Enchantment never wanes in Victorian Opera's revival of Respighi's The Sleeping Beauty

Commissioned by Herald Sun - submitted 23rd February 2021 (unpublished)

One of Victorian Opera’s greatest strengths is its ability to iron out any stiffness in the perception of opera by presenting a range of works that appeal to a broad audience. And children are never forgotten. 

Nadine Dimitrievitch and Vincent Crowley
as dancers of the Princess and the Prince 

Originally written in 1921 for the puppet theatre, Respighi’s The Sleeping Beauty is another such example. Reviving the piece after its 2017 company premiere, it’s a compact and magical theatrical treat. It’s also an illuminating work in a time when live performance is navigating its way to a new beginning. 

Centre stage are the larger than life puppets designed and crafted by Joe Blanck and manoeuvred by puppeteers dressed in black. Mostly in black too are the singers, who deftly shadow their crafted counterpart in Nancy Black’s thoughtfully integrated direction. 

In the storytelling, if you wondered why in heaven’s name a curse by the Green Fairy was put on the infant princess, there is perhaps a hint in an early line from a trio of comic gangly frogs exclaiming that an approaching man would skin them alive. Suggesting human and nature’s complicated relationship and that man must learn his place in it, nature never fails to return hope, which the Blue Fairy gives back. It feels relevant to our times, or do we search for relevance because of the circumstance we exist in? An impressive ensemble certainly aided that possibility.

Cast of The Sleeping Beauty featuring puppets of
the King, the Blue Fairy and the Queen

Puppeteer Nadine Dimitrievitch dances out the grown up Princess with poise as Georgia Wilkinson sings with a rich and elegant tone. Waking her up from her slumber, puppeteer Vincent Crowley makes priceless leaps and bounds on an obstacle course getting to the castle while Carlos E. Bárcenas is his ever-trusty nimble tenor. But so much more happens before all that.

Raphael Wong and Dimity Shepherd imbue the King and Queen with heft and subtlety. Shepherd also gives animated amusement to the mangy Cat. There is the weary old Ambassador given towering voice to by Michael Lampard. Kathryn Radcliffe cuts the air with florid turns and crystalline beauty as the Blue Fairy. Juel Riggall is a memorably threatening Green Fairy and Liane Keegan is a foundation-firm compliment to the Old Lady and opportunistic Duchess, as is Stephen Marsh’s resonant and oaky Woodcutter.

To Respighi’s eclectic and entertaining mix, Phoebe Briggs conducted a polished Orchestra Victoria with delicateness and grit. Only the prolonged pauses between scenes while the cast took their places distracted from the experience. But the enchantment never waned. 

The Sleeping Beauty

Victorian Opera 

Palais Theatre 

Until 26th February 

4-stars

Production Photos: Jeff Busby

Das Rheingold opens as a glinting nugget as part of Melbourne Opera's first instalment of Wagner's Ring Cycle

Commissioned by Herald Sun - submitted 6th February 2021 (unpublished)

In the world of opera, Wagner’s Der Ring Des Nibelungen is its greatest show on earth, a bucket-list, 4-part epic that begins with Das Rheingold and incorporates more than 15 hours of music. Nothing short of a miraculous achievement in challenging times, Melbourne Opera has revealed a glinting nugget in this first instalment. The second, Die Walküre, is scheduled for 2022 with the entire Ring to be presented in 2023. 

Eddie Muliaumaseali’i as Wotan and James Egglestone as Loge

It’s a story of greed, dirty deals and renouncement of love to attain power, told across music of enormous expanse - a cursed ring forged from stolen gold precipitates life-altering events. Drawn on Nordic myth, gods, mortals, giants and dwarfs inhabit a world in which a sense of unease and trickery is pervasive. It sounds familiar!

Director Suzanne Chaundy instils confidence to support and endure the marathon ahead, obliging with a successful and legible interpretation in a subtly abstracted production. 

It begins lucently. Two Rhinemaidens swim across the heights via flexi-poles as their three operatic sisters sing radiantly from ringed swings. But the centrepiece of Andrew Bailey’s design is a large flat plane with a circular cut out that lowers and raises like a drawbridge, serving the drama thoughtfully all the way to the gods’ entry into their new home, Valhalla.

Just as impressive was the breadth of local expertise in the cast. 

Adrenaline-rich baritone Simon Meadows was the standout as the slimy dwarf Alberich, robber of the Rhinemaidens’ gold and forger of the ring. As Wotan, ruler of the gods, gravelly bass Eddie Muliaumaseali’i showed command and balance even when at times overpowered by the orchestra. 

James Eggelstone as Loge, Darcy Carroll as Donner,
Jason Wasley as Froh, Eddie Muliaumaseali’i as Wotan, 
Sarah Sweeting as Fricka and Lee Abrahmsen as Freia

Sarah Sweeting oozed lushness as his wife Fricka, Lee Abrahmsen was exhilarating as the ransomed goddess of youth, Freia, and clarion tenor James Egglestone was a dynamically charged Loge, Wotan’s calculating executive servant. Giants Adrian Tamburini and Steven Gallop pounded solidly as Fasolt and Fafner and a special mention to Michael Lapina’s cringing Mime and Darcy Carroll for an imposing Donner as he summoned the thunderstorm to clear the air. 

One more hurdle was getting conductor Anthony Negus out of the UK and into quarantine in time for rehearsals. What he presided over on opening night was a soundscape that rose to excellence with an orchestra of more than 90 musicians. Some fuzzy brass in the earlier stages aside, from the moment Wotan and Loge descended into Nibelheim the music remained formidable. 

Das Rheingold 

Melbourne Opera 

Regent Theatre 

Until 7th February 2021

Ulumbarra Theatre, Bendigo 

21st February 2021

4-stars