JULIAN LANGDON, CASEY BENNETTO, GILLIAN COSGRIFF LORELEI VICTORIAN OPERA PRESENTS LORELEI OPERATIC CABARET – NEW WORK Music Julian Langdon, Casey Bennetto and Gillian Cosgriff Lyrics Casey Bennetto and Gillian Cosgriff Orchestration Julian Langdon Concept Ali McGregor Musical Director Phoebe Briggs Director and Dramaturg Sarah Giles Set and Costume Designer Marg Horwell Lighting Designer Paul Jackson Sound Designer Jim Atkins Assistant Director Cathy Hunt CAST Lorelei A Dimity Shepherd Lorelei B Ali McGregor Lorelei C Antoinette Halloran Victorian Opera Chamber Orchestra 3–10 NOVEMBER 2018 The Coopers Malthouse, Merlyn Theatre World premiere, Saturday 3 November 2018, The Coopers Malthouse Dimity Shepherd (Lorelei A), Ali McGregor (Lorelei B) and Running Time is approximately 75 minutes, no interval Antoinette Halloran (Lorelei C) Sung in English 3 PRODUCTION PRODUCTION TEAM Production Manager Eduard Inglés Stage Manager Luke Hales Assistant Stage Manager Rebecca Neeson MUSIC STAFF Repetiteur Phillipa Safey ORCHESTRA Violin 1 Peter Clark Violin 2 Cameron Jamieson Viola Shani Williams Cello Nils Hobiger Bass Mark Elton Flute/Piccolo Tamara Kohler Oboe/Cor Anglais Rachel Curkpatrick Clarinet/Bass Clarinet Lachlan Davidson Guitar Doug de Vries Percussion Arwen Johnston Percussion Kaylie Melville Harp Yuko Tomonaga ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Performer Alex Aldrich Victorian Opera would like to thank Onset Arts. Dimity Shepherd 4 WELCOME DIRECTOR’S NOTE New Australian work is at the core of cabaret, which revisits this classic story A story. About a young boy on an If you say yes to all three questions the Victorian Opera’s mission to reimagine and invests it with a contemporary accent. adventure. Off to discover the world. work has passed the test. the potential of opera, for everyone. Falls in love. Has children. Grows old. The result is lively, funny, sad and humane, Many operas, plays and films fail this Reforming the great traditions of our Dies. This story becomes a story not and is given a unique energy by the trio test. artform to sing and speak with a twenty- just about this boy, but about humanity; of divas – Ali McGregor, Dimity Shepherd I point this out because these things are first century Australian accent is just as about what it means to be human. and Antoinette Halloran who have, each important. important to us as making accessible in their own right, made such remarkable Take another story. the great literature of operatic heritage. We learn so much about our humanity contributions to Australian theatre. About a young girl on an adventure. Off Indeed, it is the logical extension and from the stories we tell, and if we don’t to discover the world. Falls in love. Has The great novelist Joseph Conrad once interrogate the kind of stories we’re completion of that process; one cannot children. Grows old. Dies. flourish without the other. Tradition said, ‘the value of a sentence is in the telling, the kind of characters we’re seeing, we have no hope of moving nourishes and informs the present personality which utters it’ and this is This story ends up being about forward. moments of creativity, it enriches them particularly true for our version of Lorelei. womanhood. About what it means to be a woman. Perhaps about motherhood. and provides both a guiding light and a Prepare to be seduced, surprised and, It may seem trivial that the caterpillar in basis for comparison. above all, delighted by this fascinating new I think a lot about this. About how a children’s book is male, but these are work. Welcome and enjoy. men represent humanity and women the building blocks of a society where Myth is inseparable from the history of represent their gender. inequality is so neatly stitched into the opera. The first titles, such as Orfeo and fabric that we often don’t even notice it. Il ritorno d’Ulisse, were all from the I think a lot about it when I read stories RICHARD MILLS to my children. So many male pronouns. Lorelei presented us the chance to literature of Greek myth, and this matter Artistic Director, Victorian Opera So many stories about little boys. unpick this stitching and take another of Greece has been a deep well of look at the stories we take for granted. resource for opera ever since, right up And I think about it when I read the to our own times – Henze’s The Bassarids classics. So many female characters authored by men; women defined and my own Love of the Nightingale, for SARAH GILES through the eyes of men. example. Director There is a very famous test called the The story of the sirens – appropriated Bechdel test. It is a test that can be by the Germans and put in the Rhine – a applied to any play, film or opera. To story of feminine allure has featured pass this test you must say yes to the both in opera and concert (Debussy’s following three questions: Sirènes from his Nocturnes). It has a rich provenance, which has inspired our Is there a scene where there are two female characters? version created by composer Julian Langdon in collaboration with Casey Do you know their names? Bennetto and Gillian Cosgriff to make Do they talk about something other than a startling new work, part opera, part a man? 6 7 MUSICAL DIRECTOR’S NOTE THE LORELEI – IN LEGEND The opportunity to be a part of an and Latin numbers, Julian’s incredibly The Lorelei in German lore is a siren by the echo of the rock, leading to inspired and relevant work comes up all inventive orchestration and evocative of distracting beauty said to sit atop a the murmuring rumoured to be the too rarely so when this particular one use of the three voices conjure up particular rock at the edge of the River dangerous song of the siren. came up I jumped at the chance to be a vivid soundscape. Combined with Rhine, singing to lure sailors to their involved. Having long admired the work incisive, poignant and witty lyrics, the doom. When she was a human woman The comb she holds is golden, of Casey Bennetto, Julian Langdon and three Lorelei take us on a wild ride her lover was faithless, so in despair She sings a song as well Gillian Cosgriff, this was an exciting down the River Rhine with many a twist she threw herself into the river and was Whose melody binds an enthralling prospect right from the start. and turn along the way. transformed into a siren whose voice And overpowering spell. pulled men under her spell and onto the The creation of a show around the Bringing such an exciting and necessary In his little boat, the boatman rocks. combination of our three incredible work to life has been a lively and Is seized with a savage woe, singing actresses meant that there thought-provoking process. It’s been a Her name comes from the name of He’d rather look up at the mountain were endless possibilities in terms of huge pleasure to be part of this creative that echoing rock on the southern Than down at the rocks below. dramatic and musical styles for the team. bank of the Rhine – Lurlei. In Clemens composers and librettists to explore. Brentano’s 1801 ballad ‘Zu Bacharach am Rheine’ a woman called Lore Ley From ‘The Lorelei’ From the shimmering opening PHOEBE BRIGGS accused of bewitching and murdering English translation of the poem by sequence of layered rhythms and Musical Director men is on her way to a convent but falls Heinrich Heine, 1824. Translated by A.Z. lush harmonies through to tango, pop to her death from this rock, leaving only Foreman. the trace of her name behind. The fatal allure of this creature and her unearthly song was defined further in an 1824 poem by Heinrich Heine, Die Lorelei which has since been set to music by more than 25 composers. The area where this rock is located - Rhine Gorge at Sankt Goarshausen, was actually one of the deepest and most dangerous points of the River Rhine. The song attributed to the Lorelei was Sarah Giles (Director), probably drawn from a combination of Phoebe Briggs (Musical Director) and Paul Jackson sounds including the currents of the (Lighting Designer) Rhine and a nearby waterfall, amplified Ali McGregor 8 9 BIOGRAPHIES JULIAN LANGDON CASEY BENNETTO GILLIAN COSGRIFF PHOEBE BRIGGS SARAH GILES MARG HORWELL Music and Orchestration Music and Lyrics Music and Lyrics Musical Director Director Costume and Set Designer Julian graduated from Casey Bennetto is best Gillian graduated from Phoebe completed a Sarah Giles is an award- Marg is a multi-award- the Victorian College known for writing the the Western Australian BMus at the University of winning opera and theatre winning Designer, she of the Arts with an musical KEATING! and Academy of Performing Melbourne. A member of director. has received seven honours degree in worst known for blathering Arts (WAAPA) in 2010 with the Opera Australia music Opera works include Greenroom Awards, two practical composition on at length about things a Bachelor of Music Theatre. staff 2002–2012, she was O Mensch! by Pascal Sydney Theatre Awards and was awarded the first everyone else in the room Theatre credits: Vivid appointed Head of Music at Dusapin, libretto by and multiple nominations Melbourne Prize for Music had worked out years White (Melbourne Theatre Victorian Opera in October Friedrich Nietzsche, Pas à for her work in Theatre, Development Award. ago. Over the past three Company), Company (Watch 2012. For Victorian Opera, Pas – Nulle Part by György Dance, Film and Opera. This led to a series of This); Loving Repeating (Vic Phoebe has conducted months he’s also been Kurtág, libretto by Samuel Most recently she orchestral commissions Theatre Company); and The Sunday in the Park with writing a new musical with Beckett and Into the Little designed Set and and orchestration Pirates of Penzance (The George, Play of Herod, opportunities for Sisters Grimm, scoring Hill by George Benjamin, Costumes for Salome Production Company).