Tosca Sydney Opera

[foxy]

Saw a wonderful production this afternoon. Great cast and wondeful sets and staging. The opera is set in Fascist Italy circa 1943. I thought the period worked well albeit non traditional.

 

See opera.org.au for cast etc.

 

Seeing Madame Butterfly next week. Ticket prices are quite reasonable by NY standards. I walked up to the box office in a T shirt and shorts. Not the usual opera attire but no one seemed to care.

 

Seeing it in an iconic building was pretty terrific.

[Diverdan]

Hi Foxy... thanks for the post, and so glad you were able to enjoy Opera in Sydney. I am jealous, as while I have been to Sydney many time, and have been to the Opera House for concerts, etc., I have never been able to get to the Opera there for several reasons. So have a wonderful time and take it all in for me too. Hope you are having some other fun too. I found the boys in Sydney so much fun and happy to meet and interact with Americans...

[whipped guy]

Always good to hear about various operatic adventures and especially when they occur "Down Under". Those Aussies certainly have quite a distinguished operatic tradition that goes at least as far back as Nellie Melba...

[+ WilliamM]

I have seen several operas at the Sydney Opera House over the years. My favorite was a production of "Lulu." The Opera House also has several smaller theaters that present plays and musicals. I remember seeing the musical "Falsettos," with younger, more sexy actors than in New York.

 

As one might expect, "The Boy from Oz" played in one of Sydney's many theaters before coming to New York. I remember the theater were I saw the Peter Allen musical has a plaque saying Marlene Dietrich performed her last concert at that specific theater Down Under.

[foxy]

I was unaware that there were several theaters much like Lincoln Center. There are more people touring the theaters than attending performances so tickets are pretty easy to come by. I did take a tour and they took $50 off my Madame Butterfly ticket. So it was only $99 for a good center row seat.

[sydneyboy]

I am glad you enjoyed ''Tosca'' and ''Madama Butterfly'', so did I. Last night however I saw one of the finest performances I have experienced at the Sydney Opera House, a new production of ''Faust''. An excellent, elaborate production by Sir David McIivar based on one originally devised for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. The cast was starry with Teddy Tahu Rhodes as Mephistopheles, an Italian import Giogio Caoduro (our last Rigoletto) as Valentin, local Nicole Car excellent as Marguerite and best of all Michael Fabiano as Faust, fabulous tenor singing. Fabiano may be familiar to American readers as he has appeared in San Francisco, the Met and numerous other American companies. He is only 30 with obviously a great career ahead of him. See it if you can.

[foxy]

Saw Faust this evening. It was a wonderful performance. I thought Nicole Car was especially good. When she sang the Jewel Song I was reminded of Glitter And Be Gay from Candide.

[bostonman]

When she sang the Jewel Song I was reminded of Glitter And Be Gay from Candide.

 

Well, of course it's supposed to be the other way around lol. Bernstein was indeed doing an affectionate sendup of that aria.

[foxy]

And he did a good job. I think Candide was his best score.

[foxy]

Madame Butterfly this evening. Lovely performance by Antoinette Halloran as Cio-Cio-San. Pinkerton well sung by James Egglestone was booed as he came out for his curtain call. Then the audience all laughed and applauded. Especially good was Michael Honeyman as Sharpless the U.S. Consul. I liked the simple set very much. A platform that seemed to float on water surrounded by pale Japanese screens that lifted and closed as actors came and went on stage. Lots of reds and golds to the costumes added nice punches of color. A very nice production. Sydney gives good opera.

[sydneyboy]

That Moffatt Oxenbould production of ''Madama Butterfly'' has been in the repertory for about 25 years. It has given long and faithful service.

[bostonman]

Pinkerton well sung by James Egglestone was booed as he came out for his curtain call.

 

I certainly hope and assume Egglestone was in on the joke - I know they're booing the character, not the singer, but still...

 

I can't remember offhand hearing an audience actually boo Pinkerton before, but I'm sure it does happen. Iago would be a good candidate too. The only deliberate booing like that I can think of offhand was for the original Broadway production of Titanic, where the character of Bruce Ismay was often booed at the curtain call.

 

Personally, I think the view of Pinkerton as a cad is a little one-dimensional. I tend to see him as foolish and naive more than deliberately evil - I tend to think he isn't really thinking about the consequences, instead of going into the phony marriage in order to take advantage of Butterfly. Not that that eases the tragedy for her, but I don't think he sets out to do wrong - he just doesn't understand. And in the final scene, he does recognize his mistake.

 

But hey, boo if you'd rather...

[foxy]

He was definitely in on the joke. He laughed along with the audience who gave him a well deserved round of applause after the booing.