Vector Wellington Orchestra "Four Last Songs"

“Aivale Cole gave us a portrayal of Verdi’s doomed heroine so vocally sure and so movingly realistic in interpretive terms that she brought the house down when she took her bows…” Neville Cohn, The West Australian, November 2008

Soprano Aivale Cole is not a household name in New Zealand yet. But her triumph at the 2009 Lexus Song Quest will change that. Singing to a capacity house, her rich, resonant voice and dramatic portrayal of Aida won her the first prize and a standing ovation from the audience.

The Wellington soprano’s Lexus win puts her on the same illustrious career path as world renowned singers such as Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Dame Malvina Major.

Cole returns to Wellington to perform Strauss’ Four Last Songs with the Vector Wellington Orchestra on June 13. It may prove to be a rare opportunity for her hometown audience to hear Cole, who is based in Perth and will be in demand worldwide since her Lexus win.

Wellingtonians may be more familiar with Cole under her maiden name of Faletolu. She’s performed classical and Pasifika theatre around New Zealand, toured Ella Fitzgerald standards with Malcolm McNeill, won the Lockwood Aria competition, and gained worldwide fame as one of the voices on the Lord of the Rings film soundtrack. But Cole’s talent bloomed into stardom after she reached Perth, where she has recently garnered rave reviews singing the title roles in both Aida and Madame Butterfly with the West Australian Opera.

Last year critics started to call her “Perth’s best kept secret”. For four years Cole had kept her head down, drilling her technique at the Australian Opera Studio whilst working and raising a young family. The gruelling workload paid off and now the accolades are starting to come in.

Perth Now’s critic, Jan Hallam said, “What a voice and how exciting to see this potential explode like fireworks before our eyes. Her control over her dramatic lower voice was magically matched by the exquisite sounds of her high notes.”

The VWO features another star player for their June 13 concert, as Michael Houstoun continues his Beethoven cycle with the Second Piano Concerto. Houstoun, who has recorded all the Beethoven piano sonatas, is known as a sublime Beethoven interpreter.

Music Director Marc Taddei intends to show the orchestra’s range by starting with the Brandenburg Concerto No 3, calling on the players’ grasp of Bach’s joyful Baroque style, before expanding the orchestra to encompass the full-blooded Romanticism of Richard Strauss’ Death and Transfiguration.

FOUR LAST SONGS

J S Bach Brandenburg Concerto No 3 in G, BWV 1048
Beethoven Piano Concerto No 2 in B Flat, Op 19
Richard Strauss Death and Transfiguration
Richard Strauss Four Last Songs

Marc Taddei – conductor
Michael Houstoun – piano
Aivale Cole – soprano

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