An inventive hoot and sparkling Der Rosenkavalier from Melbourne Opera: Herald Sun Review

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainment/arts/melbourne-operas-der-rosenkavalier-a-hoot/news-story/ea2cd28c1a797614f1bfe178af3d2550

Published online at Herald Sun 10th August and in print in edited form 14th August, 2018.


Melbourne Opera’s sparkling new production of Richard Strauss’ bittersweet comedy, Der Rosenkavalier (The Knight of the Rose), is an inventive hoot made special by the detail and life of Tama Matheson’s direction. Matheson mines the comic crutch and romantic heart of the work superbly.

Daniel Sumegi as Ochs and Anna Voshege as Sophie

The aristocratic Marschallin, in a loveless marriage, keeps a young lover, Octavian. Her cousin Ochs’ impending marriage to Sophie will secure his fortune. When Octavian, as the Rose Knight, presents the ‘customary’ silver rose to Sophie in a serendipitous encounter, the dominoes fall.

It turns out that a certain world leader with a bad blond hairdo and inflated ego slips into Strauss’ work with utmost ease as Baron Ochs. He shamelessly parades lechery, vulgarity, greed and self-entitlement through Strauss’ most popular work. Gratefully, through clever scheming, they don’t win over a love that blooms mutually.

Witty design inspired but unrestricted by its 1740s setting is a visual bonus — Christina Logan-Bell (sets), Lucy Wilkins (costumes) and Lucy Birkinshaw (lighting).

It could never have been pulled off so enthrallingly without four strong leads led by the comic charge of a marvellously interpreted Ochs by commanding bass Daniel Sumegi. Looking unrecognisable but convincing in form as our imbecile caricature, Sumegi’s deliciously throaty and meaty strength burst forth on opening night. It was a rare opportunity to see the bass voice own centre stage.

Anna Voshege, Lee Abrahmsen and Danielle Calder

Strauss’ melting melodic lines, however, were assigned to three surrounding sopranos. Lee Abrahmsen was refined and radiant as the Marschallin. Ruby rich in voice and gold stars for such deeply planted kisses, Danielle Calder wore the pants charmingly as Octavian and endeared in the disguise as the chambermaid, girl-as-boy-as-girl, “Mariandel”. Together with Anna Voshege, who brought a nightingale’s dulcet finery to Sophie, the opera’s famous trio received the poignancy it deserves.

Under conductor David Kram, the musical mojo took ravishing flight after a rickety Act 1 while talent and teamwork were abundant in supporting roles, chorus and in the pit. You could say that, in the end, it all came up trumps!


Der Rosenkavalier
Melbourne Opera
Athenaeum Theatre
Until 17th August 2018

4-stars

Production Photos: courtesy of Melbourne Opera

2108 Bayreuth Festival Roundup for Australia's Limelight Magazine

Reviews of four of the six operas on offer at the  Bayreuth Festival, 25th-28th July 2018.

Lohengrin

Parsifal

Tristan und Isolde

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg 

Published online at Limelight, 1st August, 2018

https://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/features/2018-bayreuth-festival-roundup/

Bare resources, bold ideas and a job well done in BK Opera's Abduction: Herald Sun Review

Published in Melbourne's Herald Sun in print in edited form, 20th July 2018.
Not published online at Herald Sun.


On arrival, you might be warmly greeted by a squeaky-clean moralising odd-bod asking if Satan has tried to come into your life today. Welcome to Abduction, director Kate Millett’s intriguing adaptation of Mozart’s exotic and musically arabesque singspiel, The Abduction from the Seraglio. 

Aleksander Laupmaa as Selim and Belinda Dalton as Costanze

Despite BK Opera’s barest of resources, Millett is never short of fresh ideas in her quest to reinforce opera with an edge. From Mozart’s “escape” opera - about four Europeans confined within the Pasha Selim’s harem in 16th century Turkey - Millett creates an unsettling claustrophobic tension that traps the audience within an oppressive evangelical siege using original extracts from notorious 1990s cult leaders David Koresh of Waco and Jonestown’s Jim Jones to drive it. 

Selim is the sermonising Chosen One, a creepy and cunning despot who Aleksander Laupmaa brilliantly embodies with chilling fervour, ruling his commune instilling the fear of God. His small group of followers - a lovely voiced chorus who sing three hymns into the score - are compliant, conservatively dressed and participate in trance-like numbness.

There are nicks here and there in the singing, gaps in the dramatisation and the second half could do with some trimming but the concept feels airtight and English and German text are delivered with potency.

Given the pressing demands of Mozart’s music, Belinda Dalton and April Foster acquitted themselves marvellously as the captives Costanze and Blonde. Dalton’s crisp and glassy tones rang out with confidence and freedom in Costanze’s taxing aria, “Martern aller Arten" ("Tortures of all kinds") and the scenes she shares with Laupmaa’s predatory Selim are the highlight.

Alison Lemoh as Mistress Osmin and April Foster as Blonde

Foster’s more smooth and plush sound added contrasting character as an increasingly defiant Blonde. Their boyfriends Belmonte (Stephen Carolane) and Pedrillo (Robin Czuchnowski) were less convincing with the chemistry unevenly ignited between the lovers. 

In an apt transposition of role, Selim’s torture-loving overseer, normally for bass, is given chocolatey richness by Alison Lemoh as the compound’s Mistress Osmin who paces about with an unspoken attraction for Blonde.

Musically, conductor James Penn provided engaging dynamics with tempo and fine piano accompaniment comes from Pam Christie. 

Without revealing the shocking finale, be it said that Millet’s dark approach wrests the compassion that transpires in Mozart’s generally lighthearted work. The results are captivating.


Abduction 
BK Opera 
Studio 1, Northcote Town Hall
Until 22nd July, 2018

3-stars 


Production Photos: BK Opera

Chemistry lacking in a food-for-thought Madame Butterfly on tour by Opera Australia: Herald Sun Review

Published in Melbourne's Herald Sun in print in edited form, 18th July 2018.
Not published online at Herald Sun.

Sharon Zhai as Madame Butterfly

The fragility of hope and happiness is powerfully contrasted with hopelessness and sorrow in Puccini’s popular opera, Madame Butterfly. As a symbol between them, it could be said, resides Butterfly’s sheathed knife, eventually used in an act of hara-kiri that drives home the tragedy of betrayal and loss.

Opening Friday night, it’s 10 years since director John Bell’s food-for-thought production was first staged as part of Opera Australia’s touring arm across regional centres. In a perceptive though not uncommon update of the work to post WWII Japan during American occupation, Bell brings into focus the fraught pairing of smug self-entitlement and dominance with vulnerability and desperation. 

Aided by designer Jennie Tate’s liberally concocted aesthetics and subtle cultural blending – performed on and around a floating platform backed by sliding doors - with Matt Scott’s impressive subtle lighting, every scene felt firmly supported. 

Sung in English, however, the fluidity of line felt compromised. Amongst principal roles doubled during the tour, Sharon Zhai depicted with quaint confidence the underage Japanese bride whose family has fallen on hard times. Indeed, so now has Nagasaki. Puccini could never have imagined the extent to which his ‘verismo’ work could aptly sit some 40 years after its premiere in 1904. That no obvious reference is made to Nagasaki’s atomic bombing seemed a lost opportunity. 

M. Reardon, A. Yun and A. Moran

While delightfully sweet and pure of tone, the extremities of Zhai’s range suffered. Often fluttering about to distraction, Butterfly loses human heart to gestural ineffectiveness.  Her love, the reckless American naval lieutenant Pinkerton, who fully intends to marry a ‘real” American bride, was warmly interpreted by Matthew Reardon but the shared chemistry with Zhai was lukewarm. 

Anna Yun imbued gravitas in her unwavering loyalty as Butterfly’s maid Suzuki and Michael Petruccelli excelled in both voice and comic style as the marriage broker Goro. Andrew Moran brought distinction to the diplomatic and rational US consul Sharpless while Steven Gallop’s interjection as the incensed Bonze showed how experience informs. 

Despite a lean orchestra, conductor Warwick Stengards led with a thoughtfully paced and textured rendition. And how delightfully integrated the children’s chorus drawn from the local community were, front of stage, giving the "Humming Chorus" sweet innocence!


Madame Butterfly 
Opera Australia Regional Tour, Victoria
Until 1st September 

3-stars 

Production Photos: Jeff Busby 

An achievement worth celebrating, Victorian Opera's William Tell opens at Melbourne's Palais Theatre: Herald Sun Review

Published in the Herald Sun edited form Tuesday, 17th July, 2018


An achievement worth celebrating, Victorian Opera pulled off Rossini’s final grand work with a sumptuously sounding cast of local and international soloists, a riveting and unified chorus and music that breathed with ease and purpose under artistic director Richard Mills. Incredibly, William Tell has not been performed in Australia for 142 years.

Armando Noguera as William Tell and Paolo Pecchioli as Gesler

Shared on social media and pertinent was an affecting account of one chorus member’s battle and silver-lined outcome to reach the stage. “All opera singers are willing to suffer for their art”, he wrote. Driven by passion to overcome suffering and oppression are at the core of the work. This man and all his colleagues, like the legendary Tell, can bask in victory. 

Director Rodula Gaitanou takes Tell’s original 13th century Swiss setting into a dystopian future. Mills cut Rossini’s more than 4-hour score to a little over three. The former makes a glaring distinction between the simple living, tight-knit community of Swiss villagers and the brutal, black-caped oppressors/exterminators - though at first sight rather comical - who storm into Act I spraying a vaporous cloud. The latter succeeds marvellously to give taut dramatisation. 

Argentinian Armando Noguera propelled suave baritone muscularity with skilled declamatory outbursts in portraying Tell heroically. Tempered with tenderness for his son Jemmy - a spirited Alexandra Flood who sings with diamond strength - Noguera’s performance was both enigmatic and genuine. It’s a touching father-son combination that culminates in the apple and the arrow moment that not even a technical glitch on opening night tarnished. 

Carlos Barcenas as Arnold and Gisela Stille as Mathilde

Embedded in the broader picture is the dilemma of Arnold and Mathilde’s love. Tenor Carlos Barcenas contoured the taxing demands of Rossini’s eloquent writing and drew a sympathetic and complex figure as Arnold. As Mathilde, a forest-thick lushness and determination accompanied Danish soprano Gisela Stille’s stirring interpretation.

The malevolent Gesler and his henchmen Rodolphe were in formidable form with Paolo Pecchioli and Paul Biencourt. As Walter, a steadfast Jeremy Kleeman joins Noguera and Barcenas in a thrilling trio of solidarity, Teddy Tahu Rhodes was towering as a sage-like Melcthal and Liane Keegan’s reliable expertise gave impact to Tell’s wife Hedwige.

Of course, there’s the famous gallop as part of the overture which 70-odd musicians played impressively but there’s glorious music to revel in throughout and one gigantic victorious ending to stay for.


William Tell 
Victorian Opera 
Palais Theatre 
Until 19th July 

4-stars

Production Photos: Jeff Busby

A delectable children's treat returns with Victorian Opera's delightful Hansel and Gretel

You know you’re engaging your young audience when they’re both attentive and interactive at a performance. “Why are they cuddling?”, “What kind of spell is it?”, the boy behind me uttered with inquisitiveness. Gleefully interruptive and unfiltered, but endearingly so, children were entertained with the art of opera boiled down to their level in a revival of Victorian Opera’s delectable 2014 production of Engelbert Humperdinck’s fairy-tale opera, Hansel and Gretel.

Cleo Lee-McGowan as Gretel and Shakira Dugan as Hansel

Elizabeth Hill’s lively direction melded excitingly on an easy to follow 50-minute condensed version of Humperdinck’s score more than double that length. Generating the drama, Humperdinck’s beautiful tapestry of effervescent melodies, musical landscapes and darker interjections that characterise the work were delightfully realised by conductor Simon Bruckard in leading a 14-strong contingent of musicians making up the Victorian Opera Chamber Ensemble in the Playhouse Theatre pit. Not a note appeared to drift off course and the warmth and care of playing provided thoughtful support for the stage.

Roller-mounted partitions painted with an interior picture-book representation of Hansel and Gretel’s house, the nearby woods and inside the witch’s gingerbread house looked a treat in Ross Hall’s context-effective designs with beautifully detailed folksy Germanic costumes completing the fairy-tale aesthetic. Peter Darby’s backdrop of mood-varying pin lighting and shadowy effects were especially evocative. A small quibble but just one thing I craved for, colourfully candied as the witch’s cottage was, were bigger helpings of them in the form of a more enticing gingerbread cottage than the flat wall it was. Still, the witch’s candy-camouflaging cloak added a clever sense of trepidation when Hansel and Gretel happen upon the cottage.

It wouldn’t have mattered if it was sung in English or Swahili as the young cast of eight familiar developing artists on the local opera scene brought Adelheid Wette’s German libretto to sparkling life with aplomb. And with a family of four all enjoying an opportunity to dance, and competently too, the little household captivated.

Kirilie Blythman as Mother and Stephen Marsh as Father

Deliciously creamy mezzo-soprano Shakira Dugan was perfect as a scallywag of a Hansel, impressing with her top notes and toasty vibrato. Lithe and full of expression, sweet and pure soprano Cleo Lee-McGowan sparkled as a sensible blonde pigtailed Gretel. Together, Dugan and Lee-McGowan offset sibling contrasts adorably along their rocky adventure, coming together for their divinely sung evening prayers and in a lovely balanced duet highlight as they celebrate their victory over the Witch. 

Lush-voiced Kirilie Blythman effortlessly took to the initially cranky but loving Mother and as an amiable Father, Stephen Marsh’s mellow and firmly buttressed baritone came with usual polish. The evil act of baking children into gingerbread was carried out by a Weimar cabaret-inspired Witch who Tomas Dalton rendered with largesse.

Smaller roles were filled pleasingly by Douglas Kelly as a rustic Sandman, Michelle McCarthy as a striking Dew Fairy with Matthew Thomas who, as all but the titular leads of the cast did singing dual roles for children and angels, sang robustly as an Angel and Child. Despite the sound voices, what felt missing was a real chorus of children who would certainly have convinced the young critics in the audience. Nevertheless, Victorian Opera do a remarkable job in stimulating the creative heart of and educating children in the art of opera. 

Two children’ operas have already now been presented this 2018 season - a wonderful revival of The Magic Pudding having opened the season. Adult entertainment is only now in rehearsal for the bigger fare when Rossini’s William Tell takes the Palais Theatre stage in July. That’s what Melbourne’s avid opera goers are patiently waiting for.


Hansel and Gretel
Victorian Opera
Playhouse Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne 
Until 12th June



Production Photos: Charlie Kinross 

A little uneven musically but thoughtful direction makes Aida worthy gold in Singapore

Despite having a lively arts scene, opera is an infrequent experience in Singapore, a city geographically distant from Europe or North America where enviable density exists more than a 10-hour flight away. Championing the art form locally for over 25 years, however, Singapore Lyric Opera (SLO) have brought opera’s most popular works to the stage and, since 2008, have made the modern 1950-seat Esplanade Theatre its performance home. In recent years, just one fully staged work is presented annually for which an international team of artists and creatives are regularly engaged. For 2018, it was Giuseppe Verdi's iconic 1871 opera, Aida.

Scene from Act II of Singapore Lyric Opera's Aida

The storytelling bode well when the curtain went up during the brief orchestral prelude in Australian director and current Resident Director of the Royal Opera Andrew Sinclair’s new production. Diving straight into the plot’s emotional heart, Sinclair added a thoughtful touch when Aida (Singaporean soprano Nancy Yuen) appeared left of stage just before the King’s guards marched from the right with Radamès (Norwegian tenor Thomas Ruud) following. Aida and Radamès sneak a brief embrace that allowed a glimpse of the secret love between the captured Ethiopian princess and the Egyptian soldier who would lead his country to battle. 

Thereon, Sinclair showed a knack for supplying effective narrative padding over the opera’s 4 acts that imbued the work with a sense of depth in the overall drama. Only when Aida and her father Amonasro (local baritone Martin Ng) flee the guards in Act 3 as a disgraced Radamès gives himself up did the clumsy execution tarnish the otherwise seductive drama. Still, it finished well with Amonasro’s onstage death by sword and gave further evidence of Sinclair’s deftly resolved interpretation that enhances the text marvellously - just as well because the English and Chinese translation didn’t always keep up with things. 

Sinclair also mobilised the large cast superbly, giving multi-dimensional weight to an enthusiastic and tuneful chorus and utilising the stage effectively. And it all looked stunning with its simplistic realisation of the story’s ancient Egyptian setting. Justin Hill's sets compromised little more than a painted flat - a sturdy-columned drop that demarcated interior and exterior spaces - on a split-level stage on which foreground and background action effectively and often simultaneously unfolded. Simple but appealing too in its stagecraft was Amneris’ arrival by boat at the Temple of Isis and the final scene of airless entombment under a thick-ribbed apex. The visual effect could not have succeeded without Adrian Tan's lighting that captured day’s beginning and end evocatively as well as Moe Kasim’s exquisite, vibrant-hued costumes.

Thomas Ruud as Radamès and Grace Eschauri as Amneris

It wasn’t entirely rosy on the musical front but Mexican mezzo-soprano Grace Echauri's Amneris was something special. In possession of a deliciously plush and versatile instrument, Echauri addressed the text assuredly and turned Amneris easily into an approachable woman ready to confide in friendship, express her love for Radamès genuinely and impulsively resort to vengeance when the heart was spurned.

In a sensitive portrayed of a youthful Aida that included a measure of poise and trepidation, Yuen emanated an inner glow and sang with appealing colour. Though warming up in not so formidable style in her musical liaisons early on, Yuen - especially luxurious of voice in the mid to lower range - showed off her depth and capability that set her in convincing territory with her first big aria, Act I’s “Ritorna vincitor” (“Return a conqueror"). But for an occasional sharpness at the top of the voice, Yuan went on to elicit sympathy in her predicament of capture and manipulation and contribute marvellously to the love triangle’s realism.

Ruud’s Radamès well out-shaped Yuen’s petite figure to give him the stereotypical burliness and strength of a commander and the large, muscular voice to match. A master of exciting recitative, love’s tenderness was for Ruud a little harder to express with warmth in his opening Act I aria, “Celeste Aida” (“Heavenly Aida") - there was a tendency to overexert - but that was corrected as the plot became thornier. Then, in the final scene, Ruud melted the voice without loss of muscle and complimented Aida in the dying moments superbly. 

Nancy Yuen as Aida and Thomas Ruud as Radamès

Local singer Ng was excellent as a courageous Amonasro, sporting a voice burnished with determination and a performance acted with vigour. Amongst the cast of other local singers in smaller roles, smooth bass Alvin Tan stood out as the dignified Ramfis the High Priest, Cherie Tse’s silken beauty wafted divinely as the High Priestess and, though singing just the morsel of music assigned to the Messenger, Jonathan Tay made it notably impressive. 

Disappointing, but the expectation that authority shows its mettle in vocal prowess fell flat in Steven Ang’s somewhat ailing Pharoah. Under his frail rule, however, the SLO Choir were well-prepared in both richly harmonised voice and purposeful acting as the chorus of priests, priestesses, soldiers, slaves and prisoners. Altogether, they combined gloriously in the opera’s big moment, Act II’s majestically realised Triumphal March alongside choreographer Gani Karim’s athletic dancers who remarkably made themselves integral to the picture. Orchestral forces occasionally lacked  expanse in the strings and the tempi headed on the slower side but the singers were always well-supported under Thai conductor Somtow Sucharitkul. 

Verdi’s Aida has travelled far and wide with ongoing popularity since 1871. This year alone, I’ve seen it prove its worth in Dubai, Seattle and now Singapore with a new Opera Australia program opening in Sydney to come in July and, with smart direction such as seen here, I’m finding more and more in it that pleases. 

Aida

Singapore Lyric Opera

Esplanade Theatre, Singapore

Until 6th June, 2018

Production Photos: courtesy of Singapore Lyric Opera