New Zealand bass-baritone
Teddy Tahu Rhodes got a late start as a professional singer; uncertainty about his abilities kept him employed as an accountant until he was in his early thirties, and even then he practically had to be dragged to an audition at
Opera Australia, after which he was immediately hired, and he has been making up for lost time in a meteoric career rise. In his first solo album for the Australian label ABC Classics, he sang
Mozart arias, and in this, his second, he offers a wide assortment of pieces, including selections from French, Russian, Italian, and German opera, Baroque oratorio, and folk music of Antipodean origin.
Rhodes' voice may not have the distinctiveness or individuality of the greatest baritones, but it's large and attractive, and secure throughout. His tone is clean and full bodied, and his breath control allows for exceptionally smooth and long legato lines. He skillfully tailors his delivery to suit the varied repertoire and is as effective and idiomatic in the
Bach and
Handel solos as in the Romantic arias.
Rhodes is equally at home with the bravado of the Toreador's Song and the introspection of "Yeletsky's Aria" from The Queen of Spades, and he's especially affecting in the British folk song O Waly, Waly ("The water is wide"), in spite of a somewhat hokey arrangement. The weakest track is Au fond du temple saint, largely because tenor
David Hobson sounds croony and is not in
Rhodes' league vocally.
Anthony Walker leads
Orchestra of the Antipodes in the
Bach and
Handel and
Sinfonia Australis in the remaining selections. The sound is generally clean and full, but the ambience isn't always consistent from track to track.