James Clayton and Emma Pearson.
Camera IconJames Clayton and Emma Pearson. Credit: Supplied/Andrew Ritchie d439692

Perth soprano jumps into Marriage

Tanya MacNaughtonEastern Reporter

SOPRANO Emma Pearson dreamed of working with WA Opera while growing up in Perth.

So you can imagine her excitement when asked in June to step into the role of Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro for the company following the departure of Emma Matthews due to illness.

"It's a real honour to jump in for Emma Matthews, as she's quite the Aussie icon," Pearson said.

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"There's a little bit of pressure because I want to be able to step up and present a performance similar to what she would have done."

Pearson is in the process of moving back to Australia from Switzerland with her opera-singing New Zealand husband Wade Kernot.

The UWA vocal performance graduate has lived there for the last year, following nine years in Germany at Hessisches Staatstheater, Wiesbaden.

Her planned trip home to see family and friends unexpectedly changed to working with baritone James Clayton in the Mozart comic opera, in a role she has performed previously for New Zealand Opera.

"Our production in New Zealand was almost slapstick, going for the cheap gag, and the audience loved it," Pearson said.

"This time it's much more true to the original Pierre Beaumarchais play which director Neil Armfield did originally with Geoffrey Rush years ago.

"It's sort of the same play put into opera but the difference is that Susanna is much more of a moral fibre.

"She isn't the strumpet like most maids seem to be portrayed. She doesn't give in, stands her ground and is honestly and truly in love with her husband and really wanted to get married."

Taking place on one mad day at the villa of Count Almaviva, Pearson said the opera was a romantic comedy disguising the causes that fuelled the French Revolution.

"The original play was completely censored in its time for being too dangerous and subversive," she said.

"It encourages the lower classes to see that they have the potential of ruling or at least having power over their own lives.

"The whole thing is quite dark but it's a comedy that covers it up with wit.

"I love to see how Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte the librettist covered up the revolutionary ideas from the censors. There are so many little clues through the opera that have double meanings.

"It takes a lot of study but the more you do, the more you see."

THE ESSENTIALS

What: The Marriage of Figaro

Where: His Majesty's Theatre

When: July 14 to 25

Tickets: www.ticketek.com.au