Pinchgut Opera

In Recess

This blog is in recess.
Please watch our website for news about resumption.

Idomeneo Streamed on ABC site

The Saturday night performance was broadcast by ABC Classic FM and can be listened to for 7 days from today at http://www.abc.net.au/classic/features/idomeneo.htm

Please enjoy

Idomeneo Wrap-up

The set has been bumped out of City Recital Hall - it took only from 7:30 AM to 3:30 for Andrew's team to dismantle everything and store what what we think we will need again

The reviews are all in. Unfortunately the Sydney Morning Herald's review by Harriet Cunningham is only available online through the paper's archive which charges a fee for access.
(If you are interested you will find the archive here. Search Pinchgut Opera.)
But we can, I think quote a few lines without breaching copyright:

"The British tenor Mark Tucker, who sang Orfeo for Pinchgut in 2004, returned for this year's title role, and he was magnificent....
Lindy Hume must take the honours for choreographing a visually stunning work and for drawing such intense performances from each and every member of the company. Finally, all praise to the Orchestra of the Antipodes, Antony Walker's far-from-rag-tag band of itinerant experts. It is worth coming just to hear this ensemble, led with verve and unflinching accuracy by Anna McDonald...
Pinchgut Opera is becoming a favourite pre-Christmas tradition. The fairy lights go up in Martin Place and the houselights go down in City Recital Hall as this resilient and enormously talented bunch of artists present their annual foray into neglected operatic treasures. Idomeneo is, for me, the best production yet."

www.theoperacritic.com has its own review, as well as links to others. It is only accessible with paid subscription but if you have an interest in opera around the world, it is well worth the cost.

A recording of the broadcast of Saturday's performance will, I believe, be available here later today and for seven days. It cannot be downloaded but you can listen to it streamed through your computer.
All performances were recorded by ABC Classics and a CD will be available in about a year's time.

Finally, some photos from Sunday evening. A few (poor quality, of curiosity value only, I am afraid) taken from backstage.

Thank you for reading this blog. Let us know if you found it interesting, boring or irritating. To stay in touch with Pinchgut register to receive our newsletters. Full information on the website.
Next year's production will be Vivaldi's oratorio Juditha Triumphans. Dates, cast etc will be announced in the new year. Betcha you've never seen a performance of that!

Best wishes from all at Pinchgut Opera....

Fiona and her guard of Cretan soldiers about to make their first entrance in Act 1.

After the conductor, stage manager Tamsin Martin is the most important person on the night.
Here she is at her desk on OP side with assistant stage manager Josh Sherrin. Tamsin calls all the cues, get the cast onstage and generally runs the show. Josh runs around, managing set changes getting props in the right place and making sure it all runs smoothly.

Martene (Ilia) and Fiona (Idamante) in their first scene together in Act 1, from the wings.

The chorus, Act 1, from the OP wing.

The men in the cast were asked to grow beards and, as an encouragement, we offered a bottle of vintage champagne to the one judged by Lindy Hume and Liz Nielsen as the best.Daniel Beer was the winner but John Pitman managed to look so wild, woolly and downright scary that an extra bottle was found for him.

Final Performance

Last night was the fourth and final performance of Pinchgut's Idomeneo.
Almost a full house and a very enthusiastic audience.
Then the after party for cast and crew.

We will post a wrap-up with some more photos later today.
Meanwhile, we must start to pay everyone. We aim to be not only the best musical organisation to work with in Australia but also the one that pays the musicians fastest.

Although we know we have many readers of this blogs, not many have added comments.
Please tell us what you think about the blog, the show or anything else more or less relevant to opera or Mozart. Or, for that matter, totally irrelevant.

Performance Three

Three performances, only one to go.

I remember last year, at the last night party, Stephen Bennett, the wonderful bass, said: "You know, this group will probably never be together again". Tears all round.
So after tomorrow's performance, and the party, the 70 people involved in the show will head off to their homes, all around the world, their families and we will miss them terribly.
Lindy Hume has already gone. and we miss her already. (It seems quite unfair that the director goes off after the first performance and almost never sees the closing night).
Tonight's show was a direct broadcast on ABC Classic FM. I am sure that changed the dynamic. Mark Tucker said that he was concentrating on the sound tonight. Not that I could tell that he was doing anything different - except getting better each show.
ABC Classic FM will have the broadcast available for streaming soon - I don't know when, but check over the next few days.

One review available online at The Opera Critic. This site is highly recommended to anyone interested in opera.

It is 11:40 PM in Sydney. I think that Liz and I have come down from the performance. And so to bed.

More Production Photos

There are another twenty photos from the general rehearsal in the Photo Albums section of this site.

All are by photographer Simon Hodgson.

Idomeneo Opening Night

Opening night went very well. The band, soloists and chorus all performed wonderfully and the large audience loved it.
Reviews will be in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian on Friday.
Thursday is a rest day then we are back for three performances in a row: Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

More later....

Idomeneo Rehearsal Day Twenty Three

Tuesday 5 December

The general rehearsal. A run of the production without interruption, as close to the complete  performance as possible. We had a small audience - friends of cast members and some people associated with welfare organisations of the City of Sydney. The city has been very helpful to us and we are glad to be able to give people the experience of opera who would otherwise probably not see one.

I should really not comment on the performance, since I am biased. But i will: it was wonderful. As I have mentioned several times during rehearsals, Idomeneo is a work of very powerful and involving drama. Many members of today's audience were in tears as the story unfolded.
Everyone in the cast sang out and no-one performed as if it was just a rehearsal. The chorus, especially, acted and sung with great power and persuasion.

We open tomorrow night (Wednesday) - my previous posting gave information on the broadcast and web stream.

PS (added later) I realize that I did not mention the orchestra in these comments. Someone who was at the rehearsal said after that she doubts that there has been better playing of Mozart in this country.  Comparisons are, of course, odorous but this one is sweet smelling.

We had a couple of photographers at the rehearsal today to take production shots for reviews and such.
Here is a small sample. All are by Simon Hodgson.

Mark Tucker as Idomeneo

Fiona Campbell (Idamante) Martene Grimson (Ilia).

Martene Grimson, Penelope Mills (Elettra) in the background.

The chorus.

Idmeneo Rehearsal Days Twenty One and Twenty Two

Apologies for the delayed posts. We have been busy.
Saturday started with a sectional rehearsal for the winds. In this production we are using trumpets (natural), horns (natural), trombones, clarinets, bassoons,oboes and flutes.
Saturday afternoon was the sitz probe - always one of the most enjoyable stages of the rehearsal process. Pretty well a concert performance of the opera. No set, no costumes, no props, no acting. Just the music. And this is the first time that the voices and the orchestra hear each other. Looks of amazement and admiration from both sides. Often, in an orchestra, when a player isn't needed for a while he or she will go off to read a newspaper or do a crossword. But not today. They came around to the audience seats to watch and listen to the performance.

Sunday was a rest day for everyone except the production team who had a very full day bumping back into City Recital Hall after we vacated it for the Music Viva concert on Saturday night.

Monday, back in the City Recital Hall with the sets and lights, for the stage orchestral rehearsal. In many ways, this is the most difficult of all. Everyone knows their roles and the music and are ready to go. But there is still some adjusting to be done, mostly with the music and mostly to fix balance and allow for the shape and acoustic of the hall. Lindy Hume needed to make a few adjustments also. That meant that there were quite a few stops and restarts which most find frustrating. So concentration gets lost and the production does not flow as it should.
But everyone knows from experience of other shows that tomorrow, for the general rehearsal, which is a straight run, everything will settle down again.
Although at some stages soloists were marking - singing at half voice - all sounded wonderful.
We talked to Mark Tucker during a break about how he was handling the role of Idomeneo. He noted that it was a difficult balance: he was still king - a powerful man - but was carrying the terrible burden of his vow to kill his son. Meanwhile, his city and its people were being destroyed because of his delay in honoring the promise. He is strong but being crushed. Mark's own son is in Sydney and will watch the show. Mark finds the role of a man about to kill his son almost impossible to handle. But he does handle it wonderfully. He sings the music wonderfully and acts the part in a way that involves us all.

Fiona Campbell is a very credible young man and the scenes between her and Martene Grimson are believable and involving.

Penny Mills as Elettra has, in a way, the most difficult of all. Elettra is not part of the drama - she does nothing to influence the outcome - but she is greatly affected by what is going on. She is the innocent bystander who is badly injured. In her final aria, Penny does not hold back. This is a scene of a woman destroyed by events outside her control, so how is she to react? Certainly not with understanding and restraint.

A small group of people who have been very helpful to Pinchgut - we call them our heroes - were invited to sit in on part of tonight's rehearsal and to meet Antony Walker and Lindy Hume.

No photos today. At Tuesday's general rehearsal, we will have a professional photographer who will take production shots for publication with reviews and other media uses. We will post some of these with tomorrow's blog posting to give a visual idea of the production.

We open on Wednesday night. That night is quite heavily booked but seats are still available. At this stage Friday (8 December) is the least heavily booked and good seats are available. Bookings through 8256 2222 or www.cityrecitalhall.com

Saturday's performance will be broadcast live on ABC Classic FM around Australia and streamed through the website www.abc.net.au/classic, starting at 7:30 PM Australian Eastern Summer time (GMT +11). It will also be available for streaming for 7 days after.
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Idomeneo Rehearsal Day Twenty

Friday 1 December

You can't really watch a writer writing or a composer composing but you can, if you are very lucky, watch a director creating an opera.
Watching Lindy Hume create her Idomeneo over the past few weeks has been an amazing experience. She believes that everything should come from the music but nevertheless has been able to create a work of gripping and powerful drama.
Today is our first day in City Recital Hall where the performances will happen. The occasion is the piano dress: the set is in place, the cast is in costume and props are used. For this run the company is accompanied by piano and continuo only.
The production is in the hands of the director. Lindy Hume knows - and, so far as we can work out, has known since the first day - where she is going. Today she is polishing and adjusting for the space. She is particularly concerned about audience sightlines and several times asks the chorus  if they can see all seats and has then  asked some to move a little further towards centre stage.
The company has a long day - two calls totalling 6 hours and finishing at 9:30 PM.
During a break, Lindy and Antony Walker work with Didier Frédéric who will be the voice of Neptune at the pivotal point of the opera. He will sing offstage and he is moved around several points to see where he will have the greatest impact. A decision is made, but I won't tell you where Didier will be.
Mark, Martene, Fiona, Penny and Paul are all now comfortable in their roles. Fiona make a quite believable young man. She moves and holds her body like a man - she grew up with brothers, she tells us.
Mark's Idomeneo is a tortured soul. Even though the situation he is in: making a promise to kill his son firstly to save himself and then to save his city, can only be the stuff of a fairy story, we are drawn in and share his torture.

Earlier, the orchestra had its third rehearsal and tomorrow the whole company will come together with the sitz probe.

Below are some photos of the piano dress, selected to avoid telling too much about the set.



During rehearsal, lighting designer Bernie Tan Hays, costume designer Hamish Peters and director Lindy Hume sit at the desk in the middle of the hall.


Fiona Campbell as Idamante.


Neal Peres da Costa (fortepiano) and Danny Yeadon (cello): the continuo.


Penelope Mills (Elettra) and the ladies of the chorus.

And finally, a photo by Bridget Elliot (and therefore of much better quality) of Mark from earler in the week, not in costume but showing his character's torture.

Idomeneo Rehearsal Day Nineteen

Thursday 30 November

In the morning, the second orchestra rehearsal in Goosens Auditorium at ABC Centre.
In the afternoon, the soloists with fortepiano and continuo, work on their recitatives.

Most important, though, today we gained access to City Recital Hall Angel Place and bumped in the set and lights. We will post some photos of this later today.
The hall has a lighting rig suitable for concerts only so we have to bring in extra gear to light the opera.
We must lay down a floor on the stage partly to protect the existing surface but also to give a dark surface which will work much better with Bernie's lighting. We have used the same floor for three productions now, with a repaint job before each.
We won't disclose what the set looks like yet,though for those not coming to the show we will post photos later. We will say, however that Dan Potra has given us two very dramatic major elements onstage that will help tell the story.

The set is designed so that we (well, the experienced riggers who work on it with Andrew Johnston, the production manager) can bump in and out fairly quickly. As it happens, the set must be removed again on Saturday because of a Music Viva concert in the hall on Saturday night.
Meanwhile, on Friday afternoon and evening, we will use the hall for the "piano dress" rehearsal. For this, the set, props and costumes are all used so it is a full production, but with fortepiano and continuo rather than full orchestra. Saturday will see the "sitz probe" when for the first time the cast and orchestra come together.

Sunday is a rest day then on Monday will be the stage orchestral rehearsal and Tuesday the General Rehearsal.
Wednesday is opening night.