives an insight into some of the design elements

In this trailer, you can see that as well as the highly trained main dance corps, there is a movement chorus for each city, which incorporates a much more diverse group into the work, to make it richer.

This short clip shows Orpheus and Eurydice in rehearsal

This is the sort of show you could see more than once and get something new from every time. By the time we left the auditorium, several curtain calls later, my arms were sore from clapping so enthusiastically.

Oh and, we were seated in the same row as the great man himself, so when he squeezed past on his way to his seat, I was a little star struck!

Thanks for reading and watching

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