Showing posts with label Opera Australia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Opera Australia. Show all posts
Thursday, October 31, 2019
Il Viaggio a Reims in Sydney
Rossini's Il Viaggio a Reims is not your usual opera with a plot (however absurd) and beginning, middle and end. Instead it is a spoof on opera, a very long (3 hour) sing with a great deal of repitition. To the credit of Opera Australia and their collaborators (Dutch National Opera, Amsterdam Opera, Royal Danish Opera) the audience was entranced from beginning to end. Phenomenal singing and an ingenious staging. Bravo!
Thursday, February 16, 2017
Murder, Redemption and King Roger
One would not normally compare a chamber orchestra with an opera company, but I happened to see the Australian Chamber Orchestra and an Opera Australia production within days of each other this month, so here is my take on them both.
In the nineties OA put on a wide variety of operas from a wide variety of composers with wonderful singers, mostly Australian. It was an exciting company. Then the management changed and every production seemed to be a reality TV show. Perhaps someone thought it was the way to win a younger audience but avid opera fans drifted away. I got a subscription to the Australia Chamber Orchestra instead and discovered a vibrant band of passionate players who have so enriched my life that I can only thank OA for sending me in their direction.
I had chosen to see Opera Australia's production of King Roger because it was billed as 'something different' but I probably wouldn't have gone to the ACO Murder and Redemption concert if I had not had a series subscription because it included American folk songs and I couldn't imagine how they could be combined successfully with a classical offering. So I expected more from one concert than the other.
Unfortunately I found King Roger underwhelming. The music itself is worth hearing, but I found the production too similar to other over-sexualised or pop-culture OA offerings. The program notes described how the composer Szymanowski struggled with his homosexuality, so a reference to this would have been understandable, but the surfeit of writhing and thrusting male dancers that was presented made me feel as if I was watching an American sitcom where every facial gesture is overdone. My seat-neighbour was similarly under-impressed, telling me he had seen the Edinburgh version which interpreted the opera as the struggle of transformation. It sounded like the one I would have preferred to see. I have seen several concert performances of opera since I gave up my AO subscription and find them much more satisfying than overblown productions. I read however that the current La Traviata is a winner, so perhaps I shall have to give OA another try.
In comparison, Murder and Redemption with Finnish violin-wizard Pekko Kuusisto leading the ACO way overshot my expectations. Folk songster Sam Amidon sang his songs with becoming naturalness (in the best American folk song tradition) but what surprised me was how they complemented the classical pieces by Janacek and John Adams.
I am not sure why exactly, but Amidon's songs gave the ACO's passionate version of Adam's Shaker Loops a special zing.
The ACO has exceptional curatorial skills and this program was just another example.
I sat there wishing I had brought my 17 year old music friend with me. If you want to induce that generation to go to a classical concert, this was the sort of music you would choose.
In the nineties OA put on a wide variety of operas from a wide variety of composers with wonderful singers, mostly Australian. It was an exciting company. Then the management changed and every production seemed to be a reality TV show. Perhaps someone thought it was the way to win a younger audience but avid opera fans drifted away. I got a subscription to the Australia Chamber Orchestra instead and discovered a vibrant band of passionate players who have so enriched my life that I can only thank OA for sending me in their direction.
I had chosen to see Opera Australia's production of King Roger because it was billed as 'something different' but I probably wouldn't have gone to the ACO Murder and Redemption concert if I had not had a series subscription because it included American folk songs and I couldn't imagine how they could be combined successfully with a classical offering. So I expected more from one concert than the other.
Unfortunately I found King Roger underwhelming. The music itself is worth hearing, but I found the production too similar to other over-sexualised or pop-culture OA offerings. The program notes described how the composer Szymanowski struggled with his homosexuality, so a reference to this would have been understandable, but the surfeit of writhing and thrusting male dancers that was presented made me feel as if I was watching an American sitcom where every facial gesture is overdone. My seat-neighbour was similarly under-impressed, telling me he had seen the Edinburgh version which interpreted the opera as the struggle of transformation. It sounded like the one I would have preferred to see. I have seen several concert performances of opera since I gave up my AO subscription and find them much more satisfying than overblown productions. I read however that the current La Traviata is a winner, so perhaps I shall have to give OA another try.
In comparison, Murder and Redemption with Finnish violin-wizard Pekko Kuusisto leading the ACO way overshot my expectations. Folk songster Sam Amidon sang his songs with becoming naturalness (in the best American folk song tradition) but what surprised me was how they complemented the classical pieces by Janacek and John Adams.
I am not sure why exactly, but Amidon's songs gave the ACO's passionate version of Adam's Shaker Loops a special zing.
The ACO has exceptional curatorial skills and this program was just another example.
I sat there wishing I had brought my 17 year old music friend with me. If you want to induce that generation to go to a classical concert, this was the sort of music you would choose.
Monday, August 11, 2014
Jonas Kaufmann in Sydney
Jonas Kaufmann is billed as the world's hottest tenor and he seems to have been smoldering at me from all my Internet feeds recently - obviously the internet bots know my viewing preferences. I saw the man sing in the flesh last night and the reality is even better than the promos.
His voice is rich, velvety, extraordinarily flexible and fills even difficult spaces like the Sydney Opera House concert hall. The man is a consummate artist, much nicer than the posed photos.
There were almost audible gasps as Kaufmann started singing ('Recondita armonia' from Tosca) and after this first song my seat neighbour turned to me and said "Well even that one song was worth the (considerable) price of the ticket."
As Kaufmann sang I noticed a tenor sitting in front of me mouthing the words with an ecstatic look on his face. He obviously knew just how much hard work and dedication goes into delivering such a result. I had met this tenor earlier in the year and he told me he had bought an opera subscription just so he could get a good seat to hear Kaufmann sing. I am sure he was not the only one.
Kaufmann inhabits each role he sings (he was singing arias from French and Italian operas and his characters inevitably die tragic deaths) but he was also refreshingly joyous as well. Violinist and concert master Laura Hamilton played us a lovely 'Meditiation' from Jules Massenet's Thaïs and on his way to the stage afterwards Kaufmann plucked a rose from the huge vase to the side of the stage and presented it to her. [The displays of white flowers along stage front and in two big vases were so opulent I thought they must be fake ... but no, they were real.]
The Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra was conducted by fellow German Jochen Rieder and I think this was the master stroke. Rieder feels the songs just as Kaufmann does; he knows his singer and it showed.
Kaufmann sang three encores to a wildly clapping and stomping crowd at the opera house last night, two of them German popular songs. I would love to hear him singing Wagner. I might just have to follow him to wherever he sings Siegmund or German Lieder.
Addendum: excellent ABC interview with Jonas Kaufmann here .
His voice is rich, velvety, extraordinarily flexible and fills even difficult spaces like the Sydney Opera House concert hall. The man is a consummate artist, much nicer than the posed photos.
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| Sydney Opera House flowers |
There were almost audible gasps as Kaufmann started singing ('Recondita armonia' from Tosca) and after this first song my seat neighbour turned to me and said "Well even that one song was worth the (considerable) price of the ticket."
As Kaufmann sang I noticed a tenor sitting in front of me mouthing the words with an ecstatic look on his face. He obviously knew just how much hard work and dedication goes into delivering such a result. I had met this tenor earlier in the year and he told me he had bought an opera subscription just so he could get a good seat to hear Kaufmann sing. I am sure he was not the only one.
Kaufmann inhabits each role he sings (he was singing arias from French and Italian operas and his characters inevitably die tragic deaths) but he was also refreshingly joyous as well. Violinist and concert master Laura Hamilton played us a lovely 'Meditiation' from Jules Massenet's Thaïs and on his way to the stage afterwards Kaufmann plucked a rose from the huge vase to the side of the stage and presented it to her. [The displays of white flowers along stage front and in two big vases were so opulent I thought they must be fake ... but no, they were real.]
The Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra was conducted by fellow German Jochen Rieder and I think this was the master stroke. Rieder feels the songs just as Kaufmann does; he knows his singer and it showed.
Kaufmann sang three encores to a wildly clapping and stomping crowd at the opera house last night, two of them German popular songs. I would love to hear him singing Wagner. I might just have to follow him to wherever he sings Siegmund or German Lieder.
Addendum: excellent ABC interview with Jonas Kaufmann here .
Monday, May 20, 2013
What is of more value than trust?
People worry that computers will eventually control mankind but we should be worried about ourselves, not computers. We have created systems that no one seems to be able to control and these systems give no value to the things that really matter, such as trust and community.
You used to be able to trust banks; now they need controls which we seem unable to enact. Will we survive them? We used to trust research organisations. Now the CSIRO is mired in scandal and its money-minded managers will find out just how valuable trust actually was. Can they survive the damage?
The Australian Government is withdrawing funding for art schools and opera Australia has taken to putting on musicals. Are we headed for another dark ages? Do we care?
It is time to start caring about things again, and fighting for the things we care about. Culture for example.The Australian Chamber Orchestra has a wonderful outreach program in schools ... but they are having to defend music from attacks by people who should know better). A small theater has opened in Newtown, putting on wonderful stuff but they are struggling.
Lets get on our hind legs and support them and other local organisations who care.Forget the Olympics, lets bring back sport and music programs to schools. Find ways to keep small and medium firms in family ownership to protect them from merger-manics who stop making the products we like because they don't make enough profit. Support our local farmers.
You used to be able to trust banks; now they need controls which we seem unable to enact. Will we survive them? We used to trust research organisations. Now the CSIRO is mired in scandal and its money-minded managers will find out just how valuable trust actually was. Can they survive the damage?
The Australian Government is withdrawing funding for art schools and opera Australia has taken to putting on musicals. Are we headed for another dark ages? Do we care?
It is time to start caring about things again, and fighting for the things we care about. Culture for example.The Australian Chamber Orchestra has a wonderful outreach program in schools ... but they are having to defend music from attacks by people who should know better). A small theater has opened in Newtown, putting on wonderful stuff but they are struggling.
Lets get on our hind legs and support them and other local organisations who care.Forget the Olympics, lets bring back sport and music programs to schools. Find ways to keep small and medium firms in family ownership to protect them from merger-manics who stop making the products we like because they don't make enough profit. Support our local farmers.
Monday, September 03, 2012
Music magazines
As I wrote from Sydney, I couldn't find a single music or art related magazine in the Sydney Airport magazine/book store. I was looking for Opera Today to read the article on Christine Goerke, one of the singers I sketched in New Zealand.
I checked at the book store at the Graz railway station and there I found four different magazines about opera, two about musicals, one about ballet and so many art related magazines I didn't bother to count them. There were just as many titles about computers, sport, cars etc as in Sydney of course, it's just that the offering was more balanced. Opera Today was not one of the four available opera magazines so I left with Das Opernglas.
Maybe Lyndon Terracini (Opera Australia artistic director) could arrange that at least one store in Sydney carries opera titles, perhaps the opera house store? Would that be too much to ask?
I checked at the book store at the Graz railway station and there I found four different magazines about opera, two about musicals, one about ballet and so many art related magazines I didn't bother to count them. There were just as many titles about computers, sport, cars etc as in Sydney of course, it's just that the offering was more balanced. Opera Today was not one of the four available opera magazines so I left with Das Opernglas.
Maybe Lyndon Terracini (Opera Australia artistic director) could arrange that at least one store in Sydney carries opera titles, perhaps the opera house store? Would that be too much to ask?
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