Opera Australia - Attila by Verdi - Opening Night

Attila - Taras Berezhansky   (c) Opera Australia 

Verdi's Attila is a lavish, large-scale production with strong elements of violence and war. Audiences will find its as much about Italian Nationalism as the vague romance around which much of the plot is constructed. Verdi's work has been described as 'thinly veiled argument for Italy's independence from Austria' and 'an out-and-out rallying cry for an independent, unified Italy' having been written around 1846.

The opera, in three Acts, tells the story of invasion of Roman Italy by Attila the Hun with the current version being moved from 5th Century Italy to fascist Italy of the 1930s. For that reason 'the Huns' look closer to German soldiers or the Gestapo than barbarians. The Italians similarly are portrayed in a manner closer to 20th Century partisans than actual Roman soldiers from that earlier era.

The storyline of the opera in summary: 

Odabella, the daughter of the Lord of the now destroyed town of Aquileia, has been captured by Attila's forces however he is impressed by her and gives her his own knife as a keepsake. The Roman general, Ezio seeks an audience with Attila to reach terms but is rebuffed. Meanwhile away from the town, Foresto who is engaged to Odabella is leading the refugees away from the destroyed town and plotting how to regroup. Foresto believes Odabella to be dead but on learning of her survival accuses her of betrayal which she denies and states that she is plotting to kill Attila. 

Attila plans to march on Rome but asleep one night, he dreams of being urged not to do so by an old man that he later recognises to be Pope Leo I. Attila therefore instead invites Ezio to a banquet and plans to marry Odabella however Ezio and Foresto are planning to attack Attila. Following the banquet, the Romans attack Attila and Ezio, Foresto and Odebella find Attila whereupon Odebella kills Attila with the knife he had given her. 

Opera Australia has brought this opera back on stage after having its initial season cut short by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and it's a welcome continuation of the performance. For the Opening Night, many in the audience attended in Black Tie and there was a smattering of A lister opera enthusiasts and Government Ministers including retiring Health Minister, Brad Hazard and NSW Treasurer, Matt Kean. The retiring artistic director of Opera Australia, Lyndon Terracini, sitting in the audience, was given a enthusiastic round of applause for his 13 years with the opera company with Attila being his final production.

At the conclusion of the opera during the curtain call, lead singer Taras Berezhansky, who is Ukrainian, draped the Ukrainian flag around his shoulders and was given a rousing sustained round of applause from the audience.

The cast for Attila were -

Taras Berezhansky as Attila

Natalie Aroyan as Odabella

Diego Torre as Foresto

Michael Honeyman as Ezio (replacing Mario Cassi who was unable to travel to Australia due to illness)

Virgilio Marino as Uldino

Richard Anderson as Pope Leo 1

Australian Opera - 2017 Season - La Boheme

Australian Opera 2017 Season - La Boheme - Cafe Momus

Puccini's La Boheme is a staple of any opera company's performance repertoire and in any given two year period almost always makes an appearance on the seasonal programme. Director Gale Edwards has repositioned La Boheme in the 2017 version into the historical period of the Weimar Republic in Germany on the eve of the Nazi period. The sets and costumes are reminiscent of the 1930s with just a hint of the nationalism and arising Nazi influence which characterised that period. In many respects this version of La Boheme often resembles the musical Cabaret  given the Cafe Momus is more of a cabaret/cocktail lounge replete with bare breasted young women gliding along the poles of the private boxes.

The opera is in four Acts and centres on the relationship of two couples - the first being Rudolfo, a writer poet and Mimi a young seamstress and the second, Marcello, a painter and Musetta, a singer and former flame of Marcello's. Rudolfo and Marcello share a studio together visited by their comrades Colline, a philosopher and Schaunard, a musician. Like their other contemporaries, they are very poor and scratch out a living.

Essentially La Boheme is a story of tragedy and lost love and the opera concludes with the death of Mimi. The sets are impressive, the casting of the singers well chosen (Arthur Espiritu as Rodolfo, Andrew Jones as Marcello, Greta Bradman as Mimi, Julie Lea Goodwin as Musetta) and the staging of the production is faultless. Nonetheless the repositioning of La Boheme into Weimar Germany hits a jarring note and provides a needless distraction. The presence of quasi fascist uniforms and a drum corp of the League of German Girls adds to the disconnect between Puccini's original work and the reinterepretation. In this sense it is not a successful production.

Opera Australia 2017 season - Review - King Roger

Michael Honeyman (centre) King Roger and Lorna Gore (far left) Roxanna

This is the first time the Australian Opera has performed a Polish opera and none is more fitting than Karol Szymanowski's King Roger. Often described as rich and strange, in three Acts the Opera traces the enlightenment of Christian King Roger by a young shepherd who represents pagan principles and a devotion to hedonism. The underlying theme which Symanowski is exploring is the transformative impact of beauty on cultural orthodoxy for the shepherd's message is both enticing and destructive.

In terms of a synopsis: In Act I the Archbishop and the Deaconess demand that King Roger punish a new self-proclaimed prophet who is preaching a new, strange faith. Others call for the Shepherd's execution for blasphemy. Queen Roxanna urges to the King to summon the Shepherd to explain himself for she is drawn to his preaching of freedom, pleasure and love. In Act II the Shepherd arrives and describes his philosophy and faith of pleasure unleashing an orgiastic dance which seduces the citizens into ecstasy. In Act III the Shepherd is now in power and King Roger is on trial and wanders amongst the ruins. As night falls, the Shepherd then reappears and reveals his true identity as the god of pure pleasure and demands that all should follow him blindly.  Roger resists and as dawn breaks he feels hopeful to build a new life and escape the Shepherd.  

Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) is widely accepted as Poland's greatest composer since Chopin and it is often thought that King Roger is actually a representation of himself, a suggestion which he never contradicted. The Opera is a synthesis of different musical forms drawn from varied cultural contexts including the Mediterranean and North Africa which Szymanowski experienced as he travelled across these regions.

The set design is imaginative and multifunctional with an enormous bust of Roger's head on stage which revolves revealing a split-level internal set design of Roger's palace apartments inside. Superb stage lighting also creates the impression that the eyes of the great head follow the cast as they move.

The capable key performers for this production were:

• Michael Honeyman as King Roger
• Lorna Gore as Roxanna
• Saimir Pirgu as The Shepherd
• James Egglestone as Edrisi
• Dominica Mathews as the Deaconess
• Gennadi Dubinsky as ther Archbishop

King Roger's theme and message still resonates in the current era as much as it did in the early 20th Century.

Australian Opera 2014 Season - Carmen - Opera Review

Milijana Nikolic onstage in Carmen - Australian Opera 2014

Georges Bizet's Carmen is a staple part of any opera company's repertoire and no less so for the Australian Opera. Included in the 2014 season, Carmen brings a story and a music score which has long become far more recognisable and popular than when it first premiered in Paris in March 1875. The opera is in four acts and based on a novella by Prosper Merimee with the libretto written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halevy. The story plot set in Spain follows the seducing influence of the fiery Gypsy, Carmen, who ensnares a naive solder by the name of Don Jose, causing him to abandon both his childhood sweetheart and his military duties. But Carmen sees greater opportunity and Don Jose loses her romantic attention to the flashy and glamorous toreador, Escamillo. In a fit of jealousy, Don Jose stalks and then kills Carmen and thus compounds the tragedy. As an opera, Carmen, broke new ground with the representations of proletarian life, squalor and lawlessness. The use of a chorus of street urchins and pickpockets adds an unusual element to the mechanism of choruses on stage.

For the Australian production the central role of Carmen herself is sung by Nancy Fabiola Herrera or Milijana Nikolic and for this performance Milijana Nikolic gave a perfect representation of the persuasive charm and influence of Carmen. For those who enjoy opera, Carmen is a required attendance in any yearly season.

Opera Review - The Magic Flute - Australian Opera 2014 Season

Papageno and Prince Tamino facing danger.

The Australian Opera 2014 season includes a perennial favourite for Opera companies and audiences, The Magic Flute. Mozart's two Act opera is performed in English although the original was set to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder and uses the singspiel format of both singing and spoken dialogue. What distinguishes this latest performance of the Mozart classic is that it is the production of Julie Taymor which was performed at the New York Met in 2004. Taymor is best known for her designs for The Lion King and the result is a colourful, dazzling visual spectacle to match Mozart's effusive music.

Over two hours the audience experiences a range of images from giant puppet polar bears, a Queen of Night with enormous, multiple, geometric wings, puppet birds and various other creatures soaring through the air, three women with detachable masks and three boy spirits looking like latter day Methusalahs dressed in white lycra. The stage itself has a partial circular walkway bringing the characters to the audience and around the orchestra pit. 

The Operatic story follows Prince Tamino in his quest to save Pamina, the daughter of the Queen of the Night from the evil sorcerer, Sarastro. He is aided by a magic flute given to him by three mysterious ladies and by Papageno, the bird catcher who has been given some magic bells by the ladies and told to accompany Tamino on his quest. The Queen of the Night appears and tells Tamino that if he can rescue her daughter then Pamina can be his wife. The magic flute has special powers and can change sorrow to joy and the magic bells given to Papageno brings great happiness to all who hear them. The Magic Flute remains one of the easiest operas to enjoy and is accessible to all ages and levels of opera experience.