Opera Australia’s 2015 Regional Tour Print Media

Opera in thet Outback u b The Walll Street t t Journal Asia a 3 SeptemberSm e 2015 01 By PeterP t Neville- e l Hadleya

“It’s an embarrassing thing for me to have to confess that I’ve never been to ,” says Denis Graham, “but when it’s 15 meters from my office, I reckon I can make it.”

The principal of St. Joseph’s Catholic College in the remote Northern Territory town of Katherine is watching his school’s open-air basketball court being transformed into a little piece of ancient Egypt. This is the setting for Opera Australia’s touring production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” given an Indiana Jones-style makeover, right down to the logo design.

The company has come nine hours south by bus from its previous performance in Darwin, and is now nearly 2,500 miles from its base at the . Its crew is rapidly constructing the stage while teachers set up rows of plastic garden chairs. The following night, the explorer-hero Tamino will push aside a stone block to make his entrance into an ancient temple lined with hieroglyphs from the Book of the Dead, and then flee in fear as he is chased by a mummy.

The Northern Territory is one of the most thinly populated places on earth, and audiences for Mozart aren’t easy to come by. Local shops may advertise the production with its movie-like poster, but by Saturday lunchtime they close for the weekend with a finality that suggests they may never open again. Tiny towns like this one along the Stuart Highway, which bisects Australia from north to south, mainly exist to serve distant mines, cattle stations the size of some European countries, and travellers on thousand-mile drives to somewhere else.

It helps that for this production the roles of three guiding spirits are taken by choruses of local children. On the afternoon of the show, the chorus is costumed in fezzes and gowns and taken through its cues by the conductor, stage manager and assorted singers. Proud parents and teachers will significantly swell audience numbers. Nothing compels Opera Australia to travel farther from Sydney than its second base at the Melbourne Arts Centre. Separate funding, through public and private sponsorships, has to be raised. But Artistic Director Lyndon Terracini and CEO Craig Hassall are determined to bring opera to any Australians who want it, including those who may not yet know they do.

And while this “Flute” may have been cut slightly, given a fresh English translation and scaled down for smaller forces, in no way are outback audiences getting a lesser product. The singers include longstanding chorus members, fresh and rising talent, and established soloists found regularly on the Sydney main stage and overseas. Yet during the tour they all sing for audiences of perhaps just 350. Admittedly, there’s little work even for experienced singers in a country of only 24 million people. “We gladly take what we can,” says soprano Celeste Lazarenko. “But we really enjoy the tour. And I do a lot of chorus work with the company so for me this is an opportunity to mix it up.”

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Others speak of mingling with musicians normally hidden away in the orchestra pit, the variety of different environments and acoustics, and of direct audience contact in local coffee shops the next day. “People say, ‘I saw you last night and you were fabulous. I never thought I’d like an opera but I bloody loved it,’” says soprano Hannah Dahlenburg.

“It’s the smallest scale at which we can tour and really call it opera,” says Mr. Hassall, “but it’s also the largest touring stage production in Australia.” By the end of the annual “hot tour” around the north and “cold tour” around the south, the company about 30 singers, musicians and crew will have played 50 times in 43 locations over a total of three months to a combined audience of around 25,000.

A bus full of opera singers travelling hour after hour across the arid outback might seem more like a restaging of “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.” But it’s mostly calm.

The sopranos are at the front, other voices and the nine-strong orchestra farther back. The rear is a quiet area for the crew, who will often have been up until 2 a.m. dismantling the set and loading the truck. But there’s no “us versus them”: When local assistance proves insufficient after the show in Katherine, several singers lend a hand striking the set.

They do have their quirks. Some need to personalize their motel rooms. One brings a humidifier, another a sandwich maker. Specialist coffee-making equipment abounds. Needing 30 rooms, the company effectively takes over the motels it occupies. On days off there are poolside barbecues with pooled condiments and cooking skills.

In the early afternoon, sopranos can be heard warming up. Men tend to sing at a pitch closer to their speaking voices, so they need less exercise. “And sopranos are more competitive,” says one quietly. “What’s the difference between a soprano and a pit bull?” jokes another. “The pearls.” At Katherine, Ms. Dahlenburg emerges from a hidden door as Queen of the Night, her silver dress shimmering and flashing in the lights, to sing one of opera’s showiest arias, itself a shimmering and flashing thing that includes some of the highest notes in the repertoire. Her voice carries clearly over the orchestra to fill the starry night, stilling the slightly restless but supportive audience.

The audience enjoys both the slapstick comedy of baritone Tom Hamilton’s bird-catcher, Papageno, and the sonorous dignity of bass Steven Gallop’s philosopher, Sarastro. If they didn’t know what they liked before, they do now, and when the various characters have won their true loves and the last of Mozart’s notes fades away, the applause is prolonged.

The Sydney Opera House must be heard and not just seen, and a visit to one of Opera Australia’s sumptuous performances of Verdi or Puccini should be regarded as essential. But in the outback, opera has its own particular magic.

Bringing Mozart to one of the most thinly populated places on earth.

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27 Aug 2015 Denmark Bulletin, Denmark WA

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18 Aug 2015 Noosa News, Noosa QLD

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Tennantnnn n Creek kidsi prepare r to perform fo Mozart'so s TheT e Magic i Flute lThe l iin Opera p Australia u Production u n By EmmaE SleathS a 2 AugAu ustu t 201515 Children from the isolated Northern Territory town of Tennant Creek are preparing to sing in an Opera Australia production of Mozart's The Magic Flute. The group of seven school students from the town, 500 kilometres north of Alice Springs, will sing in a children's chorus for the stage performance. The opportunity is part of the company's Regional Children's Chorus program which gives young people from regional Australia the chance to experience a professional opera production.

Year 7 student Kalyca Robinson said the performance would be her first time singing publicly. "I wanted to join because it sounded like a great opportunity; we started with warm-ups and seeing how our voices connected, and just went on from there," she said. The children will be playing the part of the spirit guides who advise the young prince Tamino on his journey to rescue a princess. "He's trying to find this girl and this evil king actually takes her and these spirits come and help him," Kalyca said. Opera Australia choirmaster Alex Pringle was in Tennant Creek for final rehearsals with the children. "It's a wonderful art form, [but] one that is generally associated with the older generation," he said. "So it's [about] introducing a whole new generation of singers and concert goers to opera." Last year, Mr Pringle travelled to 26 towns across the country to work with children's choirs for the program. He said kids were embracing the art form. "Wherever I go every group of children is completely different [but] at the same time they're all exactly the same," he said.

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"As long as you can put it in a perspective that they understand they'll jump on board, you can pretty much guarantee it."

Opera Australia's production of the Magic Flute takes place in 1930s Egypt, so each child's outfits will include a red fez and long, flowing robe. Year 9 student Kirsty White said she was nervous about the performance but wanted the experience. "I like getting out of my comfort zone and I actually found the story really interesting," she said. "We had the whole day of actual school to come and practice, which we were all kind of happy about." Mr Pringle said: "On the day of the opera it's all a bit shell shocking ... their eyes are just everywhere. But then they come off at the end of the show and it's like, yeah, I'm an opera singer now, that's what I do." Opera Australia's The Magic Flute is on at the Tennant Creek Civic Hall on August 4. The event forms part of the 2015 Desert Harmony Festival, presented by Barkly Regional Arts.

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12 Aug 2015 Katherine Times, Katherine NT

28 Jul 2015 Noosa News, Noosa QLD

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Audio Visual Media

Clip from The Great South East - Channel 7 (TV) 15 July 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy4ec7hb2F8

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