BY CHRISTINA HENSON
A Millennial Opera
Sydney Fringe Festival
The Newsagency, 6 September
I am devoted to operatic dogma, having spent my youth in the presence of style fascists, of both verismo and bel canto varieties, and learning the Juilliard mantra of “doing the composer justice”. This accompanied our credo of treating the libretto with holy reverence. Therefore, it surprised no one more than me that I found myself laughing out loud at A Millennial Opera – a performance that achieved an unmistakable relevance in its irreverence.
The concept of A Millennial Opera was born of merry making on the part of its producer Allison Tyra, who began writing her own lyrics to operatic arias for the amusement of her friends and colleagues. From this comic germ the project grew. I had no idea what to expect of this production opening as part of the Sydney Fringe Festival at The Newsagency in Annandale but invited another opera doyenne to accompany me and together we laughed our way through this very amusing show.
The performance opened with a version of Largo al factotum from The Barber of Seville, sung by bass baritone Gerard Atkinson. The very first sounds heard in the theatre space, played by pianist Viet Anh Nguyen, assured the audience of a musicianship that continued throughout the show, underscoring and yet never overshadowing the fun, the singing, and the jokes. Nguyen was the quintessential accompanist throughout the evening and his intro to the Rossini was no exception. Lyrics in this largo are contextualised to mirror viral content online with everything from chubby babies to Grumpy Cat, and the audience was captivated by Atkinson’s lively performance.
Next came The Barista’s Lament which was set to J. S. Bach’s Coffee Cantata, and it involved all the frustrations faced by a non-coffee-drinking coffee server, ably sung by soprano Jessica Harper. Next up was a Non so piu, cosa son… from The Marriage of Figaro, Cherubino’s aria about issues with coming of age and raging hormones, and the writer again turns the dialogue on its ear by creating a new narrative for mezzo soprano Rebecca Hart. In this version, Putting On My Face instead concentrates on the pressures that face women to look presentable, professional, and yet modest. I liked the idea that what began as a young man’s narrative about his feelings becomes a woman’s rant about the pressures society places squarely in her makeup bag. Hart made a convincing young millennial rummaging through her purse with a fine lyric mezzo.
Faust’s Jewel Song met a lyric about taking selfies, which Harper fleshed out with strong technical prowess and a talent for comedy. The funniest moments of the show for me were probably the Dog Giovanni sung by Leporello (Atkinson), describing his awesome compatriot. Rather than impressing with a list of conquests, as in the original version, Madamina, il catalogo e questo catalogues something far more meaningful to today’s young woman: a Giovanni who is rescuing thousands of orphaned puppies. One can almost imagine being at Don Giovanni’s debut in Prague, where an exuberant crowd roared nearly 240 years ago at what was terribly funny in its own time. It is in this very idea that the genius of this project was revealed. A Millennial Opera questions the relevance we achieve when we produce opera. When we look through this lens, we glimpse into days of opera past, when jokes and innuendos were as fresh and funny as they are in these lyrics.
The climax of humour for me took place when a young mezzo, who stepped in for an indisposed tenor, took the stage. She sang first in a parody on hipster hygiene products, but what gripped me was a Nessun dorma transformed into “Let me tell you…how woke I am”. From there, I don’t remember the lyrics as I was laughing so hard. The fact that the aria boasts of being victorious in winning the heart of an impossible woman, the plea to see just how woke the tenor is, is made even funnier. Mezzo-soprano Carly-Anne Evans is still starting out, but her timbre is interesting. It has a quality that, to my ear, has the makings of a career voice.
All of the singers might work their roles a bit more seriously for a larger stage or larger venue, but since this production was done in fun, the singing was a bit more relaxed. I must overcome my vocal pedantry in order to convey to you the validity of what was done in this show. Director Holly Champion’s arch, savvy delivery as MC, worked to counterpoint the op-shop loungeroom vibe of the venue; and her use of the room with regard to the artists reaching into the audience, utilised quite literally the theme of the work itself. The performance succeeded in its experiment. It poses the question: What if the subject matter inside the music were entirely relevant to the audience of a given period, of this place? My best answer is that what this project achieved in reworking these lyrics is what needs to happen when we do opera on big stages, even if we stick to the libretto of a given work. We need that relevance. We need the immediacy, and whatever it takes to get us there, we must work toward this common goal.
Listen to A Millennial Opera below, and read this interview with Allison Tyra and Holly Champion to learn more about the work!
Images supplied.
