BEN MINGAY & ANTOINETTE HALLORAN, WA (PHOTO: JAMES ROGERS)

Dear Opera Lover You play an important part in driving this large arts employment goal. Your attendance, your donations, You are so much more than a lover of opera! Please your advocacy and your willingness to share in our know how treasured you are because of your appetite success has a multiplying efect. Thank you. As we for music, your passion for drama, and your support begin our Annual Appeal for 2021 I hope you will of our artists, musicians, and indeed our Company as consider deepening the value of your attendance here a whole. Opera is a broad church, both in content and at Sweeney Todd with a donation to State Opera. I the unique personalities it attracts, and I hope you hope it is plainly evident that we funnel as much of will feel utterly complimented when I tell you that you our income as we can directly into productions and are in the very best company here this evening. performances; that is where your financial support will make every bit of diference. Donating is easy: I wish you had a chance to peek backstage and into stateopera.com.au/donate the rehearsal rooms over these last few busy months. I know Stuart will agree with me when I say it has been My special thanks to those who have already food for the soul to see such a hive of activity taking donated, sponsored and contributed in so many place, and I personally have been deeply gratified and ways. Thanks also to our partners, Board of relieved that we have been able to return to delivering Directors, and the ever hard-working and talented on our vision – more opera for more people (okay, we’ve team at State Opera both behind the scenes and on begun the year with a couple of meaty musicals stage. So many talented people have contributed to instead… but watch this space)! A key part of the the production you see before you now, and I have no ‘more people’ in this vision includes more artists. doubt you will join me in relishing the dark brilliance Stuart and I want to see as many Australian singers as of Sweeney Todd. possible working with State Opera over the coming years, and while last year put a dent in our bold Yarmila Alfonzetti aspirations we have thankfully started to once again EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR leap towards this goal. State Opera South Australia ANTOINETTE HALLORAN, WA OPERA (PHOTO: JAMES ROGERS)

In 1978 as a young stage manager and recently moral. The cast are stock standard: the sweet converted Sondheim ‘tragic’ (a friend had given me heroine, a black-hearted villain, the buf hero and, of the double LP Side by Side by Sondheim – addicted), I course, goodness triumphs in the end. had devoured the then extraordinary output of this giant of music theatre, from West Side Story to Pacific and his librettist Hugh Wheeler Overtures. Sweeney Todd was my first opportunity to used as their starting point a 1973 reworking of the discover a new Sondheim. Knowing not a word of it, melodrama by Christopher Bond. Here Sweeney with no performance history to guide me, no Todd has a cause: just revenge. This Sweeney YouTube, no videos, no libretto – just vinyl and murders for reasons other than monetary gain, a man photos on the sleeve – I listened, and listened loud. at the mercy of a brutal society and forced to seek Nothing prepared me for the visceral feeling of terror I out an existence in the underbelly of human sufering experienced: the Gothic organ voluntary, the piercing that was Victorian London. Only afer his just factory whistle, the power of the chorus interjections, pursuit for vengeance is foiled, and he realises his the painful and horrific storytelling, the tunes, the impotence against the Victorian social system, does black humour. My response has not diminished in the he crack and transform into a charismatic homicidal 30-odd years since that ‘road to Damascus’ maniac, aided and abetted by a totally charming experience. The terror still thrills. accomplice who is prompted by two of those great deadly sins: lust and greed. From the first words – ‘Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd’ – we know this is a period piece, an allegory, a Although ofcially subtitled a ‘Musical Thriller’, ‘tale’ that has of been told across the generations, an Sweeney Todd has been categorised as an opera, a urban myth, a cautionary tale... And it’s deliciously musical, a musical play, an operetta and almost every scary; dark, sinister... and thrilling. other musical or dramatic form. Sondheim himself describes his Sweeney as ‘a musical horror’. Does it The grizzly story of a homicidal barber appears as matter? Perhaps not. The piece is without doubt one early as 1825 in a pamphlet entitled The Tell Tale, of the most powerful, dramatic and theatrical horror based on an earlier account in Joseph Fouché’s tales ever set to music. And all the more thrilling in Archives de la Police. In these early versions the details that for all its melodrama, blood and gore, it tells a of the crimes are the same: a Parisian barber cuts the very universal human story – revenge, obsession and throats of his clientele, steals their worldly goods, and lust, yes, but also pain, yearning, even love. In a then has a pastry chef mince their bodies into pies. In society where the weak get weaker and the powerful 1846 he turns up as Sweeney Todd in a serialised more powerful, how easy is it for a man to revert to novel The String of Pearls, A Romance, capturing the his base instincts? Violence and brutality are ofen popular Victorian imagination. Even Charles Dickens the result. Not all turn into homicidal maniacs of mentions the tale in Pickwick Papers, warning his course, but we still ‘get’ this tale. The language is readers to only buy pies from cooks they know. archaic, the musical is operatic in scale, the setting is Victorian England but in this most thrilling of The theatrical ancestor to our Sweeney was a 1847 musical treatments we can make the leap – this is a melodrama by George Dibdin-Pitt titled The String of tale for our times. Pearls, or the Fiend of Fleet Street. For today’s audiences the term ‘melodrama’ has judgmental Stuart Maunder AM connotations and is associated with mawkish ARTISTIC DIRECTOR sentiment, delicious villainy and a high-minded State Opera South Australia DESIREE FRAHN & NICHOLAS CANNON (PHOTO: SODA STREET PRODUCTIONS)

STEPHEN SONDHEIM’S THEATRICAL WORLD is not easy The operatic scale of Show Boat was a first on the to define – dedicated opera lovers can be a bit mifed Broadway stage, as was its inclusion of such when he invades the sacred portals of the opera theatres, ‘uncommercial’ themes as miscegenation. The close and audiences for music theatre in Australia can find his integration of words and music in Hammerstein’s shows work more confronting than they expect from something with Rodgers also took the concept of a musical show called a musical. further than ‘a nice evening’s entertainment’. The stories Sondheim has set his shows in many diferent locations may not always have been complicated but the characters and at many diferent times – feudal Japan (Pacific were more flesh-and-blood, less cardboard, than was Overtures), fin-de-siècle Sweden (ALittleNightMusic), usually the case, and the songs bore a closer relationship the Paris of the impressionists to the story than Broadway » (Sunday in the Park with audiences would have George)andacrossmorethana experienced in many other century of US history shows of the day. (Assassins)–buttheyall It is against the background examine behaviour and of Hammerstein’s aesthetic neuroses with which con- that Sondheim’s was born. temporary audiences may You could say that his musical identify. Even when his language and verbal imagery musical language is not always evolved from the music purely operatic, the results are theatre language in which he more complex and poetic than became immersed as an the term ‘Broadway show’ adolescent. In the words of usually evokes. The New York Times music His mentor, a man who critic Anthony Tommasini: Sondheim has confessed was ‘No matter how musically very much a father figure to complex and linguistically

THE STRING OF PEARLS OR THE BARBER OF FLEET STREET him, was lyricist and librettist ingenious his lyrics, no matter « Oscar Hammerstein II, whose how psychologically rich his Broadway pedigree included storytelling, all his scores are Show Boat, with composer based in the words-and-music Jerome Kern, and among his heritage of the musical. On shows featuring music by Richard Rodgers, Oklahoma!, some level, every Sondheim score pays homage to older Carousel and South Pacific.Hislyricalimagerymaynot genres and styles of musical theatre.’ One obvious have been as witty or as bitter-sweet as that of Cole example is his refinement of the monologue, which Porter or Lorenz Hart, but in his librettos he worked to Rodgers and Hammerstein had used to such powerful, stretch the form of the theatrical musical to make it and, at the time, original efect in Carousel’s ‘Soliloquy’. accommodate a broad range of emotional possibilities. ILLUSTRATION FROM THE 1850 EDITION OF Let’s look at how this refinement plays out in the ethics of Imperialism. Based on the economic invasion of musicals Sondheim composed in the years leading up to Japan by the USA in the 1850s, it is a Kabuki piece, with Sweeney Todd. Follies (1971), for example, is a show all the characters, Eastern and Western, played by an all- overtly about the idealism of young love and young male (originally all-Japanese) cast, and sets Sondheim’s ambition, and its destruction in uncertainty, compromise existing achievements in motion in a way that might not and selfishness. Ageing showgirls and their husbands, have been expected at the time: towards a meditation on once stage-door Johnnies, gather for a reunion at a alargermorality.Again,themonologuesleaveastrong dilapidated theatre, but despite the glittering re- impression. In ‘A Bowler Hat’ one Japanese man charts creations of past showbiz triumphs, it is the monologues his course towards quasi-Western behaviour and manners that stand out, in which the and his gradual alienation from characters ask themselves both his original and adopted questions like: ‘The lives I’ll Eliza Acton’s Meat Pie Recipe cultures. never lead couldn’t make me Alienation from one’s am- sing/Could they?’ Lay a half-paste of short or of puff crust round bitions, from one’s partner, Sondheim’s next show, A abuttereddish;takethewholeorpartofa from one’s country. In these Little Night Music (1973), loin of mutton, strip off the fat entirely, and musicals Sondheim explored might be called his Franz raise the fesh clear from the bones without some of the ironies of modern Lehár piece, a kind of upside- dividing it, then slice it into cutlets of equal life with tremendous musical down operetta in which thickness, season them well with salt and and dramatic sophistication. emotional wounds are opened, pepper, or cayenne, and strew between layers But Sweeney Todd combines gently and in waltz time, and some fnely mixed herbs mixed with two or and develops these achieve- all the couples re-couple at the three eschalots, when the favour of these last ments further. To start with, it final curtain. is liked; or omit them, and roll quite thin some is overtly operatic, in its vocal Follies includes much good forcemeat (which can be favoured with and orchestral writing, in its afectionate pastiche of earlier alittlemincedeschalotatpleasure),andlayit structure, in its sensibility. It popular song forms and A between the cutlets: two or three mutton also has the acerbic musical Little Night Music has operetta kidneys intermingled with the meat will greatly language and cool regard for its gestures rustling through its enrich the gravy; pour in a little cold water, characters’ obsessions and score, including the waltz- roll the cover half an inch thick, or more follies that suggest the world of song Send in the Clowns. should the crust be short, as it will not rise like what might be called the Sondheim’s genius is to show puff paste, close the pie very securely, trim the ‘Weimar’ , in particular the ground moving from edges even with the dish, ornament the pie The Rise and Fall of the City of beneath the feet of these according to the taste, make a hole in the Mahagonny.LikethatBertolt musical worlds. ‘How can we centre, and bake it from an hour and a half to Brecht–Kurt Weill collabor- live this way now?’ he seems to acoupleofhours.Gravymadewithpartof ation, Sweeney Todd is about ask us. How can we live up to the bones, quite cleared from fat, and left to its characters relationships the notions this music become cold, may be used to fll the pie with money, food, justice and presents: that all is supposed instead of water. politics, and like Mahagonny, to end well, that love will Todd does not ofer us any Modern Cookery for Private Families (1845) triumph in the end, that we comfortable answers. can all be heroes and heroines The figure of the homicidal in our own stories? For here you are, you dwellers of the barber Sweeney Todd and his victims’ gruesome fate was urban jungle, with your broken marriages, your brought into the world in 1846, in the penny-dreadful ungrateful children, your illicit afairs, your private sense newspaper The People’s Periodical and Family Library.It of failure – are there any dreams lef worth dreaming? Is held thousands of readers enthralled through 18 issues. there any moral imperative against which we may judge Not long afer, Sweeney made his London stage debut in ourselves? the melodrama The String of Pearls or The Fiend of Fleet The questions were posed even more pointedly in Pacific Street. It was an enormous hit. Overtures (1976), in which personal relationships are Sondheim, who had long been fascinated by melodrama, completely absent. The musical forms and textures came to the story by way of Christopher Bond’s play become even more ambitious, as Sondheim dissects the Sweeney Todd,whichhesawinLondonin1973during rehearsals for the first production there of his earlier Sondheim and his librettist Hugh Wheeler do not ofer musical Gypsy. Sweeney Todd seemed to suggest to him solutions. But they do ask questions that have come to the possibility of fulfilling one of his long-held haunt the world with ever-increasing power, particularly ambitions – to write something largely through- since the fall of the Berlin wall, the rise of China and the composed in which dialogue plays only a small part in consequences of 9/11. In other words, Sweeney Todd has advancing the action. never stopped being relevant. Bond had broadened the traditional story considerably, <> giving Sweeney a ‘past’ that puts his murderous actions SWEENEY TODD has two crucial centrepieces: first, at into quite a diferent context: Sweeney is transported to the end of Act I, during which Todd and Mrs Lovett Australia on a trumped-up discover their missions in life – charge. Fifeen years later he he to revenge himself on returns, seeking his revenge on Sweeney Todd in the Antipodes humanity (‘The lives of the the judge who sentenced him. wicked should be made brief’), He meets an old acquaintance, Australians tend to chuckle when Mrs Lovett she to make a commercial Mrs Lovett, who, self- exclaims: “What did they do to you down success of her floundering pie confessedly, makes ‘the worst there in bloody Australia?!”. The Sweeney shop by baking Todd’s pies in London’. She tells him Todd Australian connection was baked into the numerous victims into her that his wife took poison afer script when Christopher Bondʼs 1973 play culinary creations. Then at the being raped and that his gave him a backstory. But the connections go beginning of Act II we see how daughter is now the ward of further: in 1925 the frst radio play produced successful they have become Judge Turpin, the man who and broadcast in Australia (out of Melbourne) by giving the people what they made Sweeney a convict 15 was a melodrama entitled Sweeney Todd, the want, in an intricate ensemble years earlier. Todd now lives Barbarous Barber. piece called ‘God, That’s only for revenge. When he Good’. The rest of the show Closer to home, Adelaide – and State Opera misses an opportunity to kill builds up to and away from South Australia – can lay claim to the frst the Judge, he swears vengeance these set-pieces including, in professional Australian production of Stephen on all humanity (‘Epiphany’) Act I, Sweeney’s cooing song Sondheimʼs Sweeney Todd. Directed by Gale and soon murders prolifically. of devotion to his barber’s Edwards in 1987, it starred Lyndon Terracini At Mrs Lovett’s helpful razors, ‘My Friends’, and the and Nancye Hayes, with Douglas McNicol suggestion – ‘seems an awful twin renditions of ‘Pretty (who plays Judge Turpin in this performance) waste / Such a nice plump Women’ in both halves of the appearing in the ensemble. frame… / What with the price piece. Mozart’s Magic Flute is of meat it is’ – his victims find ofen described as a journey their way into her pies. Business booms for them both, from darkness to light, but of Sweeney Todd it might be but ultimately Todd’s single-minded sense of vengeance said that it is a journey from darkness to illuminated leads to tragedy and disaster. darkness, and thence to darkness again. There are no characters in Sweeney who are not either For, as Act II progresses, Sondheim’s theatrical prisoners of their past or their follies, or both. In ‘A Little genius – there is no other word for it – makes us feel the Priest’, Todd and Mrs Lovett’s celebration of their idea sense of escalating destruction, of a series of evils that to ‘people’ their pies, they also reveal how their life must culminate in catastrophe. The best that happens to experiences have led them to this commodified view of the ‘good’ characters – Todd’s daughter Johanna and her their fellow human beings. As Todd sings: ‘The history of lover Anthony – is that they escape the catastrophe of the world, my sweet/Is who gets eaten and who gets to the work’s final tableaux, but the morality of Sweeney eat.’ Any kind of customer is potentially an ingredient. Todd’s universe is the same at the end as it was in the What kind of a universe can this be? Not one for beginning, when Todd says – in his first ‘aria’ – ‘There’s innocents, that’s certain. The slow-witted Tobias’s aholeintheworld/Likeagreatblackpit/Andit’sfilled protective hymn to Mrs Lovett, ‘Not While I’m Around’, with people/Who are filled with shit’. is both pathetic and grotesque, like a fly singing to a Phillip Sametz © 2001/2021 spider in a web. Phillip Sametz is a writer, editor, tutor and tour leader It’s too simple to call aMarxistmusical, Sweeney Todd based in Melbourne. as some commentators did when it was new, in 1979. SWEENEY TODD IN REHEARSAL PHOTOS: SODA STREET PRODUCTIONS CLOCKWISE FROM CENTRE TOP: Antoinette Halloran (Mrs Lovett) and Adam Goodburn (Signor Pirelli); Nicholas Cannon (Anthony Hope) and Desiree Frahn (Johanna); Nicholas Cannon and Mark Oates (Beadle Bamford); Mat Verevis (Tobias Ragg); Joanna McWaters (Beggar Woman); Antoinette Halloran and Ben Mingay (Sweeney Todd); the Ensemble with members of the cast. ATTEND THE TALE… ACT ONE Victorian London – a city of imperial wealth and terrible poverty. The year is 1846, or so they say. Fifteen years earlier, one Benjamin Barker, a barber by trade, was transported to Australia on a trumped-up charge concocted by Judge Turpin and Beadle Bamford. His crime? ʻFoolishness.ʼ Escaping the colony, he was rescued from the sea by Anthony, a young sailor. Now calling himself Sweeney Todd, he arrives at the London docks to the ominous sounds of pipe organ and factory whistle. And so our awful tale unfolds. Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd His skin was pale and his eye was odd Sweeney returns to his old haunt on Fleet Street, above Mrs Lovettʼs pie shop. The hopes that had sustained him through years of penal servitude are quickly dashed (his wife poisoned herself, heʼs told, and his daughter Johanna is the ward of the judge whoʼd removed him) but he fnds solace in his ʻfriendsʼ – the razors Mrs Lovett had fondly preserved – and in his dream of vengeance. Meanwhile, Anthony has fallen in love with Johanna and is determined to elope with her. Setting up business anew, Sweeney gains some early publicity when he wins a street ʻshave-offʼ against Signor

BEN MINGAY & ANTOINETTE HALLORAN, WA OPERA (PHOTO: JAMES ROGERS) Pirelli, a mountebank barber. Pirelli recognises him, however, and foolishly tries a spot of blackmail. This does not end well for Pirelli and the pragmatic Mrs Lovett sees a solution to the present meat shortage…

ACT TWO He kept a shop in London Town Of fancy clients and good renown Business is booming, upstairs and down. Mrs Lovett has hired the slow- witted but loyal Tobias to help out and begins to fantasise about a life by the sea with Mr Todd. But the foul smoke from her ovens has caught the attention of both Beadle Bamford and the deranged local beggar woman. Arriving to inspect the premises, the Beadle learns, frst-hand, what is going on and Sweeney chalks up the frst score in his scheme of revenge. Judge Turpin will be next; Anthony will rescue Johanna; the beggar woman will discomft Sweeney one last time…

Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd He served a dark and a vengeful god What happened then, well, that’s the play And he wouldn’t want us to give it away ANTOINETTE HALLORAN & BEN MINGAY; MAT VEREVIS, ANTOINETTE HALLORAN & THE ENSEMBLE (PHOTOS: SODA STREET PRODUCTIONS)

THE CREATIVE TEAM

Anthony Hunt Stuart Maunder Philip Lethlean CONDUCTOR DIRECTOR LIGHTING DESIGNER

Conductor, pianist and organist Anthony Stuart Maunder is Artistic Director of State Philip Lethlean is a Melbourne-based Hunt was the chorus master at Opera Opera South Australia and has directed designer with more than 30 years’ experience Australia from 2013 to 2019, and since 2020 Carmen, and The lighting projects across Australia, Asia, he has been based in Adelaide as Head of Mikado for the company. Europe and America, including theatre, Music and Chorus Master at State Opera For 40 years he has been directing musical opera, dance, circus, puppetry, large cultural South Australia and as Director of Music at theatre and opera in Australia. He joined the events and architectural assignments. St Peter’s Cathedral. Australian Opera (now ) as His commissions include the Melbourne Afer completing an honours degree in both Stage Manager in 1978, becoming a Resident International Comedy Festival’s televised Piano and Organ performance at the Elder Director in 1981. In 1992 he joined the Royal events for the past seven festivals; Victorian Conservatorium, he moved to London to Opera (UK) as a Staf Director while Opera’s productions of , study as a repetiteur in the Royal Academy continuing to direct in Australia, regional Master Peter’s Puppet Show/What Next and of Music’s specialist opera course. UK, France and the USA. The Sleeping Beauty; the opening ceremony Moving to Sydney in 2009 as Assistant In 1999 he was appointed Artistic of the Pacific Games in Papua New Guinea, Chorus Master for Opera Australia, and then Administrator of Opera Australia, becoming Clusters of Light in Sharjah UAE, How to as Chorus Master in 2013, he has prepared Executive Producer in 2004–2008. His Train Your Dragon for Dreamworks/Global the Opera Australia Chorus for more than 60 Opera Australia productions include The Creatures, White Night Melbourne and the productions and concert appearances. His Tales of Hofmann, Manon, Gypsy Princess, Australian Pavilions at Expo Shanghai China work with the company has been frequently Don Pasquale, and A Little and Aichi Japan. broadcast on ABC Classic, and the many Night Music, and his productions of Trial by His theatre work includes productions for DVD releases and international cinema Jury, Pirates of Penzance and HMS Pinafore the English National Ballet, Opera Australia, broadcasts include La Traviata, Madama have been televised nationally on ABC TV. Melbourne Theatre Company, Circus Oz, Butterfly, Aida, , Carmen and La Recent Australian productions have Handspan Theatre and major Australian Bohème for Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour. included Into the Woods, Sunday in the Park theatre festivals. He has enjoyed lighting the Anthony Hunt has been a participant in the with George, Sweeney Todd, A Little Night productions of Sweeney Todd, directed by Symphony Australia Conductor Music and Cunning Little Vixen (all for Stuart Maunder, for Victorian Opera, the Development Program, a guest chorus Victorian Opera), and Vixen, , New Zealand tour, West Australian Opera master for the Melbourne Symphony Rigoletto, Pearl Fishers, La Bohème, Sweeney and now for State Opera South Australia. Orchestra, and is an Associate of the Royal Todd and Macbeth (WA Opera). Academy of Music. From 2014 to 2018 Stuart Maunder was General Director of where he directed , Tosca, Sweeney Todd and . Roger Kirk Jim Atkins SET & COSTUME DESIGNER SOUND DESIGNER

Roger Kirk is a Tony Award-winning set and Jim Atkins designs and mixes sound for a costume designer working in theatre, film host of live, installed and recorded situations and television. He has designed costumes for nationally and internationally. productions such as The Boy From Oz with His opera credits include sound design and Hugh Jackman, The King and I and King operation for Nixon in China (Auckland Kong the Musical, and worked extensively on Festival), Opera Australia’s Ring cycle (2013, set and costume design for Opera Australia, and 2016) and Victorian Opera’s Sondheim including Manon Lescaut, Graeme Murphy’s trilogy: Sunday in the Park with George, Into production of Aida, Manon, A Little Night the Woods and Sweeney Todd. In 2019 he Music, My Fair Lady, The Gypsy Princess and designed the sound for State Opera South several Gilbert & Sullivan operettas. Australia’s Carmen in the Square. He was the costume designer for the film Other recent highlights have included The Jesus Christ Superstar, and other credits Black Rider and Lorelei (Victorian Opera at include Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Whistle the Malthouse); Summertime at the Ballet Down the Wind (London), The King and I (The Australian Ballet at Margaret Court (London Palladium), Hugh Jackman’s The Arena); One Infinity (Melbourne, Sydney and Boy from Oz Arena Spectacular, The Silver Rose Perth festivals); Pleasure Garden (Sydney (The Australian Ballet), Le Corsaire (Munich Festival, Norfolk and Norwich Festival, City Opera House), Dusty – The Original Pop of London Culture Mile), 54 Reasons to Party Diva, and Shout!. His Broadway credits (Kate Ceberano and the Adelaide Symphony include The King and I (Tony Award for Best Orchestra); Setan Jawa (AsiaTOPA at the Costume Design), Jesus Christ Superstar and Humboldt Forum Kultur, Berlin); Between 42nd Street (Tony Award nomination). 8 and 9 – Chengdu Teahouse Project (Chamber His most recent credits include Sweeney Made, Castlemaine State Festival, Chengdu Todd for Victorian Opera, Miracle City for China); National Geographic: Symphony for Luckiest Productions, King Kong on Our World (Adelaide Festival); and Absolute Broadway, 42nd Street in London and the Bird, Sounds of the Outback (City of London sold-out Australian tour of Broadway to Oz: Sinfonia). Hugh Jackman Live in Concert. In addition to his live performance work, he has audio production credits on more than a hundred major-label CDs, including several ARIA Award-winning recordings. COSTUME SKETCHES: ROGER KIRK THE SWEENEY TODD CAST

Ben Mingay Antoinette Halloran Nicholas Cannon SWEENEY TODD MRS LOVETT ANTHONY HOPE

Ben Mingay is an actor, musician and Soprano Antoinette Halloran performs with Nicholas Cannon is a versatile director, musical theatre performer. Currently all the Australasian opera companies and performer and teacher who holds a Music appearing in Amazing Grace, he most recently symphony orchestras and appears frequently Theatre degree from the Western Australian delighted screen viewers worldwide in on television and radio. Her engagements Academy of Performing Arts and trained in Frayed, and wowed Australian audiences in with State Opera South Australia have the Lecoq Technique in Barcelona and Paris. the title role of Shrek The Musical. Other included Olive in Summer of the Seventeenth His roles with State Opera South Australia screen roles include ‘Grease’ Nolan in Mel Doll, the title role in , the have included Johnny Dowd (Summer of the Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge, Alan Bond in House Fox in The Cunning Little Vixen and Micaëla Seventeenth Doll), Pish-Tush (The Mikado), of Bond, Trystan Powell in Home and Away, in Carmen, and she has sung Mrs Lovett for the Lieutenant (Madeline Lee), Kromov (The Rob Dufy in Wonderland, and Buzz in Packed Victorian Opera (Helpmann Award Merry Widow), Papageno (), to the Rafers. nomination), WA Opera and New Zealand Quick Lamb (Cloudstreet!) and most recently His stage credits include Billy Bigelow in Opera. Other recent highlights include Tosca Jigger Craigin in Carousel. He has also Carousel (State Opera South Australia), the and Lady Macbeth (WA Opera), as well as appeared in operetta roles for Coburg title role in Sweeney Todd (WA Opera), Evan concerts with the Sydney Symphony Landestheater in Germany; as a Tritone in in Vivid White (Melbourne Theatre Orchestra. This season she also appears in Marilyn Forever (Adelaide Festival); as Chris Company), Jud Fry in Oklahoma!, Achilles in Lorelei for Victorian Opera and Opera Barnes (Metro Street) in the Adelaide Cabaret Paris–ARock Odyssey (Music Theatre Queensland. Festival; and as Dr Falke (Die Fledermaus), Melbourne) and, since 2013, concerts with For Opera Australia she has sung the title Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte), Sharpless the hit singing group Swing on This. roles in Madama Butterfly and , Mimì (Madama Butterfly), Marcello (La Bohème) Other stage credits include Thomas in in La Bohème, Stella in A Streetcar Named and the title roles in Eugene Onegin and The Rolling Thunder Vietnam, the title role in The Desire (for which she received a Green Room Marriage of Figaro with Co-Opera, touring Phantom of the Opera, Zack Mayo in An Award), Donna Elvira in , Fata regional Australia. Ofcer and a Gentleman, and Tommy DeVito Morgana in The Love for Three Oranges and He has undertaken director internships in in the 2011 Sydney production of Jersey Boys, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus. For New the UK, France and Germany, and with his first Australian appearance since 2004, Zealand Opera she has sung Mimì and Opera Australia, and his numerous directing when he originated the role of Billy Kostecki Cio-Cio-San, and for Opera Queensland the credits include Christina’s World, Dido and in Dirty Dancing. He went on to perform the title role in The Merry Widow. Aeneas and La Vida Breve for State Opera; role of Billy in every English-speaking In concert she has sung Mozart’s Acis and Galatea in the Adelaide Botanic production worldwide for almost six years, (Hong Kong Philharmonic), El Niño (Sydney Gardens; Price Check (Loaded Productions, including the West End, Canada, Chicago, Philharmonia); collaborated with Nick Cave Adelaide); for Watch Boston and Los Angeles. and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and This Company, Melbourne; and five Ben Mingay was originally a Newcastle with Elvis Costello and the Brodsky Quartet productions for Co-Opera. construction worker who fell into classical (Sydney Festival); and appeared as associate music when his mates dared him to audition artist for José Carreras’ National Tour. Her for the Conservatorium of Music. He ABC TV appearances include Operatunity subsequently won a scholarship and went on Oz, Spicks and Specks and Arts Nation, and to train in opera for several years – changing she recorded Puccini Romance with Rosario the trajectory of his life forever. La Spina and the Queensland Symphony Orchestra (ABC Classics). Desiree Frahn Douglas McNicol Mat Verevis JOHANNA JUDGE TURPIN TOBIAS RAGG

Desiree Frahn is a South Australian soprano Dramatic bass-baritone Douglas McNicol Mat Verevis is a singer, actor and song- and principal artist of State Opera South has received high praise for roles including writer, best known for his performance as Australia. She is a graduate of the Elder Jack Rance (); Scarpia Barry Mann in Beautiful: The Carole King Conservatorium of Music and a former James (Tosca) for Opera Australia, Opera Queens- Musical, which earned him the 2018 and Diana Ramsay Foundation Young Artist land, West Australian Opera and in New Helpmann Award for Best Male Actor in a with State Opera South Australia. Zealand; Jokanaan (Salome); Amonasro Supporting Role in a Musical. For State Opera she has appeared as (Aida); Giorgio Germont (La Traviata) for In August he will appear in Victorian Valencienne (The Merry Widow), Leila (The State Opera South Australia; and Iago Opera’s production of The Who’s Tommy, Pearl Fishers), Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi), (Otello) for State Opera and Opera playing the title role. Most recently he Rose Pickles (premiere production of Queensland. played Mark in Rent at the Sydney Opera Cloudstreet!), Pamina (The Magic Flute), A multiple award winner, he has worked House and Henrik Egerman in Victorian Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus), Bastienne with all the major opera companies and Opera’s production of A Little Night Music. (Bastien und Bastienne) and Kate Pinkerton orchestras in Australia and New Zealand and Other performance credits include Zach in (Madama Butterfly), as well as appearing as a appeared in concerts in Italy and the UK. the Australian premiere of Lazarus by David soloist for regional tours, concerts and Notable engagements have included Bowie (The Production Company), touring broadcasts. In 2019 she sang the title role in directorial roles for John Haddock’s as a featured vocalist with Lea Salonga in State Opera’s production of The Cunning Madeline Lee and Gianni Schicchi (in which he 2019, Torch Song Trilogy (Darlinghurst Little Vixen and earlier this year Julie Jordan also performed the title role), Sharpless Theatre Company), Season 3 of The Voice in Carousel. (Madama Butterfly), Tonio (Pagliacci), Australia, the Boys in the Band concert tour Roles with other companies include Pizarro (Fidelio), Leporello and the title role (SMA Productions) and Abe Forsythe’s Stephanie in the 2018 Australian premiere of in Don Giovanni, Verdi’s Requiem, Owen feature film Down Under. He has sung Jake Heggie’s To Hell and Back for the Hart (Dead Man Walking), Horatio in Brett backing vocals for Hugh Jackman’s The Melbourne contemporary opera company Dean’s Hamlet for Adelaide Festival, Bartolo Man. The Music. The Show. concert tour and Gertrude Opera, as well as leading roles (Il barbiere di Siviglia) and Scarpia for Perth Lea Salonga’s Dream Again single. This year throughout South Australia with Co-Opera, Festival, and Roy Disney in The Perfect he will be releasing his self-titled debut EP. the Gilbert & Sullivan Society of SA and the American by Philip Glass (Opera Mat Verevis grew up in Cairns and is a Therry Dramatic Society. She has also Queensland/Brisbane Festival). graduate of the Western Australian appeared as a soloist with the Adelaide His concert repertoire includes Bach’s Academy of Performing Arts. Symphony Orchestra, Elder Conservatorium Christmas Oratorio, Mass in B Minor, St John Orchestra and the Adelaide University Passion and St Matthew Passion; Purcell’s Choral Association. Tempest; Berlioz’s Childhood of Christ; Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony; the Fauré, Brahms and Mozart requiems; Handel’s Acis and Galatea and Messiah; Mendelssohn’s Elijah and The Bells by Rachmaninof. Earlier this year he appeared as the Starkeeper and Dr Seldon in State Opera’s production of Carousel. THE SWEENEY TODD CAST

Mark Oates Adam Goodburn Joanna McWaters BEADLE BAMFORD SIGNOR PIRELLI BEGGAR WOMAN

Mark Oates is an award-winning South Adam Goodburn graduated from the Elder Joanna McWaters has been singing with Australian performer whose credits include Conservatorium in 2003, and subsequently State Opera South Australia for more than the Adelaide and Brisbane festivals, State studied with vocal coaches at the Guildhall 25 years. Her roles with the company include Opera South Australia, SINGular School of Music and Drama. the title role in Madama Butterfly, Queen of Productions, Ding! Productions, Six Foot He made his opera debut singing Amon in the Night (The Magic Flute), Mrs Hargreaves Something Productions, Aerial Artists the State Opera South Australia and Leigh (Boojum!), Lily Brayton (At the Dome Room Australia and MOatesArt Productions. Warren & Dancers production of Philip (at 2 o’clock)), Rose (At the Statue of Venus), His most recent appearance for State Glass’s Akhnaten (2002 and 2003). Since Cupid (Orpheus in the Underworld), Nedda Opera was in the ensemble for Carousel and then, his roles with the company have (I Pagliacci), Owl/Forester’s Wife (The later this year he will sing Jack in Love Burns. included Goro (Madama Butterfly), Pang Cunning Little Vixen) and Dolly Pickles in the Other roles for the company include (Turandot), Don Basilio (The Marriage of premiere season of Cloudstreet. Caterpillar (Boojum!), Njegus (The Merry Figaro), the comic roles Nathanael, In the 2019 Adelaide Fringe Festival, she Widow), Freddy Norton (In the Dome Room Cochenille, Pittichinaccio and Franz (The performed the title role in Tosca for Mopoke (at 2 o’clock)), Arjuna (Satyagraha), John Styx Tales of Hofmann), Orpheus (Orpheus in the Productions. She has toured regionally and (Orpheus in the Underworld), The Cantor Underworld) and Raoul St Brioche in The nationally with Co-Opera, singing roles such (Maria de Buenos Aires), Joe (The Station) Merry Widow. He has also been involved with as Adele and Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus), and the Guide and Lillas Pastia (Carmen). He the State Opera Chorus for eight years. Nedda, Rosina (The Barber of Seville), Mabel is also a long-standing member of the State In 2007 he sang Mahatma Gandhi in (), Gianetta (The Opera Chorus. Glass’s opera Satyagraha (State Opera, Gondoliers) and Mimì (La Bohème). Other He has appeared for the Adelaide Festival Adelaide Vocal Project and Leigh Warren & roles have included Eileen o da Freya in Mozart’s Requiem (2020), as a featured Dancers), receiving a Helpmann Award (Daughter of the Sea), Alma (Stari Most), Street Singer in Bernstein’s Mass (2012) and nomination for best male performer in an Mother/Witch (Hansel and Gretel) and Maria Rufak in Le Grand Macabre (2010). For Co- opera. Other performance highlights include (West Side Story). Opera, he recently created the roles of Clyde, Nanki-Poo (The Mikado) for Opera Australia Joanna McWaters is a graduate of the Elder Bernie and the Salesman in their primary and Giorgio (Ode to Nonsense) for Slingsby. Conservatorium and has received scholar- education program opera, Listen To My He appeared in the children’s television ships to undertake postgraduate studies in Story. His concert and music theatre credits series The Fairies, and he recently sang the both Taiwan and Luxembourg. She was an also include three seasons as Jean Valjean in Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera inaugural James & Diana Ramsay Les Misérables for the (Gilbert & Sullivan Society of SA). Foundation Emerging Artist (State Opera Society, multiple seasons in the Adelaide He is the co-founder of SINGular South Australia) and is also an inaugural Fringe with his self-produced show Mark Productions and has also directed musicals graduate of the Lisa Gasteen National Opera Oates and the Daniel Brunner Pretty Big Band for Pelican Productions and Scotch College. Program. She has performed as a soloist and for Out of the Square with Love in the He is currently developing two new operas with most of Adelaide’s leading choirs and Key of B(acharach)! with State Opera: Anne Cawrse’s Innocence regularly performs at corporate functions and a new chamber opera, The Unknown. and dinners. State Opera Ensemble Cherie Boogaart | Eleanor Brasted | Catherine Campbell | Andrew Crispe Jessica Dean | Michael Denholm | Rosie Hosking | Gerry Masi Brock Roberts | Alexandra Scott | Jeremy Tatchell | Kit Tonkin STATE OPERA ENSEMBLE (PHOTO: SODA STREET PRODUCTIONS) Adelaide Symphony Orchestra VIOLINS OBOE & COR ANGLAIS TROMBONE Shirin Lim** Acting Concertmaster Peter Duggan* Colin Prichard** Belinda McFarlane Alison Heike CLARINET TIMPANI ** * Danielle Jaquillard Dean Newcomb Andrew Penrose

CELLOS BASSOON PERCUSSION ** Simon Cobcrof** Leah Stephenson Jamie Adam Guest Section Principal Gemma Phillips Sami Butler HORN * DOUBLE BASSES Philip Paine KEYBOARD David Schilling** Michael Ierace Guest (State Opera) TRUMPET Belinda Kendall-Smith Josh Rogan** Guest Section Principal ** denotes Section Principal *denotesPrincipalPlayer

The organ prelude in this performance was recorded on the Melbourne Town Hall Grand Organ, performed by Calvin Bowman. DONORS

State Opera South Australia thanks its donors for their generous support.

PLATINUM Artistic Directorʼs Circle $20,000+ John & Kate Irving Master Elizabeth Olsson in memory Drs Geof & Sorayya Martin of the Hon. Trevor Olsson Master Elizabeth Olsson Bruce Saint Kevin & Kaaren Palmer Dr Christine Rothauser GOLD Sibby Sutherland $10,000–$19,999 The late Lorraine Drogemuller Continuo Bequest Circle Peter & Pamela McKee Master Elizabeth Olsson Pauline Menz Dr Christine Rothauser Anonymous (1) Dr Geofrey Seidel

SILVER Opera Academy 2021 $5,000–$9,999 Sally Crafer in memory of Shirley Crinion Yarmila Alfonzetti formerly Shirley Crafer John & Kate Irving Sue Crafer in memory of Shirley Crinion Drs Geof & Sorayya Martin formerly Shirley Crafer Stuart Maunder AM The Friends of State Opera Kevin & Kaaren Palmer John Holmes Dr Christine Rothauser Joan Lyons Glenys G Scott John Shepherd Sibby Sutherland DONORS

BRONZE $1,000–$4,999 Dr Margaret Arstall Kay Dowling K & D Morris Peggy Barker Jane & Ian Doyle Chris Perriam Susan & Graeme Bethune Dr & Mrs Paul Drysdale Ben Robinson The Hon. David & Anne Edwards Dr Geofrey Seidel Mrs Elizabeth Bleby Meg & Jack Favilla Beth & John Shepherd Elizabeth Bull Rick & Jan Frolich W & H Stacy Elizabeth Campbell Barbara & Paul Green Christopher Stone Peter & Margie Cannon LL & SJ Greenslade Guila Tiver & Denis Harrison Bruce Cleland Margo & Sam Hill-Smith Sue Tweddell Angela Cook & Derek Brown John Holmes GC & R Weir Margaret Cope Robert Kenrick William Wood Sally Crafer in memory of Shirley Dr Ian Klepper Barry Worrall Crinion formerly Shirley Crafer Margaret Lehmann Anonymous (7) Sue Crafer in memory of Shirley Joan Lyons Crinion formerly Shirley Crafer Dr Leo Mahar Jan & Peter Davis Ruth Marshall & Tim Muecke Antonio & Eleonore De Ionno Dr Thomas Millhouse & Bruce Debelle AO Dr Marina Delpin Rosalie & Jacob van Dissel

We also thank our 440 Encore Supporters for their valued contributions in the past year. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Production Team Honorary Life Members PRODUCTION MANAGER Ben Flett Hugh Cunningham REPETITEUR Michael Ierace Richard Brown STAGE MANAGER Jess Nash ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGERS State Opera Board of Management Emily Barraclough, Jess Wolfendale John Irving Chair HEAD OF WIGS & MAKEUP Sue Taylor Imelda Alexopoulos HEAD OF WARDROBE Tracey Richardson Dr Beata Byok WARDROBE ASSISTANTS & MAINTENANCE Peter Michell Sue Nicola, Denise Strawhan Dr Thomas Millhouse WARDROBE ASSISTANT Katie Szabo Master Elizabeth Olsson WIGS, HAIR & MAKEUP ASSISTANTS Cheryl La Scala, Natasha Keneally State Opera Staff DRESSERS David Adams, Sally Chapman, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Yarmila Alfonzetti Kent Green, Jennifer Heuch ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Stuart Maunder AM PROPS Anto Dal Santo HEAD OF MUSIC Anthony Hunt ARMOURER John Coory HEAD OF MARKETING & DEVELOPMENT HEAD MECHANIST Ben Brooks Sidonie Henbest MECHANIST Mark Fisher PRODUCTION MANAGER Ben Flett Adelaide Festival Centre HEAD OF FINANCE Nicole Mathee Production Staff ACCOUNTANT Sarah Hart COMPANY STAGE MANAGER Jess Nash AFCT PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Tom James MARKETING EXECUTIVE Olga Grudinina HEAD MECHANIST Vince Louch CONTRACTS ADMINISTRATOR Li Li Fisher HEAD FLY Michael Camp BUSINESS SUPPORT OFFICER Kelly Hicks CREW Ashley Knight DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR Richelle Weiher HEAD LIGHTING Rick Worringham EDUCATION COORDINATOR Monique Hapgood LIGHTING BOARD OPERATOR Cameron Lane FOLLOW SPOTS Kate Skinner, Kat Kleeman Program Credits AUDIO & SYSTEM ENGINEER Adam Budgeon PROGRAM EDITOR Yvonne Frindle AUDIO ENGINEER Jasper Cundell PHOTOGRAPHY James Rogers, RADIO TECHNICIANS Jason Vandepeer, Soda Street Productions Deanna Covino, Maddy Gibbons COVER ART novel. PRINTER Print Solutions ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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Thanks to novel., littlelion PR, Soda Street Productions, and Print Solutions SWEENEY TODD MAY 2021 | HER MAJESTYʼS THEATRE, ADELAIDE