Lexus Presents: An Audience With Jonathan Lemalu

From the stages of London, New York, Tokyo and Vienna, Lexus is proud to present New Zealand’s very own Grammy award-winning operatic bass, Jonathan Lemalu.

With performances in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch as well as his hometown of Dunedin, these shows offer a rare opportunity to hear this critically acclaimed artist at the peak of his powers. Featuring a range of intimate venues, classical music lovers can choose between two distinct programmes; operatic or contemporary song. The repertoire chosen for each programme directly reflects Jonathan’s love of storytelling and entertainment. Each aria or song has a unique story, anecdote, an important debut, or a personal connection to Lemalu’s musical and life story.

The difference between the operatic and song programmes is best described by Lemalu himself….

“The opera programme (evening performances) are a selection of the bass genre’s most famous operatic characters which I portray on stages around the world, ranging from Mozart, Stravinsky, Britten, Beethoven and Rossini to Gershwin, Rodgers & Hammerstein and Kern. The audience will experience a relaxed and accessible variety of styles, languages (English, German and Italian) and characters which I intend to offer as the kind of people an audience might know, have heard of, or could in fact inhabit themselves.

The song programme (afternoon performances) is completely in English, using themes of Shakespeare, Cabaret, Nursery Rhymes, Nature, Old American songs and New Zealand satirical compositions, one of which is arranged especially with this tour in mind. A lot of these songs were written for me, so there are inevitably stories of how they emerged off the page and came to life. “

Concerts will last approximately 90 minutes, including a 20-minute interval. The Dunedin programme is unique, combining both opera and song.