You know things are speeding along when Pinchgut people begin descending on Sydney – even if it is raining. Erin Helyard arrived this morning from Montreal and we are all eager to see him (after some recovery sleep and coffee). Erin is here this week for a special Pinchgut reception at Government House this Wednesday evening and then to start coaching sessions with the singers before the start of pre-rehearsals on Monday 8 November.
Andrew Goodwin (Orpheus) in already in town with his young family, he will also be attending and performing at the Governor’s reception. Andrew will also be performing a recital with Musica Viva on the 11 November with pianist Daniel de Borah.
Elena Xanthoudakis (Eurydice/Spirit) will be arriving the end of next week from London and will be having some coaching session with Erin. She was in Australia a few weeks ago for some recitals in Melbourne and Sydney, and I managed to get some photos of her for our production. The designers, Alex & Brad and director Mark Gaal, gave me directions on the style they wanted Elena to be portrayed in. So, after some fabulous hair and makeup by Elena’s friend in a Greek goddess look, our friend Bridget Elliot manage to capture her as Eurydice for our take on Haydn’s version of the famous story. Here are some photos from that day.
The last of the principals – Derek Welton (Creon) – is arriving in Melbourne, his home town, at the start of November. He’ll be catching up with his family who he hasn’t seen for quite a while for ten days or so before coming to Sydney mid November for the start of rehearsals.
The orchestra is now fully booked with the chorus nearly there. Our artistic team, Alison, Antony & Erin, do a terrific job at lining up the best talent and we are delighted with who will be joining us this year. We will announce everyone in the next week’s newsletter, so join up HERE.
We’re making sure our edition of the opera flows well, and works with the design and production. Small cuts are being made to ensure that we cover all the tricky corners. We’re also making choices on continuo instruments, so that we get all the colour and flavour we can for this. If you’d like to be more familiar with this version of the story you can read the entire libretto on our website HERE.
We just need to organise for the sun to come out again.
Anna
Images: Elena as Eurydice, photo by Bridget Elliot; Below: - Being shot & assessed by Bridget
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