‘Friends meet the Instruments’: A concert hosted by Edward and Stephanie Neeman playing the Graf and Stein pianos from the ANU School of Music Historic Keyboard Museum; Friday, August 5th, 2016; Llewellyn Hall, 7.30pm.

Music Review: Jennifer Gall

Photographs: By Kind Permission of Peter Hislop

In A Social History of the Piano, Dieter Hildebrandt affectionately describes the piano as ‘a cross between an expensive piece of furniture, a lavish plant stand and an unmanageable sculpture’, but also as the most orderly and democratic of instruments and ‘the most inviting’. Edward and Stephanie Neeman brought the very appealing Stein and Graph pianos from the ANU’s historic keyboard museum to life, performing 18^th and early 19^th century piano music in an intimate concert with both musicians and audience seated on the stage of the Llewellyn Hall. ANU Vice Chancellor Brian Schmidt and his partner Jennifer Gordon were guests of honour to welcome Edward Neeman back to the School of Music where he studied with Professor Larry Sitsky prior to pursuing his career in the USA.

Neeman opened the concert with Mozart’s Sonata in C major, K.279 (1775) playing the replica fortepiano by Johann Andreas Stein originally crafted in Augsberg, 1788. How intriguing to hear this instrument with the fresh, dry sound emanating from a design lacking reverberating cross-stringing of 19^th century pianos. The physical relationship of the pianist to the keyboard is vastly different to the way in which concert pianists must address a Steinway concert grand piano. Elbows are kept closer to the body and the dynamism and strength comes mainly from the wrist and fingers rather than the back, shoulders and arms. The sound world is more confined and delicate than the widely expressive realms of modern concert piano music. Neeman was not afraid to make the works on the program his own, extemporizing with personalized ornamentation in keeping with the tradition of the era in which the works were composed.

Haydn’s Variations in F minor/major, Hob. XVII:6 on the Stein piano revealed the elegant subtleties Haydn was able to find in weaving his delicate contrasting explorations in the minor and major keys – subtleties that are often less audible on a modern instrument.

 

After intermission, Stephanie and Edward performed a charming version of Schubert’s Fantasia in F minor, D.940 for four hands; an interpretation evocative of the romantic era of keyboard music wherein physical gestures developed to influence phrasing and maintain the sustained melodic line. The four pedals provided a diverse array of possibilities for dynamic control and variation in the sound quality of the instrument.

The final work was Mendelssohn’s Fantasia in F Sharp minor, Op. 28 - piano solo by Edward Neeman. This was an exceptional performance, not least for the final Presto, which surely must have broken several records for speed and clarity of articulation! Neeman’s pedaling created the clever illusions required to evoke Mendelssohn’s imagined Scottish landscape and brought the memorable evening to a close.

MACBETH

Macbeth

Written by William Shakespeare

Directed by Jordan Best

Canberra Rep, Theatre 3 to 20 August

Review by Len Power 5 August 2016

Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ is the shortest of his tragedies.  In Jordan Best’s production for Canberra Rep, the show, normally played in five acts is performed in two acts with one interval.

The large cast displays some excellent performances but there are some uneven ones as well.  As Macbeth, Chris Zuber is fine when displaying strength and anger but was less successful with the personally reflective moments early in the play.

As Lady Macbeth, Jenna Roberts is in total command of her character, clearly showing the ambition, the mental manipulation of her husband and, ultimately, the madness.  Hers is a memorable performance.

There was excellent work from many of the other characters.  Sam Hannan-Morrow gives an exuberant and regal performance as Duncan.  Tony Falla is a convincingly earnest Banquo, Cameron Thomas is an excellent Macduff and Patrick Galen-Mules is a believable and strong Malcolm.  Jim Adamik delights the audience with his small but comic relief role as the Porter.

Although well-cast physically, a number of the minor players seemed to lack energy and confidence in the delivery of their lines, especially in the second act.

The well-designed set by Michael Sparks, employs a scrim curtain which gives two major acting areas in the foreground and background.  The director uses the spaces well, especially in the banquet scene and the scenes with the witches.

The atmospheric lighting design by Chris Ellyard is nicely done.  The music, composed by Tim Hansen, adds a unique and effective dramatic touch but at times is a bit loud, obscuring actors’ voices.  Costumes are by Heather Spong in a deliberate mixture of old and modern styles that work quite well for the most part, although the tunics worn by the soldiers were a bit tacky.

Maybe it’s an OH&S issue these days, but the decision to use wooden swords in the battle scenes took away any sense of danger.  Wood striking against wood in a sword fight just makes it look and sound like young boys playing.  The fight scenes needed choreographing and the killings, though bloody, were not convincing.

Jordan Best’s direction is at its best with the effective characters she has created with most of her cast.  At times the production is quite powerful as well as entertaining.

Len Power’s reviews can also be heard on Artsound Fm 92.7 ‘Artcetera’ program on Saturdays from 9am.

The Hanging by Angela Betzien

The Hanging by Angela Betzien.  Sydney Theatre Company at Wharf 1, August 3 – September 10, 2016.

Directed by Sarah Goodes.

Designers: Set and Costume – Elizabeth Gadsby; Lighting – Nicholas Rayment; Composer and Sound – Steve Francis; Video – David Bergman.

Rehearsal Photographer – Hon Boey

Cast: Luke Carroll – Detective Flint; Ashleigh Cummings – Iris Hocking; Genevieve Lemon – Ms Corrossi.

Final Preview reviewed by Frank McKone
August 1

Ashleigh Cummings in rehearsal as Iris

If you are keen to be in the debate about education – and how could you not be this week? – apart from podcasting Life Matters on ABC Radio National this morning (August 3, 9am), you could not do better than see a different twist at Wharf 1 tonight.

The Hanging is a theatrical fiction derived from a literary fiction.  The play explores the effect that teaching a particular novel might have on fourteen-year-old girls, boarders in a private girls’ school, supposedly in Melbourne.

The author has created a powerful dramatic constraint by reducing the action to just three characters.  Two students of a tightly bonded threesome cannot be found.  The third has appeared at a police station.  Her English teacher is nominated to be her ‘friend’ while she is interviewed by a detective.

In an hour and a quarter we discover the real story behind the mysterious disappearances.  On the way, we learn a lot about being a teacher, being a daughter especially of split parents who pay $30,000 a year for her schooling, and about such girls’ imaginations and sexual drive.

The script is excellent – tightly focussed and emotionally engaging.  The three performers get everything right, and Ashleigh Cummings deserves special commendation for presenting so well both Iris’ childishness and desire to be seen as an adult.  While Genevieve Lemon is a good example, she explained to me, of the daughter told by her parents not to become an actor without backing up with a degree.  So she trained as an English teacher, but never actually taught.  In his role as Detective Flint, Luke Carroll presents a very un-Flint like character, very concerned for the well-being of his interview subject while searching out the right way to find the information he needs.

The use of video to provide the bush setting, outside the city where the interview takes place in Iris' father's flat, works very well.  The role of the bush is to raise the deepest theme in the play: how do we know reality from fantasy?

From my career as a teacher of both literature and practical drama, I can confirm how central this concern is for teenagers on the border – physically represented by a diagonal wall in the very simple but effective set design – between childhood and adulthood, for all sexual orientations and people of all different cultures.

Genevieve Lemon also spoke of the process of bringing the work to production, where the actors began familiarising themselves with the script some 18 months ago, and then following all the amendments as Sarah Goodes and designer Elizabeth Gadsby worked with Angela Betzien through to the final six weeks’ rehearsal.  And, she pointed out, the three actors parallel the characters in age and stages of their own lives and careers, giving the performance another layer of reality.  From her point of view, since she has been playing comedy so much, acting in this kind of psychological drama is very satisfying.

So, after my also having seen Belvoir’s Twelfth Night this weekend, I must misquote Shakespeare and say: If scriptwriting and development of this quality be the food of the Sydney Theatre Company, then play on, I say – play on.

Luke Carroll, Ashleigh Cummings and Genevieve Lemon
in rehearsal as Dtective Flint, Iris Hocking and Ms Corrossi

Ashleigh Cummings as Iris Hocking
in rehearsal for The Hanging

The Slip Lane - Aspen Island Theatre Company

Review by John Lombard

Anyone who has been to Access Canberra has suspected that it is our planet's local branch of purgatory, and writer/director Julian Hobba confirms the presence of the diabolical in unlikely places in The Slip Lane, a fusion of Gungahlin-centric ennui and demonic plots for power.

The play starts off as a satire of Gungahlin life with a strong sense of place, throwing two tracksuit wearing cranks together on an Access Canberra sofa.  Lost soul Matthew (Dene Kermond) is obsessed with a Slip Lane to ease traffic congestion, while soccer mum Missy (Clare Moss) wants the government to do something about the dangerous animal that appears to be prowling around her property.  When they are rebuffed by the bored, sneering staff, the desperately lonely Matthew uses this as a chance to get closer to the tightly wound Missy, offering to join her on a series of nocturnal stakeouts.

From there the play establishes itself as character-driven, low-key comedy of manners, an attack on the stereotypical soullessness of Canberra's brand new suburbs dominated by McMansions and carpet bagging franchises.  We settle in for a gentle coast down this highway before the play takes a sharp U-turn.  It turns out there really is something out there stalking the open spaces of Gungahlin, the charismatic Demon Prince Asmodeus (played in alternation by Nick Delatovic and Emma Strand), who has his own plan for the outer suburbs as ambitious as anything dreamed up by Walter Burley Griffin.

With different direction, we would question whether Matthew's conversations with this demon are hallucinations, but the overpowering presence of these scenes encourages us to take them at face value.  Asmodeus is flamboyant, likeable and genuinely funny, and Delatovic and Strand mirror each other brilliantly as the same character, playing the same song on a different instrument.  The demon is given further pizazz by Imogen Keen's arresting costume work, although the voice modulation for some of Asmodeus' dialogue does garble the articulation of the performers.

The play then becomes a literal deal with the devil story, with Asmodeus becoming Matthew's mentor in a broad satire of politics and the media.  Matthew dons a yellow superhero costume and becomes a combination of public spectacle and activist, simultaneously losing his dignity and entertaining increasingly deranged ambitions.  In the process, the subtle commentary on Gungahlin was lost.  Matthew and Missy's growing dependence on each other was also thrust into background, and when they explode into conflict - complete with a convenient Chekhov's gun - it feels too abrupt to be believable.

Hobba does have one very clever plot twist in store, a whammy that shows the potential in Matthew's story arc, but what should have been a powerful revelation is inadequately set up and then weirdly dismissed as an afterthought while the characters throw themselves into a climax that would not be out of place in a superhero movie.  The play is unaware of its own strengths, relishing its weird moments but neglecting the elements of the script that have the potential to be brilliant.

With an excellent cast and genuine potential in the script, The Slip Lane is a play I wanted to like more than I did.  With Hobba acting as both writer and director he is able to keep a tight grip on his vision - and Hobba has adopted dual duty more successfully in productions such as Bartleby - but here the play needed a director with a better grasp of tone to balance the play's contradictions.  Both delicate and brash, The Slip Lane sets off into interesting territory but gets lost along the way.

The Beast by Eddie Perfect

The Beast by Eddie Perfect.  Presented by Ambassador Theatre Group Asia Pacific and Red Live at Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre, July 27 – August 21, 2016.

Directed by Simon Phillips.

Designers: Set and Costume by Dale Ferguson; Lighting by Trent Suidgeest; Composer – Alan John.

Cast: Heidi Arena – Sue; Alison Bell – Marge; Christie Whelan Browne – Gen; Peter Houghton – Skipper / Mansitter / Vigeron / Farmer Brown; Rohan Nichol – Simon; Eddie Perfect – Baird; Toby Truslove – Rob.

Reviewed by Frank McKone
July 31

I shouldn’t read the Director’s Note before the show, especially when he writes of “acute social comedy” as if it’s a disease, and goes on to “add to it a sense of iconoclastic extremity which puts [Eddie Perfect] in the company of Joe Orton, Martin McDonagh or even Ionesco.”  How pretentious!

Except that it’s sort of true.  The killing of the fatted calf, which provides the completely over the top funniest end of Act 1 of any play I’ve ever seen, does have a weird connection to Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros.  In that play, everyone turns into green rhinoceroses, except Berenger who bravely stands against the trend.  “I am not capitulating!” are his last words.

The Beast also deals with conforming to norms, or refusing to do so, or being too weak not to, and there are political implications when it comes to the question of ethical farming, just as people turning into rhinoceroses represented those who had gone along with Nazism.  But Perfect’s play is more complicated than Ionesco’s as he brings three married couples together, exposing their middle-class predilections, hypocrises, secrets, and politically correct naivety.

Perfect’s work is also more absurd than Ionesco’s in the sense that Ionesco has a single through-line, even though it takes a little while to become apparent after the first rhinoceros inexplicably kicks up the dust in the French village square.  In The Beast there are bits of throughlines going all over the mental landscape until the very end, when Farmer Brown puts everything into its proper context and they all eat carrots.

The Beast is also equivalent to Rhinoceros in another way. Ionesco’s play is very specifically French, in location and culture.  Perfect is Melbourne through and  through and his play is specifically Australian, in location and culture.  Specificity is a strength in both plays, oddly enough, because it makes for universality of significance.  Even though extreme comic acting exaggerates characters, Perfect’s are each recognisably Australian, as Ionesco’s are French.  This works as in the dictum “act local, think global”.

I’m writing maybe a bit too globally here, but I can promise that even though I haven’t told you much about what actually happens in The Beast, that’s because it’s better for you not to know too much.  The comedy is over-the-top extremely funny because of the unpredictable surprises that Eddie has perfected as a stand-up comedian.  So get stuck into The Beast and you’ll see what I mean.

The Calf

Eating carrots

Twelfth Night, or What You Will

In rehearsal L to R:
John Howard, Anita Hegh, Peter Carroll, Emele Ugavule, Nikki Shiels, Anthony Phelan, Lucia Mastrantone

Twelfth Night, or What You Will by William Shakespeare.  Belvoir, Sydney, July 27 – September 3, 2016.

Directed by Eamon Flack

Designers: Set by Michael Hankin; Costume by Stephen Curtis; Lighting by Nick Schlieper; Composer – Alan John; Sound by Caitlin Porter; Movement by Scott Witt.

Cast: Peter Carroll; Anita Hegh; John Howard; Lucia Mastrantone; Amber McMahon; Anthony Phelan; Keith Robinson; Damien Ryan; Nikki Shiels; Emele Ugavule.



Photography by Brett Boardman

Reviewed by Frank McKone
July 31

For the first time, I feel I now understand Twelfth Night as a unified work.  I’ve tended before to think of the twins, disguises and love story as one element alongside the story of the drunkards and their malicious treatment of Malvolio.  Eamon Flack explains in his Director’s Note and achieves in action on stage a central focus on the observation that Feste, the professional Fool, discusses directly with us: that ‘what is, is not’.

This philosophical conundrum turns Shakespeare’s play into a mad metaphor for what was going on in his society, as the Puritans began to establish their influence (which later led to violent revolution, and the establishment of our modern representative democracy, no less); while we see the same nonsense happening today, such as having people stand for seats in Parliament or even for the Presidency of the United States while claiming they are not politicians.

Most of the time what Olivia calls ‘midsummer madness’ is tremendously funny to watch, and this production takes every opportunity to make us laugh at the enjoyment of acting the absurdities of the plot.  Yet, as the two look-alike brother and sister are seen by everyone together for the first time, laughter changed in tone as we saw a serious state of confusion take over all rational thought.  What they thought was, was not, and what they thought was not, now was.  Though fortunately quickly resolved by the right people kissing each other, the happy ending still had an edge – just a touch of insecurity about the nature of the human condition.

Theatrically this took the play to a higher level of excitement and satisfaction which grabbed the audience who clapped and cheered in sincere appreciation for a job enormously well done.

So having gone to the theatre with some doubts about watching just another Twelfth Night, I left with a joyful feeling and no doubts about this production.  Even any little worries about my human condition have faded into the mental background for now.  That’s the power of good quality art, which certainly is, rather than is not.  

SIMON BOCCANEGRA

By Giuseppe Verdi

Conductor: Renato Palumbo

Director: Matthew Barclay –based on an original production by Moffatt Oxenbould

Set Designer: Peter England

Costume Designer: Russell Cohen

Lighting designer: Nigel Levings

Presented by Opera Australia

Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House until 13^th August 2016.

Opening night performance on 26^th July reviewed by Bill Stephens.

George Patean as Simon Boccanegra 

Because of its convoluted libretto dramatizing aspects of 14^th century Genoese history to  reflect the political turmoil surrounding the unification of Italy occurring at the time Verdi was writing Simon Boccanegra,  its rich, evocative and emotional score was largely unappreciated by the audiences who attended its performances in 1857, and the opera flopped.

Fortunately, more than two decades later, his publisher persuaded Verdi to revisit and rework the opera, and a new, more palatable version, was premiered in 1881. It is this version which Opera Australia is now presenting in this first revival of the production originally staged by Moffatt Oxenbould as part of Sydney’s Olympic Arts Festival in 2000, but now given a “new take” by Matthew Barclay.

The Libretto still takes some working through, but, Barclay’s staging keeps the action uncluttered, straight-forward, and carefully paced to allow plenty of space to savour Verdi’s   stunning vocal and orchestral treasures, sung by an outstanding cast under the assured direction of acclaimed Verdi conductor, Renato Palumbo.

Peter England’s’ imposing dark, moody set, superbly lit by Nigel Levings,  together with and the brilliant reds, greens,  blues and golds of Russell Cohen’s splendid swirling greatcoats, keep the eyes pleasured.

Natalie Aroyan (Amelia Grimaldi), Diego Torre, (Gabriele Adorno), Giacomo Prestia (Jacopo Fiesco),
George Petean (Simon Boccanegra)  

When this production was first unveiled in 2000, reconciliation had particular resonance. Moffatt Oxenbould sought to highlight this in his production of an opera rich with the emotion of Italian unification and dealing with reconciliation between enemies, families, classes, political parties and individuals. In this first revival of this production since then, this approach feels just as relevant.

Rather than embroiling his characters in the complex politics of 14^th century Liguria, Oxenbould set his production in Verdi’s own time, in an abandoned and decaying seaside amphi-theatre complete with a vast sweeping staircase, through which the sea can be glimpsed. An Italian community has gathered to re-enact a story from their past, and the prologue begins solemnly with costumes being unpacked from huge trunks and handed out to the actors who will play the various roles.

Opera Australia has assembled a cracker of a cast for this revival. Among the outstanding male voices, Romanian baritone, George Petean, making his first Opera Australian appearances, is perfectly cast, in the title role. As well as his rich, warm tone and handsome presence, Petean has the necessary dignity and gravitas to be totally convincing in his projection of the sincerity of characters’ feelings for his daughter, Amelia, and his passion for the unification of Italy.  His singing of Boccanegra’s plea for brotherhood and peace, “Plebe! Patrizi! Popolo!” provides just one of many vocal highlights.

Diego Torre (Gabriele Adorno), George Patean (Simon Boccanegra), Natalie Aroyan (Amelia Grimaldi) 

In the role of Gabriele Adorno, Boccanegra’s intended assassin, who is also in love with his daughter, Amelia, Mexican tenor, now Australian citizen, Diego Torre, gives a brilliantly sung, passionate performance. His thrilling Italianate tenor soars over the orchestra in the ensemble scenes, and blends superbly during the duets, especially in the final quartet which draws the opera to a close.

Italian bass, Giacomo Prestia plays Jacopo Fiesco, the grieving father of Maria, who had borne Boccanegra a child.  Maria had died before she and Boccanegra could marry, and the child had strangely disappeared.  Verdi stipulated that he wanted a bass who could comfortably get the low notes. Prestia certainly has no trouble fulfilling those requirements, and his duet with Torre, “Propizio ei giunge...” in which Gabrielle Adorno tells Fiesco that he loves Amelia whether or not she is a Grimaldi, is another of those vocal highlights.

Natalie Aroyan as Amelia Grimaldi

Perhaps the big surprise on the opening night of this season of “Simon Boccanegra” was that the role of Amelia Grimaldi, who turns out to be Boccanegra’s daughter and Jacopo Fiesco’s grand-daughter, was sung, superbly, by Opera Australia principal, Natalie Aroyan, instead of the much anticipated Italian soprano, Barbara Frittoli, who had actually begun rehearsals but then had to return home due to urgent family circumstances.

It will surprise no one who saw her charming portrayal of Micaela, in John Bell’s recent production of “Carmen”, to learn that Aroyan, who had stepped into the role at short notice, sang magnificently and gave such an assured performance, that few in the audience would have realised that this was her role debut in the part.

Warwick Fyfe is outstanding as Boccanegra’s scheming friend, Paolo Albiani, who was instrumental in Boccanegra’s rise to power, in the hope of eventually marrying his daughter, Amelia.  Thwarted in his plan when Amelia falls in love with Gabriele Adorno, Albiani poisons Boccanegra, before he himself is executed. Adrian Tamburini provides excellent support to Fyfe as Albiani’s off-sider, Pietro.

Being a Verdi opera, “Simon Boccanegra” offers great choral set-pieces. The council scene which ends Act 11, and the moving finale in which Boccanegra succumbs to Albiani’s poison after the wedding of his daughter to Gabriele Adorno, who he anoints as his successor, are up there with his best.

Adrian Tamburini ((Pietro), Warwick Fyfe (Paolo Albiani),.

All images by Branco Gaica

This review also appears in Australian Arts Review. www.artsreview.com.au