RICHARD WAGNER PARSIFAL VICTORIAN OPERA PRESENTS PRESENTING PARTNER PARSIFAL STAGE DEDICATION FESTIVAL PLAY (BÜHNENWEIHFESTSPIEL) IN THREE ACTS Composer and Librettist Richard Wagner Conductor Richard Mills AM Director Roger Hodgman Set Designer Richard Roberts Costume Designer Christina Smith Lighting Designer Matt Scott Associate Conductor Daniel Carter Assistant Director Brock Roberts Choreographer Elizabeth Hill-Cooper CAST Parsifal Burkhard Fritz Kundry Katarina Dalayman Gurnemanz Peter Rose Amfortas James Roser Klingsor* Derek Welton Titurel Teddy Tahu Rhodes Grail Knights Squires Stephen Marsh, Timothy Reynolds Georgia Wilkinson, Shakira Dugan, Flower Maidens Carlos E. Bárcenas, Paul Biencourt Kathryn Radcliffe, Rebecca Rashleigh, The Voice from Above Emily Uhlrich, Georgia Wilkinson, Heather Fletcher Shakira Dugan, Juel Riggall Australian Youth Orchestra (AYO) 20, 22 and 24 FEBRUARY 2019 Palais Theatre, St Kilda Original premiere 26 July 1882, Bayreuth Festival Approximate timings: Act One 105 minutes / Dinner Break 90 minutes / Act Two 65 minutes / Interval 20 minutes / Act Three 75 minutes Finishing time: 10:25pm (weekdays) / 8:55pm (Sunday) Sung in German with English surtitles In the rehearsal room: James Roser (Amfortas) *The Richard Wagner Society Inc (Vic) is supporting the role of Klingsor 3 PRODUCTION ORCHESTRA PRODUCTION TEAM CELLO HORN Caleb Wong Principal Timothy Allen-Ankins Principal Production Manager Eduard Inglés Caleb Murray Oscar Schmidt Deputy Production Manager Peter Darby Hamish Jamieson Sunga Lee Michael Gibson Christian Fisalli Stage Manager Felicity Hollingbery VIOLIN 1 Mason Stanton Gemma Lawton Deputy Stage Manager Liam Murray Annabelle Traves Concertmaster Nick McManus TRUMPET Leanne McGowan Tess Hickey Assistant Stage Manager Carli Griffin Sophie Spencer Principal Jasmine Baric Joe Kelly Alfred Carslake Grace Wu MUSIC STAFF DOUBLE BASS Laura Jones Emily Beauchamp David Barlow Principal Music and Chorus Preparation Richard Mills, Phoebe Briggs, Phillipa Safey Sola Hughes TROMBONE Monty Wain Marcus Michelsen Jarrod Callaghan Principal Bryn Keane CHORUS Darcy Dauth Will Kinmont Adrian Whitehall Soprano Mezzo Soprano Samantha Chiu Holly Little BASS TROMBONE Kate Amos, Eleanor Blythman, Kerrie Bolton, Lisette Bolton*, Eleanor Hill Meg McWilliams Phillip Soalheira Principal Kirilie Blythman, Saffrey Brown*, Rebecca Crabtree, Frederica Cunningham, Liam Freisberg Grace Gallur*, Alexandra Ioan, Heather Fletcher, Millie Leaver*, Lily McCann FLUTE TUBA Eliza O’Connor*, Cristina Russo, Kristen Leich, Lisha Ooi*, Ursula Paez, Julian Duthoit Cassie Slater Principal Marcel Kocbek-Malepa Principal Diana Simpson, Caitlin Toohey*, Belinda Paterson, Anna Plotka, Rachel Kim Megan Barbetti Kyla-Rae Ashworth TIMPANI Nicole Wallace, Barbara Zavros Elizabeth Potter* VIOLIN 2 Thomas Robertson Principal Phoebe Masel Principal OBOE Huon Bourne Blue Tenor Bass Scarlett Gallery Callum Hogan Principal Jonathon Bam, Paul Batey, Darcy Carroll, Nicholas Christie*, Runa Murase Alexandra Allan PERCUSSION Ryan Bentley*, Ernst Ens, Nick Cowall, James Emerson*, Clare Cooney Mikaela Sukkar Jet Kye Chong Principal Irving Dekterev, Michael Dimovski, Jerzy Kozlowski, Nathan Lay, Oliver Mann, Rebekah Hall COR ANGLAIS HARP Tom Harvey, Jack Jordan*, Aidan McGartland*, Alexander Owens*, Noam Yaffe Kate Mostert Principal Isla Biffin Principal Douglas Kelly, Joshua Morton-Galea*, Alex Pokryshevsky, Kiran Rajasingam, Harry Egerton Kate Moloney Timothy Reynolds, Nathan Wright* Raphael Wong Jade Blanchard-Paterson CLARINET Jordan Hall Andrew Fong Principal BANDA – TRUMPET *In association with the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, University of Melbourne Robyn Blann Claudia Jelic Matthew Carter Victorian Opera Youth Chorus Ensemble (VOYCE) Georgina Chan Clare Fox Darcy O’Malley Molly Kennedy-Moore Prepared by Angus Grant BASS CLARINET BANDA – TROMBONE Jessica Gregory William Clarke, Georgia Costa, Mia Costanzo, Maia Hanrahan, Olivia Harrison, VIOLA Jarrad Linke Principal Gregory Bennett Georgia Harrison, Oscar Harwood, Hayley Jobson, Tiernan Maclaren, Saskia Mascitti, Kate Worley Principal Hayasa Tanaka BASSOON Harrison Steele-Holmes Annabella Merakis, Zac Mistri, Chloe Taylor, Anushka Tiwari, Emilie Washington, Ruby Shirres Alison Wormell Principal BANDA – BASS TROMBONE Olivia White, Danielle Zuccala, Michael Zuccala Isabella Fonti Tasman Compton Kiran Samuel Phoebe Gilbert Nicholas Zengoski ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Ariel Postmus CONTRABASSOON Victorian Opera would like to thank Jim Atkins, Sounds Solo, Norwest, Show Works, Murray Kearney Emma Morrison Principal Element Rigging, Quality Event Hire, Onsite Portables, Kent Specialised Storage, Matthew Ryan Andrew Crothers Classic Piano Carriers, BaacLight, Arts Centre Melbourne, MediaVision, Jonathan Bruhl Phaseshift Productions, Capricorn Rigging, Simons Boilers. Surtitles Courtesy of Opera Australia 4 5 WELCOME Wagner’s final opera is one of our culture’s greatest treasures. It is so much more at the beginning of their lives – an than just a great opera: it takes the artform into the realms of philosophy and encounter which they will never forget, mystic visions, as well as being a profound exploration of the great questions at and a challenge which they will rise to the core of our human experience. with their usual spirit. This is a matrix where tradition is made How can we understand suffering, prodigious energy, yet the forward anew, where youth meets experience, desire, love and death? How can motion of the music is never abandoned where the transforming riches of mankind live rightly and well in the face in an oasis of temporal indulgence. We cultural heritage are manifested with of these imponderable absolutes? are in the hands and heart of the great unique energy of our company. It is with storyteller from the first note of the These questions form the basis of the great pride that I welcome you to these Prelude to the mystic afterglow of the consummate musical dramaturgy of performances. Act Three finale. Parsifal through which Wagner embarks on an epic quest, both through the These performances are at the core of individual journeys of the fascinating Victorian Opera’s mission ‘to RICHARD MILLS characters and through parallel re-imagine the potential of opera, for Artistic Director, Victorian Opera philosophical, spiritual and metaphysical everyone’. We have assembled a cast mirrors; a quest which extends their that would be admired and respected predicament forward and backwards anywhere in the world, with notable across the horizons of time, space and Australians like Derek Welton and spectrum of human experience through James Roser returning home in the the power of a unique musical and company of great international stars. poetic language. But this star power is being shared by The music creates a synthesis from our local artists: our Flower Maidens, the great German traditions of sacred Knights and Squires as well as by our music and the unique resources of chorus and the young singers from Wagner’s own complex and completely the Victorian Opera Youth Chorus individual musical style. The result Ensemble (VOYCE). Completing our of this is quite unlike anything else in outreach to developing musicians opera; the piece moves and breathes is our wonderful partnership with with an immense heartbeat which the Australian Youth Orchestra, encompasses the epic and universal our star orchestra of young musical nature of its subject matter. Its local Olympians who will encounter the In the rehearsal room: Richard Mills (Conductor) and Roger Hodgman (Director) details of musical invention have a uncompromising genius of Wagner 6 7 DIRECTOR’S NOTE Parsifal presents fascinating challenges for directors and designers. When I first met with Richard Roberts, represents the last part of a story – Christina Smith and Matt Scott (all the earlier parts of which are revealed valued long term collaborators) to through the evening. discuss the design, we were faced We felt that Wagner’s elaborate with the inevitable question – what descriptions of the location of the is it about? Many books have been various scenes are impractical to written on the subject (with remarkably achieve in a contemporary production different interpretations) and although and would take the focus away from the the central theme of redemption incredibly intense (almost slow motion) achieved through empathy seems clear, nature of the story telling and the as Bryan Magee writes in his terrific divine music. Wagner and Philosophy ‘there is no way that anyone can explain to anyone in The design does hint at some elements five minutes what Parsifal is about’. in the story – the already partly fractured world of the Grail community, We rejected the idea of a ‘conceptual’ its modest, devout asceticism and the production – setting the piece in contrasting, outlandish, almost inhuman some specific time or place with some world of Klingsor. implied interpretation. There have been numerous such versions including, for And we agreed to embrace stillness. example, one set in the future with images of spaceships, one placed during the Holocaust or one with the Flower ROGER HODGMAN Director Maidens in hajibs. Some of these have been wonderful, but we felt as we were slowly discovering and coming to love this remarkable piece, we wanted the audience to have the same experience. We sought to achieve this by a very simple and dynamic space that puts the focus squarely on the performers, the music and the slowly revealed story. In fact, the action