Pinchgut Opera

Alex Ross

Alex Ross, music critic for The New Yorker, whose blog The Rest is Noise I read and enjoy, has just published a book under that name. It explores the music of the twentieth century.
An extract and outline is here.
Alex writes with great interest and curiosity about music. He is one of the few music critics who display a real joy about music. So many treat it as a subject of study but not something that they really enjoy.
I am looking forward to reading Alex's book.

Latin as it is Spoke

I once had an argument - well, a discussion over a glass or two of port, late at night, it was - with an old friend about the pronunciation of Latin.
My argument was that it was a dead language so how could we possibly know how it was pronounced by the ancient Romans? She said that scholars had worked it out from poetry: from how poems scanned and rhymed. At least, I think that was her argument  - it was a long time ago and we had all had a bottle or so of wine before the port.
I did not admit it at the time but I think she was correct. (Sorry, Frances, for taking so long to concede.)
All this is relevant to the performance of Juditha, which is in Latin.
It's even more complicated because there are now several forms of Latin, all pronounced differently.
As well as Classical Latin (as spoken by Caesar and friends) there is Ecclesiastical Latin (as once used in the Catholic Church) and Biological Latin (used for biological and taxonomic terms).
Also, we believe, the pronunciation of Latin in Vivaldi's time was different again.
Fortunately, I don't have to decide any of this. We will leave it to Attilio and Mark.
Whichever is decided, though, we will need to find a way of coaching the singers. That will be Alison's job.
Gee, opera is fun, isn't it?

Costumes

A message from Mark Gaal to say that he and Hamish Peters had been rethinking costumes for Juditha and planned to change the approach they talked about during the design presentation.
Interesting, but not a cause for worry.
We have plenty of time for costumes and it is an area that Hamish is very experienced in.
It is good to have a creative team that we have complete confidence in.
They will get the job done and it will, we are sure, be a spectacular production.

Only one problem at the moment: Anna and I are having trouble editing my chat with Attilio for the website. I can't wait till my grandson is 9 or 10 and can help me with some of this techie stuff.

Weekend Away

To Ballarat, Victoria for the weekend on non-Pinchgut matters, except that we went to a birthday party for a very good friend whose name is Judith.
She will (of course) be coming to the production in December.
Liz believes that she sold a few other tickets.

Attilio on the line.

Last night I had a long conversation with Attilio Cremonesi (through Skype) from his home on the Lido in Venice.
Attilio had a few days home between performances in Basel of Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail that he is conducting. It has been very well reviewed and we are trying to get a translation of the Swiss German review and will post it.
The talk with Attilio was recorded (a wonderful programme, Skype) and we will provide a link to an edited verson early next week.
He was very interesting in his comments on performance of baroque opera, especially Vivaldi.He pointed out that we know very little about how Juditha was performed so room is left for creativity and imagination.
Attilio is bringing his wife and young daughter to Sydney and they are all looking forward to it very much.

Marketing

Anna and I meet about once a week to discuss progress on marketing. As well, we communicate by email and phone usually several times a day.
Today we met.
How can we get publicity on AM radio? Getting to opera lovers is not difficult  but we are sure that there are lots of others who would enjoy  Pinchgut if they knew about it.
We'll probably  offer again to refund the ticket price for "Pinchgut Virgins"  who come to the show but don't enjoy it.
I am sure that there are people all over the world worrying about similar problems right now.

Anna mentioned that our good friend Michael Sinclair who runs the excellent website The Opera Critic was interviewed on Radio New Zealand the other day. You can hear the interview for another 4 or 5 days from the Radio NZ website.
Michael links to opera reviews from all over the world - so if, for example, you want to see all the reviews for Covent Garden's current production of Gluck's Iphigenie en Tauride, the site will show you where to go.

Clarinets

The orchestra for Juditha contains many unusual instruments.
We are having 2 early clarinets made for the production by Daniel Deitch a noted maker of historical woodwinds in San Francisco. They are based on a clarinet made by J C Denner of Nuremburg in about 1690 which is in collection of the University of California Library, just across the Bay from San Francisco.
Liz has received an email from Daniel giving a progress report:
"Feverishly working away!  Boxwood never behaves itself though.  I am hoping to complete the turning today.  With any luck I can get started on the tuning soon.
I hate to try everyone's patience.  The instruments themselves are pretty easy to master, so the players need not worry too much"

Liz will worry, though, until the instruments are safely in Sydney.

TGIF?

Friday is an important day for us because around the middle of the afternoon we get the weekly box office report from Craig Thurmer, the wonderfully-efficient and ever-helpful box office manager at City Recital Hall.
Yesterday's report was encouraging. We had sold 95 seats  in the week and the rate of sale is a month ahead of last year and the year before. It is good to see seats selling well now, because there is no advertising or publicity going on at the moment. We advertise in mid-July when the box office opens and will begin again (unless all seats are sold before, in which event we can save the money) about 3 weeks before opening night.
The Sunday matinee is selling best at this stage - over half the A and B reserve are gone - while Wednesday and Saturday are not far behind. Monday - the closing night - is lagging a bit but that does not worry us. It always sells well after opening night - word of mouth and the press reviews motivate people - and we find quite a lot want to come a second time after enjoying the show at one of the earlier performances.
It does mean that for the first 3 performances many of the best seats are sold, so if you have not got around to buying yet, phone Craig or one of his helpers on 8256 2222 or book through the website www.cityrecitalhall.com

We don't normally blog about our social life - it would bore you witless, I am afraid - but last night Liz and I went to a reception for the Sydney's Powerhouse Museum Foundation. Pinchgut has been building a relationship with the Powerhouse, which has a very interesting collection of musical instruments.
Last year we arranged for our good friends, double bass players Kees Boersma and Kirsty McCahon as well as harpsichord player Chris Berenson, to play at a fund raising concert to help the Museum buy a bass made in 1856 by John Devereux, the first string instrument maker in Australia. The Museum has now bought the bass and it was played last night (right in front of the big steam engine).
We have since been helping it to buy a recorder made by the late Fred Morgan. Fred lived and worked in Daylesford and was acknowledged as the best recorder maker in the world. Most great players around the world own and play at least one of his instruments and we believe that the Powerhouse should have one.

The Powerhouse is worth visiting regularly. Quite a lot of its musical instrument collection is on display and there is much other beaut stuff to see. Start with the website.

Photos From Design Presentation

We mentioned that recently Mark Gaal and Hamish Peters presented the design concepts for December's production of Juditha Triumphans to the rest of the Pinchgut team.

Here are some photos of that occasion, selected (I am sorry to say) to keep the design secret until opening night.

Hamish Peters, Anna Cerneaz and Jennifer Bowen from ABC Radio National who is producing a programme on Pinchgut and who was sworn to secrecy before being allowed to see the design.

I will probably get fired for showing this, but here are some sketches from Hamish showing the way he is thinking on costumes. Of course, he will probably change his mind before opening night.

Mark about to unveil the model box showing the set.

And, because she was looking particularly lovely at the time, another photo of Anna.

Sally-Anne Russell at Carmel

Ken chatted to Sally-Anne at the Carmel Bach Festival

An Interview with Fiona

On Thursday Ken spoke to Fiona Campbell about her role in Juditha and other matters musical.

How it all happens - Part 3

The design presentation from the director (Mark Gaal), the set and costume designer(Hamish Peters)and the lighting designer (Bernie Tan-Hayes) is interesting and a little nervous for the rest of us.
A model box - a scale model of the stage - is produced showing the main elements of the set.
Mark explained the concept of the production - how the story will be told dramatically (and, in particular, how he will handle the ending when Judith removes Holofernes's head).
Hamish describes, with sketches, the costumes.
This will be a production that is good to look at, as well as to listen to.
Bernie talks a little about lighting.
The team receives all this with strong approval.
Andrew confirms that he can do it within budget and the timetable.
Like most opera companies, we make it a rule that we do not fiddle with the design. We can veto it (though we have, so far, not done that) but we believe that we must trust the creative team.
So the verdict is "go to it!".
From now on, Mark, Hamish and Bernie will fill in the details, working with Andrew on the practical job of having things built. Liz will watch, mostly to make sure that it is on schedule and budget.
We will see some tangible elements when rehearsals start but will not see the whole thing until we bump into City Recital Hall a few days before opening night.

How it all happens - part 2

The director often has a designer that he or she usually works with, so they often come as a package. Last year Lindy Hume suggested Dan Potra as designer as they had worked together for many years and communicate very well.
Once the director and designer are appointed, we hear little from them for a few months. They go through many iterations of the production before we see or hear anything. This can be a nervous time for us but we have always worked with creative people whose judgment we trust so our feelings are more of curiosity than fear.
Meanwhile Alison is putting together the chorus and orchestra. Cantillation has a standard core of singers so changes are only necessary when someone is unavailable for the period of rehearsal and performance. The orchestra can be more difficult. Again there is a core of players who know us and look forward to Pinchgut each year. But we often need instruments that we have not used before so the call goes out "Who plays the viola d'amore?" and "Craig - do you have a chalameau?"
This year we need four lutes and we doubt that four lutes have every played together on a professional stage or pit in Australia before.
Alison gets on with this without fuss or panic. We know that she will get the job done.
As she appoints players and singers, Liz (who once taught law to business students) prepares contracts for each.
While all this is happening, Anna is organising advertising and publicity.  For the past three years, our graphic design has been done by www.thisisrealart.com in London so there is a lot of email communication back and forth before the image to be used for the show is agreed.
(Have you seen the large poster outside City Recital Hall? When it first went up, Craig - the box office manager - tells us he had to rub the glass to make sure the blood was not on the outside of the poster box).
Then, around the middle or end of August the creative team presents their production concept to the rest of us. This occasion is rivaled only by opening night in excitement.

To be continued...

How it all happens - Part 1.

The design presentation, which made to us by Mark and Hamish last week, was in a way the first tangible step towards the creation of our production. Having approved it, the set can be built, costumes designed and made and other details of the show filled in.

But it is also just part of a process that started nearly two years ago.
Here is an outline of the stages leading to opening night of a Pinchgut Opera production:

Eighteen months to two years before, the work is chosen. Antony and Alison propose an opera to the rest of the team and together we make the final decision. It is primarily an artistic choice but Liz, Anna and Ken consider the budget and how the show can be marketed. We do not look for popular works but generally there needs to be some element that makes it an important opera to present to Australian audiences. And something that makes it a work that we think only Pinchgut can do.

Around the same time, Alison and Antony propose soloists. The lead time to book busy singers can be several years so we need to look further out in our planning. Pinchgut's reputation is so strong now - for excellent productions and as an enjoyable place to work - that many wonderful singers want to work with us when their schedules allow. The choice of soloists is mostly left to Antony and Alison, as the artistic experts with occasional comments or requests from the rest. (With great respect to sopranos, if Ken had his way, mezzos would sing all the roles.)

We also choose a director. He or she needs to be right for the work and right for Pinchgut. He or she also must understand that we look for creativity in place of big budgets.

All through this, the budget is being refined. Andrew as production manager is in charge of the budget. The main factor in fixing the budget is the choice of the work. That determines the number of soloists, the size of the chorus and orchestra etc. The other elements - the set, costumes, marketing etc - do not change much from show to show. It is tempting to look for a work with two soloists, no chorus and a band of three multi-skilled players, but we do not think such a work would meet our artistic objectives. And it certainly would not satisfy our very demanding audiences.

More tomorrow....

Countdown to Opening Night

Last week, director Mark Gaal and designer Hamish Peters presented their design concepts for Juditha Triumphans to the Pinchgut team.
We were very excited about the approach they are taking. Mark has thought a lot about the story and the music and has, we believe, solved the difficult problem of making Judith and Holofernes people who audiences can feel for and understand. And, as well, this will be a show that is good to look at as well as to listen to.
But we are not going to give you any detail about the design: that will have to wait until opening night on 5 December.

Between now and then, we will be blogging regularly - perhaps every day - reporting the problems, triumphs, frustrations and fun of creating an operatic production. We will have backstage stories, gossip and candid photos. There will be guest bloggers from the cast and crew and others.

We think that Pinchgut is the first opera company anywhere to blog the creation of a production.

To stay in touch, we suggest that you subscribe to the RSS (real simple syndication) feed for this blog.Your browser probably supports RSS. If you use Internet Explorer look here.

We are also on Facebook where there is a video clip from Idomeneo - our 2006 production.
When you join Facebook here search for Pinchgut Opera among the groups and join it.
You can, if you wish, become a friend (on Facebook as well as in Real Life) of Ken Nielsen or Anna Cerneaz and learn even more about what they are up to.
The video clip is also on YouTube.