Opera in the open air. Madama Butterfly at Mrs Macquaries Chair.
Friday 21st March (equinox). "Handa Opera"
Cio-cio-san - Hiromi Omura
Suzuki - Anna Yun
Pinkerton - Georgy Vasiliev
Sharpless - Michael Honeyman
Goro - Graeme Macfarlane
Bonze - Gennadi Dubinsky
c. B. Castles-Onion
d. Alex Olle (La Fura dels Baus)
Sets Alfons Flores
Costumes Lluc Castells
For the third year in a row the opera company
has pulled off a seemingly impossible coup by holding back the weather (at
least for opening night) and presenting a classy performance of a classic opera
to a large and appreciative audience under the stars and in full view of
Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House.
Personally I have problems with using public
gardens and foreshores for such elitist events (A reserve tickets were $300
each). I also have problems with hearing
trained opera singers using microphones in such open-air shows. But like other things in life I have
suppressed these guilty and critical feelings and got with the swing. In case of rain I am lucky enough to live
within walking distance. And I sat in
seats which cost about $100 and extremely good value.
Like Carmen and La Traviata before it, I
enjoyed almost every aspect of the night, notably the opera itself. The singing was superb and production
creditable and clever. Again, aspects
grated on me - like Astroturf which I have always disliked … choosing singers
based on their racial originals also goes against the grain (a list of actors
had mostly Asian names while the sopranos playing Cio-cio-san were Japanese and
Korean). Notwithstanding this, the vocals
were of a very high standard from all main and subsidiary characters. I always
wait for the two tenor high points, Dovunque al mondo and Addio,
fiorito asil and was not disappointed.
The soprano did everything except the optional D flat finishing her
first act entrance.
The production takes place on an enormous
hillock of fake lawn surmounted by a palisade of fake bamboo. Behind this an enormous fake full moon bobbed
up and down hooked from a real but temporary crane gantry. There was some beauty to it all and behind
the thatch of bamboo Sydney’s skyline was the final back-drop cyclorama. The orchestra was housed beneath the hillock,
unseen until the curtain calls.
Instead of a house, the opening characters
are examining the unfolded scale plans of a proposed house. This made the end of act one difficult as the
matrimonial couple walk off into the blissful yonder, and a bedroom which is
under construction or worse, not yet built at all. But rather than saving on costs, act two
takes place in a wholly new set with both a demountable Japanese house plus an
elevated outhouse. The purpose of the
latter was not clear to this ignorant audience member, but there were goings on
apace. If a servant quarters it would
vie for the world’s best placed servant quarters!
There was a large blow-up sphere mid-harbour
to the north which glowed at varying intensities. It looked rather odd, remaining as it did on
the horizon and one might assume it represented a setting sun. Other special effects included a 30 second
burst of wedding fireworks from half a dozen smaller unseen pontoons out in
Farm Cove, the bay between us and the Opera House.
The bonze arrived by motor launch while most
other stage entrances and exits were by common Sydney livery taxis which drove
up on the path in front - naf in my book and about as Japanese as the pizza
served in the dining venues. The
blanket advertising implied that saki and sushi would be staples but I could
not find them.
An extraordinary event not to be missed if
you are into that sort of thing - and you have the spare cash to spend on
it. But opera it ain't.
Notes by Andrew Byrne ..
Our butterfly collection (off topic but fun): http://schraderbutterflies.blogspot.com/
