Pinchgut Opera's visually succulent, musically beaming and conceptually clever Baroque Triple Bill

In the 15 years since Sydney's Pinchgut Opera have been successfully building its reputation in bringing rarely performed 18th century operatic works to the stage, the challenges might not have been greater than those faced in staging a triple bill, their latest new production that opened on Thursday night.

Lauren Zolezzi as Cupid and Richard Anderson as Anacréon

Taking two mid-18th century French actes-de-ballet or single act ballet-operas by Jean-Philippe Rameau, Anacréon and Pigmalion, and sandwiching between them a popular intermezzo in its day, Leonardo Vinci's Erighetta e Don Chilone, Artistic Director and conductor Erin Helyard's attempt to capture the spirit of that "...hothouse atmosphere of Paris in the 1750s", goes far in perhaps questioning the merits or not of an Enlightenment debate. From my perspective, the heat was somewhat lacking. Nonetheless, it's a visually succulent and musically beaming exposition of long-forgotten works that focus on the universal theme of love and its accompanying ungraspable quirks, of wine, art and self in an evening, including interval, that ends in under 140 minutes.

Director Crystal Manich's clever concept to unite the three disparate works in contemporary times - one that includes lots of period costume dress-ups - gets off to a clear enough start. Beginning with Anacréon, the action unfolds in preparation for a Gala du Musée - as Alicia Clements' handsome and classically inspired set design informs us - with a cast of gallery-related characters crisscrossing and coming together, often in neatly choreographed tableaux, over the course of a day that ends in a joyous pairing of lovers in Pigmalion. It's a bold and creative move that, while solving the City Recital Hall's limitations in dealing with complex theatrical stagings by relying on its single set construct, adds complexity to the otherwise straightforward nature of each individual work. Without prior knowledge of Manich's restructuring and alignment of the characters, the goings on could be difficult to decipher. On the other hand, together as a whole, they do leave one memorable taste behind. Studying the program notes was beneficial, as was the informative pre-opera talk.

Taryn Fiebig as Erighetta and Richard Anderson as Don Chilone

Billed as "a riotous evening of fabulous French opera", it was only the milked cheekiness in Vinci's Italian intermezzo that came anywhere near the riotous. Melanie Liertz's rich mix of punchy costumes and Matthew Marshall's evocative lighting changes made a dazzling good show but, apart from its few highlights, a dreamy-like Anacréon lumbered along despite the swift comings and goings in the gallery and the poetry of Pigmalion rarely transformed into theatrical magic - perhaps more to do with the esoteric nature of the libretti.

Amongst what seems a truckload of interesting museum pieces and lavish party props that move in and out, its Lauren Zolezzi, as Cupid, who lit up the stage with both unbound youthful energy and supple-voiced charm. Taking her bright, delicately filigreed and assured soprano to stepladder heights, Zolezzi's tomboyish Cupid was the star of the night in which love itself triumphs. She's also the daughter of the wealthy gallery donor, played by Richard Anderson in the pivotal title role as the self-important Anacréon, marginally undone by breathing inconsistencies, but coming to confident bass vocal life, farts and all, in the play-within-a-play as the hypochondriacal Don Chilone.

Plush soprano Taryn Fiebig is the other standout, demonstrating her well-honed versatility in both the serious, as the Priestess of Bacchus in Anacréon and The Statue in Pigmalion, and the comic, as the cheekily conniving Erighetta in Vinci's intermezzo. She's the stiff and stylish Academic and the donor's ex-wife, who the bartender has his eye on. This bartender, Agathocle in Anacréon, is also a sculptor and presents his figurative masterwork to the gallery, no doubt bearing semblance to the Academic under its period costumed depiction.

Lauren Zolezzi, Taryn Fiebig and Samuel Boden as Pigmalion

With a warm and lyrically attractive tenor, Samuel Boden served up a convincing Agathocle but, as the sculptor Pigmalion, passion and determination headed a tad wayward, as did projection, before his more compelling slow and tender encounter with the living statue. In his vocal armoury is an effortlessness in phrased ornamentations and they leave their mark indelibly.

Soprano Morgan Balfour sang with clarity and beauty as Pigmalion's rejected lover and gallery cleaner, Céphise, and Allegra Giagu elegantly took the floor as the donor's wife Lycoris. They were joined by a retinue of fine, clarion vocals from an ensemble of gallery staff (Alistair Cooper-Golec, Julian Curtis, Heather Fletcher and Mariya Tkachenko), a florist (Clara Solly-Slade) and security guard (Owen Little).

Best of all was the music, with the always reliable warmth and sumptuousness of sound of Pinchgut Opera's Orchestra of the Antipodes in top form, performing with verve and passion to a now clearly devoted audience. They have a totally committed and exciting interpreter of music in their midst to thank for that, in conductor Erin Helyard, who was equally as animated and expert on harpsichord.

At the end of the evening, despite how marvellous it looked, how lovely it sounded and how clever the concept was, I didn't feel particularly enthralled by the total product and perhaps needed to taste something a little less spiced and a little more meaty. But at its centre was a perfectly plump and delicious treat.


Pinchgut Opera
City Recital Hall, Sydney
Until 20th June.

Production Photos: Courtesy of Pinchgut Opera