Pinchgut Opera

One Performance to Go

Tonight - Monday 8 December - is the last performance of David and Jonathan and, quite probably, the last performance we will see in Australia in our lifetimes.

The company is very happy with the result. It is a difficult story to tell as the action takes place offstage but we believe that Chas captured the drama and emotion of a simple but powerful story: two lovers divided by war.

After tonight the ensemble will disperse around Australia and the world. It will never reassemble again in the same form. That is sad but all can be proud of what they have achieved.

There will be a posting tomorrow or the day after with a wrap-up.

Reviews

We were very happy at the reviews.

The Sydney Morning Herald did not put Harriet Cunningham's review online (a practice the paper seems to have got in the habit of lately) so here is an extract:

Meanwhile, the Old Testament episode of David and Jonathan is mostly

overlooked these days, not least because it revolves around war, jealousy

and men in love. It sounds like a job for Pinchgut Opera. David +

Jonathan is the seventh of its annual forays into rare treasures of the operatic

repertoire and, as ever, it has much to recommend it.

First and foremost, there is the orchestra, conducted by the artistic

director Antony Walker and led by Rachael Beesley. It would be hard to

imagine a finer ensemble of early-music practitioners and Charpentier's

slippery score comes alive in their hands. Walker negotiates the sudden

changes in tempi with magisterial calm, and has obviously worked hard

with his colleagues to create a balance of timbres among the various

instruments - the combination of theorbos, harpsichords and violones, for example,

makes for a wonderfully complex bass line.

Murray Black's review in The Australian is online here.

Wednesday 3 December - Opening Night

It's difficult to know what to say, really.

Perhaps start with Maree's comment from her Stage Manager's report:

" Thanks to you all for a very smooth opening night!"

It was indeed smooth. No panics. No crises, Excellent performances from all and a great audience reception.

To me, the orchestra was the star of the show. Once your ears become attuned to the complexities of the French baroque (which doesn't take long) a whole unknown but wonderful world of music seems to open up.

As is his practice, Chas was not in the house for the performance but saw bits on the monitors in the lobby.

And of course he and Alex and Brad and Bernie went on stage for the curtain-call.

(Well, it would have been a curtain-call if we had a curtain).

After the cast and crew met us and a few supporters for drinks.

This is always a beaut occasion, especially as everyone has two nights to recover before the next performance. Musicians, after a performance, take hours to come down.

Reviews should be out by Friday and we will provide links.

Meanwhile, if there is anyone following this blog who is not too far from Sydney and who has not booked for Saturday, Sunday or Monday, may we suggest that you do book now?

This will almost certainly be your only chance, ever, to see David & Jonathan in Australia.

Ken

Tuesday 2 November

Today was the General Rehearsal: the full opera in costume with the orchestra in their blacks, exactly as it will be on opening night. They performed before a small audience of invited guests.

It all went perfectly. The band played brilliantly. And the singers were wonderful.

Afterwards one of the chorus members said: “Australian audiences have never heard anything like this”.

A production like this convinces us again that Pinchgut is on the right track in presenting great works that are almost never performed. There is so much undiscovered wonder in opera.

We open tonight at 7:30 PM. The show is ready to go.

 

And some photos – without captions – from last night’s rehearsal.

Monday 1 December

Today is what is called the "Stage Orchestral" rehearsal.

Antony is in charge as it is mostly about the music. He aims to work through the opera twice over a 6 hour period (with a dinner break in the middle).

The full orchestra is here with trumpets and timpani as well. They all fit in the space in front of the stage - a relief for Alison who has to set it all out.

The production team Andrew (production manager) , Alex & Brad (set and costume designers) and Bernie (lighting designer) are also looking a little more relaxed as everything is more or less in place and the costumes are almost finished.

We have several parents in the cast and it is great to see their babies and kids around from time to time.

A great spread in the Sydney Morning Herald about Sara and the opera and sales are rocketing along. Great!

The changes in tempo in this opera are amazing and Antony has to stop and go over several spots to get this all together. Antony expects (and gets) excellence in performance.

We have a few orchestra members staying with us and they came home exhausted after this rehearsal but it this kind of rigorous rehearsal that gets the great results that the audience will hear.

A small group of our major donors (we call them the Heroes of Pinchgut) came to this rehearsal to get a taste of what goes into the rehearsal process.

We are now very close to opening night and it is all feeling good.

Liz

 

Sunday 30 November

Today is two three hour calls for what is called the “Piano Stage” . For us , of course, there is no piano. In fact we had Rachel, leading on violin, Erin, harpsichord and chamber organ, Danny on the new basse de violin together with Nils Weiboldt on his basse de violin, Laura Vaughan on gamba, Deborah Fox and Tommie Anderson on guitar and theorbo and Neal Peres da Costa on harpsichord. That sure beats a piano any day in my book!

This is when the soloists and chorus first get on the stage with the full set. They are almost in full costumes- just some details to be added. The set is completely built and they all need to be familiar with it and where they are moving on and around the stage. As there is a raked area the singers all need to be familiar with the slope.

Chas is in charge of this rehearsal as it is about the production mostly.  It goes very well. Chas stops action from time to time to alter positions but generally it goes very smoothly. Chas is pleased.

We fed the lot of them between rehearsal as there was only an hour’s break. I have never seen food disappear so fast. The chorus came out saying

–“We are very hungry” and then there was not much left in a very short time. Love this chorus - they are so important to the production and they are so very talented. You will get to hear a lot of the individual voices in this production.

All finished up at 9.30.

A long, productive day.

A lovely young woman from the French school at Maroubra sat in for a rehearsal today as she wants to be an opera singer. Our singers were very generous with the time they gave her to talk about the different paths to an opera career. Her joy at experiencing the rehearsal was inspiring.

Liz