A TALE OF TWO CITIES

Adaptation by Terence Rattigan and John Gielgud
Directed by Adam Spreadbury-Maher
Queanbeyan City Council at the Q, Queanbeyan
5 - 16 February 2014

Review by Len Power 5 February 2014

Charles Dickens’ ‘A Tale Of Two Cities’ has been one of his most popular novels since its first publication in 1859.  Set against the French Revolution, it’s a terrific romantic thriller with great characters and a clever and moving ending.  Its universal themes of love, honour and sacrifice still speak to us today.  During the twentieth century there have been numerous movies, TV adaptations and stage productions based on the novel.

One script for a stage production, adapted by John Gielgud and Terence Rattigan during the 1930s, didn’t make it to the stage at the time and languished unproduced for many years.  It’s this script which has been dusted off and edited by director, Adam Spreadbury-Maher for the current production at the Q in Queanbeyan.  This version focusses on just the incidents of the novel involving the main English and French characters.  The large crowd set pieces such as the storming of the Bastille and the French courtroom sequence detailed in the novel are only spoken of in passing.  The production has nine actors, most of whom play more than one role, but it’s not like the recent ‘The 39 Steps’ or ‘Brief Encounter’ where the cast played a bewildering number of parts.  The play is also performed in modern dress with accompanying popular music.  The dialogue delivery also varies between classic and current English utilizing various accents but this isn’t an updating of the play to modern day.  I know it sounds strange, but it all works beautifully.

Adam Spreadbury-Maher’s production excites and stimulates your imagination.  On a dominating white tower of a set expertly designed by Brian Sudding and wonderfully lit by Hamish McConchie, it’s fascinating and fun to watch how certain set pieces from the novel are staged.  Everyone in the cast gives an effective performance and I wish I could mention everyone individually.  Peter Dark is especially moving as the elderly banker, Jarvis Lorry, and very funny as the senile old Judge.  The normally glamorous Barbara Denham shines as the plain and fussy old Miss Pross and Hannah Ley gives a delightful cameo as Tellson’s Bank Clerk.  Calen Robinson, seen often around town in musicals, but here in his first major lead role in a play, gives a strong and moving performance as the depressive Sydney Carton and is chilling as the appalling Marquis de St.Everemonde.

The modern costume design by Miriam Miley-Read suits the characters perfectly and the sound design by James McPherson adds some great atmospheric touches.  If you know your music, there’s a clever link between the pieces played during the show and the age of the character, Sydney Carton.

This production works on two levels.  If you want theatre that engages your imagination thoroughly or if you just want to watch a great adaptation of a classic story, you can’t go wrong with this one.

Originally broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 ‘Dress Circle’ program on Sunday 9 February 2014

OPERA BY CANDLELIGHT 2014

Presented by Carl Rafferty

Albert Hall, Canberra, Feb 7^th, 8^th and 9^th.

Reviewed by Bill Stephens.

 

 

There’s something very special about sitting in the historic Albert Hall at dusk on a balmy summer evening, at a table bedecked with a crisp white tablecloth in the flickering candlelight from a silver candelabra, listening to an impressive program of well-chosen light classical music presented by a company of handsome young emerging opera singers and musicians assembled from around Australia and indeed, the world.

“Opera by Candlelight” is a concept perfected by enterprising local entrepreneur, Carl Rafferty, which invites audiences to attend a banquet performance, for which they are asked to bring their own food and wine, and to dress as extravagantly as they please.

Guests are seated in plush red chairs, at tables of 8 or 10, (various other configurations are available), which have been pre-set with white tablecloths and electronic candles mounted in elegant silver candelabra. On the stage, which is pre-set with a huge central motif, tasteful red and black drapes and more huge ornate candelabra, are a variety of keyboards and percussion. The effect, blended with the historic architectural details of the Albert Hall, create a feeling of elegant opulence, and the perfect environment for the concert to come.

 

Guests arrived at 5.30pm to banquet until 7.00pm when the entertainment began with a spirited trumpet fanfare from Zach Raffan, following which the entire cast, immaculately groomed, the women in flowing evening dresses, the men in dinner suits, took the stage to sing Verdi’s “Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves”.

An eclectic and generous selection of solos, duets and choruses, as well as the occasional parlour song, or instrumental item, , followed throughout the evening, all accompanied by an impressive quintet of young musicians and lead by Carl Rafferty himself, either on piano or spinet,  interrupted only by an extended interval to allow the audiences to enjoy sweets and coffee.

The standard of the singing was impressively high, if rather variable, among the soloists. Polish soprano, Aleksandra Wiwala enchanted with several solos throughout the evening, including an aria from Massenet’s “Menon” and another from Lehar’s “Guiditta”. At one point she joined Kate Rafferty, to sing the lovely duet from “Lakme”.

Coloratura soprano, Kate Rafferty, who has continued her vocal studies overseas since her last Canberra appearances, dazzled the audience with several demanding solos, including “Let the Bright Seraphim” for which she was joined by trumpeter, Zach Raffan.

 Other notable highlights included a fine rendition of “The Donkey Serenade” by James Adams, Shane Treeves spirited performance of “Goodbye” from “The White Horse Inn”, a delightfully polished interpretation” from Karoline Rose O’Sullivan of Strauss’s amusing “Tipsy Song”. Guest Artist, Canberra School of Music supremo, Peter Tregear, contribute a stirring aria from Beethoven’s “Fidelio”.

The staging of each of the items was simple and visually appealing, and the contribution of the small instrumental ensemble lead by Carl Rafferty from the piano, and consisting of Thomas Azoury (clarinet), Zach Raffan (trumpet), Liam Kenneally (violin) Warwich Dunham (organ), Morgan Merrell (percussion) was integral to the success of the evening, sprinkling the vocal items with instrumental highlights throughout.

Over several years Rafferty has been steadily building a loyal audience for these Albert Hall extravaganza’s, and as well as the Canberra performances, will also presents these programs in the Mosman Art Gallery on February 15^th and 16^th. Full details of these and forthcoming performances can be found on his website: www.operabycandlelight.net

 

 

 

THE TURK IN ITALY




Emma Mathews (Fiorella) and Paolo Bordogna (The Turk, Selim)

Music:                       Gioachino Rossini

Libretto:                   Felice Romani, after a libretto by Caterino Mazzola

Conductor:               Andrea Molino

Director:                   Simon Phillips

Designer:                  Gabriela Tylesova

Lighting Design:      Nick Schlieper

Opera Australia, Sydney Opera House until 12th February 2014.

 

Performance 5^th February reviewed by Bill Stephens

 

Luciano Bortelho as Narciso 

Opera shouldn’t be this much fun! One suspects this rarely performed Rossini opera  wasn’t either until Simon Phillips, in cahoots with  his designer, Gabriela Tylesova, came up with the brilliant idea of moving the action into the 1950’s. This fits the characters and situations like a glove.

Tylesova has provided dazzlingly colourful costumes to which Phillips has added outrageous surtitles, and just about every bit of comic stage-business he could think of, to expose this little gem of an opera, and in doing so, provides a sunny evening of deliciously wicked, hilarious entertainment embellished with highly accomplished, stylish singing.

Indeed one of the surprises of this production is Rossini’s inventive score, which at times sounds almost like a send-up of grand opera, but is full of lovely melodies and rousing choruses all of which are given full measure by the cast.




An awkward moment - cast includes L to R Paolo Bordogna, Graeme Macfarlane, Anna Dowsley,Emma Mathews, Luciano Botelho,Conal Coad, Samuel Dundas on table.

Unsurprisingly the storyline is inconsequential and complicated, involving a rich businessman, Geronio (Conal Coad),  his flirtatious wife, Fiorilla (Emma Matthews) , a Turkish Pasha with a roving eye  named Selim (Paolo Bordogna), a gypsy girl called Zaida (Anna Dowsley), who’s in love with Selim, the scruffy leader of the Gypsies, Albazar (Graeme Macfarlane), an Italian dandy named Narciso (Luciano Botelho), and a poet  by the name of Prosdocimo (Samuel Dundas),  who’s looking for inspiration for a play. Do you need to know more?



The Turk loses his trousers - L to R
Anna Dowsley, Paolo Bordogna, Emma Mathews
Samule Dundas and uciano Botelho on table.

Each of the cast grasp with relish, the comic opportunities their roles offer. Tylesova’s witty beachfront setting and eye-wateringly colourful costumes provides lots of excuses to remove or don clothes. Almost every character removes some of his/her clothes at some point and Botelho manages a full-strip change while singing a complicated aria. In fact the show begins with a fashion parade of colourful fifties swimwear, as the chorus arrive and sun themselves on the beach during the overture.

The playing is broad and audience inclusive, and the physical and vocal comedy very funny. With more than a nod to Gina Lollabrigida, Emma Matthews is quite wonderful as the sex-crazed wife, Fiorella, tossing off showy cadenzas like there’s no tomorrow while never once losing her characterisation. Her cat-fight with Anna Dowsley, herself channelling Guiletta Masina in “La Strada”, provides one of the more outrageous highlights.



Emma Mathews (Fiorilla) Paolo Bordogna (The Turk) Luciano Botelho (Narciso)

Paola Bordogna exudes a delicious combination of sleaze, charm and excellent comic timing, as the object of Guiletta’s affections, the Turkish Pasha, Selim, and is well- matched by Luciano Botelho’s sweet voiced, ineffectual, if remarkably persistent rival, Narciso.

 

 

Conal Coad as Geronio

 

Conal Coad is in his element as Fiorella’s long-suffering, foolish husband, Geronio, while Samuel Dundas shows off some impressive cocktail-waiter skills as the poet, Prosdocimo, while Graeme Macfarlane is practically unrecognisable as Albazar,  the dour and dirty leader of the gypsies. Even Elvis Presley gets a Guernsey when at the masquerade ball everyone shows up dressed either as Elvis or Marilyn Monroe.

 

 

Samuel Dundas as poet/barman Prosdocino with Anna Dowsley (Zaida) 

 

 

Despite all the hectic comedic business, the singing is never compromised, and conductor Andrea Molino made sure it was beautifully supported by the excellent Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra.

According to director, Simon Phillips, “Comedy is about an honest idea taken to ludicrous extremes”, and he certainly proves his point with this deliciously refreshing, brilliant production, which,  judging from the audience reaction at this performance, could very well become a crowd-pleasing staple in Opera Australia’s repertoire .



Gabriela Tylesova's set decorated by the ladies of the chorus. 

                                                                         Photos by Branco Gaica

 

THE MAGIC FLUTE

Conductor:Andrew Legge

Andrew Jones as Papageno 

Director:Matthew Barclay based on the original production by Julie Taymor. Set Design: George Tsypin. Costume Design:   Julie Taymor. Lighting Design:   Gary Marder based on the original design by Donald Holder. 

Choreography: Matthew Barclay based on the original choreography by Mark Dendy

                                      

Opera Australia – Sydney Opera House until 26 March 2014

 

Performance on 4th February 2014 reviewed by Bill Stephens

 Julie Taymor is currently well represented in Sydney with two of her productions running simultaneously in the city. “The Lion King” is currently playing in the Capitol theatre while at the same time “The Magic Flute” is being presented by Opera Australia in The Sydney Opera House.

Both use puppetry to great affect, but while the storytelling in the former is crystal clear, that in “The Magic Flute” is more problematical.

On first viewing of this production in 2012, the impression was that something had been lost in translation; that the original director’s vision had been clouded; and many of the puppets were being waved about by the cast with little understanding as to why. Papageno’s strong ocker accent jarred, and some of the singing was below par.

On revisiting the production this year, the staging has tightened, the singing has certainly improved noticeably, the puppetry is more focussed, but Papageno’s Australian accent still jars.
 

Andrew Jones as Papageno with Opera Australia dancers.

Despite the program notes being at pains to align Mozart’s intentions with English pantomime, the interpolation of the Australian ocker accent is stylistically at odds with the rest of the production, even if it did get laughs at this performance. These lines usually get laughs even when done without an ocker accent. And the audience is still left wondering why, if it is the music from the magic flute which protects Tamino and Pamina during the final fire and water trial, Tamino is not actually playing the flute instead of waving it around.

Quibbles aside, this production still has many captivating elements which make it  essential viewing for those who love this work, or have yet to experience a production of it. 

John Longmuir as Tamino and Taryn Fiebig as Pamina

The costume, make-up and scenery design are exceptional. Conductor, Anthony Legge, insures that the music is beautifully realised by the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra and the singing this time around is first rate.

John Longmuir is a handsome, believable Tamino, and Taryn Fiebig is superb as Pamina. Her singing of the lovely Act 11 aria expressing her grief that Tamino no longer loves her is heart-breakingly beautiful.

Milica Illic as the Queen of the Night

As the fearsome Queen of the Night, Milica Illic glitters impressively both vocally and in appearance, Richard Anderson’s secure basso voice and stately bearing are used to great effect as Sarastro, and Kanen Breen, as a wonderfully loathsome Monostatos, adds  another remarkable characterisation to his already impressive repertoire. Despite his questionable accent, Andrew Jones certainly brings a fine voice and engaging personality to the role of Papageno.

Kanen Breen as Monostato together with Jane Ede, Sian Pendry,Dominica Mathews as the three ladies.

Given that it was originally conceived for young people, this re-production by Opera Australia seems undecided as to whether it's aimed at children or adults, as a result it is one to be enjoyed more for the music and the spectacle rather than intellectual stimulus, but even on that criteria it's really rather marvellous. 

                                             
                                                  Photos by Lisa Tomasetti

 

 

 

CARMEN

 

Nancy Fabiola Herrara as Carmen 

Conductor:              Antony Walker

Director:                  Francesca Zambello

Revival Director:   Matthew Barclay

Designer:                Tanya McCallin

Lighting Designer: Paule Constable

Choreographer:      Arthur Pita

 

Opera Australia

Sydney Opera House until March 29^th 2014

 

Opening night performance reviewed by Bill Stephens.

 

The success of any production of Bizet’s “Carmen” is largely dependent of the casting of the three main roles. So returning to this production, first seen in the Sydney Opera House in 2008, following last year’s imaginative and audacious staging of the same opera, by Gale Edwards, for the Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour, fuelled as it was with Kelly Abbey’s flamboyant choreography and the riveting performance of Rinat Shaham in the title role, the initial reaction was that it seemed a bit staid and dull.

However, once Spanish soprano, Nancy Fabiola Herrera, hit the stage, wilful, tempestuous and thoroughly captivating as Carmen, the temperature rose immediately and things never looked back. 

 

Nancy Fabiola Herrera as Carmen 

Besides possessing the requisite lustrous, malleable, mezzo-soprano voice, Ms Fabiola Herrera also looks ravishing, dances passionately, and is a superb actress, so thoroughly possessing the role so that it is hard to take your eyes off her whenever she’s on stage, which is exactly as this role is meant to be. 

Nancy Fabiola Herrara as Carmen with artists of Opera Australia
 

Dmytro Popov as Don Jose
 

Fabiola Herrara is surrounded by a superb cast lead by Dmytro Popov as Don Jose. Popov played this role last year in the Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour production, but this more intimate opera house setting provides a better opportunity to appreciate his fine interpretation of the pitiable Don Jose hopelessly torn between love and duty. His superb performance of the “Flower Song” earned him sustained applause from the first night audience.

 

Natalie Aroyan as Micaela
 

Natalie Aroyan as Micaela, impressed with her sweet, clear soprano, and her ability to capture the fragility and resilience of the young woman sent on an impossible mission to persuade Don Jose to return home to comfort his dying mother.
                                                            .


 

Michael Honeyman as Escamillo
 

Michael Honeyman as the toreador Escamillo made a fine entrance astride a tall white horse and sang the “Toreador Song” with gusto and assurance amidst the well-staged crowd scene. However he was not served well by his costumes, especially the unfortunate gaucho chaps in the second act.

Adrian Tamburini is impressively menacing as the opportunistic Lieutenant Zuniga, and Jane Ede and Tania Ferris were both excellent as Carmen’s friends Frasquita and Mercedes, especially in the quintet where together with Sam Roberts-Smith and Luke Gabbedy as the smugglers, Dancairo and Remendado, they try to persuade Carmen to join them on an adventure.

Though Paule Constable has made good use of hot sun and shadows effects in her lighting design, Tanya McCallin’s sets look claustrophobic on the opera house stage, and despite the best efforts of the huge chorus and well-rehearsed children, to capture the atmosphere of mid- 19^th century Seville, many of the crowd scenes were cramped and stagey. The Toreador’s arrival in Lillas Pastia’s tavern generated real excitement, (the horse had a lot to do with that), but the parade of the matadors in the final scene, apart from the elaborate mobile altar, was decidedly skimpy and unexciting.
 

The final scene between the two, where Don Jose finally stabs Carmen to death, is hair-raising, even more so on opening night when Don Jose forgot his dagger, and had to stab Carmen to death with his bare hands.

Nancy Fabiola Herrara and Dmytro Popov in the final scene
 

But this opera is all about Carmen, Don Jose and Escamillo, and of course, Georges Bizet’s wonderful music. Any lack of visual excitement is more than compensated by the fine singing and passionate, performances of the principals, and the music, in the capable hands of the excellent Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, conducted by Antony Walker, receives exactly  the spirited, exciting performance it was meant for.

   

                                                        All photos by Branco Gaica

 

 

 

 

 

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, adapted for the stage by Terence Rattigan and John Gielgud. Queanbeyan City Council production, edited and directed by Adam Spreadbury-Maher.  Set design: Brian Sudding; Costume design: Miriam Miley-Read; Lighting design: Hamish McConchie; Sound design: James McPherson.  At The Q, Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, February 5-16, 2014.


Reviewed by Frank McKone
February 5

There’s a potentially interesting concept behind this production which, unfortunately, fails in its execution for the most part.  The part where it succeeds is, ironically enough, at the very end when the execution takes place.

The production seems to have been closely based on the version and style which Spreadbury-Maher presented at the King’s Head Theatre in London last year.  There were mixed reviews in London.  Mine is mixed, too.

Theatrical quality proved to be a problem, even though individual actors generally caught the modernist style well – especially Laura Dawson (in the main role of Lucie Manette as well as in various smaller parts), Peter Dark (as Jervis Lorry), and Calen Robinson (in the central role of Sydney Carton).

The difficulty was that in attempting to use a modern ‘presentational’ style in the staging and acting for a script in which Rattigan had maintained the mid-nineteenth century atmosphere created by Dickens, Spreadbury-Maher ended up making us feel unhappily tense.  Not about the sense of foreboding and approaching chaos in Dickens’ dramatic romantic story, but because of our having to absorb scenes where, for example, actors moved from London to Dover by miming bumping up and down in a stagecoach, dressed in today’s jeans and gym pants, or chains and black leather, or sometimes costumes from an 18th Century courtroom, where judges and solicitors spoke via microphones and loudhailers.  In between scenes, and sometimes during a transition period, we were shaken out of the historical period by highly-amplified recordings of songs by recently modern performers, such as Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin.

It is true that Dickens’ original work is highly melodramatic and needs to be stylised on stage rather than played naturalistically, but it was difficult to see what Spreadbury-Maher’s intention was.  Finally, literally in the last scene, simplicity worked as we came to understand what Sydney Carton was going to do, in concert with Jervis Lorry as he cottoned on, and the two scenes in parallel played out to their tragic end.

Unfortunately, immediately, modern pop burst upon us before we could fully savour the feeling.  Though it was exciting, and led to an extended curtain call, it seemed to me to be out of context.  Were we supposed to watch and forget the reason Dickens wrote his novel?

On that point, this edited version concentrated so much on the love triangle between Lucie Manette, Charles Darnay (played nicely by Daniel Greiss) and Sydney Carton that the essential part of Dickens’ story about the two cities – London and Paris in the throes of the French Revolution – became a minor concern.  I think the lyrics of some of the songs that were played were meant to make us think about the social consequences of a failing society, and I can see the difficulty of staging the revolutionary scenes (an earlier version, according to Spreadbury-Maher’s notes had a cast of 40 and ran for three and a half hours), but Dickens – looking back from 1859 – was concerned to show that injustice was bad enough at the best of times, but so much more intolerable without the rule of law.

These ideas were here, but broken up into small chunks rather than developed smoothly.  The result also was that the performances, though good in parts, did not hang together very well, and often the pacing – or the rhythm of the play – was just too slow and cumbersome.

However, it is still interesting in a quirky way, and the last scene (before the pop) is worth waiting for.

THE NUTCRACKER

Music by Pyotr IIyich Tchaikovsky

Choreography by Sir Peter Wright after Lev Ivanof

THE ROYAL BALLET

Palace Cinema Opera and Ballet Season

January 31, Feb 1, 2, & 5

Reviewed by Bill Stephens

In addition to the high definition filmed performances by the Metropolitan Opera and Bolshoi Ballet offered by the Dendy cinemas, the Palace Electric Cinemas have been offering seasons of similarly filmed performances of opera and ballet from the Royal Opera House in London as well as the Paris Opera.

While these filmed performances don’t actually replace the particular thrill of actually sitting in the theatre while a performance is taking place, they do provide the opportunity to see, at a fraction of the cost, great productions from around the world which would otherwise be unavailable to most of us. And to replace the thrill of actuality, there are some other bonuses. You get close-ups you could never see in live theatre, a better view than even the best seats in the house, glimpses back stage of the production in progress, and interviews with principal artists and production personel during the intervals.

The Australian Ballet have just opened bookings for their  2014 Sydney Opera House season which includes their much admired production of the Sir Peter Wright’s version of Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker”.  Co-incidentally, the Palace Cinemas were showing the Royal Ballet’s production of this very ballet, also choreographed by Sir Peter Wright,  this weekend. So not having seen this production previously, this opportunity was too good to miss, particularly as the performance had only been recorded last month.

First presented in 1984, this is sumptuous production, recently remounted under the watchful eye of Sir Peter Wright himself, proved to be a feast for the eyes, with its lavish sets and costumes designed by Julia Trevelyan Oman and imaginative lighting design by Mark Henderson.

As you would expect from the Royal Ballet, each role was perfectly cast and danced by the dancers as if they had been born to them.

But even more interesting was how cleverly the story had been tweaked to bring it closer to Hoffmann’s original story, so that the ballet now tells an over-arching story of how Herr Drosselmeyer, now a rather more avuncular character than is often the case, and performed with great flair and panache by Gary Avis, manages to recover the soul of his long lost son which has been imbedded in the nutcracker doll he presents to Clara.

Drosselmeyer, Clara (Francesca Hayward) and Hans Peter, the Nutcracker (brilliantly danced by Alexander Campbell) now exuberantly participate in the national dances in Act 2, rather than stand at the side of the stage.

Alexander Campbell as Hans Peter

Laura Morera brought superb technique and authority to her interpretation of the Sugar Plum Fairy, even if a tad more warmth and dazzle would not have been amiss, while tall and handsome Frederico Bonelli was every inch the fairy-tale prince. Their dazzling pas de deux, which  climaxes the second act, was quite stunning.

Laura Morera and Frederico Bonelli

Particular bonuses with this presentation was the hosting of Darcy Bussell, who, having danced this production on many occasions, seemed a little wistful about being on the sidelines, forgetting to name some of the principals as they took their final bows, but proving a charming interviewer in her conversation during interval  with Royal Ballet Artistic Director, Kevin O’Hare, and a short documentary preceding the performance in which we were shown glimpses of the dancers rehearsing under the supervision of Sir Peter Wright, and charming him with an impromptu celebration of his 80^th Birthday, and of course the opportunity to hear the beautiful Tchaikovsky score played in glorious stereophonic sound by the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House conducted by Tom Seligman.

The next Royal Ballet production scheduled in the Palace Electric Cinema’s program is the Royal Ballet’s production of “Giselle” featuring Cuban dancer Carlos Acosta and Russian ballerina Natalia Osipova. “Giselle” will screen on February 14, 15, 16 & 19^th.