The 6th Annual OperaChaser Awards 

- 2022 -

Revealed via Twitter @OperaChaser and Facebook on 27th December 2022, 

commencing at 5pm,

Dromana, Victoria.

The 6th OperaChaser Awards, as in previous years, are an opportunity to reflect on the year and are dedicated to all those who have contributed in sharing their artistic and creative pursuits in nourishing their audiences with immeasurable meaning and lasting enjoyment. 

Nothing seems left unaffected in our lives and behaviours after a pandemic-havoc-causing couple of years. My own former life of constant international travel for several decades is now no longer. I can only reflect on the fortune of that, as well as on the incredible smorgasbord of world opera seen in that period. 

Still, I count my blessings for this year’s return to travelling internationally — be it in a much reduced capacity — and seeing two new Ring productions, one in Bayreuth and the other in Berlin. I also saw a production of Die Fledermaus, performed by international students of the Berlin Opera Academy — those who know my opera-going habits will be aware of my great pleasure in seeing young developing artists making their mark at the beginning of potential life-long careers.   

Interstate travel similarly took a dive outside my hometown of Melbourne as well this year. A visit to Adelaide in March for the Adelaide Festival’s Watershed: The Death of Dr Duncan, composed by Joseph Twist with libretto by Alana Valentine and Christos Tsiolkas, and The Golden Cockerel, directed by Barrie Kosky, was followed by just three trips to Sydney. 

First up in Sydney was Opera Australia’s Otello by Verdi and a new production of La Juive in its national premiere in March. The final two trips were made for each of baroque specialists Pinchgut Opera’s Orontea in May and Médée in December. All were well worth the journey.

Consequently, it was decided to concentrate this year’s OperaChaser Awards on those opera productions and operas in concert seen locally only in Melbourne. The art form hasn’t yet bounced back with the breadth and frequency of pre-pandemic days — and that was a state that could have been much improved upon — but what is truly alive is how our independent and grassroots opera communities are itching to convey their art and put on a show. Thank you to Melbourne Opera, IOpera, Australian Contemporary Opera Company, BK Opera and Lyric Opera Melbourne, and to government funded companies Opera Australia and Victorian Opera. 

The national and state opera companies, however, need to lead the way with greater commitment to our city and regional areas, including making greater inroads to educating and enticing young audiences. 

Also, for the first time, I’m glad to finally recognise and single out the impressive work of a young individual building their career with the OperaChaser Award for Young Developing Artist. 

As always, thank you to all involved in creating the ephemeral beauty of opera in performance. Again, there is neither a flash ceremony nor a trophy to go with it but I sincerely hope that these awards bring a little pleasure to the deserved artists who bring excellence to the art of opera and all who continue to dig deep into their artistic, dramatic and creative energies. 

I am pleased to announce the winners of the 6th OperaChaser Awards, 2022.

OperaChaser Award for Outstanding Production, Melbourne:
Lohengrin, Opera Australia 
Photo:Jeff Busby

OperaChaser Awards, Melbourne

From almost 20 productions, including concerts

Outstanding Production

Lohengrin Opera Australia

Director: Olivier Py

https://artsreview.com.au/lohengrin-2/

Outstanding Opera in Concert
Siegfreid, Melbourne Opera

Conductor: Anthony Negus

https://artsreview.com.au/melbourne-opera-siegfried-in-concert/

Outstanding Director
Suzanne Chaundy
Die Walküre, Melbourne Opera

https://artsreview.com.au/die-walkure/

Outstanding Conductor 
Tahu Matheson
Lohengrin, Opera Australia

https://artsreview.com.au/lohengrin-2/

Outstanding Male in a Leading Role 
Jonas Kaufmann
Title role, Lohengrin Opera Australia

https://artsreview.com.au/lohengrin-2/

Outstanding Female in a Leading Role
Stacey Alleaume
Violetta, La Traviata, Opera Australia

https://artsreview.com.au/la-traviata-5/

Outstanding Male in a Supporting Role
Simon Meadows
Friedrich of Telramund, Lohengrin, Opera Australia

https://artsreview.com.au/lohengrin-2/

Outstanding Female in a Supporting Role
Akansha Hungenahally
Young Fan, Belle and Martha Cratchit, A Christmas Carol, Victorian Opera

https://artsreview.com.au/a-christmas-carol-4/

Outstanding Chorus
Victorian Opera Emerging Artists and Children's Chorus
Il Mago di Oz, Victorian Opera

https://artsreview.com.au/il-mago-di-oz-2/

Young Developing Artist

Olivia Fedorow-Yemm

Oberon, A Midsummer Night's Dream, VCA, Melbourne Conservatorium of Music

https://artsreview.com.au/a-midsummer-nights-dream-7/

Outstanding Set Design
Andrew Bailey
Die Walküre, Melbourne Opera

https://artsreview.com.au/die-walkure/

Outstanding Costume Design
Bryanna Lowen
Iphis, Lyric Opera Melbourne

https://artsreview.com.au/iphis-2/

Outstanding Lighting Design
Rob Sowinski
Die Walküre, Melbourne Opera

https://artsreview.com.au/die-walkure/

A formidably sung grand opera accompanies Opera Australia's judicious decision to stage Halévy’s La Juive

“Jew or Christian, we’ll share one fate.” So announce two lovers in a courageous act that resides in the hostile climate of religious discrimination when excommunication and worse, death, can befall them. Romantic dreams, however, fail to materialise in this  barbed-wired world of intolerance, discrimination and vengeance. 

La Juive, Opera Australia Chorus

Composed in the tradition of French grand opera, where well-tailored historical backdrops framed stories of human passions accompanied by ostentatious stage and musical spectacle, French-Jewish composer Fromental Halévy’s La Juive of 1835 is a mighty operatic experience to soak in and ponder on today’s terms. 

Those hungry for the vocal and musical riches opera can bestow will be generously nourished by Opera Australia’s new production of this grand opera rarity, a co-production with Opéra National de Lyon. Formidably sung and conducted with immense kaleidoscopic drama and intensity by Italian conductor Carlo Montanaro, it is rightfully so a proud moment for the company after the unfortunate 2020 premiere postponement due to the Covid pandemic.

The story concerns the forbidden love between young Jewish woman Rachel (Natalie Aroyan) and the wealthy Christian Prince Léopold (Francisco Brito). When discovered, it all unravels with enormous tragic results. At first, Rachel believes Léopold is a Jew, a painter called Samuel, and unaware of his disguise and marriage to Princess Eudoxie (Esther Song). Rachel is also unaware that she is the daughter of Cardinal de Brogni, (David Parkin), saved from a fire when she was a baby by the Jewish father that raised her, Éléazar, (Diego Torre).

Originally set in Constance in the early 15th century (near the present day German-Swiss border), the 5-act libretto by respected author Eugène Scribe is one of more than 3 dozen libretti he penned for many established composers of the day. French director Olivier Py resets the action in 1930s France, a period that coincided with increased antisemitism in France and the disappearance of the opera’s long-held popularity. 

Diego Torre as Éléazar, Natalie Aroyan as Rachel and 
Francisco Brito as Prince Léopold 

Py is confronted with a complex, sometimes incredulously knitted narrative of coincidence to resolve, including having four of the principal characters ready to give up their life for one reason (or person) or another. The results are mixed. Despite the outpouring of wrought emotion and action in many scenes, a surprising amount of static stand-and-deliver stage compositions reduce the dramatic patina. And Py certainly isn’t assisted in the process by set and costume designer Pierre-André Weitz’s rather alienating stage-width staircase of 10 steps which challenge both intimate character and massed chorus moments. On the other hand, the company’s concurrent production of Otello, incorporating a far greater mass of stage-filling stairs is handled with enormous dramatic aplomb. 

Costumes clearly delineate each religious camp - Jews in suited charcoal but the pristine, muted palette uniformity of the Catholic majority, who revelled in their public demonstrations of “Le morte de les etrangers”, rarely feels right. 

More success comes with the oft slow-moving background scenic elements of rudimentary timber frames, high walls of bookcases and a grove of charred  barbed wire-like trees broodingly lit by lighting designer Bertrand Killy and evoking the darkness of the Holocaust’s dawn. A shocking rain of worn shoes crashing down when hope appears lost strikingly cements the association. 

The passover celebration of Act 2 in Éléazar’s home provides the most dramatically fluid scene in which the depth of the stage is utilised while bringing a portion of the action to the stepped foreground, including the placement of two photographic portraits in front of a candelabra of Éléazar’s two sons murdered well before the action of the story begins by Brogni when a Count.

A few staging issues aside, nothing more could be desired from the splendid cast and Opera Australia Orchestra‘s flawlessly played, stirring and balanced soundscape under Montanaro’s helm.

Diego Torre as Éléazar and men of the Opera Australia Chorus

Comfortably excelling at the height of their artistry, regular company principals Diego Torre and Natalie Aroyan portray the intricate father and daughter relationship of Éléazar and Rachel with impressively nuanced characterisation.

Torre‘s vocal chiaroscuro and sculpted Italianate tenor flexes magnificently around Éléazar’s determination, defiance and vengeance. Torre is a commanding force in Act 2 and, for the opera's best known aria, Act 3’s "Rachel! Quand du seigneur", he bursts with inner pent up emotion to reveal the agonised man Éléazar is with deep vocal pathos, not wanting to sacrifice Rachel to his hatred of Christians and renouncing his revenge (though short-lived). 

Aroyan is vocally breathtaking and expressive as she reveals Rachel’s unfolding nightmare and underlying sincerity and grace, balancing the demanding register shifts with seamless beauty while soaring with plushness up to a gleaming top.

As her questionable lover Samuel (Prince Léopold), Argentinian Francisco Brito exhibits both the earlier courage and later cowardice - or simply plain stupidity - of his character’s actions with a handsome and coruscating tenor. Most palpable is the chemistry Brito shares with Aroyan and the uneasiness of his disguise alongside Torre.

The discrimination and authority of the Church is realised in a sensational performance by David Parkin as Cardinal Brogni. Dispensing dark forbidding tones with quaking and richly resonant bass majesty, Parkin effortlessly embodies Brogni’s cold imperiousness and subsequent pleading heart to know from Éléazar what has become of his daughter.

As the haughty Princess Eudoxie, Esther Song is resplendent, her crystalline soprano and assured ornamentation a wonderful mirroring counterpart to Aroyan’s Rachel.

Andrew Moran gives powerful agency and presence to the smaller role of the brutish Ruggiero. Richard Anderson is similarly effective as Albert and the Opera Australia Chorus, a significant presence throughout and surging in world-class form, create stunning textures and undulating momentum. 

It is not as if religious discrimination and persecution has been shelved only in the past. Halévy’s grandiloquent work contains substance still today that serves to remind us of these injustices. Thanks to Artistic Director Lyndon Terracini’s desire to see this work to the stage, his audience will be unequivocally rewarded. 

La Juive 

Opera Australia 

Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House 

Until 26th March 2022

Production Photos: Prudence Upton