Category Archive: MUSIC
Don Giovanni
Image courtesy of Barcex
English National Opera, London Coliseum (Autumn 2004) Oh Dear: what have we here? Don Giovanni is driven on stage in a clapped-out Ford Consul (or something – not good on cars, TVC will use Pam Ayres’ phrase) and out spills Donna Anna and Don Giovanni, covering up their junk. And downhill from there. This Calixto Bieto production was touted as “Mozart meets Reservoir Dogs” . It was more a case of ‘Salieri meets The Panic in Needle Park meets Cruising’. David Parry conducted. Eventually, some of the good bits floated back into our cerebral cortex, helped by wine chugged at…
Continue Reading →The Richard Wagner Society
Wagner laughing at himself
14 April 2014 The Richard Wagner Society of SA presented Timothy Sexton, Artistic Director of State Opera SA, to present the inaugural Brian Coghlan Lecture in honour of its Past President. Sexton, who presented the Glass Trilogy in August 2014, was given the difficult brief of proving a link between Wagner and Glass, which he heroically did in an erudite and entertaining way, enlivened by musical examples. Although TVC‘s response to the lecture’s sub text “Was Richard Wagner the first experimental minimalist composer?” is a resounding “No”, we are now prepared to water down that ‘narrow-minded’ position a tad. Wagnerites…
Continue Reading →The Barber of Seville
(Opera Australia) (2007) Another can’t-miss piece, perhaps the greatest opera buffa of all, with typical Rossini touches – beautiful young lady, thwarted passion, a nasty guardian, identity confusion and a comically manipulative mastermind – was staged by OA over the country in 2007. Rossini’s score is uneven but joyous, featuring many popular melodies (e.g. the smash cavatina Largo al Factotum Della Citta – “Figaro sù, Figaro giù! Figaro quà, Figaro la!”). TVC saw the production in Melbourne (14/4/07), when there was last minute shuffling of the cast, Figaro being laryngeally inflamed, and replaced by his servant. The key role of…
Continue Reading →Il Signor Bruschino / La voix humaine
Yvonne Kenny
(15/12/2005, Melbourne) These one act operas, by Rossini and Poulenc respectively, were staged as “Love in Two Acts” by OA at the Arts Theatre, both conducted by Stephen Mould. Rossini’s short opera buffa is, as usual, very kind on the ear, eye and understanding, as assumed identities, a pompous guardian and true-love-triumphant make for a nice pas de huit. Emma Matthews and Kanen Breen as the lovers, led a fine cast, directed by Stuart Maunder. Poulenc’s piece, on the other hand, is like a cross between Sorry, Wrong Number and and a Lifeline transcript, as Elle, on her disheveled bed,…
Continue Reading →Kata Kabanova
Palais Garnier. Image by P. Giraud
Palais Garnier (2 November 2004) A beautiful production of this sad tale of adultery and recrimination, with the set a series of flats that would be at home in The Bill, including an appropriately atrocious print of bison at a waterhole (just to rub in Kabanicha’s horrendousness) and leaf-swept patio – incongruous in the gilded truffle of this particular opera house. Angela Denoke and Jane Henschel, as Kata and mum-in-law respectively, take on the white and black hatted key roles magnificently. Peter Burian conducted.
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