THE MAGIC FLUTE

A new English libretto by Carl Rafferty - Music by W.A. Mozart - Produced by Carl Rafferty,Directed by Shane Treeves - Musical Director: Peter Tregear

The Albert Hall – May 3-5^th.

Reviewed by Bill Stephens

For some years now Carl Rafferty has been presenting a style of “dinner opera” in the Albert Hall, under the title of   “Opera by Candlelight”.  With its classic Federation period elegance, The Albert Hall provides a perfect venue for this endeavour, and with this finely honed production, Rafferty has perfected the recipe for presenting a unique and memorable evening of opera with the potential to become yet another major Canberra tourist blockbuster. 

On arrival, guests are greeted with the spectacle of the superb hall set with tables dressed  in crisp white table-cloths, each surrounded by eight burgundy chairs, and on each, a silver candelabra complete with flickering candles.  The stage is extended with a spectacular setting, created by Wayne Shepherd, in readiness for the opera which will be performed between courses of dinner.

Guests are encouraged to dress elaborately, and to bring their own food and wine, and most enter into the mood of the night with gusto, loading the tables with fine food and wine, and dressing appropriately. Midway through the evening a prize is given to the best decorated table.

Promptly at 7.00 o'clock, the performance begins, and on this occasion it is “The Magic Flute” for which Carl Rafferty, in addition to producing the opera, selecting the cast, the setting and the costumes, and who also plays piano in the orchestra, has written a new English libretto based on the original work by Emanuel Schickaneder.  In doing so, he’s removed all of the freemasonry symbols and most of the darker references, and come up with a thoroughly enchanting singspiel which if not the opera Mozart intended, is certainly  wonderfully cohesive and entertaining.  

Rafferty has cast his net wide to assemble a cast who are talented as well as young and attractive, and while not all of them yet have the voices for their roles, there is some spectacularly good singing on offer. Young New Zealand tenor James Adams is well cast as Prince Tamino.  Not only is he as good-looking as any Walt Disney prince, he also has a fine tenor voice, and can act, finding exactly the correct tone of slightly silly manliness for the role.

James Adams as Prince Tamino

 

His Princess Pamina is a 21 year-old  Slovenian soprano, Jerica Steklasa, who, as well as  also being very beautiful, possesses a glorious voice and the ability to act her role with such conviction and sincerity that the audience is quickly drawn  into the story. Her handling of the scene in which she pleads with Tamino, who has been sworn to silence, to speak to her, was especially moving. Canberra audiences are fortunate to have the opportunity to see this talented young singer making her role debut as Pamina, because, having just won Slovenia’s important TEMSIG music competition just prior to arriving in  Canberra,  she is without doubt destined for a brilliant singing career. 

Jerica Steklasa who played Princess Pamina

 

Kate Rafferty was splendid as the icy and imperious  Queen of the Night, tossing off the difficult vocal gymnastics with confidence and style, while the impressively deep-voiced, Philip Barton, managed to invest his Sarastro  with a warmth and dignity not normally associated with this role.

While Zach Raffan, who shares the role of Papageno with Daniel Nicholson, may not have the best singing voice on stage, he certainly doesn’t lack acting ability and managed to bring considerable charm to his Papageno. His final “Pa, Pa, Pa” duet with the vivacious Cecilia Connell as Papagena,  provided one of the many highlights of the evening.

Cecilia Connell (Papagena) Zach Raffan (Papageno) 

 

Directing his first opera, Shane Treeves also gave an energectic performance in the role of Sarastro’s slave, Monostatos, and while he made quite a strong impression in the role, it was his work as director which was particularly impressive. His staging is imaginative and resourceful, and most importantly, he displays a sense of musical awareness not always present in opera directors and one looks forward to his next directing assignment.

The musical accompaniment for the production was provided by a small seven-piece ensemble conducted by Peter Tregear, which played standing on a raised stage to one side of the performing area, in full view of the audience. This was an interesting innovation which worked very well, and after a shaky start in the overture, they soon settled down to provide a vivacious and beautifully balanced account of Mozart’s magical score.

Anna Rafferty, Diana Tulip & Philippa Murphy were excellent as The Queen of the Night’s three attendants, and together with Dharshi Paheerathan, Meg Hobson & Philippa Blunn who played the three boys who provide  excellent narrations which propel the action along, all sang prettily, acted their characters vivaciously and provided an excellent choral sound throughout, augmented from time to time by Kobi Cumberland, Mark Evans, Hugh McCarthy and Noeme Huttner filling various small roles enthusiastically.

Excellent production values and the confidence displayed by the performers resulting from three performances given in Sydney in the week prior to the Canberra season, insured a remarkably smooth opening night performance, and an especially memorable “Opera by Candlelight” experience for those attending this unique production of “The Magic Flute” which went a long way towards capturing the elusive magic of this most magical of all operas. 

  

 

 

ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS

Owain Arthur star of 'One Man, Two Guvnors'

Written By Richard Bean

Directed by Nicholas Hytner

National Theatre of Great Britain (on tour)

Sydney Theatre Company to May 11

The Playhouse, Melbourne May 17 to June 29

Reviewed by Len Power 2 May 2013

We often hear from publicists that their show is a 'magical' night at the theatre. Well, true theatrical magic is definitely on display in the National Theatre of Great Britain's touring production of 'One Man, Two Guvnors' playing at the Sydney Theatre Company until May 11. It's also one of the funniest and cleverest farces I've seen in a long time.

Based loosely on Carlo Goldoni's, ' A Servant Of Two Masters', the play by Richard Bean, involving the expected mistaken identities and scheming characters, is set in Brighton, England in 1963.  I'd get a headache trying to describe the plot and you wouldn't be any the wiser if I did and it really doesn’t matter.  Starting from Commedia dell'Arte characters and situations and utilizing 'Carry On..' movie naughty seaside postcard humour, the cast quickly break the fourth wall with knowing winks and asides to the audience.  Then the increasing level of interaction with the audience gives the show a daringly improvisational feel.  When individual members of the audience are drawn even deeper into the show, it all moves into another dimension.

That’s what makes this show unique.  You're never sure whether the clever cast have left the script behind and are ad-libbing and interacting with audience members or whether it's all scripted down to the blink of an eye-lash. You'll be glad you didn't sit down the front when you see what happens to one hapless audience member.....or was she a plant all along?

The energy of this large ensemble cast leaves you breathless. Led by the hysterically funny performance of Owain Arthur, everyone looks like they're having a great time.  The audience hardly have time to recover from one funny sequence to the next.  The show has a ‘physical comedy director’, Cal McCrystal and his work is inspired.  There is not one physical gag in the show that doesn’t work and at times the audience is helpless with mirth.

Before the show starts and during scene changes, an excellent four member Beatle-like pop group, The Craze, entertain with songs composed in the style of the 1960s by Grant Olding.  Not to be outdone, various members of the cast sing and perform during scene changes too. Some of these acts remind you of the eccentric vaudeville acts that would have been common in British seaside variety theatres in the period of the play's setting.

The substantial sets and great costumes by designer Mark Thompson capture the flavour of Brighton in the 1960s and the director, Nicholas Hytner, has done a marvellous job with all aspects of the production. He truly is a theatrical magician.

Originally broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 ‘Dress Circle’ program on Sunday 5 May 2013

LANDSCAPES FOR A MIND'S EYE

The New Palm Court Orchestra.                   

Artistic Director: Gemma Turvey

The Great Hall, University House, Canberra

Saturday 27^th April.

Reviewed by Bill Stephens

This was the first visit to Canberra of The New Palm Court Orchestra, an ensemble of nine musicians, led by Melbourne composer/pianist Gemma Turvey.  Apart from one short piano solo, “Talk to Me of Mendocino” written by Kate McGarrigle, and played by Turvey, the other nine pieces which made up the program were all composed by Turvey. Six of them appear on her latest CD also entitled “Landscapes for a Mind’s Eye”.

Gemma Turvey has a gift for writing pretty melodies that are abstract, moody and sensuous, with titles such as “Undiscovered”, “Standing” and “Ganges”.  The piano is featured prominently, with overlays of seductive textures and harmonies.  Most of the items were introduced by the composer, who gave a brief explanation of the inspiration behind each piece, such as leafy shadows on a bedroom wall, or her response to the city of New York.

Borrowing from the jazz tradition, each of the eight accomplished musicians who made up the New Palm Court Orchestra, appeared to have the opportunity to improvise within the set theme, with both the drummer, Sam Bates, and the double bassist, Frank Di Sario providing creative background rhythms under the mainly legato chords of the strings, clarinet and French horn.

The highlight of the evening occurred in the second half of the program with the sad, evocative “Ha Ben”, which featured superb violin playing by Luke Moller, underpinned by the haunting clarinet of Karen Heath.

Perhaps the inclusion of at least one up-tempo composition would have provided a welcome variation in mood, but otherwise this was a beautiful concert, and a superb showcase of the talent and initiative of this emerging and exciting young composer and her haunting, reflective compositions.

                  This review appears in the May 5 - 8 print edition of CITY NEWS

I LOVE YOU, YOU'RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE

Presented by Queanbeyan City Council.

The Q, Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre until 5th May.

Reviewed by Bill Stephens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the second production seen at the Q of this witty, perceptive slice- of- life musical revue which premiered off-Broadway in 1996 and achieved a run of over 5000 performances before closing in 2008. “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” explores, through a series of songs and vignettes about being single, dating, marriage, loss and heartbreak, the tribulations of pre-internet heterosexual romance.

For this production, director Stephen Pike has gathered  an accomplished cast all of whom  impress with their ability to create a collection of funny, colourful and quirky characters to breathe fresh  life into situations which occasionally seem a bit cliché and dated.  

Among this versatile cast, Krystal Innes displays impressive vocal abilities in “I will Be Loved Tonight”, as does Christine Forbes with “Always a Bridesmaid”.   Jenna Roberts provides many highlights among which are her poignant monologue, “The Very First Dating Video of Rose Ritz”, and her exuberant duet with Dave Evans, “Marriage Tango”.  Nick Valois shares his best moment with a teddy bear, and Greg Sollis demonstrates unsuspected talents as a stud.  
 
Consistently witty direction by Stephen Pike, sensitive accompaniment by Lucy Bermingham assisted by  Vanessa Driver and Jason Henderson, combined with Brian Sudding’s  cheerful, abstract set design  adds a professional burnish to this delightfully entertaining show  which is marred only by the clumsy scene changes that constantly interrupt its flow.     

 

35º 17 South Reprise: Gaming Theatre

35º 17 South created by Karla Conway.  Canberra Youth Theatre at the National Gallery of Australia Sculpture Garden, Saturday April 13 to Saturday April 20, 2013.

Frank McKone in discussion with Karla Conway.

When I reviewed 35º 17 South (CCC blog Sunday 14 April, which you may like to refer to as you read on) I found myself asking questions about drama games, audience involvement, risks, and results of experimenting with new technology.  After being present for just the very beginning of a work that continued over a whole week, I was keen to meet the creator, artistic director of Canberra Youth Theatre, Karla Conway, to find some answers.

What I discovered is a new kind of theatre.  In recent times theatrical forms have been merging in new ways: I have been particularly interested in the new forms of Dance Theatre, for example.  But here we have “location gaming theatre”.  As Karla explained the process of creating the work and told stories from the experiences of the 400 people who took part over the week, I bit by bit saw my understanding come into focus.

Gaming Theatre sets up a new relationship between the audience (or “players”), the actors, and the location (in this case the Sculpture Garden at the National Gallery of Australia).

A starting point for discussion was whether 35º 17 South was really no different from a large-group drama improvisation workshop, of the kind often used in drama education and theatre rehearsals.  Were the paying “audience” simply participants alongside the CYT “actors”, all improvising in an unstructured way on a theme of refugee issues?  In this kind of process, I would have established the theme via some kind of stimulus in an acting space, let the improvisation develop, and follow up with a reflection and debriefing session to explore what happened and what the participants learned about themselves and the theme.

But, no, explained Karla.  She was the author of a complete narrative, with a beginning, middle, and end.  In fact she holds the copyright on that creation, which in its final form looks rather like a flow chart, with optional pathways at certain points, rather than a single-spine narrative.  The structure is supplied by the game, which is played by the audience – that is why they are called “players” rather than being a static observing “audience”.  They pay for a theatre experience as they actively play the game, rather than for a conventional passive absorbing of theatre.

Each player in Gaming Theatre has the same objective – to complete the narrative and find out what happens in the end – just as an audience member has in a conventional play-watching situation.  What the game provides are multiple possible choices after the first task (counting the bolts on the Diamond sculpture), taking each player through the flow chart on an individual set of pathways.  This process is dramatically enhanced by the basic scripting of each of the characters they meet, allowing the actors to improvise, strictly in character, in response to each player’s questions or expectations of them.  One of the major successes of the week’s work for the Canberra Youth Theatre as a training institution was that so many players were surprised and very impressed by the actors’ maintaining their characters so well in the face of unknown and often highly unexpected demands made by players who were trying to work out how they, as refugees, could find the shelter they needed.

It is at this point that I recognised what is new in this form of theatre, especially compared with experiments in the past about changing the relationship between the audience and the actors.  In the Open Theatre of the 1970s, or action taking place in the auditorium or the foyer, or in street theatre of all kinds, including all those different arrangements of audience participation, the actors are in control.

In this Gaming Theatre, the players are in control, making their own decisions as they seek out the codes to take them further, and decide what to say to an actor and how to respond to the actor’s character’s decision in return.  All this takes place within the game structure with its explicit and sometimes hidden rules, and so the theatrical experience is much more like playing out situations in real life than can happen in conventional theatre.

Here it is important to recognise the crucial role played by the writers of the code for the game, the Academy of Interactive Entertainment team, who worked over a lengthy period to make the game work consistently with Conway’s original narrative.  This was more than a clerical exercise, of course, but a creative work complementary to hers.  (I didn’t ask who holds the software copyright!)  As Karla pointed out, one of her disappointments in theatre of recent times has been the use of multi-media which is no more than illustration or distraction, instead of being fully integrated into the creation of the drama.

Here, the gaming code, the use of the tablets to find one’s way, and the narrative are all integral to the action and the player’s sense of satisfaction with this new form of theatre.   The location might be seen as more peripheral, since the main achievement here was to open up the players’ and the actors’ awareness of the artworks.  I suppose the only other way to integrate the location would have been to do what SBS did with Go Back to Where You Came From – and play the game for real starting in Afghanistan and ending up in Canberra!

But something like that reality happened, on occasions that Karla observed.  In the story there is a baby – represented physically by a doll – in “radioactive” mist.  To rescue the baby (and save themselves from the radioactivity) a player must find the code as quickly as possible and move to the next position with a digital “saved child”.

However, one player, male, took the doll physically to the actor who was a black market trader and tried to sell it to him to obtain other resources, like a weapon, to get further along the road to safety.  How’s that for something Brechtian.  Mother Courage and her Children you could say.  After negotiations, in character, the baby was returned to its “radioactive” location for another player to find it.

But then (I think on a different day), a woman picked the baby up to comfort it, refusing to hand it to the nearby actors because, she said, she couldn’t trust them to treat it properly.  So the actors had to improvise, within their various characters, bringing in others to help, until they established trust enough for the player to hand over the baby – so it again could be returned to its location.  So there you go – The Caucasian Chalk Circle in the Sculpture Garden, except that empathy provided a positive solution to who owned the child, rather than the threat of cutting it in half.

Other stories too showed how deeply players became immersed in the ethics of the drama and the emotional effects of the situation of being a refugee.  There was no formal de-brief for the players, just as they would have left a conventional theatre having to work out for themselves whether it was right or naive of Mother Courage’s daughter Kattrin to bang the drum which warned the village below of impending attack, from the very soldiers who then killed her as a traitor.  But then, Karla reported, every player completed the game, and so reached the safety of the Skyspace – both as a player in the role of refugee, and in a different sense, as a person experiencing theatre.

Not only, then, is Gaming Theatre an exciting original new form, especially for the young for whom apps and tapping tablet screens is entirely normal, but – in the right author’s hands – is as valid and powerful as any other good quality theatre.

I LOVE YOU, YOU'RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE

Music by Jimmy Roberts
Book and Lyrics by Joe DiPietro
Q Theatre, Queanbeyan
April 24 to May 5, 2013
Directed by Stephen Pike

Review by Len Power 24 April 2013

Don’t get me wrong – ‘I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change’ – is very funny and nicely performed and directed, but I wish I had seen it closer to when it was first staged in 1996.  Back then it would have been delightfully original and I’m not surprised it was a smash-hit off-Broadway, running for over 5,000 performances. 

In this, and similar shows, you shake your head ruefully as you recognize yourself in the funny and awkward relationships played out in short, revue-like scenes.  The only problem is we’ve seen a lot of these shows in recent years and the formula is getting a bit hackneyed.

The director has chosen a group of six excellent actor/singers.  Very impressive were Christine Forbes’ country-style song, ‘Always a Bridesmaid’ and Nick Valois with ‘The Baby Song’.  Also delightful were Krystle Innes – who seems to be able to play any age at the drop of a hat – with ‘I Will Be Loved Tonight’ and Greg Sollis’s reactions during a nightmare visit to old friends who are focussed on their baby to the exclusion of everything else.  Jenna Roberts was especially notable in her powerful scene, ‘The Very First Dating Video Of Rose Ritz’, as was Dave Evans with ‘Shouldn’t I Be Less In Love With You?

Musical director and pianist for the show, Lucy Bermingham, with Vanessa Driver on violin and Jason Henderson on bass play the score by Jimmy Roberts and Joe DiPietro well, but it’s not the kind of music you’ll be humming on the way home.  The set by Brian Sudding with its bright colours and heart motifs looks good and works well with its various playing spaces and levels.

The costumes by Christine Pawlicki were well chosen, especially Dave Evans’ delightfully awful golf outfit and Christine must have had a great time designing the hideous bridesmaid’s dresses gamely worn by Christine Forbes.

Stephen Pike’s direction of his cast is excellent.  The in-depth characterizations, especially, make this a standout production.  However, the music for the short interludes covering scene changes was rather dull and resulted in a drop in the show’s energy wherever they occurred.  With the set design and lighting causing the focus to be on the musicians during these interludes, the energy drop may not have occurred if Lucy Bermingham had been directed to make at least eye contact with the audience, while playing.

While I feel like I’ve seen this kind of show enough now, I still had a good time, laughing out loud at various moments and admiring the skill of the performers, their fine singing and Stephen Pike’s clever direction.

Originally broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 ‘Dress Circle’ program on Sunday 28 April 2013

SYMPHONY OF AUSTRALIA

Directed by Stuart Maunder
Music Composed By Gavin Lockley
National Gallery Of Australia, James O Fairfax Theatre
April 20 - 21, 2013

Review by Len Power 20 April 2013

Composer, Gavin Lockley’s ‘Orchestral Songs of Australia’ and ‘Symphony of Australia’, presented at the National Gallery of Australia, proved to be an exhilarating program in celebration of Canberra’s Centenary.

Eight songs were presented from ‘Orchestral Songs of Australia’, based on words by A.B. Paterson, C.J. Dennis, J.L. Cuthbertson, Bruce Simpson and John O’Brien.  The music by Gavin Lockley accompanied the words very well and ranged from the intimate to the spectacular, with an occasional hint of Aussie larrikinism in some musically humorous endings.  Of special note amongst the vocal soloists was Stuart Maunder’s fine rendition of Bruce Simpson’s ‘The Packhorse Drover’, Renae Martin’s, ‘The Ant Explorer’ by C.J. Dennis, complete with unexpected whistling finale, the composer himself, Gavin Lockley, with, ‘A Bush Christening’ by A.B. Paterson and Darryl Lovegrove’s stirring ‘Waltzing Matilda’.

‘Symphony Of Australia’ in six movements, takes us through major aspects of Australian history.  Highlights included the atmospheric didgeridoo playing by Glen Doyle in the opening Dreamtime, Australians at war with a haunting Pie Jesu beautifully sung by Renae Martin and the stirring ‘Sunburnt Country’ finale.

The program was hosted by the director, Stuart Maunder, who also gave us a rare opportunity to hear his fine singing voice.  The orchestra was conducted with great feeling by Simon Kenway and the music was accompanied by excellent projections by Hamish Siddins.  An added bonus was seeing the joy on the composer’s face hearing his own music played so well.

Originally published in 'City News' 24 April 2013 Edition