The Magic Flute is a Mozart Classic. A very well written… but very long Mozart Classic. Because of this I was surprised to see so many young people and children in the pre-show audience when we went to see it recently at the Lyric in Brisbane. As soon as the show started however, I realized this was exactly the market Opera Australia was pitching at and I have to congratulate them on a job well done.

Julie Taymor’s production was in English instead of the original German and right from the start made excellent use of costumes and puppetry. It did take me back to seeing the Lion King on Broadway and had a healthy touch of Cirque du Soleil but all the colour and spectacle was perfect for little eyes. The stilt walking birds and the dancing bears were particularly good crowd pleasers. George Tsypin’s very mobile set, on the other hand, was effective but distracting. The clunky set was moved regularly and was quite loud although it did provide dramatic scene changes and provided a great frame for the Queen of the Night.

As for little ears.. the Magic Flute is unusual for a grand opera as it contains a lot of spoken dialogue (singspiel) This makes it easier to digest for opera novices and the kids we were sitting next to were well behaved and attentive at least for the first half. Unfortunately, like I said, this is a very long work and even with a fair chunk taken out, the length still set them twitching in the second half and they were asleep by the end.

They had cut a good deal out of this production, most noticeable the darker sections and this might not sit well with the ‘werktrue’ opera fanatics. Personally I found Papageno’s dialogue just a little too colloquial next to the rigid speech of Sarastro or Tamino but it was a hit with the audience which is fine with me. It was very interesting to note how casual and rowdy the audience was, at least at the performance we attended. Maybe due to the sheer number of children in the audience but the theatre was alive with conversation and applause. I love it when the audience appreciates a show and I love it even more when they have no idea when to clap. This is the best indication of an audience that is new and unfamiliar to opera and those are the audiences we need!
I thought the performers did a good job and Milica Ilic was superb as the Queen of the Night. Taryn Fiebig’s voice gave the role of Pamina a slightly darker colour than I am used to but the pairing with Stephen Smith as Tamino worked well. Andrew Jones was a bit over the top with his Papageno role and I couldn’t shake the feeling I was watching a green wiggle but his physical comedy like his dialogue went down well with the crowd.

I am sure there would be a number of critics for this production but like it or not, you have to appreciate the effort Opera Australia is putting into their productions to make them more appealing to new audiences. I believe this production was an excellent interpretation of a Mozart masterpiece written for pure entertainment.

Now this is taking audience participation to the extreme! The Savonlinna Opera Festival is celebrating it’s 100th Anniversary this year and on the program is Free Will, an opera written entirely online. This unique project has invited the online community to create the opera entirely from scratch.. libretto, composition, marketing material.. the lot. The work is due to premiere very soon but you still have an opportunity to join the community and contribute.

Head over to their WEBSITE for more details!

I remember when I first heard Benjamin Britten’s interpretation of a Midsummer Night’s Dream.  I had been given the part of Oberon and asked to learn the opening duet ‘Ill met by moonlight.’ I can remember being completely horrified by the strange modern intervals and the foreign rhythmic patterns. However, I soon grew to appreciate all the beautiful intricacies of this opera and it’s now it’s probably my favorite work. When I learned Opera Australia was touring a production directed by Baz Lurhmann, I snapped up some tickets and told everyone I knew.

I am glad to say I was not disappointed!

Lurhmann’s general direction was fairly typical and similar to other productions I have seen but the Indian colonial setting was fresh and well suited to the storyline.. if you can casually ignore the various references to Athens which do pop up occasionally in the Shakespearean text. 

Bill Maron should be congratulated on his gorgeous three-tiered, static set as it allowed the audiences to become immersed in the scenes without being distracted by a moving backgrounds. The multiple entry and exit points worked well with the action and the positioning of the small orchestra on the middle tier, center-stage was certainly not something you see on a typical opera stage. The set was complimented by Catherine Martin’s vivid costumes and it would have been a shame if you were way down the back and didn’t get the full effect from Bottom’s transformation into a very well endowed donkey.

Vocally, all the cast were of a very high standard but there were some standout performances. Countertenor Tobias Cole was amazing as the delightfully ethereal Oberon and Conal Coad was a convincing Bottom. Really the whole cast were both physically and vocally fantastic. I can’t stress how wonderful it is so see age-appropriate performers being cast. There is nothing worse than watching a forty-five year old try and portray a teenager no matter how fantastic their voice is.

Overall I enjoyed this production from start to finish but then again, I knew the music very well and enjoy modern compositions. When speaking to others about this production I found there were some mixed views, most notably with the music. Britten’s music can be pretty challenging and a few really struggled with the modern score. This would probably be why the opera was not publicized more and paired with a very public-friendly version of the Magic Flute. Still no one down-right hated it and a few, like me, were simply delighted.

Last weekend I went to the Victorian Opera production of Midnight Son at the Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne. As someone who generally doesn’t enjoy traditional opera (yes I said it) I will admit to a bit of negative-bias. However, I did try and go in with an open mind because I am a strong supporter of Australian works.. good, bad or ugly.I arrived at the Malthouse quite early for a pre-show drink and was not surprised by the amount of grey in the audience, after all, it was 3pm on a Sunday afternoon AND opera but it would have been nice to have seen a few more under 30′s for a new Australian work.

As we were seated, we were told that Dimity Shepherd, who was cast in the role of Clara was ill and would walk the role while being covered from the wings. This is the first time I have ever experienced this and was surprised to learn that they hadn’t covered the roles because it was ‘too expensive to obtain the extra rehearsal space for a new opera.’ Regardless, both ladies did a wonderful job.

The production itself offered a stark set using a garage roller door as the main focus. The clever use of projection on the door gave a nice modern feel and made for subtle but effective scene changes when it was lifted. While it was easy on the eye and well directed by Nicki Wendt, I can’t say I was overly impressed with the opera itself. The ‘why’ of that boils down to the libretto.

Louis Nowra’s story was engaging enough, based on the true Melbourne tale of of the cheating husband who convinces his mistress to kill his wife is told in reverse, not revealing the real ugly nature of the husband until well into the second half. However I just couldn’t get past the use of the operatic voice with conversations I would hear on the street, or on a midday chat show. Lines like “get us a beer mate… the internet’s a knocking shop” probably delightful to many, just jarred with me and the entire ‘swinging aria’ where the husband makes obscene requests of his mistress, all in rhyming couplets, just had me (and at least  four people in front of me) cringing in my seat. Not with the effectiveness of the drama mind you, or the horrible nature of the main character, but with the clumsiness of a libretto looking to shock for the sake of shock.

This brings me to the question of relevance. Do we really need to be putting this type of story, told in this straight up conversational way to classical voice? Is this the way we are trying to achieve relevance for Australian audiences? Personally.. (and I really stress personally) I believe the disconnect is too great and far too great if you are trying to connect with younger audiences. A play? sure. A musical? maybe. We are comfortable with conversation in our contemporary music but opera? The classical voice is fantastical, soaring, alien and needs a little ‘fantastical’ in the story to bridge the gap between what people are hearing and what they are understanding and seeing. But again, that’s just my point of view and the story did tick all the ‘opera boxes’.. drama, passion, emotion even if I did have to hear the line ‘I want to toss your salad in my mayonnaise’ not once.. but three glorious times.

Apart from that rather large glaring issue I had with libretto the rest of the opera was well written and enjoyable. The music, by Gordon Kerry, with it’s modern edge was still easy to absorb even for an opera novice and was well suited to the through-composed vocal lines that walked the edge of aria and recitative. The cast of five, well six with the cover, performed the challenging roles admirably and I thought Antoinette Halloran, apart from a very shoddy karaoke performance, was particularly well cast in the role of Marissa.

So would I classify this opera as good bad or ugly? I am going to go with ugly on this one. I appreciate the attempt to make something characteristically Australian however I think there are better, more subtle ways to do it. This production had all the subtlety of being hit in the face with one of the dildos from the prop department.