Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
Carmen to the Country- The Great Experiment
Recently retired (so he says) and highly respected South Australian journalist,(not to mention infamous tuba player) Paul Lloyd attended Port Augusta's venue for the relay of Bizet's opera Carmen, transmitted last night from the Sydney Opera House. This review is his first contribution to Webdiary.
The pretty South Australian seaside town of Port Augusta has a new record - six consecutive days over 40 degrees. The next five days are expected to be the same. I forgot all about it for three hours tonight in Cinema Augusta.
Even in Port Augusta, which is about the most redneck town I've lived in, and I say that kindly, the cinema was almost full for the opera Carmen, broadcast live from the Sydney Opera House; and not too many walked out during it.
Mostly they were rusted female silvertops and mums trying to enkulture their kids. I didn't see anybody I knew from the SES or the local pub; but I did feel some emotional stirrings at being part of a nationwide audience of 10,000 people simultaneously sharing this experience. Those people were the audience in the Sydney Opera House, the gathered masses outside the opera house and in Federation Square in Melbourne and those of us in several specially digitally-equipped cinemas in rural towns across the continent. Nobody else.
It was free. So in my shorts, t-shirt and thongs, with the Toyota parked just outside, there I was at the opera.
Bizet's Carmen has a few well-known tunes and some pretty hot dramatics. So it was not a bad vehicle for this brave experiment - which was technically marred only by having no audio feed for the first several minutes (and, worse, the fill-in audio was way out of synch).
I was a bit disturbed by the singers' use of body mikes (and in-ears) and the sharp-knee compression used in audio processing. This, with close mikes on the pit orchestra, gave a rather monotonous high-level sound - but then I suppose that's what the commercial radio generation is used to. I'd rather a few more subtleties.
In parallel, digital telephoto photography enabled a lot of closeups, making it look more like a film than a live stage performance, especially as it was being shown on a cinema screen. This lost some sense of occasion, and showed Catherine Carby, as Carmen, exhibiting the artificial emotional range of a schoolgirl trying to imitate Sutherland (whereas I have no doubt she would have come across better on stage). She sang competently, and I would like to hear her low register live. Tenor Rosario La Spina as Don Jose acted almost intelligently enough to overcome his obese image, and sang as well as Bizet's tiresome recitatives allowed for. His Flower Song was bull canto but well done bull canto. For dramatic poise and singing quality, the star for me was soprano Tiffany Speight as Micaela. If she loses some weight she's got a future.
Fat, as all three stars were, might be politically correct in the public service, where no thought need be given to future public health bills; but obese lesbian bureaucrats have not yet made fat normal enough to be other than a distraction in performing arts. And it is not certainly not necessary for fine singing. I suspect obesity may even interfere with the sound breathing that voice production requires.
The slenderer Joshua Bloom did a fine job all round as the toreador, even if the close-ups of his eyebrows were sometimes alarming. Good cast, if a bit nervous at times, and there were some pretty tableaux and some gorgeous musical moments such as the Act 3 cards duet by Amy Wilkinson and Sian Pendry. Overall, a fine 19th century staging (copied from London 2006), and the horses, donkey and chooks behaved themselves.
I'd like to see more of this sort of thing - if the producers can find the right compromises between stage and cinema. That lack was the central flaw of tonight's Carmen. Anyway, I look forward to the Australian Ballet's Swan Lake live in Cinema Augusta in April.
Why am I writing all this? Probably because I have neither the time nor the wit to say it all in one well-chosen phrase; but, then, the first paragraph probably comes close enough.
 |
 |
 |
| © 2006, Webdiary Pty Ltd |
| Disclaimer: | This site is home to many debates, and the views expressed on this site are not necessarily those of the site editors. Contributors submit comments on their own responsibility: if you believe that a comment is incorrect or offensive in any way, please submit a comment to that effect and we will make corrections or deletions as necessary. |
Alternatives
I consider myself knee-jerkingly parochial in wondering why this event didn't emanate from the Adelaide Festival Of Arts. Yes, I can understand the symbolisms in the presentation, but why do this in the middle of another city's major arts event and not include it in the feed? Beamed to an outdoor and free audience in Elder Park, for example? Nitpicky I know, but as I acclimatise to this $#@ing heat wave my mindset appears to be altering.
The possible utilisations of all this technology are beaut. The first thing to mind is, next Festival, to have a set of interactive outdoor concerts co-ordinating the talents of artists across the state. Paul Grabowsky, are you listening? And no, Sydney, please don't nick this one.
Ahh diplomacy, first casualty of a heat wave. If you don't believe in instant karma ... my evaporative cooler exploded water all over me in the middle of the previous sentence. Much cooler now, thank you.
Opera Houses notwithstanding, we need to do something about all this focus on Sydney and NSW if we're going to become truly national. Does the ABC still have a correspondent in Port Augusta? Formerly the position was occupied by current affairs radio's Nance Haxton. I would have liked to have heard the follow up report come from over here, or Devonport.
Actually in a soggier state of mind, I ask you to scrub all that and think of an Opera In The Outback beamed back to audiences under the skies of our capital and regional cities All over the world, for that matter. That would be a powerful statement.
Anyway, welcome aboard, Paul Lloyd, and thank you.
Morundah (population 15)
Morundah (population 15) has hosted Oz Opera in Carmen (2006) and the Victorian Opera in Cosi Fan Tutte in 2007, both to sell out performances.
It only takes one person who cares enough, and people flock.
An excellent debut performance
Paul, an excellent debut performance on Webdiary. Most of us (dare I say all of us?) have come by way of the chorus from the comment boxes, but you have managed to walk in off the street unannounced and grab centre stage. Well done.
I have not seen this production of Carmen, but I have seen a few stage shows of various things where an attempt has been made to immortalise a production by pointing a film or TV camera at the stage (from the back of the auditorium usually) during a rehearsal or performance and just letting it run. Unfortunately but understandably, most have fallen flat.
However, I believe that the genre holds great promise. Having gone to the trouble and expense of assembling the production, it is always a pity for the Opera not to record what they do for posterity and for today's market on DVD. Huge potential sales to those who can't afford live performance tickets. When I last checked the catalogues, there were surprisingly few DVDs available featuring the great classics of opera, never mind the lesser knowns.
Opera probably cannot be done without microphones and amplification any more because in order to be commercial it has to be played to large audiences. Body mikes are a bit of a problem for embracing and kissing, but otherwise the huge sound benefit is worth the small cost in extra suspension of disbelief. Moreover, miniaturised cordless technology should allow cameras to be all over the stage: hidden in pot plants, under chooks and behind the elephant's ear if we are talking Aida.
Closer still to being there: full IMAX quality stereo vision and sound. It's here technically, but not commercially.
Opera to the outback
Sounds like a wonderful experience Paul and nice to read about something other than wars and recessions for a change. As I recall opera was taken to the Alice a year or so ago and was a great success. However I guess we are not likely to see it in our one horse town of 500 so I will just have to make an effort to get to that city and see those sails for myself. I have been promising myself a treat in the House since it was built and that sort of seems a long time ago somehow. Time to act.
My main record collection of opera consists of 1920s one sided 78s of Caruso and Melba and Tetrazini and others of that ilk. Out of this world still. Only problem is the player has packed it in. Also a book of 78s of Wallace's opera Maritana. Songs like In Happy Moments Day by Day, and Scenes that are Brightest - rather haunting melodies. Bet that stumps a few of the musos here. They've probably never heard of it.
Wallace lived between 1814 and 1865 as I recall, and was born in Ireland, but spent some time in Australia. So some claim he composed Maritana while here. Maybe true, maybe not.
My first LP was of Gounod's Faust and it is still my favourite. I've had it since I was 16 and that too is a long time ago, before the House was built in fact. My late father gave it to me in the hope that it would wean me off Slim Dusty at the time. We lived in the bush and Slim sort of had more relevance. And who could not be moved by his rendition of The Travellers Prayer anyway?