Is she dead yet? Rehearsing La Bohéme at Opera Australia Avi Michael Casebook submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Bachelor of Arts (Honours). Department of Performance Studies University of Sydney 2009 Many thanks to my supervisors, Dr. Ian Maxwell and Dr. Amanda Card. 2 | Is she dead yet? Table of Contents Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 4 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 4 Causality: My Method of Operating ...................................................................................................... 7 Context .............................................................................................................................................. 12 The Project ................................................................................................................................................. 12 My Musical Inertia ................................................................................................................................... 14 A Rehearsal Space in Surry Hills ......................................................................................................... 15 Personnel .................................................................................................................................................... 18 The Corporate Body and Recent Media Coverage ........................................................................ 24 Rehearsing La Bohéme at the Opera Centre ......................................................................... 29 Breaking the Ice ........................................................................................................................................ 29 Talking Technique ................................................................................................................................... 41 Rehearsing at the Opera House ................................................................................................ 52 A Different Pace ........................................................................................................................................ 52 Games of Power on the Home Field ................................................................................................... 60 The Cover Sings ......................................................................................................................................... 64 The Search for a Firm Structure .......................................................................................................... 70 The Show is on: Observing behind the Scenes .................................................................... 76 Giving and Withholding Praise ............................................................................................................ 76 A Firm Structure ....................................................................................................................................... 79 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 83 My Learning Trajectory ......................................................................................................................... 83 End Notes .................................................................................................................................................... 88 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................... 90 Appendix .......................................................................................................................................... 93 Appendix 1 – Opera Australia staffing notes from La Bohéme program .............................. 94 Appendix 2 – GoogleMaps search: Opera Australia ..................................................................... 96 Appendix 3 –Opera Australia 2008 logo .......................................................................................... 96 Appendix 4 – Opera Centre Floor layout .......................................................................................... 97 Appendix 5 – Fairfax Memorial Studio layout ................................................................................ 97 Appendix 6 – Rehearsal schedule for La Bohéme ......................................................................... 98 Appendix 7 – La Bohéme cast and crew ........................................................................................ 100 Appendix 8 – Opera Australia Sydney Season ............................................................................. 101 Appendix 9 – Opera Australia Melbourne season ..................................................................... 107 Appendix 10 – Orchestra Victoria’s ‘Events Coming Up’ ......................................................... 110 Appendix 11 – Malaysian Philharmonic ‘Schools Concert’ ..................................................... 111 Appendix 12 – Ollivier­Philippe Cuneo vision statement ....................................................... 112 Appendix 13 – Ollivier­Philippe Cuneo CV ................................................................................... 113 Appendix 15 – Opera Australia Annual Report 2007 ............................................................... 115 Appendix 16 – Sources for Fiona Janes Scandal ......................................................................... 116 Appendix 16 Continued – Melva Thompson Scandal and Alan Jones Coverage ............. 118 Appendix 17 – Pamela Helen Stephen’s biography ................................................................... 119 Appendix 18 – Facts underlying Fiona Janes camp concerns ................................................ 121 Appendix 19 – Opera Theatre Green Room layout ................................................................... 122 Appendix 20 – Sydney Opera House ............................................................................................... 123 Appendix 21 – Recent media coverage of Opera Australia .................................................... 124 Appendix 22 – Inertia of key board members ............................................................................ 128 3 | Is she dead yet? Introduction Introduction In this casebook I will discuss my experience of observing Opera Australia rehearse La Bohéme and offer my explanation of what the practitioners thought they were doing. The complex corporate structure of Opera Australia and the debate about internal conduct that was raging in the media around the time of my observation made it difficult to understand the intentions of the practitioners. While the client/patron model of arts practice rarely encourages honest declarations of intention, in the field under analysis my presence as a Student Observer was met with caution and suspicion. Other researchers have been in this situation and noted that while the subjects try to show those aspects of their experience that they think are worthy, the ethnographer tries to position herself to observe what she believes is worthy, resulting in a field of positions competing to create meaning.1 If we accept McAuley and Hastrup’s empirical observations manipulation becomes a natural factor of research in‐the‐field. With this in mind, I will try distinguish between what was done for me and by me, and separate these from the process of rehearsal – what would have been done where I not there. Clearly, the latter will often be an exercise in imaginative writing. I will approach a rendition of my experience by discussing sources of relevance from different authors and time periods. The first part of this casebook will be an attempt to explain the inertia with which I and ethe peopl around me were travelling. Inertia is ‘The property of matter that causes it to resist any change in its motion’; it can be used to 1 See Gay McAuley, “Towards an Ethnography of Rehearsal," New Theatre Quarterly 14, no. 1 (February 1998): p.78; and, Kristen Hastrup, “The Ethnographic Present: A Reinvention,” Cultural Anthropology (Blackwell Publishing) 5, no. 1 (Febuary 1990): 45‐61. 4 | Is she dead yet? describe an entity that ‘continues to move at a constant speed in a straight line unless acted upon by an external force’.2 This concept may appear to stumble when you see the different roles the practitioners played, however it accurately describes my learning trajectory, something I will address at the end. To locate the project, its rehearsal space and its people in a field of cultural significance, corporate governance and media packaging I will refer to official reports, newspaper articles, operatic and critical theory and my field notes. Having contextualised my enquiry in the first chapter, the second will focus on the rehearsals proper, referring primarily to my field notes in a sequential manner. I divide the rehearsal process into three stages: my impressions from the Opera Centre, from the Opera Theatre and then from backstage at the Opera House. The density of meaning behind events in the second chapter is better understood through the frame established in the first. Also, to bolster my rendition,