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.
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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.
Posted at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
We were very happy at the reviews.
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.
Posted at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
It's difficult to know what to say, really.
Posted at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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.
Posted at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
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
Posted at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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
Posted at 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)