blog

Media spotlight for Midnight

Tue, 15 May 2012 13:40:31 +1000

Byron Watson (Ray Clarke) and Dimity Shepherd (Clara Johnson) in Victorian Opera's 'Midnight Son' 2012 ©Jeff Busby.

In the last few days there has been a flurry of media activity around Midnight Son: ‘Notes from a lethal love affair’ by The Age; ‘A journey from darkness to light’ by The Australian; ‘Sordid crime becomes art’ from the ABC 7.30 Report, ‘Korp case opera ready for opening night’ in The Age, Richard Gill talking to Jon Faine on ABC 774 Melbourne (Richard appears 2/3rds of the way into the program) and Gordon Kerry talking on The Music Show on ABC Radio National. What they provide is a fascinating insight into this new Australian opera of a modern day tragedy set in suburban Melbourne.

A first look at Midnight Son

Mon, 14 May 2012 11:25:27 +1000

Dimity Shepherd (Clara Johnson), Byron Watson (Ray Clark) and Antoinette Halloran (Marisa Clark) in Victorian Opera's 'Midnight Son' - 2012 © Jeff Busby

Victorian Opera's latest production, Midnight Son launches on Wednesday 16 May. This brave new Australian work composed by Gordon Kerry with a libretto by Louis Nowra unfolds like a detective working backwards from a crime scene. It starts with tragedy, then travels back to a love triangle and finally reveals the beginnings of love.

Visit Victorian Opera's Facebook for sneak peak of the world premiere.

Sordid crime becomes art - ABC 7.30 Report

Fri, 11 May 2012 19:30:00 +1000

Midnight Son featured on the ABC 7.30 Report. Cast Byron Watson, Dimity Shepherd, Antoinette Halloran, Composer Gordon Kerry, Director Nicki Wendt and Conductor Olliver -Philippe Cunéo talk about their experiences in brining the new Australian opera to the stage.

The Tragedy of the Tangled

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:29:25 +1000

“Burning midnight oil over sex props”. If you hadn’t already guessed by that title, the focus of this piece in The Age is the new Australian opera Midnight Son. Although not the profile we were hoping for, sadly it represents the tragedy of telling a complex and tangled story inspired by real events.

Judgements are inevitably made, parallels are drawn, explicit words and scenes are waved around out of context - and all this even before the singers even step onto the stage. It is no secret that the story behind Midnight Son was inspired by real events and it contains some explicit content. What people often forget is that the real events which inspired this opera were only the starting point for Midnight Son. Scenes are then imagined outside the initial story, actors then bring their own interpretations, a creative team bring their own vision, and the work becomes something else entirely.

For Richard Gill, Music Director of Victorian Opera Midnight Son “is about how operatic and tragic events can result from the everyday and the domestic.”

For composer Gordon Kerry, the story is “about people who are not inherently evil, but rather fallible human beings, with whom at various points, the audience is invited to feel empathy”.

Midnight Son aims to bring a sensitive and compassionate perspective to a devastating tale about blinding obsession. Is it possible to untangle the story of three lost souls from a complex web of swinging and sexual obsession? We think so and we invite you to share your thoughts on Victorian Opera’s journey in bringing this new Australian opera to life by emailing info@victorianopera.com.au.

Midnight Son opens at the Malthouse Theatre on Wednesday 16 May.

Discover 13th Century Turkish music

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 10:01:26 +1000

Our sold- out upcoming liturgical drama, The Play of Daniel features beautiful Classical Turkish music from the 13th Century. Music Director (and Nefes Ensemble Artistic Director) Rachel Atkinson writes about the complexities of Turkish Classical music and the instruments.

A little background into Classical Turkish music

Classical Turkish music is the style of Turkish compositional tradition that was used by composers over many centuries and provinces of Ottoman rule. The music involves Taksim, an instrumental improvisation that can exist on its own or as an introduction to an instrumental composition. Taksim are the ultimate form of artistic expression, and even though they may sound free, they are highly structured.

Taksim explores the makam or mode of a piece, highlighting its special qualities. Makam is a complex system of intervals and rules used in Turkish Classical Music. While Western music has a complexity of harmony not found in classical Turkish music, the classical Turkish scale is far more complex than our own. A tone in the Western scale as presented on a piano is divisible by two (semitones). In Classical Turkish music that same tone is divisible by nine. There are over 500 makamlar (pl) It is notable that some makamlar are used for their healing properties in hospitals in central Turkey.

Turkish Classical music instruments

The ney, which means reed in Persian, produces one of the most haunting sounds of Classical Turkish music and is one of the primary instruments in the music of the Mevlevi (Whirling Dervishes). It has seven holes: six finger holes at the front and one thumb hole at the back. Held obliquely at the mouth, the Turkish ney is blown through a mouthpiece which can be made of wood, horn, ivory, or ebony. The instrument's range is over two and a half octaves and there are nine neys of different sizes to accommodate the different registers.

The kanun is a finger-plucked zither. It has a complex construction that allows it to quickly change the pitch of individual strings by repositioning small bridges by the way of levers. It is the ancestor of the harpsichord and in Turkish Classical music, the tuning of the kanun is known as the 'law', meaning that any instrument playing with the kanun must tune to it. This has its parallel in Western music as any Western keyboard instrument has a fixed tuning.

The yayli tanbur is a long-necked, bowed string instrument with six strings divided into three courses, tuned DD, AA, dd. The bridge rests on a skin head a little like on a Western banjo. Most of the melody is played on the high course of strings. The neck has tied-on nylon frets, which are spaced for Turkish Classical Music’s scale system, which include intervals less than a semi tone. When musicians study any Turkish Classical instrument, they first learn the notes of the scale on the fingerboard of a tanbur.

The Turkish oud is a fret-less lute with a pear-shaped body and a peg-box that angles back from the neck. The strings are plucked with a plectrum. There are different types of oud in the Middle East and the Turkish oud is slightly smaller than those from neighbouring countries and therefore is at a slightly higher pitch. The oud is the ancestor of the Western lute and the word lute comes from the Arabic word al-ud.

The kudum, bendir and daire are percussion instruments. The kudum was developed and played by the Mevlevi Sufis for use in their religious ceremonies and is a small version of the timpani. It consists of a small pair of hemispherical copper drums traditionally covered in camel skin. It is the ancestor of the modern kettle drum and functions as the primary rhythmic instrument in Classical Turkish music. The bendir is a frame drum also used by the Mevlevi Sufis. It is made of goat skin which is stretched over a wooden frame.The daire is a frame drum with cymbals. It is the percussion instrument that influenced Haydn and Mozart in their symphonies.

The violin and cello were introduced to Turkish Classical Music in the 1830s in an attempt to lean towards the West.

- Rachel Atkinson

The Play of Daniel features the Victorian Youth Opera and Nefes Ensemble and is part of the State Library of Victoria's Love and Devotion: from Persia and Beyond exhibition. Tickets have SOLD OUT.

Catch that review! The Play of Daniel

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 14:32:37 +1000

Charlotte Betts-Dean (Balthasar's Queen) & Robert Campbell (Balthasar) in Victorian Opera's 'The Play of Daniel'

"Enchanting", "beautiful" and "a feast of exquisite singing" were just some of the rave audience reviews for Victorian Youth Opera's production The Play of Daniel.

"Ethereal voice" - Herald Sun's Simon Plant describes Tobias Glaser's voice - Daniel in the den again
City Weekly's Stephen A Russell - Preview: The Play of Daniel

Listen to The Play of Daniel on Radio National

Mastering the Music - Jeremy Kleeman

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 09:41:42 +1000

Jeremy Kleeman (Don Magnifico) in Victorian Opera's production 'La Cenerentola'

Recently Victorian Opera presented La Cenerentola at the Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne, as part of the Education Program. The opera by Rossini was performed by our Master of Music (Opera Performance) students. Jeremy Kleeman (Don Magnifico) shares the experience of performing for over 1,500 primary school students.

It’s been a very busy but thoroughly enjoyable start to the year in the new Masters of Music (Opera Performance) program. One of the highlights for me so far is the recent education production of La Cenerentola which we performed four times over the last week to hundreds of primary school children. Having understudied in The Rake’s Progress and sat in on many weeks of rehearsals, we only had one music call and four production calls to put this entire show together, but thanks to the efficiency of both director Cameron Menzies and musical director Daniel Carter, we somehow pulled it off!

The show was particularly significant for myself as it was technically my first role with the company and first operatic role in general. It was fantastic to sing with a full orchestra in a top tier venue like the Playhouse for the first time, but my role wasn’t without its challenges. Being a low male voice the majority of the roles that I can sing are either villians or fathers. In this case the two were combined in the form of Don Magnifico, Cenerentola’s wicked step-father (the story is slightly altered from the classic fairytale). Ironically I was the youngest member of the cast. The kids for whom we were performing didn’t seem to mind though. They were a delightful audience to perform to really, party thanks to the brilliant narration of Angus Grant who managed to have the kids, teachers and cast hanging out for his witty one liners. My favourite was when he came out with an umbrella after the ‘storm’ and asked the kids whether they thought it would have registered on the bureau.

La Cenerentola was great as it gave me a taste of the requirements of performing an opera, but did so in a safe environment. I’d like to thank everybody that made it possible and I hope the kids that came to see it had a great time and got an idea of just how exciting opera can be. Perhaps they won’t tell Mum to throw away their iPods as Angus suggested at the end of every show, but they might ask Mum to play some at home or even take them along in the future which can only be a good thing for the art form.

- Jeremy Kleeman

View the full photo album on Facebook.

Revisiting Cinderella

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 17:19:26 +1100

Kirilie Blythman, Daniel Todd, Timothy Reynolds, James Payne, Olivia Cranwell, Carlos Enrique Barcentas, Christine Heald in Victorian Opera's 'La Cenerentola' © Morganna Magee

Earlier this year, Victorian Opera presented Cinderella, a pantomime written by Richard Gill. Carrying on the Cinderella story, Victorian Opera presented Rossini's original La Cenerentola to over 1500 primary school students. We've captured the magic and behind-the-scenes in our photo album

Profiling Partners - Wakelin Property Advisory

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 16:11:24 +1100

Monique Sasson Wakelin, Director, Wakelin Property Advisory

As two Victorian organisations with a national reach, Victorian Opera and Wakelin Property Advisory are excited to be working together for the first time in 2012. We sat down with Monique Sasson Wakelin, Director who has a personal passion for singing and a professional passion for supporting the arts.

Tell us about your first experience of Victorian Opera?

Well, at the time Merlyn Quaife was on the Board of Victorian Opera and I had been studying voice with her for about a year, she invited me along to Victorian Opera's L'incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea, 2008). I had been to the big opera houses around the world and had lots of experience of opera but that performance opened my eyes to opera in a very different way.

I think it was the intimacy and sensitivity of the way the opera was conceived and performed and particularly the way Richard Gill introduced the opera. The voices were extraordinary; there was a beautiful simplicity and a restraint about how it was performed. It was at that point that I really strongly felt this was something that I wanted to be part of and it’s fabulous that it’s actually come to fruition four years later.

Why do you think it’s important to support the arts?

As a business, it is incredibly important to support organisations that, like ourselves, break new ground. Ultimately, I believe that people remember specific experiences of quality innovations – those ‘goose bump’ moments.

I think that the pursuit of something artistic puts you back in touch with the true nature of what we are as human beings; that we are living, breathing, creative creatures. The pursuit of something like opera puts me firmly back in touch with the desire to help other people nourish themselves, as well as to self-nourish.

Why are you studying opera?

In recent years I’ve begun to study voice. Even as a beginner, I’ve discovered that opera provides that sense of life balance and healthy psychological balance I know I need to do creative, artistic things. Opera has felt a very natural direction to go in.

Does the creativity that flows from singing come back into your business world?

Absolutely! When I work with my voice teacher, the fabulous Merlyn Quaife, I’ve got to completely divorce myself from business and concentrate exclusively on what I’m doing - it actually gives me a really important mental break from business life. Also, as a performing artist, you are incredibly vulnerable and you are really putting yourself out there. It’s a risk and I think that it helps you to take that risk in your business life more comfortably.

Why is Wakelin Property Advisory supporting the Victorian Opera?

Both organisations are really committed to giving their audiences –in our case our clients – the very best possible experience. Both do this by way of really well conceived and well executed educational initiatives that really deepen people’s appreciation and understanding of the respective disciplines and that for me is a very natural and culturally very compatible fit. The charter of the two organisations is so similar.

Wakelin Property Advisory is Victorian Opera's Property Investment Partner. For more information visit wakelin.com.au

Tempt your senses

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 16:41:06 +1100

Our friends at Studio Channel have created a fabulous clip capturing the love, corruption and madness that is The Rake's Progress. Book now via the Arts Centre Melbourne

Goodbye Sian!

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 11:19:40 +1100

We farewell our Sian Ellett, one of our wonderful blog writers with a fabulous cake. Now, how to cut it?!

Roxane and Baba

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 11:02:36 +1100

Roxane Hislop as Baba the Turk in The Rake's Progress

“Baba the Turk is a cross between Lady Gaga and a circus act,” Roxane Hislop says of her character in The Rake’s Progress. She is the consummate diva and star with her own adoring public.

Roxane describes wearing a beard as ‘challenging.’ Aside from the fact that it was terribly itchy, the beard needed trimming to allow Roxane to sing comfortably, “I was too scared to open my mouth at first!” It is startlingly realistic.

Roxane has found Baba’s heart. Her bearded character engages in a bit of “incessant chatter,” but she is compassionate and forgiving, helping Anne to find her Rake, despite Tom’s deplorable behaviour. Baba loses everything, her husband, her possessions, her career and even suffers the ultimate degradation of being sold herself, “but she endures,” Roxane says. Baba made a mistake to leave the stage and follow Tom, but she is willing to admit it and to help Anne, “She’s a good girl really.” Roxane is smitten and you probably will be too once Baba takes the stage.

See Roxane and the irrepressible Baba at the Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne, until Tuesday 27th March.

Catch that review! The Rake's Progress

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 11:43:05 +1100

Andrew Collis flexing the will of the devil on Ben Namdarian's Tom Rakewell

Does this image fill anyone else with terror?

Melbourne reviewers certainly had something to say -

Peter Burch from The Australian - A devilishly pleasing journey into madness.

Melissa Lesnie from Limelight - The art of being the devil: Stravinksy's The Rake's Progress.

Anne McAlister from The Herald Sun.

Martin Duffy from The Age.

Our Founding Music Director, Richard Gill, talks about Stravinksy and The Rake's Progress in The Age if you're hungry for more.

Mother Goose removes her feathers

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 11:03:14 +1100

Jonathan Bode as Mother Goose in The Rake's Progress

“You look too pretty,” Director John Bell told Jonathan Bode in rehearsals for his role as Mother Goose in The Rake’s Progress. While Jon began with a naturalistic interpretation, the rehearsal process has seen him develop a dangerous and gritty Mother Goose who will widen the eyes of audiences and perhaps a steal some breath away too.

Jon plays both Mother Goose and Sellem the Auctioneer and says embodying the two has been a process of drawing out differences. Jon comments, “It’s much harder to play two characters that are similar, the definitions blur too easily.” Costuming also played a role in Bode's characterisation of Mother Goose's as her outfit demanded a certain way of moving, "immediately my legs and back were straight and my head was high."

Learning to walk in six inch heels as been an ‘interesting process’ for Jon. Discussions with his wife concluded with him stalking the living room in her heels. He says with a smile that he imagined his kids’ commentary of the scene running along the lines of, “We knew Dad was weird, but really...” Jon wasn’t sure what to expect when he took to the streets with designer Leon Krasenstein to purchase high heels, but says the women in the shoe stores were incredibly supportive. “Heel toe, heel toe,” a helpful sales assistant advised him.

Jon is on stage until the 27th of March with the company of The Rake's Progress at the Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne.

The Rake Progresses!

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 11:05:08 +1100

Roxane Hislop and Andrew Collis in The Rake's Progress.

The bearded lady and the devil (yes, you read correctly), otherwise known as Baba the Turk played by Roxane Hislop and Nick Shadow played by Andrew Collis, surprised and delighted us all at the opening night of The Rake's Progress on Saturday 17th March.

Mesmerising performances from all of the cast, we're looking forward to the next show tonight. Get your tickets from the Arts Centre Melbourne.

Did you see the show? Tell us what you think (the comments field is lonely)!

- Victorian Opera

Devilish delights

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 12:07:38 +1100

Andrew Collis playing Nick Shadow in The Rake's Progress 2012

"Tom is like a young AFL star who has gone off the rails," Andrew Collis says whilst sitting in his dressing room. "He's susceptible to Nick's treachery."Andrew describes Nick Shadow, devil incarnate, as having an easy job of turning Tom Rakewell to the dark side. "You just want to give Tom a slap, he's so easy to manipulate, so willing to be degraded."

Collis says he tried not to think about Nick being 'evil' when interacting with other characters. "Playing Nick is, in a way, like any other role. He still needs to get from A to B, he still develops over the course of the opera." For all his control of Tom Rakewell, Nick does not hold all the cards; he loses Tom's soul in a game of cards that he himself proposed. "He's the eternal gambler," says Collis. Stravinsky's 'devil' is as fallible as the rest.

Andrew Collis is not really evil at all. He's quite keen to pose as many questions as he is asked and describes himself as "a conventional guy, a father." He agrees that playing 'the devil' is an extraordinary role, "a real change in realities."

Prepare to have your reality altered. The Rake's Progress opens at the Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne, on Saturday night.

Anne's True Love

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 13:12:45 +1100

Tiffany Speight, playing Anne Trulove in The Rake's Progress 2012

"Anne does go for the good looking bad boy," Tiffany Speight confides in a break between rehearsals of The Rake's Progress, "but there's a lot more to it than that." Tiffany explains that Anne is a woman very aware of her responsibilities to her father, who also constantly struggles to look after the man she is in love with, despite Tom Rakewell's spectacular fall from grace. "She's somewhere between completely understandable and completely frustrating," Tiffany says, describing the way Anne never gives up on Tom , forgives all of his treacheries and nurses him in her arms in the heartbreaking final scene of the opera.

"I feel like I'm playing myself," Tiffany admits and I have to agree, her clear gaze and warm smile shine in person as well as on the stage. Anne is one of the only constants in Stravinksy's masterpiece. She is loyal, both to her father and to Tom; her love does not falter and she follows Tom to his indecorous end, her heart still pure. "I respect her," says Tiffany, "she has a wonderful, quiet strength."

The Rake speaks

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 15:48:45 +1100

Ben Namdarian becomes Tom Rakewell, The Rake's Progress 2012

Ben Namdarian thinks his dressing room is too large; his modesty is endearing. He’s as far from being a ‘rake’ as it may be possible to get, but he’s playing Tom Rakewell in The Rake’s Progress with intensity and assurance.

Ben describes the process of finding the character of Tom Rakewell as challenging, “Tom seeks the same things as all of us, but he does it in all the wrong ways.” He says that while it is musically challenging tackling Stravinsky's “beautiful, powerful and moving” score, it has also been a worthy challenge to follow the dramatic rollercoaster of Tom Rakewell’s journey.

Tom is a character without any moral compass, easily led and easily degraded, yet Ben has found the humanity in him. He says he has not made up his mind whether Tom is really evil at all. “He does a lot of very bad things, he is a weak man. But he is searching for happiness; he does not see that he has everything he could ever need with Anne (Trulove).” It will be up to the audience to decide.

Ben is a surgical registrar at Box Hill Hospital and it is hard to decipher which role is the one he plays in his spare time, doctor or opera singer. It is probably better to say he doesn’t have much spare time. His holidays from the hospital are spent performing.

The Rake’s Progress opens this Saturday night and the dressing rooms under the Arts Centre Melbourne are full of singers, technicians and musicians. Right now, Ben is in the final stages of make-up before a run-through. I leave him warming up under the persistent thrum of the hair-dryer.

Shoes for sunshine

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:25:55 +1100

Anne Trulove's shoes, The Rake's Progress 2012

Will Anne Trulove's shoes dry in time for the opening of The Rake's Progress this Saturday??

You'll have to come along and check.

Book your tickets now from Arts Centre Melbourne.

Love and Devotion: From Persia and Beyond - Part 1

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 08:34:44 +1100

The marriage of Yusuf and Zulaykha, from Jami, Yusuf u Zulaykha, 1595 Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.

The State Library of Victoria opens its exhibition, Love and Devotion: From Persia and Beyond today. In the first part of the Two Part series, we chatted to co-curators Susan Scollay and Clare Williamson about the exhibtion, what audiences can expect and the stories behind the Persian manuscripts.

As part of the exhibition, Victorian Opera is presenting The Play of Daniel.

How did the exhibition come to the State Library of Victoria?

The State Library of Victoria was interested in developing an exhibition that would enable audiences here to experience first-hand the beauty of Persian manuscripts, which are centuries-old handmade and illustrated books. Susan Scollay, guest co-curator, had undertaken research at the Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford as part of her PhD, and developed the concept of an exhibition that would have the themes of love and devotion in Persian poetry as its focus. We approached the Bodleian with our proposal and they have offered their full support ever since. They also wish to present the exhibition in Oxford later this year – but Melbourne audiences will be the first to see it.

What can audiences expect from Love and Devotion: From Persia and Beyond?

The exhibition includes more than 60 beautifully illustrated Persian manuscripts dating from the 13th to the 18th centuries from the Bodleian Libraries. These were produced in Iran, Mughal India and Ottoman Turkey. They consist of bound books in showcases together with framed individual leaves and are displayed together with a number of manuscripts from the State Library and other Australian collections. The exhibition also includes examples of early European literature, travel books and maps, as the exhibition also looks at parallels and intersections between Persian and European literature and ideas. Visitors to the exhibition will be able to watch a specially produced video that combines enlarged details of many of the beautiful illustrations with extracts from Persian poetry recited and sung by Melbourne-based Persian music group, the Mehr Ensemble, and to listen to English translations of Persian poetry read by Australian actor Helen Morse.

What was the inspiration for the theme, Love and Devotion?

The themes of love and devotion are prominent in Persian literature and poetry is one of the highest achievements of Persian culture. These ideas are expressed through stories that range from classic, and often tragic, tales of romantic love, stories of love between rulers and subjects, between fathers and sons, and ultimately, love for, and spiritual union with, the Divine. In addition to the classic love stories told in Persian literature, themes of love and devotion are also at the heart of the poetry of the great Persian lyric poets such as Rumi, Hafiz and Sa‘di.

Part 2 - Co-curators Susan Scollay and Clare Williamson talk about the stories behind the Persian manuscripts and Persian arts, music and culture.