Tenor Zachary McCulloch Photo: RNZ
Bryan Crump had no doubt about his opening question to guest Zachary McCulloch: "Where have you been"?
Crump had just been watching a YouTube video of McCulloch making light work of Donizetti's 'Ah Mes Amis!' from the opera "La Fille du Regiment", which has not one, but nine top Cs.
No trouble for McCulloch, who sang all the other notes just as sweetly. The only thing struggling in the recording was the microphone.
Such was his singing prowess, Crump wondered why he hadn't heard more of this brilliant young lyric tenor.
Turns out McCulloch has been living and working in Europe. This is his first trip home in five years.
McCulloch will have plenty of opportunity to show off his top range when he joins the cast of this year's Opera in a Days Bay Garden production - he's playing Gualtiero in Bellini's "Il Pirata" (The Pirate).
Not only will he have to crest the high Cs, there are high Ds to scale as well.
McCulloch spoke to Crump about discovering opera as a teenager in Invercargill, supporting his studies by working in a telephone call centre, and how much he's looking forward to performing with his first singing teacher, Rebecca Ryan, who will be playing the leading lady, Imogene, to his leading bloke, Gualtiero.
