Pinchgut Opera

Celebrations

Tonight is the launch of Sydney Design 09 - an international design festival that runs for the next 16 days. They have events all over Sydney celebrating local and international design with exhibitions, speakers, tours, markets and workshops - around 70 events in 35 venues, mainly at the Powerhouse Museum.

So I’m off an exhibition launch tonight to Planet Furniture, run by Ross Longmuir. Ross is a beautiful furniture designer himself and his exhibition “a bespoke collection…” will run during Saturday In Design (1 August). Ross has been attending (and loving) Pinchgut productions for years now and has been a great ambassador for us (we have in fact officially gonged him the title). Also, he has always been particularly fond of the voice of soprano Anna Fraser - Pinchgut regular and who will be singing the role of Mirinda in L’Ormindo. So tonight Anna (left) will be performing some Australian works to fit the setting at the exhibition launch – along with a tattoo artist.

And while we are in party mode – last night we had a little thank you celebration to thank all the musicians, crew and committee that made the fundraising evening a few weeks back such a success - see 11 July blog. They all gave their time and extraordinary talent for free. It was an extra bonus to have 2 past directors there, Justin Way (visiting from London), along with Mark Gaal (who added his magic to the fundraiser)– as well as tenor Philip Chu, who now lives in Hong Kong and sung with us as a member of Cantillation. Seems that we are mostly red wine drinkers….

Anna

Pacific does Love Triangles

Our friends at Pacific Opera are just as committed to future of opera as we are. They are a terrific organisation that looks after talented emerging Australian opera singers, giving these young artists performance opportunities and professional development. They are opening their performance of Bellini's opera La Sonnambula this Friday/tomorrow evening. Myee Clohessy (also a regular with the Pinchgut orchestra) has been the Concertmaster of the Pacific Opera Orchestra for the last five years, and says that the young singers in this year’s production are quite exceptional. La Sonnambula was last performed in Australia in 1965 when Dame Joan Sutherland sung the role of Amina. The plot is a little simpler than L’Ormindo, but contains a certainly amount of “love triangles” - basically, Amina is a sleepwalker and ends up in the wrong bedroom… It’s on for 5 nights only at Glen Street Theatre.. go and see this wonderful young company!

Anna

What's the Score?

Our L’Ormindo score has been edited by Peter Foster of Venetian Opera Works. The original Ormindo score and libretto are housed in Venice's Marciana Library, but as is usually the case there are things missing, parts that were re-done for various performances, and a whole host of other things that make a score like this need considerable work. Peter’s job (after getting the score into a state where it can be performed), along with Erin Helyard, is to make the score suitable for our production. The original is more than three and a half hours long, which is considerably too long for a modern audience. Peter gave us access to the complete score, and from this Erin and Talya Masel (our director) decided on what they would like to cut and what they would like to re-order.  Peter and Erin then worked on all the musical and story joins, not only for the cuts, but also to make the parts suitable for our singers. The finished length of our production will be around two hours and ten minutes plus an interval.

Our Italian language coach is Nicole Dorigo. She has been with us for many productions, as she is pretty clever at French as well. Nicole joins the rehearsals from the start and does a wonderful job working with everyone intimately throughout the intense rehearsal period.

With all this Italian music and words, now is perhaps the best time to have a crash course in the language? The Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Sydney is offering Italian language & cultural courses from 21 September. And offering 10% discount if you book before 15 September, and as a member can borrow from their book and DVD library for free. They also do more advanced stuff if you think you can understand the entire libretto of L’Ormindo or want Nicole’s job …

By the way, the photo has nothing to do with the L’Ormindo score, just thought it was a lovely photo of Neal Peres Da Costa during our 2004 production of The Fairy Queen.

Anna

Splendid Results

On the weekend, most of our team heard Philharmonia Choir's production of Handel's Jephtha. Apart from the counter tenor it was an all Pinchgut night with Brett Weymark conducting, Fiona Campbell, (Idomeneo, Juditha Triumphans and will be Erisbe in L'Ormindo), Sara Macliver, (Fairy Queen, Dardanus, Juditha Triumphans & David & Jonathan), Jane Sheldon (most of the past productions, and will be Nerillo in L'Ormindo), Paul McMahon (The Fairy Queen, Idomeneo, David & Jonathan) and Stephen Bennett (Semele, The Fairy Queen, Dardanus). There were lots of Pinchgut supporters in the audience and today’s glowing Sydney Morning Herald review claimed it was a “Splendid Tribute to Handel”. Read the entire review here…

I was in Melbourne over the weekend for a 40th birthday party, so I resisted the urge to look at the box office figures. Anyone that hires the City Recital Hall, now has direct access to Box Office results in real time. That is, watching ticket sales at every moment if desired – a bit hypnotic. So it was a great surprise when I returned this morning to find that 1172 seats sold – over one full house! Opening night (2 December) and Sunday 6^th December are still racing ahead – the Sunday early evening is always a very popular time slot - wish we had a few morning Sunday afternoons in a week.

Anna

Clementi to Cavalli

A little bit more on the man making the music for L’Ormindo.

Erin Helyard (left) recently was chosen as the Westfield Concert Scholar for 2009-10 - the first Australian to do so. The Westfield Centre (no connection to Australia's Westfield Holdings) is a prestigious North American institution devoted to the study of historical keyboard instruments.

It was a highly competitive process, and Erin rose to be chosen as their representative Concert Scholar. In the next few months, he will be touring several universities in North America giving lecture-recitals of the music of Muzio Clementi, the composer who is the focus of Erin's PhD dissertation. Clementi was considered by his contemporaries as the "Father of the Pianoforte" and whose successful career embraced that of the virtuoso performer, composer, pedagogue, industrialist and publisher.

The organisers say that Erin's project, “particularly impressed the selection committee with the cogency of its concept.... His proposal reflects the ideal of the "scholar-performer" and his concerts promise to be both exciting and illuminating."

We certainly hope to get excited and illumined when he arrives in Sydney in November and hope he can find some time during the intense L’Ormindo rehearsal period to perhaps present something on Clementi. Erin is currently in Montréal completing his PhD in Musicology at McGill University, In any case, we will see and hear Erin when he conducts Cavalli's L'Ormindo in December.

Anna

Box Office Opens today

So time to talk Cavalli.

Who was he and how come there is little know about him? I certainly hadn’t heard much about Cavalli until our adventurous artistic team (Antony Walker, Erin Helyard & Alison Johnston) put L’Ormindo on the table some time back.

Co-artistic director Erin Helyard (who will conduct L’Ormindo from the harpsichord) tells me that his works were far more influential and well known than Monteverdi’s and his operas enjoyed repeated performances during his lifetime – making him the most-performed Italian opera composer of the 17th century.

He was born Francesco Caletti in Crema in 1602 and spent most of his musical career in Venice as a singer at St Mark's, then as an organist. He wrote much scared music but he is really known for his operas - writing 33 all up. He died in Venice at the age of 73.

Cavalli was so highly regarded that he was summoned to Paris twice to produce operas for Louis XIV.  From Erin:-

“The earliest opera composers concentrated on trying to capture the inflections of speech in music. By the late 17th century, musical attention had shifted away from recitative to the technical and expressive virtuosity of arias. Cavalli’s operas stand somewhat between these two with what Ellen Rosand has called “a moment of equilibrium ... a perfectly adjusted meeting of music and drama.” His lightly-scored accompaniments to the voices underscore his finely-honed dramatic intentions as well as reveal his concerns to keep budgets to a minimum. Cavalli additionally stood at the forefront of a flourishing public opera industry in Venice and his works were performed throughout Italy, France, England and Austria.”

The rediscovery of Cavalli in recent years was pioneered by Raymond Leppard in the 1960s and 70s.  And since then, Cavalli’s operas have taken the opera world by storm. Alex Ross wrote a great piece recently about the rediscovery of his operas, more here...

So more than 360 years after it’s premiere, L’Ormindo will be presented to full houses* in Sydney come December.

Anna

* well, it’s kind-of on track… this morning I received a congratulatory email from the City Recital Hall’s box office manager, to say that one quarter of the tickets had been sold.

Australia’s first lira da gamba

In the past months a very special creature has been in development and has just been completed. A first in Australia.

Laura Vaughan is a wonderful performer that has played the viola da gamba in Pinchgut productions in the past few years. When she first heard that we were doing Cavalli’s L’Ormindo she thought how fabulous it would be to have a lira da gamba for the continuo section. The lira da gamba is quite a rare instrument. It’s a bowed string instrument which has between nine and sixteen gut strings strung across a very flat bridge and was developed in Italy at the time of Monteverdi and Cavalli. Only a handful have survived to the present day and hence, very little access to one in Australia. So Laura teamed up with expert Melbourne instrument maker Ian Watchorn to build Australia’s first lira da gamba for Pinchgut.

Laura Vaughan is passionate about the sound world of the viol and has a busy schedule of teaching and performing from her base in Melbourne. She performs a wide range of solo and chamber repertoire across Australia, Europe and the United States, and leaves this Thursday to the UK to attend the American Viola da Gamba Society annual Conclave -  a group of professional gamba players working on works they want to play and develop, and generally talking about all things gamba.  Laura will be talking to some other players who play the lira da gamba and picking their brains.

She sent through some photos today of the new baby (left) and promises she will tell us more in the next Pinchgut newsletter.

It is this special & unusual instrument that Laura will be playing in L’Ormindo.

Anna

3 Days To Go!

We open Box Office for L’Ormindo this Thursday 23rd to everyone. However, tickets sales have been going fabulously well already! This is because we give newsletter subscribers a two-week window to grab the best seats in the house and a little discount of $10 off opening night tickets on the 2 December. The sales have beaten any previously year’s sales at this time, and at this rate we may sell out in a matter of weeks...

Of course, if you’re reading this and keen to get in before Thursday and not on our newsletter list – you could always join up (free) and then purchase your L’Ormindo tickets before Thursday (not-free, but fair!). The next jam-packed newsletter will be out on the 11 August.

This evening I went to drinks to welcome the new Chair of the Music Board at the Australia Council for the Arts, Matthew Hindson. Matthew is a composer, educator, academic and artistic director.  He spoke about the vast range of activities on the current musical landscape and his hope to even better that after his 3-year term. This year, we received a grant of $40,000 from the Australia Council and $15,000 from Arts NSW. At Pinchgut we are, and aim to be, financed primarily by box-office, the Pinchgut Heroes (individual donations) and sponsorship. After box office our biggest source of money has been from our Heroes, who in 2008 donations totalled over $100,000, and we are on track to at least reach that level this year. We are really proud of that. These are people who believe in what we are doing, attend our performances and reach out to others. They want us to be able to continue, especially in these difficult times for us, and all arts companies.

Anna

The Journey

Elena Kats-Chernin is one of Australia's most notable composers. Her work Wild Swans for wordless soprano and orchestra (Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra) conducted by Ola Rudner was released by ABC Classics. Jane Sheldon sings Eliza Aria, part of the suite, on the recording and that song was used in a series of animated TV commercials in the UK for a certain bank, which you can see here:- Lloyds - The Journey.

It generated a ridiculous amount of online attention, reached the top spots in the iTunes classical charts, was remixed by DJ Mark Brown (among others) and made into a pop song 'The Journey Continues'.

And (you knew there was a Pinchgut connection, didn't you) Jane will return to Sydney to sing the part of Nerillo in L'Ormindo. Jane has recently completed her studies at the Royal Northern College in Manchester and now has based herself in Boston US, doing fabulous things.

The photo is of Jane during the Pinchgut Opera production of The Fairy Queen.

Anna

Designing for Opera

I had a coffee this morning with designer Adam Gardnir. He and director Tayla Masel are hard at work refining their ideas for L'Ormindo and in early August they will let the company know what we will experience along with the glorious music.

Adam is new to Pinchgut. He has been designing productions for theatre, opera, television and films, here and overseas. He has worked with such companies as The Australian Ballet, OzOpera, Sydney Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, Company B, and film work including The Hollow Men and Walking with Dinosaurs.  Here I asked him what a designer actually does (amongst other things):-

Yesterday, Ken and I had a chat with John Crawford, Head of Live Music at ABC Classic FM, about the potential broadcast of L’Ormindo. There's nothing firm yet, but we hope Classic FM will be able to broadcast one of the performances again this year. They have broadcast our productions nearly every year and we’ve had a great response from those tuning in and unable to attend. An example:-

“Congratulations to all of you for a most exciting and innovative production. From opening to closing, the excitement never flagged and the music and musicians were just a dream. I listened in to the ABC broadcast (wishing I was there ..)” audience member, Juditha Triumphans 2007.

Anna

Love Triangles

The story line of L’Ormindo was the inspiration for the graphic design image on all our posters and flyers.

The story is about a beautiful young queen, her elderly husband, two lovelorn princes, cross-dressing aides, and of course, a little matter of mistaken identity. Two friends are in love with Erisbe, the young wife of the King - while Erisbe is not happily married to the ageing and impotent King. The friends, Ormindo and Amida, decide to approach her and ask her to choose – and so starts an intriguing web of love triangles!

Our graphic designers are the clever and inspiring lot from This is Real Art (TIRA) in London. Here, Paul Belford talks about working on the 2009 Pinchgut campaign.

Happy Bastille Day

Happy Bastille Day! We have presented 2 French baroque operas, Rameau’s Dardanus in 2005, and last year’s David and Jonathan by Charpentier. Each year we try and do something different to launch the box office (such as last week’s Cocktail Event – see below). For Dardanus, we thought we would reclaim Australia for the French on Bastille Day. We launched an assault on Pinchgut Island (Fort Denison), thanks to our chorus and a few ring-ins. Working with the NPWS, the French Consulate and some Minister’s Department, we manage to get on national TV and a few papers - all for $200 (spent on croissants and French Champagne). Check out the coverage here:-

I’m off to Opera Australia’s Baroque Masterpieces this evening - a beautiful double bill of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and a new production of Handel's Acis & Galatea. I attended opening night and hope tonight’s production doesn’t end as quickly as it did for me the first time! The music is glorious, helped along by a superb chorus and orchestra. It’s a chance to see Antony Walker before he goes back to the States on Sunday. The program also features the Orchestra of the Antipodes, Taryn Fiebig who will be singing Sicle in L’Ormindo for us, Kanen Breen who will sing Erice, and the amazing Yvonne Kenny plays Dido. You only have one last chance to see this special production - this Saturday 18th July. www.opera-australia.org.au. Also see Sarah Noble’s excellent review here: primalamusica.typepad.com

If you happen to be anywhere near Chicago, Chicago Opera Theater and Brian Dickie are very good friends of Pinchgut, and they have just announced their 2010 spring festival season. It’s s great program and features Justin Way directing Cavalli's Giasone – his third production with COT. Justin directed 3 productions with Pinchgut too! www.chicagooperatheater.org

Anna

Moving forward

This evening we had a regular Pinchgut meeting with Alison, Andrew, Antony, John, Ken, Liz and myself. It is terrific to have Antony Walker in Sydney (currently here for Opera Australia’s Baroque Masterpieces), but this time Erin Helyard was not on the line from Montreal. After our discussions on the preparations of L’Ormindo, we turned to the 2010 program and our continued discussion on what this production could be, given the current environment.

Pinchgut remains totally committed to presenting works that are relatively less well known, but that deserve to be recognised for the gems that they are. We are attempting to not only raise awareness of opera as an art form, but more importantly - to introduce people to, and get them excited by, these relatively unknown works of art. At the same time, we must be very mindful of our budgets, and the current economic climate which might prevail into 2010. In any case, there will be further discussions before a final discussion is made, but one thing is for sure - we will always remain true to the music, and intimacy with our audience.

Also today, Liz & I meet with the new director of the Italian Institute of Culture, Sydney, Dr. Alessandra Bertini Malgarini. It was a delightful chat about Italian culture, early and new music, and Sydney. I very much look forward to working with them again this year. 

Anna

Great Music to the US

Today we received a request from a radio station in Kentucky, USA. Michael Carter, Music Director and Morning Classics host of WEKU FM, will hopefully be broadcasting Pinchgut’s recording of Juditha Triumphans – in due course. WEKU broadcasts classical music and news to more than 50,000 listeners and describes itself as “Great music and NPR news from Eastern Kentucky University”. We think their choice of music is great too...

Of course, you can get your own copy of Juditha Triumphans CD (or any of Pinchgut's past operas) from Buywell.

And some photos of the Fundraising Event last Wednesday night. All photos by Bridget Elliot.

                    

Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir AC CVO, Governor of NSW and Antony Walker                       Michael Leopold

           

                Ken Tribe and Jill Wran                                     Rosalind Page, Alison Morgan, Craig Everingham, Jane Sheldon

Welcome to L’Ormindo and 2009!

Box Office opened last Thursday, to our newsletter subscribers, with a bang. We have sold half a house in the first day (450 tickets) and now only have 3 1/2  houses to sell.

In true Pinchgut style, we threw a terrific party on Wednesday night and called it the “Pinchgut Opera Fundraising Cocktail Evening”, as it was intended to raise funds for this year’s production of L’Ormindo and make a bit of a splash around Sydney and further field. These objectives were certainly met (going over our target by about $7,000).

Her Excellency Marie Bashir, the Governor of NSW, opened the evening with some kind words, setting the tone of the evening. It was then on to some fine performances by Fiona Campbell, Jane Sheldon, David Greco, Cantillation, and soloists from the Orchestra of the Antipodes, with Antony Walker conducting. Plenty of food and wine all beautifully coordinated by MC Guy Noble in the foyers of The Australian Museum – made for a magic evening.

The other objective of the evening (as is the objective of the entire company) is to have heaps of fun. This was happily achieved, with the last few days taking lots of calls and emails to that effect. One from our resident bassoonist Simon Richard:-
“ Last night was fun wasn't it? It is a pleasure to work for a company which treats its employees with such decency, affection and respect, right down to the lowliest bassoon player and lighting gaffer. Under such conditions you will never have a shortage of people eager to give freely of their time and goodwill!”

I’ve also spent the last day calling 22 winners of the Raffle – always a delightful job and think every winner said, “Really? But I never win anything.”

So today I thought this was the appropriate day to start the Blog for the year…

And a video of the evening with Fiona, David singing "Sound of Parley" from King Arthur by Purcell:-

I look forward to bringing you more news in the lead up to opening night on 2 December 2009 of L'Ormindo.

Anna