There is a constant debate that ‘opera is dead’ – opera is too old, stuffy, outdated, not to mention expensive. The argument is groundless. Antarctica When Sun & Sea were two contemporary operas highlighted in this year’s festival programme, both excellent.
Antarctica was a new collaboration between the Sydney Chamber Orchestra and the Dutch musical ensemble Asko|Schönberg. Presented at Carriageworks, it was a haunting, multi-layered production that required technology to extend its narrative.
Sun & SeaCreated by Lithuanian artists Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė and Lina Lapelytė. Viewed from the balcony, the audience looked down with peek-a-boo enthusiasm as the summer vibes surged over them. The work won the Golden Lion at his Biennale in Venice 2019, blurring the opera silo tags for this contemporary production.
in the meantime Antarctica Its delivery was overwhelmingly static and poignant. Sun & Sea It was fueled by an element of humor and a sense of everyday life. In any case, these two works of his lead the audience into contemplation that lasts beyond the curtain.
Both operas touched on contemporary issues arising from the climate emergency, such as the concept of environmental exploitation, myths and facts about scientific data.These weren’t captured any better than the opening scenes of Antarctica, Where a figure in hazmat suit emerges from the fog of the whiteout with a corpse, is it a relic from another time pulled out of the ice, perhaps a warning from the past? The saga was interesting and timeless, engaging the audience’s attention while encouraging them to delve into the ideas behind the vignettes presented.
formatting blur
In many ways, both of these works read as performing arts installations.focus of Antarcticawas a choreographed sequence of computer-generated data created by Mick Daly. Streamed on a 14-meter wall (which was both an ultra-modern backdrop for the orchestra and a set where the opera was performed in period costumes), the song combines music by Mary Finstellar and a libretto by Tom Wright. was likewise the key to this opera.
Two display cases pierced the wall. One high place where the young girl was (Hayden Holmes plays a non-singing role, adding to the complexity) and another where the main performers emerge from and fall. Back to fog. These were dramatized by Alexander Berlage’s masterful lighting, reminiscent of the great ‘Deep South Road’, as described by the cast.
The opera was sung in English (with English subtitles). Wright’s libretto was overly poetic, unnecessarily difficult to sing at times, and slightly at odds with the music and digital elements. This is where Daly’s text comes in, using map coordinates, place names, surreal phrases, natural disasters, emotions and trauma as the foundation of the opera, unfolding as lyrical threads tethered to contemporary reality.
As composer Mary Finstellar writes in her program notes, “Antarctica is a library of hidden mysteries…Other continents have pasts revealed, but not Antarctica… It is neither Heaven nor Hell.
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The production played those ideas brilliantly, unfolding in a series of scenes: Prima Critura, the Deep South Road, doorways and keyholes wailing as thresholds through time, floods, ships splitting under the ice, and the Laying. curses, celestial ties, etc. A journey south soon filled with hope for the unknown and fear of its certain end.
Theologian (Jessica O’Donoghue, mezzo-soprano), natural philosopher (Anna Fraser, soprano), cartographer (Michael Petrucelli, tenor), and the captain (Simon Roberson, baritone) and his daughter (Jane, soprano) , upset about those topics. Sheldon). Each gave an unforgettable performance and was hypnotically sucked into a time vacuum. The use of singing voices behind the scenes added to the piece’s mystery, and other speaking voices (including those of the captain and his daughter) narrated and punctuated the length of the opera, bringing it back to the present day. In short, it was complex.
The star of this performance was in many ways conductor Jack Simmons. He energetically led an ensemble between ethereal wind trills and chills to the moans of the icefields. and storage media. We have been collecting and storing data for thousands of years.
From Renaissance tones to electronic sounds, Finstellar used sonar recordings, oceans, microscopic movements of animals, and seafloor mapping to convey the score.
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The orchestra was perfect, creating the mood that held this opera together and showing how exciting new operas and experimental compositions can be.
The only criticism was that it didn’t have to be too long to get the point across. ‘There is no end. It will just stop,” the phrase was repeated. It would have been a good place to put those words into action.
whole, Antarctica It was a fresh, provocative and engaging piece that asked as many questions as it sought to present.st What can the post-humanism of the century (about technology’s artificial “eyes and ears”) tell us about a changing planet?”
Physically static in staging, then destabilizing in digital overload, the production was perfectly balanced and in sync with the brutal and mysterious world we conjure up. Antarctica, and the human fascination with expeditions over danger and the damage caused by our actions. The best modern opera.
Antarctica
Sydney Chamber Opera & Asco | Schoenberg
carriage works
January 5-8.
Sun & Sea
Rugilė Barzdziukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė, Lina Lapelytė
sydney town hall
January 6-8.
