How on earth is Pinchgut Opera going to follow up their new production of Purcell’s “The Fairy Queen”? This time, they have truly outdone themselves with an awe inspiring spectacle. The baroque opera features music chock full of exquisite beauty and high emotions. Visually, the stage and video backdrop presents a literal feast of pure colour not seen in Sydney since the Australian Ballet’s “The Jewels”. Pinchgut partnered with high-in-demand UK Director/Designer Netia Jones who, last year, had the position of Associate Director created for her by the Royal Opera. Her vision was to lift the music out of it’s original royal masque setting and treat it to a series of contemporary scenes with new story lines.
Was there good reason to do this? Actually, this time, yes. The Fairy Queen is an adaptation of excerpts from Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. At the time of its debut, it was likely that everyone was already familiar with the play so, it might not have been necessary to tell the full story. Productions of Shakespeare plays are well known for adding updated, timely details for each audience as the centuries roll along. So, there is already a sort of unspoken permission to make changes to the scenarios.
If the music was added as support to the original play, the show would go on for 4 hours which is unlikely to be a popular option. Director Jones preserved the idea of a wedding to start and finish the story and picked up on subjects mentioned in the libretto to use in the scenes.
The music composition gives ample opportunity to feature multiple performers in their own little starring roles as well as a parade of supernatural costumes. The fantasy costumes have always made for great entertainment. These ideas were preserved as well but, apart from that, everything else was started from scratch.
As a result, the cast are listed in the program without character names. They swap roles and costumes at lightning speed. The audience soon learns to give up trying to follow a particular performer’s journey as each scene is separate from the next with only a slight storyline continuity passing through.
Setting the new scenes
The scenes are placed in mostly urban settings. We visit places such as an airport, a pub, bedroom, bus stop, recording studio, red carpet event and function room. The only detour is into the greenery for a spot of bird watching, volleyball and a burger on the Weber.
Orchestra of the Antipodes
The small orchestra sits between audience and stage as usual. The music is written for an unusually small ensemble. Musical Director Erin Helyard notes in the program that, at the time of writing, Purcell might have been on a tight budget. With war playing out in various parts of Europe, there was less interest in entertainment. To compensate for the shortage of hired musicians, Purcell’s writing is highly resourceful and makes full use of the instruments available.
Voices are backed and sometimes play against woodwind and brass. The strings are used between arias with harpsichord as continuo. Helyard’s consistent high standards and musical interpretation leads the orchestra with a recording quality performance.
Visual Backdrop
The projected video backdrop is a dominant character in the production (designed by Jones) and amplifies the changes of hues as we move from one scene to the next. Colour combinations are simple and saturated, with matching costumes for the performers, creating memorable tableaux that concisely separate each scene.
Mezzo-Soprano Anne Fraser, the singer with the most Pinchgut notches on her belt, remarks in the promo video, “You can almost imagine it being some sort of pop out, 3D book where you turn the page and suddenly everything sort of elevates off the page.” Director Jones adds, “We do go through the full colour spectrum on the stage and part of that is playful but, part of it is because Purcell’s music itself is so full of colour. It’s so vivid, it’s so descriptive and evocative.” Lighting Design by Matthew Marshall perfectly complimented the animation, drawing the performers into focus or blending them back into the scene.
There’s an unusually long overture before the singing begins. This was designed to play as the audience took their seats. As we are already seated, the backdrop animation played, featuring seamless layers of clouds passing by a white sun (not yellow, like when we were kids), gently hiding and revealing a light blue sky. It was a relief to have no chemtrails represented in that moment, though it was noticed that one appeared at the very end of the production.
The direction is mostly comic and drew laughter from the audience throughout the duration. There was Pinchgut’s trademark inclusion of the LGBT+ agenda quite a few times which pushed a little harder than necessary. Movement Director Shannon Burns added great polish to the production where everything, right down to the adding and removing props from the stage, was musically co-ordinated.
The Dancers
Four professional dancers joined the singers in the same costumes. They added humour and surprise, treating the bus stop frame as a jungle gym or miraculously balanced on their chairs whilst asleep at the drunken wedding reception. There was one particularly great short dance routine between scenes. The dancers were dressed in black suits and used popping in a tight formation, enclosed in a central spotlight to great effect.
The second half features a scene where the four seasons are called upon with Phoebus, the Greek God of the Sun. It’s the perfect excuse for a pageant of dramatic costumes and the wardrobe department did not disappoint. The costumes were dripping with bling and feathers like Brazilian Mardi Gras had been brought in to the theatre. Each dancer expressed their season with different styling. Spring (performed by Hoyori Maruo) looked like a pink feather Jigglypuff, so very cute and smiley. Summer (Franky Drousioti) was highly creative and masculine. Autumn (Kino McHugh) wore an amazing costume but used robotic movements which felt a bit cold and out of place. Winter (Dean Elliot) used his full height to create long elegant lines. Often, dancers are seen as an add-on to operatic productions, like extras in a movie. Not this time though. Each dancer was utilised throughout the show and were absolutely superb.
The Singers
The twelve singers as well, were outstanding. There were a mix of ages though the majority were young players. A few special mentions. Soprano Cathy-Di Zhang, who has featured in a few Pinchgut seasons already, has taken a big leap in her acting skills since Candide with OA. In earlier productions she was trying to be this or trying to express that. Now she really is! Her performance was grounded, solid and mature. Wonderful to see. Tenor Kanen Breen is always a crowd favourite with his sense of playfulness. His solo in the second half was excellent and should provide a great example to the newcomers in his articulation. The opera was in English but sometimes we would have to refer to the projected surtitles to understand the 16th century vernacular. This was not necessary with Breen’s solos.
Mezzo-soprano Keara Donohoe’s performance of The Plaint was suitably heart breaking. Charming newcomer Eden Shifroni grabbed hold of the solos/duos she was given and executed them with confidence. It’s hard not to mention every member of the cast actually. They each brought unique qualities to the stage which gelled together as the perfect team so very well.
Only one minor annoyance. As it appears we are visiting the same wedding in the final scene as was presented at the beginning, much focus was on Andrew O’Connor’s character to find out why he appeared alone in the first scene. This was never resolved.
The season runs until 14 June 2025 and I truly hope they will repeat the production again sometime in the future. The Fairy Queen is superb! Presenting the music from scratch with a new story set in contemporary times is a great way to draw in a new opera audience who might otherwise be put off by “old” music.
Highly recommended. Bring your friends! Time is running out.
Five stars.
Lead Production
Conductor: Erin Helyard
Director/ Designer: Netia Jones
Lighting Designer: Matthew Marshall
Movement / Assistant Director: Shannon Burns
Cast
Sopranos: Morgan Balfour, Eden Shifroni, Cathy-Di- Zhang
Mezzo-sopranos: Keara Donohoe, Anna Fraser, Olivia Payne
Tenors: Kanen Breen, Louis Hurley, Sebastian Maclaine
Bass and Bass-Baritone: Nicholas Dinopoulos, Andrew O’Connor, Anthony Mackey
Dancers: Franky Drousioti, Dean Elliott, Hoyori Maruo, Kino McHugh
Orchestra of the Antipodes
Leader: Matthew Greco
Harpsichord: Erin Helyard
Strings: Rafael Font, Ella Bennetts, Kiseok Kim, Sarah Papadopoulos, Tim Willis, Karina Schmitz, Marianne Yeomans, Anton Baba, Laura Vaughan, Ruby Brallier, Simon Martyn-Ellis, George Willis
Woodwind: Adam Masters, Kailen Crespo, Sim Walters
Brass: Leanne Sullivan, Alexandra Bieri
Percussion: Brian Nixon
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Related Links
Artist/Show website: http://www.pinchgutopera.com.au/
Roslyn Packer Theatre, Walsh Bay: https://www.roslynpackertheatre.com.au/
