Pinchgut Opera

Justin's London & Cavalli's Venice

I meet Justin Way in London and asked him the best thing about living and working here and also what he is currently working on. Justin directed three productions with Pinchgut and is currently working as an assistant director at the ROH and on some other exciting projects.

 

Justin mentioned he is working on a Cavalli production for Chicago Opera Theatre. In April next year he will direct Giasone (Jason) for COT. When he mentioned to us earlier in the year that he planning to go to Venice to learn more about Cavalli and the first productions of this work, we asked him to pass on anything interesting he discovered.

He recently wrote: "I found the site of the Teatro San Cassiano near the Rialto, where L'Ormindo and Giasone first happened. It's been gone since 1807, but the name of the street leaves a record, and I suspect this walled up doorway might be a remnant ... It's right off the Grand Canal, and the palazzo that fronted it still looks like a private residence, although I didn't call in and ask."

It was also great to have had some time to visit the National Gallery and find the time to buy some fabulous shoes and drink more champagne….

 

I’m off the Germany this weekend visiting Wolfgang Fink and Aimee Paret. Wolfgang was the Artistic Administrator with the Sydney Symphony until 2008, before he moved to Bamberg to head the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra.

 

Anna

London Talking

 

The last few days I’ve been in London visiting various people including our graphic design team TiRA.  It’s been wonderful summer weather, and great to be back here after so many years. TiRA is oozing inspiration. As soon as you walk into their lovely offices, it’s buzzing with energy and ideas. We are lucky to have a creative team that understands what we are trying to do with Pinchgut and that the world is such a small and connected playground! Amongst talking about the current L’Ormindo campaign (do check out the website – again.), we discussed Pinchgut’s online presence and long term planning. My stay was not long enough, although we had time for have a great champagne induced lunch at St Johns (do go if visiting London). In the right photo, Claire, Paul and Kate (our TiRA team) are enjoying a sprats, eel & goats cheese. And below is Kate and myself.

 

 

I also meet Justin Way at the Royal Opera House for a drink. Justin directed three productions (Semele, Fairy Queen and Dardanus) with us and the he is currently working as an assistant director at the ROH. I recorded an interview with him and post it tomorrow.

 

Anna

You see some of the design...

We promised you some photos from the Design Presentation, and without giving anything away:-

Production Manager Andrew leaves with the secret in the box:-

Talya Masel, director and Adam Gardnir, designer discuss Miranda's costume. If you look carefully you can see a little of the set model on the table too!:-

Adam discusses the cast photos with Claire Aristides who will design and make the jewellery for the cast.:-

We see the design!

Anna is in Denmark so Liz is posting.

We had a wonderful design presentation this week. Talya Masel, director, and Adam Gardnir, designer,  flew up from Melbourne and Andrew Johnston, our production manager picked them up at the airport and brought them to our place at Neutral Bay to meet Alison, artistic administrator, John Pitman, board member, and Liz and Ken. Adam came carrying a large cardboard box marked “Top” and “Fragile” which remained closed until he revealed the model of the set inside.

We are all busting to know what it will look like and especially Andrew as he has to know what he has to have built .We know our musicians and that the music will be great but a new director is always a mystery until we see what they have in mind.

Talya explained firstly how they got to the design. Great to hear that they had kept in mind our original brief that they saw their job as assisting the story telling and the music and not getting in the way. They are aware that this is a complicated story and the audience needs to be assisted by a simple form that allows the music to unfold.

Secondly they have created a world of colour and a timeless space of endless possibilities.

Thirdly they wanted to use the height and grandeur of the Recital Hall.

Now I am not going to spoil the surprise of walking in on opening night, but Talya did spend a month in Israel and a lot of time photographing the desert and Arab markets. So expect gorgeous colour.

The contents of the box revealed and we knew that we need not have worried. This is truly a stunning design the set will give the singers many different levels on which to sing.  A lot of stage art will be needed.

(Hint, if you want to book for a second performance get in the boxes right over the stage as the singers at some stage will be right at that level and you will be able to almost reach out and touch them! ---But please don't.)

At the presentation was a young jewellery designer, Claire Aristides just back from the UK where she has a shop in Carnaby Street. She will design and make the jewellery for L’Ormindo and she was wanting to see the costume designs. Adam is a fine artist and the cotume drawings were beautifully presented. He has also given Andrew all the to-scale drawings of the set ready for the maker. Adam used AutoCad, a program mostly used for architectural design so we can how the set will look from any seat in the house. Amazing!

 

Some photos will be in another post

Summer Groups

I have been checking the ticket sales while I have been away and the group bookings (10 people or more) are going very well – better than any previous years. Most performing arts companies offer group discounts as a way of boosting sales and for us, most importantly, getting people that have never had the Pinchgut experience or attended an opera before - to come along and try it.

It’s a terrific way to see L’Ormindo, with friends or colleagues. Perhaps a great alternative to the normal “work Christmas party” – or simply a start of summer celebration. The tickets are cheaper, and there are other benefits. Our hotel sponsor, Radisson Plaza Hotel (2 minutes from City Recital Hall), has specials for Pinchgut group people (well, actually for any one or two people), offering a $35 dinner special (2 courses + a glass of wine) or drink at their lovely Bar for 10% off and more… Check it out in the August Newsletter.

We try and be as flexible as possible with our groups, and will do anything we can to enhance the experience  - so bring on the summer group! Bring on Summer… (actually I hear it’s summer in Sydney already, Copenhagen will reach their summery 20 degrees max today…)

Anna

Danish BBQs & Opera Virgins

Arrived at Copenhagen this morning and just enjoyed the first BBQ. Apparently the Dans have one of the highest per capita of BBQing in the world, even higher than Australia, but I’ve have to confirm that, as it is a little hard after a great Danish BBQ in the late summer sun (10pm still light) and a few glasses of, would you believe, New Zealand white. In the next few days - I am looking forward seeing “Sommerballet” and a visit to the Copenhagen Opera House.

The people you meet on planes. I meet an American women, Tam, who have been to many theatre, symphony and music productions but never an opera performance and was intrigued with our “Opera Virgin” offer, and couldn’t believe that only 2 people had asked for their money back. Let me go back a step…

Four years ago we came up with the idea of offering anyone that comes to see us who has never been to a Pinchgut performance previously, come along and if they didn’t enjoy the experience, then they can have their money back – no questions asked (yep, we really believe in what we do…) Anyway, Tam couldn’t believe that only 2 had done this. The first was a woman who came along and was expecting the big massive “operatic experience” of massive sets, big voices, big costumes (women in pavlova dresses come to mind) –something Pinchgut doesn’t do. I’ve forgotten the second sorry… Liz may be able to fill you in…

Off to fight off the jet lag, Anna

Xerves & Bubbles

I was speaking to Rachael Beesley this morning about Victorian Opera’s new production of Handel’s Xerxes that opens tomorrow/Thursday. Rachael is concertmaster and Julia Fredersdorff is leading the second violins. Rachael and Julia have been principle musicians of the Orchestra of the Antipodes (Pinchgut’s orchestra) for many productions, and Rachael tells me that this production of Xerxes is going to sound and look beautiful. There is also a number of other musicians that have performed with Pinchgut that will be part of the orchestra (Samantha Cohen & Simon Rickard) and Tobias Cole (who performed in Pinchgut’s Semele) will sing the lead role of Xerxes.

Much like the set-up at the City Recital Hall in Sydney, Xerxes is being performed at the beautiful Elizabeth Murdoch Hall in the (new-ish) Melbourne Recital Centre. It will be the first time the orchestra pit will be used, and a fully staged opera heard in the Hall. And I hope many more to come - certainly an exciting time for the MRC.

Rachel said it was from her experience with Pinchgut that she wanted the orchestra to be seen and be close to the drama, so it’s a small pit (20cm down) separated from the audience with only a rope, so the orchestra will be in full view and very much part of the entire production. She said the direction is just beautiful and Roger Hodgman (a well-known theatre director) works so well with everyone. So if you happen to be in Melbourne, or have some time to get there –do! It’s only on for 4 performances. www.melbournerecital.com.au

Sadly, I’ll be unable to attend as I'll be on a plane drinking bubbles tomorrow night on my way to Copenhagen. I’ll be away for 3 weeks (including London and Bamberg) but fear not!:- I’ll be still posting about my travels, the people I meet and running Pinchgut from afar (I hope..) Also, our on-the-ground Chair Liz Nielsen will be doing the occasional post.

And I just have to mention, my swimming buddy and mate, Matthew Westwood, has just been selected to be a Fellow of the USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Program in Los Angeles. It’s the most prestigious award for art journalism - real grown-up stuff with only 6 chosen from around the world! The 3-week long program “seeks to establish a new standard of excellence in arts and culture coverage…. The 2009 Fellowship will be about enabling arts journalists to take a bold lead and tell stories that meaningfully connect audiences and artists.” Yep – we love that! And so a pic from our early morning swims at Bondi Icebergs to celebrate for Matthew.

See you in Copenhagen, Anna 

Photos: Above Rachel Beesley in Pinchgut's Idomeneo (2004); Bondi Icebergs at some silly time last friday.

Ideas & Bubbles

This evening we had a Pinchgut Ambassadors gathering at the Radisson Plaza Hotel. It’s a small group of diverse, interesting and interested people who get what we do and why – and are helping us to spread the word, or music, of Pinchgut. So, in the lovely bar at the Radisson over bubbles & wine, we had a terrific open discussion that produced some good ideas on how better we can get the word out and to support the company. Liz, Ken, John and myself (all from Pinchgut) gave an update on how things are tracking artistically, operationally and financially, and then it was onto ideas and then some more ideas… Our Ambassadors come from such different sectors of the community (business folk, lawyers, furniture designer, inventor etc..) and have been audience members for a number of years.  We are so blessed to have them be part of what we do, and have much to learn from them – my head is buzzing now and it’s not the bubbles!

Another pleasurable job today was receiving feedback from the just published August Newsletter. We love getting any comments and ideas from our subscribers and one was from Dr Ken Parry in Canberra asking us whether we had considered doing “one of the many forgotten operas by Baldassare Galuppi, in particular Il Filosofo di Campagna”. In under an hour we had passed this onto co-artistic director Erin Helyard in Montréal who had responded, “I know the opera well. Lovely piece. Galuppi is one of my favourite composers. And yes, we've considered it.”

Keep those ideas following  - with bubbles please… Anna

Photo: Tonight's Ambassador's drinks: Ross Longmuir, John Pitman (Pinchgut), Suzanne Glesson & Liz Nielsen (Pinchgut)

We even organise the weather

The August newsletter is out! It includes that promised article by Laura Vaughan about building Australian’s first lira da gamba for the Pinchgut production of L’Ormindo, an update and thank you for the July Fundraising event and a chance to win a 4-box set of Bach cantatas.

 I had a chat via skype with American countertenor David Walker yesterday. David will be singing the lead role of Ormindo. He appeared as Holofernes in Pinchgut’s Juditha Triumphans to great acclaim and we look forward to having him back in November for the start of the rehearsal. I recorded our conversation (he without a video in Florida) and will be posting this in the next little while. Basically he says he simply can’t wait till November to be part of the Pinchgut experience.

We are currently booking accommodation for the soloists. David from overseas, Director Talya Masel and mezzo-soprano Fiona Campbell (Erisbe) from Western Australia, Kanen Breen (Erice) has recently moved to Sydney now (so that will help!), Montreal-based conductor/harpsichordist Erin Helyard, and a few others. We will put Talya and Fiona in apartments so their young children can join them from time to time. Five weeks is a long time away from family. We try to get them all in the one place so they can travel to rehearsals and spend time together. We really look after all our cast and crew, as they are so important to us, they are just fabulous people who work hard to produce amazing work. Holding the production at the start of summer is always helpful too…

Anna

Photo: David Walker in Pinchgut's Juditha Triumphans. Photo by Bridget Eliot

L’Ormindo’s Love Triangles in 3D

Have you ever wanted to understand the relationships between all the characters in an opera without having to read the plot, the libretto, see the opera and perhaps do some further investigation? Or perhaps just get a simple overview quickly in a fun way? Well here’s a way – and a first, I reckon.

Check out the new L'Ormindo website just launched. All the relationships are revealed in 3D, with short descriptions and a great way to see how all the characters are related to one another. You simply click on a line between two characters to reveal the relationship – don’t you wish you had that in your own life? I’m a little mesmerised by the whole thing at the moment and love to know what you think – tell me! Our clever graphic designers, TiRA did this for us - we can’t stop them getting into the whole Pinchgut thing at the moment, and keep coming up with ideas that sound too good not to explore.

So if you want to know:

• what happens when two women love the same bloke? Or two men fall for the same women?
• if letting out a secret turns friends into rivals?
• if doing the right thing, will cost another their life?
• if love survives after infidelities? 
• and so much more!

Click LOVE!

Of course, you still have to come to L'Ormindo –it is all about the music after all.

Anna

Designers Designing

I received an email from the Ukraine from designer Hamish Peters. Hamish designed many Pinchgut productions before leaving to the UK where he has spend the last year working at the English National Opera as a wardrobe master, managing a team of dressers and wardrobe staff to put the shows on. He and Dan Potra, another past designer for Pinchgut, are currently working on the opening ceremony of a new Football Stadium in Donetsk. So I just had to pass on his words so you can believe for yourself what these boys are up too! Hamish:-

“I’ve just finished working with Dan on an event in Edinburgh. It was part of Homecoming 2009, which is a celebration of the Scottish diaspora, the clans and their effect on Scottish history, basically anyone with Scottish heritage was invited to come back “home” and discover their family histories. We worked on a show called Aislings children, this followed a family from the middle ages through to the present. It was really a movement performance, directed by Mark Murphy (Dan worked with him on the Liverpool Year of Culture opening events). The show was held on the esplanade of Edinburgh Castle, where the Tattoo is held, and featured about 100 performers.

I’m now in Donetsk, Ukraine working on the opening ceremony of a new Football Stadium, Donbass Arena (check it out on the web). Dan is designing for the show, and I am assisting him again. This time it’s 500 people, we have 3 huge mining wagons that drive onto the pitch and open up to become a stage for some Ukrainian pop stars, all accompanied by 500 miners, who turn into Cossacks. Shaktar Donestk are the reigning UEFA champions, and they appear, only to be invaded by a bunch of football playing aliens who challenge them to a match! It’s all a bit weird here, and there is lots to do work wise. There is even an Opera and Ballet theatre, so I might get to sample some of the local Culture not related to Mining or football.”

We wish Hamish and Dan well, and hope that our current designer Adam Gardnir will not include any Cossacks, Ukrainian pop stars nor aliens in L’Ormindo - perhaps an UEFA champion might be OK. In any case, we shall soon see at the up-coming design presentation in a few weeks.

Anna

Photo is of Hamish during Pinchgut rehearsals of Idomeneo. Photo by Bridget Elliot.

Face in the foyer

If you are a regular concertgoer in Sydney, chances are you would have seen Anne Zimmer’s smiling face in a foyer selling fabulous music and other merchandise. Anne runs a terrific small business and is the “merchandise face” of the Sydney Symphony, and other music groups around Sydney. This morning I meet up with her to discuss Pinchgut’s recordings and other ideas for L’Ormindo - and thought I’d do a quick video about why she does what she does. She has a vast musical knowledge and often 100s of CDs to choose from at her table, so go and say hello and get her advice at your next concert.

Today’s Opera Australia newsletter published an interview with sopranos Taryn Fiebig, who will perform the role of Sicle in L’Ormindo (in Italian of course), and Lorina Gore about their upcoming roles in OA’s The Mikado and Peter Grimes. Taryn makes some interesting comments about performing in English verses Italian:- “… if I had my way the surtitles wouldn’t be there. But English is a very difficult language to sing in; more so than Italian. Italian vowels are pure and they resonate beautifully, so it’s easy to be understood. Whilst in English it’s only after you’ve spoken a sentence that you make sense of it.” Read the entire interview here…

Anna

Bach & beyond

This evening was a very special recital of some Bach Cello suites by two of Australia’s best cellists performing on two very different instruments in the Utzon Room, Sydney Opera House. Emma-Jane Murphy performed suite No 1 in G major on modern cello and Danny Yeadon performed suite No 5 in c minor on baroque cello. The setting and the format of the concert was perfect, with Marshall McGuire, who curates the Utzon Music Series, in conversation with Emma-Jane and Danny between the 2 works, allowing the audiences to really hear and appreciate the two instruments performing these amazing works. Transporting stuff. I do love the glorious sound of gut strings. Danny has performed with Pinchgut every year, and of course will be performing in L’Ormindo this December. Here he is performing in last year’s David & Jonathan on the basse de violon - right.

But I must digress…

The day started early. An hour or so drive south of Sydney to Picton to go skydiving! It was a leaving present from the amazing TaikOz & Synergy who I managed until March. Not sure how I am suppose to take that as a present, but wow - what an amazing experience. Anton Lock, member of TaikOz and complete thrill seeker, was my travelling and adventure buddy. After a few instructions from my guide, Anton and I went to 12,000ft and jumped out of a tiny airplane. Anton by himself (having done the appropriate courses and clocking up 24 drops) and me in a tandem. It was so incredible and, have to say (at this moment in time), I actually understand why Anton spends all his hard earned money on this. In any case, if you would like to see Anton in other roles that are just as thrilling (really) - go and see TaikOz  - any way you can. They are currently collaborating with Bell Shakespeare in the production of Pericles and will be in Melbourne 7-22 August, or do a taiko class.

By the way, the next concert in the fabulous Utzon Music Series is another member of TaikOz, shakuhachi player Riley Lee and Marshall on harp, 30 August.

I’ll sleep well now, Anna

Anton Lock and me