My first operas and operettas were at Rockdale dating
from about 1960 … the attached was my first real opera subscription
ticket … dating from ~1971 before the opening of the Sydney Opera House.
While a student at Sydney University I was a supernumerary ‘extra’ before I
became the chorus dresser and then unofficial opera company doctor. I seem to have had continuing
tickets for over 40 years. For many seasons I had two parallel
subscriptions so I could see some operas twice - and shared these with a number of very notable Sydney personalities. But this week, after
careful consideration of the offerings for 2016, my renewal lapsed. My
expectations have been disappointed for quite some years but I lived in hope.
And indeed we have seen a few high quality operas in recent years … but they
have been outnumbered by repeats, poor quality casts and endless musical comedy
seasons. I found that I was giving away more tickets than I was
using.
I recently attended a mid-season performance of the
latest Marriage of Figaro and noted that it was well received as an original
and well thought out production of this classic work. Mr McVicar’s
version of Cosi fan tutte next year may also be worth waiting for.
Luisa Miller and Simon Boccanegra are both rare and dark Verdi operas while
Love of Three Oranges is a Prokofiev masterpiece. But somehow I could not
get excited about the other offerings for the new season. I waited until
after the renewal period before writing as I did not wish to influence anyone
against supporting the opera company, or what remains of it.
But three or four operas can hardly justify a full
subscription series - the company once presented up to 16 operas per year from
which subscribers could choose.
While the new subscription brochure contains a couple
of good prospects, for regular subscribers, repeats of La Boheme, Turandot,
Pearlfishers, Carmen, Barber of Seville, My Fair Lady (no cast announced) and
Magic Flute all yield a feeling of deja vu. I just hope they can
fill the houses with newcomers. But for $300 per ticket it may be
difficult. The story about cruise passengers filling seats is mythology
as nearly all liners are only in port from 6am to 6pm.
We last heard The Marriage of Figaro in 2010 then
again in 2015, not an unreasonable frequency for a popular classic.
However, some others are being dished out two years running! (eg.
Turandot). The 2016 Sydney season contains no Wagner. There is no
Trittico. There is no international star important enough to put on the
front cover. There is now only a small group of top-class Australian
artists (such as Daniel Sumegi, José Carbó, Emma Matthews, Lorina Gore, Nicole
Car, Rosario LaSpina) most of whom still work overseas some of the time.
The final straw was news that Watkins’ fine Australian
opera The Eighth Wonder is to be performed outside, on the steps of the opera
house. What are they thinking? The opera is devoted to the story of
an opera house yet they evacuate the place for the night! I am not making
this up!
Like many other lapsed subscribers I will be buying
individual seats to a couple of the operas in 2016 and hoping that there is
some sort of meltdown in the management returns us to a rational and consistent
approach to opera in this country. If it can happen in Canberra, why not
the national opera company? In spite of this, I remain a patron and donate a modest modicum to the company hoping for change (and a few dress rehearsal tickets for my relations).
Written by Andrew Byrne ..
