Baritone to headline Festival of Outback Opera at Mount Isa Teddy to sing up storm
FOR the wide open spaces of Mount Isa you need a big voice and they don’t come any bigger than Teddy Tahu Rhodes. The renowned baritone from New Zealand has become one of our favourite leading men and boy can he belt out a tune to the back row.
Which makes him perfect as the headline act for the inaugural Festival of Outback Opera presented by Opera Queensland and chamber orchestra Camerata in the Isa from June 26-28.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk encouraged people to attend the event and “back the bush”.
The Festival of Outback Opera is one of 15 regional Queensland events commemorating the Year of Outback Tourism.
Audiences will get to see Tahu Rhodes in a series of concerts taking place over the weekend with the main event the Concert Under the Stars on June 27, a large-scale outdoor opera performance under the stars with the backdrop of Mount Isa’s spectacular Lake Moondarra.
There will also be workshops, events in pubs and even an underground opera paying homage to the town’s mining heritage.
In Brisbane yesterday Tahu Rhodes was taking a day off to announce the event in Brisbane posing with horse in tow although he confessed his riding was rudimentary but the Akubra hat was fair dinkum.
“I do own an Akubra and I carry it in the back of my car always,” Tahu Rhodes says. “So it’s not a complete fabrication.”
Tahu Rhodes, 53, flew up from Sydney where he is appearing in Opera Australia’s production of Faust at the Sydney Opera House.
The Kiwi-born bass baritone has amassed a legion of fans in his adopted country with a repertoire that includes powerhouse productions of Don Giovanni and Tosca and the musicals The King and I and South Pacific.
He says he can’t wait to boom his voice out across the wide open spaces. “The beauty of opera is its ability to connect with anyone who is excited by great stories and powerful music,” Nolan says.