Above: Opera singer Sarah Ampil interacts with her shadow (Sophie Rogut). Images supplied.
This striking fringe event explores through the vehicle of accessible opera performance the dangers of love, hope and various levels of punishments.
The trials of love unrequited, being an engaged woman would up tightly in expectation then crashing to be unfulfilled are dynamically packaged here.
This is a substantial Sydney Fringe Festival music and theatre show. It presents back to back for us a new song cycle setting the words of poet Lady Wroth and a short opera from 1981 that explores the origins of hurt for Dickens’ larger than life character, Miss Havisham.
The creatives and cast members for this production’s double bill of Pamphilia to Amphilanthus (Jorde Heys‘ new song cycle setting texts by seventeeth century poet Lady Mary Wroth) plus the opera Miss Havisham’s Wedding Night (by Dominick Argento, first performed 1981) follow this common but savage thread through the compellingly executed media of contemporary vocal music, shadow puppetry and related enacted dramatic scenas.
Miss Havisham’s infant madness in Argento’s intese chamber opera is enhanced with expert use of the stage plus this theatre group’s penchant for extra dimension shadow-puppet troping. The inventive, slick visuals this creates matches the deft direction of mezzo soprano Elizabeth Cooper in the song cycle which prefaces it.
Cooper’s velvety, nicely nuanced voice and commanding physical ease in spacing the songs about the space is commendable. This singer thoughtfully approaches the character of Miss Havisham’s nanny tidying up pre-wedding paraphenalia welcomes us to the misery of the heart and warns of love’s dangers. Hers is a finely chiselled prologue to the storytelling to follow.
Above:(l-r) Sophie Rogut plays Estella / and Miss Havisham. Sarah Ampil captures the horrors of Miss Havisham’s nightly anniversary of jilted love with triple-threat virtuosity. Image supplied.
The two-hander opera following on in the same tortured dwelling also evolves via successful acting flexible opera voices with piano accompaniment, powerful selection and manipulation of props and shadow puppetry that draws us hauntingly into Miss Havisham’s grief poisoned head.
Polished, penetrating and promising vocal performances and performers abound in this show. Elizabeth Cooper in Pamphilia to Amphilanthus and Sarah Ampil plus Sophie Rogut in Argento’s modern chamber opera show finely balanced vocal and dramatic abilities. These stellar vocal contributions are gilded by the capable and clever chameleon range of effect from the busy shadow puppeteers George Wohlfiel and Victoria Abbott.
The elevated soap opera soliloquys from all three opera singers are solidly and colourfully supported on piano by Nathaniel Kong’s coulourful, consistently excellent realisation of both scores.. The controlled musical intensities, athletic voices and director Spark Sanders Robinson’s svelte engagement of the stage plus puppetry dimension (to suggest Havisham’s environment and frayed mind) cut swathes through the passion and predicament in the story. Mehran Mortezaei’s lighting design enhances the imaginative buffet before us, as does Jay Daniel’s contrbutions to the sonic palette.
There is an attractive online programme in dark hues, dripping with details which include text of the song cycle, show credits and a nice introduction to this innovative, new, en pointe, expressive arts troupe.
Opera text delivered in the developing power of these singers for the English language storytelling is mostly clear and secure. The diction from the modern singers was quite clear. In the style of opera companies singing longer works in English some surtitles to clarify total comprehension of the text could have worked.
This would have involved though a bit of an architectural shift for the set design that could be more distracting than functional. Its addition may crowd or diminish the attractive stage vista. Surtitles subtly placed may be a consideration for future larger incarnations
This is a tour de force of hope and femmes frustrated wanting the glory of love but enduring trouble early. The impact is considerable. This exciting product would suceed as a show in varied local or distant venues and stagings various.
In fine Fringe Festival style this short but multifaceted musical romp entertains with bold, bristling consistency. It speaks shrieking volumes to both the experienced opera goer or theatre novice alike.
This double bill with two aspects of the same literary legend’s house cements the worthy place of opera, contemporary art music and elevated puppetry techniques both at the 2024 Sydney Fringe and as relief for our hectic daily lives and quest for personal happinesses approved by the society about us.
Miss Havisham’s Wedding Night plays until September 14 at the Chippen St Theatre, 45 Chippen St Chippendale. Show starts 7.30pm.
