The Opera Season is here folks. Here's the rundown on what's happening. It's running til the 15th of December. It's definitely worth a look-see, especially Teddy Tahu Rhodes in Don Giovanni!
Opera Australia opens its 2007 Spring Season with Teddy Tahu Rhodes in thigh length leather boots, strutting the stage of the Arts Centre as Mozart's greatest anti-hero Don Giovanni. John Pringle joins him as Leporello and Imre Palló conducts Orchestra Victoria. Don Giovanni opens on Wednesday 14 November 2007.
New Zealand-born Teddy Tahu Rhodes follows his extraordinary performances as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire and Joe de Rocher in Dead Man Walking with another villain that he has made his own. When he last performed this role for Opera Australia in 2005, Miriam Cosic wrote in The Australian "Not only was his singing superb – secure, warm, strong – but his star power is only increasing in wattage.
Opera Australia is delighted to welcome John Pringle in the role of Leporello, Don Giovanni's disillusioned sidekick. Pringle's illustrious career spans over thirty years, most recently he appeared in Melbourne as Capulet in Roméo et Juliette (2005) and as Ping in Turandot (2006). This year he also appears in The Tales of Hoffmann.
Joining this tricky duo are Kate Ladner and Fiona Janes as Donna Anna and Donna Elvira. Kate Ladner, who will be remembered as Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro in 2002,recreates the role of Donna Anna she played so memorably in Sydney in 2004. Fiona Janes, who delighted Melbourne audiences in 2004 with her award-winning portrayal of Adalgisa in Norma, returns to make a major role debut as Donna Elvira. Another New Zealander plays Don Giovanni's nemesis, the Commendatore. As a former rugby player, farrier and all-round sportsman Jud Arthur has the physical presence to rival Teddy Tahu Rhodes, and a bass voice which has been heard recently as Colline in La bohème, for which he won a 2005 Green Room award, and as Ferrando in Il trovatore.
Richard Anderson and Tiffany Speight play Masetto and Zerlina, the innocent bystanders who get dragged into the Don's life. In 2006 bass Richard Anderson appeared as a soloist during Opera Australia’s concert performance of Mozart’s Requiem and as Achilla in Julius Caesar, whilst Melbourne soprano Tiffany Speight sung the roles of Ellen in Lakmé and also Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro. In the role of Don Ottavio is tenor Jaewoo Kim, who Melbourne audiences will remember for his performances as Gerald in Lakmé (2006) and Tamino in The Magic Flute (2005).
Hungarian-born Imre Palló makes his Opera Australia debut with this production, conducting Orchestra Victoria. Palló is head of conducting at Sydney Conservatorium of Music and spent four years as music director of New York City Opera. He has worked with numerous opera companies and symphony orchestras across the US and Europe.
The story of Don Giovanni – aka Don Juan, Don Jon et al – has been told many times but for the legendary libertine who seduces his way across Europe it usually ends the same way – in hell. Mozart's version is regarded by some as one of the greatest pieces of music ever composed. Some of its memorable moments include the chilling D minor opening to the overture, Leporello's catalogue aria, Don Giovanni's ode to wine, women and song ‘Fin ch’ han dal vino’ (Champagne aria) and the duet 'Là ci darem la mano', where Don Giovanni seduces Zerlina.
Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann returns in a new production starring Rosario La Spina in the title role of Hoffmann. The production is directed by Stuart Maunder, designed by Roger Kirk and conducted by Emmanuel Joel-Hornak, and in an exciting first for the Company, Emma Matthews and John Wegner will lead the same cast for each of the three episodes. The Tales of Hoffmann opens at the Arts Centre on Wednesday 21 November 2007.
The Tales of Hoffmann is a mysterious and romantic piece. Hoffmann, a writer and dilettante, is drinking in a bar. In his drunken state he tells his friends and hangers-on about three previous fantastical love affairs. His stories told, he announces he is abandoning love, and will go back to writing. Cue the entrance of his erstwhile lover, Stella..
With so many different episodes and characters Hoffmann can be confusing, but this production aims to bring a unity and consistency to the work with a bold piece of casting. All of Hoffmann's lovers – the doll Olympia, the singer Antonia, the courtesan Giulietta and, of course, Stella – will be played by the one singer, award-winning soprano Emma Matthews. It marks the climax in an extraordinary year of debuts for this versatile soprano, who also sang Rosina in The Barber of Seville for the first time.
Australian-born bass baritone John Wegner returns to Melbourne to play the four villains of the piece, namely Lindorf, Coppélius, Dappertutto and Dr Miracle. Baritone John Pringle plays Luther, Spalanzani and Crespel, while Kanen Breen takes the four tenor roles: Nathanael, Cochenhille, Pittichinaccio and Frantz. The role of Nicklausse, Hoffmann's muse, is sung by mezzo-soprano Dominica Matthews, in a major role debut.As for the role of Hoffmann, it goes to Rosario La Spina, who won hearts as Rodolfo in La bohème last year, making a major debut in this supremely challenging role.
Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann was a German writer, composer, caricaturist and painter known for his stories in which supernatural characters reveal people's hidden secrets. The author styled himself as a depressive and lovelorn bohemian, and Offenbach's librettist, Jules Barbier, mixed reality and fantasy to make the ultimate opera hero.
The Tales of Hoffmann contains some of Offenbach's most beautiful music, including the famous 'Barcarolle', a duet between Giulietta and Hoffmann's muse, Nicklausse, and the ‘Song of Olympia’, the mechanical doll who keeps winding down before reaching the top note.
Opera Australia's Executive Producer and director of Hoffmann, Stuart Maunder, says of the opera: "It's my favourite opera. It will be highly theatrical, gothic, comic and 'fantastic' in the true sense of the word and of course very French."
Opera Australia presents a bold new production of Handel's Alcina starring Rachelle Durkin, directed by Justin Way and conducted by Antony Walker. Alcina opens at the Arts Centre at 7.00pm on Saturday 1 December 2007.
Antony Walker, Justin Way and designers Andrew Hays and Kimm Kovac are part of a new generation of Australian creative talent. Antony Walker was artistic director of Sydney Philharmonia Choirs who moved to the US in 2002 to become Artistic Director of Washington Concert Opera. He has since conducted many operas in Washington and also for New York City Opera.
Justin Way is resident director at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where he has directed many revivals and assisted directors such as Francesca Zambello, Franco Zeffirelli and John Cox. He worked with Andrew Hays and Kimm Kovac on a new production of The Abduction from the Seraglio for Chicago Opera and in Australia has directed Handel’s Semele, Purcell's The Fairy Queen and Rameau’s Dardanus, for Pinchgut Opera.
Rachelle Durkin stunned audiences as the enchantress in the 2005 production of Rinaldo in Sydney. She now makes her Melbourne debut for Opera Australia in the title role of Alcina. Catherine Carby, who won a 2006 Helpmann Award for her portrayal of Baba the Turk in The Rake’s Progress, also makes a role debut as Ruggiero, Alcina's erstwhile lover.
Mezzo-soprano Alexandra Sherman plays Ruggiero's betrothed, Bradamante, with Richard Alexander as her attendant, Melisso. 2005 Green Room Award winner Natalie Jones makes a Melbourne role debut as Alcina’s sister, Morgana, alongside Henry Choo and Hye Seoung Kwon in the roles of Oronte and Oberto.
The trouser role is a common device in eighteenth-century opera, arising out of the tradition of assigning a leading role to the strong, high voice of a castrato. It is also a common plot device for a woman to disguise herself as a man, leading to all sorts of gender confusion, as a woman playing a man makes love to a woman playing a woman dressed as a man…
Alcina is about a predatory enchantress who lives on a magical island and turns her ex-lovers into rocks and trees. Director Justin Way is promising a production full of magical illusion. The lavish scenic design uses sculptures, projections, lighting effects and a spectacular coup de théâtre.
PICTURED: Teddy Tahu Rhodes as Don Giovanni.
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