Teddy Tahu Rhodes
Encyclopedia
Early life
Teddy Tahu Rhodes was born in ChristchurchChristchurch
Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...
, New Zealand, on 30 August 1966, to a British mother and a New Zealand father. The Maori word "Tahu", which means "to set on fire", was added to the family name soon after they settled in New Zealand. His parents divorced when he was an infant, and he grew up with his mother.
In his final year of secondary school, Christ's College, Canterbury
Christ's College, Canterbury
Christ's College, Christchurch is an independent, Anglican, secondary, day and boarding school for boys, located in the central city of Christchurch, New Zealand....
, Rhodes was selected for the New Zealand Youth Choir
New Zealand Youth Choir
The New Zealand Youth Choir was formed in 1979 by Guy Jansen and has subsequently been conducted by Professor Peter Godfrey and Dr Karen Grylls . As at March 2009, Dr Grylls is an associate professor at the University of Auckland...
, where his musical potential was first identified. Following a relatively short period of formal lessons, he was entered into the 1986 Dame Sister Mary Leo
Sister Mary Leo
Dame Sister Mary Leo, DBE, RSM was a New Zealand nun who is best known for training some of the world's finest sopranos, including Dames Malvina Major, Kiri Te Kanawa and Heather Begg....
Scholarship competition, which he won. He pursued private studies while studying at the University of Canterbury
University of Canterbury
The University of Canterbury , New Zealand's second-oldest university, operates its main campus in the suburb of Ilam in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand...
in Christchurch, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce
Bachelor of Commerce
A Bachelor of Commerce is an undergraduate degree in commerce and related subjects. The degree is also known as the Bachelor of Commerce and Administration, or BCA...
degree, subsequently qualifying as an accountant. His teachers, at this time and later, included Mary Adams Taylor, Rudolf Piernay, and David Harper.
In 1991 Rhodes won the Mobil Song Quest
Lexus Song Quest
The Lexus Song Quest is a competition held each year in New Zealand since 1956. The competition is managed and presented by the New Zealand International Arts Festival. Originally, it featured contestants who perform a variety of singing, e.g., Country and Western, Pop and Classical...
, the major competition of its type in New Zealand, securing funding to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama is an independent music and dramatic arts school which was founded in 1880 in London, England. Students can pursue courses in Music, Opera, Drama and Technical Theatre Arts.-History:...
in London. He turned down an offer by the Guildhall of a scholarship for two years of further study, returning to New Zealand where he worked as an accountant for some years.
Career
While working as an accountant in Christchurch, Rhodes maintained an association with Canterbury Opera, the local repertory opera company. In 1998 he made his international debut in an acclaimed performance of Dandini in La CenerentolaLa Cenerentola
La Cenerentola, ossia La bontà in trionfo is an operatic dramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini. The libretto was written by Jacopo Ferretti, based on the fairy tale Cinderella...
for Opera Australia
Opera Australia
Opera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia. Based in Sydney, its performance season at the Sydney Opera House runs for approximately eight months of the year, with the remainder of its time spent in the The Arts Centre in Melbourne...
, and was launched on an international career. Following his Australian debut, in 1999 Rhodes represented New Zealand in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition
BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition
BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition is a competition for opera and art singers held every two years....
.
He has sung in several world and Australian premiere performances such as The End of the Affair
The End of the Affair (opera)
The End of the Affair is a chamber opera with music by Jake Heggie and a libretto by Heggie and Leonard Foglia.Based on the Graham Greene novel of the same title, it is set in London in 1944 and 1946 and focuses on Maurice and Sarah, who vows to end their illicit affair if his life is spared in a...
(Bendrix) and Dead Man Walking
Dead Man Walking (opera)
Dead Man Walking is the first opera by Jake Heggie, with a libretto by Terrence McNally; it premiered on October 7, 2000 at the War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco Opera.-Roles:...
(Joe) by Jake Heggie
Jake Heggie
Jake Heggie is an American composer and pianist.Jake Heggie is the composer of the operas Dead Man Walking , The End of the Affair , At The Statue of Venus , To Hell and Back , and Moby-Dick , as well as the stage work For a Look or a Touch...
, The Little Prince
The Little Prince (opera)
The Little Prince, subtitled A Magical Opera, is an opera in two acts by Rachel Portman to an English libretto by Nicholas Wright, based on the 1943 book of the same name by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry...
by Rachel Portman
Rachel Portman
Rachel Mary Berkeley Portman, OBE is a British composer, best known for her film work. She was the first female composer to win an Academy Award in the category of Best Original Score...
(The Pilot) as well as in Nigel Butterley
Nigel Butterley
Nigel Henry Cockburn Butterley AM is an Australian composer and pianist.-Life and career:Butterley learnt to play the piano at the age of five. He attended Sydney Grammar School, but as music wasn't taught at the school at that time, he also sought training from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music....
’s Spell of Creation and Barry Conyngham
Barry Conyngham
Emeritus Professor Barry Conyngham AM is an Australian composer and academic. He has over seventy published works and over thirty recordings featuring his compositions, and his works have been premiered or performed in Australia, Japan, North and South America, the United Kingdom and Europe. His...
’s Fix. His wide variety of other opera roles have included Mozart's Count Almaviva
The Marriage of Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...
, Guglielmo
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
, Papageno
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
and Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
; Demetrius in A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream (opera)
A Midsummer Night's Dream is an opera with music by Benjamin Britten and set to a libretto adapted by the composer and Peter Pears from William Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer Night's Dream...
; Belcore in L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore is an opera by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. It is a melodramma giocoso in two acts...
; Billy in Billy Budd
Billy Budd (opera)
Billy Budd is an opera by Benjamin Britten, from a libretto by E. M. Forster and Eric Crozier, was first performed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London on 1 December 1951. It is based on the short novel Billy Budd by Herman Melville....
; Lescaut in Manon Lescaut
Manon Lescaut (Puccini)
Manon Lescaut is an opera in four acts by Giacomo Puccini. The story is based on the 1731 novel L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost....
; Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire
A Streetcar Named Desire (opera)
A Streetcar Named Desire is an opera composed by André Previn with a libretto by Philip Littell in 1995. It is based on the play by Tennessee Williams and received its premiere at the San Francisco Opera during the 1998-99 season.-Cast:...
; Escamillo in Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
; Al Kasim in Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze is a German composer of prodigious output best known for "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life"...
's L'upupa
L'Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe
L'Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe is an opera by Hans Werner Henze with a German libretto by the composer, inspired by Arab and Persian legends...
; Silvio in Pagliacci
Pagliacci
Pagliacci , sometimes incorrectly rendered with a definite article as I Pagliacci, is an opera consisting of a prologue and two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'arte troupe...
, Harlequin in Ariadne auf Naxos
Ariadne auf Naxos
Ariadne auf Naxos is an opera by Richard Strauss with a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Bringing together slapstick comedy and consuming beautiful music, the opera's theme is the competition between high and low art for the public's attention.- First version :The opera was originally...
, Leandro in The Love for Three Oranges and Antony in Barber
Samuel Barber
Samuel Osborne Barber II was an American composer of orchestral, opera, choral, and piano music. His Adagio for Strings is his most popular composition and widely considered a masterpiece of modern classical music...
's Antony and Cleopatra
Antony and Cleopatra (opera)
Antony and Cleopatra is an opera in three acts by American composer Samuel Barber. The libretto was prepared by Franco Zeffirelli based on the play Antony and Cleopatra by Shakespeare...
.
Amongst the prominent opera companies and theatres in which he has performed are the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
, Opera Australia
Opera Australia
Opera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia. Based in Sydney, its performance season at the Sydney Opera House runs for approximately eight months of the year, with the remainder of its time spent in the The Arts Centre in Melbourne...
, San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera is an American opera company, based in San Francisco, California.It was founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola and is the second largest opera company in North America...
, Austin Lyric Opera
Austin Lyric Opera
Austin Lyric Opera, founded in 1986, is an internationally known opera company based in Austin, Texas.It also operates the Armstrong Community Music School....
, Washington National Opera
Washington National Opera
The Washington National Opera is an opera company in Washington, D.C., USA. Formerly the Opera Society of Washington and the Washington Opera, the company received Congressional designation as the National Opera Company in 2000. Performances are now given in the Opera House of the John F...
, Opera Company of Philadelphia
Opera Company of Philadelphia
The Opera Company of Philadelphia is an American opera company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and is the city's only company producing grand opera. The organization produces four fully staged opera productions annually, encompassing works from the seventeenth through the 21st century...
, Dallas Opera
Dallas Opera
The Dallas Opera is an opera company located in Dallas, Texas . The company was founded in 1957 as the Dallas Civic Opera by Laurence Kelly and Nicolà Rescigno, both of whom had been active with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the first as administrator, the second as artistic director.-The company's...
, Cincinnati Opera
Cincinnati Opera
Cincinnati Opera is an American opera company based in Cincinnati, Ohio and the second oldest opera company in the United States .-History:...
, Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera Houston Grand Opera was founded in 1955 through the joint efforts of Maestro Walter Herbert and cultural leaders Mrs. Louis G. Lobit, Edward Bing and Charles Cockrell...
, Hamburg State Opera
Hamburg State Opera
The Hamburg State Opera is one of the leading opera companies in Germany.Opera in Hamburg dates back to 2 January 1678 when the "Opern-Theatrum" was inaugurated with a performance of a biblical Singspiel by Johann Theile...
, Bavarian State Opera
Bavarian State Opera
The Bavarian State Opera is an opera company based in Munich, Germany.Its orchestra is the Bavarian State Orchestra.- History:The opera company which was founded under Princess Henriette Adelaide of Savoy has been in existence since 1653...
, Welsh National Opera
Welsh National Opera
Welsh National Opera is an opera company founded in Cardiff, Wales in 1943. The WNO tours Wales, the United Kingdom and the rest of the world extensively. Annually, it gives more than 120 performances of eight main stage operas to a combined audience of around 150,000 people...
, Scottish Opera
Scottish Opera
Scottish Opera is the national opera company of Scotland, and one of the five national performing arts companies funded by the Scottish Government...
, the Théâtre du Châtelet
Théâtre du Châtelet
The Théâtre du Châtelet is a theatre and opera house, located in the place du Châtelet in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France.One of two theatres built on the site of a châtelet, a small castle or fortress, it was designed by Gabriel Davioud at the request of Baron Haussmann between 1860 and...
, the Santa Fe Opera
Santa Fe Opera
The Santa Fe Opera is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe in the U.S. state of New Mexico, headquartered on a former guest ranch of .-General history:...
, the New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
and the Theater an der Wien
Theater an der Wien
The Theater an der Wien is a historic theatre on the Left Wienzeile in the Mariahilf district of Vienna. Completed in 1801, it has seen the premieres of many celebrated works of theatre, opera, and symphonic music...
.
Rhodes was again in the news in January 2010 when he substituted at three hours' notice for an indisposed Mariusz Kwiecien
Mariusz Kwiecien
Mariusz Kwiecień is an operatic baritone who has sung leading roles in the major opera houses of Europe and North America...
in the role of Escamillo in the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD telecast of Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
, a role he was to take over from Kwiecien later in the season.
In oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
and choral works
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
, he has appeared as the baritone soloist in performances of Handel's Messiah
Messiah (Handel)
Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later...
with the Melbourne Symphony
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Melbourne, Australia. It has 100 permanent musicians. Melbourne has the longest continuous history of orchestral music of any Australian city and the MSO is the oldest professional orchestra in Australia...
and the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs
Sydney Philharmonia Choirs
Sydney Philharmonia Choirs is Australia’s largest choral organisation. It presents its own annual concert series in the Sydney Opera House and City Recital Hall, as well as acting as chorus for the Sydney Symphony....
, and in Fauré's Requiem
Requiem (Fauré)
Gabriel Fauré composed his Requiem in D minor, Op. 48 between 1887 and 1890. This choral–orchestral setting of the Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead is the best known of his large works. The most famous movement is the soprano aria Pie Jesu...
with the London Philharmonic
London Philharmonic Orchestra
The London Philharmonic Orchestra , based in London, is one of the major orchestras of the United Kingdom, and is based in the Royal Festival Hall. In addition, the LPO is the main resident orchestra of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera...
.
Awards
Rhodes has been the recipient of several major awards. In 2004 he received an ARIA awardARIA Music Awards
The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Australian Recording Industry Association...
for Best Classical Recording for his CD The Voice, and in 2006 he was the winner of the Limelight
Limelight (magazine)
Limelight is an Australian monthly arts and music magazine.It has been published under that name since June 2003. It was published under its previous name, 24 Hours, from January 1976...
Award for Best Performance by a Soloist with an Orchestra for his Australian tour with the Australian Chamber Orchestra
Australian Chamber Orchestra
The Australian Chamber Orchestra was founded by cellist John Painter in 1975. Richard Tognetti was appointed Lead Violin in 1989 and subsequently appointed Artistic Director....
. In 2008 he won a Helpmann Award for Best Male Performer in an Opera for his role in Dead Man Walking. In 2008 he received a Laureate Award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand
Arts Foundation of New Zealand
A facilitator of private philanthropy, the Arts Foundation of New Zealand supports artistic excellence through its permanent Endowment Fund. Legacies and donations help grow the Fund, with income generated enabling the Foundation to support the arts....
.
Personal life
Rhodes first married in 1989, a union that was dissolved amicably in 1996. He married mezzo-sopranoMezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
Isabel Leonard
Isabel Leonard
Isabel Leonard is an American mezzo-soprano. She is of Argentinean ancestry on her mother's side.For five years, Leonard sang with the Manhattan School of Music Children’s Chorus. She also attended the Joffrey Ballet School. She is a graduate of the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music &...
in December 2008. They are based in New York City.
Discography
Teddy Tahu Rhodes' recordings include several recital discs on ABC ClassicsABC Classics
ABC Classics is the classical music record label within the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It is internationally recognised as Australia's premier classical music label, with a catalogue of more than 500 titles...
including Mozart Arias with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. It is the smallest of the six orchestras established by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation .-Activities:...
, The Voice, a collection of arias and songs, and Vagabond, a collection of songs and song cycles including Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
' Songs of Travel
Songs of Travel
Songs of Travel is a song cycle of nine songs originally written for baritone voice composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams, with poems selected from the Robert Louis Stevenson collection of the same name. A complete performance of the entire cycle lasts between 20 and 24 minutes.They were originally...
with pianist Sharolyn Kimmorley. Also in his discography is the ABC Classics recording of Handel's Messiah, Fauré's Requiem, and he appeared with the Australian Chamber Orchestra on their album Musical Renegades (CD and DVD). His other DVD credits include the world premiere recording of Rachel Portman's opera The Little Prince (Sony, 2005) and Britten's Peter Grimes
Peter Grimes
Peter Grimes is an opera by Benjamin Britten, with a libretto adapted by Montagu Slater from the Peter Grimes section of George Crabbe's poem The Borough...
(The Metropolitan Opera HD Live Series, 2008).
External links
- Teddy Tahu Rhodes profile at Askonas Holt
- Opera~Opera cover story: Teddy Tahu Rhodes in Opera Australia's A Streetcar Named Desire
- Opera~Opera article 2007
- Artist Biography:Teddy Tahu Rhodes, for the 2007 Australian production of Deadman Walking. Accessed 28 July 2008.